348 Constitutional History. [chap.
and must be satisfied. Edward I and Edward II had been
obliged alike to allow these heavy exactions ɪ, and had in some
instances shared with the popes the profits of transactions
Restrictions which they did not venture to contravene. But after the settle-
and eva- j 1 .
«ions. ment of the papacy at Avignon the pressure was very much
lessened ; other modes of raising money were devised. Richard
II, in 1389, ventured to forbid the collection of a papal sub-
sidy2; when in 1427 the pope demanded a tenth for the crusade
against the Hussites, the council and convocation contrived to
pass the proposition by without direct refusal, ; a similar
course was followed in 1446, when the pope demanded a like
Firetfruita subsidy 4. But the other forms of exactions were endured at
tions. least with resignation. The right to the Arstfruits of bishoprics
and other promotions was apparently first claimed in England
by Alexander IV in 1256, for five years5; the claim was re-
newed by Clement V in 1306, to last for two years'; and it
was in a measure successful. John XXII demanded Iirstfruits
throughout Christendom for three years, and met with universal
resistance7. The general and perpetual claim seems to have
followed upon the general admission of the pope’s right of pro-
vision and the multiplication of translations, the gift being at
first a voluntary offering of the newly-promoted prelates.
Stoutly contested as it was in the council of Constance8, and
frequently made the subject of debate in parliament and
council9, the demand must have been regularly complied with ;
1 See the instances recorded above; vol. ii. pp. 108, ɪɪ-, 124, 129, 339,
3<>ι, 39c∙
2 Wilk. Cone. iii. 20 ; Rymer, vii. 645 ; Rot. Parl. iii. 405 ; instances
of papal petitions for subsidy are not unfrequent ; see Wɪlk. Cone. iii.
13, 48∙
3 Wilk. Cone. iii. 514.
4 Wilk. Cone. iii. 541-552. 5 Ann. Burton, p. 390.
6 Rot. Parl. i. 2 21 : the claim is there spoken of as unheard of. Edward
allowed it to be enforced ; p. 222. In the parliament of 1376 it is said to
be a new usurpation ; ib. ii. 339. On the general history of Annates see
Gieseler (Eng. ed.), vol. iv. pp. 86, 102-108.
τ Gieseler, Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 86 ; see also Extrav. Comm. lib. iii,
tit. 2. с. II.
s Gieseler, Ecel. Hist. vol. iii. p. 102.
s The act 6 Hen. IV, c. I, declares that double and treble the amount
formerly paid under this name was then exacted, and restricts it to
the ancient customary sums.
χιx.]
Taxation of the Clergy.
349
in the petition of convocation in 1531 on the abolition of an-
nates, it is stated that the Iirstfruits of the temporalities of
bishoprics, as well as of the spiritualities, were paid, and the act
which bestowed these annates on the king mentions the sum of
£160,000 as having been paid on this account to the pope be-
tween i486 and 15311.
396. The history of the steps by which ecclesiastical pro- Taxatjanof
■nerty was made to contribute its share towards the national for national
ɪ . . . purposes,
income, and of the methods by which the process of taxation
was conducted, has been traced in our earlier chapters up to
the time at which right of the provincial convocations to self-
taxation became so strongly established that the king saw no
use in contesting it. This right was a survival of the more
ancient, methods by which the contributions of individuals,
communities, and orders or estates, were requested by separate
commissions or in separate assemblies. It was in full exercise Self-taxation
ɪ , of the clergy,
from the early years of Edward I, and accordingly was strong
enough in prescriptive force to resist his attempts to incor-
porate the clergy as an estate of parliament by the prae-
munientes clause. Although in some of the parliaments of the
earlier half of the fourteenth century the report of the clerical
vote was brought up in parliament by the clerical proctors, and
the grants may have been in some cases made by the parlia-
mentary assembly of the clergy2, the regular and permanent
practice was, that they should be made by the two convocations.
In 1318 the parliamentary estate of the clergy refused the king
money without a grant of the convocations; in 1322 the
parliamentary proctors made a grant, but the archbishops had
to call together the convocations to legalise it. In 1336 the
representatives of tl⅛e spiritualty granted a tenth in parliament,
but this seems to have been an exception to the rule3, for in
1344 they merely announced the grant which the provincial
convocations had made. In fact, from the period at which the
records of the convocations begin the grants were so made, and
ɪ 23 Hen. VIII, c. 20 ; Statutes, iii. 386.
See vol. ii. pp. 355, 361, 370, 399 ; and especially p. 414 ; the clerical
grants are generally mentioned in the notes.
3 See vol. ii. p. 398.