fit of each living by the same valuation; which was also
claimed by the holy see, under no better pretence than a strange
misapplication of that precept of the Levitical law, which directs[n],
"that the Levites should offer the tenth part of their tithe as a
heave-offering to the Lord, and give it to Aaron the _high_ priest."
But this claim of the pope met with vigorous resistance from the
English parliament; and a variety of acts were passed to prevent and
restrain it, particularly the statute 6 Hen. IV. c. 1. which calls it
a horrible mischief and damnable custom. But the popish clergy,
blindly devoted to the will of a foreign master, still kept it on
foot; sometimes more secretly, sometimes more openly and avowedly: so
that, in the reign of Henry VIII, it was computed, that in the compass
of fifty years 800000 ducats had been sent to Rome for first-fruits
only. And, as the clergy expressed this willingness to contribute so
much of their income to the head of the church, it was thought proper
(when in the same reign the papal power was abolished, and the king
was declared the head of the church of England) to annex this revenue
to the crown; which was done by statute 26 Hen. VIII. c. 3. (confirmed
by statute 1 Eliz. c. 4.) and a new _valor beneficiorum_ was then
made, by which the clergy are at present rated.

[Footnote l: F.N.B. 176.]

[Footnote m: 3 Inst. 154.]

[Footnote n: Numb. 18. 26.]

BY these lastmentioned statutes all vicarages under ten pounds a year,
and all rectories under ten marks, are discharged from the payment of
first-fruits: and if, in such livings as continue chargeable with this
payment, the incumbent lives but half a year, he shall pay only one
quarter of his first-fruits; if but one whole year, then half of them;
if a year and half, three quarters; and if two years, then the whole;
and not otherwise. Likewise by the statute 27 Hen. VIII. c. 8. no
tenths are to be paid for the first year, for then the first-fruits
are due: and by other statutes of queen Anne, in the fifth and sixth
years of her reign, if a benefice be under fifty pounds _per annum_
clear yearly value, it shall be discharged of the payment of
first-fruits and tenths.

THUS the richer clergy, being, by the criminal bigotry of their popish
predecessors, subjected at first to a foreign exaction, were
afterwards, when that yoke was shaken off, liable to a like
misapplication of their revenues, through the rapacious disposition