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Church, particularly in the German. In England the papal annates were transferred to the crown at the Reformation; in the reign of Anne they were formed into a fund (Queen Anne's Bounty; q.v.) for the augmentation of the poorer livings. As regarded Germany, the arrangements were regulated at the Council of Constance in 1418, the provisions of which resulted in the practical abolition of annates in Germany, as well as in Belgium, France, and Spain. The so-called quindennia, whose collection every fifteen years was decreed by Paul IL, also never became practically operative there; these were payments in compensation for the loss of annates from such reserved benefices as had been incorporated with others, in which therefore no vacancies ever occurred. The servitia, however, both the communia and the smaller chancery fees connected with them, were still to be paid to the pope; and these in common parlance often took the name of annates. The Council of Basel, in agreement with the German princes, talked of abolishing them entirely; but the Concordat of Vienna in 1448 left the matter where the Council of Constance had left it, except that after that 'time the tax gradually rose in amount, and was paid in one sum instead of two. In the later concordats and bulls of circumscription (see CONCORDATS AND DELIMITING Burrs), the annates are usually retained and their amount designated. It became customary, however, in later times for an individual agreement to be reached at the appointment of each new bishop, by which a lump sum was paid considerably smaller than that named in the older documents. The whole subject was considered at the Council of Trent. The result was partly the regulation of the older imposts, partly the creation of a new one, which the bishop was authorized to levy on all the benefited clergy in his diocese, using the proceeds to found and maintain the clerical seminaries which the council wished to see established. This is called alumnaticum or seminaristicum.
The payments which remain nowadays of all this complicated system may be classified according as they are paid by all members of the Church or only by the clergy, or again only by the
5. Present benefited clergy; those which are re- System. ceived by all the clergy, or the bishop, or the pope alone; those which are properly called taxes, and those which are rather fees. In the Roman Catholic Church at present those paid by all members include surplice (see STOLE FEES) and dispensation fees, the former re ceived by all the clergy, the latter by the bishop or pope; tithes, payments for church-building, and the voluntary offerings whose amount is more or less fixed by custom; and, in certain countries, es pecially some of the German states, a tax regulated by the government for the support of public worship. The clergy, again, pay fees for their letters of orders, letters dimissory and of approbation, dispensations, etc. The taxes formerly levied on the clergy are not now (with the exception of a possible universal tax in case of necessity, as described above) pre scribed by the common law of the Church; local laws provide for procurations, inheritance duty, the alumnaticcm, and the annus carentice (q.v.). The RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Taxation Taylor
