Durham, 192 benefices, comprises- Ely, 150 benefices, comprises-Cam- ... -Gloucester (part), Wilts (part).. 296 330 315,512 81,552 143 11,405 3 Hereford, 321 benefices, comprisesHereford (part), Monmouth (part), Salop (part), Worcester (part), Montgomery (part) Radnor (part) 346 360 206,327 93,552 157 12,995 7 Lichfield and Coventry, 610 benefices, comprises - Derby, Salop (part), Stafford (part), Warwick (part)... Lincoln, 1251 benefices, comprisesBedford, Bucks (part), Herts (part), Hunts, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton (part), Oxford (part), Rut 650 655 1,045,481 170,104 307 24,948 5 .... land (part), Warwick (part) .... 1370 1377 899,468 373,976 629 48,347 18 Llandaff, 192 benefices, comprises -Glamorgan (part), Monmouth (part).. London, 640 benefices, comprises- Oxford, 196 benefices, comprises part Peterborough, 293 benefices, comprises -Hants and Surrey (part).... 221 228 181,244 36,347 113 6,749 650 689 1,722,685 267,742 351 35,118 2 1178 1210 690,138 331,750 521 38,510 37 207 237 140,700 51,395 103 7,954 8 335 338 194,339 98,381 139 11,266 6 107 111 230 260 271,687 73,255 111 9,002 3 741 876 1,496,538 223,220 390 29,553 12 Total Number of Parishes, 11,067; of Churches and Chapels, 11,825; Population, 13,897,187. The Annual Average for each person upon the Total Gross Income returned is 3031.; and the Annual Average upon the Total Net Income returned is 2857. The Annual Average of the Curates' Stipends is 814. The Total Number of Benefices in England and Wales, including those not returned to the Commissioners, but exclusive of those annexed to other Preierments (24 in number), is 10,718. Of these Benefices 297 are under 50l.; 1629 from 50 to 1007.; 1602 from 1001. to 1507.; 1354 from 150 to 2001.; 1799 from 2004. to 300; 1326 from 300%. to 4001; 850 from 400l. to 500.; 95: from 500l. to 7501.: 323 from 75. to 1000l. 134 from 1000l. to 150.; 32 from 15007. to 20007.; 18 from 2006. and upwards of these last, one is the rectory of Stanhope in the diocese of Durham, of the net annual value of 48431.; and another is the rectory of Doddington in the diocese of Ely, of the net annual value of 73 61. The diocese of Sodor and Man is included in the total number of benefices. The Total Gross Income of the Benefices in England and Wales including those not returned, and ealculated upon the Average of those returned, is 3,251,1597.; and the Total Net Income of the same is 3,0 5,4511. If the amount of the Curates' Stipends, which is included in the Income of the Incumbents, is subtracted therefrom, the Net Income returned will be reduced to 2,579,9617., giving an Average of 2441. to each Incumbent. Table classing the Patronage of Benefices, and showing the number possessed by Class. eack The above classification comprises only the patronage returned to the Commissioners. There are 178 nou-returns, and 86 returned omitting the patronage. As the patronage is frequently divided between different classes of patrons, and is included under each, it is obvious that the aggregate total of the above numbers will not agree with the total number of benefices. This includes the patronage or nomination exercised by rectors and vicars. + This number does not comprise the livings in the patronage of the dean and canous of Christ Church, which is included among the deans and chapters; and it is further to be observed, that united livings, and livings with chapels annexed, have in either case been treated as single benefices. These Benefices have been sold under the Municipal Corporations Act, 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 76, &c. and 2 Vict. c. 31. Table classing the Appropriations and Impropriations; showing the Number possessed by each Class, and the Number of Cases in each Diocese in which the Vicarage is partly or wholly endowed with the Great Tithes. The number of vicarages of which the impropriations have not been returned to the Commissioners is 223. BENEFICIUM, a Latin word, lite- | of their predecessors required confirmarally "a good deed;" also "a favour," "antion; but Titus, by one edict, without act of kindness." This word had seve- solicitation, confirmed all grants of preral technical significations among the vious emperors. The grants made by the Romans. emperors, which were often lands, were entered in a book called the Liber Beneficiorum, which was kept by the chief clerk of benefices, under the care of the Comes Rerum Privatarum of the emperor; or it was kept by a person entitled "A Commentariis Beneficiorum," or clerk of the benefices, as we learn from a curious inscription in Gruter (DLXXVIII. 1). This inscription, which is a monumental inscription, is in memory of M. Ulpius Phædimus, who, among other offices, held that of clerk of benefices to Trajan: the monument was erected in the reign of Hadrian, A.D. 131, by Valens Phædimianus, probably one of the same family, who styles himself wardrobe-keeper (a veste). When a proconsul, proprætor, or quæstor returned to Rome from his province, he first gave in his accounts to the treasury; after which he might also give in the names of such persons as had served under him in the province, and by their conduct had deserved well of the state. To do this was expressed by the phrase, "in beneficiis ad ærarium deferre," "to give into the treasury the names of deserving persons;" and in the case of certain officers and persons, this was to be done within thirty days after the proconsul, &c. had given in his accounts. The object of this practice was apparently to recommend such individuals to public notice and attention, and in many cases it would be a kind of introduction to future honours and emoluments. It does not seem quite certain if | money was given to those thus recommended, in the time of Cicero. (Cicero, Ad Divers. v. 20; Pro Archia, 5.) Beneficium, in another sense, means honour, promotion, or exemption from certain kinds of service, granted by a Roman governor or commander to certain of his soldiers, hence called Beneficiarii. (Cæsar, De Bello Civili, i. 75; iii. 88; Sueton. Tiber. 12.) Numerous inscriptions given in Gruter show how common this practice was: in some of them the title is represented by the initial letters B.F. only; Beneficiarius Legati Consularis (li. 4); B.F. Proconsulis (exxx. 5), &c. Under the emperors, beneficia appear to have signified any kind of favours, privileges, or emoluments granted to a subject by the emperor; and Suetonius observes (Titus, 8) that all the Cæsars, in conformity with a regulation of Tiberius, considered that, on their accession to the supreme power, all the grants (beneficia) some Beneficium, in the civil law, signifies any particular privilege: thus it is said (Lig. i. 4. 3) that the beneficium of the emperor must be interpreted very liberally; and by the Julian law De bonis Cedendis a debtor, whose estate was not sufficient to satisfy the demands of his creditors, was said to receive the benefit (beneficium) of this law so far, that he could not be taken to prison after judgment obtained against him. (Codex, vii. tit. 71, s. 1. 4.) Beneficium, among the writers of the middle ages, signified any grant of land from the fiscus, that is, the private possessions of the king or sovereign, or any other person, for life; so called, says Ducange, because it was given out of the mere good will (beneficium) and liberality of the granter. But it is evident, from what we have said, that this kind of grant was so called after the fashion of the grants of the Roman emperors. A beneficiary grant in the middle ages appears to have been properly a grant for life, that is, a grant to the individual, and Where the impropriation or appropriation of the great tithes is shared between owners of different classes, it is included under each class. There are some few cases of rectories in which the rector has only a portion of the great tithes, the remainder being the property of a spiritual person or body, or of a lay impropriator; and in Jersey and Guernsey the benefices are merely nominal rectories, the incumbent not being entitled in any case to more than a portion (generally one-third) of the great tithes, the Crown or governor taking the residue; and in some cases the whole goes to the Crown or governor. accordingly corresponds to manfructus, | law, nuns were exempted from temporal and is opposed to proprietas. The name jurisdiction. beneficium, as applied to a feudal grant, was afterwards changed for that of feu dum, and, as it is asserted, not before the sixth century, the terms beneficium and feudum are often used indifferently in writings which treat of feuds, FED,|| The English term Benefice signifies some church living or preforment. [BENEFICE|| For further remarks on the term bene fiemum, eo Ducange, Glossarium, &c.; and Hotman, Commentarius Verborum Juria, Opera, Lugd. fol. 1599. BENEFIT OF CLERGY. The pri vilege or exemption thus called had its origin in the regard which was paid by the various princes of Europe to the early Christian Church, and in the en deavours of the popes to withdraw the elergy altogether from secular jurisdie tion. In England, these attempts, being vigorously resisted by our earlier kings after the Conquest, only succeeded partially and in two particular instances, namely, in procuring, 1. the exemption of places conscerated to religious purposes from arrests for crimes, which was the origin of sanctuaries SANCTUARY]; and 2. the exemption of clergymen in certain cases from criminal punishment by seen la judges. From the latter exemption came the benefit of elergy, which arose when a person indicted for certain offences pleaded that he was a clerk, or clergyman, and claimed his privilegium clericale. Upon this plon and claim the ordinary appeared and demanded him; a jury was then summoned to inquire into the truth of the charge, and according to their ver dict the accused was delivered to the ordinary either as dequit or commiel, to undergo canonical purgation, and then to be discharged or punished according to the result of the purgation. This privi lege, however, never extended to high treason nor to offences not capital, and whorein the punishment would not affect the life or limb of the offender (qui non tangunt vitam et membrum). It is singh lar that previously to the statute 24 & 4 Will TIL, which expressly includes them, this privilege of clorgy never ex tended by the English law to women. although it is clear that, by the canon In earlier periods of the history of this privilege in England, the benefit of clergy was not allowed unless the prisoner appeared in his clerical habit and tonsure to claim it, but in process of time, as the original object of the privilege was gradually lost sight of, this ceremony was considered unnecessary, and the only proof required of the offender's clergy was his showing to the satisfaction of the court that he could read, a rare accomplishment, except among the clergy, previously to the 15th century. The consequence was, that at length all persons who could read, whether clergymen or lay clerks, as they were called in some antient statutes, were admitted to the benefit of clergy in all prosecutions for offences to which the privilege extended, The mode in which this test of reading was applied is thus described by Hir Thomas Smith, in his Commonwealth of England,' written in 1565. " The bishop," says he, "must send one with authority under his seal to be a judge in that matfor at every gaol delivery. If the condemned man demandeth to be admitted to his book, the judge commonly giveth him a Psalter, and turneth to what place he will. The prisoner rendeth so well as he can (God knoweth sometime very slenderly), then he (the judge) askoth of the bishop's commissary, Legit ut clericus? The commissary must say legit or non legit, for these be words formal, and our mon of law be very precise in their words formal. If he say legit, the judge proceodeth no further to sentence of death; if he say non, the judge forthwith pro epedeth to sentence," The clergy, however, do not appear to have universally admitted that the mere fact of a prisoner's ability to read was to be taken as a conclusive proof of his clerical character. A curious case is recorded in the Year Book, 34 Hon. VI. 49 (1455), which greatly puzzled the judges. A man indiefed of felony claimed the benefit of clergy, upon which the archideacon of Westminster Abbey was sent for, who showed him a book, in which the felon read well and fluently. Upon hearing this, the court ordered him |