*94.* _Sect, Suit, Property._—A number of people formed a congregation and became incorporated in 1810, the members being mostly of Presbyterian extraction. This independent congregation bought and paid for property, the title vesting in the corporation. In 1811 the congregation passed resolutions unanimously that it “would be imprudent and unscriptural” to establish a new religious sect, and voted to join the First Reformed Dutch Church, which had an organization of inferior and superior authority. The congregation was received into and became a part of the general organization, and remained so until 1860, when a majority of the congregation voted to employ a Methodist minister, and when his name was submitted to the superior authority, the “classis,” he was rejected as not belonging to the church. Then by a majority vote, the congregation seceded and assumed its first name, and thereafter brought suit for the church property. The court held that by joining the First Reformed Dutch Church, the title of the property vested in the congregation of that church as represented by its corporation, and that when the majority seceded and left the church, they had no right nor title to any of the property. And the court laid down the general rule that a majority of a church congregation may direct and control any church matters consistently with the particular and general laws of the organization or denomination to which it belongs, but not in violation of them.(174) *95.* _Priest, Salary._—The fact that a bishop who holds the title to all the diocesan property in his own name in trust appoints a priest to the parish or as chaplain to a hospital, does not give the priest a right of action against the bishop personally for his salary. The relation of bishop and priest is not that of employer and employe, but is that of ecclesiastical superior and inferior.(175) *96.* _Curate, Induction, Rector._—The _jus patronatus_ of the Spanish law has been abrogated in Louisiana. The wardens of the church can not compel a bishop to institute a curate of their appointment, nor is he in any sense subordinate in his clerical functions to the wardens of any church within his diocese.(176) In the absence of a positive rule of the ecclesiastical body, no ceremony of induction is necessary for the rector of a parish.(177) A clergyman appointed “permanently” to a rectorship holds it for an indefinite period during the pleasure of the contracting parties, and either of the contracting parties may give the other notice of termination, and with the concurrence of the higher ecclesiastical authority of the diocese, a change may be made.(178) It is doubtful, however, whether in most States a permanent appointment would not be construed as a contract for life, determinable only for good cause.(179)