in ecclesiastical law, a slip or omission of a patron to present a clerk to a benefice within six months of its being void: in which case, the benefice is said to be in lapse, or lapsed, and the right of presentation devolved to the ordinary.

And if the ordinary neglect to present during the same time, the right of presentation accrues to the metropolitan, and to the king by neglect of the metropolitan. This right of lapse was first established in the reign of Henry II., when the bishops first began to exercise universally the right of institution to churches: and therefore when there is no right of institution, there is no right of lapse; so that no donative can lapse to the ordinary, unless it hath been augmented by the king's bounty; but no right of lapse can accrue, when the original presentation is in the crown. In case the benefice becomes void by death, or cession through plurality of benefices, there the patron is bound to take notice of the vacancy at his own peril; but in case of a vacancy by resignation or canonical deprivation, or if a clerk presented be refused for insufficiency, these being matters of which the bishop alone is presumed to be cognizant, here the law requires him to give notice thereof to the patron, otherwise he can take no advantage by way of lapse; neither shall any lapse accrue thereby to the metropolitan or the king. If the bishop refuse or neglect to examine and admit the patron's clerk, without good reason assigned or notice given, he shall have no title to present by lapse: and if the right of presentation be litigious or contested, and an action be brought against the bishop to try the title, no lapse shall occur till the question of right be decided. If the bishop be both patron and ordinary, he shall not have a double time allowed him to collate in: and if the bishop doth not collate his own clerk immediately to the living, and the patron presents, though after the six months are lapsed, yet the presentation is good, and the bishop is bound to institute the patron's clerk. If the bishop suffer the presentation to lapse to the metropolitan, the patron also has the same advantage if he presents before the archbishop has filled up the benefice: yet the ordinary... ordinary cannot, after lapfe to the metropolitan, collate his own clerk to the prejudice of the archbishop. But if the presentation laples to the king, the patron shall never recover his right till the king has satisfied his turn by presentation; for nullum tempus occurrit regi.