Pluralities Acts Amendment Act 1885
Pluralities Acts Amendment Act, 1885
(48 & 49 Vict.) CHAPTER 54.
An Act to amend the Law relating to Pluralities.
[6th August 1885]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows; (that is to say,)
1 Short title.
1. This Act may be cited as thePluralities Acts Amendment Act, 1885.
2 Construction and interpretation.
2. This Act shall be construed as one with the Act passed in the first and second years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter one hundred and six (herein-after referred to as ‘the first-mentioned Act’) and the Act passed in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter ninety-eight, as respectively amended by this Act.
The term ‘ecclesiastical duties’ in the first-mentioned Act and this Act shall include not only the regular and due performance of divine service on Sundays and holidays, but also all such duties as any clergyman holding a benefice is bound by law to perform, or the performance of which is solemnly promised by every clergyman of the Church of England at the time of his ordination, and the performance of which shall have been required of him in writing by the bishop; and in the case of benefices within the dioceses of St. Asaph, Bangor, Llandaff, and St. Davids, and the county of Monmouth, shall also include such ministrations in the Welsh language as the bishop of the diocese shall direct to be performed by the clergymen holding such benefices respectively, but so that such bishop shall not in any such case require more than one service in the Welsh language on every Sunday in such church or chapel of ease situated in any such benefice: Provided always, that due provision be made for the English-speaking portion of the population.
3 Repeal of so much of s. 77. of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106. as relates to the persons to act as commissioners on inquiries as to inadequate performance of ecclesiastical duties. Persons to act as commissioners on inquiries as to inadequate performance of ecclesiastical duties.
3. So much of section seventy-seven of the first-mentioned Act as requires that any commission issued by the bishop to inquire into the inadequate performance of the ecclesiastical duties of any benefice shall be to four beneficed clergymen of his diocese, or if the benefice be within his peculiar jurisdiction, but locally situate in another diocese, then to four beneficed clergymen of such last-mentioned diocese, one whereof shall be the rural dean, if any, of the rural deanery or district wherein such benefice is situated, is hereby repealed, and instead thereof such commission shall be issued to four commissioners, one of whom shall be an archdeacon or rural dean of the archdeaconry or rural deanery wherein the benefice is situated; one other of such commissioners shall be a canon residentiary, prebendary, or honorary canon of the cathedral church of the diocese wherein the benefice is situated, elected as herein-after provided; one other of such commissioners shall be a beneficed clergyman of the archdeaconry wherein the benefice is situated, also elected as herein-after provided; one other of such commissioners shall be a layman in the commission of the peace for the county wherein the benefice is situated nominated for the purpose of such commission, on the requisition of the bishop, by the person who presided as chairman of the quarter sessions for the county or division of the county last preceding such requisition, or if there be no such person, then by the lord lieutenant of the county; and it shall be lawful for the incumbent of the said benefice to add to such commission one other commissioner, being either an incumbent of a benefice within the same diocese, or a magistrate in the commission of the peace.
The bishop shall give to the clergyman holding the benefice notice in writing of his intention to issue such commission, and if such clergyman shall not within fourteen days after the sending of such notice nominate in writing to the bishop one such commissioner as aforesaid to act with the other commissioners on such commission, such other commissioners may proceed alone.
4 Deans and chapters or canons of cathedral churches to appoint triennially one of their body to act as a commissioner for the purpose of inquiries as to inadequate performance of ecclesiastical duties.
4. The dean and chapter of every cathedral church now or hereafter having a dean and chapter, together with the canons non-residentiary or honorary, as the case may be, or where there is no dean and chapter, the canons residentiary and honorary, shall forthwith after the passing of this Act, and at the expiration of every succeeding period of three years, elect one of their body to be a commissioner for the ensuing three years for the purposes of any such commission as aforesaid to be issued by the bishop of the diocese to which such cathedral church belongs; and the name of the person so elected shall be forthwith certified in writing to the...
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