PLUMB-Rule, or Plumb line,** an instrument used by carpenters, masons, &c., in order to judge whether walls, &c., be upright planes, horizontal, or the like. It is thus called from a piece of lead, fastened to the end of a chord, which usually constitutes this instrument. Sometimes the string descends along a wooden ruler, &c., raised perpendicularly on another; in which case it becomes a level.

**PLUMMING,** among miners, is the method of using a mine-dial, in order to know the exact place of the work where to sink down an air-shaft, or to bring an adit to the work, or to know which way the load inclines when any flexure happens in it.

It is performed in this manner: A skilful person with an assistant, and with pen, ink, and paper, and a long line, and a sun-dial, after his guess of the place above ground, descends into the adit or work, and there fastens one end of the line to some fixed thing in it; then the incited needle is let to rest, and the exact point where it rests is marked with a pen: he then goes on farther in the line still fastened, and at the next flexure of the adit he makes a mark on the line by a knot or otherwise; and then letting down the dial again, he there likewise notes down that point at which the needle stands in this second position. In this manner he proceeds, from turning to turning, marking down the points, and marking the line, till he comes to the intended place: this done, he ascends and begins to work on the surface of the earth what he did in the adit, bringing the first knot in the line to such a place where the mark of the place of the needle will again answer its pointing, and continues this till he come to the desired place above ground, which is certain to be perpendicular over the part of the mine into which the air-shaft is to be sunk.

**PLUMOSE,** something formed in the manner of a feather, with a stem and fibres issuing from it on each side; such are the antennae of certain moths, butterflies, &c.

**PLURAL,** in grammar, an epithet applied to that number of nouns and verbs which is used when we speak of more than one thing. See Grammar.

**PLURALITY,** a discrete quantity, consisting of two or a greater number of the same kind: thus we say, a plurality of gods, &c. See the article Astronomy, p. 157, for the arguments both for and against a plurality of worlds.

**PLURALITY of Benefices, or Livings,** is where the same clerk is possessed of two or more spiritual preferments, with cure of souls. See Benefice.

The smallness of some benefices first gave rise to pluralities; for an ecclesiastic, unable to subsist on a single one, was allowed to hold two; and at length the number increased without bounds. A remedy was attempted for this abuse at the council of Lateran under Alexander III. and Innocent III., in the year 1215, when the holding more than one benefice was forbidden by a canon under the penalty of deprivation; but the same canon granting the pope a power to dispense with it in favour of persons of distinguished merit, the prohibition became almost useless. They were also restrained by statute 21 Hen. VIII. cap. 13, which enacts, that if any person having one benefice with cure of souls, of the yearly value of £1. or above (in the king's books), accept any other with cure of souls, the first shall be adjudged in law to be void, &c., though the same statute provides for dispensation in certain cases.

In England, in order to procure a dispensation, the pretender must obtain of the bishop, in whose diocese the livings are, two certificates of the values in the king's books, and the reputed values and distance; one for the archbishop, and the other for the lord-chancellor. And if the livings lie in two dioceses, then two certificates of the same kind are to be obtained from each bishop. He must also show the archbishop his presentation to the second living; and bring with him two testimonials from the neighbouring clergy concerning his behaviour and conversation, one for the archbishop and the other for the lord-chancellor; and he must also show the archbishop his letters of orders, and a certificate of his haying. vting taken the degree of master of arts at the least, in one of the universities of this realm, under the hand of the register. And if he be not doctor or bachelor of divinity, nor doctor nor bachelor of law, he is to procure a qualification of a chaplain, which is to be duly registered in the faculty office, in order to be tendered to the archbishop, according to the statute. And if he hath taken any of the aforesaid degrees, which the statute allows as qualifications, he is to procure a certificate thereof as already mentioned, and to show the same to the archbishop; after which his dispensation is made out at the faculty office, where he gives security according to the direction of the canon. He must then repair to the lord-chancellor for confirmation under the broad seal; and he must apply to the bishop of the diocese where the living lies for his admission and institution. By the several stamp acts, for every skin, or paper, or parchment, &c. on which any dispensation to hold two ecclesiastical dignities or benefices, or a dignity and a benefice, shall be engrossed or written, there shall be paid a treble 40s. stamp duty.

We have also a regulation in regard to pluralities; but it is often dispensed with: for, by the faculty of dispensation, a plurality is required, in that benefice from which he shall happen to be most absent, to preach 13 sermons every year, and to exercise hospitality for two months yearly.

In Germany the pope grants dispensations for possessing a plurality of benefices, on pretence that the ecclesiastical princes there need large revenues to bear up against the Protestant princes.