II. _Wardships over Vacant Sees._ The church had its own grievances, although these took a different form. The Constitutions of Clarendon[400] had stipulated that each great prelate should hold his Crown lands _sicut baroniam_; and this view ultimately prevailed. It followed that all appropriate feudal burdens affected church fiefs equally with lay fiefs. The lands which formed the temporalities of a see were, however, in a peculiar position, being the property, not of an individual, but of an undying corporation (to use the definite language of a later age). When one bishop or abbot died, a successor of suitable age and worth had at once to be appointed. A minority was thus impossible, and therefore, so it might be argued, wardships could never arise. Rufus objected to what he thought an unfair exemption from a recognized feudal incident. Flambard devised an ingenious substitute for ordinary wardships by keeping sees long vacant, and meantime taking the lands under the guardianship of the Crown. Such practices formed the original ground of quarrel between Anselm and Rufus. Henry I., while renouncing by his Charter all pretensions to exact reliefs, retained his right of wardship, promising merely that vacant sees should neither be sold nor farmed out. Stephen went further, renouncing expressly all wardships over church lands; but Henry II. ignored this concession, and reverted to the practice of his grandfather. In his reign the wardship of the rich properties of vacant sees formed a valuable asset of the exchequer. During a vacancy the Crown drew not only the rents and issues of the soil, but also the various feudal payments which the under-tenants would otherwise have paid to the bishop. The Pipe Roll of 14 Henry II.[401] records sums of £30 and £20 paid into the exchequer by two tenants of the vacant see of Lincoln for six and four knight’s fees respectively.[402] ----- Footnote 400: Article 11: see _Select Charters_, 139. Footnote 401: Cited by the editors of the _Dialogus_, p. 223. Footnote 402: Cf. under c. 43 _infra_. -----