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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61092	The larger treatise concerning tithes long since written and promised by Sir Hen. Spelman, Knight ; together with some other tracts of the same authour and a fragment of Sir Francis Bigot, Knight, all touching the same subject ; whereto is annexed an answer to a question ... concerning the settlement or abolition of tithes by the Parliament ... ; wherein also are comprised some animadversions upon a late little pamphlet called The countries plea against tithes ... ; published by Jer. Stephens, B.D. according to the appointment and trust of the author.; Tithes too hot to be touched	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Stephens, Jeremiah, 1591-1665.; Bigod, Francis, Sir, 1508-1537.	1647 (1647)	Wing S4928; Wing S4917_PARTIAL; ESTC R21992	176,285	297

of the book I could never yet finde thoughe it be mentioned by severall Authors Bale Hollinshead and lately by Sir Richard Baker in his history It seemes to have bin written after the Kings breach with the Pope his marriage with Anne Bolen and the birth of Queen Elizabeth as I conjecture by circumstances His purpose was chiefly bent against the Monasteries who had unjustly gotten so many Parsonages into their possessions It is much desired that if any man have the rest of the book that he would please to communicate the copy that hereafter as occasion serves it may be published compleatly together with some other things of this argument that the learned Knight hath committed to my charge but by reason of the present troubles I cannot now attend to prepare them for the Presse As for Sir Francis Bigott himselfe he was found afterwards active in the troubles of Yorkshire that happened in 28. H. 8. and being apprehended among others was put to death 29. H. 8. as our common Chronicles doe report Baleus saith of him Franciscus Bigott ex Eboracensi patria auratus eques homo natalium splendore nobilis ac doctus evangelicae veritatis amator Scripsit contra clerum De Impropriaribus lib. 1. Quosdam item latinos libros anglicanos reddidit inter seditiosos tandem anno Domini 1537 invito tamen eo repertus eadem cum illis indigna morte periit To the right Reverend Fathers and Brethren the Bishops and Ministers of Scotland I Have caused this little Treatise right reverend and beloved in the Lord Jesus to be printed againe in North-Britaine for many causes first because I was informed that there came forth but a few copies at the first printing thereof in South-Britaine Againe I hope this doing will incite that worthy Knight the Authour thereof quicklier to send out the greater worke which he promiseth of that same argument but principally to incite you whom these matters most nearely doe concerne to look into them more advisedly then as yet ye have done it was a private occasion as that worshipfull Gentleman sheweth that led him to this writing You have a publique whereof it is pitty you are so little moved who seeth not the state of the Church of Scotland as concerning the patrimony to go daily from worse to worse Sacrilege and Simony have so prevailed that it beginneth to be doubted of many whether there be any such sinnes forbidden by God and condemned in his Word Neither can you deny the cause of this evill for the most part to have flowed from your selves your selling and making away of the Church rights without any conscience the buying and bartering of benifices with your shamelesse and slavish courting of corrupt patrones hath made the world thinke that things Ecclesiasticall are of the nature of Temporall things which may be done away at your pleasures and where at the first it was meere worldlinesse that led men on those courses now a great many to outface conscience and delude all reproofes they stand not to defend that Lands Tithes yea whatsoever belonged to the Church in former ages may lawfully be alienated by you and possessed by seculars which opinion must either be taken out of the mindes of men or need you not looke to have these wicked facts in this kinde unreformed to this end should all Ecclesiasticall men labour to informe themselves as well by the Word as by the writings of Ancients and Constitutions of Councels touching the right and lawfulnesse of ecclesiasticall things that when they are perswaded themselves of the truth they may the more effectualy teach others There is no impiety against which it is more requisite you set your selves in this time for besides the abounding of this sinne and the judgement of God upon the land for the same who doth not foresee in the continuance of this course the assured ruine and decay of true Religion Of all persecutions intended against the Church the Julian was ever held to be the most dangerous for occidere presbyteros is nothing so hurtfull as occidere presbyterium When men are taken away there is yet hope that others will be raised up in their places but if the meanes of maintenance be taken away there followeth the decay of the profession it selfe Men doe not apply themselves commonly to Callings for which no rewards are appointed and say that some have done it in our dayes some out of zeale and some out of heat of contention yet in after-times it is not like to continue so neither let any man tell me that a Minister should have other ends proposed to him then worldly maintenance I know that to be truth yet as our Lord in the Gospel hoc etiam oportet facere Et illud non omittere Speaking of payment of tithes to the Pharisees It behoveth them saith he to be paid if not it is not to be expected that men will follow the Calling To rest upon the benevolence of the people as it is a beggarly thing and not belonging to the dignity of the Ministery so the first maintainers of that conceit have found the charity of this kinde so cold that they will not any more stand by their good-wills to this allowance Therefore it lieth upon you to foresee the estate of your Church and either in this point of maintenance to provide that it may be competent and assured else looke not for any thing but ignorance and basenesse and all manner of mischiefes which flow from these to invade the whole Kingdome How a competency may be provided except by restoring the Church to her rights I doe not see and what this right is if I should stand to define and justifie it here I should exceed the bounds of an Epistle Many of this time have cleared the point sufficiently And if any scruple be remaining the worthy Authour I hope will remove it in the greater worke we expect whose judgement and dexterity in handling the argument may be perceived by this his little pinnace It should shame us of our calling to come behinde men of his place either in knowledge or zeale His example who is nothing obliged to labour in these points as you are shall doe much I trust with you for the time to come Should any look carefuller to the Vineyard then the keepers or should any out-goe the servants of the house in diligence Repent therefore and amend your owne negligence in this behalfe and call upon others for amendment whilest you have time Thinke it not a light sin to spoile Gods inheritance and if we look for heaven let us be faithfull to our Lord here on earth I beseech God to give us all wisdome and keep us in minde of that strict account that we must one day give for all our doings and chiefly these which concerne the Church which is his body Amen I thought good not to omit this Epistle to the Clergy of Scotland prefixed before this edition at Edenborough

quae vivit c. because all things whereby he liveth are Gods whether it be the Earth or Rivers or Seas or all the things that are under or above the heavens Abraham and Jacob paid tithes and therein bound all whosoever bee of their posterity to doe it Even Levi himself who after received tithes of his brethren was bound thereby and paid them in the loins of Abraham as it is said in the 7. Heb. 400. years before he was born and we also as Abrahams children For if the Levites themselves that as the mean Lord to use the Lawyers tearm received tithes of their brethren were not freed from paying them over to the Lord Paramount God Almighty how much more are all wee bound of what sort and condition soever to pay them likewise But some happily will ask if the Levites paid tithes yea they did pay the tenth part of their living to God as well as their brethren as before wee have touched it in speaking of the heave-offering and as it is manifest in the 18. of Numbers v. 26. Speak unto the Levites saith God to Moses and say unto them when ye shall take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you of them for your inheritance then shall you take elevationem an heave-offering of the same for the Lord even the tenth part of the tithe which in the next verse save one they are commanded to deliver to Aaron Gods generall Vicar in spirituall function And in the 10. of Nehem. it is further said The Priest the sonne of Aaron shall bee with the Levites when the Levites take tithes and the Levites shall bring up the tenth part of the tithes unto the house of our God unto the chambers of the treasure house So then the Levites themselves paid tithes and by their example the Clergy of our time must doe it likewise but the question will be then to whom First let us see what became of these tithes Paramount thus laid up in the treasury We must understand that the Treasury of the Temple was not particularly for that purpose but for the guests and offerings also whatsoever dedicated and given to God and I find that of this Treasury there were 3. sorts Mesack where the munificent gifts of Kings and Princes were laid up Corban where those of the Priests and Gazophylacium whereinto the people and all passengers brought their offerings and into which the poor widow as it seemeth cast her two mites I find not any particular limitation of these Treasuries but the common end of them all was to be employed upon things necessary for the house and service of God and for relief of the poor and of orphans widows and strangers Josephus expoundeth Corban for the very gift it self offered by them that dedicated themselves to God as the Nazaraei and sheweth that the Priests disposed it to the needy And to these ends must our Clergy give and pay over their owne Tithes unto God first in repairing and maintaining the house and service of God as 2 Kings 12. 4. then in alms and charitable devotion to the poor for the poor are Gods Publicans and by him appointed to gather and collect this rent or custome due to him and to carry it into his Treasury of heaven as the Porters thereof there to be laid up for our use and benefit in the world to come Decimā Deo in pauperibus vel in ecclesiis donet saith S. Augustine Let him give it to God either in bestowing it upon the poor or in the Churches Though Christ be ascended into heaven in his person he is still upon earth by his Proctors and Substitutes the poor and needy and therefore a Father Jerome I take it answereth Mary when she complained that they had taken away the Lord Oh saith he but they have not taken away his servants meaning the poor and needy on whom shee might abundantly expresse her charity As the Law of God enjoyned the Levite to pay tithe to the high Priest so also the old Law of the Land bindeth our Bishops themselves to pay Tithes yea the King himself I command my Sheriffes saith Ethelstane through my Kingdome in the name of the Lord and of all the Saints and upon my love that they presently pay my own Tithes to the uttermost both of living things and of the fruits of the earth and that the Bishops doe the same of their own goods and also my Aldermen and Sheriffes Tom. 1. Concil Britan. pag. 402. And the very glebe Land of the Parson himself if it be letten to another must pay tithe as was adjudged in the Kings Bench this Term Sancti Hillarii Quaere CAP. XVI Out of what things Tithe is to be paid IT is recorded in Genesis that Abraham before his name was changed Gave him tithe of all And Jacob in the 28. ca. saith Of all that thou shalt give me will I give the tenth unto thee In the 27. Lev. All the tithe of the Land of the seed of the ground the fruits of the trees is the Lords it● is holy unto the Lord and in the 14. Deut. 22. Thou shalt give the tithe of all the encrease of thy seed that cometh forth of thy field year by year that we should bring the tithes of our Land unto the Levites that the Levites might have the tithes in all the Cities of our travell or labour So in the 2 Chro. 31. 5 they brought the tithes of all things abundantly v. 6. they brought the tithes of bullocks and sheep and the holy tithes which were consecrated unto the Lord their God i. by a vow In these general precepts there needeth no particular enumeratiō of what should be paid they run upō the word All without exceptiō all whatsoever the ground yeeldeth either by industry or naturally corn wine oyl the fruits increase of every thing whether living or vegelative And more then so for even those things that are gotten by labour and travell for therein we have our part of his mercy and blessing as well as in his other gifts bounty And the words in Nehe. in all the Cities seem to extend to the handy-crafts-men for Citizens commonly occupy not fields or husbandry which is rather proper unto the Villages Country people So that if Citizens should not yeeld the tithe of their travel most of them should yeeld nothing at al and no man must appear before the Lord empty Exod. 23. 15. for he hath shewed mercy upon all and he will have some acknowledgement from all This upholdeth the custome of many places of England where the very servants pay a tithe out of their wages some deduction being made for apparell and by like reason I think that those that have Annuities and fees as Officers and such like ought to yeeld a tithe thereof for out of those the King hath his Subsidies and tenths and by like yea better reason should God

into it what his dignity is how he came by it how much he needeth and for what cause he needeth it We must not therefore deal alike with them which were pincht and hardly brought up in their infancy and with them who being nourished delicately and plentifully are now fallen into necessi●y Neither must we minister the same things to men and to women nor like quantity to old men and young men nor to sickly young men that are not able to earn their living and those 〈◊〉 have somwhat of their own to maintain themselves withall It must also be considered whether they have many children and whether those children be idle or industrious and how far forth they are insufficient to provide for themselves to bee short there is great wisdome required in him that would well dispose the Revenues of the Church and that by being a faithfull and discreet disposer hee may become an happy man Thus far Origen to which purpose Cyprian also in his Epistle to Eucratius lib. 1. Epist. 10. sheweth that the Church maintained many poor and that her own diet was frugalioribus innocentibus cibis sparing and plain and all her expence sumptibus parcioribus quidem sed salutaribus full of frugality but sufficient for health The persons by whom this distribution of Church goods was made were chiefly the Bishops as appeareth by the former Epistle of Vrbane and Deacons appointed under them as in the times of the Apostles Acts ● Therefore Origen in his 16. Homily upon Matthew fol. 31. col 4. taxing the unfaithfull Deacons saith Diaconi autem c. But the Deacons which govern not well the tables of the Ecclesiasticall money that is the goods and Revenues of the Church but doe always purloin them not distributing that which they give according unto judgement and so become rich by that which belongeth unto the poor they are the Exchangers whose Tables Christ will overthrow For the Apostles in their Acts teach us that the Deacons are Governours of the Tables of Ecclesiasticall moneys or Revenues c. and again after unusquisque diaconorum Every one of the Deacons which gather wealth to themselves by defrauding the poor let them now so understand this Scripture that they gather no more lest the Lord commeth upon them and overthrow the Tables of their distribution Thus much touching the use of Church goods in the first age of the Church or first 300. yeers of Christ whereby it plainly appeareth that no Ecclesiasticall person enjoyed any thing belonging to the Church to his own benefit but that the Church-men had out of the Revenues and goods of the Church so much onely as sufficed for their necessary maintenance in meat drink cloth and such like the surplusage being faithfully employed to the relief of the poor the needy the widows persons banished for Religion or imprisoned Captives and Christians any way distressed So that the Church exposing all this while the dugs of her piety unto others did live her self on thistles and thorns that is in want necessity and professed poverty When the flood of persecution had prevailed as many years against the Church in the time of the Gospel as that of waters did days against the wicked in the time of Noah and that Constantine like the Dove of the Ark had brought the olive branch of peace unto the people of God the Church then began to smell the sweet savour of rest and changing presently her disposition with her fortune changed also the very policy of her government before in poverty now in riches before a servant now a Mistresse before a Captive now a Conquerour For the noble Constantine being miraculously converted to the faith did not onely free her from persecution but setled her also in the very bosome of peace raised her to honours endowed her with possessions established her with immunities and to be short poured upon her the fulnesse of his regall munificence Insomuch that many prudent Fathers foreseeing then another evill likely to proceed from hence as namely that her plenty might make her wanton and forgetfull of her duty began now to dispute whether it were lawfull for her to accept lands and Temporalties or not Some alledged that the examples of our Saviour and his Apostles bound them to contemn the world and to live in a strict and Stoick kind of poverty Others conceived that course to be but temporall and like a medicinall diet prescribed by Physitians to their patients in sicknesse onely not in health affirming the time to be now come when it pleased God to crown the long-suffering of his Church with the blessings promised in the tenth of Mark v. 29. 31. That since they had forsaken house and brethren and sisters and father and mother and wife and children and lands for Christs sake and the Gospel they should receive an hundred fold now at this present with their persecutions and in the world to come eternall life I will not argue this point but letting passe the School-men will rest my self upon the determination of many ancient Councels Fathers and Doctors of the Church who with one consent conclude affirmatively that the Church may hold them And I think their opinion to be of God for that it hath prevailed these 1500. years against all the enemies thereof though the Kytes of Satan have pulled many a plume from it To return to Constantine though he and others by his example did abundantly enrich the Church yet did not the Church-men take these riches to the benefit of themselves and their families but employed them as before to workes of charity Yea Silvester himselfe though the sea of these things flowed into his bosome and were at his pleasure yet took he as sparingly of them as if he had been but a little pitcher suffering the whole streams thereof to run abundantly amongst the children of the church and poor people as did also the other Fathers Priests and Clergy of that time who reckoned not otherwise of riches then as dung which being spread and scattered in the fields of God might make them the more fertile For the resolution then was as in the age before that no Church-man might take Lands to his private use nor the Church her self otherwise then for works of charity and the necessary sustenance of her Ministers not to make stocks or portions for them in earth whose inheritance was in heaven and that had God himself fortheir portion Therefore Prosper a godly Father of that time whose authority is often used in the Councel of Aquisgrane disputing the point concludeth it thus If every Minister of the Church have not a Living the Church doth not provide one for him in this world but helpeth him with things necessary that he may receive the reward of his labour in the world to come resting in this life upon the promise of our Saviour To which purpose he applieth the place in the 1 Cor. 9. 14. What is it to live of the

ergo macte hac illace dape pollucenda esto then manus interluito vinum sumito He that performed this ceremony was to doe so and then to say Jupiter dapalis macte istace Dape pollucenda esto macte vino inferio esto Nor did they thus appropriatly use this ceremony unto only Jupiter but unto what Deity soever they did acceptum referre their encrease Quoties aut thus aut vinum super victimam fundebatur saith Servius dicebant Mactus est Taurus vino vel thure hoc est cumulata est hostia magis aucta est hostia And Cato hath the same form of words concerning other sacrifices besides this cap. 130. 141. 134. Arnobius in zeal to Christian religion derideth and scoffeth at this Pagan use and ceremony but because they did not recte offerre doe it to the true God not because they did not rite dividere doe that which was not to be done not the thing done but done unto Jupiter and unto Idols not to the true God of heaven and earth was blamed Withall he giveth us to understand That this erroneous act of theirs had beginning from a true ground That The earth is the Lords and all that therein is that He hath given it to the sons of men that it is He that openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousnesse that tithes and first-fruits are given unto God to recognize his supream dominion over all his admirable goodnesse in giving us whatsoever we possesse and that by giving of them back unto him as it were a certain quit-rent unto the Lord Paramount thereby we doe and not otherwise a quire unto our selves a right unto the Remains with an interest therein and not otherwise to use them unto our own behoof which if we doe not we are but Vsurpers and Intruders For all the world as the Jewes did who might not durst not meddle with the encrease untill they had paid God his due and thereby purchased liberty to use their own Thus the Gentiles who had not the Law by direction and light of nature though so much obscured yet did the things of the Law Concerning the Siphnians whereof mention is made already it is further to be remembred what Pausanias expresly relateth of them who saith when covetousnesse made them leave paying that tribute of Tithes the sea brake in upon them and swallowed up their mines a just vengeance upon detainers of Divine right by dishonouring of God to lose all So long as yearely they paid Tithe of the encrease so long it was well with them so soon as they defrauded God of his right God turned them in justice and vengeance out of all Aristotle reports that Cypselus had a speciall regard to the tenth as competent to a Deity when he vowed all the goods of the Citizens if he could get Corinth Aristotle was the great dictator of learning in whom God would remonstrate what he could doe in meer Nature without supernaturall endowments of grace he speaks directly That the tenth part is competent to a Deity and that He vowed all the goods but because this vow implyed an absurdity unlesse he meant which he did not intend to ruine the City he was fain to have recourse unto the ordinary use of Tithing but so that the Tithe decies repetita should answer the proportion of his vow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having made a rate and cessement of every mans goods and state he took the tenth part for that yeer and so the next for ten years together leaving them nine parts to trade with and live upon Every one did not so but every Conquerour that would not be unthankfull gave the tenth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto God with us daily men are not thankfull as they ought yet they should be gratefull Agesilaus whiles he warred in Asia and had the spoil of that wealthy Country made such havock upon the enemy that within the compasse of two years he sent more then one hundred talents tithes unto Delphos which proveth an ordinary Spartane use and custome at least The same Agesilaus having vanquished the Thebans and their associates in a great battail at Coronaea though having received many wounds in the fight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forgat not God saith Xenophon nor to be thankfull unto God That Retrait which Xenophon made with his ten thousand men out of upper Asia is the most remarkable piece of service one of them in all Antiquity In this hazard Xenophon as himself relateth it gave decimam spoliorum partly unto Apollo partly unto Diana of the Ephesians The tenth being separated for these two Deities was by generall consent committed unto the Captains to be dedicated That for Apollo was laid up at Delphos in the Athenian Treasury for most Nations of Greece had a severall one there But with that other part Diana's part Xenophon purchased a piece of ground and built there a Temple and an Altar and appointed the tenth of the yearly encrease for ever unto that service This is a passage very considerable there being not such an expresse and observable example in all Antiquity for Tithe in this kinde with an endowment of a Church with lands Sacred is that land unto Diana whosoever possesseth or occupieth the ground must every year consecrate the tenth unto the service of Diana and employ the rest upon the fabrique and upholding of the Temple Tithes of spoiles commonly paid amongst the Graecians but not accustomed in this sort to be employed A generall sacred Revenue appropriated to a speciall end where besides the profits and Revenues of this land tithed what was purchased with the tithe at first unto Diana as president of the trade and the chiefest ranger amongst Pagans Tithe of Venison and Game is said in the same place to have been paid Diodorus Siculus in his elventh Book hath three severall instances for tithing spoils of warre the first of Pausanias and the Graecians that having vanquished the Persians and slaine Mardonius in the field Set apart the tenth of the spoils and therewith caused a tripos of gold to be made which they dedicated at Delphos no vow preceding nor other intimation being but as done out of duty and ordinary profession of thankfulnesse Another of Cimon the Athenian Generall who remaining victor at the battail upon the River Eurymedon as Pausanias had done so did he set out the tenth of the spoiles as Gods part sacred and dedicated unto him to God in generall not naming Apollo or any else In a third place the Argivi having made the Mycenians their slaves and captives consecrated the tithes of all they took to God and utterly rased the Town Mycenae Porphyrie declareth that first-fruits were given unto God and what is said of first-fruits must be granted of tithes out of devotion by the Pagans of all things usefull to the life of man as of corn honey wine oyl cakes and what not Those that gave