Avoidance
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): (n.) The act of annulling; annulment.
(2): (n.) A dismissing or a quitting; removal; withdrawal.
(3): (n.) The act of becoming vacant, or the state of being vacant; - specifically used for the state of a benefice becoming void by the death, deprivation, or resignation of the incumbent.
(4): (n.) The courts by which anything is carried off.
(5): (n.) The act of avoiding or shunning; keeping clear of.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
in the Church of England, takes place where a benefice becomes void of an incumbent. This happens either by the death of the incumbent, or by his being appointed to a preferment of such a kind as necessarily makes the living vacant; as when a clergyman is made a bishop all the preferments he holds fall to the crown, who is the patron for that time, unless there be some special dispensation; or, finally, by cession, deprivation, or resignation. In the first-named instance, which is avoidance by fact, the patron must take notice of the avoidance at his peril; in the last case, which is avoidance by law, the ordinary must give notice to the patron to prevent a lapse.
