with the process of beatification or canonization (see
CANONISATION). The phrase, ``devil's advocate,'' has by
an easy transference come to be used of any one who puts
himself up, or is put up, for the sake of promoting debate,
to argue a case in which he does not necessarily believe.
ADVOWSON, or @ADVOWZEN (through O. Fr. advouson, from
Lat. advocatio, a summons to), the right of presentation
to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice, so called because
the patron defends or advocates the claims of the person
whom he presents. At what period the right of advowson
arose is uncertain; it was probably the result of gradual
growth. The earliest trace of the practice is found in the
decree of the council of Orange, A.D. 441, which allowed a
bishop, who had built a church in the diocese of another
bishop, to nominate the clerk, but not to consecrate the
church. The 123rd Novel of Justinian, promulgated about
the end of the 5th century, decreed ``that if any man should
erect an oratory, and desire to present a clerk thereto by
himself or his heirs, if they furnish a competency for his
livelihood, and nominate to the bishop such as are worthy,
they may be ordained.'' The 57th Novel empowered the bishop
to examine them and judge of their qualifications, and, where
those were sufficient, obliged him to admit the clerk. In
England, for quite two centuries after its conversion, the
clergy administered only pro tempore in the parochial
churches, receiving their maintenance from the cathedral
church, all the appointments within the diocese lying with the
bishop. But in order to promote the building and endowment
of parochial churches those who had contributed to their
erection either by a grant of land, by building or by endowment,
became entitled to present a clerk of their own choice to the
bishop, who was invested with the revenues derived from such
contribution. After the Norman Conquest, when the boundaries
between church and state were more clearly marked, it became
usual for patrons to appoint to livings not only without
the consent, but even against the will, of the bishops.
Advowsons are divided into two kinds, appendant and in
gross. Originally the right of nominating1 or presenting
was annexed to the person who built or endowed the church,
but the right gradually became annexed to the manor in
which it was built, for the endowment was considered parcel
of the manor, the church being built for the use of the
inhabitants, and the tithes of the manor being attached to the
church. Consequently where the right of patronage (the
right of the patron to present to the bishop the person whom
he has nominated to become rector or vicar of the parish
to the benefice of which he claims the right of advowson)
remains attached to the manor, it is called an advowson
appendant, and passes with the estate by inheritance or
sale without any special conveyance. But where, as is often
the case, the right of presentation has been sold by itself,
and so separated from the manor, it is called an advowson
in gross. An advowson may also be partly appendant, and
partly in gross, e.g. if an owner granted to another
every second presentment, the advowson would be appendant
for the grantor's turn and in gross for the grantee's.
Advowsons are further distinguished into presentative
and collative. In a presentative advowson, the patron
presents a clergyman to the bishop, with the petition
that he be instituted into the vacant living. The bishop
is bound to induct if he find the clergyman canonically
qualified, and a refusal on his part is subject to an
appeal to an ecclesiastical court either by patron or by
presentee. In a collative advowson the bishop is himself the
patron, either in his own right or in the right of the proper
patron, which has lapsed to him through not being exercised
within the statutory period of six months after the vacancy
occurred. No petition is necessary in this case, and the
bishop is said to collate to the benefice. Before 1898
there were also donative advowsons, but the Benefices Act
1898 made all donations with cure of souls presentative.
In a donative advowson, the sovereign, or any subject by
special licence from the sovereign, conferred a benefice by
a simple letter of gift, without any reference to the bishop,
and without presentation and institution. The incumbent of
such a living was to a great extent free from the jurisdiction
of the bishop, who could only reach him through the action
of an ecclesiastical court. The Benefices Act of 1898 did
not make any substantial change in the legal character of
advowsons, which remain practically the same as before the
act. Briefly, it prevents the dealing with the right of
presentation as a thing apart from the advowson itself;
increases the power of the bishops to refuse the presentation
of unfit persons, and removes several abuses which had arisen
in the transfer of patronage. Under the previously existing
law, simony, or ``the corrupt presentation of any person
to an ecclesiastical benefice for gift, money or reward,''
renders the presentation void, and subjects the persons
privy or party to it to penalties; a presentation to a vacant
benefice cannot be sold, and no clerk in holy orders can
purchase for himself a next presentation. An advowson may,
however, be sold during a vacancy, though that will not give
the right to present to that vacancy; and a clerk may buy
an advowson even though it be only an estate for life, and
present himself on the next vacancy. Under the Benefices
Act, advowsons may not be sold by public auction except in
conjunction with landed property adjacent to the benefice;
transfers of patronage must be registered in the registry
of the diocese, and no such transfers can be made within
twelve months after the last admission or institution to the
benefice. Restrictions had also been imposed on the transfer
of patronage of churches built under the Church Building Acts
and New Parishes Acts, and on that of benefices in the gift
of the lord chancellor, and sold by him in order to augment
others; but agreements may be made as to the patronage of
such churches in favour of persons who have contributed to
their building or enlargement without being void for simony.
The right of presentation may be exercised by its owner
whether he be an infant, executors, trustees, coparceners
(who, if they cannot agree, present in turn in order of
age) or mortgagee (who must present the nominee of the
mortgagor), or a bankrupt (who, although the advowson
belongs to his creditors, yet has the right to present to a
vacancy). Certain owners of advowsons are temporarily or
permanently disabled from exercising the right which devolves
upon other persons; and the crown as patron paramount of all
benefices can fill all churches not regularly filled by other
patrons. It thus presents to all vacancies caused by simoniacal
presentations, or by the incumbent having been presented to
a bishopric or in benefices belonging to a bishopric when
the see is vacant by the bishop's death, translation or
deprivation. Where a presentation belongs to a lunatic,
the lord chancellor presents for him. Where it belongs to
a Roman Catholic the right is exercised in his behalf by the
University of Oxford if the benefice be situate south of the
river Trent, and by that of Cambridge if it be north of that
river. Besides the qualifications required of a presentee
by canon law, such as being of the canonical age, and in
priest's orders before admission, sufficient learning and
proper orthodoxy or morals, the Benefices Act requires that
a year shall have elapsed since a transfer of the right of
patronage, unless it can be shown that such transfer was not
made in view of a probable vacancy; that the presentee has
been a deacon for three years; and that he is not unfit for
the discharge of his duties by reason of physical or mental
infirmity or incapacity, grave pecuniary embarrassment, grave
misconduct or neglect of duty in an ecclesiastical office,
evil life, or conduct causing grave scandal concerning his
moral character since his ordination, or being party to
an illegal agreement with regard to the presentation; that
notice of the presentation has been given to the parish of the
benefice. Except by leave of the bishop or sequestrator, the
incumbent of a sequestered benefice cannot be presented. The
act also gives to both patron and presentee an alternative
mode of appeal against a bishop's refusal to institute or
admit, except on a ground of doctrine or ritual, to a court
composed of an archbishop of the province and a judge of the
High Court nominated for that purpose by the lord chancellor,
a course which, however, bars resort being had to the ordinary
suits of duplex querela or action of quare impedit. In
case of refusal of one presentee, a lay patron may present
another, and a clerical patron may do so after an unsuccessful
appeal against the refusal. Upon institution the church is
full against everybody except the crown, and after six months'
peaceable possession the clerk is secured in possession of the
benefice, even though he may have been presented by a person
who is not the proper patron. The true patron can, however,
exercise his right to present at the next vacancy, and can
reserve the advowson from an usurper at any time within three
successive incumbencies so created adversely to his right, or
within sixty years. Collation, which otherwise corresponds to
institution, does not make the church full, and the true patron
can dispossess the clerk at any time, unless he is a patron who
collates. Possession of the benefice is completed by induction,
which makes the church full against any one, including the
crown. If the proper patron fails to exercise his right within
six calendar months from the vacancy, the right devolves or
lapses to the next superior patron, e.g. from an ordinary
patron to the bishop, and if he makes similar default to
the archbishop, and from him on similar default to the
crown. If a bishopric becomes vacant after a lapse has
accrued to it, it goes to the metropolitan; but in case of a
vacancy of a benefice during the vacancy of the see the crown
presents. Until the right of presentation so accruing to
a bishop or archbishop is exercised, the patron can still
effectually present but not if lapse has gone to the crown.
(See also BBNEFICE; GLEBE; INCUMBENT; VICAR.)
AUTHORITIES.---Burn, Ecclesiastical Law; Bingham's Origines
Ecclesiasticae, or, the Antiquities of the English Church;
Mirehouse, On Advowson; Phillimore, Ecclesiastical Law.
1 The distinction between nomination to a living and
presentation is to be noted. Nomination is the power,
by virtue of a manor or otherwise, to appoint a clerk to
the patron of a benefice, to be by him presented to the
ordinary. Presentation is the act of a patron in offering
his clerk to the bishop, to be instituted in a benefice of
his gift. Nomination and presentation, though generally
used in law lor the same thing must be so distinguishnd,
for it is possible that the rights of nomination may be
in one person, and the rights of presentation in another.
ADYE, SIR JOHN MILLER (1819-1900), British general, son of
Major James P. Adye, was born at Sevenoaks, Kent, on the 1st
of November 1819. He entered the Royal Artillery in 1836, was
promoted captain in 1846, and served throughout the Crimean War
as brigade-major and assistant adjutant-general of artillery
(C.B., brevets of major and lieutenant-colonel). In the
Indian Mutiny he served on the staff in a similar capacity.
