§ 466. If the society or congregation vote to hold their annual meetings upon a certain day in each succeeding year, a meeting held on the day so fixed, without further notice, would not be legal, even though a practice had prevailed of holding such meetings for fifty years. The law prescribing the mode of warning society meetings must be complied with. The power given by statute to an ecclesiastical society to prescribe the mode of warning its meetings, does not enable it to dispense with a warning by its committee. Should the clerk of the society, when there is a committee, affix the names of the committee to a warning, and post such warning upon the public sign post, without either the previous authority or subsequent ratification of the committee, the warning would be ineffectual, and a meeting held in pursuance of such warning would be illegal. (Hicock v. Hoskins, 4 Day's Rep., 62; Congregational Society of Bethany v. Sperry, 10 Conn. Rep., 200.)

§ 467. The members of any religious society or congregation lawfully assembled, have power at their annual meetings to appoint a clerk, who must take the oath provided by law. The clerk must make entries of all the votes and proceedings of the society or congregation, a copy of which, attested by him, will be legal evidence in all courts. Such clerk will continue in office until another shall be chosen and sworn in his room. The members of such society or congregation, at such annual meeting, may also appoint three or more of their number to be a committee to order the affairs of the society for the ensuing year, who must adjust and settle all the claims on the society or congregation, and draw orders on the treasurer for the payment of the same. The society or congregation may also, at their annual meeting, appoint a treasurer, who must receive all the money belonging to the society or congregation, and pay over the same to the order of the society or congregation, and render his account there

for when required. The committee provided for may hold their places until others are chosen. (R. S. of 1866, Title VII, Ch. 4, Sec. 206; Congregational Society of Bethany v. Sperry, 10 Conn. Rep., 200.)

§ 468. Upon the refusal to serve, death or removal of any officer of a religious society or congregation, a meeting may be called in the manner before prescribed, and the vacant place supplied by a new choice. (R. S. of 1866, Title VII, Ch. 4, Sec. 207.)

469. The members of every religious society or congregation may hold meetings when their concerns render it necessary, and may adjourn the same from time to time; and in their lawful meetings may, by a major vote, settle ministers according to the usage of the denomination of christians to which they belong, repair their house of worship, make such regulations for the support of religious worship as they may think proper, establish the time and place of holding their meetings and the mode of warming them, and appoint committees or agents to carry into effect the votes and orders of the society or congregation, as may be necessary. (Ib., Sec. 208.)

§ 470. Any religious society or congregation may, by a vote of two-thirds of the members present at any legal meeting, agree to build a new house of worship, and establish the place where it shall be erected; or, if they judge it expedient, they may apply to the Superior Court in the county where such society or congregation may be situated, to establish the place where the house of worship shall be erected; and such Superior Court, after hearing all parties concerned, may establish the place where such house of worship shall be erected, and then it will not be lawful to erect the same in any other place. (Tb., Sec. 209.)

§ 471. All societies and congregations of christians in the State may, by a major vote of the members present at their annual meeting, lay a tax on the members of such society only to build and repair houses of worship, to provide for the annual support of the ministry, and to defray any other expenses necessarily incurred in the proper business of such society or congregation, which tax may be laid on the assessment list last made out according to law, or on the assessment list which shall next thereafter be completed by the assessors and board of relief, and will be payable in one year after the same is granted, and may appoint a collector or collectors to collect the same; and every collector who shall refuse to serve will forfeit the sum of five dollars to the treasury of the society or congregation, to be recovered by an action brought in the name of the treasurer of such society or congregation. (Ib., Sec. 210.)

§ 472. After the tax is voted and laid as aforesaid, the committee of the society or congregation must make out a rate-bill against the members, containing the proportion of tax for each member to pay, according to the assessment list on which the same shall have been laid, and must apply to a justice of the peace of the county for a warrant, directed to the collector or collectors appointed to collect such tax, authorizing him or them to levy and collect the same; and such collector or collectors must collect such tax, and pay over the same to the treasurer of the society or congregation; and if he or they shall fail or neglect to collect it by the time appointed, the committee of the society or congrega tion must take out a distress, signed by a justice of the peace, against such negligent collector or collectors, directed to the sheriff of the county, or to any constable of the town, commanding him to collect such part of the tax as remains due and unpaid, from said collector or collectors, and to pay it over to the treasurer of such society or congregation. (Ib.)

§ 473. Persons separating themselves from an ecclesiastical society are liable to pay the debts of the society, incurred before their withdrawal from such society, though the members of an ecclesiastical society without local limits, are not individually liable for the debts of the society. (Marlborough v. Lord, 1 Root, 325; Lord v. Marvin, Ib., 330; Jewett v. Thames Bank, 16 C. R., 511.)

§ 474. The lawful members of every religious society or congregation, of the age of twenty-one years, have the right to vote in the meetings of such society or congregation; and if any person, not a member of the society or congregation, shall intermeddle or vote in any meeting thereof, he will forfeit the sum of two dollars and fifty cents for every such offense, one-half to him who shall sue therefor and prosecute his suit to effect, and the other half to the treasury of the society or congregation where the offense may be committed. (R. S. of 1866, Title VII, Ch. 4, Sec. 211.)

§ 475. Every religious society or congregation has power also to provide for the support of public worship by the rent or sale of the pews or slips in the meeting-house, by the establishment of funds, or in any other mode it may judge expedient. (Ib., Sec. 212.)

§ 476. Every religious society or congregation instituted for public religious worship, legally organized, has power to provide for the support of public worship, in whole or in part, by an assessment on the pews or slips of their respective houses of public worship; said assessment to be made by the society's committee, or such other persons as may be appointed by vote of the society; and the payment of such assessment may be enforced by the sale of the use of such slip or pew, for such time as may be necessary, on giving twenty-one days' notice in a paper published in the town

where such church is situated, or, if no paper is published in such town, then by posting a notice on the door of such church or house of public worship, and leaving a copy thereof with the owner of said pew or slip, or at his usual place of abode, if within the State, at least twenty-one days before the sale; but no other estate will be liable to be taken or forfeited for the payment of such assessment. No such assessment can be made upon any pew or slip which is not occupied by its owner, or by some person claiming under such owner, at the stated religious services in such house; and no such sale can be made unless the owner of such pew or slip shall refuse to sell the same to the society at the price which such society originally received therefor. (Ib., Sec. 213.)

§ 477. If the owner of any pew, in any meeting-house or church edifice in the State, shall neglect or refuse to pay his equitable proportion of the expenses of maintaining public worship therein, the religious society or corporation connected with such meeting-house or church edifice, may recover the same of such pew owner, in any proper action, if the owner of such pew shall have occupied the same, either by himself or by any person under him. (Ib., Sec. 214.)

§ 478. Whenever the majority of pew owners, in any meeting-house or church edifice in the State, may desire to sell and transfer to the religious society or corporation connected therewith, their respective pews, to be by such society controlled and rented for the purpose of supporting public worship in such house, and a minority of the pew-holders refuse to sell their respective pews to such society, or if the society and such minority cannot agree upon the price to be paid for such pews, such society may bring its petition to the Superior court, against the person or persons refusing