But there was
always a feeling of insecurity on the part of those who had any
benefices in their gift, and a corresponding feeling on the part of
those who were candidates for preferment. This led to a vicious
system, whereby appointments were made with almost indecent haste to
every vacant cure; institution was granted to an applicant for a
benefice with the least possible delay after a vacancy had once been
made known; the patron was willing to exercise his right in favour of
any one, rather than not exercise it at all; the candidate for the
living knew that it was a case of now or never; the Bishop had
nothing to gain, and something to fear, from asking too many
questions; and there is some reason to think that the parishioners
had more voice in the matter than they have now. That followed which
was likely to follow, namely, that the institutions to vacant
benefices were made as a rule within a very few weeks, or even days,
after the death of an incumbent. A man who had got his nomination
lost no time in presenting himself to the Bishop. There was no widow
or family of his predecessor to consider; and for every reason, the
sooner the new man got into the parsonage the better for all parties
concerned. Moreover, to guard against all chances of a disputed
claim, the Bishops' Registers of Institution were kept with the most
scrupulous care, and while enormous masses of ecclesiastical records
in every diocese in England have perished, the Institution Books have
been preserved with extraordinary fidelity, have survived all the
troubles and wars and spoliation that have gone on, and, speaking
within certain limits, have been preserved for five hundred years
from one end of England to the other.
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