The Master of the Faculties is a functionary in the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and has some important powers in English law, in particular the appointment and regulation of public notaries. The position is now always held by the Dean of Arches.
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Functions
The Master of Faculties has retained his historical responsibility with respect to public notaries in England and Wales. This regulatory function is now subject to the statutory provisions of the Public Notaries Acts 1801 and 1843, and the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. The Master of Faculties is an approved regulator under the Legal Services Act 2007: it is the sole relevant approved regulator for notaries but is also a relevant approved regulator for certain dealings in land registration and real property, and for probate and the administration of oaths.
The Master of Faculties also has responsibility for the issue of special licences for marriage in England and Wales, and for Lambeth degrees.
Public notaries in some Commonwealth jurisdictions, such as New Zealand and Queensland, Australia, are still appointed through the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, though in all other Australian States and Territories they are appointed by the relevant Supreme Court.
History
Following the English Reformation, the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533, s.3 gave the Archbishop, or "hys commissarie", power to issue "suche licences dispensacions composicions faculties delegacies rescriptes instrumentes or wrytynges have byn accustomed to be had, at the See of Rome". This included the power to appoint notaries in the ecclesiastical courts and the office of commissarie developed into that of the Master of the Faculties.
The Master was formerly the principal officer of the Court of Faculties, one of the ecclesiastical courts, and also had the power, under the 1533 Act to: