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221 



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livings. Donatives, if augmented by Queen Anne's Bounty, 

 become liable to lapse, and also to episcopal visitation. 

 (Statute 1 Geo. I. sess. 2, c. 10.) But no donatives can be 

 so augmented without the consent of the patron in writing, 

 under his hand ami seal. Both perpetual curates and in- 

 cumbents of donatives are obliged to declare their assent to 

 the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer, 

 in the manner prescribed by the statute 13 Eliz. c. 12, and 

 the Act of Uniformity above-mentioned, and must also take 

 the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, accord- 

 ing to the provisions of statutes 1 Geo. I. sess. 2, c. 13, and 

 9 Geo. II. c. 26 ; and the right of patronage, both of per- 

 petual curacies and donatives, is to be vindicated by writ of 

 Quare Impedit. (Burn's Eccles. Law, tit. 'Donative.') 



Neither the augmentation nor the alienation of benefices 

 with cure of souls has ever been favoured by the policy of 

 the English law. To prevent the former was one of the 

 objects of the statutes of Mortmain, one of which (23 Hen. 

 VIII. c. 10) expressly tnakes void all assurances of lands in 

 favour of parish churches, chapels, &c. 



It might have been reasonably expected that, at the lime 

 of the dissolution of monasteries, the clergy would have 

 received back those revenues which, being originally vested 

 in them for religious purposes, had been subsequently ap- 

 propriated by the monks. Such a measure, however, was 

 not agreeable to the temper either of King Henry VIII. 

 or his parliaments. When that king rame to a rupture 

 with the pope, he resolved to free his dominions from the 

 payment of first fruits and tenths to the papal treasury. 

 The first of these taxes consisted of one year's whole profits 

 of every spiritual preferment, according to a valuation of 

 benefices made by the pope's authority ; the second, of the 

 tenth part of the annual profit of each benefice, according 

 to the same valuation. The payment of these to the pope 

 was prohibited by statute 25 Henry VIII. c. 20 ; and the 

 next year by statute 26 Henry VIII. c. 3, the whole of the 

 revenue arising therefrom was annexed to the crown. The 

 last-mentioned statute directed these taxes to be paid ac- 

 cording to a new valuation of ecclesiastical benefices to be 

 made by certain commissioners appointed for the purpose. 

 This valuation is what is still called the valuation of the 

 king's books. The statute 26 Henry VIII. c. 3, was con- 

 firmed by statute 1 Eliz. c. 4. [See FIRST FRUITS and 

 TKNTHS.] 



The subsequent proceedings of Henry VIII., after the 

 appropriation of the possessions of the monasteries, ten-led 

 rather to enrich the collegiate and other corporations aggre- 

 gate with the revenues of the church, than to revest them 

 in their antient possessors. Nor was the latter object the 

 aim of his successors, until more than a century after his 

 death ; but after the restoration of Charles II., the scandal 

 of lay irapropnations gave rise to some relaxation of the 

 statutes of mortmain. Thus by statute 17 Car. II. c. 3, 

 power was given to lay impropriators of tithes to annex such 

 tithes to, or settle them in trust for, the parsonage or vicar- 

 age of the parish church to which they belonged, or for the 

 perpetual curate, if there was no vicarage endowed; and by 

 the same statute, in cases where the settled maintenance of 

 the parsonage or vicarage, with cure, did not amount to the 

 full sum of [OOl. a year, clear of all charges and reprizes, 

 the incumbent was empowered to purchase for himself and 

 his successors, lands and tithes, without license of mortmain. 

 Another statute of the same reign (29 Car. II. c. 8) con- 

 firms, for a perpetuity, such augmentations of vicarages and 

 perpetual curacies as had been already made for a term of 

 years by ecclesiastical corporations, on granting leases of 

 impropriatory rectories. The act also confirms future aug- 

 mentations to be made in the same manner, subject to a 

 limitation which has since been taken off by statute 1 and 2 

 Will. IV. c. 45, by which the provisions of 29 Car. II. c. 8 

 have been considerably extended. But the principal aug- 

 mentation of the revenues of the church was made under 

 the provisions of the statute 2 and 3 Anne, c. 11. By this 

 act, and by the queen's letters-patent made in pursuance of 

 it, all the revenue of the first fruits and tenths was vested 

 in trustees, for the augmentation of small benefices. This 

 fund is what is usually called Queen Anne s Bounty, and 

 has since been further regulated by statutes 5 Anne, c. 24 ; 

 6 Anne, c. 27 ; 1 Geo. I. sess. 2, c. 10 ; 3 Geo. I. c. 10. 



The trustees, who are certain dignitaries of the church, 

 and other olliciul pcr-otnL'es for the time being, are incorpo- 

 rated by the name of ' the governors of the Bounty of Queen 

 A nne, for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor 



clergy,' and have authority to make rules for the distribution 

 of the fund, which rules are to be approved of by the king 

 under his sign manual. Every person having any estate or 

 interest in possession, reversion, or contingency, in lands or 

 personalty, is empowered to settle such estate or interest, 

 either by deed enrolled or will, upon the corporation, without 

 licence of mortmain ; and the corporation are empowered to 

 admit benefactors to the fund into their body. (For the 

 principal rules established by the corporation, with respect 

 to augmentations and the operation of these rules, see Burn's 

 Eccles. Law, tit. ' First Fruits and Tenths.') 



The 1 Geo. I. sess. 2, c. 1 0, renders valid agreements 

 made with benefactors to Queen Anne's Bounty, concerning 

 the right of patronage of augmented churches in favour of 

 such benefactors, where the agreements are made by persons 

 or bodies corporate having such an interest in the patron- 

 age of such churches as the act renders necessary ; but an 

 agreement by a parson or vicar must be made with consent 

 of his patron and ordinary. The governors are also em- 

 powered by the same statute to make agreements with 

 patrons of donatives or perpetual cures for an augmented 

 stipend to the ministers of such benefices when augmented, 

 to augment vacant benefices, and with the concurrence of the 

 proper parties, to exchange lands settled for augmentation. 



It should be observed that a modern statute of mortmain, 

 the Statute of Charitable Uses, 9 Geo. II. c. 36, imposed 

 certain forms, a strict compliance with which was necessary 

 in all gifts to Queen Anne's Bounty, whether by deed or will. 

 But these restrictions have been removed by statute 43 

 Geo. III. c. 107, as far as respects gifts of real property for 

 augmentation of the bounty ; and a recent provision for 

 the augmentation of benefices not exceeding ISO/, per an- 

 num is made by 46 Geo. III. c. 133, which discharges all 

 such benefices from the land-tax, without any consideration 

 being given for the discharge, with a proviso that the whole 

 annual amount thus remitted shall not exceed 60001. 



The alienation of the temporalities of benefices, even in 

 perpetuity, was not forbidden by the common law, provided 

 it were made with the concurrence of the principal parties 

 interested, viz. the parson, patron, and ordinary. Thus, at 

 the common law, lands might have become exempt from 

 the payment of tithe by virtue of an agreement entered into 

 between the tithe-payer and the parson or vicar, with the 

 necessary consent, for the substitution of land in lieu of 

 tithe. But the statute 13 Eliz. c. 10 prohibits, among 

 other bodies corporate, parsons and vicars from making any 

 alienation of their temporalities beyond the life of the in- 

 cumbent, except by way of lease for twenty-one years, or 

 three lives, ' whereupon the accustomed yearly rent or 

 more shall be reserved and payable yearly during the said 

 term.' Further restrictions are imposed by the stat. 18 Eliz. 

 c. 1 1, which requires that where any former lease for years 

 is in being, it must be expired, surrendered, or ended within 

 three years next after the making of the new lease, and all 

 bonds and covenants for renewing or making leases contrary 

 to this and the last-mentioned statute are made void. The 

 stat. 14 Eliz. c. 1 1, as to houses in towns, extends the term 

 specified in the 13 Eliz. c. 10 to forty years, but prohibits 

 leases of such houses in reversion, and allows of absolute 

 alienation by way of exchange. But the consent of patron 

 and ordinary is still necessary in order to make the leases of 

 parsons and vicars binding upon their successors. It is said 

 that about the time when these statutes were passed, it was 

 a practice for patrons to present unworthy clergymen to their 

 vacant benefices, on condition of having leases of those 

 benefices made to themselves at a very low rate. The con- 

 sequences of this were not unlike what ensued from (lie 

 appropriation of benefices by monastic corporations: the 

 incumbents did not reside, and the churches were indiffer- 

 ently served by stipendiary curates. To remedy this evil, 

 it was provided by stat. 13 Eliz. c. 20 (made perpetual by 

 3 Car. I.e. 4), ihat no lease of a benefice with cure should 

 endure longer than while the lessee should be ordinarily 

 resident and serving the cure, without absence for more 

 than eighty days in any one year, but should immediately, 

 upon non-residence, become void ; and that the incumbent 

 should forfeit one year's profits of the benefice, to be dis- 

 tributed among the poor : but the statute contains an ex- 

 ception of the case where a parson, allowed by law to have 

 two benefices, demises the one, upon which he is not most 

 ordinarily resident, to his curate. The 18 Eliz. c. 11, pro- 

 vides that process of sequestration shall bo granted by the 

 ordinary to obtain the profits so forfeited. By stat 14 Eliz. 



