Valuation of Sees and Dignities in the King’s Book.

The only authentic return of the amount of church revenues is the Valor Ecclesiasticus, of the time of Henry VIII. This document is incomplete even for the period it was obtained, many deaneries and ecclesiastical dignities having been omitted; and it is still less applicable to the present, owing to the vast alteration in the value of land and tithe. Still it is the only authentic basis for estimating the value of sees and dignities; and, aided by information from other sources, we may form an estimate of the incomes of the bishops, deans, archdeacons, precentors, chancellors, and other cathedral and diocesan officials.

In the parliamentary session of 1830, Dr. Lushington admitted the income of the See of Canterbury amounted to £32,000, and the bishop of London admitted his income amounted to about £15,000. Thus it appears from the subjoined table of the valuations in Liber Regis that these sees have increased in value twelve and fourteen fold. The revenues of other sees and dignities being derived from sources similar to those of Canterbury and London, the incomes of any of the bishoprics, dignities, and offices in the subjoined statement may be calculated to have augmented in a similar ratio. In some instances we have only been able to insert the year when the dignity was received by the present possessor; the value not being returned in the King’s Book.

If churchmen demur to our mode of calculating their incomes, our reply is—let us have an authentic and authorised return of the amount of ecclesiastical revenues. Till then we must depend on collateral and inferential evidence.