CHAPTER X.

OF DISSENTS AND PROTESTS.

103. A DISSENT is a declaration of one or more members of a minority in a judicatory, expressing disagreement with a decision of the majority in a particular case.

104. A Protest is a more formal declaration, made by one or more members of a minority, bearing testimony against what is deemed a mischievous or erroneous proceeding, decision, or judgment, and including a statement of the reasons therefor.

105. If a Dissent or Protest be couched in decorous and respectful language, and be without offensive reflections or insinuations against the majority, it shall be entered on the records.

106. The judicatory may prepare an answer to any protest which imputes to it principles or reasonings which its action does not import, and the answer shall also be entered upon the records. Leave may thereupon be given to the protestant or protestants, if they desire it, to modify their Protest; and the answer of the judicatory may also. in consequence, be modified. This shall end the matter.

107. No one shall be allowed to dissent or protest who has not a right to vote on the question decided,—and, in judicial cases, no one shall be allowed to dissent or protest who did not vote against the decision.

CHAPTER XI.

OF JURISDICTION IN CASES OF DISMISSION.

108. THE judicatory, to which a church member or a minister belongs, shall have sole jurisdiction for the trial of offences whenever or wherever committed by him.

109. A member of a church, receiving a certificate of dismission to another church, shall continue to be a member of the church giving him the certificate, and subject to the jurisdiction of its session (but shall not deliberate

or vote in a church meeting, nor exercise the functions of any office), until he has become a member of the church to which he is recommended, or some other evangelical church; and, should he return the certificate, within a year from its date, the session shall make record of the fact, but he shall not thereby be restored to the exercise of the functions of any office previously held by him in that church.

110. In like manner, a minister shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the presbytery which dismissed him (but shall not deliberate or vote, nor be counted in the basis of representation to the General Assembly), until he actually becomes a member of another presbytery; but, should he return the certificate of dismission within a year from its date, the presbytery shall make record of the fact, and restore him to the full privileges of membership.

111. A presbytery, giving a certificate of dismission to a minister, licentiate, or candidate for licensure, shall specify the particular body to which he is recommended; and, if recommended to a presbytery, no other than the one designated, if existing, shall receive him.

112. If a church becomes extinct, the presbytery with which it was connected shall have jurisdiction over its members, and grant them letters of dismission to some other church. It shall, also, determine any case of discipline begun by the session and not concluded.

113. If a presbytery becomes extinct, the synod, with which it was connected, shall have jurisdiction over its members, and may transfer them to any presbytery within its bounds. It shall, also, determine any case of discipline begun by the presbytery and not concluded.

CHAPTER XII.

OF REMOVALS, AND LIMITATIONS OF TIME.

114. WHEN any member shall remove from one church to another, he shall produce a certificate, ordinarily not

more than one year old, of his church-membership and dismission, before he shall be admitted as a regular member of that church.

The names of the baptized children of a parent seek. ing dismission to another church shall, if such children are members of his household and remove with him and are not themselves communicants, be included in the certificate of dismission. The certificate shall be addressed to a particular church, and the fact of the reception of the person or persons named in it shall be promptly communicated to the church which gave it.

115. In like manner, when a minister, licentiate, or candidate, is dismissed from one presbytery to another, the certificate shall be presented to the presbytery to which it is addressed, ordinarily within one year from its date, and the fact of his reception shall be promptly communicated to the presbytery dismissing him.

116. If a church-member, more than two years absent from the place of his ordinary residence and church connections, applies for a certificate of membership, his absence, and the knowledge of the church respecting his demeanor for that time, or its want of information concerning it, shall be distinctly stated in the certificate.

117. Prosecution for an alleged offence shall commence within one year from the time of its alleged commission, or from the date when it becomes known to the judicatory which has jurisdiction thereof.

CHAPTER XIII.

OF JUDICIAL COMMISSIONS.

118. THE General Assembly, each synod, and each presbytery under its care, shall have power to appoint Judicial Commissions from their respective bodies, consisting of ministers and elders, in number not less than eighteen (18) from the General Assembly, not less than

twelve (12) from any synod, and not less than seven (7) from any presbytery.

119. All judicial cases may be submitted to such Commissions, and their decisions shall be subject to reversal only by the superior judicatory or judicatories, except in matters of law, which shall be referred to the appointing judicatory for adjudication; and also all matters of constitution and doctrine may be reviewed in the appointing body and by the superior judicatory or judicatories.

120. Such Commissions shall sit at the same time and place as the body appointing them, and their findings shall be entered upon the minutes of the appointing body; provided, however, that a Commission appointed by a presbytery may also sit during the intervals between the meetings of the appointing presbytery. The quorum of any such Commission shall not be less in number than three-fourths of the members appointed, and shall be the same in all other respects as the quorum of the appointing judicatory.

CHAPTER XIV.

OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JUDICATORIES.

121. ANY judicatory deeming itself aggrieved by the action of any other judicatory of the same rank, may present a memorial to the judicatory immediately superior to the judicatory charged with the grievance and to which the latter judicatory is subject, after the manner prescribed in the sub-chapter on Complaints (Sections 8393, Book of Discipline), save only that with regard to the limitation of time, notice of said memorial shall be lodged with the Stated Clerks, both of the judicatory charged with the grievance and of its next superior judicatory, within one year from the commission of the said alleged grievance.

122. When any judicatory deems itself aggrieved by another judicatory and determines to present a memorial

as provided for in the preceding section, it shall appoint a committee to conduct the case in all its stages, in whatever judicatory, until the final issue be reached.

123. The judicatory with which the memorial is lodged, if it sustain the same, may reverse in whole or in part the matter of grievance, and shall direct the lower judicatory how to dispose of the case, and may enforce its orders. Either party may appeal to the next higher judicatory, except as limited by Chapter XI., Section 4, of the Form of Government.