be made universal, by the Popes Clement V. and John XXII. about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The First Fruits, Primitiæ, or Annates, were the first year's whole profits of the spiritual preferments, according to a rate or valor made under the direction of Pope Innocent IV. by Walter, Bishop of Norwich, in 38th Henry III. and afterwards advanced in value by commission from Pope Nicholas III. A. D. 1292, 20 Edward I. [Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. 1, page 284,] which valuation of Pope Nicholas is still preserved in the Exchequer." [3 Inst. 154.] "In the 34th Edward I. at a Parliament held at Carlisle, great complaint was made of intolerable oppressions of Churches and Monasteries, by William Testa (called Mala Testa) and the legate of the Pope, and principally concerning First Fruits; at which Parliament the King, by the assent of his Barons, denied the payment of First Fruits of Spiritual promotions within England, which were founded by his progenitors and the nobles and others of the realm, for the service of God, alms, and hospitality. And to this effect he writ to the Pope, and thereupon the Pope relinquished his demand of First Fruits of Abbeys: in which parliament the First Fruits for two years were granted to the King." [12 Co. 45.] Com "In 50th Edward III. the Commons complain, Further amongst other grievances, from the Court of Rome, plaints. that the Pope's collector that year (a thing never before done) had taken the First Fruits of every benefice whereof he had made provision or collation; whereas he was used to take First Fruits only of benefices vacant in the Court of Rome." [Degge, page 2, c. 15.] First Fruits gradually imposed by the See of Rome. The reason alleged action. "In truth, this tribute or revenue of First Fruits was gradually by little and little imposed by the Bishop of Rome, on such vacant benefices as himself conferred and bestowed; and this was often complained of as a very great grievance; so that in the Council at Vienna, Clement V. who was made Pope in the year 1305, forbad the receiving thereof, and ordered the same to be laid aside, and that the twentieth part of the sacerdotal revenues should, instead thereof, be annually paid to the Bishop of Rome; but this not taking effect, the Pope so retained the said Annates to his exchequer, as that it long remained one of the most considerable parts of his revenue." [God. Rep. 337-] "The reason alleged by the canonists for the exacfor the ex- tion of these First Fruits by the Pope, was pro conservando decenti statu suo, ut qui omnium curam habet de communi alatur." [God. Rep. Can. 337. See the case of First Fruits and Tenths, 12 Rep. 45.] Ground of the Pope's claim to Tenths. made of Livings. "The Tenths the Pope (after the example of the High Priest among the Jews, who had of the Levites a tenth part of the tithes) claimed as due to himself by divine right. And this portion or tribute was by ordinance yielded to the Pope in the 20th Edward I. Valuation and a valuation then made of the ecclesiastical livings within this realm, to the end the Pope might know and be answered of that yearly revenue; so as that the ecclesiastical livings chargeable with the Tenth (which was called spiritual) to the Pope, were not chargeable with the temporal Tenths or Fifteenths granted to the King in parliament, lest they should be doubly charged; but their possessions, acquired after that taxation, were liable to the temporal Tenths or Fifteenths, because they were not charged to the other. So as the Tenths of ecclesiastical livings were not yielded to the Pope The Tenths often grant terms by the Pope. The Annexation of the Revenue of First Fruits and Fruits and The First Tenths Pope till tion of the Papal pow paid to the the aboli er in Eng land. The claim of the Pope to this revenue, met from time to time with a vigorous resistance from the English Parliament, and a variety of acts were passed to prevent and restrain it, particularly the statute 6th Henry IV. But the Popish Clergy, devoted to the will of a foreign master, still kept it on foot; sometimes more secretly, at other times more openly and avowedly, so that in the reign of Henry VIII. it was computed that in the compass of 50 years, 800,000 ducats had been sent to Rome for First Fruits only. Upon the abolition of the Papal power in the same reign it was thought proper, as the Clergy had expressed this willingness to contribute so much of their income to the head of the Church, (which the King was then declared to be,) to annex this revenue to the Crown, of this Rewhich was accordingly effected by an Act of Parliament the Crown. in the 26th of Henry VIII. chap. 3, intituled," An Act Hen. VIII. By Act 26 Annexation venue to A new valuation made. First Fruits and Tenths + d by Queen Mary. concerning the payment of First Fruits of all Dignities, Benefices, and Promotions Spiritual, and also concerning one Annual Pension of the Tenth part of all the possessions of the Church, Spiritual and Temporal, granted to the King's Highness and his Heirs." Commissioners were appointed by this Act in each diocese to make a new valor beneficiorum, by which the Clergy have ever since been, and at the present time are rated. This is commonly called the King's book, and a transcript of it is given in Ecton's Thesaurus and in Bacon's Liber Regis. Appropriation by Queen Anne of the Revenue of First Fruits and Tenths to the Augmentation of the Maintenance of the Poor Clergy. The First Fruits and Tenths were relinquished by relinquish- the Crown, by an Act passed in the 1st and 2nd of Philip and Mary, chap. 4; but were again annexed by Queen thereto, by an Act passed in the 1st of Elizabeth, Elizabeth. chap. 4, and from the time of passing the last men Resumed Appropri- tioned Act, they continued to be part of the revenues ated by Queen Anne of the Crown until the reign of Queen Anne, when her to aug ment Small Majesty piously restored them to the Church, not in Livings. Bishop Burnet's deed by remitting them entirely, but, in a spirit of the truest equity, by applying the First Fruits and Tenths arising from the larger benefices to make up in some degree the deficiencies of the smaller. Bishop Burnet, as appears by the History of his recommen- Life, published by his son, had recommended to King William and Queen Mary the appropriation of the First Fruits and Tenths to the augmentations of small dation of the mea sure in the former reign. livings. In this History are set forth two memorials on the subject which the Bishop had presented to the King, in the years 1696 and 1697; and it is observed, that the Bishop renewed his solicitations upon this head so powerfully in the year 1701, that nothing but the death of King William could have prevented it's then taking effect. Burnet's the grant First Fruits Anne. The same Bishop, in his History of his own Time, Bishop treating of the appropriation by Queen Anne of the account of revenue of First Fruits and Tenths to the augmenta- of the tion of small livings, states (amongst other things) and Tenths that, "During the session, and on her own birth-day, by Queen which was the 6th of February, (1703-4,) the Queen sent a message to the House of Commons, signifying her purpose to apply that branch of the revenue that was raised out of the First Fruits and Tenths paid by the Clergy to the increase of all the small benefices in the nation. This branch was an imposition begun by the Popes, in the time of the holy wars, and it was raised as a fund to support those expeditions; but when taxes are once raised by such an arbitrary power as the Popes then assumed, and after there has been a submission, and the payments have been settled into a custom, they are always continued, even after the pretence upon which they were at first raised subsists no more; so this became a standing branch of the Papal revenue, till Henry the Eighth seemed resolved to take it away. It was at first abolished for a year, probably to draw in the Clergy to consent the more willingly to a change that delivered them from such heavy impositions: but in the succeeding session of Parliament this revenue was again settled as part of the * Bishop Kennett states, 7th February. |