ANNATES, an(natz, a certain portion of the year's fruits or revenues paid to the Pope and his court. The term properly denotes the sum of half a year's revenue of a vacant bene fice (q.v.) payable by the new incumbent to the Pope. It was also used to indicate the tribute every bishop or mitred abbot was obliged to pay for the support of the Pope and cardi nals, and the lesser sums they contributed for the support of members of the Papal household. These tributes or taxes were frequently a cause of contention between ecclesiastical and civil authorities. An effort was made to put an end to these contentions in the Councils of Pisa and Constance, and gradually all the minor tributes were abolished. In the Council of Basel it was decided to abolish every tribute of this kind, but to raise revenues for the anti pope Felix exactions doubly severe were im posed on his adherents. In Germany the payment was satisfactorily regulated in the Concordat of Vienna (1448) and after several modifications it was finally abolished in 1803. In France the payment was stipulated in a Con cordat between Innocent X and Francis I; it was finally refused entirely in 1789, and its abolition recognized in the Concordat of 1801.
In England such sums were first paid to the archbishop of Canterbury, later to the Pope, and transferred to the Crown in 1534, the sov ereign at present retaining only those derived from bishoprics and Crown livings, the rest, since Queen Anne's time (see QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY), going to increase the poorer livings. The Pope used them to support himself, the cardinals and other papal officials; to defray the expenses of nuncios,. legates, bishops exiled from their sees, princes deprived of their thrones, envoys and vicars apostolic to mis sionary countries. As this source of revenue has been constantly falling off during the past century, the deficit is made up by the voluntary contributions of Catholics, known as 'Peter's Pence" (q.v.). Consult Ferraris, 'Prompta Bibliotheca.' See FIRST Fauns.