thirds

or ‘thirds of benefices’.  When the property of the medieval Church was available to acquisitive laymen after the Reformation, the king took over one-third of the revenues of all church benefices to make sure that something would still be left for the ministers of the reformed church ; appropriate parts of these revenues were assigned to the ministers, and any surplus was retained by the Crown. This was not really sufficient, which is why the Teind Court came into being.