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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44790	The glory of the true church, discovered, as it was in its purity in the primitive time also, a manifestation how and when the apostacy came, and how long it hath continued in the Church of Rome, proved to be in it, because she differs in doctrin & practice from the Church of Christ in the Apostles dayes : published for this end, that people may be informed, and their understandings opened to discern of the times and seasons, and see the difference between the lambs wife and the mother of harlots / by one who desires that all may come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved, and walk in the light of the Lord, Francis Howgill.	Howgill, Francis, 1618-1669.	1661 (1661)	Wing H3162; ESTC R38990	108,097	179

began to enter in and Judaism among the Christians brought in by their leaders and from the opinions of these and other antient Fathers who took their ground from the Law Tythes Easter Penticost and other things came to be introduced and brought into the Church Yet notwithstanding the doctrine and hard threats of some of the great Bishops of that time It was not a General received doctrine that tythes ought to be paid till about the year 800. Neither was any thing by the then Church determined or ordained touching the quantity that should be given though no doubt in many places the offerings of the devouter sort tenths or a greater part of their increase were given according to Ambrose doctrine and others And then at this time the offerings or gifts to the Church were disposed of in this wise being received into a common treasury one fourth part to the Priests out of which every one had his portion another fourth part to the relief of the poor and sick and strangers A third to the building and repairing places of publick meeting And the fourth to the Bishop and generally the Bishop lived in some Monastry his Clergy with him from whence he sent them to preach in the Countries and Diocess and there they received such offrings as were made and brought them to the Treasury So that by the way the Reader may take notice that the Priest had no such a peculiar interest in that which was given But now they claim all their meeting places since called Churches was builded out of the gifts of people and the poor was relieved and the widow But now Tythes taken by force three or four sold and people compelled to build repair their houses or Temples by force and the poor the widdow hath no share nay hath not many poor been cast into prison and widows goods spoiled by the Priests of this generation how unsuitable these practices are unto the Apostle let all judge nay they are proud of the antient Fathers and their words but they will not so such as come near them in example in any thing that 's good So for shame you Protestans leave forcing of maintenances and forcing of your wages and forcing to repair your Houses of worship and do not tell us of Church Church and Antiquity when you are far enough off their practice though they were in a declining state in this age I have been speaking of And although divers of the Fathers and Bishops and Popes in this age did declare that Tythes were due and ought to be paid their ground only taken from Moses yet none of the first eight generall Councils did ever so much as ever mention the name of Tythes or declare them a duty The ninth general Council held at Latteren under Pope Calixtus the second 1119 mentions tythes but speaks only of such as had been given to the Church by special consecration for at that time people being led to believe that their Tythes ought to be given to the poor did dispose of them to the heads rulers of religious houses who keeps open hospitality for the poor and for strangers they were esteemed holy and good Treasures for the poor who took care of distribution of them as is testified by Cassian But the Councel held under Pope Alexander the third Anno 1180. Seeing much given to the poor little to the Priests made a Decree to restrain peoples freedom and indeed by this time much wickedness was crept into these houses as Histories relates There was no Law Cannon or Constitution of any General Council as yet sound that did command tythes or expresly supposed them a duty of common right before the Council of Lateren held in the year 1215 under Pope Innocent the third about which time the Popes power was grown great powerful But still the people had greater mind to give them to the poor then to the Priest and made Innocent complain cried out against those that gave their tythes and first fruits to the poor and not to the Priests as hainous offenders At a Council held at Lions under pope Gregory the 10 in the year 1274 it was constituted that it should not thenceforth be lawful for men to give their Tythes at their own pleasure as they had done before but to pay all to the Mother Church But the great Decree which speaks most plain and till then nothing was given forth which did constitute them but rather supposed them as by former right was made at the Council of Trent under Pope Pius the 4th about the year 1560. They commanded tythes to be paid under the penalties of excommunication about the year 800 900 1000 and after tythes were called the Lords goods the patrimony of the poor according to Ambrose Jerome Chrysostoms Doctrine only borrowed from the Jews So thus in short I have shown that Tythes were never reckoned as due to the Clergy for a thousand years but they did give them as they would how much they would that without compulsion till the hight of popery and the power of darkness spread over all And since forcing Constitutions have been made by Councils of Priests And so you who looks upon your selves to be Ministers of Christ and to follow the Doctrine of the Primitive times for shame cease from those things of taking Tythes and giving tythes which was ordained and Constituted in the mid-night of Popery when the power of God was lost which should have opened peoples hearts both to the poor and to the Ministry and then this false Church began to force and compel or else they could not have subsisted for the Doctrine had little influence upon peoples hearts About the year 600 or soon after Gregory the first then the pope of Rome sent over Augustin the Monk into England by whom Ethelbert King of Kent was converted as they call it but it was but to popery he and his Clergy long time after followed the example of former ages living in Common upon the Offerings of their convers those that received them joyned into societies according unto the primitive practice by Gregories order and that they should in tenderness to the Saxon Church that they should still imitate the primitive times that they might not make their Religion burthensome But afterwards having brought a great part of the Nation to their faith they began to preach up the old Romane Doctrine that Tythes ought to be paid and having taught people that pardon of sin was merited by good works and the torments of Hell be avoided by charity then it was no hard matter to perswade them to give their tenths and Lands but also their outward Riches and the Clergy had almost got a third part of the Land into their hand As concerning Laws and Canons for tythes among the Saxons in England it is reported that in the year 786 two Legates were sent from Pope Hadrian the first to Off a King of

Rome And when any Kings or Princes had displeased him he hath excommunicated them and given away their Kingdomes to some other teaching their people to rebell and also instigating other Princes to make war against them and to kill one another for trifles and if any displeased him he caused many Kings to do penance and to pay great summes of money to get an absolution from excommunication and the Rule and power of the Empire which gave him first his being to be universal Bishop and to be called Pope he hath raised war often against and if he like not the Election of the Emperour he hath deposed them and one he brought into such subjection that he caused him to hold his stirrop a thing that the Emperour was not accustomed with he happened to hold it on the wrong side for which he received a sharp reproof by his holiness Likewise some difference being between Pope Innocent the fourth in the year 1250 and the Emperour Frederick the second the Pope would not be reconciled though the King of France strongly interceded and offered full satisfaction for all pretended wrongs would go out of his Empire if the Pope could not endure him there never to return into Europe again so as that his son with the popes approbation might but succeed him in the Empire which the Pope would not do And how England and diverse Nations hath been troubled with his oppression is well known and what exactions and great sums of mony there hath been enhaused and squeezed out of the Dominions where he had power the Nations well remembers to maintain the pride of his Court at Rome which abounded with all manner of vitiousness in so much that it was grown to that height that Vincentius Clemence the popes Legate said it was now too late and past reforming But to take the Legates own words as follows against his Master the pope and his Court W. H. in his book called a description of England in the 136 page saith thus that this Vincentius Clement in the year 1452 being Legate for the pope was here in England about the popes business and hearing that the Clergy had given the King two tenths for the repaying of his losses which he had sustained in France and for the recovering of Bou●deox this Legate Vincenti●s coming into the Convocation house he earnestly required the Clergy to be no less favourable to their Spiritual Father the Pope and their Mother the See of Rome then they had been to his vassal and inferiour meaning the King and in his speech in the Convocation he shewed them how that his holiness the pope was much disturbed and in daily danger of his life by cut-throats varlors and harlots which did much abound as he said in Rome but the Clergy in the Convocation slighted his speech and said how should we contribute towards the suppression of such whenas he and such as you continually uphold them I grant saith the Legate that there wanteth just reformation of many things in the City of Rome which would have been made sooner but now it is too late and past reforming nevertheless I beseech you send the Legate to write unto his holiness the Pope to request him that he would abandon and leave that Baby●on which is but a sink of mischief and of all ungodlinesse and keep his Court elsewhere in some place of better fame and this is the Legates testimony of the seat of the Mother Church of Rome Besides many of her own Members in England in the year 1245 do manifest what exaction has been upon this Nation as may be seen in a supplication written in the names of the Nobles and Commons of England to Pope Innocent the fourth shewing how many Subsidies and taxes had been levied and sent out of the R●alm and how they had been liberally paid they complaining also how he sent Italians and forraigners to possess their Churches and Benefices in England who had no regard of peoples souls and so were no good Shepherds as they said and how the Italians received threescore thousand Marks by the year besides other vails and excises they do reap more rents then the King himself and so when he could not have his subsidies and raise all the sums which he exacted from year to year Pope Innocent perswades the French King to make warre with the King of England for his not condiscending to the pope in all things although he was then one of his sons and of his Church but enough of this it were large to enumerate the actions and cruelties the oppressions which hath been done in that which is called Christendom since the Emperour gave unto the Pope his power and how much idolatry supersttion her●sie and Doctrines of Devils hath been spread over the Nations these many hundreds of years and how many have been put to cruel death for not obeying and conforming to the said Doctrines and practices Injunctions and Ordinances and how many he this falle Church hath stirred up to kill one another and destroy one another about these things which hath been put upon people under the name of Divine Authority and holy subjection and Apostolical Institutions by what as i● written all may see that these things are in the Apostacy and in the fall in the cu●se and in the night of darknesse wherein all this wickedness hath been wrought by the false Church which the Lord God will reward double and dry up her waters under which she sits and make her seat desolate and throw down her pride who hath drunk the blood of the Martyrs and shed the bloud of the Saints and devoured the Lambs of Christ and made merchandize of souls and therefore all who are in part departed from her stay not in the Suburbs but come out of her-City and the Adjacent places thereof that ye be not partakers of the Judgement which is to come upon her But Oh abundance of darkness remains yet in the Nations and even in the Protestant Churches who hold up things yet which was invented by her insomuch that one belonging to the Church of Rome Dionysius Petavius 〈◊〉 Cardinall layes claim to the Ceremonies which were practiced in England in the Bishops time For saith he in his book called the History of the World the Religion of England and Doctrine is Calvinis●● the Doctrine of Geneva but the Ceremonies are of Rome as they were practiced in England in the year 1640. In the time of Leo the fourth Edelw●lphus King of England went to Rome for performance of a vow that he had made and was courteously received and accepted by the Pope Leo For which cause he ordained atribute to be paid yearly to the Pope to wit a penny sterling for every house in England that kindled a Fire New Protestants look to your Easter reckonings you have denied the Popes supremacy and yet Vicars and Parsons receives his tribute of every house that kindles a Fire and this stands yet as a good and

Mercland and Elsewolf King of Northumberland who made a Decree that the people of those two Kingdomes should pay tythes By this it may be seen chat tythes were not reckoned as due for many hundred years and indeed were never due in the second Covenant So these things that are so pleaded for by these hireling Priests of this last age which hath no better plea then antiquity for their tyths and forced hire may be convinced that antiquity without truth is nothing and yet the antiquity of the Churches in the primitive times condemns these practises so that let all Protestants deny these introduced institutions and the popes wages forced tythes and hire which is Antichristian A cloud of witnesses might be brought out of the antient Fathers who testified against them and diverse Martyrs as Walter Brute and John Wickliff who suffered Martyrs for testifying the truth against the Idolatry and superstitions of that age Selden in his History of Tythes saith that before the year 800 or there abouts there is not any general Law that yet remains in publick and is of credit which ordained any payment of tythes in the Western Church for the Eastern never any Law that hath been observed mentions them So in the first giving of tenths was by the perswasion of some of the Fathers formentioned for the poor and service of the Church and they were only the free offering or free gift of the people as almes which were brought into the Common Treasury first disposed of by Deacons for the service of the Church But they being found faulty it were ordered decreed in a Council that the Bishop or overseer should dispose of them to wit the offerings but they were not compellable who did not offer this or that part but were left free to do as they had freedom only exhorted and threatened with the judgments of God if they suffered the poor to lack or be in want The predecessors of the Protestants the Bohemians being descended from the Waldenses forementioned did professe that all Priests or Ministers ought to be poor and to be content with the free gift or what the people freely offered them So saith AEneas Silvius in his Bohemian History and it is one of John Wicklifs Articles for which he was censured viz. that tythes were a free gift as among Christians or only pure alms and that the Parishoners may for the ●ffence of their Curates detain and keep them back and bestow ●hem upon others at their own will and pleasure And this proposition aforesaid is maintained by John Husse in the said Book of Martyrs pag. 461. That the Clergy are not Lords and possessors of Tyths or other Ecclesiastical goods but only Stewards and after the necessity of the Clergy is once satisfied they ought to be transported to the poor At Geneva Tiths of all sorts are taken up for the use of the state and laid up in the publike Treasury Ambrose Bishop of Millain as zealous a man for Church Priviledges as we hardly read of the like Ambrose Epist. 3. s●ith If the Emperour have a mind to Church Lands he hath power to take them There is none of us interposeth the poor may sufficiently be maintained by popular Collections let them not create us envy by taking of those Lands let them take them away if they please It may be observed at this time that the Ministers were not maintained by setled Tythes like the Priests of our time but both they and the poor were relieved by Oblations of the people and by such Lands as were given by the Emperours to the severall Churches So it was upon this account that Ambr●se thus speaks And William Throp of whom I made mention being examined in the year 1407 being brought before Thomas Aurandel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Chanceller then of England gives a clear Testimony against tythes how that they were no Gospel maintenance In his Answer he saith in the new Law neither Christ nor his Apostles took tythes of the people nor Commanded the people to pay tythes neither to Priests nor Deacons and Christ and his Apostles Preached the Word of God to the people and lived of pure almes of the free gift But after Christs Assention when the Apostles had received the Holy Ghost they travelled with their hands and afterwards he saith Paul when he was full poor and needy Preached among the people He was not chargious unto them but with his hands he travelled not only to get his own Living but also to relieve others that were poor and needy And further he saith Tythes were given in the old Law to Levites and Priests but our Priests come not of L●vi but since Christ lived and his Apostles by pure alms or else by the travell of their hands At the which the Bishop said Gods curse have you and mine for this Teaching and further William saith those Priests that challinge to take Tythes dinies Christ come in the flesh unto which the Bishop said heard ye ever Lossel speak thus And further William saith that the covetousness and pride of the Priests destroys the vertue of the Priesthood and also stireth up Gods vengeance both upon Lords and Commons who suffer these Priests Charitably And the Arch-Bishop said Thou judgest every Priest proud that will not go a●ayed as thou dost By God I deem him to be more meek that goeth every day in his Scarlet Gown then thou in thy threed bare blew Gown An answer much like a Tything Priest but I refer the Reader to the whole Testimony of William Throp which is large in the Book of Martyrs David Pareus in his Comentary upon Gen. 28 2. 22. saith Tythes or tenths were freely arbitrary a man might give them a man might vow them or he might not as he pleased before the Law But under the Law they were commanded to be given to the Priests and Levites hence saith he our Clergy men infer if they were so of Old then they are so now But this doth not follow saith he they had a Divine Ceremonial right but that is now ceased they had Tythes as a Compensation of that lot they should otherwise have in Land ours not so ours have Towns Villages Mannors yea Countries and Provinces nor is there any end of their insatiable Covetousness and he concludes when the Leviticall Priesthood did cease then did the right of that Priesthood cease and the right of Tythes did revert to God as Governour and Soverain of the World Great and Large are the testimonies that might be given both out of ancient and modern Writers who were the clearest in their judgements in their age against Tythes how that they were no Gospel maintenance neither of Divine right do belong to any Ministry under the Gospel who professeth Christ come in the flesh What I have said in this particular might be sufficient seeing so large things by other pens have been declared But I am the more willing to instance divers Authors