Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	call_v	council_n	pope_n	6,205	5	7.2382	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91565	The great case of tythes truly stated, clearly opened, and fully resolved. By a countrey-man, A.P.	Pearson, Anthony, 1628-1670?	1657 (1657)	Wing P989; Thomason E931_2; ESTC R207656	39,708	44

us at this day wherein he will finde the knowledge of these things will be useful First That amongst the Jews tythes were paid to the Levites that did the common services of the Tabernacle and Temple and not to the sons of Aaron the priests for they had onely a tenth part out of the tythes and therefore he that pleads for tythes from the Mosaical Laws of tything had need consider how the payment of tythes to Ministers succeeds to the payment of tythes to the Levites who were not priests nor were to touch or meddle with that holy Office least they dyed 2. That amongst the Jews no outward Law was appointed for the recovery of tythes but he that did not pay them robbed God and by him onely was punished 3. That the tythes were not for the Levites onely but for the stranger the fatherlesse and the widow who were to eat thereof and be satisfied 4. That when the Levitical priesthood was changed by the coming of Christ Jesus the law for tything was also changed as Paul writ to the Hebrews for it is evident that in the beginning of the Church for the first 300. years while the purity and simplicity of the Gospel was retained no tythes were paid amongst Christians 5. That as the mysterie of iniquity began to work and mens imagiginations were taught instead of the Doctrine of Christ divers men fetching their ground from Moses writings began to preach that tythes again ought to be paid 6. That those that first preached up tythes pressed the payment of of them not for the maintenance of a Ministry onely but chiefly for provision for the poor and needy 7. That in the first practice of the payment of tythes they were not paid as tythes but as free offerings at the bounty of the giver and not as answering any law that required the tenth part and so more properly were called offerings then tythes 8. That notwithstanding any Doctrines preached it was not a received Doctrine that tythes ought to be paid till about the year 1000. that the Pope had set up his Authority and usurped Dominion over the greatest parts of Europe and almost all Emperors Kings and Princes brought in subjection to him and his innovated superstirions 9. That notwithstanding the strict commands of the Pope no outward compulsary Law was made by the Pope or his Councils to enforce any to pay tythes but onely their excommunication 10. That tythes were alwayes accounted an Ecclesiastical duty and therefore by Ecclesiastical Courts were tryed and judged and til the dissolution of Abbeys c. were never called a Civil Right 11. That tythes were brought in as a duty owing unto God and were so required and enforced and therefore all laws made for the payment of tythes takes that for their ground and not any civil property or right in him that claims them 12. That till the year 1200. or thereabouts it was the common practice for every one to bestow his tythes where he pleased 13. That from such Arbitrary dispositions Abbeys and Monasteries came to be so richly endowed with Tythes and Rectories 14. That all exemptions from payment of tythes came from the Pope 15. That first fruits and tenths are but a late innovation and claimed by the Pope as Successor to the Jewish High-Priest as Cook in the third part of his Institutes also testifies 16. That tythes are the same thing whether claimed by an Abbey or Impropriator or a Priest and stand upon the same ground and foundation and differ nothing but in the person that possesseth them 17. Here also the declining State of the Church to corruption error may be clearly discerned traced for as the power of truth was lost so was the fruit thereof which caused such earnest pressing to needful contributions when that would not serve Laws Decrees were made to force them But in the beginning it was not so for while the purity and simplicity of the Gospel was retained there needed no pressing for their charity then abounded not onely to the tenth part but far greater parts as the needs of the Church required 18. That the right of tythes was never cleared but remained in controversie even amongst the greatest Papists and in all ages there were those that withstood the payment of them And many of the Martyrs for that amongst other things suffered in flames These things thus premised I shall briefly state the great Case and Question at this day chiefly controverted concerning tythes as claimed and paid in England The Case Whether any person have a true and legal property in the tenth part of another mans encrease now commonly called tythes The terms are plain and need no opening yet it is needful to declare why the Case is thus stated for the great Question rather seems to be Whether tythes be not due at this day That may be due to another wherein yet he may have no legal property as Custom Tribute Taxes which are to be paid because commanded by the State and though Law and Equity obliges the payment yet is no distinct property in him that commands and so tythes may be supposed to be due because so many Laws have been made for payment of them though the person that claims them may have no particular interest or property therein other then is derived from the command But now in England tythes are not onely claimed by vertue of divers Laws but also as being a distinct property severed from the property of the nine parts And if this could clearly be evinced all scruples of conscience were answered for if a true and legal property be in another person to the tenth part of any encrease I ought in conscience to yeild and set it forth because it is not mine and then the Name of tythe as having in any measure relation to the Jewish priesthood or popish Clergy were at an end but as a debt it ought to be truly paid to the proprietor Many things have been said and much written to prove such a property the substance whereof as far as hath come to my knowledge I shall briefly sum up under these general Heads as also the grounds of those who claim them to be due and yet plead no property which being the lesser may be fully included and answered in the other Several Claims made for tythes and a legal property therein set down and answered 1. The first claims tythes to be due jure divine and produce the Law of Moses for it it 2. Others say that as to the quota pars viz. the tenth part tythes are not now due by the Law of God onely the equity of the Law is still of force which obligeth to afford a competent maintenance for the Ministry but doth not bind to the certain quantity 3. Others there are who plead the Decrees Canons and Constitutions of General Councils Popes Bishops Convocations and these say that tythes are due jure Ecclesiastico Vnder these several Claims or

but ex debito SHEPHERD by the Law of God for substraction whereof no remedy lay at the common-Law and therefore if a Parson let a Lease of his Glebe to another with all the Appurtenances yet he himself shall have tythe of it Terrae non sunt decimbiles and therefore neither Mynes nor Quaryes of Iron COOK Brasse Tin Lead Coles Stones Tile Brick or Lime are tytheable ner Houses Consimilar is felony trespasse between free-hold moveable goods nor Trees nor Grasse or Corn till they be severed from the Land the real Estate which descends by inheritance from the Ancestor and made a distinct personal possession And therefore tythe is not paid of Land nor by reason of the Land nor is it a charge upon Land like a Rent-charge nor was it ever so claimed till of late that the popish covers were not broad enough Obj. But some object and say When I bought my Land I bought not the tythe nor paid any thing for it Ans I answer That I and all men bought all our Land and that without any charge of tythe upon it and therefore in all Conveyances it 's still said All that c. and never any covenant for or exemption of a tenth part either of land or encrease and he that saith the seller or his Ancestor charged it with tythes as a Rent I say Where a Rent is charged it 's still expressed and finde any such exception or covenant and I will freely pay them as a just debt And is it not ridiculous for any to talk of parchasing his tythe for with his labour charge and husbandry he payes deere enough for his whole encrease Obj. Another objects That though I bought all my Land yet I bought it cheaper because it was supposed that it ought to pay tythes then I could have bought such Land as was known to be tythe-free and therefore having a cheaper bargain I am bound in equity to pay tythes Ans I answer That I have already proved all Land is tythe-free and the charge of tythe is upon the stock and personal Estate and not upon the Land And the strength of this objection lies in comparing those that pay tythes with those that are free they that buy lands tythe-free are eased of this oppression and are in no hazard and though all others ought to be so yet being a question whether they can ease themselves of the burthen they buy under a hazard and as subject to such a charge but if they can cast off the yoke they get but what is their own And seeing we have denyed the Popes Authority and Supremacie we may so soon as we can wholly cast off the burthens which he laid on us And thus he that buyes Land in yeers of trouble and heavy taxes may perhaps buy much cheaper then when none or little is paid shall he therefore alwaies be required to pay taxes when others are discharged or shall he that bought cheap pennyworths on the borders between England and Scotland when those parts were insected with Mosse-Troopers alwaies maintain or pay tribute to thieves and robbers We bought Land when the Popes yoke was upon our necks and if we can cast it from us we may by as good reason be eased of our tythes as they of their taxes But if I bought cheaper what is that to the State or to a Priest If in equity I be bound to pay any more it is must just that he have it of whom I bought my Land and not another There are others who plead a legal right by prescription and that they have a good right because they have so long possessed them This was the old device first to preach that tythes were due and then to limit them to the Parishes and when fourty yeers was past to claime that as a debt which before was paid as charity or ar most as a free-will-offering of the owner And thus the Pope got first fruits and tenths and Peter-pence and many great sums out of this and other Nations which long continued and he might as well have pleaded his prescription as any of his branches now can do In temp H. 3. the Pope had above 120000. l. per. an out of this Nation which was then more worth then the Kings revenue Is any so blind as not to see what poor shifts are now made to uphold so great an oppression which can find no better ground for its support then this that it hath been so long continued But shall the continuance of an oppression give right to perpetuate the grievance How many great and heavy pressures in other things did long lye on this Nation of customs and practices of former times which daylie were and still have been abolished as light did more and more encrease witness those many Laws and Statutes made and now in force abolishing the usages and customs of former ages but yet this is a great mistake for by the Common-Law and the old popish Ecclesiastick Law is out of doors no man can prescribe to have tythes though many may prescribe to be free from tythes or part thereof for he that claims tythes except Impropriators to whom I shall speake hereafter must claim them as a Parson Vicar or other called Ecclesiastick Officer and as I have hinted before he claims them not as such a person but as such an Officer and the prescription if any were is to his Office Now if no such Office be in being his claim is at an end That there is now no such Office is plain for when H. 8. renounced the Pope he was declared by Act of Parliament which was assented to by all the Clergy in their Convention to be the Head of the Church and all Arch-Bishops Bishops and all others in Ecclesiastical Orders were no longer to hold of the Pope but of the King and not to claim their Benefices by title from the Pope but of the King by vertue of that Act of Parliament And here the Succession from the Pope was cut off and discontinued and the King by his new Authority as Head of the Church made Bishops and gave them power to make Parsons Vicars and others called Ecclesiastick Officers Afterwards as the King renounced the Pope so the Parliament of England laid aside Kings who had assumed the Title and Stile of Head of the Church and also abolished Arch-Bishops and Bishops and all their dependancies root and branch and here the whole Ecclesiastick state was dissolved and the Body fell with the Head and the Branches with the Root both Parsons Vicars and Curates and all the whole progeny and off-spring and so all their right title and claim to tythes was and is at an end as is more plainly and more fully set forth in a late printed paper by Ier. Benson to which I refer And now I come to the last those that claim by purchase and these are the Impropriators and they say they have bought them of the State and have