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juxta Dublin, and St. John, in Dublin; and incorporated them by the name of the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin; with other proper clauses of incorporation; and granted and confirmed to the Dean and Chapter and their successors, as well the cathedral church, as all the lands, rectories, etc. which anciently belonged to the said priory; and that the said Dean, Chanter, Chancellor, Treasurer, and three Prebendaries, might each of them live more decently and conveniently in his degree and dignity separately, he assigned to the Dean several lands, to the Chanter other lands, to the Treasurer other lands, and to each of the several Prebendaries other distinct lands; and that every one for himself, should distinctly and separately have and enjoy all the lands, hereditaments, and possessions, as well spiritual as temporal, to him and his successors separately as before assigned; and that he might sue and be sued in whatsoever court, and before whatsoever judges or justices, in all causes, actions, suits, and demands severally concerning the same.—That by virtue of these letters patent, the said Dean and Chapter were a body politic, and had all along exercised the power to them given, without any intromission of any Archbishop of Dublin. That the Deanery of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, lately became vacant, by the translation of the late Bishop of Kildare and Dean of the said church; which Deanery the said late Bishop of Kildare held in commendam to the fee of Meath.—That Queen Ann, by letters patent, dated the 22d of September, in the fourth year of her reign, made the plaintiff Dean of the said church; by virtue of which said letters patent, the plaintiff was made Dean of the said church, and had ever since enjoyed all the rights and privileges, by the said letters patent granted. That the cognizance of Royal grants, belongs to the King and his Courts, and not to the Ecclesiastical Courts.—That the Archbishop, to aggrieve the plaintiff, impleaded him, as Dean of the said church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, in the Court Christian, in causa visitationis ordinarii ipsius archiepiscopi, within his diocess, as Archbishop of Dublin, [181] under pretence of a contempt, in not appearing in the said visitation of the said Archbishop, and duly undergoing the same.

The defendant craved over of the said several letters patent, and the same were set forth verbatim; by which it appeared, that in the letters patent granted by King Henry VIII. it was further contained, that the said King did further will and declare, that the said cathedral church should be the Archiepiscopal seat of Dublin, as it before was and used to be; prohibiting nevertheless the then Archbishop of Dublin, and his successors, that he or his successors should presume to exercise other ordinary jurisdiction or authority than the same Archbishop formerly used to exercise there, while it was a priory.—He then pleaded, that the Archbishopric of Dublin was an ancient Archbishopric, and that the church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, was an ancient church, within the diocess of Dublin, and time out of mind was the cathedral church of that Archbishopric; and that the said priory was an ancient priory, in which priory lived the Canons of the order of St. Victor, and of the regulation of St. Austin, under one Prior, observing canonical rules and doing divine service.—That the said Prior and Canons, time out of mind, until their said translation into a Dean and Chapter by King Henry VIII. and the said Dean and Chapter ever since, were the Chapter of the Archbishops of Dublin for the time being.—That the defendant and all his predecessors, Archbishops of Dublin, time out of mind, by their ordinary jurisdiction, had visited the said Prior and Canons till the said translation, and the said Dean and Chapter ever since, as often as there had been occasion.—That the said defendant then and yet being Archbishop of Dublin, on the 8th of March 1710, at St. Sepulchre's, within the diocess of Dublin, in the county of Dublin, did decree to hold a visitation ordinary, of the said Dean and Chapter, in the Chapter-house of the said Dean and Chapter, situate within the said cathedral church of Dublin, and being the usual place for holding such visitations, on the 9th of April 1711, according to law, and according to the manner and custom aforesaid; and the plaintiff in error, then and yet being Dean of the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, was afterwards, on the 16th of March 1710, duly summoned and cited.—That the defendant, on the said 9th of April 1711, between the hours of ten and eleven in the forenoon, being the usual hour for making such visitation, came to the western door of the said cathedral church, being the usual place where the Dean, Prebendaries, and other officers, as often as they had notice of such visitation, used to wait the coming of