ANNATES

ANNATES, Annates, Annata, the same with Primitiae or First-fruits; so called from the Latin Annus, Year, because the Rate of First-fruits, paid for spiritual Livings, is after the Value of one Year's Purchase. See PRIMITIAE and FIRST-FRUITS.

Annates were anciently a Right paid to the Pope, upon his granting a Bull for a vacant Benefice, Abbey, or Bishopric; but since the Reformation, they are paid in England to the King. The first Pope that imposed them in England, seems to have been Clement V, who, according to Matthew of Westminster, exacted Annates of all the vacant Benefices in the Kingdom, for the space of two years, or according to Walsingham for three years. His Successor John XXII introduced the like in France. Yet Polydore Virgil, and some others, take Annates to be of a much older standing; and to have obtained long before they were paid to the Pope. It's certain at least, that from the Twelfth Century, there were Bishops and Abbots, who by some peculiar Custom or Privilege, took Annates of the Benefices depending on their Diocese or Abbey. Matthew Paris, in his History of England, for the Year 746, relates that the Archbishop of Canterbury, in virtue of a Grant or Concession of the Pope, received Annates of all the Benefices that became vacant in England. But in after-times the Holy See thought fit to take them away from the Bishops and Archbishops, and appropriate them to themselves.

ANNATES