represents the house of lords; and the lower house, compofed of representatives of the feveral dioceles at large, and of each particular chapter therein, resembles the house of commons with its knights of the fhire and burgeffes f. This conftitution is faid to be owing to the policy of Edward I; who thereby, at one and the fame. time, let in the inferior clergy to the privileges of forming ecclefiaftical canons, (which before they had not) and alfo introduced a method of taxing ecclefiaftical benefices, by consent of convocation 8. From this prerogative alfo, of being the head of the church, arifes the king's right of nomination to vacant bishopricks, and certain other ecclefiaftical preferments; which will more properly be confidered when we come to treat of the clergy. I fhall only here observe, that this is now done in confequence of the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20. As head of the church, the king is likewife the dernier refort in all ecclefiaftical caufes; an appeal lying ultimately to him in chancery from the fentence of every ecclefiaftical judge: Which right was reftored to the crown by statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19. as will more fully be fhewn hereafter. f In the diet of Sweden, where the ecclefiafticks form one of the branches of the legislature, the chamber of the clergy resembles the convocation of England. It is compofed of the bishops and fuper. intendents, and also of deputies, one of which is chofen by every ten parishes or rural deanry. Mod. Un. Hift. xxxiii. 18. g Gilb. Hift. of Exch. c. 4. CHAPTER CHAPTER THE EIGHTH. OF THE KING'S REVENUE. HAVING, in the preceding chapter, confidered at large those branches of the king's prerogative, which contribute to his royal dignity, and conftitute the executive power of the government, we proceed. now to examine the king's fifcal prerogatives, or fuch as regard his revenue; which the British conftitution hath vefted in the royal perfon, in order to fupport his dignity, and maintain his power: Being a portion which each fubject contributes of his property, in order to secure the remainder. This revenue is either ordinary, or extraordinary. The king's ordinary revenue is fuch as has either fubfifted time out of mind in the crown; or elfe has been granted by parliament, by way of purchase or exchange for fuch of the king's inherent hereditary revenues as were found inconvenient to the subject. When When I fay that it has fubfifted time out of mind in the crown, I do not mean that the king is at present in the actual poffeffion of the whole of this revenue. Much (nay, the greateft part) of it is at this day in the handsof fubjects; to whom it has been granted out from time to time by the kings of England: Which has rendered the crown in some meafure dependent on the people for its ordinary support and fubfiftence. So that I must be obliged to recount, as part of the royal revenue, what lords of manors and other fubjects frequently look upon to be their own abfolute inherent rights; because they are and have been vested in them and their ancestors for ages, though in reality originally derived from the grants of our ancient princes. I. The first of the king's ordinary revenues, which I fhall take notice of, is of an ecclefiaftical kind; (as are also the three fucceeding ones), viz. the cuftody 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 fee. And thefe, upon the vacancy of the bifhoprick, are immediately the right of the king, as a confequence of his prerogative in church matters; whereby he is confidered as the founder of all archbishopricks and bifhopricks, to whom, during the vacancy, they revert. And, for the fame reason, before the diffolution of abbeys, the king had the cuftody of the temporalities of all fuch abbeys and priories as were of royal foundation, (but not of thofe founded by fubjects), on the death of the abbot or priora. Another reafon may alfo be given, why the policy of the law hath vefted this cuftody in the king; becaufe, as the fucceffor is not known, the lands and poffeffions of the fee would be liable to spoil and devaftation, if no one had a property therein.. Therefore the law has given the king, not the temporali- '. ties themselves, but the cuftody of the temporalities, till fuch time as a fucceffor is appointed; with power of taking to himself all the intermediate profits, without any account of the fucceffor; and with the right of presenting (which a2 Inft. 15. (which the crown very frequently exercises) to fuch benefices and other preferments as fall within the time of vacation b. This revenue is of fo high a nature, that it could not be granted out to a subject, before or even after it accrued: But now, by the ftatute 15 Edw. III. ft. 4. c. 4. & 5. the king may, after the vacancy, leafe the temporalities to the dean and chapter; faving to himself all advowfons, efcheats, and the like. Our ancient kings, and particularly William Rufus, were not only remarkable for keeping the bifhopricks a long time vacant, for the fake of enjoying the temporalities, but also committed horrible wafte on the woods and other parts of the eftate; and, to crown all, would never, when the fee was filled up, reftore to the bishop his temporalities again, unless he purchafed them at an exorbitant price. To remedy which, King Henry I granted a charter, at the beginning of his reign, promifing neither to fell, nor let to farm, nor take any thing from, the domains of the church, till the fucceffor was inftalled. And it was made one of the articles of the great charter d, that no wafte fhould be committed in the temporalities of bifhopricks, neither fhould the cuftody of them be fold. The fame is ordained by the statute of Westminster the firft; and the ftatute 14 Edw. III. ft. 4. c. 4. (which permits, as we have feen, a leafe to the dean and chapter), is ftill more explicit in prohibiting the other exactions. It was also a frequent abuse, that the king would, for trifling or no caufes, feize the temporalities of bifhops, even during their lives, into his own hands: But this is guarded against by statute 1. Edw. III. ft. 2. c. 2. This revenue of the king, which was formerly very confiderable, is now, by a customary indulgence, almoft reduced to nothing; for, at present, as foon as the new bifhop is confecrated and confirmed, he ufually receives the reftitution of his temporalities quite entire, and untouched, from the king; and, at the fame time, does b Stat. 17 Edw. II. c. 14. F. N. B. 32. c Matt. Paris. d 9 Henry III. c. 5. e 3 Edw. I. c. 21, homage homage to his fovereign: And then, and not sooner, he has a fee fimple in his bishoprick, and may maintain an action for the profits: f. II. The king is entitled to a corody, as the law calls it, out of every bifhoprick; that is, to fend one of his chaplains to be maintained by the bishop, or to have a penfion allowed him, till the bifhop promotes him to a benefice 8. This is alfo in the nature of an acknowledgement to the king, as founder of the fee, fince he had formerly the fame corody or pension from every abbey or priory of royal foundation. It is, I apprehend, now fallen into total difufe; though Sir Matthew Hale fays, that it is due of common right, and that no prefcription will discharge it. k III. The king alfo (as was formerly obferved) is entitled to all the tithes arifing in extraparochial places *: Though perhaps it may be doubted how far this article, as well as the laft, can be properly reckoned a part of the king's own royal revenue; fince a corody fupports only his chaplains, and these extraparochial tithes are held under an implied trust, that the king will diftribute them for the good of the clergy in general. IV. The next branch confifts in the first fruits, and tenths, of all fpiritual preferments in the kingdom; both of which I fhall confider together. These were originally a part of the papal ufurpations over the clergy of this kingdom; firft introduced by Pandulph the pope's legate, during the reigns of King John and Henry III, in the fee of Norwich; and afterwards attempted to be made univerfal by the popes Clement V and John XXII, about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The firft fruits, primitiae, or onnates, 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, f Co. Litt. 67. 341. g F. N. B. 230. h Notes on F. N. B. above cited. i Page 113; |