cations of the clergy always had been, and ought to be assembled only by the king's writ, and prohibited the clergy from claiming or putting in ure any canons, constitutions, or ordinances, provincial or synodal, as were prejudicial to the king's prerogative, or repugnant to the laws and statutes of the realm, and from making, promulging, or executing, any such canons, &c. in convocation, without the king's assent and licence, upon pain of being imprisoned and fined at the king's will. And this statute contained a temporary clause, empowering the king to nominate 32 persons, 16 whereof were to be of the clergy, and 16 of the temporalty, of the then upper and nether house of parliament, to revise the canons, &c. and to select such as were worthy to be continued, and to abrogate the rest. And by the 28 Hen. 8. c. 13. s. 10. Ir. 28 Hen. 8. c.13. such canons as were not repugnant to the laws or the king's prerogative, were allowed to be used in Ireland, till otherwise ordered by the king or the parliament. s. 10. Ir. CHAP. VIII. Of the King's Revenue. temporalties of bishops. E. & I. THE 5th chapter of Magna Charta recognised the Custody of the right of the king to the custody of vacant archbishopricks, bishopricks, abbeys, priories, churches, and dignities, 9 Hen. 3. c. 5 but provided that such custody should not be sold, and that the temporalties of archbishopricks, &c. should be maintained and preserved free from waste, and restored in like manner as the inheritances of wards by their guardians. The same prohibition against waste was contained in the 3 Edw. 1. c. 21. E. & I. And the 14 Edw. 3. st. 4. 3 Fdw. 1. c. 21. F. & I. c. 4. E. & I. injoined the escheators and other keepers in 14 Edw. 3. st. 4. such time of vacation, from selling the underwood, hunting c. 4. E. & 1. in the parks or warrens, fishing in the ponds or free fisheries, or committing any waste in the manors, warrens, parks, ponds, or woods, and from extorting or taking fines c. 2. E. & I. c. 4. & 5. E &I. fines from the tenants of such voidances, or doing any 1 Edw. 3. st. 1. other harm or oppression. And the 1 Edw. 3. st. 1. c. 2 E. & I. recites, that the temporalties of divers bishops had been seized and detained for a long time by king Edward II. to the great damage of the bishops, and to the waste and destruction of their castles, manors, parks, and woods, and provides that it shall not be practised in 14 Edw. 3. st. 4. future. The 14 Edw. 3. st. 4. c. 4. & 5. empowers the chancellor and treasurer to let such vacant archbishopricks, &c. to the dean and chapter, &c. upon security, for such term as to them shall seem best, saving to the king all advowsons, escheats, &c. Next as to corodies, which were pensions or allowances for the benefit of the 1 Edw. 3. st. 2. king's chaplains. The 1 Edw. 3. st. 2. c. 10. E. & I. provides that the king shall not desire of bishops, &c. any pensions, prebends, churches, or corodies, for his clerks or servants, but where he ought. But these branches of the ancient revenue of the crown are now unproductive, as well as that arising from the tithes of extra-parochial places, for the reasons mentioned by Sir William Blackstone. 10. E. & I. tenths. Eng. lr. $2. II. The revenue of first fruits and tenths, which were First fruits and some of the papal usurpations and exactions from the clergy of England and Ireland, were of course transferred from the pope to the crown, upon the king's being de26 Hen. 8. c. 3. clared supreme head of the church. The 26 Hen. 8. 28 Hen. 8. c. 8. c. 3. Eng. and 28 Hen, 8. c. 8 Ir. for this purpose provided, that the king should have the first fruits, revenues, and profits for one year of every archbishoprick, bishoprick, &c. or other dignity, benefice, office, or spiritual promotion, whereunto any person should be nominated, clected, presented, collated or appointed, and that every such person before any actual or real possession or meddling with the profits of any such archbishopricks, &c. should pay or compound or agree to pay to the king's use at reasonable days upon good sureties the said first fruits and profits for one year. And these acts provide for the appointment of commissioners, to examine and search for the true value of the said first fruits, and to compound for the same upon getting sufficient sureties by writings obligatory, obligatory, which when certified into chancery were to have the force and effect of statutes staple. By the s. s. 4. Ir. s. 9 & 10. Eng. Ir. 26 Hen. 8. c. 3. s. 5. Eng. the penalty for entering upon 26 Hen. 8. c. 3. any spiritual living before paying or compounding for the $.5. Eng. first fruits, was the forfeiture of double the value of such first fruits, upon conviction by presentment, verdict, con-` fession, or witness, before the chancellor or such other as should have authority by commission to compound as aforesaid which clause was also in force in Ireland by virtue of the 28 Hen. 8. c. 8, s. 4, The 26 Hen. 8. c. 3. 28 Hen. 8. c. $. s. 9. & 10. further provided that the king, as supreme head 26 Hen. 8. c. 3. of the church, should also have for the maintenance of that dignity, one yearly rent or pension amounting to the value of the tenth part of the provisions, rents, tithes, and other profits spiritual and temporal belonging to any archbishoprick, &c. or other benefice or promotion spiritual, within the realm, to be annually payable at christmas, deducting however all head-rents and other annual and perpetual rents and charges payable thereout; and the 28 Hen. 8. c. 14. Ir, contained a similar provision as to 28 Hen.3.c.14. the payment of the twentieth part of the profits of all spiritual promotions in Ireland, which was however afterwards released by queen Anne. But by the 27 Hen. 8. 27 Hen. 8. c. 8. c. 8. s. 1. Eng, no tenths were to be paid for the first year, the first fruits being payable in respect to said year. The 1 Eliz. c. 4. Eng. revived and confirmed this right of the Eliz.c.4 Eng. crown, (which had been done away by the 2 & 3 Ph. & M. c. 4.) but by s. 29. exempted from the payment of the first fruits all vicarages not exceeding the yearly value of £10. and parsonages not exceeding the yearly value of ten marks, according to the valuation in the records and books of the exchequer. This act (s. 40.) further exempted the revenues of hospitals and schools from the payment of tenths or first fruits. And by the 2 Eliz. c. 3. s. 4. Ir. 2 Eliz. c. 3. s. 4. vicarages not exceeding £6. 13s. 4d. and parsonages not exceeding 45. of yearly value, according to the book of rates in the exchequer, were discharged from first fruits: and by s. 8. hospitals and schools were also exempted. The penalty for default of payment of tenths when demanded according to the provisions of the 26 Hen. s. 1. Eng. Ir. s. 29. s. 40. s. 8. 2 & 3 Edw. 6. Hen. 8. c. 3. Eng. was by the 2 & 3 Edw. 6. c. 20. Eng. c. 20. Eng. the forfeiture of the benefice out of which the same was 2 & 3 Ann.c.11. due. The 2 & 3 Ann. c. 11. Eng. recites the 26 Hen. 8. Eng. c. 3. and that divers other statutes had been made touching the first fruits and annual tenths of the clergy, but that inasmuch as a sufficient settled provision for the clergy in many parts of the realm had not been made, by reason whereof divers mean and stipendiary preachers were in many places entertained to serve the cures and to officiate there, who depending for their necessary maintenance upon the good will and liking of their hearers, were under temptation of too much complying and conforming their doctrines and teaching to the humours, rather than the good of their hearers, which had been a great occasion of faction and schism and contempt of the ministry; and that it was her majesty's royal pleasure and pious desire, that the whole revenue arising from first fruits and tenths should be settled for a perpetual augmentation of the maintenance of the clergy, in places where they were not sufficiently provided for; and this act accordingly authorizes the queen to erect a corporation, and to settle on them and their successors the first fruits and tenths, for augmentation of the maintenance of such parsons, vicars, curates, and ministers officiating in any church or chapel in England, &c. where the liturgy, &c. of the church of England shall be used, in such manner as she should by her letters patent appoint; and all statutes relating to first fruits and tenths are by s. 2. declared to be in force for such purposes as should be contained in said letters patent: and by s. 4. & 5. all persons, except persons within age or of nonsane memory, or women covert without their husbands, are empowered to grant to said corporation, by deed inrolled according to the 27 Hen. 8. c. 16. Eng. or by their last will duly executed, any lands, &c. for the purposes aforesaid; and said corporation may purchase, or receive and take, such lands, &c. without any licence or writ of ad quod damnum, and notwithstanding the statute of mortmain or any other statute or law to the contrary. The s. 2. $ 4. & 5. 5 Ann. c. 24. 5 Ann. c. 24, Eng. recites that certain persons and officers Eng. were accordingly incorporated by the name of "The bounty the bounty of queen Anne. Eng. bounty of queen Anne, for the augmentation of the Corporation of maintenance of the poor clergy;" and the revenue of the first fruits and tenths vested in said governors by her letters patent, dated 3d November, in the 3d year of her reign; and by this act all ecclesiastical benefices with cure of souls, not exceeding the yearly value of £50. by the improved valuations of the same, (the tenths whereof were by the said charter vested in said corporation,) are for ever discharged from the first fruits and tenths. This act was further enforced by the 6 Ann. c. 27. 6 Ann. c. 27. Eng, and 1 Geo. 1. st. 2. c. 10. Eng. which latter act requires 1 Geo, I. st. 2. the bishops of every diocese and the guardians of the spiri- c. 10. Eng. tualties sede vacante to inform themselves from time to time by the oaths of 2 witnesses and by all other ways and means, of the clear improved yearly value of every benefice with cure of souls, and of the clear improved yearly value of the maintenance of every parson, vicar, curate, and minister officiating in any such churches or chapels within their respective dioceses, or within any peculiars or places of exempt jurisdiction, and how such yearly values arise, and to certify the same under their hands and seals to the governors of the bounty of queen Anne, &c. This act also provides (s. 4.) for the benefit of ministers who come in by donation, and of such as are only to be paid as private preachers, that all churches, curacies, or chapels which shall at any time be augmented by the governors of the bounty of queen Anne, shall be perpetual cures and benefices, and the ministers duly nominated thereunto and their successors become bodies corporate and capable to take all such lands, &c. as shall be granted unto them by the said governors or others; and the impropriators or patrons of any such augmented churches or donations, and the rectors and vicars of the mother churches, are thereby declared to be excluded from the benefit of any such augmentation. The 3 Geo. 1. c. 10. Eng. ex-5 Geo. 1. c. 10. empts archbishops and bishops from collecting the tenths (which they were required to do by the 26 Hen. 8. c. 3.) and provides that there shall be one collector or receiver to be appointed by the letters patent of the king, who shall receive and pay the same into the exchequer, and if any archbishop, &c. chargeable with Eng. |