Note 552 — BOOK I.

It had been the practice to seize, to the king’s use, whatever property ecclesiastics left behind them. Henry of Huntingdon relates, that on the death of Gilbert the Universal, bishop of London, who was remarkable for his avarice, all his effects, and among the rest, his boots crammed with gold and silver, were conveyed to the exchequer. Anglia Sacra, ii. 698. Sometimes, even what had been distributed on a death-bed, was reclaimed for the king. Vide G. Neub. 3, 5. “This practice of seizing the property of ecclesiastics at their death seems subsequently to have settled down into a claim on the part of the king of the cup and palfrey of a deceased bishop, prior, and abbat. See Rot. Claus. 39 Hen. III, m. 17, in dorso.”—Hardy.