Avignon. The Council of Constance bronglit this state of matters to an eud. Benedict abdicated in 1417, but was recognized by Scotland and Spain until his death, in 1424. His name does not appear in the Italian list of popes. (C/. Dupuy, Hist, du Schisme, 1378-1428). (2.) Vincenzo Marco Ordini, who succeeded Innocent XIII. in 1724. He at first called himself Benedict XIV., but afterwards altered the title. He was a reforming pope, and endeavoured to put down the luxury of the Italian priesthood and of the
cardiualate. He died in 1730.XIV
Benedict XIV. (1740-1758) belonged to a noble family of Bologna. Elected to the Papal chair in a time of great difficulties, chiefly caused by the disputes between Roman Catholic nations about the election of bishops, he managed to overcome most of them. The disputes of the Holy See with Naples, Sardinia, Spain, Venice, and Austria were settled. Perhaps the most important act of his pontificate was the promulgation of his famous laws about missions in the two bulls, Ex quo singulari and Omnium solicitu- dinum. In these bulls he denounced the custom of accom modating Christian words and usages to express heathen ideas and practices, which had been extensively done by the Jesuits in their Indian and Chinese missions. The consequence of these bulls was that most of the so-called converts were lost to the church.
BENEFICE, a term first applied under the Roman empire to portions of land, the usufruct of which was granted by the emperors to their soldiers or others for life, as a reward or beneficiumfor past services, and as a retainer for future services. A list of all such beneficia was recorded in the Book of Benefices (Liber Beneficiorum), which was kept by the principal registrar of benefices (Primiscriniiis Bene ficiorum}. In imitation of the practice observed under the Roman empire, the term came to be applied under the feudal system to portions of land granted by a lord to his vassal for the maintenance of the latter on condition of his rendering military service ; and such grants were originally for life only, and the land reverted to the lord on the death of the vassal. In a similar manner grants uf land, or of the profits of land, appear to have been made by the bishops to their clergy for life, on the ground of some extraordinary merit on the part of the grantee. The validity of such grants was first formally recognized by the Council of Orleans, 511 A.D., which forbade, how ever, under any circumstances, the alienation from the bishoprics of any lands so granted. The next following Council of Orleans, 533, broke in upon this principle, by declaring that a bishop could not reclaim from his clergy any grants made to them by his predecessor, except ing in cases of misconduct. This innovation on the ancient practice was confirmed by the subsequent Council of Lyons, 566, and from this period these grants ceased to be re garded as personal, and their substance became annexed to the churches, in other words, they were henceforth enjoyed jure tituli, and no longer jure personali. How and when the term beneficia came to be applied to these episcopal grants is uncertain, but they are designated by that term in a canon of the Council of Mayence, 813.
The term benefice, according to the canon law, implies always an ecclesiastical office, propter quod bene- Jidum datur, but it does not always imply a cure of souls. It has been defined to be the right which a clerk has to enjoy certain ecclesiastical revenues on condition of dis charging certain services prescribed by the canons, or by usage, or by the conditions under which his office has been founded. These services might be those of a secular priest with cure of souls, or they might be those of a regular priest, a member of a religious order, without cure of souls ; but in every case a benefice implied three things : 1. An obligation to discharge the duties of an office, which is altogether spiritual ; 2. The right to enjoy the fruits attached to that office, which is the benefice itself ; 3. The fruits themselves, which are the temporalities. By keep ing these distinctions in view, the right of patronage in the case of secular benefices becomes intelligible, being in fact the right, which was originally vested in the donor of the temporalities, to present to the bishop a clerk to be admitted, if found fit by the bishop, to the office to which those temporalities are annexed. Nomination or presenta tion on the part of the patron of the benefice is thus the first requisite in order that a clerk should become legally entitled to a benefice. The next requisite is that he should be admitted by the bishop as a fit person for the spiritual office to which the benefice is annexed, and the bishop is the judge of the sufficiency of the clerk to be so admitted. By the early constitutions of the Church of England a bishop was allowed a space of two months to inquire and inform himself of the sufficiency of every presentee, but by the ninety-fifth of the canons of 1604 that interval has been abridged to twenty-eight days, within which the bishop must admit or reject the clerk. If the bishop rejects the clerk within that time he is liable to a duplex querela in the ecclesiastical courts, or to a quare impedit in the common law courts, and the bishop must then certify the reasons of his refusal. In cases where the patron is himself a clerk in orders, and wishes to be admitted to the benefice, he must proceed by way of peti tion, instead of by deed of presentation, reciting that the benefice is in his own patronage, and petitioning the bishop to examine him and admit him. Upon the bishop having satisfied himself of the sufficiency of the clerk, he proceeds to institute him to the spiritual office to which the benefice is annexed, but before such institution can take place, the clerk is required to make a declaration of assent to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and to the Book of Common Prayer according to a form pre scribed in the Clerical Subscription Act, 28 and 29 Viet. c. 122, to make a declaration against simony in accord ance with that Act, and to take and subscribe the oath of allegiance according to the form in 31 and 32 Viet. c. 72. The bishop, by the act of institution, commits to the clerk the cure of souls attached to the office to which the benefice is annexed. In cases where the bishop himself is patron of the benefice, no presentation or petition is required to be tendered by the clerk, but the bishop having satisfied himself of the sufficiency of the clerk, collates him to the benefice and office. It is not necessary that the bishop himself should personally institute or collate a clevk, he may issue a fiat to his vicar-general, or to a special commissary for that purpose. After the bishop or his commissary has instituted the presentee, he issues a mandate under seal, addressed to the archdeacon or soim other neighbouring clergyman, authorizing him to induct the clerk into his benefice, in other words, to put him into legal possession of the temporalities, which is done by some outward form, and for the most part by delivery of the bell-rope to the clerk, who thereupon tolls the bell. This form of induction is required to give the clerk a legal title to his " bencficium," although his admission to the office by institution is sufficient to vacate any other benefice which he may already possess.
the Church of England, no clerk can hold two benefices with cure of souls, and if a beneficed clerk shall take a second benefice with cure of souls, he vacates ipso facto his first benefice. Dispensations, however, could be easily obtained from Rome, before the reformation of the Church of England, to enable a clerk to hold several ecclesiastical dignities or benefices at the same time, and by 25 Henry VIII. c. 21, the power to grant such dispensations, which
had been exercised previously by the court of Rome, was