ENGLISH CHURCH AND LAY TAXES 219 



estate offered separate grants for their order, based upon the Taxatio,* 

 Those who did not join with them were to have their personal property 

 taxed with that of the laymen. After the year 1297, when occurred the 

 famous struggle with Pope Boniface VIII over the right of the king to 

 demand taxes from the church, the central government had no further 

 difficulty on this score. The custom thereafter was for the clergy, 

 either in parHament or in convocation, to grant all levies upon their own 

 order, these taxes being collected by ecclesiastics. The individual pro- 

 testors, met with in large numbers in 1297, thereafter became of no 

 moment. 



Very soon a new difficulty, and a very obvious one, arose. As the 

 years passed the church continued to accumulate wealth, through the 

 gifts of pious donors, but, as has been mentioned, no provision was made 

 in the Taxatio for the taxation of such new sources of income. Unless 

 some new plan was introduced this property would wholly escape 

 taxation, or, by being included in that which paid to the clerical 

 grants, would lower the rate of such levies. As the church was the 

 most wealthy of all corporations in England such a result would seem 

 manifestly unfair. The solution of the problem during the reign of 

 Edward I was extremely simple. In the royal instructions to the col- 

 lectors of the parHamentary subsidy of the year 1297, a tax upon personal 

 property, they are told that, "this taxation shall be made upon the 

 goods of the clergy as upon those of the laity, the which goods are not 

 annexed to their churches."" This phrase meant that the clergy were 

 to pay to the lay subsidy for all personal property on lands acquired 

 since 1291, which lands would not be taxed under the clerical grants. 

 Those temporalities included in the taxation of Pope Nicholas were 

 thereafter known as being "annexed to their spiritualities," or "annexed 

 to their churches," the former being the most common form. This 

 principle persisted throughout the reigns of Edward I and Edward II.3 



The practice used in the collection of the lay taxes during the reigns 



' Rottdi Parliamentorum, Vol. I, p. 227; Vincent, Lancashire Lay Subsidies, Vol. I, p. 189; ibid.. 

 Vol. I, p. 192. 



' Rot. Pari., Vol. I, p. 240 b. 



3 The phrase in 1306 is slightly different, the clergy being taxed for their lay fiefs, "lai fe," though so 

 far as I have been able to discover there was no change in practice. Rot. Pari., Vol. I, p. ayo o. 



