ed, with bare feet, but not with empty hands; and, lastly, by the sale of Agnus Dei's, and similar baubles, to the inferior orders of the church. If we except the tenths and annates voted to the king, and the expenses incidental to dispensations and appeals, which went to increase the revenues of the primate, the whole of this enormous expenditure had ceased before the death of Henry. A APPENDIX TO CHAPTER V. ON THE GENERAL STATE OF CHURCH GOVERN- ́ MENT IN ENGLAND, FROM THE NORMAN Contents. I. Roman Encroachments.—II. Impoverishment of the parochial Clergy. — III. Convocations. — IV. Monasteries and other religious Houses. In taking a retrospect of that portion of English church history, which elapsed betwixt the Conquest and the Reformation, it seems expedient to elucidate several parts of the narrative by a few short annotations, which shall here accordingly be thrown together, though in a very loose and desultory form. I. It is interesting to contemplate the gradual manner, in which the papal authority made its encroachments within this realm: like Milo, increasing the burden by little and little, until the shoulder which bore it carried a weight that is now astonishing. Prior to the Conquest, these usurpations were few; but the Pontiff, having lent a sanction to William's pretensions, repaid himself by sending a legate into his kingdom. Henry I. resigned the donation of bishoprics: from Stephen was obtained the privilege of appeals: clerks under Henry II. were exempted from the secular power. of John, who : An interdict appeared in the reign surrendered his kingdom to the Roman Pontiff, to be held by the yearly payment of 1000 marks and lastly, in the time of the third Henry, the drain formed by livings in the possession of foreigners, and by other papal impositions and exactions, drew out of this country an annual sum of £70,000. The tide of Roman power had now reached its greatest height, and from this period it began to ebb; an oppressed nation having awakened from its lethargy, and proceeded to provide for securing at once the prerogative of the prince and the liberties of the people. The papal presentation to benefices was taken away, by 25 Edward III. stat. 6; and more fully by several acts of Richard II. Appeals to Rome were first prohibited by 27 Edward III. chap. 1, otherwise called the Statute of Provisors; and the 16th Richard II. chap. 5, the celebrated Statute of Premunire, declares that purchasers of presentations to benefices shall be excluded from the royal protection. We have seen under the succeeding, monarchs several other struggles with Rome, which it is unnecessary here to repeat; till at length Henry VIII. dealt the great blow, which wholly overthrew the pontifical power. II. For several ages prior to the act which transferred to the monarch the monastic revenues, the interests of the parochial clergy had been affected in various ways. Parochial bounds were at first, as has been already shown, co-extensive with the manor or landed property of the founder: but if a new see were erected within the lordship, or if persons independent of the patron dwelt within the precincts, tithes and offerings might be carried to any neighbouring church, to which such individuals might give the preference. Hence arose an opinion respecting tithes and oblations in general, that it remained entirely at the option of the donor, in what hands and at what place he should deposit them, in return for religious services; a notion which the monasteries turned to their own advantage, by drawing these church emoluments to themselves. These changes, however, did not at the time infringe the rights of the national church; they only enriched some of the clergy by impoverishing others. The bishops, with a view to provide for the resident clergy, receding from their original claim to a fourth part of the church emoluments, these emoluments were divided by the parish-priests into three portions, instead of the former four; the first for improving the church and parsonage, the second for hospitality and charity, and the third for personal maintenance. Soon, however, the lay patrons detained the two former parts, pretending, indeed, to apply them to their proper uses, but ere long procuring their enfeoffment in themselves and their heirs. In some places the powerful patrons withheld the whole of the præ dial tithes, leaving the altarage, of which the smaller tithes, at first voluntary oblations, formed a part, to the parochial minister. These were, strictly speaking, the first impropriations; but even when enfeoffed, they were regarded, sacredly, as held in trust for religious uses. Again, when the original practice of living and being supported at the collegiate church had ceased, the lay patrons often surrendered the advowson to that body, or to one member of it, or to a monastic society; so that at length, not more than a century after the Conquest, one half of the parish-churches in England came into the gift of cathedrals and religious houses, and were personally served by the members of these societies, who received only an arbitrary portion of the emoluments, usually the small tithes and oblations; the rest of the profits being retained by the presenting body, "IN PROPRIOS USUS." At first the several members of each house officiated, by turns, by lot, by penance; but the bishops afterwards compelled the monastics to remain in their own cloisters, and to settle perpetual vicars in the parishes. This example spread from religious societies to corporate bodies, to secular colleges, and to military orders: still, however, the idea prevailing, that these, as religious societies, might receive and distribute the common treasury of the church for prior to the reign of Henry VIII. there is no precedent for a mere lay impropriator. 2 |