the upper houfe of bishops reprefents the houfe of lords; and the lower house, composed of representatives of the several diocefes at large, and of each particular chapter therein, resembles the house of commons with it's knights of the shire 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 ecclesiastical benefices, by confent of convocation.

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 obferve, that this is now done in confequence of the ftatute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20.

As head of the church, the king is likewife the dernier refort in all ecclefiaftical causes; an appeal lying ultimately to him in chancery from the fentence of every ecclefiaftical judge which right was restored 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 ecclefiaftics form one of the branches of the legislature, the chamber of the clergy refembles the convocation of England. It's compofed of the bishops and fuper

intendants; and also of deputies, one of which is chofen by every ten parishes or rural deanry. Mod. Un. Hift. xxxiii. 18.

Gilb. Hift. of Exch. c. 4.

CHAPTER THE EIGHTH.

OF THE KING'S REVENUE.

HA

AVING, 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 else has been granted by parliament, by way of purchafe or exchange for fuch of the king's inherent hereditary revenues, as were found inconvenient to the fubject.

WHEN I say 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 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 fupport 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.

2

I. THE

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 temporalties 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 bifhop'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 bifhopricks, to whom during the vacancy they revert. And for the fame reason, before the diffolution of abbeys, the king had the custody of the temporalties of all such abbeys and priories as were of royal foundation (but not of thofe founded by fubjects) on the death of the abbot or prior a. Another reafon may also 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 fpoil and devastation, 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 so high a nature, that it could not be granted out to a fubject, 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 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 va cant, for the fake of enjoying the temporalties, but also com mitted 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 bifhop his temporalties again unicis he purchased them at an exorbitant price. To remedy b Stat. 17 Edw. II. c. 14. F. N. B. 32.

a 2 Inft. 15.

с

which, king Henry the first 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, that no wafte fhould be committed in the temporalties of bishopricks, neither fhould the cuftody of them be fold. The fame is ordained by the ftatute of Westminfter 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 abufe, that the king would for trifling, or no causes, feise the temporalties of bifhops, even during their lives, into his own hands: but this is guarded against by ftatute 1 Edw. III. ft. 2. c. 2.

THIS revenue of the king, which was formerly very confiderable, is now by a customary indulgence almost reduced to nothing: for, at prefent, as foon as the new bishop is confecrated and confirmed, he usually receives the reftitution of his temporalties quite entire, and untouched, from the king; and at the fame time does homage to his fovereign: and then, and not fooner, he has a fee fimple in his bifhoprick, 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 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. This is alfo in the nature of an acknowlegement 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 disuse; though fir Matthew Hale fays, that it is due of common right, and that no prefcription will discharge it.

III. THE king alfo (as was formerly observed) is entitled to all the tithes arifing in extraparochial places : though

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; fince a corody fupports only his chaplains, and these extraparochial tithes are held under an implied truft, 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; first introduced by Pandulph the pope's legate, during the reigns of king John and Henry the third, 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 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 bifhop of Norwich in 38 Hen. III, and afterwards advanced in value by commiffion from pope Nicholas III. A. D. 1292, 20 Edw. I'; which valuation of pope Nicholas is ftill preferved in the exchequer ". The tenths, or decimae, were the tenth part of the annual profit of each living by the fame valuation; which was alfo claimed by the holy fee, under no better pretence than a strange mifapplication of that precept of the Levitical law, which directs", that the Levites "fhould offer the tenth part of their tithes as a heave-offer"ing to the Lord, and give it to Aaron the high priest." But this claim of the pope met with a vigorous refistance from the English parliament; and a variety of acts were paffed to prevent and restrain it, particularly the statute 6 Hen. IV. c. 1. which calls it a horrible mifchief and damnable cuftom. But the popifh clergy, blindly devoted to the will of a foreign mafter, ftill kept it on foot; fometimes more fecretly, fome times more openly and avowedly: fo that in the reign of Henry VIII, it was computed, that in the compass of fifty I F. N. B. 176.

n 3

Inft. 154.

a Numb. xviii. 26.

years