Ch. v.] Head of the Church. ' 57 begun, so that every such appeal be taken by the party grieved within fifteen days next after the judgment or sentence there- upon given or to be given : and that whatsoever shall be so done and affirmed, determined, decreed and adjudged by the said prelates, abbots and priors of the upper house of the said convocation, appertaining, concerning or belonging to the King, in any of these said causes of appeals shall stand and be taken for a final decree, sentence, judgment, diffinition and determination, and the same matter so determined never after to come in question and debate, to be examined in any other court or courts (a)/' With respect to appeals from places exempt, the statute 25 Hen. 8. c. 19. s. 6. enacts, " that such appeals shall be made immediately to the King's Majesty of this realm into the Court of Chancery, in like manner and form as they used afore to do to the see of Rome ; which appeals and provocations so made shall be definitively determined by authority of the King's commission, in ^uch manner and form as is mentioned in the act ; so that no archbishop nor bishop of this realm shall in- termit or meddle with any such appeals, otherwise or in any other manner than they might have done afore the making of this act." The disposal of the principal ecclesiastical preferments belongs also to the King, as the head of the national church. The statute 25 Hen. 8. c. 20. enacts, that " on every avoid- ance of every archbishoprick or bishoprick within this realm, or in any other the King's dominions, the King may grant to the prior and convent, or the dean and chapter of the cathe- dral churches or monasteries where the see of such arch- bishoprick or bishoprick shall happen to be void ; a licence under the great seal, as of old time hath been accustomed, to proceed to election of an archbishop or bishop of the see so being void, with a letter missive, containing the name of the person which they shall elect and choose : by virtue of which licence the said dean and chapter, or prior and convent, to whom any such licence and letters missive shall be directed, shall with all speed and celerity in due form elect and choose the same person named in the said letters missive, to the dig- (a) 24 Hen. 8. c. 12. a. 9. This sta- peaird by the C5th Hen. 8. c. 19. See tutc docs not appear to have been re- 1 Wooddn. V. L. 77. 1 lila. Coin. 67. nity
