General ac-
quiescence.
Clerical tax-
ation of the
laity not at-
tempted or
unsuccess-
ful.
Jurisdiction
in ecclesi∙
astical
matters.
Division of
the subject.
3,52 Cvnstitational History. [chap.
bestowed ; the sums collected went to the general fund of the
revenue, and were appropriated to special purposes by the
commons or by the council. In all these points the period on
■which we have been last employed witnessed no important
change; but the disuse of the attendance of the clergy in
parliament, their constant complaisance in supplementing the
parliamentary grants, and the increasing tendency to regard
convocation as a constitutional supplement of parliament, are
all signs of a progress towards the state of things in which it
became possible for Henry VIII to effect the great constitu-
tional change that marks his reign.
398. Of attempts by the clergy, except under papal authority,
to tax the laity, or to enforce any general payments from them,
English history has no trace. The cases in which tithes were
claimed for underwood, in which the nearest approach seems to
be made to such a proceeding, have been already noticed.
Other attempts made in provincial synods to extend the area
of titheable property seem to have failed1. Indirect exactions,
in the form of fees or fines in the spiritual courts, mortuaries
and customary payments, scarcely come within the scope of our
consideration, except as part of a very general estimate of the
causes which alienated the laity from the clergy.
399. We thus come to the last of our constitutional inquiries,
that of judicature ; the subject of jurisdiction of, by, and for
the clergy, which has been through the whole period of English
history one of the most important influences on the social con-
dition of the nation, the occasion of some of its most critical
experiences, and one of its greatest administrative difficulties.
In the very brief notice which can be here given to it, it will
be necessary to arrange the points which come before us under
the following heads : first, the jurisdiction exercised by the
secular courts over ecclesiastical persons and causes ; secondly,
1 Especially the demand of a tithe of personalty ; see on this subject
Gibson, Codex, pp. 690 sq. ; Prynne, Becords, iii. 332 sq. In 1237 the
clergy petitioned that secular judges might not be allowed to determine
t utruɪn dandae sint decimae de Iapidicinis vel silvicaediis, vel Iierbagiis
vel pasturis vel de aliis decimis non Consuetis ;* Ann. Burton, p. 254. In
archbishop Gray's Constitutions, cir. a.d. 1250, the obligation to pay tithe
of personalty is strongly urged; Johnson, Canons, ii. 179.
Xix.] Ecclesiastical Judicature. 353
the jurisdiction exercised by the spiritual courts over laymen
and temporal causes ; thirdly, the jurisdiction of the spiritual
courts over the clergy ; and fourthly, the judicial claims and
recognised authority on judicial matters of the pope of Rome.
All suits touching the temporalities of the clergy were subject Boyai juris-
...... . 1 ∙ it diction over
to the jurisdiction of the king s courts, and against so reasonable the tempo-
. 1 PJii ralities of
a rule scarcely any traces of resistance on the part oɪ the clergy the clergy,
are found. Yet it is not improbable that during the quarrels of
the twelfth century some question on the right of the bishops
to try such suits may have arisen. Glanvill gives certain forms
of prohibition in which the ecclesiastical judges are forbidden
to entertain suits in which a lay fee is concerned 1 ; and Alex-
ander III, in a letter addressed to the bishops in ιιl78, directed
them to abstain from hearing such causes, the exclusive juris-
diction of which belonged to the king2. In reference to lands Lands held
• ∙ T 1 1 11 _ in f ran^ε'
held in frankalmoign, disputes between clergymen belonged to aimo⅛n.
the ecclesiastical courts ; but the question whether the land in
dispute was held by this tenure or as a lay fee was decided by
a recognition under the king’s writ3. The jurisdiction as to Questions
tithes was similarly a debateable land between the two juris- tιthe°.
dictions ; the title to the ownership, as in questions of advowson
and presentation4, belonging to the secular courts, and the
process of recovery belonging to the court Christian5. The
right of defining matters titheable was claimed by the arch-
bishops in their constitutions, but without much success, the
local custom and prescription being generally received as deci-
sive in the matter. The right of patronage was determined in Questions of
the king’s courts. In each of these departments, however, some patoonagβ∙
concert with the ecclesiastical courts was indispensable ; many
issues of fact were referred by the royal tribunals to the court
1 Glanvill, lib. xii. cc. 21, 22, 25. 2 K. Diceto, i. 427.
3 Const. Clar. no. 9 ; Glanvill, lib. xii. c. 15: against this the clergy
petitioned in 1237; Ann. Burton, p. 254.
4 Glanvill, lib. iv.
5 The processes for recovery of tithe, and the jurisdiction in subtraction
of tithe, have a long history of their own which does not concern us much.
The statement in the text is Blackstone’s conclusion, Comm. vol. iii. p. 88 ;
but the details may be found in Beeves’s History of English Law, iv.
85 sq. ; cf. Prynne, Records, iii. 333 > Gibson, Codex, pp. 690 sq. ; and
Ann. Burton, p. 255.
VOL. HI. A a