or priory of royal foundation. It is, I apprehend, now fallen into total diſuſe; though ſir Matthew Hale ſays[1], that it is due of common right, and that no preſcription will diſcharge it.
III. The king alſo (as was formerly obſerved[2]) is entitled to all the tithes ariſing in extraparochial places[3]: though perhaps it may be doubted how far this article, as well as the laſt, can be properly reckoned a part of the king's own royal revenue; ſince a corody ſupports only his chaplains, and theſe extraparochial tithes are held under an implied truſt, that the king will diſtribute them for the good of the clergy in general.
IV. The next branch conſiſts in the firſt-fruits, and tenths, of all ſpiritual preferments in the kingdom; both of which I ſhall conſider together.
These were originally a part of the papal uſurpations over the clergy of this kingdom; firſt introduced by Pandulph the pope's legate, during the reigns of king John and Henry the third, in the ſee of Norwich; and afterwards attempted to be made univerſal by the popes Clement V and John XXII, about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The firſt-fruits, primitiae, or annates, were the firſt year's whole profits of the ſpiritual preferment, according to a rate or valor made under the direction of pope Innocent IV by Walter biſhop of Norwich in 38 Hen. III, and afterwards advanced in value by commiſſion from pope Nicholas III. A. D. 1292, 20 Edw. I[4]; which valuation of pope Nicholas is ſtill preſerved in the exchequer[5]. The tenths, or decimae, were the tenth part of the annual profit 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[6], "that the Levites ſhould offer the tenth part of their tithe as a heave-offering to
