ries and houses subject unto them, in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, without the privity of the King and his nobility, contrary to the laws and customs of the said realm; and thereby the number of religious persons being oppressed by such tallages, payments, and impositions, the service of God is diminished, alms are not given to the poor, the sick, and the feeble; the healths of the living and the souls of the dead be miserably defrauded, hospitality, alms-giving, and other godly deeds do cease; and so that which in times past was charitably given to godly uses and to the service of God, is now converted to an evil end, by permission whereof there groweth great scandal to the people.' To provide against a continuance of these abuses, it was enacted that no 'religious' persons should, under any pretence or form, send out of the kingdom any kind of tax, rent, or tallage; and that 'priors aliens' should not presume to assess any payment, charge, or other burden whatever upon houses within the realm.[1]
The language of this Act was studiously guarded. The Pope was not alluded to; the specific methods by which the extortion was practised were not explained; the tax upon presentations to benefices, either having not yet distinguished itself beyond other impositions, or the Government trusting that a measure of this general kind might answer the desired end. Lucrative encroachments, however, do not yield so easily to treatment; nearly fifty years after it became necessary to re-enact
- ↑ 35 Ed. I. cap. 1–4.
