FINIAL

(in church architecture,) more anciently Crop . The termination of a pinnacle, spire, pediment, or ogeed hood-mould. Originally the term was applied to the whole pinnacle . FIRST FRUITS were an act of simony, invented by the pope, who, during the period of his usurpation over our Church, bestowed benefices of the Church of England upon foreigners, upon condition that the first year’s produce was given to him, for the regaining of the Holy Land, or for some similar pretence: next, he prevailed on spiritual patrons to oblige their clergy to pay them; and at last he claimed and extorted them from those who were presented by the king or his temporal subjects. The first Protestant king, Henry VIII., took the first fruits from the pope, but instead of restoring them to the Church, vested them in the Crown. Queen Anne restored them to the Church, not by remitting them entirely, but by applying these superfluities of the larger benefices to make up the deficiencies of the smaller. To this end she granted her royal charter, whereby all the revenue of first fruits and tenths is vested in trustees for ever, to form a perpetual fund for the augmentation of small livings. This is usually called Queen Anne’s Bounty. (See Annates .) FIVE POINTS (see Arminians and Calvin ism ) are the five doctrines controverted between the Arminians and Calvinists; relating to, 1. Particular Election; 2. Particular Redemption; 3. Moral Inability in a Fallen State; 4. Irresistible Grace; and 5. Final Perseverance of the Saints.