Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large - vol 2.djvu/569

A.D. 1558. six Pound, was established and made, wherein is contained a Saving to the King of the First-fruit, and Tenths of all Churches and Chapels not exceeding the Value of six Pound, that then were or from thenceforth should be united and consolidated in one; as in the fame Act and Saving more largely appeareth.

XIII. And where also in the Parliament of your Highness dearest Brother of worthy Memory, King Edward the Sixth, holden at Westminster upon Prorogation in the second Year of his Reign, one Act was made, That nu the Certificate of the Bishop of any Diocess within this Realm, or any of the Dominions of the same, of Recusance or Non-payment of any Tenth of any Benefice or Spiritual Promotion, the Incumbent should lose but that Benefice or Promotion only; as by the same Act more plainly appeareth.

XIV. And where also in one other Parliament of the said late King Edward, holden at Westminister in the seventh Year of his Reign, one Act was made and established, declaring how and in what Sort the Under-Collectors of the Tenth in every Diocess, appointed by the Bishop, should be bound to discharge the Bishops of that Collation, and a longer Day given for the Payment of the Tenth: (2) And how the King should be answered of the Tenth for the Time of Vacation of every Benefice and Spiritual Promotion, and that the Patents of the Collection of Tenths should be good only during the Incumbency of the Grantors; as in the same Act more at large is contained,

XV. And where also in the second Session of Parliament of our late Sovereign Lady Queen Mary, your Majesty's dearest Sister holden at Westminster in the first Year of her Reign, one Act was made and established, whereby full Power and Authority was given and appointed unto her Highness, at her Will and Pleasure to alter, change, unite, transpose, disolve or determine, as well the said Court of First-fruits and Tenths, as the Court of Augmentations of the Revenues of the King's Crown, and other Courts therein expressed, and to reduce the same Courts, or any of them, into one, two, or more Court o Courts, or to unite and annex the said Courts or any two or more of them together, or to any other of her Majesty s Courts of Record, as to her it should be thought most convenient and best; for the better, sure and more speedy yearly Revenues, Casualites, and Profits, then answerable in the said Courts, or any of them, as in the fame Aft more at large is expressed:

(2) By Vigour and Authority of which Act, the said late Queen by her Grace's four several Letters Patents, whereof two bear Date three and twentieth Day of 'January in the first Year of her Reign, and the other two, the four and twentieth of January in the same Year, did not only dissolve, determine and extinguish the said Courts, commonly called and entituled, The Court of the Augmentations and Revenues of the King's Crown, and the Court of the First-fruits and Tenths, and the Jurisdiction and Authority thereof;

(3) but also did unite, transpose and annex the said Courts of Augmentation and Revenues of the King's Crown, and of the First-fruits and Tenths so dissolved, to the Court of the Exchequer, there to be and continue as a Member and Parcel of the same Court of the Exchequer; (4) and did appoint all and singular the Revenues, Casualties, Profits and Hereditaments then answerable in the said Courts, to the Order, Rule, Survey and Governance of the said Court of the Exchequer, there to be answered and accounted for ever, in such Order, Manner and Form, as in the said Letters Patents, and in two Schedules unto the said Letters Patents annexed, is mentioned and declared, as by the Tenor and Purport of the said Letters Patents and schedules; signed with her Highness Hand, more plainly may appear.

XVI. By reason of all which said Premisses, not only the said perpetual Revenues of the First-fruits and Tenths granted by the said Act in the twenty-sixth Year of the Reign of your Highness most Noble Father, in Augmentation and Maintenance of the Crown of this Realm, but also the Tenths and yearly Rents reserved nomine Decimæ, by any Letters Patents of your said Noble Father, sithence the said six and twentieth Year of his Reign, and of your said dearest Brother and Sister, or of any of them, made to any Bishop and his Successors, or to any Cathedral Church, Dean and Chapter, College or any other Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Person or Persons, or Corporations, and their Successors for ever; (2) and also all and every the Rents, Revenues, Issues and Profits of all and singular Rectories, Parsonages and Benefices impropriate, Glebe Lands, Tithes, Oblations, Pensions, Portions and other Profits and Emoluments ecclesiastical and Spiritual to the same belonging, being in the Hands and Posession of your said dearest Sister, at the said four and twentieth Day of January, were ordered, answerable and accounted for in the said Court of the Exchequer, and were therein well and justly answered and paid unto her Highness Use and Behoof, like as the same had been unto the said two Noble Kings her said Father and Brother by the Space of twenty Years, without Grief or Contradiction of the Prelates and Clergy of the Realm, to the great Aid, Relief and Supportation of the inestimable Charges of the Crown of this Realm, which daily since the Time of the making of the said first Act have increased and grown more and more.

XVII. Which Thing although the said late Queen might and did manifestly feel and perceive to be most true, yet she upon certain zealous and inconvenient Respects, not sufficiently nor politickly enough weighing that Matter, nor having due Consideration and Regard to the Maintenance and Upholding, and good Continuance of the Estate of the Imperial Crown of this Realm in Succession, which rather needed an Augmentation, than any Diminution, procured and willed an Act of Parliament to be made and provided in the second and third Years of the Reign of King Philip her late Husband and her, That all Payments of the said First-fruits should from thenceforth cease and be clearly extinct and determined for ever:

(2) And that as well all the said Benefices and Spiritual Promotions, as the Possessors, Owners and B. v *« StJtut « Incumbents thereof, and their Successors, should from and after the eighth Day of August in the said second and third Years, and so from thenceforth at all Times for ever, be clearly exonerate, acquitted and discharged against the said late King Philip and Queen Mary, her Heirs and Successors, of and from the Payment and Payments of all and every the said First-fruits, in as ample and large Manner and