But the visitatorial powers in regard to them were now transferred to the King, and the first fruits and tenths which had been recently taken from the Pope were also revived as a fresh source of royal revenue. The statute which enacted the latter was entitled “The Bill for the First Fruits,[56] with the yearly pension to the King.” It slightly lessens the offensiveness of the King’s new title, by styling him “the only Supreme Head on Earth, next, and immediately under God, of the Church of _England_,” and basing even this on the facts of history--“as he always, indeed, hath heretofore been.” Every person nominated to any ecclesiastical preferment, “religious” or “secular,” was to pay to the King “the first-fruits, revenues, and profits, for the year,” and also the tenth part annually. Commissioners were to be appointed to “examine and search for the just and true value of the said first-fruits and profits,” and first-fruits were allowed to no one but the King: it appears that in the Diocese of Norwich they had gone to the Bishop, and in the Archdeaconry of Richmond to the Archdeacon. Priors of dependent cells were exempted from the payment of first-fruits, but not of tenths. “And forasmuch as divers Abbots and Priors been charged to pay great pensions to sundry their Predecessors yet living, to the great Decay of their Hospitalities and Housekeeping; be it enacted by Authority aforesaid, That every such Predecessor of such Abbots or Priors, having any Pensions made sure unto them, or to any to their use, during their Lives, amounting above the yearly value of xl^{li.} shall from henceforth be defalked and abated of the moiety and Halfdeal of every such Pension” (Art. 23). Article 24 expressly includes “the Lord Prior of Saint John’s of Jerusalem in England, and his Brethren” within the scope of the Act.[57] Article 28 “allows” the King to remit what remained as yet unpaid of the _Præmunire_ Fine “in Consideration that the said yearly Pension and annual Rent shall be yearly from henceforth duly paid and satisfied.” Immediate steps were taken to ensure the due and accurate payment of the new income. In January, 1535, Cromwell procured a Royal Commission appointing himself Vicar-General and Visitor-General of all churches and monasteries, with authority to delegate agents. He set to work in the exercise of his new power with characteristic promptness. On January 30th commissions were issued for each county, to make the necessary investigations for discovering the whole amount of ecclesiastical property for the purpose of levying the tenths. The Staffordshire Commissioners[58] had Bishop Roland Lee for chairman, but he was the only ecclesiastic among them.