Pluralities

PLURALITIES: A term in canon law for the holding, by a clergyman, of two or more livings at the same time. The canon law forbids it; but Roman Catholic bishops granted dispensations to commit the offense until by the general council of 1273 the right was taken from them. The popes still exercise this right. In England the power to grant dispensations to hold two benefices with the care of souls is vested in the monarch and in the archbishop of Canterbury. The benefices thus held must not be farther apart than three miles, and the annual value of one of them must be under a hundred pounds.