'Lapse of time' or lapse. When a patron neglected to make a presentation to a benefice within six months of a vacancy occurring, the right of presentation 'lapsed' to the bishop. If the bishop neglected to collate within six months, the living lapsed to the archbishop, from whom after another six months it lapsed to the crown. The calculation of the six-month period depended on the circumstances of the vacancy. Where it resulted from an episcopal act, it ran from the point at which the bishop informed the patron. In cases of death in post, resignation, and refusal of a patron's candidate by the bishop, it was calculated from the vacancy itself.