2. The immunities claimed by the church were not effectual in pro tecting its revenues from being laid under contribution for the service of the state. The kings of England, sometimes by the pope's authority, sometimes by forced or voluntary compliance on the part of the church, and sometimes by their own direct power, obtained large sums from the clergy.
William the Conqueror found the church very wealthy, and subjected it to much spoliation. A singular occasion for taxing the clergy arose in the reign of Henry I., A.D. 1129. An ecclesiastical council, assem bled at London, denounced all married clergymen, and decreed that they should put away their wives. The council committed to the king the execution of their decrees ; but he, instead of compelling the clergy to send away their wives, imposed a tax on those who chose to retain them, which is said to have been very productive.
The pope was not unwilling to assist in oppressing the clergy for the benefit of kings, when they were inclined to further his own objects, either by undertaking crusades, carrying on wars against his enemies, or making concessions to him. He would not suffer the immunities of the church to be infringed by the temporal power, but often placed at the disposal of princes the revenues of the church by his own authority. Thus, the pope, by virtue of his apostolical power, granted King Henry III., by several bulls, the goods of all clergymen who died intestate, the revenues of all vacant benefices, and of all non-residents. In 1238, Pope Nicholas IV. granted the tenths to King Edward I. for six years, towards defraying the expenses of an expedition to the Holy Land ; and in order to collect them at their full value, a taxation by the king's precept was begun in that year, and finished, as to the pro vince of Canterbury, in 1291, and as to that of York in the following year, the whole being under the direction of the bishops of Winchester and Lincoln. This taxation is a most important record, because all the taxes of the church, as well to the kings of England as to the pope, were afterwards regulated by it until the survey made by Henry VIII.; and because the statutes of colleges which were founded before the Reformation are also interpreted by this criterion, according to which their benefices, under a certain value, are exempted from the restric tion in the statute 21 Henry VIII. concerning pluralities. (' Preface to Taxatio Ecclesiastica, P. Nich. I V., by the Record Commissioners.) In 1295, Edward, notwithstanding the pope's grant, and numerous exactions from the clergy in the meantime, being still in great need of money to carry on his wars, summoned deputies from the inferior clergy for the first time to vote him supplies from their own body. In the preceding year he had, by threats and violence, exacted a tax of half the revenues of the clergy ; but now he thought it prudent to obtain their consent to his demands in a more regular manlier. The clergy, however, would not obey the king's writ of summons, lest they should appear to acknowledge the temporal power ; and in order to overcome this objection, the king issued his writ to the archbishop, who, as their spiritual superior, summoned the clergy to meet in con vocation. (Gilbert's History of the Exchequer.')
This was the commencement of the constitutional practice of the clergy meeting in Convocation at the same time as the Lay Parliament, and voting subsidies by its own voluntary act for the service of the state. It was not viewed without alarm by the pope and the high church dignitaries ; and in order to put a stop to all such exactions of princes from the clergy, Pope Boniface VIII. issued a bull in 1296, which forbade churchmen of every degree to pay any tribute, subsidy, or gift to laymen, without authority from the see of Rome ; and de clared that if they should pay, or princes exact, or any one assist in levying such unauthorised taxes, all such persons respectively would incur the sentence of excommunication. (Rymer's Feedera; vol. i., part 2.) In the same year, however, Edward I. demanded of the clergy a fifth of their moveables, which they resisted, on the ground that they could not disobey the pope ; but the king was not inclined to desist ; acrd in order to force the acquiescence of the clergy, he put them out of the pale of the laws. Orders were issued to the judges to hear no cause brought before them by the clergy, but to decide all causes in which they were sued by others. The clergy could not long resist these oppressions ; and although unwilling to disobey the papal bull, they evaded it by voluntarily depositing a sum equivalent to the amount demanded of them in some church, whence it was taken by the king's officers. In this expedient the whole ecclesiastical body acquiesced, and thus yielded up their spiritual privileges, under coercion by the temporal power.
At the Reformation, the chief source of revenue to the popo, namely, first•fruits and tenths, was transferred to the king " for more aug mentation and maintenance of the royal estate of his imperial crown and dignity of supreme head of the Church of England." (Stat. 26 Henry VIII., c. 3.) In order to collect this revenue, a court of first fruits was established, and the king ordered a valuation to be made of all the episcopal sees and benefices in England. The book which con tains this valuation is called tho' Liber Regis.' The first-fruits and tenths continued to form part of the royal revenue until Queen Anne, by the Act 2 & 3 of her reign, c. 11, gave up the proceeds thereof on the part of herself and her successors, and assigned them for ever to the augmentation of poor livings.
It now only remains to notice more particularly the practice of taxing the clergy in convocation, which continued in full force till the reign of Charles II. It had afforded the kings of England a lucrative revenue from the church. Their influence as heads of the church, and as having ecclesiastical preferments to bestow, was very great after the Reformation, and enabled them very commonly to obtain larger subsi dies from the convocation than those that were voted by parliament. The church, therefore, was not unwilling to be deprived of the expen sive privilege of voting separate subsidies ; and acquiesced In an arrangement proposed so 1664-5, by which the Commons have ever since voted taxes upon the possessions of the church and of the clergy, in the same manner as upon the laity.