HISTORY OF WARWICKsmTIE. 51

quired to pay the amount of his first year's incumbency into a fund, and every succeeding year one-tenth. These first fruits and tenths were collected at their full value and applied to the use of the as early as the time of Pope IV., 1200; for this pmpose a valuation was made of all the ecclesiastical livings in England, which is still pres€l'ved in the Rebrancer's office, and designated " Valor of Pope Nicholas IV." At the time of the Refol'mation Henry VIII. passed a law, ·with the sanction of Parliament, declaring that the first fruits and tenths should be appropriated to the use of the State; and he caused an accmate and full valuation to be made of the ecclesiastical livings, which were accordingly paid into the exchequer till the reign of Queen Anne, with the exception of a short period in the reign of Philip and Mary. Queen Anne, de­ ploring the wTetched condition in which many of the clergy were placed, owing to the insufficiency of their livings, came to the deter­ mination that the first fruits and tenths should be paid into a fund called" Queen Anne's Bounty," and that the amOlmt should be appropriated to the livings of the poor clergy. No fresh valuation was made since 1535, and registered in what is called the King's Book, till that made by mder of the commission, in 1835, on which the payments are now regulated. That the payment might not operate oppressively, the first year's income was to be paid by four annual instalments, and all livings of small value were entirely exempt, and hence called "discharged livings." During the time of Popery a large portion of the tithes had been alienated from the parishes for the endowment of religious houses, or for chantreys, to say masses for the dead, &c. The governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, some­ times aided by private benefactions, and at others by parliamentary grants for the endowment of churches, have been enabled greatly to • augment many of the poorest livings, and now the resources at the command of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, by various reductions in cathedral and collegiate churches, have in a measure caused the church livings to be considerably equalised. Great exertions have and are being made on the voluntary prin­ ciple to render the Church of England adequate to the spiritual wants of the people. The Queen Anne's Bounty Fund has done much. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners, from the great changes