Induction - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition induction

Definition :

Induction [fr. inductio, Lat., a leading into], the giving a parson possession of his church.

A clerk is not complete incumbent until induction, which is performed by a mandate from the bishop to the archdeacon, or if the church be exempt from arch diaconal jurisdiction, to the chancellor or commissary, or if it be a peculiar, to the dean or judge, who usually issues a precept to another clergyman to perform it for him.

The person who inducts takes the hand of the clerk, and lays it on the ring, key, or latch of the church-door, or wall of the church, or delivers a clod, turf, or twig of the glebe, and gives corporal possession of the church, saying:--

By virtue of this mandate I induct you into the real, actual, and corporal possession of the church of [Stow], with all rights, profits, and appurtenances thereto belonging.'

Induction is the investiture of the temporal part of the benefice or the corporal seisin, as institution (see INSTITUTION), which may take place anywhere, whereas induction can only take place in the church, is of the spiritual. A clerk thus presented is in full possession of the temporalities.

The oaths and subscriptions taken before induction were altered by the (English) Clerical Subscription Act, 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 122), and now the incumbent on induction must declare--

That he assents to the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer, and of the ordering of bishops, priests, and deacons, and believes the doctrine of the Established Church to be agreeable to the Word of God: and that he will use the form prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, and none other save as prescribed by lawful authority; and

That he has in no way made a contract, simoniacal to his knowledge, for the living, and will not perform any promise of that kind, made by others;

And he must take the oath of allegiance to the king. [See (English) Clerical Subscription Act, 1865(28 & 29 Vict. c. 122)]