manors and other ſubjects frequently look upon to be their own abſolute 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 antient princes.
I. The firſt of the king's ordinary revenues, which I ſhall take notice of, is of an eccleſiaſtical kind; (as are alſo the three ſucceeding ones) viz. the cuſtody of the temporalties 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 fee. 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 temporalties 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[1]. 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 fee would be liable to ſpoil and devaſtation, if no one had a property therein. Therefore the law has given the king, not the temporalties themſelves, but the cuſtody of the temporalties, till ſuch time as a ſucceſſor is appointed; with power of taking to himſelf all the intermediate profits, without any account to 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[2]. 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 & 5. the king may, after the vacancy, leaſe the temporalties to the dean and chapter; ſaving to himſelf all advowſons, eſcheats, and the like. Our antient kings, and particularly William Rufus, were not only remarkable for keeping the biſhopricks a long time vacant,
