United Kingdom Legislation

Whereas by the canons of the churches heretofore of England and Ireland, now the United Church of England and Ireland, it is ordained, ordered, and directed that no bishop shall admit any person into the sacred order of a deacon who is not twenty-three years old, nor to be a priest except he be twenty-four years compleat: And whereas by the prefaces to the forms of ordination of priests and deacons established and used by authority of several Acts of the Parliaments of England and Ireland respectively it is directed that none shall be admitted deacon except he be twenty-three years of age, unless he have a faculty, and that every man which is to be admitted a priest shall be full twenty-four years old: And whereas in Ireland the aforesaid rule respecting the ages of persons desiring to be admitted into holy orders has been sometimes disregarded and rendered of no effect, to the great scandal and detriment of the Church, and to the prejudice of religion: For the better prevention whereof for the future, and also in order that one certain and undoubted rule and course of practice may hereafter prevail and be observed in this respect in England and Ireland.