Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/298

 282 manors and other ubjects frequently look upon to be their own abolute rights; becaue they are and have been veted in them and their ancetors for ages, though in reality originally derived from the grants of our antient princes.

I. firt of the king's ordinary revenues, which I hall take notice of, is of an eccleiatical kind; (as are alo the three ucceeding ones) viz. the cutody of the temporalties of bihops; by which are meant all the lay revenues, lands, and tenements (in which is included his barony) which belong to an archbihop's or bihop's fee. And thee upon the vacancy of the bihoprick are immediately the right of the king, as a conequence of his prerogative in church matters; whereby he is conidered as the founder of all archbihopricks and bihopricks, to whom during the vacancy they revert. And for the ame reaon, before the diolution of abbeys, the king had the cutody of the temporalties of all uch abbeys and priories as were of royal foundation (but not of thoe founded by ubjects) on the death of the abbot or prior. Another reaon may alo be given, why the policy of the law hath veted this cutody in the king; becaue, as the ucceor is not known, the lands and poeions of the fee would be liable to poil and devatation, if no one had a property therein. Therefore the law has given the king, not the temporalties themelves, but the cutody of the temporalties, till uch time as a ucceor is appointed; with power of taking to himelf all the intermediate profits, without any account to the ucceor; and with the right of preenting (which the crown very frequently exercies) to uch benefices and other preferments as fall within the time of vacation. This revenue is of o high a nature, that it could not be granted out to a ubject, before, or even after, it accrued: but now by the tatute 15 Edw. III. t. 4. c. 4 & 5. the king may, after the vacancy, leae the temporalties to the dean and chapter; aving to himelf all advowons, echeats, and the like. Our antient kings, and particularly William Rufus, were not only remarkable for keeping the bihopricks a long time vacant, Rh