seem at first sight to throw a steady and distinct light on the extent and value of church property in England, its actual if not its relative value. Yet on examination the result of the inquiry becomes dim, confused, and contradictory. It offers no more than a very rude and uncertain approximation to positive conclusions.

m

I. Doomsday-Book gives the lands in the possession of ecclesiastics, as well as lay holders, those of bishops, chapters, churches, monasteries. The first inspection of Doomsday may seem to present startling facts. In the whole County of Kent, besides the King (with whom the Churches of St. Martin in Dover and the Church of Canterbury share those towns), appear as landowners : 1. The Archbishop of Canterbury; 2. His Monks (Christchurch); 3. The Bishop of Rochester; 4. The Bishop of Bayeux; 5. The Abbey of Battle; 6. St. Augustine's; 7. Abbey of St. Peter's, Ghent. Only four knights, and Albert the Chaplain. In Middlesex are the King, the Archbishop, the Bishop of London, his Canons (of St. Paul's), the Abbot of Westminster, the Abbot of the Holy Trinity in Rouen, the Abbot of Barking, with eighteen others, barons and knights. In Worcestershire the King, the Church of Worcester, the Bishop of Hereford, the Church of St. Denys near Paris, the Church of Cormelies, the Abbeys of Westminster, Pershore, Evesham; the Bishop of Bayeux, the Church of St. Guthlac, the Clerks of Wrehampton, with fifteen laymen. In Berkshire, among sixty-three holders, are the King, five Bishops, among them Durham and Coutances, ten Abbots and Abbesses. In Devonshire, of fifty-three, are the King, two Bishops, Exeter and Coutances, ten abbeys,

n Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, held lands in sixteen counties.-Sir H. Ellis, Introduction.

among them Rouen, Mont St. Michael, St. Stephen and Holy Trinity at Caen. During the reign of our Norman sovereigns these transmarine monasteries held their lands in England. They were either cells or dependent priories which sent their revenues across the sea. As England and France became hostile powers they were gradually seized, till at length, in the time of Henry V., they were confiscated by the strong hand of the law, and vested by Act of Parliament in the Crown." Our history has dwelt, on more than one occasion, on the estates and benefices held by foreign prelates, chiefly Italians.

II. The valuation made in the reign of Edward I., by order of Pope Nicolas IV. The whole ecclesiastical property was assessed at rather more than 200,0007., a valuation much higher than had been admitted before; the tenth levied was above 20,0007.°

III. The remarkable petition of the Commons to Henry IV.," for the confiscation of the whole Church property and its appropriation to the maintenance of a nobility, knighthood, squirehood, burghership, and almshouses, retaining only a priesthood of 15,000, without distinction of Orders, and on the annual stipend of seven marks each. This wild revolutionary scheme estimated the temporalities of the Church at 322,000 marks a year. They were thrown together in large masses, each of 20,000, as—1. The see of Canterbury, with the abbeys of Christchurch, St. Augustine, Shrewsbury, Coggleshal, St. Osyth. 2. York (not including Fontaines, Rivaux,

Ellis, Introduction to Doomsday. Fox, ii. p. 725, A.D. 1410. Collier, i. p. 650.

See vol. vii. p. 54, and note, for the details, A.D. 1292.

That is (calculating the mark at two-thirds of a pound, 13s. 4d.), nearly the same as the Papal valu

P Walsingham, p. 379. Introd. ation.
VOL. IX.

C

and some other abbeys). 3. Six of the larger abbeys, Dover, Battle, Lewes, Coventry, Daventry, and Tournay (Thorney?) make up another 20,000. The total estimate of the Church property may seem to have been based on the valuation of Pope Nicolas, the established cataster which had been acted upon for above a century. It is curious, however, as setting down the annual income necessary to maintain the state of an Earl at 3000 marks; of a Knight at 100, with four plough-lands; an Esquire 40, with two plough-lands. How the poor Priest was to live on his seven marks, unless by the bounty and hospitality of his parishioners-certainly with no hospitality or almsgiving of his own-these early levellers seem not to have thought. About this period, according to another statement, there were in England 46,822 churches, 52,285 villæ, 53,225 military fiefs, of which the ecclesiastics and religious held 28,000. Thus they were in possession of above one-half of the knights' fees in the realm.*

Walsingham seems to say that | fice, exempt or not exempt. they were set to prove this vast wealth of the clergy, and failed: "Sed cum niterentur ostendere de quibus locis tam grandes summæ levari possent, unde præmissi dotarentur vel ditarentur, defecerunt scrutantes scrutinio et dum diligunt vanitatem quæsivere mendacium."

This concurrence, which is at least approximate, may appear to be of higher authority than the calculation drawn from a passage of Knighton, which would more than double the amount of church property. In the year 1337 two Cardinal Legates came to England. They received for their expenses 50 marks a day, which was raised by four pennies from every bene

The

revenue of the Church would thus amount to 2000 marks a day; multiplied by 365, 730,000 marks; nearly 500,000. Macpherson's Anuals of Commerce, i. 519; Hallam. But the Valor of Pope Nicolas was framed by those who wished as much as possible to elude or lighten their taxation.

This rests on a passage in the Appendix to Hearne's Avebury. Mr. Sharon Turner, v. 166, quotes it. Mr. Hallam appears to accept its results, Middle Ages, ii. p. 506. Other authorities, quoted in Taylor, p. xxiii., make 60,215 knights' fees; those held by the clergy, 23,115. Spelman brings down the proportion to a third; so too Sir W. Temple.

IV. The valuation of the whole church property, immediately before the suppression of the larger monasteries," as compared with that of Nicolas IV., might be expected to furnish at once a positive and a relative estimate of the Church possessions. In the Act for the suppression of the smaller monasteries, those with an income under 2007. a year, it was supposed that about 380 communities would be dissolved (about 100 then escaped or eluded dissolution), and that the Crown would derive 32,000l. of yearly revenue from the confiscation, with 100,0007. in plate, jewels, money, and other valuables. After the suppression of the larger monasteries, the amount of the whole revenue escheated to the Crown was calculated at 161,0007. A little before this period the revenue of England from lands and possessions had been calculated at 4,000,000l.: the monastic property, therefore, was not more than a twentieth part of the national property. To this must be added the whole Church property that remained, that of the Bishops, Chapters, Colleges, and Parochial Clergy. The

u

Ann. Hen. VIII. 26, A.D. 1534, published by the Record Commission, c. 31. to be compared with Speed's Catalogue of Religious Houses, Benefices, &c. On the revenues of the monasteries, see Dugdale and Stevens, Mr. Nasmith's excellent edition of Tanner's Notitia, No book is more instructive than the Index Monasticus of the diocese of Norwich, by Mr. Richd. Taylor, London, 1821.

* Burnet, 192, 222. Rymer, xiv. 574. Stevens, Appendix to Dugdale. Lingard, C. iv. Burnet gives 131,6077. 6s. 4d. for the larger monasteries, but adds, "it was at least ten times the sum in true value."

Lord Herbert; Speed; Hume,

It is singular that these two sums amount to near 200,000l. The whole property of the Church, according to the valuation of Nicolas IV., stood at about 204,000l., so that the value of Monastic property was then near that of the whole Church property under Edward I.

This is stated by Hume, and on such a subject Hume was likely to be accurate, but he does not give his authority. Vol. i. p. 485; ii. p. 106.

b One insulated point of comparison has offered itself. According to the Valor of Nicolas, Christ Church, Can

Valor Ecclesiasticus of Henry VIII. offers no sum total; but, according to Speed, the whole value was 320,1507. 108. If of this, 186,5127. 88. 11d. was the gross value of that of the monasteries (the sum escheated to the King, 161,0007.), the secular property was about half of the whole. Together the two sums would amount to a tenth of the revenue of the kingdom as estimated by Hume.c

e

But this estimate is very fallacious, both as to the extent and the actual value of the Church property. As to the extent, in London and the neighbouring counties of Middlesex, Surrey, Essex, the Church lands, or at least the lands in which the Church had some tenure, must have been enormous. Hardly a parish in Middlesex did not belong, certainly so far as manorial rights, to the Bishop of London, the Dean and Chapter

terbury, was assessed at 3557. 19s. 2d., under Henry VIII. at 2,3497. 8s. 5d., an increase of about seven times.

When, by Bishop Burnet's advice (Burnet's Own Times, edit. Oxford, v. p. 118), the First Fruits and Tenths were made over to the Board, called Queen Anne's Bounty, the tenths were reckoned at 11,0007., which has now remained unaltered, according to the valuation of Henry VIII. This would make the property 111,000l. Speed gives 111,207. 14s. 2d., but a certain portion had been appropriated to the new Bishops and Chapters, which makes up the total.

d Some of the richer monasteries had sunk to a small oligarchy. Chertsey, with 14 monks, had 7401. a year; Furness, with 30, 9667. It is curious to compare Hume and Lingard. Both select Furness as their example (Hume

puts Furness in Lincolnshire). Hume gives the small number of monks as compared with the great income; on the signal iniquity of the mode in which the suppression was enforced he is silent. Lingard is coldly eloquent, as is his wont, on the iniquity-of the small number of monks not a word.

e On the important question of the relative value of money at that time and the present, taking in the joint consideration of weight of silver and price of provisions, Mr. Taylor, in 1821, would multiply by 15 times. Land in Norfolk let from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. an acre; wages for a haymaker were, during Henry VII. and Henry VIII., 1d. to 1d. a day. The whole ecclesiastical revenues in the diocese of Norwich would be worth 510,000l. a year.