I. THE first of the king's ordinary revenues, which I shall take notice of, is of an ecclesiastical kind; (as are also the three succeeding ones;) viz. the custody of the temporalities of bishops by which are meant all the lay revenues, lands, and tenements (in which is included his barony) which belong to an archbishop's or bishop's see. And these, upon the vacancy of the bishoprick, are immediately the right of the king, as a consequence of his prerogative in church matters; whereby he is considered as the founder of all archbishopricks and bishopricks, to whom during the vacancy they revert. And for the same reason, before the dissolution of abbeys, the king had the custody of the temporalities of all such abbeys and priories as were of royal foundation (but not of those founded by subjects) on the death of the abbot or prior 2. Another reason may also be given, why the policy of the law hath vested this custody in the king; because, as the successor is not known, the lands and possessions of the see would be liable to spoil and devastation, if no one had a property therein. Therefore the law has given the king, not the temporalities themselves, but the custody of the temporalities, till such time as a successor is appointed, with power of taking to himself all the intermediate profits, without any account of the successor; and with the right of presenting (which the crown very frequently exercises) to such benefices and other preferments as fall within the time of vacation b. This revenue is of so high a nature, that it could not be granted out to a subject, before, or even after, it accrued: but now by the statute 14 Edw. III. st. 4. c. 4 and 5. the king may, after the vacancy, lease the temporalities to the dean and chapter; saving to himself all advowsons, escheats, and the like. Our antient kings, and particularly William Rufus, were not only remarkable for keeping the bishopricks a long time vacant, for the sake of enjoying the temporalities, but also committed horrible waste on the woods and other parts of the estate; and, to crown all, would never, when the see was filled up, restore to the bishop his temporalities again, unless he purchased them at an exorbitant price. To remedy which, king Henry the [283] first granted a charter at the beginning of his reign, pro с a 2 Inst. 15. b Stat. 17 Edw. II. st. 2. c. 14. F. N. B. 32. c Mat. Paris. mising neither to sell, nor let to farm, nor take any thing from the domains of the church, till the successor was installed. And it was made one of the articles of the great charter, that no waste should be committed in the temporalities of bishopricks, neither should the custody of them be sold. The same is ordained by the statute of Westminster the first e; and the statute 14 Edw. III. st. 4. c.4. (which permits, as we have seen, a lease to the dean and chapter) is still more explicit in prohibiting the other exactions. It was also a frequent abuse, that the king would, for trifling or no causes, seise the temporalities of bishops, even during their lives, into his own hands: but this is guarded against by statute 1 Edw. III. st. 2. c. 2. : THIS revenue of the king, which was formerly very considerable, is now by a customary indulgence almost reduced to nothing for at present, as soon as the new bishop is consecrated and confirmed, he usually receives the restitution of his temporalities quite entire, and untouched, from the king ; and at the same time does homage to his sovereign: and then, and not sooner, he has a fee-simple in his bishoprick, and may maintain an action for the profits. II. THE king is entitled to a corody, as the law calls it, out of every bishoprick, that is, to send one of his chaplains to be maintained by the bishop, or to have a pension allowed him till the bishop promotes him to a benefice. This is also in the nature of an acknowledgment to the king, as founder of the see, since he had formerly the same corody or pension from every abbey or priory of royal foundation. It is, I apprehend, now fallen into total disuse: though sir Matthew Hale says, that it is due of common right, and that no prescription will discharge it. III. THE king also (as was formerly observed') is entitled to all the tithes arising in extraparochial places; though [284] perhaps it may be doubted how far this article, as well as the last, can be properly reckoned a part of the king's own royal revenue; since a corody supports only his chaplains, and d 9 Hen. III. c. 5. e 3 Edw. I. c. 21. f Co. Litt. 67. 341. F. N. B. 230. i Notes on F. N. B. above cited. k 2 Inst. 647. these extraparochial tithes are held under an implied trust, that the king will distribute them for the good of the clergy in general. IV. THE next branch consists in the first-fruits, and tenths, of all spiritual preferments in the kingdom; both of which I shall consider together. THESE were originally a part of the papal usurpations over the clergy of this kingdom; first introduced by Pandulph the pope's legate, during the reigns of king John and Henry the third, in the see of Norwich; and afterwards attempted to be made universal by the popes Clement V. and John XXII. about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The firstfruits, primitiae or annates, were the first year's whole profits of the spiritual preferment, according to a rate or valor made under the direction of pope Innocent IV. by Walter bishop of Norwich in 38 Hen. III., and afterwards advanced in value by commission from pope Nicholas III., A.D. 1292, 20 Edw. I.': which valuation of pope Nicholas is still preserved in the exchequer m (1). The tenths, or decimae, were (1) This account is not quite correct. Pope Innocent the fourth gave the first fruits and tenths a. D. 1253. to king Henry the third for three years, which occasioned a taxation in the following year, sometimes called the Norwich Taxation, and sometimes Pope Innocent's valor. In 1288, Pope Nicholas IV. (not the Third, as stated in the text) granted the tenths to king Edw.I. for six years towards defraying the expense of an expedition to the Holy Land; and that they might be collected to their full value, a taxation by the king's precept was begun in that year (1288), and finished as to the province of Canterbury 1291, and as to that of York in the following year; the whole being under the direction of John bishop of Winchester, and Oliver, bishop of Lincoln. A third taxation, entitled Nova Taxatio, as to some part of the province of York, was made A. D. 1318 (11 Edw. 2.) by virtue of a royal mandate directed to the bishop of Carlisle; chiefly on account of the invasion of the Scots, by which the clergy of those border counties were rendered unable to pay the former tax. The taxation of Pope Nicholas is a most important record, because all the taxes, as well to our kings as to the popes, were regulated by it, until the survey made in the 26 Hen. 8., and because the statutes of colleges which were founded before the reformation are also interpreted by this criterion. Report from Commissioners on Public Records, 1812. App. L. 1. p.146. It is somewhat remarkable, that in the edition the taxation of Pope Nicholas IV. printed the tenth part of the annual profit of each living by the same valuation, which was also claimed by the holy see, under no better pretence than a strange misapplication of that precept of the Levitical law, which directs", that the Levites "should offer the tenth part of their tithes as a heave-offering "to the Lord, and give it to Aaron the high priest." But this claim of the pope met with a vigorous resistance from the English parliament; and a variety of acts were passed to prevent and restrain it, particularly the statute 6 Hen. IV. c. 1. which calls it a horrible mischief, and damnable custom. But the popish clergy, blindly devoted to the will of a foreign master, still kept it on foot; sometimes more secretly, sometimes more openly and avowedly so that in the reign of Henry VIII., it was computed, that in the compass of fifty [285] years 800,000 ducats had been sent to Rome for first-fruits only. And, as the clergy expressed this willingness to contribute so much of their income to the head of the church, it was thought proper (when in the same reign the papal power was abolished, and the king was declared the head of the church of England) to annex this revenue to the crown; which was done by statute 26 Hen. VIII. c. 3. (confirmed by statute 1 Eliz. c.4.) and a new valor beneficiorum was then made, by which the clergy are at present rated. By these last-mentioned statutes all vicarages under ten pounds a year, and all rectories under ten marks, are discharged from the payment of first-fruits: and if, in such livings as continue chargeable with this payment, the incumbent lives but half a year, he shall pay only one quarter of his first-fruits; if but one whole year, then half of them; if a year and a half, three quarters; and if two years, then the whole; and not otherwise. Likewise by the statute 27 Hen. VIII. c.8. no tenths are to be paid for the first year, for then the first-fruits are due: and by other statutes of queen Anne, in the fifth and sixth years of her reign, if a benefice be under fifty pounds per annum clear yearly value, it shall be discharged of the payment of first-fruits and tenths. n Numb. xviii. 26. printed by H. M. command, and in pursuance of an address from the house of commons founded on the report last cited, Pope Innocent the twenty second is printed in the introductory account, instead of Pope Innocent the fourth. THUS the richer clergy, being, by the criminal bigotry of their popish predecessors, subjected at first to a foreign exaction, were afterwards, when that yoke was shaken off, liable to a like misapplication of their revenues, through the rapacious disposition of the then reigning monarch: till at length the piety of queen Anne restored to the church what had been thus indirectly taken from it. This she did, not by remitting the tenths and first-fruits entirely; but, in a spirit of the truest equity, by applying these superfluities of the larger benefices to make up the deficiences of the smaller. And to this end she granted her royal charter, which was confirmed by the statute 2 & 3 Ann, c. 11. whereby all the revenue of first-fruits and tenths is vested in trustees for ever, to form a perpetual fund for the augmentation of poor livings. This is usually called queen Anne's bounty; which has been still farther regulated by subsequent statutes °. V. THE next branch of the king's ordinary revenue [286] (which, as well as the subsequent branches, is of a lay or temporal nature) consists in the rents and profits of the demesne lands of the crown. These demesne. lands, terrae dominicales regis, being either the share reserved to the crown at the original distribution of landed property, or such as came to it afterwards by forfeitures or other means, were antiently very large and extensive; comprising divers manors, honours, and lordships; the tenants of which had very peculiar privileges, as will be shewn in the second book of these Commentaries, when we speak of the tenure in antient demesne. At present they are contracted within a very narrow compass, having been almost entirely granted away to private subjects. This has occasioned the parliament frequently to interpose; and, particularly, after king William III. had greatly impoverished the crown, an act passed", whereby all future grants or leases from the crown for any longer term than thirty-one years or three lives are declared to be void; except with regard to houses, which may be granted for fifty years. And no reversionary lease can be made, so as to exceed, together with the estate in being, the same term of three lives or thirty-one years: that is, where there is a subsisting lease, of which there • 5 Ann. c. 24. 6 Ann. c. 27. 1 Geo. I. st. 2. e. 10. 3 Geo. I. e. 10. P 1 Ann. st. 1. c.7. |