king may also, by his proclamation, legitimate foreign coin, and make it current here; declaring at what value it shall be taken in payment. But this, I apprehend, ought to be by comparison with the standard of our own coin; otherwise the consent of parliament will be necessary. There is at present no such legitimated money; Portugal coin being [ 279 ] only current by private consent, so that any one who pleases may refuse to take it in payment. The king may also at any time decry, or cry down, any coin of the kingdom, and make it no longer current.g 6. The king is the head of the church, and thus convenes, and dissolves all synods and convocations. VI. The king is, lastly, considered by the laws of England as the head and supreme governor of the national church. To enter into the reasons upon which this prerogative is founded is matter rather of divinity than of law. I shall therefore only observe that by statute 26 Hen. VIII. c. 1, (reciting that the king's majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme head of the church of England; and so had been recognized by the clergy of this kingdom in their convocation) it is enacted, that the king shall be reputed the only supreme head in earth of the church of England, and shall have, annexed to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the title and style thereof, as all jurisdictions, authorities, and commodities, to the said dignity of supreme head of the church appertaining. And another statute to the same purport was made, 1 Eliz. c. 1. In virtue of this authority the king convenes, prorogues, regulates, restrains, regulates, and dissolves all ecclesiastical synods or convocations. This was an inherent prerogative of the crown, long before the time of Hen. VIII., as appears by the statute 8 Hen. VI. c. 1, and the many authors, both lawyers and historians, vouched by sir Edward Coke.h So that the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, which restrains the convocation from making or putting in execution any canons repugnant to the king's prerogative, or the laws, customs, and statutes of the realm, was merely declaratory of the old common law: that part of it only being new, which makes the king's royal assent actually necessary to f 1 Hal. P. C. 197. Ibid. 197, h 4 Inst. 322, 323. i 12 Rep. 72, the validity of every canon. The convocation or ecclesiastical synod, in England, differs considerably in its constitution from the synods of other christian kingdoms: those consisting wholly of bishops; whereas with us the convocation is the miniature of a parliament, wherein the archbishop presides with regal state; the upper house of bishops represents the house of lords; and the lower house, composed of representatives of the several dioceses at large, and of each particular chapter therein, resembles the house of commons with its knights of the shire and burgesses. This constitution is said to be owing to the policy of Edward I.: who thereby at one and the same time let in the inferior clergy to the privileges of forming ecclesiastical canons, (which before they had not) and also introduced a method of taxing ecclesiastical benefices, by consent of convocation. But this convocation has of late years only met by way of form.' J In the diet of Sweden, where the ecclesiastics form one of the branches of the legislature, the chamber of the clergy resembles the convocation of England. It is composed of the bishops and superintendants; and also of deputies, one of which is chosen by every ten parishes or rural deanery. Mod. Un. Hist. xxxiii. 18. Gilb. Hist. of Exch. c. 4. 1 The convocation is still summoned with every new parliament, and this is done in the following mode. The king's writ is directed to the archbishop of each province, requiring him to summon all bishops, deans, archdeacons, cathedral and collegiate churches, &c.; upon which the archbishop directs his mandate to his dean provincial, first citing him peremptorily, then willing him in like manner to cite all the bishops, deans, &c., and all the clergy of his province; but directing, at the same time, that one proctor sent from each cathedral and collegiate church, and two from the body of the inferior clergy of each diocese, may suffice. The upper house in the province of Canterbury consists of the bishops of the province, with the archbishop as president, who prorogues Each house has a prolocutor, chosen [ 280 ] Nominates to vacant From this prerogative also, of being the head of the bishopricks, church, arises the king's right of nomination to vacant and is the dernier resort in all ecclesiasti cal causes. bishopricks, and certain other ecclesiastical preferments; which will more properly be considered when we come to treat of the clergy. I shall only here observe, that this is now done in consequence of the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20. As head of the church, the king is likewise the dernier resort in all ecclesiastical causes; an appeal lying ultimately to him in chancery from the sentence of every ecclesiastical judge which right was restored to the crown by statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, and vested in the court of delegates. But this court has been recently abolished, and the jurisdiction is transferred to the judicial committee of the privy council, of which we have already given some account.m m See ante, p. 243. CHAPTER THE EIGHTH. OF THE KING'S REVENUE. revenue HAVING in the preceding chapter, considered at large [ 281 ] those branches of the king's prerogative, which contribute The king's to his royal dignity, and constitute the executive power of the government, we proceed now to examine the king's fiscal prerogatives, or such as regard his revenue; which the British constitution hath vested in the royal person, in order to support his dignity and maintain his power: being a portion which each subject contributes of his property, in order to secure the remainder. dinary or ex The ordina ry revenue, This revenue is either ordinary, or extraordinary. The is either orking's ordinary revenue is such, as has either subsisted time traordinary. out of mind in the crown; or else has been granted by parliament, by way of purchase or exchange for such of the what it is. king's inherent hereditary revenues, as were found inconvenient to the subject. When I say that it has subsisted time out of mind in the crown, I do not mean that the king is at present in the actual possession of the whole of this revenue. Much (nay, the greatest part) of it is at this day in the hands of subjects; to whom it has been granted out from time to time by the kings of England: which has rendered the crown in some measure dependent on the people for its ordinary support and subsistence. So that I must be obliged to recount, as part of the royal revenue, what lords of manors and other subjects frequently look upon to be their own absolute inherent rights; because they are and have been vested in them and their ancestors for ages, though in reality originally derived from the grants of our ancient princes. It consists of [282] I. The first of the king's ordinary revenues, which I The cus- shall take notice of, is of an ecclesiastical kind; (as are bishops'tem- also the three succeeding ones) viz. the custody of the tody of the poralities. temporalities of bishops: by which are meant all the lay revenues, lands, and tenements, (in which is included his barony) which belong to an archbishop's or bishop's see. And these upon the vacancy of the bishoprick are immediately the right of the king, as a consequence of his prerogative in church matters; whereby he is considered as the founder of all archbishopricks and bishopricks, to whom during the vacancy they revert. And for the same reason, before the dissolution of abbeys, the king had the custody of the temporalities of all such abbeys and priories as were of royal foundation (but not of those founded by subjects) on the death of the abbot or prior. Another reason may also be given, why the policy of the law hath vested this custody in the king; because as the successor is not known, the lands and possessions of the see would be liable to spoil and devastation, if no one had a property therein. Therefore the law has given the king, not the temporalities themselves, but the custody of the temporalities, till such time as a successor is appointed; with power of taking to himself all the intermediate profits, without any account of the successor; and with the right of presenting (which the crown very frequently exercises) to such benefices and other preferments as fall within the time of vacation. This revenue is of so high a nature, that it could not be granted out to a subject, before, or even after, it accrued; but now by the statute 15 Edw. III. st. 4, c. 4 and 5, the king may, after the vacancy, lease the temporalities to the dean and chapter; saving to himself all advowsons, escheats, and the like. Our ancient kings, and particularly William Rufus, were not only remarkable for keeping the bishopricks a long time vacant, for the sake of enjoying the temporalities, but also committed horrible waste on the woods and other parts of the estate; and to crown all, would never, when the see was filled up, restore to the bishop his temporalities again unless he purchased them at [283] an exorbitant price. To remedy which, king Henry the a 2 Inst. 15. b Stat. 17 Edw. II. c. 14. F. N. B. 32. |