IN virtue of this authority the king convenes, prorogues, restrains, regulates, and diffolves all ecclefiaftical fynods or convocations. This was an inherent prerogative of the crown, long before the time of Henry VIII. as appears by the statute 8 Hen. VI. c. 1. and the many authors, both lawyers and hiftorians, vouched by fir Edward Coked. So that the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19. which restrains the convocation from making or putting in execution any canons repugnant to the king's prerogative, or the laws, customs, and statutes of the realm, was merely declaratory of the old common law: that part of it only being new, which makes the king's royal afsent actually necessary to the validity of every canon. The convocation or ecclefiaftical synod, in England, differs confiderably in it's conftitution from the fynods of other christian kingdoms: those confifting wholly of bishops; whereas with us the convocation is the miniature of a parliament, wherein the archbishop prefides with regal ftate; the upper house of bishops reprefents the house of lords; and the lower house, composed of representatives of. [ 280 ] the several dioceses at large, and of each particular chapter therein, resembles the house of commons with it's knights of the fhire and burgeffes. 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 confent of convocations.8 (24) a 4 Inst. 322, 323. • 12 Rep. 72. f In the diet of Sweden, where the ecclefiaftics form one of the branches of the legislature, the chamber of the clergy resembles the convocation of England. It is composed of the bishops and super- 8 Gilb. Hift. of Exch. c. 4. parliament, which could accede to fuch immenfe revolutions in the courfe of four or five years. (24) From the learned Commentator's text, the student would perhaps be apt to fuppofe that there is only one convocation at a FROM this prerogative alfo, of being the head of the church, arises 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 ftatute 25 Hen. VIII. C. 20. time. But the king, before the meeting of every new parliament, directs his writ to each archbishop, to fummon a convocation in his peculiar province. Godolphin fays, that the convocation of the province of York conftantly corresponds, debates, and concludes the fame matters with the provincial fynod of Canterbury, God. 99. But they are certainly distinct and independent of each other; and when they ufed to tax the clergy, the different convocations sometimes granted different fubfidies. In the 22 Hen. VIII. the convocation of Canterbury had granted the king one hundred thousand pounds; in confideration of which an act of parliament was paffed, granting a free pardon to the clergy for all spiritual offences, but with a proviso that it should not extend to the province of York, unless it's convocation would grant a subsidy in proportion, or unless it's clergy would bind themselves individually to contribute as bountifully. This statute is recited at large in Gib. Cod. 77. All deans and archdeacons are members of the convocation of their province; each chapter fends one proctor or representative, and the parochial clergy in each diocefe in Canterbury two proctors; but, on account of the small number of diocefes in the province of York, each archdeaconry elects two proctors. In York the convocation confifts only of one houfe; but in Canterbury there are two houses, of which the twenty-two bishops form the upper house; and before the reformation, abbots, priors, and other mitred prelates, fat with the bishops. The lower house of convocation in the province of Canterbury confists of twenty-two deans, fifty-three archdeacons, twenty-four proctors for the chapters, and forty-four proctors for the parochial clergy. By 8 Hen. VI. c. 1. the clergy in their attendance upon the convocation have the fame privilege in freedom from arreft as the members of the house of commons in their attendance upon parliament. Burn. Con. 1 Bac. Abr. 610. I As As the head of the church, the king is likewise the dernier refort in all ecclefiaftical causes; an appeal lying ultimately to him in chancery from the fentence of every ecclesiastical judge which right was restored to the crown by statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19. as will more fully be shewn hereafter.(25) (25) By that ftatute it is declared, that for the future no appeals from the ecclefiaftical courts of this realm fhould be made to the pope, but that an appeal from the archbishop's courts should lie to the king in chancery; upon which the king, as in appeals from the admiral's court, fhould by a commiffion appoint certain judges or delegates finally to determine fuch appeals. See 3 vol. p. 66. CHAPTER THE EIGHTH. OF THE KING'S REVENUE. AVING, in the preceding chapter, confidered at large thofe 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 constitution hath vefted in the royal perfon, in order to fupport his dignity and maintain his power: being a portion which each subject contributes of his property, in order to fecure the remainder. The THIS revenue is either ordinary or extraordinary. king's ordinary revenue is fuch, as has either fubsisted 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 I say that it has fubfifted time out of mind in the crown, I do not mean that the king is at prefent in the actual poffeffion of the whole of this revenue. Much (nay the greatest part) of it is at this day in the hands of subjects, to whom it has been granted out from time to time by the kings of England, which has rendered the crown in fome measure dependent on the people for it's 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 antient princes. I. THE first of the king's ordinary revenues, which I shall take notice of, is of an ecclefiaftical kind; (as are also the three fucceeding ones ;) viz. the custody of the temporalties of bifhops: 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 these upon the vacancy of the bishoprick 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 bishopricks, to whom during the vacancy they revert. And for the fame reason, before the diffolution of abbeys, the king had the cuftody of the temporalties of all fuch abbeys and priories as were of royal foundation (but not of those founded by fubjects) on the death of the abbot or prior. Another reason may also be given, why the policy of the law hath vested this custody in the king; because, 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 temporalties themselves, but the cuftody of the temporalties, 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 the crown very frequently exercises) to fuch benefices and other preferments as fall within the time of vacation". 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, lease the temporalties to the dean and chapter; faving to himself all advowfons, efcheats, 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 temporalties, but also committed horrible waste on the woods and other parts of the eitate; and, to crown all, would never, when the fee was filled up, reftore to the bishop his temporalties again, unless he purchased them at an exorbitant price. To remedy b Stat. 17. Edw. II. c. 14. F. N. B. 32. a 2 Inft. 15. |