to be charged upon the Revenues of the Holy Church and that of the Clergy but shall claim some priviledges and exemptions therein be pleased to remember that although Simon Islip Archbishop of Canterbury being in many things a man of a severe life and discipline did write his Speculum Regis aforesaid or a book so called sharply inveighing against the Kings Pourveyors and their manner of taking the Pourveyance without money or due payment in some sence and feeling probably of the taking of it from the Clergy complained of by them in the Parliament of 18 of Edward the third they being no longer before exempted from it some only as the Abbot of Battel and others specially priviledged excepted then the first year of the Reign of that King who as Matthew Parker in the life of Walter Reynold Archbishop of Canterbury mentioneth being very well pleased with the Clergy for so freely contributing to his Warres did in Parliament not only restore unto them vetera antiquissima privilegia Ecclesiae Anglicanae the old and antient Rights of the Church of England which by Magna Charta could as to Cartâ— taking claim but the same freedom which those did who held by Knight service viz. that their own Carts used in their Demeasnes should not be taken for the Kings use but de novis auxit i. e. de non exigendis a Clero in regis hospitium esculentis poculentis vecturis similibus gave them new priviledges that is to say to be freed from furnishing of Carts and provisions of victuals for the Kings Houshold Yet he and all other the Bishops of England could at the same time and their Successors after them do unto this day justly and lawfully take receive in their Visitations once every 3 years a certain Rate or Tax set upon every Benefice propter hospitium towards the charge of their expences house keeping and victuals which saith Mr. Stephens in his learned and judicious Treatise of Procurations and Synodals are Perquisites or Profits of their Spiritual Jurisdictions as creation money given to a Duke or Earl for the maintenance of his honour and by reason of the great Trains Attendance of Bishops heretofore with one hundred or two hundred men and horses at a time some of the Visitors carrying Hounds and Hawks with them and sparing not the exempt and priviledged placed it grew to be so excessive as interdum Ecclesiastica ornamenta subditi exponere tenebantur the poor Clergy were enforced to make provision for them by selling their Church plate and ornaments and it was therefore by a Constitution of Boniface the eighth about the year 1295. ordained that the Archbishops should be limited unto 40 or 50 men and horses the Bishops to 20 or 30 the Cardinals unto 25 and the Arch-Deacons unto 5 or 7 and they were prohibited to carry Hounds and Hawks along with them and that also bringing but little ease to the inferiour Clergie saith Mr. Stephens because when victuals were not furnished they being left unlimited in Compositions or summes of money to be taken in lieu or recompence thereof broke down the doors of Monasteries and Churches taking where they were denied what they could lay their hands on which caused the Councell of Vienna in the year 1311. to declaim against and prohibit such doings which being not redressed might have put Simon Istip in mind who was betwixt that and 1349. when he was elected Arch-bishop of Canterbury in almost the zenith and heighth of his preferment as Councellor and Secretary to King Edward the third and Keeper of the Privy Seal to have written as well against the abuse of Visitations and Procurations if the Book which I have not seen and is only to be found in Sir Robert Cottons excellently well furnished library do not as I could never understand it did mention them as against the abuses in the maner of making the Kings Pourveyances But was the cause howsoever that Pope Benedict the twelfth about the year 1337. which was the eleventh year of the Reign of King Ed. 3. did make a Canon or Constitution to settle a proportionable rate of mony to be paid in lieu of victuals or provisions out of all Churches Monasteries and Religious Houses not exempted and where custome and the smalness of the Benefices have not lessened it was as Lindewood saith in the Reign of King Henry the fifth of and out of every Benefice for the Arch-Deacons procuration no less then seven shillings and six pence which was for each man attending him twelve pence towards the defraying of his charges being then a great ordinary and eighteen pence for the Arch-deacon himself as well when they did visit as when they did not And even Simon Islip himself whilest he was so busie about other mens failings was not without some of his own nor was so great a friend to Justice in every part of it or in his own particular as he might have been for when he had been as Matthew Parker Arch-Bishop of Canterbury one of his reverend and worthy Successors in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth recordeth it at some extraordinary charges in repairing of his Manor house at Wrotham in Kent and obtained a Licence from the Pope to tax all the Clergie of his Province at a great in every twenty marks towards his expences therein the Collectors did probably by his privity so order it that they gathered a Tenth which being complained of could never be refunded And if he and his Successors had not continued the custome of their Procurations and other profits raised from the Clergy towards their more honourable and necessary support would have been blamed as much as he was by Matthew Parker and others long before his time with a malè audivit for releasing to the Earl of Arundel for 240 marks the yearly payment of 26 red and fallow Deer in their seasons to the Arcbishops of Canterbury Who as well as other Bishops can take and receive Subsidium Cathedraticum which is a duty of prerogative and superiority Quarta Episcopalis which is given to them for the reparation of Churches which if the Cathedrals be not intended thereby is not bestowed upon the Parochiall Churches which the Rectors and Parishioners are now only charged with Doe continue their taking also of Proxies being an exhibition towards their charges for their visitation of Religious houses since dissolved and not now at all in being and permit their Arch-Deacons in some Dioceses to receive their Pentecostalia or Whitsun farthings for every Family yet used and taken by the Bishops Arch-Deacons of the Diocesses of Worcester and Gloucester be well pleased with some good Benefices many times allowed them in Commendam to make out and help the inequality of the Revenues of some of their Bishopricks with the greater charges and expence of their spirituall dignities And their middle sort of Clergie can be well content to eâ—ke and piece out their Benefices with
crowd in amongst them and subscribe to that rule and part of right reason in making retributions and acknowledgements to their Kings or Governors for self-preservation so as a Lord of that Country brought the Governour of the Plantation which was made there two Deer skins and in one Town they made him a present of 700 wild hens and in other Towns sent him those which they had or could get A Caâ—ique at Panico near Florida and his men as their manner is weeping in token of obedience made the Governor a Present of much Fish And this custom of Pourveyance and gratefull acknowledgments being thus diffused and to be found amongst the farre greater part of all the Nations of the world we may well conclude it to be almost as universal as the use of Beds Phisick Horses and Shooes or the custome of washing of hands and so generally as if the Sun had in his journies been imployed by God Almighty the Author of all Wisdome and Goodness to scatter and infuse it with his light into the minds and understandings of mankind And that those few places or parts of the world which have not that custome because their Kings are their Peoples Heirs take what part of their Estates they please and govern by an Arbitary power may when they arrive to a better understanding acknowledge and bewaile the want of it And that from these and the like customes of real and willing obedience love to their Princes and their honor and dignity in which their native Countries and themselves did pertake and had so great a share came those great and marvailous publick works As the Piramides of Egypt the Obelisk cut by Semiramis out of the mountains the Pensil Gardens made by Nebuchadonosor the costly and most magnificent Temple of Solomon which was seven years in building by one hundred eighty three thousand six hundred men imployed therein the second Temple at Jerusalem which was 8 years in building and 10000 workmen at a time working upon it a part of the River Euphrates cut and brought into Tigris Ninive built and walled 480 furlongs about and 10000 workmen at a time imployed The stupendious and great Wall of 40 leagues in length built in China the Picts Wall as yet a wonder in its ruines and remains built betwixt some part of England and Scotland of 80 miles in length by Adrian the Emperor and another in or near the same place by the Emperor Severus Grahams Dike in Scotland built by Carausâ—us the Vallum Barbaricum a great Wall or Trench made by the Emperor Julian in Germany to defend it against the incursions of the Barbarians the four great High-wayes or Roads in England called Watlingstreet the Fosse Erminstreet and Iknel-street leading to the four Quarters or several parts of the Kingdome the Aquaeducts stately Buildings Palaces Castles and Forts and many other publick works built by the Romans and the greatest part of the Nations of the World serving to beautifie and adorn as well as strengthen it which could never have been made or done by the greedy rates of workmen or the extremities or hire of the utmost farthing And hence it will be now time to imbark for old England and our British Isles the more antient habitation of the Britains CHAP. II. Of the Use and Allowance of Pourveyance in England and our British Isles WHere those prudential as well as antient just reasonable Customes being by a long usage of time incorporated into the Civil Law and so universally allowed and received amongst many Nations as they may well be said to be established jure naturae gentium by a Law of Nature and Nations could not be any stranger when as the Romans by the conquest of it and the Governors and Legions transported hither were not likely to leave behind them their own Lawes and Customes especially such as these which had been appropriated to Martiall affairs and the support of the Honor and Dignity of the Governours or Lievtenants of Provinces For in Britain when Julius Agricola in the Reigns of Nero and Domitian governed for the Romans such kind of Pourveyance for publick uses or support of the Magistrate was taken as Tacitus his Son in Law in his life relates when he did frumenti tributorum auctionem aequalitate munerum mollire circumscisis quae in quaestum reperta mollifie the augmentation of Tribute and Corn with equal dividing of burdens cutting of those petty extortions which grieved the Subjects more then the Tribute it self for it seemed that the Romans had ingrossed all the Corn of the Country and instituting a Monopoly thereof compelled the poor Britains to buy it again of them at their price and shortly after laying a new charge upon them as to victuall the Army or the like to sell it again under foot and the Cart-takers for carriage of provision did use to take up Carts at places farre distant and make them pay well to be spared whereas the same thing saith Sir Hen. Savile the learned Scholiast or Commentator upon Tacitus might have been done without molestation of the people but not with like gain to the Officers nor were our Ancestors the Britains so unhappy in their friends the Saxons likely to be unlearned in those customes of Pourveyance when that great and famous Lawyer Papinian did afterwards at York for some years together under the Emperor Severus as our great Selden intimates dicere docere jus Caesareum keep the Courts of Justice according to the Roman Laws and that those Lawes flourished and continued here as directors and assistants of their Government for more then 350 years after that is to say from the fiftith year of Christ to about the year 410 since when or before the Irish paid very antiently their Coshery or exactio Dynastae Hibernici quando ab incolis sub ejus potèstate clientela victum hospitium capiebat pro seipso suaque sequela Tributes to their Kings or Rulers of lodging and victuals for them and their Retinue and so long continued it as it is not yet out of the memory of some men with how much honour and esteem an Earl of Desmond lived in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth amongst his Tenants in Ireland where when he yearly made his Progress they having comfortable bargains were some for one day and night others for two and some for a greater part of time to entertain him and his no small company And those reasonable Customes of Pourveyance without destroying of property have not been disused but have with relation to publick uses or benefits kept company with our municipall Lawes and Customes during all the Saxon times untill the Reign of Canutus the Danish King who notwithstanding his Agreement with King Edmond Ironside made in a single combat in Alney Mead before Gloucester in Campo Martio view of the Danish and English Armies to divide the Kingdomes of England and Denmark betwixt them having by the death of
upon any expedition by land or sea he was to have out of that Manor twenty shillings to feed his Buzcarles Mariners or Seamen or took for every five hides of land or that then esteemed honorable quantity of land a man with him But howsoever if that of Canutus discharging Pourveyance were a Law neither altered nor repealed it did but like his Laws touching Ordeal and delivering over the Murderer to the Kindred other of his Laws which proved to be unpracticable rather make the matter worse then better by his renouncing Pourveyance in his own Demeasnes for that Law and Resolution of his did meet with so little observance as in the Reign of King William Rufus and a great part of the Reign of his Brother King Henry the First the Kings Servants and Court for want of their former provisions grew to be so unruly as multitudo eorum qui curiam ejus sequebantur quaeque pessundaâ—ent diriperent nulla eos cohibente disciplina totam terram per quam Rex ibat devastarent and a multitude following the Court took and spoiled every thing in the way which the King went there being no discipline or good order taken Et dum reperta in Hospitiis quae invadebant penitus absumere non valebant ea aut ad forum per eosdem ipsos quoruÌ„ erant pro suo lucro ferre ac vendere aut supposito igne cremare â—ut â—i potus esset lotis exinde equâ—rum suorum pedibus residuum illius per terram effundere aut aliquo alio modo disperdere solebant and when they could not consume that which they found in the houses whereinto they had broken made the owners carry it to the Market and sell it for them or else burnt their provisions or if it were drink washed their horses feet with it or poured it upon the ground in so much as quique preâ—ognito regis advenâ—u sua habitacâ—l a fugithant every one hearing before hand of the Kings coming would run away from their houses which probably bringing in a dearth or scarcity of coâ—n might be the cause of the Tenants of the Kings Demeasne Lands bringing in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the First for then it was and not before as it appears by Edmerus and William of Malmsbury who lived in his time to the King their Plowshares instead of Corn to Court on their backs and making heavy complaints of their poverty and misery procured that King to change their Rents which before were used to be paid for the most part in corn cattle and provisions and were wont abundantly to supply his houshold occasions and with which in primitivo regno statu post conquisitionem the Kings of England from the Conquest untill then did plentifully as Gervasius Tilburienâ—is who lived also in his Reign hath related defray the charges of their Courts and Housholds into money with six pence in the pound overplus left the value of the mony should afterwards diminish but whether Canutâ—â— his Law were then in force or not or could be sufficient to abrogate those Jura Majestatis Rights or Prerogatives of our English Kings we find King Henry the first after those disorders in his greatest compliance with the English and his need of their aid to defend him against the pretensions and better Title of his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy and his couâ—ting of them unto it per libertates quas sanctus Rex Edwardus spiritu Dei provide sancivit by the antient Lawes and Liberties of holy King Edward which he had granted them and a promise to grant them any other retaining his Pourveyance and putting it into better order for as William Malmesbury hath recorded it Curialibus suis ubicunque villarum esset quantum a Rusticis gratis accipere quantum quoto praetio emere debuissent edixit transgressores vel gravi pecuniarum mulcta vel vitae dispendio afficiens directing and ordering those of his Court in whatsoever places he should abide what and how much they were to receive from the Country people gratis and without money and at what prices and rates they should buy other things under great penalties of money or punishment by death and was optimatibus venerabilis provincialibus amabilis reverenced by the Nobility and beloved by the common people and in his Charter which was for a gâ—eat part of it the original of our Magna Charta where omnes malas consuetudines quibus regnum Angliae iniuste opprimebatur inde aufert he took away all the evill Customs with which England was oppressed Et quas as the Charter saith in parte hic posuit and which were in part recited and with which the discontented Barons Nobility of England claiming their antient Liberties were so well contented in the 14. year of the Reign of King John when Steven Langton Archbishop of Canterbury produced it unto them as gavisi sunt gaudio magno valdè juraverunt omnes quod pro hiis libertatibus si necesse fuerit decertabunt usque ad mortem they greatly rejoyced and swore that they would if need were contend unto death for those Liberties there is no mention of any evil in Pourveyance nor any order for the taking of them away And might as justly rationally continue in the Raign of King Henry the second his Grandchild as that custome or usage for the Bishops and dignified Clergy to take their provisions of the Inferior Clergy and their Carriages or Carts which Pope Alexander in a Councel or Synod held at Rome where were present the Bishops of Durham Norwich Hereford and Bath and divers Abbots sent from England did notwithstanding many complaints not against the Pourveyance it self but the immoderate use of it onely limit and restrain them secundum tolerantiam in illis locis in quibus amâ—liores fuerint redditus Ecclesiasticae facultates in pauperibus autem mensura tenenda to be moderately taken in such places as had more large possessions and Ecclesiastical Revenues and less of those who were in a poorer condition and then and long before the Domini hundredorum Lords or great men having the command or jurisdiction of Hundreds uti comes aut vicecomes as the Eaâ—l or Sheriff of the County had multa inde auxilia tributa sectas aliasque praestationes cum ad utilitatem tum ad voluptateÌ„ CerereÌ„ nempe frumentuÌ„ receperunt c and received many aids tributes and Pourveyances aswel conducing to their profit as pleasure cujus hodie nomine Annuum penditur tributum pecuniarum for which now there is a certain rent in mony paid Nor could the rights of Pouâ—veyance Prae-emption be any thing less then denizend in Scotland or the Northern parts of our British Isles when as the Civil and universal Law of the World was there so long ago entertained and yet continues the great Director and Guider of their Justice where in
as they can they doe with Trumpets Drums and Musick by water in their several Barges adorned with the Banners and Arms of their Companies or Gilds conduct and attend their Lord Maior to be sworn at Westminster although the City of London and every Company in London are abundantly or very well endowed with lands of inheritance of a great yearly value and great stocks of money by Gifts and Legacies And no less reason then the imposing of a penny upon every Broad Cloth brought to sale to Blackwell-hall in London to be paid to the Chamberlain of London to the use of the City for Hallage which the Judges of the Kings Bench in Mich. Terme 32 33 Eliz. in the Chamberlain of Londons Case adjudged to be lawfull because it was as they then declared pro bono publico in regard of the benefits which the Subjects enjoyed thereby and for the maintenance of the weal publick and can not be said to be a charge to the Subject when he reaps benefit thereby and resembled it to Pontage Murage Toll and the like which as appeareth by the book of 13 H. 4.14 being reasonable the Subject will have more benefit by it then the charge amounts unto and that the Inhabitants of a Town or Parish may without any Custome make Ordinances and Bylawes for the reparation of a Church or High-wayes or any thing which is for the weal publick and in such cases the greater part shall bind all the rest And as much to be approved as the wages of the Knights of the Shires and Burgesses coming to Parliaments which are taxed and levied of the Counties Cities and Boroughs some few as those which hold any Lands parcel of an Earldome or Barony only excepted and the charges of the Convocation or Clergy assessed upon the Clergy The Synodals Procurations Proxies and payments made and paid by every Minister to defray the charges of the Arch Deacons in their Visitations every year and the Bishops every three years who are enabled to recover them by the Statute of 34 and 35 of Henry the eighth cap. 19. Oblations Easter and other offerings for the further supply and maintenance of the Ministry Tributes Customes and allowances to Governors of Colonies and Plantations as Virginia new-New-England Barbados c. or 10 s. or some other rate given by Merchants to the Consuls at Venice Smirna Aleppo Ligorne c. towards their support to assist them in the matter of Trade and procuring Justice from the Superiors of the Territories The Pensions Admissions and Payments in the Universities and the severall Colleges and Halls therein for their support with Taxes also sometimes imposed for publick Entertainments of the King Queen Prince Chancellor of the University or some other Grandees although every Colledge and Hall is endowed with large yearly and perpetuall Revenues in Lands the Admittances yearly Pensions and Payments together with the sale and rent of many Chambers in the Inns of Court Chancery or Colledges or Houses of Law towards the maintenance charges and support of the honour of those Societies and contributions not seldome made and enforced towards publick Treatments and Masques the payments and rates in Parishes for Pews Burialls tolling a passing Bell or ringing him and his companions at Funerals which if not enough to defray the charges of the many Feasts and Meetings of the Church-wardens and Petty States of the Parish repairing of the Church new painting and adorning it buying new Bell-ropes casting one or more Bells building the Steeple something higher or making a sumptuous Diall with a gilded Time and Hour-glass are sure enough to be enlarged by a Parish Rate or Tax more then it comes to Or that which is paid by the poor Tankard or Water-Bearers at the Conduits in London where every one payeth three shillings and six pence at his admittance and a penny a quarter towards the support of that pittifull Society Or those contributions sic magna componere parvis to represent great things by small and the vegetation or manner of the growth of an Oak by that of the lowly Shrubs which are made by a more impoverished sort of people the Prisoners for Debt in Ludgate by Orders and Constitutions so necessary is Government and Order and the support thereof even in misery of their own sorrowfull making in their narrow confinements that the Assistant which is monethly chosen by all the Prisoners to attend in the Watch-hall all day to call down prisoners to strangers which come to speak with them change money for the Cryers at the Grates keep an accompt in writing what money or gifts are every day sent to the Prisoners or given to the Box to charge the Steward with it upon the Accompt day see the Accompts truly cast up the Celler cleared by ten of the clock at night of all Prisoners and the Prisoners to be at their Lodgings quietly and civily hath his share of six pence allowed out of the Charity money every night whereof two pence is to be for the Assistant two pence for the Master of the Box and the other two pence allowed in mony or drink unto him which is the running Assistant or unto the Scavenger for bearing 2 candles before him at nine of the clock at night and rings the bell for Prayers is the Cryer for sale at the Markets for the Charity men of light bread taken by the Lord Maior or Sheriffs chumps of Beefe or any other things sent in by the City Clerk of the Market and unsized Fish by the water Bayliffe with many other small employments for which his Salery is four shillings eight pence per moneth and two pence out of the sixteen pence paid by every Prisoner at his first coming And the Scavenger who is to keep the house clean hath for his standing Salery five shillings eight pence per moneth two pence for every Prisoner at his first coming out of the sixteen pence table-money by him paid and a penny out of every Fine imposed upon offenders for the breach of any orders Every Prisoner paying at his first coming besides many other Fees fourteen pence for entring his name and turning the key five shillings for a Garnish to his Chamber-fellows to be spent in coals and candles for their own use or for a Dinner or Supper and sixteen pence to one of the Stewards of the House for Table-money out of which candles are to be bought for the use of the House every night set up in places necessary c. notwithstanding that it hath above 60 l. per annum belonging unto it charged upon lands in perpetuity and many other considerable and misused Legacies which have been setled and bestowed upon that should be well priviledged Prison And as much and more reasonable as the generall protection and defence is above any particular and the publick benefits do exceed any that are private as those payments and services which being derived from gratitude or retribution for
benefits received which highly pleasing the Almighty and being lovely in the eyes of all men which are not only enjoyed but held fast and enforced by all the Nobility Gentry and richer sort of men in England when it happens to be denied as the services and customes of all their Tenants to grind their corn at their Lords Mill or baking their bread at his common Oven in some Borough or Market Town The Reliefs in Tenures by Knight Service or Chivalry fixed and appropriate unto those Fewds and Tenures and paid at the death of every Tenant dying seised being at the first never condescended unto by the Tenants by any paction or stipulation betwixt them and their Lords But although there was antiently and originally betwixt the Lord and the Tenant mutua fides tuendae salutis dignitatis utriusque saith Bodin a mutual obligation betwixt the Tenant and the Lord to defend one anothers Estate and Dignity or as Craig saith pactionibus interpositis de mutua Tutela upon certain agreements to defend one another were lately notwithstanding received and taken by the Nobility and Gentry as a gratitude and in that and no other respect were by the Tenants willingly paid unto them The Reliefs paid by the Heirs of Freeholders in Socage after the death of their Ancestors which being not paid by Tenants for years by a rack Rent do appear to have no other commencement but in signum subjectionis gratitudinis a thankfull acknowledgement for benefits received Or those duties payments which many Lords and Gentry doe enjoy in Cumberland Westmerland and many of the other Northern Counties which were not at the first by any original contract or agreement as to their Tenants particular services for so it could not be a custome but the Tenants at the first upon the only reason of gratitude untill it had by length of time and usage uninterrupted gained the force of a custome and that the succeeding Heirs and Tenants were admitted according to those customes did as willingly observe and acknowledge them The Fines incertain at the will of severall Lords which the Nobility and Gentry of other parts of England do receive and take of their Copihold Tenants under the penalty of a forfeiture if not paid in a reasonable time after they were assessed and the priviledges which they retain of seising their Tenants Copihold Lands as forfeit whether the Fines were certain or incertain if they sued Replevins against them distraining for their Rents or Services and had no other parents or originall untill custome had settled it then the Tenants gratefull acknowledgements of the Lords or his Ancestors former kindess and benefits bestowed upon them or their Progenitors And the Socage Lands and Freeholders might be Tallied or have a Tax laid upon them by their Lords at their will and pleasure as their necessities or occasions required as well before as after the Statute de Tallagio non concedendo made betwixt the years 25 34 Ed. 1. and if it had been an Act of Parliament and not a Charter could bind only the King as to his extraordinary but not to his legall Tallages untill custome by the kindness or favour of time and the curtesie and good will of their Lords did permit them by a desuetude of imposing and a well rellished custome of the Tenants not paying to enjoy their easie and cheap bargains and freedome of their Lands for which they should doe well to remember better then they doe their Benefactors and be more mannerly and gratefull then of late they have been and were before those indulgencies held to be so accustomed and usual as it was not seldome found by Inquisitions and Juries upon oath that such or such land was holden Et Talliari potest c. And might have Taxes or a greater Rent laid upon them by the Lord of the Manor in so much as the Kings demeasne Lands were not free from Tallage which will be evident enough by a presentment of a Jury of Nottinghamshire before the Justices in Eyre in anno 8 E. 1. or King Edward the first when the Kings Letters Patents of a Grant of the Town of Retford to the Burgesses thereof and their Heirs in Fee Farm was found and mentioned in these words viz. Edwardus Dei gratia c. Sciatis nos concessisse c. Burgensibus nostris de Retford quod ipsi eorum haeredes de cetero habeant teneant ad feodi firmam de nobis haeredibus nostris in perpetuum villam nostram de Retford cum pertnen reddendo inde nobis haeredibus nostris per manus suas proprias decem libras per annum ad Scaccarium nostrum ad festum Sancti Michaelis pro omnibus serviciis c. Salvo inde nobis haeredibus nostris Tallagio nostro cum nos haeredes nostris Dominica nostra per Angliam fecimus Talliari c. reserving to himself and his Heirs a Fee Farme Rent of ten pounds per annum and the power of Tax or Tallage or improving what he had granted unto them when he should have occasion to make a Taxe or Tallage upon all his Demesne Lands in England And untill Rents were racked of which the Kings of England and the Officers of their Revenue in land were seldom or never yet much guilty that Rents were improved as high as the profits of Lands all the Lands of England except the Copihold Customary lands by Fines certain the curtesie of time and their Landlords suffering their good will and charity to be reduced into thankless customs escaped it were liable to be made contributaries to many of the necessities or occasions of the Lords of Manors who formerly did not make Leases and take Fines to lessen the rents as they doe now by a high rate or rule of interest and disadvantages procuring their rents to be advanced as it were in the name of a Fine before hand nor if the Lands were holden in Capite by Knight service untill time and their Princes favours had disused it could make a Lease unto any Tenant of such Lands but by licence and then also for no longer a term then 3. or 7. years And their Lands and Rents except Capite and Knight-service and Copihold land and lands in Frank Almoigne being capable of no higher Rents or improvement cannot now be any more by them Tallied which in effect is but a calling for more rent or raising it which every Landlord may do where his Tenants are at Will or when their Leases are expired when they are now all but those Lands before excepted as to the King and the mesne Lords and the Lands of the Freeholders and Cop holders at the utmost or a very high rent And such Tallage is at this day not laid aside by our Neighbours of France in very many places were les Tailles se paient par ceuz du Tiers estat c'est a dire par les habitans
in many as Canterbury York Durham Lincoln Coventry and Lichfield Exeter Ely Winchester and Norwich much abated when as now by the rise of mony and prises they are greatly different from what they then weâ—e and are of some of those Benefices and Spiritual Promotions but the eighth or tenth and of many but the twentieth part And receives his prae-Fines and post-Fines Licences and Pardons of Alienation upon Common Assurances at less then a tenth and many times less then a twentieth part of the true yearly values of the lands or rates which the Law ordering the compositions to be upon oath intendeth him after the example of his Royal Father who permitted the yearly value of lands in Capite and by Knight-service to be found by Juries and Inquisitions at the tenth part of the now true yearly value when as by oath they were to find and certifie the true yearly values and all the Lands of the Kingdome but his own are raised and improved generally ten to one or very much in very many parts and particulars thereof more then what they were two hundred years last past in or about the Reign of King Henry the sixth when as the errable and pasture lands which are now in Middlesex let at fifteen or sixteen shillings per annum an Acre and Meadow commonly at forty shillings and sometimes at three pounds the Acre were in Anno 1 Ed. 3. at a farre lesser yearly value when two Toftes of Land one Mill fifty acres of Land and two acres of Wood in Kentish Town near London was of no greater yearly value then 20 s. and 3 d. and the courser sort of pasture land in Essex now let for 8 or 9 s. the Acre and Meadow at twenty or thirty shillings the Acre was then in that Countie and in many fertill Counties within sixty miles and farre less of London valued but at eight pence per annum and four or five pence the Acre errable and the like valuations were holden in licences of Mortmain in all his extents or values of lands seised for taken into his hands Received their primer seisins at the like small yearly rate and took for suing out of Liveries which may be resembled to a Copiholders admittance not a fifth part proportionably to what is now paid by Copiholders to their Lords of Manors and respites of homage as they were taxed and set in anno primo Jacobi in a very easie manner Did not in the valuation of Lands and Estates as some Lords of Manors have been known to doe whereby to rack and oppress the Widdows and Fatherless employ some Sycophants or Flatterers of the Manor to over-value them or have some Decoyes in the assessing of Fines to seem willing to pay or give as much when they are sure to have a good part of it privately restored unto them again or cause their poor Tenants to be misled and the more willingly cozen themselves by crediting hard and erroneous Surveyes taking Leases of their Copihold Estates or using some other unwarrantable and oppressive devices worse then the Pharisaicall Committees did in the renting of lands they had no title unto when they did put men to box one another by overbidding themselves at their wickedly improving Boxes But did according to his Father King James his instructions given to his Councel of the Court of Wards in the assessing of Fines for the Marriages of the Wards and renting of their Lands which too many of the Nobility and Gentry and other of his Subjects did never or very seldome order the Stewards of their Manors to doe order that upon considerations which might happen therein either by reason of the broken estate of the deceased want of provision for his wife his great charge of children unprovided for infirmity or tenderness of the Heirs incertainty of the title or greatness of the incumbrances upon the Lands they should have liberty as those or the like considerations should offer themselves to use that good discretion and conscience which should befit in mitigating Fines or Rents to the relief of such necessities Suffers the Fees of his Chancery and Courts of Common-pleas and Kings-Bench for the small Seals to be receved as they were in the Reign of King Ed. 3. and the Tenths reserved upon the Abby and Religious lands at no greater an yearly value then they were in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the eighth when they were first granted though now they are of a four times or greater yearly value The Fees of the Seals of Original and Judiciall Writs and Process in Wales as they were in the 34. year of the Reign of King Henry the eighth when the English Courts of Justice were there first erected takes six pence a piece for Capons reserved for Rent in Queen Elizabeths time the issues of lands forfeited unto him upon Writs of distringas at such small rates as six shillings eight pence upon one distringas and 10 s. at another which the Law intendeth to be the profits of the Lands distrained betwixt the Teste and the return of the Writs which would have amounted unto twenty times or a great deal more and receiveth his Fines upon Formedons and othe real Actions granted and issuing out of the Chancery at most gentle and moderate rates his Customes inward and outward at easie rates proportionable to such small values as the Merchants advantage to themselves shall give in or the Officers or Commissioners for the King at the Custome-houses shall at randome and without view think to be a favourable and easie estimate Some single ones of which before recited undervaluations besides the profits of the Tolls of Fairs and Markets if rightly and justly paid according to the true improved values or two of the most of them would make up in a constant Revenue unto him a great deal more then the Compositions for his Pourveyances yearly and lately amounted unto by the difference betwixt his rates or prices and those of the Market A due consideration whereof if there were nothing else to put in the Ballance might induce the Earls Marquesses and Dukes of England who have received their honors and dignities from his Royal Progenitors to permit him as well to enjoy his Pourveyance and reasonable support maintenance of the honor of himself and his Royal Family as they doe take and receive of him their Creation monies being antiently a third part of the fines and profits of the Counties whereof the Earls are denominated since reduced to a certain and yearly sum of money when as also not a few of them have had great and large Revenues given them by his Royal Progenitors to uphold and sustein their Dignities and Honors And the Bishops whose Bishopricks and Baronies and most of the Revenues belonging unto them were of the foundation of the Kings Royal Ancestors and received their Investitures and Temporalties from him may if they shall think the Compsitions for Pourveyances ought not
promises of gratitude and thankfulness after they are had and received to have given him in perpetuity as much or a great deal more than ever the Pâ—aeemption Pourveyance or Composition for it would have amounted unto and imprecated curses and woes as many or more then the plagues of Egypt to have fallen upon them and their after generations neglecting it for it is ever to be understood that the Subsidies Assessements and other Ayds given to the Kings and Princes of England by their Subjects and People in Parliament or at any time taken or otherwise received by them have been more with respect unto their own particular Estates included in the safety of his greater and his granting them free and general pardons not only for offences criminal committed one against another but for offences committed against the King and incroachments and intrusions upon the royal Revenves and for his Royal protection and defending of them and preserving them in their peace and plenty then as for any retributions or acknowledgements of their favours shewed to any or many in particular There being as much reason for the King to expect and receive the presents or acknowledgements of his people as it was for King Solomon to take his presents sine quibus saith the great and excellently learned Grotius Reges Orientis adire non solebant without which the people were accustomed not to come unto their Kings and continued long after to be a custome as may be understood by the Kings or Wise men coming out of the East to worship and adore our blessed Saviour at his birth and is at this day not disused in the Africk and Asiatick Countries And did not nor ought to dull or lessen the alacrity and payment of other necessary duties and tributes when as Solomon besides the provisions of his Houshold brought and served in every year by a rate and what he had of the Governors of the Countrey which if they were not provisions or conducing thereunto might be some other Tributes and did receive Gold and Tributes or Customs of the Merchant men of the Trafâ—ick of the Spice Merchants For if it hath been reason every where and amongst all Nations where either subjection and duty to superiors or humane prudence had any entertainment or abode to take as much care as may be of general and publick safeties when the safeties of particulars are included and comprehended in them and to be willing in the common or publick calamities of a Warre already fastned upon them or hope to prevent them readily to contribute to their Princes or permit them to take provisions sometimes without any price at all and at other times but at reasonable prises in order to their preservation or repelling of evils or inconveniences which would a great deal more molest or trouble them or to give him or his Army free quarter as the men of Israel Juda did unto David their King or bring or send victuals and provisions to his Camp or marching Army and can think it no ill husbandry though they have but the day before paid contribution to the Enemy had much of their Cattel and Provisions taken away by the Enemy a Husband Brother or Sonne killed women and children slain and butchered and the bloody and dreadfull Scenes or Pageants of Warre every where to be seen heard of or lamented or to do as the Danes did lately to the unjustly invading Swedes give money to keep their houses from spoiling or burning It can be no less then reason to contribute something yearly to a King who not only keeps us from those and many other woes and miseries by land and by Sea but daily heapes and multiplies his blessings upon us in protecting and defending us and not only gave many of us our Vineyards but procureth us all to sit quietly under the shadow pleasure content and fruitfulness of our owâ— vines and by his care at home and abroad preserves us and our Estates in an envied peace and plenty And be the more willing to allow him his Praeemption and Compositions for Pourveyance which amounts not unto the two hundreth or five hundreth part and sometimes not the one thousand part or more of the expence and losses which warre and the many times not to be avoided unruliness and spoil thereof may bring upon them Unless like Ulisses Companions transformed into Swine by the accursed charms of a Cirâ—e or inticements of selfish or foolish interests for the maintenance of our vices and luxuries we should think it to be either Religion Duty Conscience Reason or Prudence to take all we can from a King who is the Guardian of all his people and a nursing Father to the Church which his Royal Progenitors Kings of England were so long agoe accustomed to rank amongst their principall cares as in the 23. year of the Reign of King Edward the first it was alledged in a pleading and allowed for law right reason that Ecclesia est infra aetatem in custodia Regis qui tenetur jura haereditates ejusdem manu tenere defendere the Church is as an Infant under age and in the custody of the King who is bound to defend and maintain its rights estates and hereditaments who governs by no Arbitrary will or power but by our known Lawes which are so excellent beyond all the Laws of other Nations so rational so binding and transcendent so carefully watching over the peoples liberties and proprieties such a Buckler Guard and strong Tower of defence unto them and poenal to all that shall but execute any unjust or illegall commands tending to the violation of them not to be denied by the most seditious and undutifull Subjects when they shall but be pleased to be friends and at peace with their reason and understanding as if by any divine punishment proceeding from an iratum Numen an angry and just God after ages should find England to be governed by a King or Prince as cruel as Nero or Commodus and as arbitrary and unruly as some of the Roman or Eastern Emperors have been there cannot untill the sword shall have cut the strings of our Magna Charta and silenced or banished the Laws be any oppression or evil happen to the people without the Balm of Gilead and remedies as quickly brought and found out by our Lawes as there can be any necessities or occasions of them Wherefore we should not like people altogether transported and carried out of humanity into a Lycanthropia or woolfish nature think it to be rationall honest or becoming us instead of every mans saying Domine quid retribuam Lord what shall I render thee for all thy benefits to make it the greatest of our care imployment and business not only to take from the King but keep all we can from him And if they would or could tell how to doe it without the just reproach of disloyalty dishonesty and villany should not do it in his
some immunities and priviledges to them their successors and after generations in perpetuity When some families may be forever made happy as one was in a progress of King James when a careful Gentlewoman with her seven young children having too small an estate to educate them being purposely placed in a stand where the King was brought to shoot at a Deer and pleasantly tendred to the King as a Hen with her seven Chicken gave his Princely charity and bounty the opportunity to take them into his care and service when they came to be fit for it and brought either all or most of them to great preferments when poor people or their children being lame or diseased with the sickness called the Kings Evil may be freed from their otherwise tedious journeys and charges in going to London their abode there and returning home which if a Tax were laid upon their Parishes to furnish would come to as much if not more then the charge of Cart taking and Pourveyance did cost them When our Pool of Bethesda shall be Itinerant and the good Angel shall yearly ride his Circuit to bring blessings and cures to those that need it and where a multitude of people shall not be the cause of uncovering the roof of any house to let down the sicke in their beds to be healed All which with many other comforts and benefits which the King by his progress or residence brings to all which are or shall be near it The City of York in the North parts of England and her adjacent and neighbor Provinces would purchase at a greater rate then the Pourveyances or Compositions for them do or did ever yearly amount unto and being like to be gâ—eat and glad gainers by it would be most chearfully willing and ready to carry or remove his travailing goods or utensils from or to any of his Royal houses at his no contemptible or unreasonable rates or Prices Oâ— the City of Worcester or Town of Shrowsbury with their adjacent bordering Shires would in the prospect or certain gain of it be not at all discontented or troubled at the neighboâ—hood of such an enriching staple comfort Which every man may believe when as he must be a great stranger to England as well as to common sense and understanding who cannot apprehend how much relief an old fashioned English Gentlemans house for we must distinguish betwixt rich hospitable good men and those who being weary of Gods long continued mercies and patience do think they are not Gentlemen or well educated if they do not swear as fast as they can God damne me and the devil take me and make themselves and their wives and children their estate and all that they have the prey and business of Taylors Vintners Cooks Pimps Flatterers and all that may consume them is unto two or three Cottages or poor peoples houses near unto it what small Villages and Towns and how mean unfrequented and poor Oxford and Cambridge were before the founding of those famous Universities and the Colledges and Halls in them How many Villages and some Borrough Towns have been founded and built by the warmth and comfort of the Kings Palaces as Woodstock c. how many have been built or much augmented by the neighborhood of Abbies and Monasteries c. as Evesham Reding Bangor St. Albans c. and of Bishops houses as Croydon Lambeth c. though many or most of the Religious Houses in England and Wales were at the first designed intended for solitude How many great Towns and Villages in Middlesex Essex and Kent have been more then in other Counties more remote built or much augmented and increased by the Kings residence at London and the Port Towns and conveniency for Shipping How many Farmers in Berkshire and other Counties near London have more then in those farther distant converted their Barns into Gentlemens Halls or stately houses and began their Gentility with great and plentiful revenues to support it What addresses or suites are often made to Judges in their Circuits to transfer the keeping of the Assizes from some City or Shire Town to some other Town in the County to help or do them some good by the resort and company which comes to the Assizes as to keep it at Maidstone and not at Canterbury in the County of Kent at Woolverhampton not at Stafford in the County of Stafford c. or to keep Terms in a time of Pestilence and adjornment from London to St. Albans Hertford or Reding how like an Antwerp or the Skeleton or ruins of a forsaken City the Suburbs of London now the greatest and beautifullest part of it would be if the residence of the King and his Courts of Justice should be removed from thence or discontinued How many thousand families would be undone and ruined and how those stately buildings would for want of that daily comfort which they received by it moulder and sink down inter rudera under its daily â—uines and give leave to the earth and grass to cover and surmount them and turn the new Troy if that were not a fable into that of the old Which the Citizens of London very well understood when in the raign of King Richard the second and the infancy of those blessings and riches which since have hapned to that City by the Kings of England making it to be their darling or Royal Chamber that King was so much displeased with them as besides a fine of ten thousand pounds imposed upon them for some misdemeanors their liberties seised their Maior committed prisoner to the Castle of Windsor and diverse Aldermen and substantial Citizens arrested he removed his Court from London where not long before at a solemn Justes or Tourney he had kept open house for all comers they most humbly and submissively pacified â—im and procured his return to so great a joy of the Citizens as they received him with four hundred of their Citizens on horseback clad all in one Liveâ—y and pâ—esented the King and Queen with many rich gifts All which and more which may happen by the Kings want of his Pourveyance or Compositions for them and keeping him and his Officers and Servants in want of money or streightning him or them in their necessaries and daily provisions may perswade every man to subscribe to these Axioms that the more which the King hath the more the people have That whosoever cozens and deceives the King cozens and deceives the people that the wants and necessities of the King and common parent which is to be supplyed by the people are and will become their own wants and necessities That it cannot be for the good or honor of the Nation that the King who is not onely Anima Cor Caput Radix Reipublicae the Soul heart head and foundation of the Commonwealth but the defender and preserver of it should either want or languish in his honor and estate when as unusquisque subditorum saith Valdesius Regi ut
to the King many if not all of which were by Priviledges or otherwise exempted from Pourveyance and being at a low and great undervalue in the latter end of the Raign of King Henry the Eighth now above one hundred years since of the yearly value of one hundred eighty six thousand five hundred twelve pounds eight shillings peny farthing now improved unto more then Ten times that yeerly value are for the most part of them come to be the inheritance of Lay-men And too much of the Revenues of Bishops which by a sacrilegious alienation from the Church are not enjoyed by any of the sons of Levy A great part of the Lands belonging to Monasteries or Religious houses by custome or exemption become Tythe free The greatest part of 3845. Appropriations or Impropriations which had been formerly designed and given ad mensam unto several Monasteries and Religious houses for the better support and maintenance of their hospitality and which before contributed nothing to the Kings Pourveyance now made to be a Temporal and Lay inheritance Many Forrests and Chaces and a great part of other Forrests and Chases Deafforrested much Assart lands and many Parks converted to Tillage or Pasture No Escuage paid since the Reign of King Henry the sixth nor Aid leavyed to make the Kings eldest son a Knight or to marry his eldest daughter for above fifty years during the Reign of King Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth and very many Copy-hold estates which usually paid nothing at all to the provisions for the Kings houshold converted into Freeholds Many Fenns and Imbancked Marshes consisting of some hundred thousand Acres Drained or recovered from the Sea An Espargne or saving more then formerly of much money very far surmounting the yearly charge damage or losses by the Kings Pouâ—veyances in the purchase or procuring the Popes Bulls which as was affirmed in the Parliament of 25 H. 8. had betwixt that time and the fourth year of the Reign of King H. 7. cost the people of this Kingdome threescore thousand pounds Steâ—ling by being no more troubled with provisions to Benefices many chargeable Oblations to the Church and mony spent in Lamps or Taâ—ers Pourveyance or provisions for the Popes Legates Shrines Copes Altarages extraordinary Masses Dirges Trentals relaxations faculties grants aboltions Pensions Censes Procurations rescripts appeals and long and chargeable journyes to Rome where as well as in England as their own Monkes and Wâ—iters affirm the Pope did Angariis Injuriis miseros exagitare poll and pill the wretched English made Walter Gray a Bishop of England in the Reign of King H. 3. pay one thousand pounds for his Pall and at the breaking up of every general Council extorted of every Prelate a great sum of money before he would give them leave to depart chid William Abbot of St. Albans for coming to take leave of him without any present and when he offered him fifty marks checked and inforced him before he went out of his Chamber to pay one hundred Marks the fashion being then for every man to pay dear for his Benedictions lay down his money ready told before his Holiness feet and if present Cash was wanting the Popes Merchants and Usurers were at hand but upon very hard conditions to supply it And so great were his Emunctiones as Mathew Paris calls them exactions and impositions in England as a bloody Wolf tearing the Innocent sheep by sometimes exacting a third part of the Clergies goods and at other times a twentieth by aides towards the defraying of his own wars and other pretences sometimes exacting the one half of an yearly revenew of their Benefices and enjoyning them under the penalty of their then dreadful Excommunications not to complain of it or publish it sending his Legats or Predicatores to wring and preach money out of the peoples purses pro negotio Crucis under coloâ—r of making a war to regain Jerusalem and the Holy Land out of the hands of the Saracens and by such a multitude of other contrivances and extorsions as all the Abbotts of England vulâ—u Flebili capite dâ—â—nisso were with great sorrow and lamentation enforced to complain to the King of the impossibility of satisfying the Pope eos incessanter torquenâ—i incessantly grinding tormenting them of his avarice and exactions toto â—undo detestabiles to be abhorred of all the world By Dispensations pardons liceâ—ces Indulgencies vows pilgrimages Writs calâ—ed perinde valere breeves and other instruments of sâ—â—dry natures names and kinds in great 〈◊〉 which in the Act of Parliament of â—5 H. 8. 〈…〉 the exonerating of the Kings subjects from 〈…〉 and impositions paid to the See of Rome 〈…〉 said to have greatly decayed and impoverished 〈◊〉 â—â—tâ—llerable exactions of great sums of money the subjects of the Realm A freedom from the chargeable giving of great quâ—ntities of Lands for Chantries and the weaniâ—g of that Clergy by the reformation of the Church oâ— England from their over-sucking or making sore the Breasts or Nipples of the common people which the murmuring men of these times would if they had as their forefathers tried it more then seven times and over and over be of the opinion of Piers the Plowman in Chaucer who being of the Romish Church wrote in the unfortunate Reign of King Richard the second when the Hydra of our late Rebellious devices spawned by the not long before ill grounded Doctrines and treasonable positions of the two Spencers father and son began to Craule complaining That the Friars followed folke that were rich And folk that were poor at little price they set And no Cors in the Kyrkeyard nor Kyrke was buried But quick he bequeth them ought or quit part of his det Adviseth his friend Go confesse to some Frier and shew him thy synnes For while Fortune is thy frend Friers will thee love And fetch the to their Fraternity and for thee beseech To their Prior Provinciall a pardon to have And pray for the pole by pole if thou be pecunâ—osus Brings in a Frier perswading a sick Farmer to make his confession to him rather then to his Parish Priest and requesting him as he lay upon his death-bed to bestow a Legacy upon his Covent Give me then of thy Gold to make our Cloister Quoth he for many a Muskle and many an Ouster When other men have been full well at ease Hath been our food our Cloister for to rease And yet God wot unneath the foundement Performed is ne of our pavement Is not a Tile yet within our wones By God we owen fourty pound for stones And in his Prologue to his Canterbury Tales thus Characters such a Frier Full sweetly heard he confession And pleasant was his absolution He was an easie man to give pennance There as he wist to have a good pitance The diâ—use of the old and never grudged course of Sponte Oblata's gifts or presents to the King and the