CONFORMITY DECLARATION

OF. A declaration is required of all persons who are to be licensed or instituted to an ecclesiastical charge in the Church of England, in the following words:—“I, A. B., do declare that I will conform to the liturgy of the Church of England, as it is now by law established.” This declaration is to be made and subscribed before the bishop or his commi ary, and the making and subscription thereof is to be testified under the episcopal seal of the bishop, and under the hand of the bishop or his commi ary. (See also Reading in .) CONGÉ D’ ÉLIRE. This is a French term, and signifies leave to choose : and is the king’s writ or licence to the dean and chapter of the diocese to choose a bishop, in the time of vacancy of the see. Prior to the reign of Henry I., the kings of England used to invest bishops with the ring and staff, in virtue of their donative right. Henry I. so far ceded this right as to give a congé d’ élire to deans and chapters for the election of bishops. Henry VIII. added “letters mi ive,” nominating the person whom he required them to elect, under pain of præmunire; and Edward VI. (1 Edw. VI. c. 1, 2) abolished elections by writ of congé d’ élire , as being “indeed no elections,” and “seeming also derogatory and prejudicial to the king’s prerogative royal, to whom only appertain eth the collation and gift of all archbishoprics, and bishoprics, and suffragan bishops, within his Highne ’s said realm.” The statute goes on to enact, “That no election of any archbishop or bishop shall be made by the dean and chapter;” but that the king by his “letters patent, at all times when the archbishopric or bishopric be void, shall confer the same to any person whom the king shall think meet.” This statute was repealed by Queen Mary, and never afterwards revived. The law now rests upon the 25 Henry VIII. c. 20, which statute was revived by Queen Elizabeth.— Burn. (See Jurisdiction .) But in Ireland, the act of 2 Eliz. c. 4, established the same manner of appointment by the sovereign, without election, as the English act of Edward, and so it has continued to this day.