Excerpt from The History of England, From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688, Vol. 5 of 8: A New With the Author's Last Corrections and Improvements, to Which Is Prefixed a Short Account of His Life The bishops and all incumbents were prohibited from alien ating their revenues, and from letting leases longer than twenty-one years or three litres. This law Seemed to be meant fbrsecuring the property of the church; but as an exception Was left in favor of the crown, great abuses still pret'ailed. It Was usual for the courtiers, during this reign, to make an agreement with a bis'hop or incumbent; and to procure a ficti tious alienation to the queen, who afterwards transferred the lands to the person agreed on.1' This method of pillaging the church was not remedied till the beginning of James I. The present depression of the clergy exposed them to all -injuries; and the laity never stopped till they had reduced the church. To web poverty, that her plunder was no longer a compensation for the odium incurred by it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.