money or corrupt practices (which ſeems to be the true, though not the common notion of ſimony) the perſon giving ſuch orders forfeits[1] 40𝑙. and the perſon receiving 10𝑙. and is incapable of any eccleſiaſtical preferment for ſeven years afterwards.
Any clerk may be preſented[2] to a parſonage or vicarage; that is, the patron, to whom the advowſon of the church belongs, may offer his clerk to the biſhop of the dioceſe to be inſtituted. Of advowſons, or the right of preſentation, being a ſpecies of private property, we ſhall find a more convenient place to treat in the ſecond part of theſe commentaries. But when a clerk is preſented, the biſhop may refuſe him upon many accounts. As, 1. If the patron is excommunicated, and remains in contempt forty days[3]. Or, 2. If the clerk be unfit[4]: which unfitneſs is of ſeveral kinds. Firſt, with regard to his perſon; as if he be a baſtard, an outlaw, an excommunicate, an alien, under age, or the like[5]. Next, with regard to his faith or morals; as for any particular hereſy, or vice that is malum in ſe: but if the biſhop alleges only in generals, as that he is ſchiſmaticus inveteratus, or objects a fault that is malum prohibitum merely, as haunting taverns, playing at unlawful games, or the like; it is not good cauſe of refuſal[6]. Or, laſtly, the clerk may be unfit to diſcharge the paſtoral office for want of learning. In any of which caſes the biſhop may refuſe the clerk. In caſe the refuſal is for hereſy, ſchiſm, inability of learning, or other matter of eccleſiaſtical cognizance, there the biſhop muſt give notice to the patron of ſuch his cauſe of refuſal, who, being uſually a layman, is not ſuppoſed to have knowlege of it; elſe he cannot preſent by lapſe: but if the cauſe be temporal, there he is not bound to give notice[7].
