Ecclesiastical Corporations

Such corporations as are composed of persons who take a lively interest in the advancement of religion, and who are asso- Corporations whose members are spiritual persons are distinguished from lay corporations. 1 Bl. Comm. 470. They are generally called "religious corporations" in the United States. 2 Kent, Comm. 274: Angell & A. Corp. § 37.

Such corporations as are composed of persons who take a lively interest in the advancement of religion, and who are associated and incorporated for that purpose. Ang. & A. Corp. § 36. Corporations whose members are spiritual persons are distinguished from lay corporations; 1 Bla. Com. 470. They are generally called religious corporations in the United States. 2 Kent 274; Ang. & A. Corp. § 37. In the earlier times, the church became a large property owner. Before the device of a corporation sole was known to the law, there was the greatest uncertainty as to who the owner of church property really was. Property given to the church was given to the patron saint — the gift was in the first place to God and the saint, and only in the second place to the ecclesiastic in charge of it. But it was managed by a group of persons and they were perpetual because their numbers were always being renewed. Gradually the theory that they were persona fictCB was evolved by the Canonists. They became persons created by law — distinct from their members, and perpetual. The change was gradually accepted by the common-law lawyers and was extended to other groups which had nothing to do with the church. The growing definiteness of the conception of the corporation had reacted upon those ecclesiastical corporations which had originally introduced the idea of persona ficta. The corporation was a person. Gifts were made to a parson for the benefit of the church and no longer to a saint. The parson became a corporation sole and gradually that theory obtained recognition at the common law; 3 Holdsw. Hist. E. L. 367; see 16 L. Q. R. 336, where Prof. Maitland suggests that "corporation sole" was first applied to a parson by Brooke, author of the Abridgment, who died in 1538. See, as to corporations sole, Corporation. See Association; Religious Societies; Church. certain courts in England having cognizance mainly of spiritual matters. In IS." they were deprived of their jurisdiction in probate and divorce 1 they now deal only with clergymen of the Church Hi' England in their professional character. Even over clergymen their power "ii questions of heresy is very limited, it i< not an ecclesiastical offense to deny that the whole of the Scriptures are inspired, or to reject parts thereof as inherently incredible, etc., so long as they do not contradict the Articles "i- Formularies of the Church of England. Odgers, Com. L. 206. Sic Courts of England; Church of England; Court of Abches; Couet of Convocation; Court of Faculties; Court < \ ! iars; Consistory Courts; Archdeacon's Court; Prerogative Court; Privy Council.