Legal treat-
ment of
church
lands.
Patronage
a temporal
right.
Tithes, a
divided
jurisdiction.
Minor
points.
Restriction
of eccle-
siastical
judicature
by state
legislation.
344 Constitutional History. [ciiλp.
Hospitallers1, and the many enactments from the reign of
Edward HI downwards, by which the estates of the alien
priories were vested in the king. Beyond these, however,
which are mere instances of the use of a constitutional power,
it is certain that not only the parliaments but the crown and
the courts of law exercised over the lands of the clergy the
same power that they exercised over all other lands ; they
were liable to temporary confiscation in case of the misbe-
haviour of their owners, to taxation, and the constrained per-
formance of the due services ; and although they were not
liable to legal forfeiture, as their possessors could be deprived
of no greater right in them than was involved in their official
tenure, they might be detained in the royal hands on one
pretext or another for long periods without legal remedy. The
patronage of parish churches was likewise a temporal right,
and, although the ecclesiastical courts made now and then a
vain claim to determine suits concerning it, it was always
regarded as within the province of state legislation. The
spiritual revenues of the clergy, the tithes and offerings which
were the endowment of the parochial churches, were subject
to a divided jurisdiction ; the title to ownership was deter-
mined by the common law, the enforcement of payment was
left to the ecclesiastical courts 2. The attempts of the parlia-
ment to tax the spiritualities were very jealously watched, and
generally, if not always, defeated. The parliament, however,
practically vindicated its right to determine the nature of the
rights of the clergy to tithe of underwood, minerals, and other
newly asserted or revived claims3. In 1362 a statute fixed the
wages of stipendiary chaplains i.
A second department in which the spiritualty was subjected
to the legislative interference of the state Wasthatofjudicature.
In this region a continual rivalry was carried on from the
Conquest to the Reformation, the courts of the two powers,
like all courts of law, being prone to make attempts at usurpa-
tion, and the interference of the crown as the fountain of
ɪ 17 Edw. II, st. 2 ; Statutes, ɪ. 194.
2 See below, p. 353. 3 lb. p. 352. 1 Statutes, i. 374.
Xix.] Legislation for the Clergy. 345
justice, or of the parliament as representing the nation at
large, being constantly invoked to remedy the evils caused by
mutual aggression. Of the defining results of this legislation
the ‘articuli cleri’ of 1316, and the writ of ζ circumspecte
agatis∕ neither of them exactly or normally statutes, are the
chief landmarks. In order to avoid repetition, we may defer
noticing these disputes until we come to the general question of
judicature.
Outside these two regions of administration there are some Miaceiiane-
. . , ous Iegisla-
few acts of the national legislature in which the interests or turn for the
acts of the clergy are contemplated in a friendly and states- c'ergj*
manlike spirit, which rises above the quarrels of the day or
of the class. Such probably were the statutes passed in 1340,
1344, and 1352 1, at the request of the clergy; most of their
provisions, however, concern property or jurisdiction. The Cognisance
ordinance of 1416, by which it was enacted that during the schism,
vacancy of the apostolic see the bishops elect should be con-
firmed by their metropolitans2, seems a singular instance of
the parliament legislating for the clergy where they might
have legislated for themselves. The petitions of the parlia-
ment for measures which might tend to close the schism are
not indeed legislative acts, but may be adduced as proof that
the attitude of the commons towards the church, even at
moments when there was much reason for watchfulness, was
neither unfriendly nor unwise. In the struggle against heresy Discussions
the policy of the parliaments was not uniform, but, if the peti- °n heresy'
tions against the clergy, which were ineffectually brought
forward, are to be set off against the statutes against the
Lollards, the result shows that in the long run the sympathies
of the three estates were at one. In coming to such a con-
clusion, it must not be forgotten that the clergy, during nearly
the whole period αf the Lollard movement, had great influence
with the king, were in possession of the greatest offices of
state, possessed a majority of votes in the house of lords, and
had an additional source of strength in the support of the pope
and foreign churches. But even if all these influences are taken
1 Statutes, i. 292, 302, 324. 2 Above, p. 326.