Churchwardens

Churchwardens are the modern representatives of the ancient Seniores Ecclesiastici, laymen who were custodians of church goods and ornaments, and agents for ecclesiastical affairs on their temporal side, but had no share in church government, nor any right of session in synods. In England they are lay ecclesiastical officers, elected yearly at Easter, sometimes by the parishioners and minister jointly, sometimes by the minister alone, sometimes by the parishioners alone, by the select vestry, by the lord of the manor, or by the outgoing wardens, but most commonly (and always in the case of new parishes) the incumbent chooses one and the parishioners the other. They are appointed for the purpose of protecting the edifice and goods of the church, keeping order in the church during public worship, seating the parishioners, and executing other parochial functions. They are admitted to their office by the Ordinary, usually the bishop of the diocese, and are his officers, as well as representatives of the lay parishioners. But their office in this respect is only one of observation and report, and they cannot interfere directly with the incumbent, if in their mind violating the laws ecclesiastical, but must simply delate the matter to the bishop by presentment at his visitation. They are also usually appointed as trustees of sequestered benefices. Certain classes are ineligible for election as churchwardens, such as Jews, minors, aliens, and persons convicted of felony, fraud, or perjury; and there are many exempted from serving, though eligible if elected, such as peers, members of parliament, justices, clergymen, Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, dissenting ministers, officers of the army and navy, barristers, solicitors, &c. They are generally two in number, but the office of churchwarden is a single one, of which each warden holds an undivided moiety, so that they cannot legally act independently of each other. There is no officer in the Roman Catholic Church precisely corresponding to the English churchwarden. The closest analogy is found in the trustees of the church fabric fund of the parish. These are named Marguillier (Lat. matricularius) in France, and are three in number, elected by the other members of the parish council, one of them going out of office yearly. They have the charge of the ordinary expenditure of the church, the superintendence of its minor officials, such as the beadle, &c., and the general conduct of the civil part of parish business. See CHURCH-RATES, PARISH, VESTRY; and Prideaux's Practical Guide to the Duties of Churchwardens (15th ed. 1886).