first fruits (primitie or annates) were the first year’s profits of all the spiritual preferments in the kingdom, according to a rate made by Walter, bishop of Norwich, in the time of Pope Innocent II., and afterwards advanced in value in the time of Pope Nich- Olas IV. This last valuation was begun A. D. 1288, and finished 1292, and is still preserved in the exchequer. The taxes were regulated by it till the survey made in the twenty-sixth year of Henry VIII. 2 Steph.