II. (1469), by benefices attached to a corporation,
every fifteen years and not at every presentation.

The system of annates was at no time worked with absolute uniformity and
completeness throughout the various parts of the church owning obedience
to the Holy See, and it was never willingly submitted to by the clergy.
Disagreements and disputes were continual, and the easy expedient of
rewarding the officials of the Curia and increasing the papal revenue by
"reserving" more and more benefices was met by repeated protests, such
as that of the bishops and barons of England (the chief sufferers),
headed by Robert Grosseteste of Lincoln, at the council of Lyons in
1245.[2] The subject, indeed, frequently became one of national
interest, on account of the alarming amount of specie which was thus
drained away, and hence numerous enactments exist in regard to it by the
various national governments. In England the collection and payment of
annates to the pope was prohibited in 1531 by statute. At that time the
sum amounted to about 3000 pounds a year. In 1534 the annates were,
along with the supremacy over the church in England, bestowed on the
crown; but in February 1704 they were appropriated by Queen Anne to the
assistance of the poorer clergy, and thus form what has since been known
as "Queen Anne's Bounty" (q.v.). The amount to be paid was originally
regulated by a valuation made under the direction of Pope Innocent IV.
by Walter, bishop of Norwich, in 1254, later by one instituted under
commission from Nicholas III. in 1292, which in turn was superseded in
1535 by the valuation, made by commissioners appointed by Henry VIII.,
known as the _King's Books_, which was confirmed on the accession of
Elizabeth and is still that by which the clergy are rated. In France, in
spite of royal edicts--like those of Charles VI., Charles VII., Louis
XI, and Henry II.--and even denunciations of the Sorbonne, at least the
custom of paying the _servitia communia_ held its ground till the famous
decree of the 4th of August during the Revolution of 1789. In Germany it
was decided by the concordat of Constance, in 1418, that bishoprics and
abbacies should pay the _servitia_ according to the valuation of the
Roman chancery in two half-yearly instalments. Those reserved benefices
only were to pay the _annalia_ which were rated above twenty-four gold
florins; and as none were so rated, whatever their annual value may have
been, the annalia fell