particulars which either the Popes autoritie of later time or new Cōpositions or Grants or the like haue altered enioyed by the Churches that yet remaining had portions so anciently giuen them or by the King or his Grantees of impropriated Tithes very many of which had their chiefe originall from those arbitrarie Consecrations which you may well call Appropriations of Tithes and not from the appropriating only of Parish Churches as some out of grosse ignorance with too much confidence deliuer But thereof you may see more in the examples of the next Chapter where for most apparant proofe of the practice of arbitrarie Consecrations in those times Moniments enough are collected This arbitrarie disposition vsed by the Laitie as well de iure as the Positiue Law then receiued and practiced was as de facto is that which Wicclef rememberd in his complaint to the King and Parlament vnder Richard the second His words are A Lord God where this be reason to constrain the poor people to find a worldly Priest sometime vnable both of life and cunning in pompe and pride couetise and enuie glottonie drunkennesse and lecherie in simonie and heresie with fat Horse and iolly and gay Saddles and Bridles ringing by the way and himselfe in costly Clothes and Pelure and to suffer their wiues and children and their poor neighbours perish for hunger thirst and cold and other mischiefes of the world A Lord Iesu Christ sith within few yeeres men payed their Tithes and Offerings at their own will free to good men and able to great worship of God to profit and fairenesse of holy Church fighting in earth Where it were lawfull and needfull that a worldly Priest should destroy this holy and approued custome constraining men to leaue this freedome turning Tithes and Offerings into wicked vses But what hee calls a few yeers will fall out to be about CC. for hee wrote about the yeer M.CCC.XC With him well agrees some passages in our Yeere-bookes of the times before him As in 7. Ed. 3. fol. 5. a. Parning truly affirmes that in auncien temps deuant vn Constitution de nouelle fait per le Pape vn Patron d'un Esglise puit granter Dismes deins mesme le Paroche a vn altre Paroche And Herle there in his answer seemes to admit it cleere So also touching others as well as Patrons Lodlow Iudge of Assise in 44. Ed. 3. fol. 5. b. En auncien temps chescun home purroit graunter les Dismes de sa terre a quel Esglise il voudroit Quod verum est sayes Iudge Brooke in abridging the case But what new Constitution of the Pope is meant there by Parning some later Books tells vs that from the Councell of Lateran the first alteration of that course of arbitrarie disposition came But plainely no Councell of Lateran hath any Canon that alterd the Law in it except that vnder Alexander the third before spoken of in the end of the sixt Chapter may haue place here which indeed the Canonists will not endure vnlesse you restraine it only to ancient Feudall Tithes And they suppose euerie man might haue arbitrarily conueyed before that Councell his Feudall Tithes to what Church he would And so expressely sayes our Lindwood Ante illud Concilium benè potuerunt Laici Decimas in feudum retinere eas alteri Ecclesiae vel Monasterio dare non tamen post tempus dicti Concilij But if those which with vs talk here of the Councell of Lateran meane that vnder Alexvnder the third and apply it generally to arbitrarie Consecrations of new Tithes not feudall I doubt they are much neerer the true meaning of that Councell then any of the Canonists especially while they speake of this Kingdome for arbitrarie Consecrations before about the time of that Councell are found here infinite as presently shall be shewd But of ancient feudall Tithes howeuer they were common in other States scarce any mention at all or tast is with vs. but thereof more in the XIII Chapter And it may be that when from the Canonists some of our Lawiers had learned that feudall Tithes might haue been conueied before that Councell arbitrarily by the owner and saw withall that scarce any signe was of feupall Tithes in this Kingdom yet an abundance of old arbitrarie Consecrations the vse whereof ceased about the time of the Councell in the words of it no regard or mention being had of feudall but only Tithes in generall they concluded who sees enough why they might not that before that Councell euery man might haue arbitrarily disposed of his tithes that is such tithes as were not formerly setled by any ciuill Title But if this will not be allowd for the Law of change of those arbitarie conueiances why may it not first be that Parning by his Constitution de nouelle fait per le Pape meant that of Pope Innocent the third sent to the Archbishop of Canterburie in King Iohns time and perhaps it was soon after receiud into the Prouince of York either by imitation or through the power Legatin which the Archbishop of Canterburie commonly exercised through the whole Kingdome to command a Parochiall payment For also by the name of a Constitution newly made by the Pope some such thing rather then a Canon of a generall Councell is perhaps denoted And then why might it not happen that the Decretal of Innocent the third bearing date in the Church of Lateran should be thence denominated and that afterward those which truly vnderstanding it called it therefore a Lateran Constitution gaue cause of mistaking to others that took it for a Constitution of a generall Councell of Lateran especially too because it was about the time of the generall Councell of Lateran held vnder the same Pope that sent it of which more notice hath been taken in our Law then of any other of that name and indeed he that affirms that before the Councell of Lateran Lay owners might haue disposed their Tithes cuicunque Ecclesiae secundum meliorem deuotionem as Dyers words are speaks true enough if his words may receiue this easie interpretation that is that till about that Councell of Lateran they might haue done so not that the Councell vnder Pope Innocent restraind it but that either the next Councell of Lateran before that is vnder Alexand. the III. or the Pope by a Constitution receiued here from Rome and dated in the Church of Lateran about the time of that Councel of the yeer M.CC.XV. ordaind the contrarie so that in this last way the name of the Councell may be a note only of the time about which it was restraind not of the autoritie whence it was forbidden Perhaps those Canons of Pluralities of Exemptions of the three orders and some such more which we receiud from that Councell vnder Innocent were brought into England at once with this Decretall Epistle and if so then also it was no more strange to haue the
cleere this grosse error of such as yet pretend to know more then vulgarly but can make no difference twixt the vse of Laws in studie or argument which might equally happen to the Laws of Vtopia and the gouerning autoritie of them If any desire to search further here beside the Autorities cited in the Margine let him especially see I. Baptista à Villalubos 〈◊〉 Antinomia Iuris regni Hispaniarum ac Ciuilis note especially la Conference du droit Francois auec le droict Romaine composed by Bernard Automne and obserue both the Volumes of Statutes and Ordinances of Spaine France Scotland Poland and of other Countries together with the various Prouincial Customes especially in France with the Arrests Decisions and Playdâ—â—es of that Kingdome and he shall soon be confirmed in that which a great Ciuilian of Italie is ingenuous enough to tell vs Hispania Anglia Scotia Balia Hibernia Alemania Datia Suetia Vngaria Boemia Polonia Bulgaria non vtuntur legibus seu iure ciuili sed specialibus consuetudinibus 〈◊〉 statutis that is they are all gouerned by their owne common Laws 〈◊〉 that most learned Frier Bacon of his time Omne regnum habes sua 〈◊〉 aquibus laici reguntur vt iura Angliae Franciae ita fit Iustitia in 〈◊〉 per Constitutiones quas habent sicut in Italia per suas This was then and is now true And the Interpretation of those common Laws in most places saue England and Ireland hath of late time been much directed by the reason of the Imperialls and only by the reason of them not by their autoritie and that also in case when they are not opposite at all to the common Laws but seeme to agree with the Law of Nations or common reason And this vse of them at the furthest began in its yongest infancie not C.D.LX. yeeres since For before that euen from Iustinians time they lay wholly out of vse sauing only that some pieces of them with the Interpolations of Alaricus and his Chancelor Anian together with Lumbardine Additions and Interpretations had their power in some parts of Italie and the Empire But for about D.C. yeeres together that is from Iustinian till Frederique Barbarossa no Profession was of them in any Vniuersitie no Doctorship no other Degree taken in them But after that time they grew into a common Profession in this Western world although by their own autoritie they are confined to Rome Constantinople and Berytus and euen here in England were about Henry the thirds time often applied to the common Law in discourse and argument as you may see in Bractâ—n his frequent quotations of them And heretofore some texts of them haue been in our Courts cited not only as at this day sometimes is done when the words only of some of the regulae iuris is brought into an argument but the Title and Law after the Ciuilians fashion hath been rememberd at the Barre and so afterward exprest in the Report as I haue seen in an example or two in the Mss. yeers of Edward the second Yet notwithstanding that it is cleere that England was neuer gouerned â—y the Ciuill or Imperiall Law as it was also affirmd by the vpper House of Parlament in 11 Rich. 2. where the King and Lords protested also that their meaning was it neuer should be gouerned by it Of the VIII Chapter OVt of this fullnesse of Laws that were made for Tithes in England let it be considered by such as enquire here de iure what interest was of right setled in the Clergie by them howsoeuer they were litle obeyed And by what Autorttie made we haue carefully added still what might help to a iudgement in that also and how extensiue in regard of Persons and Territorie they were and some such other and how farre the Tithes might be after such Laws detained or made subiect to Customes or possessed as things of common vse The Laws of before as well as of after the Norman Conquest as it is vulgarly called are here gathered and are perhaps equally obseruable as the rest in the consequent of a generall consecration of Tithes to the Church in England For neither were the Laws formerly made abolish by that Conquest although by Law of Warre regularly all Rights and Laws of the place conquered be wholly subiect to the Conquerors will For in this of the Norman not only the Conquerors will was not declared that the former Laws should be abrogated and vntill such declaration Laws remaine in force by the opinion of some in all Conquests of Christians against Christians but also the ancient and former Laws of the Kingdome were confirmed by him For in his fourth yeere by the aduise of his Baronage he summoned to London Omnes Nobiles sapientes lâ—ge suâ erudâ—tos vt eorum leges consuetudines audiret as the words are of the Book of Lichfield and afterward confirme them as is further also related in Roger of Houeden Those Lege suâ eruditi were common Lawiers of that time as Godric and Alswin were then also who are spoken of in the Book of Abingdon to be Legibus patriae optime instituti quibus tanta secularium facundia praeteritorum memoria euentorum inerat vt caeteri circumquaque facilè eorum sententiam ratam fuisse quam ed cerent approbarent And these two and diuers other Common Lawiers then liued in the Abbey of Abingdon Quorum collationi nemo sapiens sayes the Autor refragabatur quibus rem Ecclesiae publicam tuentibus eius oblocutores elingues fiebant You must know that in those daies euery Monk here in England that would might remaine so secular that he might get money for himselfe purchase or receiue by discent to his owne vse And therefore it was fit enough for practicing Lawiers to liue in Monasteries But what had those praeteritorum memoria euentorum that is Reports and adiudged Cases of the Saxon times auailed in their skill if the former Laws had not continued More obuious Testimonies to this pupose are had out of Geruase of Tilburne Ingulphus and others and we here omit them But also indeed it was not to be reputed a Conquest or an Acquisition by right of Warre which might haue destroyed the former Laws so much as a violent recouering of the Kingdome out of the hands of Rebels which withstood the Dukes pretence of a lawfull Title claimed by the Confessors adoption or designation of him for his Successor his neerenesse of bloud on the mothers side not a litle also aiding such a pretence to a Crowne For the Confessors mother Emme was sister to Richard the second Duke of Normandie to whom William was Grand-child and Heire But these were only specious Titles and perhaps examined curiously neither of them were at that time enough And howsoeuer his conscience so moued him at his death that he profest he had got England only by Bloud and the Sword yet
themselues from the Patron seuerally and directly in point of interest The beginning of Parish Churches Disposition of the Offrings receiued there Lay-foundations of Parish Churches The interest that Patrons claymed Right of Aduowson The ceremonie of putting a Cloth or Robe vpon the Patron at the consecration of the Church The vse of Inuestitures by which as by liuerie of Seisin Lay Patrons gaue their Churches Commendatio Ecclesiae Benefice None anciently receiued the character of Orders but when also the ordination was for the title of some Church Thence came the later vse of Episcopall Institution Whence some Patrons came to haue most part of the Tithes Canonica portio The Clergy and Councels against Inuestitures Their continuance till towards M.CC. when Institution as it is at this day vpon presentation grew common How Appropriations were in those times made The ancient Episcopall right to Tiths especially in Germanie and the Northern parts How Monks iustified their possession of Tithes and Parish-Churches The right of Tithes generally denied in Turingia to the Archbishop of Mentz IV. Of Infeodations of Tithes into Lay-hands both from the Clergie and Laitie and of their Originall V. Of Exemptions graunted by the Pope Templars and Hospitalars accounted no part of the Clergie VI. The generall opinion was that they are due iure diuino but this indifferently thought on seems to haue denoted rather Ecclesiastique or Positiue Law by the doctrine and practice of the Clergy then Diuine Morall Law VII Laws Imperiall and Canons Synodall and Pontificiall for the payment of Tenths The grosse error of some that mistake Nona and Decima in the Capitularies The first Generall Councell that mentions Tithes CAP. VII Of the time from M.CC. or neere thereabouts till this day I. The Canons of Generall Councells and Decretalls for Parochiall right in Tithes not formerly otherwise conueyed which now became more established II. The opinion of the Canonists in the question of what immediate Law Tithes are due by is that they are payable iure diuino III. How the same question is determined by the opinion of the Schoolmen IV. Of those that held them meere Almes V. The opinion in Diuinitie that concludes them due iure diuino With a Determination of the Vniuersitie of Oxford touching Personall Tithes VI. Laws Customs and Practice of France in exaction of them Of their feudall Tithes at this day VII Laws Customs and Practice in Spain touching the generall payment of Tithes Tithes there in Lay mens hands VIII Customs and Infeudations in Italie Payment in Venice in Germanie Of the Hungarians Polacks Swethians and others touching the dutie and possession of Tithes IX Of Tithes in Scotland With an Example of an Appropriation of Churches and Tithes there by Robert de Brus. And something of Tithes in Ireland CAP. VIII The Laws of England made in the Saxon mycel synodes or ƿitenagemotes in Parliaments and in the Coūcels here held either National or Prouincial or by the Pope for the due payment or discharge of Tithes in this Kingdome Petitions or Bils in Parliament touching them are inserted all in their course of time CAP. IX I. Of Parishes in the Primitiue Church of the Britons II. Parishes in the Primitiue Church of the English Saxons first limited only in regard of the Ministers function not of Parochiall profits all the profits of euery whole Diocese first made a common treasure to bee disposed of by the Bishop and his Clergie of the same Diocese Residence of the Bishop and Clergie in those times The great regard then had to euery Clergie man III. Of diuision of our Parishes whether Honorius Archbishop of Canterburie first deuided them Parochia or Paroecia diuersly taken IV. Lay-foundations of Parish Churches from whence chiefly came Parochiall limits in regard of the profits receiud to the singular vse of the Incumbents Limitation of Tithes by King Edgar to the Mother Parish Church or Monasterie Monasteries preferd before other Churches for buriall Mortuaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a third part of Tithes according to King Edgars Law must be giuen to a new built Church that had right of Sepulture by the Founder Sepultura and Baptisterium Capella Parochialis a Parish commanded to be made out of another that was too large by the Pope one Parish ioynd to another by the King CAP. X. I. The Practice of Tithing Of King Cedwalla's Tithing being no Christian. the custom of the German-Saxons in sacrificing their tenth captiue to Neptune Decima vsed for a lesse part also in ancient moniments II. The Practice of Tithing in the Christian times of our Ancestors the tale of Augustin and the Lord of Cometon touching non payment of them the Tithe of euery dying Bishops substance to be giuen to the poor by an old Prouinciall Synod Tithes how mentiond in Domesday Testimonies of payment of them Henrie the thirds grant of the payment of tithe of Hay and Mills out of all his demesnes The beginning of Parochiall payment of Tithes in common and established practice in England How that common assertion that euery man might haue disposed his Tithes at his pleasure before the Councell of Lateran is true and to be vnderstood CAP. XI I. Arbitrarie Consecrations of Tithes before about the time of the most known Councell of Lateran by conueiance from the owner of all or part to any Church or Monasterie at his pleasure in examples selected out of moniments of infallible credit II. A Writ in the Register intelligible only from those arbitrarie Consecrations a like example to it out of the booke of Osney III. The libertie of the Baronage anciently challenged to build Churches in their Territories Parochiall right to Tithes setled in Practice IV. Of Tithes of encrease in lands not limited to any Parish How by the common Law they are to be disposed of CAP. XII I. Appropriations and Collations of Tithes with Churches The Corporations to which the Appropriations were made presented for the most part Vicars Thence the most of perpetuall Vicarages II. How Churches and Tithes by Appropriation were anciently conueyed from Lay-Patrons The vse of Inuestitures practiced by Lay-Patrons III. Grants of Rents or Annuities by Patrons only out of their Churches Of the Bishops assent More of Inuestitures A Writ to the Archdeacon anciently sometime sent vpon recouerie of a Presentment IV. Of hereditarie succession in Churches V. Laps vpon default of Presentation grounded vpon the generall Councell of Lateran held in 25. Hen. 2. What Praesentare ad Ecclesiam is originally Donatio Ecclesiae CAP. XIII I. Infeodations here into Lay hands since the Statuts of Dissolutions Of Infeodations before that time in England somewhat more of the originall of Lay mens practice in arbitrarie Consecrations or Infeodations II. Exemptions or discharges of payment originally by Priuiledges Prescriptions Vnitie Grants or Compositions and by the Statuts of Dissolutions CAP. XIV I. The iurisdiction of Ecclesiastique causes in the Saxon times exercised by the Shrife and the Bishop in the Countie
be most particular being referd to the last seuen Chapters Till towards the end of the first foure hundred no Paiment of them can be proued to haue been in vse Some Opinion is of their being due and Constitutions also but such as are of no credit For the first 't is best declared by shewing the course of the Church-maintenance in that time So liberall in the beginning gf Christianity was the deuotion of the beleeuers that their bountie to the Euangelicall Priesthood farre exceeded what the Tenth could haue been For if you looke to the first of the Apostles times then the vnitie of heart among them about Ierusalem was such that all was in common and none wanted and as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the price of the things that were sold and laid it downe at the Apostles feet and it was distributed vnto euery man according as he had need And the whole Church both Lay and Clergie then liud in common as the Monks did afterward about the end of the first foure hundred yeeres as S. Chrysostome notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is so they liue now in Monasteries as then the beleeuers liud But this kind of hauing all things in common scarce at all continued For we see not long after in the Church of Antiochia where Christianitie was first of all by that name profest euery one of the Disciples had a speciall abilitie or estate of his owne So in Galatia and in Corinth where S Paul ordaind that weekly offerings for the Saints should bee giuen by euery man as hee had thriued in his estate By example of these the course of monthly Offerings succeeded in the next ages Those monthly Offerings giuen by deuout and able Christians the Bishops or Officers appointed in the Church receiud and carefully and charitably disposed them on Christian worship the maintenance of the Clergie feeding clothing and burying their poore brethren widowes orphans persons tyrannically condemnd to the Mines to Prison or banisht by deportation into Isles They were called Stipes which is a word borrowed from the vse of the Heathens in their collections made for their Temples and Deities neyther were they exacted by Canon or otherwise but arbitrarily giuen as by testimony of most learned Tertullian that liued about CC. yeers after Christ is apparant Neque pretio are his words vlla res Dei constat Etiam si quod arcae genus est non de oneraria summa quasi redemptae religionis congregatur modicam vnus quisque Stipem menstruâ die vel cum velit si modo velit si modo possit apponit Nam nemo compellitur sed sponte confert Haec quasi deposita pietatis sunt And then he shewes the imployment of them in those charitable vses Some authoritie is that about this time lands began also to bee giuen to the Church If they were so out of the profits of them and this kind of Offerings was made a treasure and out of that which was increased so monthly was a monthly pay giuen to the Priests and Ministers of the Gospell as a salarie for their seruice and that eyther by the hand or care of the Bishop or of some Elders appointed as Oeconomi or Wardens Those monthly payes they called mensurnae diuisiones as you may see in S. Cyprian who wrote being Bishop of Carthage about the yeere CCL and speaking familiarly of this vse calls the Brethren that cast in their monthly offerings fratres sportulantes vnderstanding the offerings vnder the word sportulae which at first in Rome denoted a kind of running banquets distributed at great mens houses to such as visited for salutation which being oft-times also giuen in mony as you may remember out of Mardial the word came at length to signifie both those salaries wages or fees which either Iudges or Ministers of Courts of Iustice receiud as due to their places as also to denote the Oblations giuen to make a treasure for the salaries and maintenance of the Ministers of the Church in this primitiue Age. and to this purpose was it also vs'd in later times But because that passage of S. Cyprian where he vses this phrase well shews also the course of the maintenance of the Church in his time take it here transcribed but first know the drift of his Epistle to be a reprehension of Geminius Faustinus a Priest his being troubled with the care of a Wardship whereas such as take that dignitie vpon them should hee saies be free from all secular troubles like the Leuits who were prouided for in Tithes Vt qui as he writes operationibus diuinis insistebant in nulla re auocarentur nec cogitare aut agere secularia cogerentur and then hee addes Quae nunc ratio forma in Clero tenetur vt qui in Ecclesia Domini ad ordinationem Clericalem promouentur nullo modo ab adminstratione diuina auocentur sed in honore Sportulantium fratrum tanquam Decimas ex fructibus accipientes ab Altari Sacrificijs non recedant die ac nocte coelestibus rebus spiritalibus seruiant which plainly agrees with that course of monthly pay made out of the Oblations brought into the Treasurie which kind of meanes he compares to that of the Leuits as being proportionable But hence also 't is manifest that no payment of Tithes was in S. Cyprians time in vse although some too rashly from this very place would inferre so much those words tanquam Decimas accipientes which continues the comparing of Ministers of the Gospel with the Leuits plainly exclude them And elsewhere also the same Father finding fault with a coldnes of deuotion that then possest many in regard of what was in vse in the Apostles times and seeing that the Oblations giuen were lesse then vsually before expresses their neglect to the Church with at nunc de patrimonio nec Decimas damus whence as you may gather that no vsuall paiment was of them so withall obserue in his expression that the liberalitie formerly vsed had been such that in respect thereof Tenths were a small part vnderstand it as if he had said but now we giue not so much as any part worth speaking of Neither for ought appears in old moniments of credit till neer the end of this first four hundred yeers was any paiment to the Church of any tenth part as a Tenth at all in vse II. But some Laws of this time yet remaine which shew that Tenths out of Mines and of Quarries were paid both to the Emperor and to the Lord of the soile as in the ancient state of Rome the Tenants of the Lands of the Empire paid for Rent the Tenth of their Corne whence the Publicans that hired it as the Customers doe here the Kings custome were called Decumani those Laws for the tenths of Mines
examples and autorities before cited iustifie it For the building of Churches which considered with the arbitrarie endowments of them with new Tithes specially belongs also to this disquisition it was affirmd for a common libertie of the Baronage in letters of King Iohn to Innocent the third as you may see in the Popes answer to the King Quod enim de consuetudine regni Anglorum saies the Pope to him procedere regia serenitas per suas literas intimauit vt liceat tà m Episcopis quà m Comitibus Baronibus Ecclesias in feudo suo fundare Laicis quidem Principibus id licere nullatenùs denegamus dummodo Dioecesani Episcopi eis suffragetur assensus per nouam structuram veterum Ecclesiarum iustitia non laedatur It was challenged without licence but the Pope allows it to the Laitie so that they had licence from the Bishop of the Diocese and withall that the new foundations bereaued not ancient Churches of their assigned endowments But after the time of K. Iohn few or none of those arbitrarie consecrations are found yet in Henry the thirds time some were as you may see in those of Fines taken out of the Chartularie of Gisburn but remember also they were in the Prouince of Yorke Neither were those Grants disallowd by either Common or Canon Law here then practiced and in thoses cases of Tithes that occur among the Epistles of Iohn of Salisbury who liued in time of Henry the second no title is made meerly by Parochiall right but Prescription or Consecration are the grounds whereupon they are demanded and whereas in the case of Robert Wnegot before Adelelm Archdeacon of Dorchester the question was there super quibusdam Parochianis Decimis and the Actor produced testimonie that he had formerly recouered ius Parochiale quod petebat cum decimis it is cleer that the Tithes were not recouered iure communi as they are at this day belonging to the Parish-Rector but by speciall title of Consecration or Prescription and the ius Parochiale there was the right of hauing the Cure and Offerings of the Parishioners which had not necessarily annext to it the right of Tithes by the practice of that time whence it came that Parochiani Decimae are both there mentioned as seuerall demands in the Actors Libell and hereof see more anon in the corollarie of the ancient Iurisdiction of Tithes in England and that admonition of Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury before cited to Ala Countesse of Warren is obseruable is it not apparant that he allows not only the arbitrarie Consecrations made by the Earles but also reprehends her sharply for not performing what they had therein vowed But in the ensuing times after that the Canon Law had here gained greater strength which happend soon vpon Innocent the third his thundering out his Interdict against this Kingdom his Excommunication against the King and frighting the subiects with his Bulls stufft with commination and that against this very point of arbitrarie conueiances of Tithes it soon came to be a receiud Law that all Lands regularly were to pay Tithes to the Parish or Mother Church according to the prouision of the Canons and therefore vpon Delegation made by Pope Innocent the fourth in 49. Hen. 3. to the Priors of S. Trinitie and S. Bartholomew in London and the Archdeacon of Westminster for the deciding of a controuersie twixt the Abbesse and Nunnes of Chartris by Ely and Robert Passelew Archdeacon of Lewes about some Tithes of the possession of the Nunnerie in Barington it appears that in Passelews libell no other title is made but that the Land lies infra limites Parochiae suae de Barenton vnde petit dictam Abbatissam compelli integrè ad solutionem dictarum decimarum cum damnis interesse c. and some others like are of that time according to the Law that to this day continues as may especially be found in the books of Pipewell and Osney That example is in the Chartularie of that Nunnerie composed by the cost and pains of Agnes Aschefeld Abbesse there and Henry Bukworth Bachiler of the Canon Law about the time of Henry the sixt You may adde to the confirmation of this ending of the ancienter course of arbitrarie consecrations and the later establishing of Parochiall right in Tithes that of the English Monks before cited touching the generall Councell of Lions held in 2 Ed. 1. I doubt not but that Parochiall right was long before for the most part setled but it is not likely that they had so confidently affirmed such a continuing libertie of conueiance of Tithes at the owners will had they not known that vntill about the preceding ages at least it had been in common practice both of fact and positiue Law especially in this Kingdom where they liued Whether this petition in Parliament of 6. Ed. 1. may giue any light to that assertion of theirs I know not Nicholas of Crainford Parson of Gilingham complaind to the King Quod cum Foresta Domini Regis ibidem sita sit infra Parochiam suam quod Dominus Rex Decimam faeni venationis pannagij aliorum prouentuum ipsius forestae de gratia pro salute animae suae animarum praedecessorum suorum Ecclesiae suae cui de iure communi debentur plenè solui praecipiat secundum formam supplicationis exhortationis Apostolicae porrectam Dominio R. apud Gilingham quando fuit ibi ad Natale What was that supplicatio or exhortatio Apostolica did not some such thing comming from Rome about the time of the Councell of Lions make the Monks think it a thing agreed vpon in that Councell it seems here too that in the Kings case Parochiall right of Tithes was not yet euery where setled although the Tithes were encreasing in a Parish IV. After this establishment of Parochiall right new arbitrarie conueiances out of lands lying in any Parish were not permitted but ancient consecrations were still retained and had confirmation either from prescription or Papall priuilege which were by the Canons sufficient titles to be pleaded against the common right claimed by Parish Rectors And when this innouation grew in Parochiall right then also the iurisdiction which the common or secular Law had formerly challenged and exercised in detaining the right of Tithes between the Parish and Parishioner grew out of vse and the legall proceeding became to be regularly according to the Canons which brought the practice to be as since it hath continued But of the ancient iurisdiction more anon So was it now come to that passe that no new arbitrarie consecrations might be made of the Tithes of lands lying in any Parish But yet for such lands as were not Parochially limited the ancient libertie was retained and although by the Canon Law the Bishop is to haue all Tithes growing in lands not assigned to any Parish within his Diocese yet in the moniments of the common Laws such Tithes growing
most commonly the Church is exprest Vna cum Decima that is the Tithe annext or consecrated to it in annona or in other kind and the places sometimes are named where the encrease of the Tithe grew Such examples are very obuious especially in the Chartularies of Abingdon and Rochester And as is before noted the most common intent allowd also by Canonicall confirmation which sometime but rarely was added in those elder ages was that the Corporation whereto the Appropriation was made should put Clerks or Vicars in the Churches so conueyed to them which were to answer to them for all temporall profits as Tithes and other reuenues although the Churches were distant many hundred miles sometimes from the Monasteries for a Church in one Kingdome also was often appropriated to a Monasterie of another and to the Ordinarie for spirituall function The generall Confirmations that are sometimes found of that time make it manifest and for the two Prouinces it is not amisse to adde here these two examples of it In 17. Will. 1. Thomas Archbishop of York makes a generall Confirmation to the Priorie of Durham of all Churches either then appropriated to them or thereafter to be appropriated and grants and commands Vt omnes Ecclesias suas in manu sua teneat quietè eas possideant Vicarios suos in eis liberè ponant qui mihi successoribus meis de cura tantum intendant animarum ipsis vero de omnibus caeteris Eleemosynis Beneficijs So vnder Henry the second Pope Lucius the third writes to all the Monks in the Prouince of Canterburie and bids them that in all Churches in quibus praesentationem habetis cum vacauerint Diocesanis Episcopis Clericos idoneos praesentetis qui illis de spiritualibus vobis de temporalibus debeant respondere Where that in quibus praesentationem habetis can bee vnderstood only of Churches appropriated which they enioied not pleno iure that is in which they were bound to allow some competent reuenue to a Vicar or Curat and had not exempt iurisdiction nor the power of institution of Vicars without presentation to the Bishop as is plainly known from what followes touching the answering for the Temporalties to the Monasteries And in those times as is alreadie deliuered it was most frequent to haue presentations made by Monasteries to their appropriated Churches and the Vicar-Incumbents or Presentees had no more of the profits notwithstanding the institution then the Monasteries would arbitrarily allow them Neither followd any disappropriation vpon such Presentation howeuer the later Law be taken otherwise Nor was there any perpetuall certaintie of profits or reuenues to their Presentees vntill such time as the Monks by composition with the Ordinaries or by their owne Ordinance which prescription after confirmed appointed some yeerly salarie in Tithes or Glebe or Rent seuerally for the perpetuall maintenance of the Cure which Salaries became afterward perpetuall Vicarages And to these testimonies touching appropriated Churches in those ancient times and presentation to them you may also adde that Canon of the Councell of Westminster held in the second of King Iohn by Hubert Archbishop of Canterburie to the same purpose wherewith is agreeing also one of Othobons Legatine Constitutions touching filling of Appropriations and making of Vicarages as also the two Statuts of 15. Rich. 2. cap. 6. 4. Hen. 4. cap. 12. touching the point of which Statut a Bill in the next Parliament was again put in but answered with Soient les Statuts en faitez gardez II. In those elder Appropriations it appears that the Church and the Tithes and what else was ioind with it as part of the assigned reuenue by the practice of the time passed in point of interest from the Patron by his gift which oftentimes was by liuerie of a book or a knife on the Altar not otherwise then freehold conueid by his deed liuerie Neither was confirmation or assent of the Ordinarie as it seems necessarie as of later time Obserue this one example of the Church of Waldren appropriated to the Priorie of Lewes in Sussex by Robert of Dene wherin he as Patron appoints also the conditions to which the Presentee or Vicar-encumbent of the Priorie should be subiect Ego Robertus de Dena saies the Deed vxor mea Sibilia pro animabê° antecessorum nostrorum pro salute nostra successorum nastrorum concedimus Deo S. Pancratio Latisaquensi Ecclesiam de Waldrena cum terris Decimis omnibus ad eam pertinentibus cum duabus partibus Decimae bladorum de Caluindona ita videlicet vt Sacerdos de Waldrena de his omnibus soluat S. Pancratio singulis annis dimidiam marcam argenti Ipse autem Sacerdos per manum Prioris S. Pancratij Ecclesiam de Waldrena tenebit quamdiù castè religiose vixerit Quod si crimen incurrerit iudicio Prioris Latisaquensis corrigetur aut expelletur This about the time of Henrie the second was made coram duobus Hundredis apud Hundestuph Very many other are extant so made as well by common persons as the King in the Saxon times of churches and since of Churches and Tithes without any confirmations sauing sometimes that those of common persons are ratified by the King as supreme Lord as also they are too by other Lords for it was not vnvsuall for Tenants to haue their Lords confirme their alienations of all kind of possessions I know what is said in the later Law of the Kings power as suprem Ordinarie for the part of Iurisdiction and I acknowledge it as all ought but in those elder times that was not the matter which made appropriations good where his confirmation had place and none was from the Bishop at least it cannot at all be proued that his suprem Iurisdiction spirituall was so much thought of in them although otherwise apparant testimonie be of the exercise of such iurisdiction of the right of it in the elder ages in this Kingdome But the reason of appropriations so practiced by lay Patrons only was the challenged right which in those times they most commonly vsed in disposition of their Churches as if they had been all Donatiues by collation without presentation that is by Inuestiture from their own hands only which gaue their Incumbents reall possession of the Tithe of the Church and all the reuenues no lesse then presentation institution and induction doe at this day For howeuer not only the Decrees both of the Pope and generall Councells were anciently against that kind of inuestiture but also the Prouinciall or Nationall Synods here held had like Canons forbidding it as in 3. Hen. 1. the Councell of Westminster held vnder Anselme Archbishop of Canterburie Girard of Yorke ordains Ne Monachi Ecclesias nisi per Episcopos accipiant and in 25. Hen. 1. at the same place in the Nationall Synod held by Cardinall Iohn de Crema the Popes Legat
their children also and in the gouernment of the King that was declared by Samuel it is said He will take the tenth of your Vineyards and giue it to his chiefe Seruants and to his Officers But where shall you find the least mention of Infeodations made of such kind of Tenths or any touch of them in the complaints of the Clergie against Infeodations and withall nothing hath beene of lesse practice then giuing away in perpetuall right any such reuenue due to any Crowne or State only by speciall right of Supreme Maiestie But admit these had their originall this way or any other as you will vnlesse they can be proud to haue been made of the verie selfe same Tithe which is due to the ministring Priesthood which can neuer been downe sauing only where the infeodated Tithe was at first receiud and possessest by the Church by force of the Law of Tithing not by arbitrary Consecration in which case also it is considerable whether a Lay man could be at all capable of the fructus only of them if due by an immediat expresse Law of God I see not how they shuld more preuent Parochial paiment to the ministring Priest then the paiment of rents in Terragies or quantities in Corn vnder the name of tiths to landâ—ards shuld diminish the right of the spirituall Tithe which way had either such a fift as was Pharohs or the tenth spoken of by Samuel to be taken by the King touched the Tithe due by a superior or former law to the Leuitical Priesthood both might wel haue stood together might not so nay should not so Tithes remain paiable froÌ„ the possessors of the nine parts to the Euangelical Priesthood notwithstanding infeodations or any reseruations whatsoeuer if they be due by a superior or former Laws especially if due by the Morall Law and that Law should bee vrged rather against the Tenants of the Land then against the Pernors of the feudall Tithes And that common distinction of the Canonists of ius percipiendi fructus Decimarum here is a mere shift and nothing satisfies vnlesse they could also teach vs how the fructus were the verie selfe same alwaies in Infeodations and that they were deriued from a ius percipiendi in some Clergie man Perhaps too much of these things which are litle or nothing applicable to England where we haue scarce any example of a Tithe that was in its nature feodall other then in such as were taken from Monasteries by the Statuts of Dissolution and may still be calld as originally by the name of Consecrated or Appropriated Tithes although now Infeodated But thereof see the XIII Chapter To the 5. § that speaks of Exemptions for matter of story may be added that of the Hospitalars After their exemptions giuen them with the two other Orders about the yeer MCLX. in the Eastern parts they tam Domino Patriarchae quam caeteris Ecclesiarum Praelatis multas tam super Parochiali iure quam super iure Decimationum caeperunt inferre molestas c. and receiud such as were excommunicat for non-paiment of them De praedijs autem suis vniuersis redditibus quocunque iure ad eos deuolutis omninò Decimas negabant Where by the way note that in this Eastern Church which after Hierusalem was recouered and made a Kingdome subiect to Western Princes should haue been fashiond according to the Canons of the Western Church Tithes were now appointed paiable although no authentike Law of that old Eastern Church once mentions them But both in this and other things the people of that Church were stil notwithstanding the new Kingdome of Hierusalem possessed by Europians and the Popes authority extended to them most obstinate refractarie against the policie and Institutions offerd them either in command or example from the Western After the Opinions of the age in the 6. § the Laws both Imperiall Prouinciall and Pontificiall follow in the 7. vpon which let it bee considerd whether a consecration of Tithes were so made by the power and law of the Church and Common wealth or both in seuerall Territories according to the Laws extended that no prophanation or detaining them or any part of them might afterwards be lawfull and the like should be carefully thought on in the 1. § of the VII Chapter and in the VIII Chapter which hath the Lawes of England for the same purpose The force of the words of all those Laws the Autoritie that made them and the Territories to which they were extended are especially to be obserud by euerie one that here looks after humane positiue Law For manie talke and write of that and tell vs here of ius Ecclesiasticum at least if they faile in their Arguments from Ius diuinum but whence that Ius Ecclesiasticum is and where or when made they little enough know For what hath a Prouinciall Councell of one Nation to doe with another What hath the Imperialls of the old French Empire to doe with England Nay what hath the Popes Decrees to do here But because there was a time when their autority was more largely acknowledged their Decrees that bred much of what now iustly continues in some States which also iustly now denie their autoritie remaine most obseruable and wee haue giuen them in their places Of the VII Chapter IN the last CCCC yeers beside the establishment of Parochiall right in Tithes and the various Opinions touching the immediat Law whereby they are due the Practice of most Christian Nations as it might be had out of their Laws and Lawiers is faithfully related And to what is there brought adde that of the Law of France wherby the right of the Tithe of all the Minesis claimd by the King as a droit de Souerainte according as it is declard by two Edicts published of Charles the IX and verified also by the Parlament of Paris according also the old Imperiall Law was But through all here you may see that the Customes Statutes and Common Laws especially of France Italie and Spaine and of most other if not all States permit not so fauourably for the Clergie an exaction of them or suite to be so generally brought for them as the Laws of England did before the Statutes of Dissolution of Monasteries and still do if you exempt those cases which are founded only vpon those Statutes What Statute or practice is in this Kingdome that equals the Carolines of Spaine or the Philippine of France which are generall Laws for Customes quatenus Customes de non Decimando And whereas England vntill the Dissolution had scarce a continuing Infeodation into lay hands of which see the XIII Chapter nor could a lay man by the common Law before the Dissolution make any title to Tithes as to lay inheritances in other Nations Tithes infeodated haue been from aboue D. almost DC yeers frequent in vse and still continue legally in lay hands and are subiect wholly to Secular Iurisdiction as
also other Tithes paid to the Church are whersoeuer any such suite is commenced for them in their Spirituall Courts as stand not with their libertie challenged from their Secular or Common Law For euerie Christian State hath its owne Common Laws as this Kingdome hath And the Canon Law euerie where in such things as are not meerly spirituall is alwaies gouerned and limited as with vs by those Common Laws For by that name are they to be calld as they are distinguisht from the Canon Law which hath properly Persons and Things sacred only and spirituall for its obiect in practice as the Canon Laws deale with Things and Persons as they haue reference to a Common not Sacred vse or societie established in a Common wealth Who knowes any thing in Holy-Writ knowes the vse of the word CoÌ„mon to be so distinguisht from Sacred Indeed it hath other notions there also and it is otherwise vnderstood in ius commune frequently among Canonists and Ciuilians But these nothing at all hurt the conuenience of this denomination For by them Ius commune is vsed as it is opposd to Municipale or Consuetudinarium But here and in the nomination of the English Laws as it is distinguisht from Sacred or Spirituall and so in this sense the allowance of Customes and Parlamentarie Statutes as they ought fall vnder the name of Common Law with vs. Here I doubt not but it will be an obuious obiection that I should rather call the supreme and gouerning Law of euerie other Christian State sauing England and Ireland the Ciuill Law that is the old Roman Imperiall Law of Iustinian For such a raigning but most grosse Ignorance is euery where almost to be met withal in England that you shal haue it affirmd for cleer that al other States are gouernd only by the Ciuil Law Indeed if they which say so vnderstood Ciuill for that which is the Ius Ciuile of euery singular State it were but the same to talk of Ciuill and Common Law For the Common Law of England also is the Ius Ciuile Anglorum But it is euen with one mouth pretended vsually that the Body of the Imperialls read and profest in the Vniuersities is the Ciuill Law that gouernes as they say all other States But this howsoeuer receiued through lazie Ignorance is so farre from Truth that indeed no Nation in the world is gouerned by them For whersoeuer they are supposed to gouerne let the briefe cleering of so common an error get pardon for the digression it must be taken that they either gourne by their owne originall autoritie as they are Imperialls or from their being receiued for Laws into other States which are not in that first way subiect to them According to that first way only the Empire and perhaps a good part of Italie should be ruled by them But it is plaine that for the most part the disposition of Inheritances punishing of Crimes course of Proceedings Dowers Testaments and such other which are of greatest moment vnder the Legall rule are euen in those States where by reason of their first Institution they retaine a kind of autoritie ordered by most various Customes and new Statutes of seuerall Prouinces and Cities so differing from those old Imperialls that the whole face and course of them is exceedingly changed in practice This is plaine to euery one that obserues but the diuers Customes and Ordinances of the States subiect to the Empire the Ius Camerale collected by Petrus Denaisius the Nemesis Karulina as it is set forth by Georgius Romus and the many published Decisions or Reports both of the Imperiall Chamber and the Rota's of Rome Naples Piemont Mantua Genoa Bologna and other parts of the Territorie of Italie You shall find those Decisions in matters of greatest moment most commonly grounded on Customarie Law or later Constitutions So that to affirme that in these places the old Imperialls or that Ciuill Law as they call it gouernes is as if for example an equall ignorance shuld tel vs that Spain were gouerned only by Alfonso's Parfidas and Scotland only by Malcolms Laws or the Quoniam Attachiamenta or that in the time of the old Emperors the Roman State had been alwaies gouerned only by the XII Tables or that England were legally ruled only by the Grand Charter or by the two volumes of old Statutes Like accession and alteration as any of these haue had is found in the Empire and in Italie where the Imperialls haue through the power of the Emperors and Popes any now continuing autoritie Now for other Christian States which acknowledge no superior or any subiection to the Empire except Portugall where the Roman Ciuill Law is autorized by an Ordinance of State in cases which are not literally comprehended in the Customes or Constitutions of the Kingdome as France Spaine Scotland Denmarke Poland the Citie of Venice and what also in Germanie hath made it selfe froâ— from the Empire what colour is there that the Imperiall Ciuill Law should gouerne in them Indeed in all of them I thinke the reason of it brought into method is vsed and applied commonly to arâ—â—ment when any of their Customes or Statutes which are especially in France and Spaine very voluminous come in question because the Practicers studied it in the Vniuersities had thence their Degrees giuen them which yet they had not till about some CCCC yeers since neither before about that time was a Doctor or Professor of them known on this side the Alpeâ— But as it is Law it neither binds nor rules with them no more then the old stories of Heredotus Thucydides Diodore Polybius Iosephus Liute Tacitus and the like or Cicero and Demosthenes or Plato's Lawes and other of that kind which are equally somtimes vsed for reason or example specially by the Practicers of France And so the old Imperiall Ciuill Law valet pro ratione as Bertrand d' Argentre President of the Parlament of Rennes sayes non pro inducto iure pro ratione only quantum Reges Dynastae Respublicae intra potestatis suae fines valere patiuntur And in France and Spain Laws were some CCC yeers since expressely made that the Imperials should haue no force in theÌ„ And in Scotland it is ordaind that no Laws haue force there but the Kings Laws and Statutes of the Realme and that it should be gouerned by the common Lawes of the Realme and by none other Lawes Doubtlesse Custome hath made some parts of the Imperialls to be receiued for Law in all places where they haue been studied as euen in England also in Marine causes and matter of personall Legacies But is England therefore gouerned by them It were as good a consequent to conclude so as to affirme that any of the other States were because som petie things are ordered according to some Imperiall Text receiued and establisht by Custome But this may seeme no fit place to speak more perhaps not so much to
Court and among them that of Tithes also was then to haue been there determind The Bishops Consistorie seuered from the Countie Court by William the first II. After the Normans Originall suits for Tithes were aswell in the Temporall Courts as in the Spirituall and that continued till Henrie the second or about King Iohn III. Of the time since about King Iohn or Henrie the second Of the Indicauit and the Writ of right of Aduowson of Tithes What the Law was in an Indicauit before that Statut of Westm. 2. A touch of ancient Prohibitions De non Decimando IV. Writs of Scire facias for Tithes Enquests taken vpon Commission to enquire of the right of Tithes V. Fines leuied of Tithes in the time of Richard the first of King Iohn and Henrie the third vpon Writs of right of Aduowson VI. Scire facias by the Patentees against the pernor of Tithes granted by the King VII Command of payment by the Kings Writ And of Tithes in Forests Triall of the right of Tithes incident in some issues The Historie of TITHES CAP. I. Of Tithes before the Law I. Melkizedek had Tithes only of the spoiles of Warre giuen him by Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes spoiles of Warre and perhaps also profits taken from the ground or Ruta caesa II. Iacobs vow and payment of Tithes Both Abraham and Iacob were Priests when they paid Tithes In whom the Priest-hood was before the Law III. Whether any certaine Quantitie were obserued in the Offerings of Cain and Abel IV. A Cabalistique operation in numbers by which Tithes and the first Fruits offered by Abel might haue a mysticall identitie Such operations were amongst old Christians also but meerly vaine I. ABraham in his return from redeeming his nephew Lot with his substance and all the substance of Sodom and Gomorrah was blessed by Melkizedek King of Salem and Priest of the most high God and gaue him Tithe of all So is the holy Writ But what that all was is not cleerly agreed vpon it is taken to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miccol aghsher lo that is of all that he had as the ordinarie Glosse of Salomon â—archi there interprets and expresly so are the Syriaque and Arabique translations of the new Testament where this is spoken of But it is hard to conceiue it of any other all that he had than all the substance or all the spoiles that he had by that expedition The holy Context so points it out So did the old Iews vnderstand it otherwise neuer had so great and worthy an Autor Flauius Iosephus a Iew confidently writen the Tithe there giuen to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tithe of what was gotten by the Warre He knew a receiued opinion in his Nation to be so or else had not been so forward to deliuer it The same is confirmed by the Targum attributed to Ionathan Ben-Vziel there of all is interpreted by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miccal mah datheib that is of all that he brought back And to free it from doubt the holy Autâ—â— of the Epistle to the Ebrews first vsing the Text of Genesis in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tithe of all after a few words interposed explains it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tithe of the spoiles as if he had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tithe of all the spoiles In that place the Syriaque hath Tithe and first fruits and the Arabique Tithe and Almes indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth also first fruits or the chiefest parts sacred to the gods among the Gentiles and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath in that sense been turnd there by de praecipuis in the vulgar But those Eastern translations suppose it seemes as if the Greek should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But we must not take the old text to haue been so different from what we now read And for that de Praecipuis in the vulgar can it be thought that he gaue Tithe of the best parts only How stands that with giuing Tithe of al It must therefore be interpreted of the spoiles So St. Chrysostome vnderstands the Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the spoiles are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof as he notes also Abraham made Melkizedek a partaker by so giuing him the first fruits of his martiall performance Accordingly doth Sulpitius Seuerus in his storie of Abraham call his tenth decimam praedae which is also expresly iustified by S. Hierome often stiling it decimas spoliorum praedae victoriae who well withall confesses that were it not for the holy exposition in that Epistle to the Ebrews the relation in Genesis might aswell be vnderstood that on the other side Melkizedek as a bounteous Ancestor had giuen to Abraham the tenth part of his estate the Text indeed being both in the Ebrew and Septuagints so that no name immediatly preceding the mention of the gift it sufficiently thence appears not who was the giuer Vtrunque saies S. Hierome intelligi potest iuxta Ebraicum iuxta Septuaginta interpretes quòd ipse acceperit decimas spoliorum Abrahae dederit decimas substantiae suae quanquam Apostolus in Epistola sua ad Ebraeos apertissimè definiat non Abraham suscepiste à Melchisedek decimas diuitiarum eius sed de spolijs hostium partem accepisse Pontificem Neither is this interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dissonant from ancient vse among the Greeks Indeed it elsewhere rarely occurres in this sense but cleerly in that old prouerb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To put an armor taken from a Pygmie on a Colossus his back it denotes nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is spoiles taken from dead or liuing according whereto both Hesychius and Suidas haue expounded it From which sense I ghesse it hath also been brought to signifie those kind of profits taken as spoiles from the Land which the Ciuilians call Ruta caesa that is trees cut down coles sand or chalk digged vp or the like which we stile things seuered from the free-hold and turnd into chattels according as the Greek Lawyers named them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things that were taken from the ground or free-hold for so it agrees with our phrase That which first bred me this coniecture was a corrupted place in an old Glossarie where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is interpreted by Ruticilia what can Ruticilia there signifie I conceiud it to be depraud for Ruta caesa which is often read as one word and no man can denie but that Ruta caesa may easily be stiled spolia or exuuiae villae and by an easie metaphore be expressed in a word that signifies spoiles of warre many corruptions much further off from the true originals are obuious in the same Glossarie II. The next passage of Tithes is in Iacobs vow This
in this ridiculous kind that they determined totam plenitudinem perfectionem veritatis in istis literis numeralibus esse dispositam witnes the Basdidians god Abraxas Nay some Fathers of those times so much regarded this arithmeticall way of search that in this very storie of Abrahams successe with his companie of 318. and of his recouering the goods the women and people they deliuer that the mysterie of our Lord crucified was denoted that number 318. is in Greek thus τιη. For they reckond out of Greek as the Iews out of Ebrew in the 300. figured by τ. they supposd the Crosse foretold as otherwise it is vsually obserud vpon that of Ezechiel cap. IX 4. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they took for the two first letters of our Sauiours name ιη or Iesus Wherupon Prudentius relating the victorie saies we should be very rich as Abraham in his spoiles Si quid trecenti bis nouenis additis Possint figurâ nouerimus mysticâ where for bis some Copies without sense haue his but who sees not the vanitie of such mysteries Although too the vnlimited libertie of our times in so confidently daring to tell vs the mysterie of the number of the Beast would make a man giue the more regard to these collections out of numbers Euery great Clerk that deales with it hath for the most part his seuerall word to make vp 666. Some for vs some against vs. And no doubt is that one old one may be added but he which long before Luther made Sir Iohn Old-Castles name to fulfill that prophesie thought he had been as neer truth as the best of them Out of IOHN OLD-CASTEL in numerals he makes 701. and thence subtracts the yeer of his age wherin he so charitably and stoutly tooke part with Lollards and was condemned for heresie that is 35. and the rest being 666. notes him out saies he with the Character of the Beast risum teneatis this in most miserable verse he expresses Nor hath this dream of his place here otherwise than as an old patterne of trifling boldnes vsed in the later Arithmetique of many on that passage in S. Iohn in whom are tot Sacramenta quot verba and of whom the answer giuen by that great Doctor Caluin was as iudicious as modest he being demanded his opinion what he thought of the Reuelation answerd ingenuously he knew not at all what so obscure a Writer meant he might best haue spoken it on this particular of the number to which found by arbitrarie collection who euer giues much credit might vnhappily perchance be induced to beleeue some mutuall respect twixt Abels Offering and Abrahams Tithes How among the Iews Tithes were paid or thought due CAP. II. I. First fruits and Heaue offering that is sixtieth parts at least first were paid out of the fruits of the earth II. The first Tithe was paid to the Leuites who out of that paid a Tithe to the Priests and then the second Tithe III. The error of them that make a third Tithe The second Tithe of euery third yeere spent on the poore what they take the yeer of Tithing to signifie in Deuteronomie IV. Aboue a sixt part was yeerly paid by the. husbandman but no Tithe by him to the Priests V. How their Cattell were tithed VI. A discontinuance of payment among them Honester Ouer-seers chosen for the true payment Demai that is things doubtfull whether Tithes were paid of them or no. Passages in Epiphanius and S. Chrysostome of their Tithing VII Their Tithing of euery herb what their Canonists hold Titheable VIII Their Law of Tithing after the destruction of their second Temple ceased by the doctrine of their Canonists which teaches also that they are not to pay elsewhere then in the Land of Israel and some adiacent Countries Presbyteratus Iudaeorum totius Angliae anciently granted by the English Kings I. THe yeerly increase being either fruits of the ground or Cattell In the Law of fruits of the ground first the first of the forwardest were offered to the Priest in eares of Wheat and Barley Figs Grapes Oliues Pomegranats and Dates And of these seuen only the first fruits were paid in what quantitie the owner would next the Therumah or heaue Offering or first Fruits of Corne Wine Oile Fleece and the like were also giuen to the Priests But it being not determined by Moses of what quantitie this heaue Offering should be the Iews anciently assest it to be enough at the fiftieth part but so that no necessitie was that euery one should pay so much he that paid a sixtieth part was discharged and many of the better deuotion offerd a fortieth The fiftieth part they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an indifferent or competent Therumah or heaue offering which they namd also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the great heaue Offering the fortieth they stile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Therumah of a faire eye or liberally giuen the sixtieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Therumah of an ill eye or an niggards gift But you may obserue too that this which they called a niggards gift was not beneath the quantitie of the Therumah appointed in Ezekiel where the words are This is the Therumah that yee shall offer the sixt part of an Ephah of an Homer of wheat and yee shall giue the sixt part of an Ephah of an Homer of Barly it is the same as if he had said yee shall offer a Therumah of the sixtieth part of euery Homer for an Ephah being the same measure with a Bath that is neer our common Bushell was the tenth part of an Homer therefore the sixt part of an Ephah the sixtieth of an Homer After the Therumahs offerd to the Priests euery kind being giuen in season out of the rest were taken the Tithes which are best diuided into the first and second Tithe II. The first Tithe was paid out of the remainder to the Leuites at Ierusalem by that name it is euery where titled and out of this Tenth receiued by the Leuites another Tenth they paid to the Priests as a heaue Offering out of their Tenth which they called also the Tithe of the Tithe For the Priests receiued no Tithes of the Husbandmen only the Leuites receiued Tenths from them and paid their Tenth to the Priests being as S. Hierome sayes tanto illis minores quanto ipsi maiores populo So Clergie men by that example haue paid Tithes to the Pope and so by a late Law they doe in this Kingdome to the Crown Neither might the Leuits spend to their owne vse any part of theirs till this Tenth of the Tenth were paid Afterwards it might be imploied for their maintenance generally wheresoeuer This first Tenth paid the nine parts remaining were accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is prophane or for common vse yet not to be spent by the Possessor
our own Ancestors when the Iews liued here they had it seems one generall or high Priest ouer them vsually confirmd at least if not constituted by the King for life as appears by Record prouing that both Richard the first and King Iohn did by their Patents grant the same the Copie of it being a most rare example and not from this purpose take here transcribed Rex omnibus fidelibus suis omnibus Iudaeis Anglis salutem Sciatis nos concessisse praesenti Charta nostra confirmasse Iacobo Iudaeo de Londonijs Presbytero Iudaeorum Presbyteratum omnium Iudaeorum totius Angliae habendum tenendum quamdiu vixerit liberè quietè honorificè integrè ita quod nemo ei super hoc molestiam aliquam aut grauamen inferre praesumat Quare volumus firmiter praecipimus quod eidem Iacobo quoad vixerit Presbyteratum Iudaeorum per totam Angliam garantetis manuteneatis pacifice defendatis si quis ei super eo forisfacere praesumserit id ei sine dilatione saluâ nobis emendâ nostrâ de forisfactura nostra emendari faciatis tanquam Dominico Iudaeo nostro quem specialiter in seruitio nostro râ—tinuimus Prohibemus etiam ne de aliquo ad se pertinente ponatur in placitum nisi coram nobis aut coram Capitali Iustitia nostra sicut Carta Regis Richardi fratris nostri testatur Teste S. Bathoniensi Episcopo c. Dat. per manus H. Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi Cancellarij nostri apud Rothomagum XXXI die Iulij anno Regni nostri primo It s true that Presbyteratus might denote aswell some Lay eldership but as vnlikely 't is that in that age the Clergie men that were officers of the Chancerie and most commonly drew the Patents at least iudged of the language would transferre their name of Presbyteratus to any such signification so also I suppose that any such Lay or Ciuill Officer among them could not haue scaped often mention in the Records of Iudaisme yet remaynig Many of them I haue perused but neuer met with the name elsewhere then in this Roll. But to this Priest Iacob or other like him among them no Tithes first Fruits or Therumahs were or are by their Canons payable and agreeing to them expresly herein is Eusebius who amongst other of their Mosaicall Laws puts their paying of Tithes for one specially that was confined to the land of Israel and Ierusalem for first reciting that about eating the Tithes in the place which the Lord shall chuse to cause his name to dwell there which indeed is only spoken of the second Tithe of the first and second yeers and ioyning it with the generall commandement of Tithing and with the precepts of the Passeouer of the feast of Weeks and of Tabernacles in which a certain Place by such an indefinit designment is also mentioned he addes at length with reference to them all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeing in so many things he designes out a particular place so often commanding them to meet there euery Tribe euery Houshold how can it fit them or belong to them that dwell but a little out of Iudaea much lesse to the Nations of the whole world But those feasts he speaks of the Iews at this day obserue although not accuratly according to Moses his Lawes Tithes how paid or due among the Gentiles CAP. III. I. Some Romans paid to some Deities and somtimes only a Tenth of spoiles of procede of merchandize of their estates but vsually also by vow which bound the Heire or Executor II. Festus is falsly cited for a generall custom of payment of Tithes among the Ancients III. Examples of Tithes paid among the Graecians IV. How the assertions of a generall vse of giuing Tithe to the Gods among the Graecians are to be vnderstood and why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to Tithe signifies also to Consecrate V. A Tithe paid to Hercules of Tyre and Sabis an Arabian Deitie the same with Iupiter Sabazius I. THe custom of the Gentiles vsually talkt of in offering a Tenth is chiefly to be considerd in the Romans and Graecians The Romans had a kind of deuotion of giuing Tithes but neither yeerly nor by compulsorie Law as some falsly but confidently through ignorance in human literature deliuer the welthier of them diuers times vsed to Tithe their estates to Hercules by spending the Tenth in sacrifices gifts to his Temples feasts in his Honor and the like it appears so and to be no otherwise by Plutarchs words in his questioning the reason of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why do many of the rich men tithe their substance to Hercules and elswhere he as other Ancients notes it as a speciall deuotion of some of the sonnes of Fortune Neither is old Cassius otherwise to be vnderstood where he deriues Hercules his Tenth from an innouation made by Recaranus in Euanders time This Recaranus he saies first taught them to giue the Tenths of their fruits to Hercules to whom he consecrated an Altar vnder the name of INVENTORI PATRI after he had regaind his heards that Cacus had stolne rather then to the King as before the vse was and then he addes inde videlicet tractum vt Herculi Decimam profanari mos esset that is thence came it to be a custom that diuers did pay him a tithe But neither by their Law Ciuill or Pontificiall was this payment Often it was as a thanksgiuing after some increase of fortune and often by vow beforehand and for the most part of increase of estate by mony gotten vpon sales and of spoiles of warre For such things that made accessions to their estates they were sometime so thankfull Whereat Cicero iesting saies that neuer any man vowd Hercules a Tenth in hope of increase of his wit Neque Herculâ— quisquam Decimam vouit vnquam si sapiens factus fuisset Of mony gotten vpon sale an example is in the Parasite that after reckoning vp his good merchandize saies he must sell it as deare as he can that he may spend the Tenth vpon Hercules Haec vaenisse iam opus est quantum potest Vti Decumam partem Herculi polluceam whence the same Autor vses the name of pars Herculana and Tertullian speaking of the prodigalitie of the Gentils in their feasts Herculanarum decimarum polluctorum sumptus tabularij supputabunt For spoiles of warre witnesse is in that dedication of Lucius Mummius which got Corinth and setled it to the Romans thus inscribed and yet remayning at Riete SANCO SEMIPATRI De decuma Victor tibi Luciu ' Mummiu donum Moribus anteiqueis hoc pro vsura dare sese Visum animo so perfecit sa pace rogans te Cogendo dissoluendo vt foelicia faxis Perficias Decumam vt faciat verae rationis Propter hoc atque alieis donis des
and one especially they haue of his time which being made only for the disposition of such things as were giuen to the Church speaks only of Oblations but this of Tithes or any of the rest ioynd with it touching Vsurers Witches and other more which Baronius only and first publisht to the world out of the Ms. none of them once remember Neither before Binius his edition had any Volume of the Councels receiud into them a memorie of any such Decrees vnder this Damasus or any Councell of his of that number Those kind of Acts and Legends of Popes and others are indeed vsually stufft with such falshoods as being bred in the midle ages among idle Monks not only grow ancient now but are receiud amongst vs with such reuerence that the antiquitie which the Copies haue gaind out of later time is mistook for a Character of truth in them for the times to which they were first by fiction or bold interpolation referd In summe no example for the Synods of succeeding ages no antiquitie for the Compilers of the Canons had been of equall reuerence to this of a Pope and done at Rome neither had they omitted euery of those Decrees had they been truly his Confidently conclude they are supposititious yet remember too that some colour is for the truth of such a Constitution in regard that about that time the first memorie is of Tithes by that name paid in the primitiue Church as in the next part of this diuision shall be declared And were that Epistle not counterfait which is attributed to S. Hierom as writen to this Pope vpon that question Vtrum vs as decimarum oblationum secularibus peruenire possit it might be good cause to maintain the truth of this Decree of his for Tithes But plainly that Epistle is alike fained neither tastes it of him or of any time neer that age nor hath it been euer receiud among that most learned Fathers works From about the yeer CCCC â—ill DCCC CAP. V. I. Tithes were now paid in diuers places to Abbots to the Poore to the Clergie II. Some Consecrations were then made in perpetuall right at the pleasure of the Owner III. That storie of Charles Martell his taking away Tithes and making them feodall cannot be iustified IV. The opinions of S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Hierom and S. Chrysostom the first two teach the Tenth due by Gods Law the other two perswade only that a lesse part should not be offerd V. Of Canons for the payment of Tithes that are attributed to this Age. VI. No Canon or other Law was yet generally receiud to compell any payment of Tithes although among the Offerings of deuout Christians gifts of that quantitie were receiued as due by the Doctrine then in vse in some places only ABout the beginning of the next or rather some yeers before the end of the first part of this diuision and afterward Tenths were paid or for holy vses offerd as the phrase was in diuers places in Offerings of that quantitie and some testimonie is of Churches also endowd with the perpetuall right of them in the later halfe of this four hundred yeers Great Opinion was now of their being due And some Canons and Prouinciall Constitutions attributed to this time ordain a payment of them But not aboue one of these and that 's only Prouinciall is of any credit I. That they were offerd vnder the name of Tenths in part of Italie may be collected out of S. Ambrose who was Bishop of Millan before and after the yeer CCC.XC And the like for the Diocesse of Hippo may be supposd out of S. Augustines vehement Sermon for the payment of them The words of both these Fathers which in relating their opinions are anon transcribed may enough proue that some did in those times offer them And it may be S. Hierome pointed at the receiuing of Tithes then so offerd in those words of his spoken in the person of a Clergie-man Si ego pars Domini sum funiculus haereditatis eius nec accipio partem inter caeteras tribus sed quasi Leuita Sacerdos viuo de Decimis Altari seruiens Altaris oblatione sustentor habens victum vesâ—itum his contentus ero nudam crucem nudus sequar But 't is no necessitie to vnderstand him so it may well be that de Decimis there is but a continuance of the comparison made by quasi Leuita as if he had said But liue like a Leuite that liud of the Tithes and seruing at the Altar am maintaind by the offerings at the Altar c. what in Gratian is falsly attributed to him is before rememberd In Aegypt also some holy Abbots had Tithes of all fruits offerd them about the beginning of this age Certatim Decimas vel primitias frugum suarum memorato seni to Abbot Iohn de suis substantij offerebant saies Cassian the Hermit that liud about the yeer CCCC XXX and the Abbot receius the offering with this kind acknowledgement Deuotionem huius oblationis cuius disâ—ensatio mihi credita est gratanter amplector quia fideliter primitias vestras ac Decimas indigentium vsibus futuras velut sacrificium Domino bonae suauitatis offertis Where it appears the Abbot receiud them as a Tresurer for the poor And about the yeere CCCC LXX Christians also in Pannonia by example of S. Seuerins bountie gaue the Tenth of their fruits to the poor Deuotissime saies my autor that then liud also frugum suarum Decimas pauperibus impendebant quod mandatum licet cunctis ex lege notissimum sit tamen quasi ex ore Angeli praesentis grata deuotione seruabant And a little after he relates that the Inhabitants of Lauriacum which some take for Lorch in Austria being often admonisht by S. Seuerin to pay the Tenths of their fruits to the poor had notwithstanding omitted it wherupon their Corne being blasted they humbly come vnto him poenas suae contumaciae confitentes acknowledging their losse as a reward of their fault And the Saint answers them Si Decimas obtulissetis pauperibus non solùm aeterna mercede frueremini verùm etiam commodis possetis abundare praesentibus whence is seen both the receiud vse of offering them in that place as also the opinion of Seuerin And in a Prouinciall Councell at Mascon held in the yeer D.LXXXVI that is the XXIII of King Guntheram by all the Bishops subiect to his gouernment in France the payment of Tithes into the hands of the Ministers of the Church is spoken of as of good antiquitie at that time and grounded vpon the Mosaicall Laws which they call there diuinas and adde quas leges Christianorum congeries longis temporibus custodiuit intemeratas that long time they speak of might haue had perhaps beginning from the doctrine of those two great Fathers S. Ambrose and S. Augustine about the yeer CCCC whereof more presently But obserue also that
Ille bonus Christianus est qui ad Ecclesiam frequentiùs venit de fructibus suis non gustat nisi prius ex ipsis Domino aliquid offerat qui Decimas annis singulis Pauperibus reddit qui Sacerdotibus honorem c. These also shew a vse of payment among the firmer and deuouter Christians in those times But they were then disposed of diuersly now you see to the Priests now to Abbots now to the Poor and when they were offered to Baptismall or Episcopall Churches they were receiud as indefinit Offerings the quantitie whereof was wholly arbitrarie in respect of any constitution or generall Law in vse The quantitie of the Offerings was arbitrarie but some kind of Offering was necessarie He that offered not at all of his fruits was compellable it seems by Excommunication as in the Easterne Church where that compulsion also was taken from the Churches autoritie in the Patriarchat of Constantinople but not as yet he that offerd a lesse quantitie And that it was a speciall bountie to offer the Tenth you may see in the old Aethiopian Masse where a distinct prayer is for those Qui obtulerunt munera sanctae vnicae quae est super omnes Ecclesiae sacrificium scilicet primarum Decimarum gratiarum actionis signum monimentum And it seems the disposition of the Offerings were so in the Patrons power by the practice of some places that hee might assigne a certaintie of them to the Minister of his Church and employ the rest at his pleasure which agrees enough with the right challenged in the succeeding ages touching Inuestiture and arbitrarie Consecrations whereof more in the next CCCC yeers although in this age also some Canons of the Clergie subiected all new-built Churches to the Bishops gouernment but were little obeyed For meere Church-Laws hitherto Some secular Constitutions are that about the yeer D. CC.LXXX were made for the payment of Tithes by Charles King of France Italy and Lumbardy and afterward Emperour But because they fall so neere the end of this part of our Diuision and are rather to be accounted amongst the Laws of his Empire which began not till neer XX. yeers after that is about D.CCC. then only of his Kingdome and were afterward receiud into the Imperiall Capitularies whence we haue chiefest notice of them they are purposely referd into the next CCCC yeeres as the first Latitude required in our Diuision permits Neither before them did any generall Law that yet remains in publique and is of credit ordain any payment of Tenths in the Westerne Church For in the Eastern neuer any Law that I haue obserud mentions them Between about the yeer D.CCC. and neere M.CC. CAP. VI. I. Payment of Tithes how performed II. Arbitrarie Consecrations of them alone like Grants of Rents-charge at the Lay-owners choice to any Church or Monasterie were frequent and sometimes Lay-men sold them to the Church Redimere Decimas III. Appropriations of them with Churches wherein they passed as by themselues from the Patron seuerally and directly in point of interest The beginning of Parish Churches Disposition of the Offerings receiued there Lay-foundations of Parish Churches The interest that Patrons claymed Right of Aduowson The ceremonie of putting a Cloth or Robe vpon the Patron at the consecration of the Church The vse of Inuestitures by which as by liuerie of Seisin Lay Patrons gaue their Churches Commendatio Ecclesiae Benefice None anciently receiued the character of Orders but when also the ordination was for the title of some Church Thence came the later vse of Episcopall Institution Whence some Patrons came to haue most part of the Tithes Canonica portio The Clergy and Councels against Inuestitures Their continuance till towards M.CC. when Institution as it is at this day vpon presentation grew common· How Appropriations were in those times made The ancient Episcopall right to Tithes especially in Germanie and the Northern parts How Monks iustified their possession of Tithes and Parish-Churches The right of Tithes generally denied in Turingia to the Archbishop of Mentz IV. Of Infeodations of Tithes into Lay-hands both from the Clergie and Laitie and of their Originall V. Of Exemptions granted by the Pope Templars and Hospitalars accounted no part of the Clergie VI. The generall opinion was that they are due iure diuino but this indifferently thought on seems to haue denoted rather Ecclesiastique or Positiue Law by the doctrine and practice of the Clergy then Diuine Morall Law VII Laws Imperiall and Canons Synodall and Pontificiall for the payment of Tenths The grosse error of some that mistake Nona and Decima in the Capitularies The first Generall Councell that mentions Tithes THe practice found in the time twixt about D.CCC. and M.CC. from Christ consists in some ordinarie payments of Tithes as in the former ages in more frequent Consecrations of a perpetuall right of them alone to any Church or Monasterie at the owners choice in Appropriations of them with the churches in which they were by custom or consecration established in Infeodations of them into Lay-hands and in Exemptions for discharge of paiment By the more generall Opinion of the Church they are exprest to be due Iure diuino but that is warily to be interpreted out of the generall practice cleerly allowd by the Clergie From the beginning of this time Canons are very frequent for the right of them But the first Law that may at all be stiled generall for it was ordaind by Charles the Great and receiud but litle practiced through the Empire Of all these in their order I. Not only from deuotion but through Ecclesiastique censure also aided with secular power about the very beginning of this CCCC yeers many Churches in the Western Empire had the Tenth paid as a dutie This may be collected out of an Epistle writen by Alchwin to Charles the Great touching the exaction of Tithes which hee calls iugum Decimarum and plena per singulas domus exactio of the Hunnes and Saxons who being then lately by Charles conquerd had newly receiued the Christian faith Alchwin there aduises that it were better for the Christian cause to omit it amongst them till they were grown firmer and speaks of it as a thing of known vse among other setled Christans His words are Vestra sanctissima pietas sapienti consilio praeuideat si melius sit rudibus populis in principio fidei iugum imponere Decimarum vt plena fiat per singulas domus exactio illarum an Apostoli quoque ab ipso Deo Christo edocti ad predicandum mundo missi exactiones Decimarum exegissent vel alicui demandassent dari considerandum est Scimus quia Decimatio substantiae nostrae valde bona est Sed melius est illam amittere quà m fidem perdere Nos vero in fide Catholica nati nutriti edocti vix consentimus substantiam nostram plenitèr Decimari Quanto magis tenera fides infantilis animus
might be exacted vnder the like name The same may bee thought on in Consecrations to Monasteries For if Tithes had been held generally due and paid parochially as now then cleerly although a Lay man had granted a Tenth to another Church or Monasterie what other soeuer had been due parochially had notwithstanding the Grant still remaind payable to the Parson How could it haue been otherwise And so no small number of doubly-paid Tithes had remaind at this day VII The Laws made in this time for payment of Tithes were Imperiall Prouinciall and Pontificiall The first of the Imperiall was made by Charles the Great in a generall assembly of Estates both Spirituall and Temporall vnder him in the XI yeer of his reigne ouer France and Germanie and in the yeere of our Sauiour DCC.LXXVIII it was there ordaind Vt vnus quisque suam Decimam donet at que per iussionem Episcopi sui or Pontificis as some Copies are dispensetur Which Law indeed with diuers other for true payment of Tithes were generally made by him before his Empire which began not till the yeere DCCC yet because this was in the same termes receiued into those Capitularies collected by Benedictus Leuita as from him being Emperor it may well enough be titled Imperiall and it is the first to this purpose extant which can be at all stiled Generall and was ordained by both powers Secular and Spirituall to any whole State vnlesse you will beleeue that in Scotland a Law was established by King Congallus and his Clergie about D.LXX. after Christ for the generall payment of Tithes there according as Hector Boetius hath related Congallus indeed is by others affirmed to haue been verie carefull for the Clergies maintenance But it will I think fall out to be too bold an assertion of that faining Hector who often as it were makes Laws for the Scotish Kings that hee may relate them or else hee was deceiud by them from whom hee took it No good Authoritie can iustifie such particulars of that age there neither is it to be receiud otherwise then as fabulous and proceeding out of that common mistaking of ancient passages of Church-reuenues and confident but ignorant application of them to Tithes But from that Law of Charles the Great was that exaction of Tithes spoken of before by Alchwin and thence are Tithes in Ansegisus his collection of his Imperialls so frequently mentioned as of known right and hence also had the title of the German Bishops before spoken of its originall Those Capitularies both of Ansegisus and Leuita were collected by them about the yeer D. CCC.XL in both of which frequent constitutions are for Tithes and for the parochiall right also of them Yet with them also take the constitutions of Charles the Great about the same time collected but published by Vitus Amerpachius in the yeer M.D.XLV as also others occurring in the collection of Melchior Goldaflus These together with the Lawes of the Lumbards haue very many constitutions of about the beginning of these CCCC yeers for this purpose and one only shall suffice to be here transcribed De Decimis quas populus dare non vult nisi quolibet modo ab eo redimantur ab Episcopis prohibendum est ne fiat si quis contemtor inuentus fuerit si noster homo fuerit ad praesentiam nostram venire compellatur caeteri vero destringantur vt inuiti Ecclesiae restituant quae voluntarie dare neglexerunt This was made either by Charles or Lewes the first but it is falsely referd to the Emperor Lothar in the Laws of the Lumbards It was prouided you see against such as would not giue their Tithes vnlesse they were purchased of them for valuable consideration But the effect that these Lawes had was short the Laitie soon disobeying such commands as diminished their reuenues And it enough appears in the storie of about the yeere DCCC.XLV that little or no practice was of any of those Lawes of the Capitularies in behalfe of the Clergie nothing being more frequent then not only the denying them what they would haue had but also the taking from them what they otherwise possessed Nor could they haue sufficient remedie for it either in the Councell of Meaulx where vnder Lothar the first they humbly sought it or long afterward as is manifest in the Moniments of the succeeding ages But by the way whereas some both strangers and of our own countrey men out of the ioint mention of Nona and Decima in those Imperiall Capitularies of Charles and Lewes the first fetch an example of a Ninth paid to the Church as well as a Tenth and bring it as a character of the times deuotion as if the Tenth had not then been thought enough vnlesse a Ninth also like a second Tenth had been offered it is a ridiculous error and proceeds from grosse ignorance of the Common Lawes Storie Councels and vse of that age The Ninth and Tenth there spoken of were only the rent due from the Tenants of Church lands by the ordinarie reseruation of the Tenth as of what was held by many of it selfe due to the Clergie and of the Ninth as of the Rent or consideration to be giuen to them as to Lessors for the receiued profits so will it plainly appear in a multitude of old autorities to which I refer you Neither was the Ninth here thought due otherwise then as among the ancient Bauarians the Tenth only from occupiers of Church Lands The Tenth of the profits was all that their Laws appointed to be paid for rent to the Church by Lessees But also very many Prouinciall Constitutions were made for the true payment of Tithes about the beginning of this CCCC yeers as in the Councell of Mentz in the yeer DCCC.XIII Admonemus atque praecipimus vt Decimas Deo omnino dari non negligatur which words were receiued also into the Imperials and with them agree diuers Councels held about the same time as the Councels of Rheims the fourth of Arles the second of Chalons and many other following And in Scotland if we may beleeue the Autor for though he speak very good language yet he is of no such sound credit about the yeer DCCC.XL King Gregorie in his Laws for Church liberties ordaind that the Spirituall Court only should haue conisans of Tithes which had been perhaps all one as to haue established them to be generally due for by the opinion of that Court it is likely they would then also haue been iudged so And also among the ordinances of Cing Macbeth about the yeer M.LX. the same Autor puts one in these words Decimam partem Terrae nascentium pastoribus Ecclesiarum liberè conferto Many more of like nature are where we speak seuerally of the English Constitutions For Pontificiall decrees Publique moniments I think haue none in expresse termes of command except you look back to that faind one of
seulement des choses d'ont est accoustume payer Disme c. where Boerius saies he hath seen it accordingly for other places often adiudged at Paris and in an Edict of 10. Hen. 4. of France touching the payment of Tithes by those of the reformed Religion the payment is commanded only selon l'vsage coustume des lieux and accordingly diuers Arrests of Parliament also haue been And although somtimes Customes haue beene there disallowd especially de non decimando yet that hath proceeded chiefly from the vsurpation of the Canons where the secular Law was wrongfully neglected as you may see in the example of that of the Ecclesiastical court at Rhosne wherein the Laitie were compelled adreddendas Decimas de faeno aliquibus alijs de quibus apud eos inconsuetum erat reddere decimas as Maiors words are who concludes that had the Iudge been other then a Canonist he would not so haue adiudged it VII In Spaine also some infeodated Tithes from ancient time are in Lay hands which the Clergie about M.CCC.LXXX would haue had into their reuenue vnder Iohn the first of Castile and Lions but could not and in an Ordinance of the same Iohn against all such as should vsurp the right of Tithes a prouiso is that it should not extend to such Tithes or Church Reuenue as the Crowne or any subiect had from ancient time enioied And a third part of Tithes due to the King is menciond in their Laws as graunted to him from the Pope of which at his pleasure new Infeodations are made And Petrus de Lorca remembers that the Pope Regibus Hispaniae cōcessit tertiam partem Decimarum alijs secularibus absque consensu singularum Ecclesiarum among these you may reckon those Tithes in the Crowne which by graunt from the Pope King Ferdinand and Queene Isabel had in the Kingdome of Granado in consideration of their endowment of Churches there and of them and their iurisdiction whereto they are subiect thus Couaruuias an excellent Lawier of Spaine Semel saies he ex literis regijs vidi Decimarum causam tractari inter Ecclesiasticos apud Granatense Praetorium ex eo quod Reges Catholici Ferdinandus Elisabeth Decimas huius Regni Granatensis obtinuerint à Pontifice Maximo cum onere dotandi Ecclesias that is the Iudges held plea of them by Commission from the King not by spirituall power which otherwise regularly hath conisans of Tithes although another great Lawier of that Countrie denie that the Conisance of such Tithes lawfully belongs to any other iurisdiction then spirituall Neither hath the Canon Law been so powerfull there as to make Tithes payable against Customes for paiment either of a lesse part or none And howeuer in an Ordinance of the yeer M.CC.XCIV Alfonso the ninth published his mandamos y establescemos por siempre que todos los hombres del nuestro regno den sus diezmos derechamente y cumplidamente a nuestro Sennor Dios de Pan y de Vino y ganados y de todas las otras cosas que deuen dar de rechamente segun manda sancta yglesia wherein he seems to establish that whole Tithes without any Diminution should be alwaies paid to the Church of Corne Wine and Cattell and all other things which Ordinance also is exemplified and confirmed by Iohn the second of Castile and Ferdinand and Isabel and accordingly Alphonso Diaz de Montaluo his glosse on it makes it to be consonant wholly to the Canon Law and the whole course of their ancient bodie of the Law in their Partidas be agreeable with it yet the practice in that state hath been and is that if suit be commenced in the spiritual Court for new Tithes formerly not accustomed to be wholly or not all paid and such custome or prescription be pleaded and the Officiall or Ordinarie allow it not vpon complaint to the Kings Court the defendant shall as in case of Prohibitions in England haue his remedie This is declared by their Couarruuias Erit saith he obseruandum causam Decimarum quandoque in his regnis that is France and Spain tractari apud regios Auditores nempè cum Laici contendunt Decimas ab eis exigi quae legitima Temporis praescriptione which is vsually thought should be immemoriall and so is their practice although the most common time in other things be XL. yeers minime debentur sunt remissae denique conqueruntur contra morem consuetudinem Decimas ab eis exigi nam etsi condemnentur à iudice Ecclesiastico nihilominus ex quaerela causa retinetur apud Regia Praetoria Siquidem literae Regiae passim dantur à supremo Senatu ad id vt Laici non cogantur Decimas illas soluere quae solui legitimâ temporis praescriptione non consueuerunt And with him agrees Alfonso de Azeuedo that writes vpon their Ordennanças Reales But these kind of their prohibitions are grounded vpon their Ordinances forbidding Decimas a Laicis exigi quae per consuetudinem contrariam non consueuerunt solui as Couarruuias sayes and to that purpose was an Edict of their Charles the first Emperor de fift at Toledo in M.D.XXV. and another like of his at Madrid about three yeers after and before foure yeers were thence past at Segouia and another at Villadolid And vpon these oftentimes sayes Alfonso de Azeuedo Writs of Prohibition go out to the Ecclesiasticall Iudges that proceed super nouitate to forbid that similes non permittant nouitates processum causae Regio ipsi senatui originaliter mittant Which agrees with the verie words of the Ordinances that speak of Nouedades in exaction of Tithes against custome And one speciall vse is there that the Kings giue their Personall Tithes to their own Chaplains attending on them VIII Neither hath the Canon Law wrought otherwise in Italie but that there also particular Customes as well of Non Decimando as in the Modus are frequent Multis Italiae locis sayes Caietan contingit ex consuetudine that nothing at all is paid And so is the practice there for the most part at this day the Parish Priests beeing sufficiently maintained by Manse and Glebe and the reuenues that are in some places paid as according to a Modus And of the Italians and others where like Customes were Aquinas thus Haud laudabiliter ministri Ecclesiae Decimas Ecclesiae requirunt vbi sine scandalo requiri non possint propter desuetudinem vel propter aliquam aliam causam In Venice sayes Panormitan non in vita sed in morte soluuntur Decimae personales de omnibus mercantijs iocalibus alijs mobilibus And in the whole Seigniorie of Venice as my Autor deliuers no Parish Church hath through that name Decimas seu ius Decimandi but only another Stipend or Quartesium as they call it de possessionibus seu terris consistentibus
intra confines eorum curae Neither haue Infeodations of Tithes into Lay hands been lesse known in Italie then elswhere For example you may see the case of the Mutij a Noble Familie of Piacenza who had by immemoriall prescription and confirmation by Bulls an ancient Infeudation of all Tithes growing in the Territorie of Verano within the Diocese of Piacenza By the Ordinance of Frederique the second about M.CC.XX. in the Kingdomes of Naples and Sicily a command is That of all profits belonging to the Crowne of those Kingdomes a whole Tenth should be paid and that euery subiect should truly pay all such Tenths as had been vsed to be paid in the time of William King of Sicilie Subiectis are the words nostris indicimus vt Decimas quas de feudis bonis suis antecessores eorum praedicti Regis Guilielmi tempore prestiterunt venerabilibus locis quibus Decimae ipsae debentur cum integritate per soluant In Germanie the Canonists note a Custome that pro Decimis soluunt certas mensuras siue Coloni aliquid recolligant siue non And this by their Law they allow because it stands indifferent whether the Church lose by it or no. but also some Lay men take Tithes of new improuements by right of their Lordships Status Imperij saeculares sayes a Iudge of the Imperiall Chamber Decimas Noualium percipere iure Territorij possunt Which the Clergie complaind against in a Diet at Norimberg but in vaine And of those Tithes Infeodations are there made at the pleasure of the owners into Lay hands Which was so in practice there also anciently as is witnessed by an old Canonist that liud aboue CCC.LX. yeers since where disputing the question Vtrum Laicus possit sine peccato Decimas percipere and bringing the ordinarie Autorities for the negatiue part he tels vs both for Germanie and other Countries in these words In contrarium potest induci generalis consuetudo in Hispania Francia Burgundia Alemania in plerisque locis And in the Countie of Flanders an Edict was made by Charles the fift dated at Malines in M. CCCCC.XX which commanded that no Clergie or Lay man pretending right to Tithes should exact or sue for other Nouuelles Dismes aultres qu'ilz leur predecesseurs ont accustume prendre auoir passe quarante ans audessus but that they should rest content with what was due only according to the former vse of payment sauing in case of new improuements and such like as it was explaned by another Edict some ten yeers after both together are the same almost as our Statute of 2. Ed. 6. And in the Generall Councell of Lateran of M.CC.XV. a relation is of some Nations who although Christians yet secundum suos ritus Decimas de more non soluunt and that other men leased their Land to them because in regard of no Tithe being paid by them the greater rent might be reserued against which remedie is there prouided The words are In aliquibus regionibus quaedam permixtae sunt gentes quae secundum suos ritus Decimas de more non soluunt quamuis censeantur nomine Christiano c. Whereupon Innocent the fourth that might well know the meaning of the Councell liuing so neer it notes that the Christians who by their own customs did not pay were Greeks Armenians and the like and Antoninus expresly remembers the generall non payment of them in the Eastern Church as a thing not to be censured to be against Gods Law Neiher indeed haue I met with any Canon Law of all that Church that euer commanded any thing touching Tithes Among the Laws of Hungarie we find Decimas non soluunt Nobiles de proprijs terris and Decimas non soluunt Rasciani Rutheni Valachi and Decimas non soluunt Iudices propter laborem eorum circa decimandum although for other persons generally they haue strict Laws for payment of them In the Statutes of Poland it appears that about M.CCC.LXX vnder K. Cazimir the second the Clergie especially for the Diocese of Cracow made diuers Laws with his consent vpon great differences about the paying of Tithes One in speciall is that Tithe must be paid of all that increases through the labour of the Plough exceptis Rapis papauere caulibus cepis allio quae his sunt similia in hortis and Si quis ligonisando plantauerit Decima ab eo nullatenùs exigatur Some other particulars they haue about paying Tithe of Hemp and Flax which happens somtime to be more somtime lesse then a Tenth because the certaintie is only from the number of beasts vsd to the plough and of other things whence it appears that the vse of Tithing there is not consonant to the Canon Law And Theodor Zawake deliuers it for a Law of this Countrie that Decimae ex terris vastatis accipi non debent which I think is to be referd to a thirtie yeers libertie of non payment giuen especially by Bodantza Bishop of Cracow to such as were Tenants of Lands lately wasted by the Lituanians and Tartars which is declared in the Law remaining at large in the Collections of Herbort and Prilusius whither for more particulars I refer you In the Laws of Suethland and Gothland the Text is Decimae separentur reponantur in agro quarum tertiam partem suscipiat presbyter de reliquis duabus partibus capiat Ecclesia tertiam partem which I vnderstand so that the Parson is to haue all sauing a third part out of the two parts which were to be imploied on maintenance of the Church In Scotland by a Law of Dauid the second about M.CCC.XL it was constituted that no man should hinder the Clergie in disposing Tithes Sic quod suis Decimis possint pacificè cum integritate gaudere sub paena Excommunicationis quoad Clerum Decem librarum penes Regem And Tithes there haue been and in many places are paid Parochially yet also granted altered and disposed of by positiue Law as in other Countries in the late plantation of new Churches ordaind by the last Parliament there manse and glebe and vitaile are assigned for maintenance to the Rectors but not Tithes And after the Statut of Annexation in the eleuenth Parliament of our present Soueraign whereby Church reuenues sauing Parochiall Tithes Manse and small glebe and some other speciall possession were resumed to the Crown an Act was made in the Parliament following against a kind of infeodations which they call erections of temporalties and teindes of Kirkland into temporall Lordships sauing such as had been before erected And for the particular course of setting out payment of Tithes some speciall Lawes of late time they haue in Scotland and in the other States before spoken of but they belong not so much hither being not of the essentiall part of the practice of payment nor of the receiued right
of Tithes therefore I wholly omit them One example of an Appropriation in Scotland may be here not vntimely added which falls about the yeer M.CC.XC and shews a kind of arbitrarie disposition euen at that time of Parochiall Tithes of lands lying there in a conueyance of a lay mans made to the Monasterie of Giseburn in Yorkeshire The Grantor was that Robert de Bruis afterward King one of the Ancestors of our Soueraign The Originall thus speaks Omnibus ad quos presens scriptum peruenerit Robertus filius Roberti de Brus Dominus Vallis Anandiae salutem in Domino sempiternam Nouerit vniuersitas vestra me concessisse praesenti scripto confirmâsse Deo Ecclesiae Sanctae Mariae de Giseburn Canonicis ibidem Deo seruientibus seruituris Ecclesiam de Anand cum terris Decimis possessionibus ad eam pertinentibus Ecclesiam de Logmaban cum terris Decimis possessionibus ad eam pertinentibus Ecclesiam de Kirkpatric cum Capella de Logan omnibus suis pertinentijs Ecclesiam de Rainpatric Ecclesiam de Cumbartres Ecclesiam de Greâ—enhowe cum omnibus pertinentijs earum Tenendum Habendum Deo praefatis Canonicis eorum successoribus liberè quietè honorifice Ita quod liceat eis perpetuis temporibus de Decimis praedictarum Villarum libere disponere ordinare pro voluntate sua cuicunque voluerint eas ad firmam dimittere dare vel vendere alio quocunque modo voluerint vbicunque voluerint commodum suum facere sine Impedimento mei haeredum meorum hominum nostrorum c. The seale in green wax annext to it hath impression of a Knight armd and mounted as for present onset in the wars is circumscribed with Esto Ferox vt Leo. How the Laws of Ireland stand for Tithes is best seen in the Statuts of that Countrie of 28. Hen. 8. cap 17. of dissolutions and 33. Hen. 8. cap. 12. of payment according to ancient custom and recouerie of Tithes after the dissolution giuen into lay hands in like manner as in England And here may be no vnfit place to remember that ancient Law ordained by Henrie the third within the Archbishoprique of Dublin whereby it was commanded that euery man non expectato mandato Regis vel assensu de gurgitibuâ— Piscarijs Ecclesijs in quarum Parochijs sunt praedicti gurgites vel piscariae Decimas soluant quia R. non vult in periculum animae suae huiusmodi Decimas detineant We purposely omit particular mention of such of the reformed Churches as in this last age haue brought their Ministerie to stipends and alterd almost all the former practice of Ecclesiastique policie For the practice of payment and other disposition of Tithes and for the Laws and Opinions touching the right of them thus much But whateuer this Kingdom of England might haue specially afforded for Laws and practice of Tithing shall by it selfe in its own singular order be next deliuered CAP. VIII The Laws of England made in the Saxon mycel synodes or Æ¿itenagemotes in Parliaments and in the Councells here held either Nationall or Prouinciall or by the Pope for the due payment or discharge of Tithes in this Kingdom Petitions or Bills in Parliament touching them are inserted all in their course of time MOst of the English Laws Constitutions and Bills in Parliament that are reserud to this place and here collected were originally writen in Saxon Latin or French and the Saxon for the most part were anciently but it seems since the Norman conquest turnd into a barbarous latin that yet better shews their meaning then a purer Such as are found in Latin only I haue faithfully deliuered according to the Copies that gaue them Neither durst I suspect that any Reader fit for the matter should need an Interpreter no otherwise haue I done in what is of the old French it can hardly be any thing but inexcusable sloth that can trouble any Reader that is fit also for the matter in the vnderstanding it But in regard the old Saxon is known at all to few and that hardly any better interpretation of the Laws writen in that language can be then the old barbarous Latin I haue ioined alwaies where it might be both the Saxon and the Translation To haue left out the originall had preuented some freedom of the Readers iudgement and tied it to the translators to haue added no translation had been as a purpose to haue troubled euen the fittest Readers with a strange tongue which also to haue otherwise interpreted had been but to enuie them the help of those Ancients that had better means to know the interpretation of those Laws and so make them looke only as through spectacles of mine new made I was willing to giue all as the course of the collection would permit that herein might help to make a ground of free iudgement yet also where I see cause of note I adde it but refer all to able censure The Laws and Constitutions thus succeed I. An ancient collection of diuers Canons writen about the time of Henrie the first with this inscription of equall age Incipiunt excerptiones Domini Eâ—gberri Archiepiscopi Eburace Ciuitatis de iure Sacerdotali hath these words Vt vnusquisque Sacerdos cunctos sibi pertinentes erudiat vt sciant qualitèr Decimas totius facultatis Ecclesijs diuinis debitè offerant and immediatly follows Vt ipsi Sacerdotes à populis suscipiant Decimas nomina eorum quicunque dederint scripta habeant secundum autoritatem Canonicam coram testibus diuidant ad ornamentum Ecclesiae primam eligant partem scundam autem ad vsum pauperum atque peregrinorum per eorum manus misericorditèr cum omni humilitate dispensent tertiam verò sibimet ipsis Sacerdotes reseruent If the credit of this be valued by the inscription then is it about DCCC.L. yeers old For that Ecbert liud Archbishop of York from the yeer DCCXLIII to DCC.LXVII But the autorite of that Title must vndergo censure Who euer made it supposed that Ecbert gathered that Law and the rest ioind with it out of some former Church Constitutions neither doth the name excerptiones denote otherwise But in that collection som whole Constitutions occur in the same syllbles as they are in the Capitularies of Charles the Great as that of vnicuique Ecclesiae vnus mansque integer c. and some others which could not be known to Ecbert that died in the last yeer of Pipin father to Charles how came be then by that and how may we beleeu that Ecbert was the autor of any part of those Excerptions vnlesse you excuse it with that vse of the midle times which often inserted into one body and vnder one name Laws of different ages but admit that yet what is secundum Canonicam autoritatem coram testibus diuidant The ancientest Canonica autoritas for
diuiding Tithes before witnesses is an old Imperiall attributed in some Editions to the XI yeere of the reigne of Charles the great being King of France in others to the Emperor Lothar the first But referre it to either of them and it will be diuers yeers later then Ecbert's death And other mixt passages there plainly shew that whose soeuer the Collection was much of it was taken out of the Imperiall Capitularies none of which were made in Ecbert's time Perhaps the greatnesse of his name was the cause why some later Compiler of those Excerptions might so inscribe it to gain it autoritie for he was both brother to Edbert King of Northumberland and the first also that after Paulinus restored the name of Archbishoprique and the Pall to Yorke And the heads of a Synod held in Ecbert's time vnder King Ethelbald and Cuthbert Archbishop of Canterburie are yet extant but not any expresse mention is found in them of Tithes although most of the particulars of Church-gouernment are toucht there II. The Autors of the Centuries haue a Synod held in the yeer D. CC.LXXXVI vnder two Legats sent from Pope Hadrian the first with letters for reformation and establishing of Church Laws to Offa King of Mercland and Aelfwold King of Northumberland and to the two Archbishops the particulars of the Synod are related in an Epistle to the Pope from those Legats which were the first that had so come from Rome hither after Augustine wherein it is related that Gregorie Bishop of Ostia one of the Legats went into Northumberland and Theophilact Bishop of Todi the other to Offa who with Kenulph King of West-Saxonie called a Councell for the Southern patt as Aelfwold for the Northern Gregorie sayes That in the Northern parts ad diem Concilij conuenerunt omnes Principes Regionis tam Ecclesiastici quam seculares and after many Institutions of Canon Laws there the XVII Chapter is de Decimis dandis sicut in Lege scriptum est Decimam partem ex omnibus frugibus tuis seu primitijs deferas in Domum Domini Dei tui Rursum per Prophetam Adferte inquit omnem Decimam in horreum meum vt sit cibus in domo mea probate me super hoc si non aperuero vobis cataractas coeli effudero benedictionem vsque ad abundantiam increpabo pro vobis deuorantem qui comedit corrumpit fructum terrae vestrae non erit vltra vinea sterilis in agro dicit Dominus sicut sapiens ait Nemo iustam Eleemosynam de his quae possidet facere valet nisi prius separauerit Domino quod à primordio ipse sibi reddere delegauit Ac per hoc plerumque contigit vt qui Decimam non tribuit ad Decimam reuertitur Vnde etiam cum obtestatione praecipimus vt omnes studeant de omnibus quae possident Decimas dare quia speciale Domini Dei est de nouem partibus sibi viuat Eleemosynas tribuat Et magis eas in abscondito facere suasimus quia scriptum est cum facis Eleemosynam noli tuba canere ante te The autoritie of this Canon may be known out of what is there further added Haec Decreta beatissime Papa Hadriane in Concilio publico coram Rege Aeelfwaldo Archiepiscopo Eanbaldo omnibus Episcopis Abbatibus Regionis seu Senatoribus Ducibus populo terrae proposuimus illi vt superiùs fati sumus cum omni deuotione mentis iuxta possibilitatem virium suarm adiuuante supernâ clementia se in omnibus custodire denouerunt signo Sanctae Crucis in vice vestra in manu nostra confirmauerunt posteà stylo diligenti in Charta huius paginae exarauerunt signum Sanctae Crucis infigentes Then follow some subscriptions of Bishops Et His quoque saluberrimis admonitionibus Presbyteri Diaconi Ecclesiarum Abbates Monasteriorum Iudices Optimates Nobiles vno opere vno ore consensimus subscripsimus After this so concluded in the Northern state the same Legat together with Maluin and Pyttell Embassadors from Aelfwold take with them all those Decrees and Canons and goe to the Councell held vnder Offa for the Western parts Vbi as the words are gloriosus Rex Offa cum Senatoribus terrae vna cum Archiepiscopo Iaenberchto some call him Lambert Sanctae Ecclesiae Dorouernensis that is of Canterburie caeteris Episcopis Regionum conuenerat in conspectu Concilij clarâ voce singula capita perlecta sunt tam Latinè quam Teutonicè that is in English-Saxon which then was the selfe-same with Dutch or Teutonique quo omnes intelligere possent dilucidè reserata sint qui omnes consona voce alacri animo gratias referentes Apostolatus vestri admonitionibus the Legats so write to the Pope promiserunt se diuino adminiculante fauore iuxta qualitatem viriū promitissimâ volūtate in omnibus haec statuta custodire And Offa and his Bishops Abbots and some Princes subscribe with the Crosse to it What Copie of this Synod the Centuriators had or whence they tooke it I find not But if it be of good autoritie it is a most obseruable Law to this purpose being made with such solemnitie by both Powers of both States of Mercland and Northumberland which tooke vp a verie great part of England and it is likely that it was made generall to all England In the relation of the Legats to the Pope mention is of Kenulph King of West-Saxonie his ioyning with Offa in calling the Councell but the confirmations of the Decrees haue no reference to him But by the way if you examine it by storie and Synchronisme Kenulph perhaps could not haue at all to do with it For some of our old Monks expressely affirme That in the second yeer of Brithric next successor after Kenulphs death Pope Adrian sent his Legats in Britanniam ad renouandam fidem quam praedicauerat Augustinus And that they then held their Synod at a place called Cealchithe how could Kenulph be there then as the Legats relate Beleeue the Monks as you will but indeed an exactnesse here is not easie extracted out of the disturbed times of our Chronicles They talk also of a Synod held in Wicanhale for the North parts a yeere or two after Doubtlesse they intend this same that is extant in the Centuries if at least it be of sufficient credit Neither can it be suspected by any circumstance in the subscriptions which being so many might haue by chance soon got among them a character of falsehood had it not been genuine In the printed Houeden Gregorie one of the Legats is called Georgeus perhaps for Gregorius but my Ms. hath also Georgius But if Henry of Huntingdon and Roger of Houeden giue vs the time right of the Legats comming hither then is that mention of Kenulph in their supposed Epistle to the Pope a plaine character of falsehood or ignorance in some
transcriber who also in one place hath Oswaldus for Aelfwaldus King of Northumberland But those which speak of that Synod of these Legats seeme to suppose it extending through the whole Kingdome See also § VIII III. In the Laws made between K. Alfred and Guthrun the Dane to whom the Prouinces of East-Anglia and Northumberland were giuen to hold of the Crown and renewd also between the same Guthrun and K. Edward sonne to Alfred about the yeer D.CCCC. this occurres Gif hÆ¿a Teoþunge forheold gylde lashlite mid Denum Æ¿ite mid Englum that is as the old Latin Translation hath it Si quis Decimam contrateneat reddat Lashlite cum Dacis Witam cum Anglis Lashlite denotes the Danish common forfeiture which as it is thought was in most offences XII Ores that was commonly XX. shillings for XX. pence made an Ore commonly and sometime according to the variation of the Standerd XVI pence was an Ore But in Oxfordshire specially and Glocestershire in Domes-day XX. goe to an Ore as the English common forfeiture or the Wite was XXX shillings The occurrence of these two names is frequent in the Saxon Laws and it may seem by this that some other Law preceded for the payment of Tithes or els that the right of them was otherwise supposed cleer For the autoritie of this and the rest comprehended in those of Alfred and Guthrun obserue that in their title ða Æ¿itan eac ðe syþþan Æ¿aeron oft Unseldan ê§ sealf geâ—â—Æ¿odon mid gode gehyhton that is and the Wisemen or the Baronage of succeeding times very often renewed that Councell of theirs and in bonum adduxerunt as in the old Translation those last words are turned IIII. It is reported of King Aethelulph that in the yeer D. CCC.LV Decumauit as Ethelward writes de omni possessione sua in partem Domini in vniuerso regimine sui principatus sic constituit The words of his Charter whereby he did it are Cum Concilio Episcoporum ac Principum meorum Consilium salubre atque vniforme remedium hee means remedie against those miseries which the English had endured by Danish irruptions affirmantes consensimus vt aliquam portionem terrarum haereditariam antea possidentibus omnibus gradibus siue famulis famulabus Dei Deo seruientibus siue Laicis miseris semper Decimam mansionem vbi minimum sit tum Decimam partem omnium bonorum in libertatem perpetuam donari Sanctae Ecclesiae dijudicaui vt sit tuta munita ab omnibus saecularibus seruitutibus c. So is it reported in the Abbot of Crowlands Historie and varies not much in William of Malmesburie and Nicholas of Glocester who both haue it also at large But in Mathew of Westminster no other Decima is mentioned in it then Decima terrae Meae Out of the corrupted Language it is hard to collect what the exact meaning of it was How most of the Ancients vnderstand it is best known by the words wherein they summe it Ingulphus thus of it Omnium Praelatorum ac Principum suorum qui sub ipso varijs Prouincijs totius Angliae praeerant gratuito consensu tunc primò cum Decimis omnium terrarum ac bonorum aliorum siue catallorum vniuersam dotauit Ecclesiam Anglicanam per suum Regium Chirographum And hee tells vs further that Aethelulph in the presence of his Baronage at Winchester offerd the Charter vpon the Altar and the Bishops receiued it sent it to be published in euery Parish Church through their Diocesos In Florence of Worcester it is in these words abbreuiated Aethelulphus Rex Decimam totius Regni sui partem ab omni Regali seruitio tributo liberauit in sempiterno grophio in Cruce Christi pro redemptione animae suae antecessorum suorum vni trino Deo immolauit So also Roger of Houeden An old French fragment of the English Historie sayes that hee dismast la dime hide de tute Westsaxe and that it was pur pesire vestre les pouures The old Archdeacon of Huntingdon thus Totam terram suam ad opus Ecclesiarum decumauit propter amorem Dei redemptionem sui And in the rythmes of Robert of Glocester The King to holye Chirche thereafter euer the more drough And tithed well all his lond as he ought well enough If we well consider the words of the chiefest of these Ancients that is Ingulphus we may coniecture that the purpose of the Charter was to make a generall grant of Tithes payable freely and discharged from all kind of exactions vsed in that time according as the Monk of Malmesburie Iohn Pike in his supplement of the Historie of England expresse it Decimam say they omnium hydarum infra regnum suum à tributis exactionibus regijs liberam Deo donauit that is granted the Tithe of the profits of all Lands free from all exactions for the granting of the tenth part of the Hides or Plough-lands denotes the tenth of all profits growing in them as well as Decima acra sicut aratrum peragrabit which is vsed for tithing of the profits in the Laws of K. Edgar Ethelred and Knout and accordingly also is this of Ethelulph related in the Saxon Chronicles of Peterborough Canterbury and Abingdon he did tithe his landes ofer all his rice gode to lofe c. as the words are that is his Lands ouer all his Kingdom c. and doubtlesse Ingulphus no otherwise vnderstood it then of perpetuall right of Tithes giuen to the Church where he remembers it by tunc primo cum Decimis c. So that the tithe of prediall or mixt profits was giuen it seems perpetually by the King with consent of his States both Secular and Ecclesiastique and the tithe of euery mans personall possessions were at that time also expresly included in the gift because it seems before that the payment of all Tithes had commonly been omitted The ancientest of Writers that hath the Charter whole is that Ingulphus but questionlesse it is much corrupted especially in that of portionem terrarum hereditariam antea possidentibus omnibus gradibus for what may that signifie But in Matthew of Westminster it is farthest from deprauation of language where after portionem follows terrae meae Deo Beatae Mariae omnibus Sanctis iure perpetuo possidendam concedam Decimam scilicet partem terrae meae vt sit tuta c. the priuilege or libertie annext to it is that it should not be only free from all taxes and exactions vsed then in the State but also from that trinoda necessitas whereto all Lands whatsoeuer were subiect although otherwise of most free tenure by which they ment their expeditio or militarie seruice pontis extructio arcis munitio this freedom of that time you must it seems so interpret that euery man was from henceforth to be valued in all Subsidies and Taxes according only to
Text of the holy Euangelists which King Athelstan caused to be fairly writen and consecrated to S. Cutbert That text with those Statuta are both yet preserued from the iniurie of time among those inestimable moniments of that noble Knight Sr Robert Cotton For those Pauca iudicia that follow they are of a later hand then the Statuta but of what time it sufficiently appears not That Lex dicit in them may be referd to the Canon related out of the Excerptions of Ecbert but whence that Canon is originally I haue not yet learned VI. King Athelstan about the yeer DCCCCXXX by aduise and consent of the Bishops of the Land made a generall Law for prediall and mixt Tithes in these words Ic AEþelstane cyning mid geþeahte Æ¿ulfhelmes mines hihbisceipes oþra minra bisceopa bebeode eallum minum gereafum ðuph ealle mine rice on þaes drihtaenes nama ealra halgena for mine lufu ê§ hi aerost mines agenes ðam teoþe gesyllaþ ge ðaes libbendes ryfes ge ðaes gearlice Æ¿estmes ê§ ilce gedo eac ða bisceopas heora geÆ¿hilcra eac mine ealdormanna gereafa ic Æ¿ille ê§ mine bisceopes gereafa ðaes demaþ eallum ðe hio gehyrsumian gebyraþ ê§ ilce to þam tide fulfremaþ ðe Æ¿e hio settaþ þaes sie to ðaem daeg ðaer beheafdunges Seint Iohannes þaes fulhteres which is anciently thus turnd into Latine Ego Athelstanus Rex Consilio Wulfhelmes Archiepiscopi mei aliorum Episcoporum meorum mando praepositis meis omnibus in toto regno meo praecipio in nomine Domini Sanctorum omnium super amicitiam meam vt inprimis de meo proprio reddant Deo Decimas tam in viuente captali quam mortuis frugibus terrae Episcopi mei similitèr faciant de suo proprio Aldermanni mei Praepositi mei Et volo vt Episcopi Praepositi mei hoc iudicent omnibus qui eis parere debent hoc ad terminum expleant quem eis ponimus i. decollatio S. Iohannis Baptistae and the example of Iacob with a Text or two out of holy Writ and S. Augustin is added to moue deuotion That translation agrees wholly enough with the Saxon sauing in those words mortuis frugibus the Saxon being yeerly fruits which also another Copie of this translation expresses by ornotinis frugibus corrupted plainly from hornotinis frugibus i. the fruits of one and the last yeer or the yeerly increase and perhaps some ignorant Monk finding ornotinis and not vnderstanding it because he would be sure to square it to his own abilitie of learning made it mortuis which kind of changing hath examples enough in bold but ignorant Criticisme that which the old Translator calls viuens captale is libbendes yrfes i. liuing cattell in the Saxon which hath often ceap also for chattels and somtimes specially for liuing cattell but the old Latine of the Saxon Laws turns ceap also into captale whence cattalla is like enough to haue discended and the first stock of Cattell which by King Ina's Laws was to be giuen to Orphans was called frumstole in Saxon but primum captale in the old translations In Brampton's Historie which is full of the Laws of the Saxon times after those constitutions of Grateley part of which are in Lambard's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follows a thankfull acknowledgment to K. Athelstan for this Law of Tithes in these words Karissime Episcopi tui de Kent omnis Kentsirae Thayni Comites villani tibi Domino dulcissimo suo gratias agunt quod nobis de pace nostra praecipere volusti de commodo Nostro perquirere consulere quia magnum opus est inde nobis diuitibus egenis Et hoc incepimus quantâ diligentiâ potuimus consilio horum sapientum quos ad nos misisti Vnde Karissime Domine primum est de nostra Decima ad quam valdè cupidi sumus voluntarij tibi supplices gratias agimus admonitionis tuae VII About D. CCCC.XL Edmund King of England in a Micelne Synod that is a great Synod or Councell a kind of Parlament both of Lay and Spirituall men which are exprest by godcundra and Æ¿orldcundra held in Londan made this Act. Teoþungum Æ¿e bebeodaþ aelcum Cristenum men be his Cristendome cyricsceat aelmesfeoh Gif hit hÆ¿a don nylle ry he amansumod Which is anciently turned Decimam praecipimus omni Christiano super Christianitatem suam dare emendent Cyrycsceatum i. Ecclesiae censum aelmesfeoh i. Eleemosynae pecuniam si quis hoc dare noluerit excommunicatus sit And all agrees with the Saxon sauing only that nothing answers to the word emendent That Cyrycsceat is a Church-rent of Corn or the first fruits of Corn yeerly in those times and regularly payable at S. Martins day to the Church and is sometimes writen Curcscet sometimes otherwise And in an old Ms. Exposition of Law-terms occurres Cherchesonde vne mesure de Ble que checun homme soleit enuoier a Seint Esglise en temps de Bretons Plainely Church-Corn is vnderstood and Cyrksceat that is Church-rent is the originall whence Cherche sonde is there corrupted And among Articles inquirable by euery Escheator in 44. Hen. 3. about the Profits Estate Tenue and Issues of the Kings Tenants one is of Cherchescot tam in blado quam in Gallinis in alijs exitibus It is Circset often in the book of Domesday Where it is found belonging sometimes to Abbeys somtime to Parish Churches somtimes to others It was still as first fruits And this old testimonie is for the antiquitie and continuance also of payment of it here Churchesset certam mensuram bladi tritici significat quam quilibet olim sanctae Ecclesiae die sanctae Martini tempore tam Britonum quam Angloram Plures tamen Magnates post Normannorum aduentum in Angliam illam contributionem secundum veterem Legem Moysi nomine primitiarum dabant prout in breui Regis Knuti ad summum Pontificem transmisso continetur in quibus illam contributionem appellat Chirchsed quia semen Ecclesiae But what the Autor meanes by that Letter or Brief of King Knout sent to the Pope I as little know as why hee cites that for autoritie to proue what the Baronage did after the Normans Indeed an Epistle is extant which Knout sent into England by Liuing Abbot of Tauisâ—ok as hee was taking his iourney home-wards from the Pope and therein mention is of this Curc scet of any other I am yet ignorant That Aelmesfeoh or Almes-money was the Peeter-pence due yeerly at the first of August by institution as some will of King Ina as others of King Aethelulph And they were called also Romefeoh Romescot Heorþpening VIII Of the same time some Constitutions are extant made by Odo Archbishop of Canterburie yet not for aught appears by
them in a Synod with this Preface Ego Oda humilis extremus diuina largiente clementia almi Praesulis Pallij honore ditatus quaedam documenta omni Christicolâ non indigna quae à praecedentibus illustrium virorum Praeceptis certissima comperi ad consolationem Domini mei Regis scilicet Aetmundi omnisque populi excellenti Imperio eius subiecti in ista cartula coadunare decreui Vnde deuotissimè obsecro clementissime hortor audientum mentes vt si quando haec recitanda audiant interiùs videlicet in corde frequenti meditatione plantent multiplici bonae operationis munere ex eo fructum pacatissimum in tempore messis sibi colligant Primo capitulo praecipimus mandamus vt Sancta Dei Ecclesia c. And so goes on with some particulars which belong to Church-discipline the X. and last Chapter being only for Tithes in these words X. Capitulo mandamus fidelitèr obsecramus de Decimis dandis sicut in Lege scriptum est Decimam partem ex omnibus frugibus tuis seu primitijs deferas in domum Dominij Dei tui Rursum Propheta Afferte inquit omnem Decimam in horreum meum vt sit cibus in domo mea probate me super hoc si non aperuero vobis cataractas coeli effudero benedictionem vsque ad abundantiam increpabo pro vobis qui comedit corrumpit fructum terrae vesirae non erit vltra vinea sterilis Vnde cum obtestatione praecipimus vt omnes studeant de omnibus quae possident dare Decimas quia speciale Domini Dei est de nouem partibus sibi viuant Eleemosynas tribuant Where note the syllables are of that which in the Centuries is referd to an English Councell of D. CC.LXXXVI before in § II. For this of Odo although no expresse Occurrence denote that it was in a Councell yet you may much incline to beleeue it was in one if you compare it with what you find in the Monk of Malmesburie of him IX King Edgar about the yeer D. CCCC.LXX mid his Æ¿itena geþeahte that is with the aduise and counsell of his Wisemen or Baronage ordained That the Church should enioy all her Liberties man agyfe ylce aelc teoþunge to þaem ealdan mynstre ðe seo hyrnesse to hyrþe si þonne sÆ¿a geleast aegþer of ðaegnes inland ge of neatland sÆ¿a his sulh gega 2. Gif hÆ¿a ðonne degna sy ðe on his boclande eyrican haebbe ðe legerstoÆ¿e on sy gesylle he ðonne ðritdan dael his agenre teoþunge into his cyrican 3. Gif hÆ¿a cyrican haebbe ðe laeerstoÆ¿e on ne sy ðonne do h of ðaem nygan daelum his Æ¿reost ê§ ê§ he Æ¿ille 4. And sy aelcre geoguþe teoþunge gelaest be Pentecosten þaera eorþ Æ¿aestma be Emâ—ihte 5. Gif hÆ¿a ðonne þa teoþunge geleastan nelle sÆ¿a Æ¿e ge-cÆ¿aeden habbaþ fare ðaes Cyningesgerefa to þaes Bisceopes þaes mynstres maessepreost niman unþances ðone teoþen dael to ðaem minstre ð hit to gebyrrige taecan him to þaem nigoþon dael to daele mon þa eahta daelas on tþa. fo se hlaford to healfan to healfan se bisceop sy hit cyninges man sy hit ðegenes that is in the old Latine Copies 1. Et Reddatur omnis Decimatio ad Matrem Ecclesiam cui Parochia adiacet de terra Thainorum Villanorum sicut aratrum peragrabit 2. Si quis Thainorum sit qui in feodo suo Ecclesiam habeat vbi caemiterium sit det ei tertiam partem Decimae suae 3. Si non sit tibi atrium but the Saxon hath here the same word as before for caemiterium that is laegerstoÆ¿e det ex suis nouem partibus Presbytero quod vult 4. Et omnis Decimatio Iuuentutis reddita sit ad Pentecosten Terraefrugum ad Aequinoctium 5. Si quis Decimam dare sicut diximus noluerit adeat Praepositus Regis Episcopi Sacerdos illius Ecclesiae reddant Ecclesiae cui pertinebit Decimam suam Nonam partem dimittant ei qui Decimam suam detinuit octo partes in duo diuidantur dimidium Domino dimidium Episcopo Sit homo Regis sit homo Thaini This Latine agrees well enough with the Saxon although in this last § si quis for Episcopi Sacerdos Lambard hath Episcopus Sacerdos illius Ecclesiae c. But whereas the Translator vses the word Ecclesia only for Church in the Saxon that which he calls Matrem Ecclesiam is denoted by ealdan mynstre and that Ecclesia in § 2. si quis Thainorum by Cyrican whence our word Kirk or Church is framed For the difference of Church and Minister here somewhat where anon wee speak of Parishes of that time X. A Councell or a kind of Parlament held vnder King Ethelred by the aduise of his two Archbishops Elfpheg and Wulfstan about the yeer M.X. is yet extant wherein Laws are for Tithes But because it remaines only a Manuscript of about the time of the Norman Conquest the Preface of it shall be here first noted that thence the autoritie of it may be the better vnderstood It is inscribed with Incipiunt Synodalia Decreta then begins with Quodam tempore contigit vt Regis Aethelredi edicto concrepante Archipraesulumque Alfeagi Wulfstani hortatu instigante vniuersi Anglorum Optimates die Sancto Pentecostes ad locum ab indigenis Eanham nominatum acciti sunt conuenire Collecto itaque ibidem Christicolarum coetu venerabilium quamplurimorum de Catholicae cultu Religionis recuperando deque etiam rei statu publicae reparando vel consulendo plura non pauca vtpote diuinitus inspirati ratiocinando sermocinabantur Then follows some Constitutions about Monks Abbots Canons and other of the Clergie After which the Councell goes on with Post haec igitur Archipontifices praedicti Conuocatâ plebis multitudine collectae Regis Edicto suprascriptae omniumque consensu Catholicorum omnibus communitèr praedicabant vnum Deum colendum esse debere Patrem videlicet c. And diuers Canons succeed and among them occurres Nec Ecclesiae antiquitùs constitutae Decimis vel alijs possessionibus priuentur ita vt nouis Oratorijs tribuantur which very words are found in an elder Councell of Mentz and in the Imperiall Capitularies Then immediatly follows Decimationes Frugum Vitulorum Agnorum necnon Aratrales Eleemosynae Ecclesiasticaque munera Domino per singulos annos temporibus rependantur congruis Eleemosynae videlicet Aratrales quindecim diebus post Pascha peractis Vituli quoque Agniculi Decimales erga Pentecosten Frugum verò terrae Decimationes circa omnium festiuitatem Sanctorum Ecclesijs persoluantur opportunis To it is ioind the most part of it in Saxon. but that Preface is wholly therein wanting neither doth any thing in the Saxon answer to that Nec Ecclesiae antiquitus
constitutae c. But those Tithes are there reckond among godes gerightas that is things due vnto God and the Saxon text for them is geogoþe teoþunge be Pentecosten eorð Æ¿aestma be ealra halgenamaessan that is the Tithe of yong cattell is to be paid at Whitsontide and of fruits of the earth at Alhollows and according to this in an old Saxon collection of Christian dutie AElc man saies the Autor teoðunga gelaeste mid rihte that is Let euery man pay his Tithes iustly Those Aratrales Eleemosynae were called sulh aelmessan that is Plough-almes which was a peny to be paid of euery plough-land and the Ecclesiastica munera were only the first fruits of Corne paid at S. Martins day whereof before § VIII XI In some Laws of K. Ethelred remaining in Abbot Brampton his Historie we read Omnis Thainus Decimet quicquid habet and Praecipimus vt omnis homo super dilectionem Dei omnium Sanctorum det Cyricsceatum rectam Decimam suam sicut in diebus antecessorum nostrorum fecit quando melius fecit hoc est sicut aratrum peragrabit decimam acram omnis consuetudo reddatur super amicitiam Dei ad matrem nostram Ecclesiam cui adiacet nemo auferat Deo quod ad Deum pertinet praedecessores nostri concesserunt The inscription of those Laws mongst which these are found is Haec instituerunt Ethelredus Sapientes eius apud Habam By this and that of Edgar before cited it appears that the Tithe of euery tenth acre according to the order of tithing the whole Farme was to be paid to the Church which also is made more plain in the next Law of King Knout XII Gelaeste man are the Æ¿ords of one of K. Knouts LaÆ¿s made about M.XX. godes gerihta aeghÆ¿ilc geare rightlice georne þaet is sulhaelmesse fiftene niht ofer Eastran gegoþe teoþunge be Pentecosten eorþ Æ¿aestma be ealra halgena maessan gif hÆ¿a þonne þa teoþunge gelaestan naelle sÆ¿a Æ¿e gecÆ¿edan habbaþ ê§ is se teoþa aecer eal sÆ¿a se sulh hit gegaþ þonne fare to Æ¿aes Cyninges gerefa þas biscopas þaes land rican þaes minstres maessespreost niman unþances þonne teoþan dael to þam minstre he hit to gebyrige teacum him to þam nigoþum dael to daele man þa eahta daelas on tÆ¿a fo se landhlaford to healfum to healfum se bisceop sy hit Cyninges man sy hit ðegener this is anciently thus turned Reddantur Deo Debitae rectitudines annis singulis hoc est Eleëmosyna carucarum XV. diebus post Pascha Decimae de nouellis gregibus in Pentecosten terfenorum fructuum in festo omnium Sanctorum Si quis hanc Decimam dare nolit sicut omnium nostrum commune est institutum hoc est Decimam acram sicut aratrum peragrabit eat praepositus Regis Episcopi Domini ipsius tetrae cum Sacerdote ingratis auferant Ecclesiae cui pertinebit reddant Nonam verò partem relinquant ei qui Decimam dare noluit Octauas partes reliquas in duo diuidant sit vna medietas Episcopi alia terrae Domini siue sit homo Regis siue Thaini with this Latin the Saxon agrees and it is almost but a repetition of King Edgars Law for Tithes and those two Paragraphs in King Edgars the one touching a conueyance of a third part of the tithes to a Church that had right of Sepulture the other concerning a Church that wanted that right are also repeated as many other Laws of the former ages in those of King Knouts which are called Lege Anglicae generally in the ancientest Latin Copies that I haue seen XIII The Copie of the Laws of Edward the Confessor that bears this title Leges boni Regis Edwardi quas Guilielmus Bastardus postea confirmauit hath this for Tithes De omni annona Decima garba Deo debita est ideò reddenda Et si quis gregem equarum habuerit pullum reddat Decimum Qui vnam vel duas habuerit de singulis pullis singulos denarios Similiter qui vaccas plures habuerit Decimum vitulum Qui vnam vel duas de vitulis singulis obolos singulos Et qui caseum fecerit det Deo Decimum si verò non fecerit lac decima die similiter agnum Decimum vellus Decimum caseum Decimum butyrum Decimum porcellum Decimum De Apibus verò similitèr Decima commodi Quin de bosco de prato aquis molendinis parcis viuarijs piscarijs virgultis hortis negotiationibus omnibus rebus quas dederit Dominus Decima pars ei reddenda est qui nouem partes simul cum Decima largitur Qui eam detinuerit per Iustitiam Episcopi Regis si necesse fuerit ad redditionem arguatur Haec enim praedicauit B. Augustinus concessa sunt à Rege Baronibus populo But howeuer those Laws are attributed to the Confessor it is certain that as the Ordinarie Copies of them are and as they speak in the published Volume of Saxon Laws they are not without many mixtures of somewhat later transcribers XIV In a Synod writen in Saxon held about the CoÌ„quest diuers Laws preceding about the punishment of crimes by fasting VI. VII.X yeers together with bread and water a perswasion follows for Almes c. in it we read teoþge on godes godes est eal ê§ he age that is Let Tithe be paid of all that is possest though the Lords bountie XV. Out of a Ms. of Excester I haue seen transcribed a Canon of a Councell held at Windsore some yeers after the Norman Conquest I think vnder Lanfrank in these words Vt Laici Decimas reddant sicut scriptum est XVI In a Conuocation at Westminster held in 3. Hen. 1. vnder Anselm Archbishop of Canterburie and Girard Archbishop of Yorke for both Prouinces it was ordaind Vt Decimae non nisi Ecclesijs dentur It was not only a Synod of the Clergie but Royall autoritie with the assent of the Baronage at least of the greater Nobilitie was ioind with it for thus speaks the Monk of Malmesburie relating it Anno Dominicae Incarnationis 1102. quarto autem praesulatus Paschalis summi Pontificis tertio regni Regis gloriosi Henrici Anglorum ipso annuente communi consensu Episcoporum Abbatum Principum totius regni adunatum est Concilium in Ecclesia beati Petri in Occidentali parte iuxta Londoniam sita in quo praesedit Anselmus c. and then Huic conuentui affuerunt Anselmo Archiepiscopo petente à Rege Primates regni quatenus quicquid eiusdem Concilij autoritate decerneretur vtriusque Ordinis concordi curâ sollicitudine ratum seruaretur Sic enim necesse erat quia multis retrò annis synodali cultura cessante vitiorum vepribus succrescentibus Christianae religionis feruor in Anglia
Commons so differ touching the execution of the Canons and insomuch that afterward also the Commons put in a Bill Que nul Estatute ne Ordenance soit faite ne grante au Petition du Clergie si ne soit per assent de voz Commens Ne que vous dites Commens ne soient obligez per nulles constitutions qu'ils font pur lour auantage sanz assent de voz dites Commens Car eux ne veullent estre obligez a nul de voz Estatutz ne Ordinances faâ—tz sanz lour assent But the answer was only thus Soit ceste mature declarè en speciall This by the way XXXIV Here may be rememberd thatagreement in the Parlament at Salisburie Quòd consultationes fieri debent de silua caedua eo non obstante quod non renouatur per annum But to what Parlament to refer that agreement expressed by Concordatum fuit coram Consilio Regis in Parlamento c. I sufficiently know not vnlesse to that of 7. Rich. 2. held at Salisburie the Rolls whereof hath nothing of it XXXV In 5. Hen. 4. a Bill was put in by the Commons against the exaction of Tithes of Quarries of Stone and Slatt Thus it speaks Item priont les Commens que come plusors lieges nostre Seignior le Roy sont souent foits vexiz trauaillez per Persons Vicaires de Seint Esglise per Citations Censures de Seint Esglise pur Dismes de Peres Sclattes oueres trahez hors de Quares de sicomne nul Disme de nul tiel Pierre ne Sclatte vnques ne feust demande de nulle Disme ent paie que pleise a granter que si ascun Prohibition soit fait en le cas que nul Consultation soit grant a contrarie Hereto the answer was Le Roy s'aduisera But you may see hereof more in the ancient Opinions of the Iudges deliuered in the Register and Fitzherbert XXXVI In 27. Hen 8. chap. 20. it is enacted by Parlament That through all the Kings dominions euery subiect according to the Ecclesiasticall Laws and Ordinance of this Church of England and after the laudable Vsages and Customes of the Parish or other place where he dwelleth or occupieth shall yeeld and pay his Tithes c. And some other speciall courses for recouerie of Tithes are in that Act ordained XXXVII By the Statute of Dissolution of Monasteries of 31. Hen. 8. chap. 13. it was enacted That the King and his Patentees should hold the Possessions of the dissolued Monasteries discharged and acquited of payment of Tithes as freely and in as large and ample manner as the Houses of Religion held them at their time of the dissolution XXXVIII After the dissolution of Monasteries to which diuers Tithes and Parish Churches had been appropriated and were now setled in the Crowne and thence conueyed into Lay hands an Act was made in 32. Hen. 8. cap. 7. commanding euery man fully truly and effectually to diuide set out yeeld or pay all and singular Tithes and Offerings according to the lawfull Customes and Vsages of the Parishes and Places where such Tithes or Duties shall grow arise come or be due And remedie is giuen for Ecclesiastique persons before the Ordinarie and for Lay men that claimed appropriated Tithes by grant from the Crown in the secular Courts by such actions as vsually Lay possessions had been subiect to XXXIX By the Acts of 27. Hen. 8. cap. 21. 37. Hen. 8. cap. 12. and the Decree made vpon them the Citizens and Inhabitants of London and the Liberties were commanded to pay their Tithes to the Parsons Vicars and Curats of the Citie according to a rate of the rents of their houses that is two shillings nine pence for euerie pound and that if no rent be reserued the Tithe should be duly paid according to what their houses had been last letten for and according to that also are owners bound to pay But a Prouiso is in the Decree That where a lesse summe then after two shillings nine pence the pound hath been accustomed to bee paid for Tithes in such places the former custome should be continued And some other particulars are in it which are too long to be here transcribed you may easily see it whole But anciently in London on euery Sunday and other principall Feast day the chief maintenance of the Ministers was encreased by a farthing offered out of euery tenne shillings of rent Ex Ordinatione antiqua sayes Lindwood and that Ordinance as I haue heard was either made by Roger Niger Bishop of London in 13. Hen. 3. as a new one or as a confirmation of former vse as which of these I purposely abstain here to enquire in dicta Ciuitate tenentur singulis Dominicis diebus in principalibus Festis Sanctorum Apostolorum aliorum quorum Vigiliae ieiunantur offerre pro singulis X. solidis redditus domus quam inhabitant vnum quadrantem And the LII farthings so yeerly paid on Sundaies only came so neere to the iust Tenth of the rent that they were thought on as a Tithe paid the other being reputed rather by the name only of Offerings Which you may see in the same Lindwood where he disputes the question whether those farthings excused the Citizens from personall Tithes of their gaines and concludes that they did not But before these Acts and the Decree no Tithes as Tithes were generally paid in that Citie in some places they were as in the libertie of S. Martins le Grand which is rather in London then of it neither can I but here remember that custom of the Eastern Church thus maintaind chiefly with Offerings or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they called them which specially appears in the answere of Theodore Balsamon Patriarch of Antiochia to Mark Patriarch of Alexandria touching the quantitie of what was to be offered He tells him that no certain quantitie is appointed by the Canons and that through inequalitie of mens estates none of them giuing any such part to the Church as that it could discouer their abilities which permits not a regular certaintie they were contented with what custom and free bountie of the giuers bestowed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in substance the same before in English XL. In 2. and 3. Ed. 6. chap. 15. it was enacted that all prediall Tithes should be thenceforth paid as of right they had been within fortie yeers next preceding or according to custom ought to haue been with allowance of Priuileges lawfull Prescriptions or CoÌ„positions reall and personall Tithes of gain by merchandise and artifice in such places and as within XL. yeers preceding they had been accustomably vsed to be paid are commanded to be paid yeerly at or before Easter Other particulars and the remedies giuen by the Act may be easier found in it then I can transcribe them XLI To these may not amisse be added those Laws for Tithes
proposed by the VIII persons chosen to begin a new body of Canon Law for England in 5. Ed. 6. according to the first purpose of the Statut of 25. Hen. 8. cap. 19. which was seconded also by the Statut of 3 and 4. Ed. 6. cap. 11. whereby XXXII persons assigned by the King should haue made it neither were those VIII to haue giuen sufficient autoritie to it according to those Statuts without approbation of XXXII afterward that should haue censurd their reformation The VIII were Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterburie Thomas Bishop of Elie Richard Cox the Kings Almosner and Peter Martyr Doctors of Diuinitie William May and Rouland Tailor Doctors of Law and Iohn Lucas and Richard Gooderik Esquires In what they proposed is found a constitution in the Kings name that all predial tithes should be paid in kind to the Ministerie integrè expletè with an exception of timber Trees of XX. yeers growth as also of the profits of Milles of Turbaries Cole-mines Quarries of stone and all other of like kind Of all Agistments also Tithes are there paiable and of the encrease of all kind of beasts wild and tame of fish of butter cheese milk wool wax and the Statut of 2. and 3. Ed. 6. for Tithes is there receiud for so much of it as is not against a generall paiment which they would haue had ordaind But these as the rest in the Volume with them were only intended for Laws but neuer had sufficient autoritie or confirmation The intent was first that those Canon Laws only which according to the purpose of the two Statuts of Hen. 8. and Ed. 6. should be compiled might haue autoritie in the Vniuersities and force in practice but so that there might still be praeseruatio legum nostrarum communium in suo vigore remanentium as the words are in the Patent of Ed. 6. that authorizes the VIII persons to consult about them For our Laws of Tithing either made or desired thus much But before we speak of the Practice it is requisit that we enter into some disquisition touching Parishes or Parochiall right according wherto at this day from ancient time the paiment of Tithes is regularly performed CAP. IX I. Of Parishes in the Primitiue Church of the Britons II. Parishes in the Primitiue Church of the English Saxons first limited only in regard of the Ministers function not of Parochiall profits all the profits of euery whole Diocese first made a common treasure to be disposed of by the Bishop and his Clergie of the same Diocese Residence of the Bishop and Clergie in those times The great regard then had to euery Clergie man III. Of diuision of our Parishes whether Honorius Archbishop of Canterburie first deuided them Parochia or Paroecia diuersly taken IV. Lay-foundations of Parish Churches from whence chiefly came Parochial limits in regard of the profits receiud to the singular vse of the Incumbents Limitation of Tithes by K. Edgar to the Mother Parish Church or Monasterie Monasteries preferd before other Churches for buriall Mortuaries Minstre a third part of Tithes according to K. Edgars Law must be giuen to a new-built Church that had right of Sepulture by the Founder Sepultura and Baptisterium Capella Parochialis a Parish commanded to be made out of another that was too large by the Pope one Parish ioind to another by the King IN consideration of our Parish Churches and Parochiall limits the times of the Britons first then of the English-Saxons and foreward are to be thought of that is the elder times of their Christianitie I. For the Britons litle or no Testimonie of credit is extant that discouers the Ecclesiasticall policie vsed by them in their primitiue times or declares the possessions of their Hierarchie And we omit here wholy what might be collected out of that fabulous tale of Augustine preaching at Cometon in Oxfordshire whereof more in the next Chapter Although K. Lucius had instituted XXVIII Bishops and III. Archbishops as the British storie tells vs yet how in those Dioceses any distinct Parishes were appears not expresly But we may very well think that such kind of Parishes only were in those Bishopriques as we haue alreadie shewd to haue been in the Primitiue Church elswhere neither is it likely that in those times the custom of this Island therein should differ from what was euen vniformly receiud through those parts of Christendom wherof we haue best testimonie remaining But if all ancient autoritie were of credit Parish Churches expresly mentiond of about the time of CCCCXC and endowd as at this day might be found among the Britons For when Dubritius was made Archbishop of Southwales which they called Dextralis Britannia and his See appointed at Landaff vnder Mouris Prince of that Wales diuers Churches with their endowments of Tithes Oblations and other profits were appropriated to him and his successors by the relation of an old Autor Propter sanctitatem suam are his words praedicationem praeclaram Beati Pastoris regalem parentelam suam plures Ecclesiae cum suis dotibus Decimis oblationibus sepulturis Territorijs libera communione eorum datae sunt sibi successoribus suis omnibus à Regibus Principibus totius regni Dextralis Britanniae and then Videns autem sanctus Dubritius Largifluam potentum manum erga sibi comissam Ecclesiam partitus est discipulos mittens quosquam discipulorum suorum per Ecclesias sibi datas quasdam fundauit Ecclesias Episcopos per dextralem Britanniam coadiutores sibi ordinatis Parochijs suis consecrauit But this Autor wrote not before about the beginning of the last CCCC yeers from Christ and spake of these things in the phrase of his own time the hand and context and their relations in him iustifie it he talks you see of Churches endowd and appropriated and founded as if he meant no other then such as now are conueiable by Patrons and Ordinaries in the course of appropriations vsed in later ages and filled with Incumbents that had in them like estates and particular interest in the profits as Parsons at this day indeed that in those times Churches were built here no doubt can be made neither is it to be conceiud how Christianitie could he in any Nation much ancienter if generally receiud or by any number then Churches or some conuenient Houses or other places in the nature of Churches appointed for the exercise of deuotion and expresse mention is of a Church built here in the time of the Romans to the honor of S. Martin in which Augustin and his followers when they came first from Rome made their holy assemblies and others also they repaired and saies Gildas of the Clergie of his time that is about D.LXXX Ecclesiae domê° habentes sed turpis lucri gratia eas adeuntes But I ghesse that vnder Dubritiê° few or no parish Churches were otherwise erected then for conuenient places for such Ministers as the
questionlesse were not without some effect being so often renewd Neither is the memorie of some vse of payment here in these more elder times omitted in the reliques of antiquitie In the Ms. life of the British Saint Cadoc among some Laws of his Church of Lhancaruan which seem to be attributed to his time which falls about our Augustine or before one is Quicunque decimauerit debet diuidere in tres partes primam dabit Confessori secundam Altari tertiam orantibus pro eo but the Autor of this whence we haue it wrote not till after the Norman Conquest And it is reported also of Eadbert Bishop of Lindisfarn or Holy Iland that he was Eleemosynarum operatione as Bedes words are insigni ita vt iuxta legem omnibus annis Decimam non solum quadrupedum verum etiam frugum omnium pomorum necnon vestimentorum partem pauperibus daret which words are almost repeated also by Turgot Prior of Durham that wrote the storie of that Bishoprique But here no custom of the place or common vse is noted but only a speciall deuotion of Eadbert and for that of iuxta legem you must vnderstand it of Moses Law and so is it exprest in the Saxon Copie of Bede where I read that he did it aefter Moyses ae and that is according to the Law of Moses Neither is the regard in those times had to a tenth although not yeerly to to be paid as for a soules ransom to the poor after the death of euery Bishop out of his estate to be here wholly neglected Out of this regard may be inferd that therein also the Tenth was reputed as a sanctified part And wee learne it out of a Councell held in DCCC.XVI In loco famoso as the words of it are qui dicitur Celichyth Praesidente verò Wlfredo Archiepiscopo caeterisque adsedentibus australibus Anglorum Episcopis which hath this Canon Iubemus hoc firmitèr statuimus ad seruandum tam in nostris diebus quamque etiam futuris temporibus omnibus successoribus nostris qui post nos illis sedibus ordinentur quibus nos ordinati sumus vt quandocunque aliquis ex numero Episcoporum migrauerit de seculo tunc pro anima illius praecipimus ex substantia vniuscuiusque rei Decimam partem diuidere ac distribuere pauperibus in eleëmosynam siue in pecoribus armentis seu de Ouibus Porcis vel etiam in Cellarijs necnon omnem hominem Anglicum liberare qui in diebus suis sit seruituti subiectus vt per illud sui proprij laboris fructum retributionis percipere mereatur indulgentiam peccatorum And for the succeeding times of the Saxons we may well coniecture a practice of payment out of King Knonts Epistle sent in M.XXXI as he departed homeward from Rome by Liuing Abbot of Tanystok to Athelnoth and Alfrique the two Archbishops by name and to the rest of the Bishops Baronage of England he therein straitly charges them all that according to the ancient Law they should take care that Tithes were duly paid among other Church reuenues wherin if he found default at his coÌ„ming they should expect seuere punishment the words were Nunc igitur obtestor omnes Episcopos meos regni mei praepositos per fidem quam mihi debetis Deo quatenùs faciatis vt antequam in Angliam veniam omnium debita quae secundum legem antiquam debemus sint persoluta scilicet eleemosyna pro aratris Decimae animalium ipso anno procreatorum Denarij quos Romam ad sanctum Petrum debetis siue ex vrbibus siue ex villis mediante Augusto Decimae frugum in festiuitate S. Martini primitiae seminum ad Ecclesiam sub cuius Parochia quisque degit quae Anglice Curâ—scet nominatur Haec alia si cum venero non erunt persoluta regia exactione secundum leges in quem culpa cadit districtè absque venia comparabit and the Monk that relates it addes nec dicto deterius fuit factum But what euer may be out of these testimonies concluded it is noted among the Laws attributed to Edward the Confessor that what through the coldnesse of deuotion what through the neglect of demanding Tithes by the Clergie that were otherwise grown very rich in reall endowments the practice of paiment of them was much diminished Sed postea instinctu diaboli are the words which follow immediatly what is before in the Chapter of Laws § XIII multi Decimam detinuerunt Sacerdotes locupletes negligentes non curabant inire laborem ad per quirendas eas eo quod sufficienter habebant suae necessaria vitae Multis enim in locis modo sunt tres vel quatuor Ecclesiae vbi tunc temporis vna tantùm erat sic ceperunt minui· but we are not sure that this addition to the Law is as ancient as the Confessor I think it indeed rather of somewhat later time yet doubtlesse the generall practice of paiment according to those ancient Laws howeuer it might be in elder times was about the Norman Conquest much discontinued which may be specially obserued out of that book of Domesday the originall Copie whereof yet remains in the Receipt of the Exchequer in which the Possessions and Reuenues both of the Clergie and Laitie were accounted and valued by the othes of Enquests taken in euery Countie vpon commission and so returned thither about the end of the Conquerors raign There frequently enough Churches are mentioned by the words of Ibi Ecclesia Presbyter or such like and how many Carues or Hides of land how many villans and other endowments and reuenues belongs to them are reckond with their values But very rarely any Tithes among those Church reuenues are there found if none at all had been namd it might haue been thought that they had been omitted as a more sacred profit then was fit to be taxed in such a Description But some although very few occurre in it as vnder Terra Osberni Episcopi in Boseham in Sussex you may there find that Decimam Ecclesiae Clerici tenent valet XLs. where the lest value of the Mannor is made at XLli. per annum in Hampshire vnder Terra Osberni Episcopi you read Ecclesia S. Michaelis de Monte tenet de Rege in Basingestoches Hundred vnam Ecclesiam cum 1. hida Decimam de Manerio Basingestoches Ibi est Presbyter So in the same Shire vnder Terra Regis Ipse Rex tenet Wallope c. ibi Ecclesia cui pertinent vna hida medietas Decimae Manerij totum Curset de Decima villanorum XLVI denarij medietas agrorum Ibi est adhuc Ecclesiola ad quam pertinent VIII acrae de Decima for these VIII acres of Tithes see before in the Chapter of Laws § IX.X. and XI And in the same Shire also among the Abbot of Lire's possessions the
in lands of the Crown are at the arbitrarie disposition of the King such places haue been and I think are in diuers Forests And hereof saies Thorp in 22. Assis. pl. 75. Il soleit estre ley quant il auer certane place qui fuit hors de chescun Paroche come en Englewode huiusmodi en tel case le Roy ad doit auer les dismes de cest place nient l' Euesque de lieu a granter a que luy plest and relates further that the Archbishop that yeer made suit to the Councell to haue had such Tithes But vnder fauor this was vnderstood only of the Kings granting the tithes of his Demesnes occupied by his Bailifes according as in ancient time euery man els did for whateuer the words seeme to import Thorp speaks only of such lands of the possession of the Crown in which case it must not perhaps be vnderstood so much a part of the Royall prerogatiue as a right due to the King by common Law in regard of his possession of lands not limited to any Parish Neither doth he affirm that Tithes of such places are due to be paid to the Crown but that they are in the King to grant at his pleasure if growing in his demesnes But to this purpose is a notable case in the Parliament rolls of 18. Ed. 1. where Ralph Bishop of Carleol Petit versus Ecclesiae Priorem de Karliel Decimas duarum placearum terrae of the new assarts in the Forest of Inglewood whereof the one is called Linthwait the other Kirkthwait Quae sunt infra limites Parochiae Ecclesiae suae de Aspaterike c. and laies by praescription in his predecessors the Tithes of the pannage there before the assarting or culture Henrie of Burton also Parson of Thoresby claimed in Parliament the same Tithes as belonging to his Church and infra limites Parochiae suae and the Prior comes saies that Henricê° Rex vetus Henrie the first it seems concessit Deo Ecclesiae suae Beatae Mariae Karliel omnes Decimas de omnibus terris quas in culturam redigeret infra Forestam inde eos feoffauit per quoddam cornu eburneum quod dedit Ecclesiae suae praedictae c. Whereupon the Kings Attorney Dicit quod Decimae praedictae pertinent ad Regem non ad alium quia sunt infra bundas Forestae de Inglewood quod Rex in Foresta sua praedicta potest villas aedificare Ecclesias construere terras assartare Ecclesias illas cum Decimis terrarum illarum pro voluntate sua cuicunque voluerit conferre eò quod Foresta illa non est infra Limites alicuius Parochiae c. Et petit quod Decimae illae Domino Regi remaneant prout de iure debent ratione praedicta c. Et quia Dominus Rex super praemissis vult certiorari vt vnicuique tribuatur quod suum est William of Vesci Iustice of the Forest beyond Trent and Thomas of Normanuill his Escheator for those parts for so was the diuision anciently of Escheatorships were assigned Commissioners to enquire of the truth certificent Regem ad proximum Parlamentum c. So are the words of the Record Where the Attorney challenges not the right by prerogatiue but only in regard that the place being the demesne Land of the Crowne not assigned to any Parish the Tithes are grantable by the King as owner at his pleasure And so it well agrees both with that liberty challenged by King Iohn in the name of his Baronage that they might found new Churches at their pleasure in their owne fees before the establishment of Parochiall right in Tithes as also with the more ancient practice of the Kingdom whereby Tithes might not be parochially exacted nor were so reputed due but by the owners arbitrarily conueyed in perpetuall right And whereas Herle in 7. Ed. 3. fol. 5. a. sayes generally That no man might arbitrarily giue his Tithes that are not within Parochiall Limits but that the Bishop of the Diocesse should haue them It seems he spake suddenly as out of the Canon Law and not according to the Law of England And hee addes that it is against reason Que home ne purra my granter ses almoignes a que il vouldra And but two yeeres before that of Herle it was adiudged in the Kings Bench Quod de Decimis grossis Priori de Carleol praedecessoribus suis de dominicis Domini Regis infra Forestam de Inglewood prouenientibus extra quaruncunque Parochiarum Limites existentibus per Cartam progenitorum Domini Regis nunc concessis per Cartam ipsius D. R. nunc confirmatis c. a Prohibition should be granted against the Bishop of Carleol that claymed them It was vpon a Record sent thither out of the Parlament as in the Roll appeares largely And Edward the first gaue such Tithes of the Forest of Dene as encreased not within any Parish to the Bishop of Landaff by which title the Bishop afterward claymed them and no question was of that point But for common or waste ground the Parish whereof is not known the Statute of 2. Ed. 6. hath giuen the Tithe cattell therein depasturing to the Church within whose Parish the owner dwelleth CAP. XII I. Appropriations and Collations of Tithes with Churches The Corporations to which the Appropriations were made presented for the most part Vicars Thence the most of perpetuall Vicarages II. How Churches and Tithes by Appropriation were anciently conueyed from Lay-Patrons The vse of Inuestitures practiced by Lay-Patrons III. Grants of Rents or Annuities by Patrons only out of their Churches Of the Bishops assent More of Inuestitures A Writ to the Archdeacon anciently sometime sent vpon recouerie of a Presentment IV. Of haereditarie succession in Churches V. Laps vpon default of Presentation grounded vpon the generall Councell of Lateran held in 25. Hen. 2. What Praesentare ad Ecclesiam is originally Donatio Ecclesiae I. AS by Consecrations seuerally so with Churches in Appropriations Tithes were frequently conueyed and by expresse name as Ecclesia de N. cum Decimis or the like are vsually giuen Monachis Monialibus c. ibidem Deo seruientibus c. according to what is before noted of other Countries But this Mention of Tithes with Churches in Appropriations was rare or not at all till after the Normans In the Saxon times many appropriated Churches are found and that from between D.CC. and D.CCC. yeers since till the Normans but the Charters that conueyed or confirmed them haue vsually nothing but Ecclesias and so many Carues or Yard Lands or so much rent annext to them nor speaking at all of any Tithes transferd with them For speciall examples of such ancient Appropriations you may see the recitalls of the Charters of King Bertulph King Beored and King Edred made to the Abbey of Crowland and inserted in Ingulphus But after the Normans in Appropriations
of them which is there adiudged according to that in Catesbies case is referd to Concilium Apostolicum which can be no other then that of Lateran howeuer the printed Copie of that which we commonly call Breton talks of the Councell of Lions for the Director of the Laps whereas indeed the Mss. haue for de Lions de Lautr which is doubtlesse for de Lateran yet also in the Rolls of the Common pleas of Pasch. 9. Ed. 1. Rot. 58. Suthampt. the Archbishop of Canterburie defendant in a Darrain presentment against the Abbot of Lyra pleads that the Church of Godeshull est plena ex collatione ipsius Archiepiscopi ratione Concilij Lugdunensis and being demanded by what article of the Councell would not thereto answer wherupon after long deliberation iudgement is giuen for the Abbot But in the same Plea the Law and custom of England for the six months time of Laps which they call there Consuetudo regni Angliae is referd to a Councell but none is specially named sauing that of Lions But although from Canonicall autoritie the Laps was thus receiud into our Laws yet it hath been no otherwise then the Baronage of England would permit it for the Canons otherwise as at this day they are giue but foure months to a Lay Patron and six to an Ecclesiastique which difference the Law of England would neuer permit as also neither that of the right of collation which the Chapter is to haue vpon default of the Bishop howeuer the Pope would haue put it here in execution according to the words of the Councell which you may see in the autorities before noted out of the Text of the Canon Law and therefore the Law of Laps is well referd rather to Consuetudo Regni Angliae by which title other parts of our Laws were often named that were of later beginning then to the Councell although thence doubtlesse as is shewd it had its originall But although now what through the Decretalls and other Canons against Lay mens Inuestitures what by reason of the Law of Laps the Patrons former interest or challenged right was much diminished in the Church and the disposition of the reuenues of it for it followd also that the Ordinaries assent was requisite yet the formulae or precedents vsed from ancient time in the recouerie of presentations still retaine to this day Characters in them of that Inuestiture as the quare impedit that is Praecipe A. quod iustè c. permittat B. praesentare idoneam personam ad Ecclesiam de N. quae vacat ad suam spectat donationem c. Where Donatio still sauors of the ancient right of Inuestiture agreeing whereto is that of Ecclesiam concedere vsed elswhere in our Law and attributed to the Lay Patron Neither doth praesentare ad Ecclesiam originally denote otherwise then the Patrons sending or placing an Incumbent into the Church and is made only of repraesentare which in that Councell of Lateran and elswher occurres also for praesentare repraesentare is properly to restore giue back or repay as reddo or repraesto whence praesentare taken in the barbarous times denoted as dare or donare so that idoneam personam ad Ecclesiam praesentare was all one with idoneam personam ad Ecclesiam dare or donare or in Ecclesia constituere or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostles word is to Titus where he bids him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is appoint or constitut or indeed present Priests or Encumbents in euery Citie for he that there should turn it by present might so keep the propertie of the word in both tongues though not as present is now restraind this is iustified out of an old Glossarie that turnes Repraesento by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for then cleerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Praesento while praesentare so signified also in practice that is in the time of the vse of Lay Inuestitures all Churches so giuen were properly Donatiues which attribute hath been since restraind chiefly to such free-chappels as the Ordinarie had no interest in but are collated or giuen by the act only of the Patron and this interpretation of praesentare is iustified also out of the quare impedit vpon a right of collation which is but a donation by the Bishop wherin the words are also quod permittat praesentare ad Ecclesiam c. Donation which is meerly as Inuestiture in regard of the Bishop is there called Presentation So also is the Law in the Kings Case and of common persons being disturbed to collate by Letters Patents to their free Chappels or Donatiues the Writ in those Cases is only praesentare which confirms that it denotes Donation or Inuestiture But in the Counts vpon such Writs the speciall matter must be discouered The like Law is in the Case of him that hath the Nomination of the Clerk his Writ is also praesentare although another haue the right of that which is now known by the bare name of presentation Nomination indeed or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the true and eldest name found in the Laws belonging to the Church that denote filling or presenting to a Church in that sense as Presenting is taken for giuing or inuesting For in the primitiue times when the Patron had founded his Church he nominated whom he would haue receiued into Orders for the seruing of that Cure and then if the nominated were found worthy hee was receiued into Orders for that purpose which Ordination turnd afterward into Episcopall institution as is before declared that nomination was indeed as Inuestiture or giuing the Church so is the word vsed in the Laws and agreeing to them is the purer time of Latin wherein Nominatio is for giuing a Place or Office that is void And as these phrases of the Writs tast of the ancient right challenged by the Patron so do some assertions in our yeer books of later time as that of entring into an Aduowson by entring into the Church of passing an Aduowson by liuerie of seisin at the Church-dore of the Patrons entring into the place of foundation if the Church cease to remain hallowed and the like And to like originall may you referre those of the Kings presentations which haue Dedimus concessimus in them yet retained although the force of the words by the later Law make but only a presentation But the Law is now setled neither with vs hath the Patron alone now any prerogatiue or direct interest in the Church or the reuenues beside his right of Aduowson or Presentation to the Bishop by whose institution and the Archdeacons induction euery Church regularly is to be filled Neither for ought I haue heard hath he in our Law any of those Droicts honorifiques which the French allow him in Precedence Seats and the like These particulars of Benefices and Aduowsons had here their place both because in the ancient
conueiance of them either by Inuestiture to an Incumbent or by Appropriation the reuenue that was in Tithes passed by expresse words and that in point of interest from the Patron as also in regard that at this day the Patron of a Parson prohibited by Indicauit to sue in the Spirituall Court for the fourth part of the Tithes of a Church may haue his Droit d'auowson de Dismes it was requisit therefore to adde these not vulgar or obuious notes of the Aduowsons in this discouerie of the ancient conueiance and interest of Tithes CAP. XIII I. Infeodations here into Lay hands since the Statuts of Dissolutions Of Infeodations before that time in England somewhat more of the originall of Lay mens practice in arbitrarie Consecrations or Infeodations II. Exemptions or discharges of payment originally by Priuileges Prescriptions Vnitie Grants or Compositions and by the Statuts of Dissolutions I. FRom those arbitrarie Consecrations and frequent Appropriations of Tithes whereof we haue hitherto made mention to Monasteries or other Religious Places as Colleges of Regulars Chantries and Free-Chappels came the present and common Infeodations of them into Lay hands which began in the age of our Fathers For the Portions of Tithes conueied to them out of Closes parts of Mannors and whole Demesnes by the owners together with the Tithes granted and possessed with appropriated Churches were first by the Statut of Dissolution of Monasteries in 31. Hen. 8. and by that other of 1. Ed. 6. giuen to the Crown and from thence granted to Lay men whose Posteritie or Assignees to this day hold them with like limitation of estate as they do other enheritances of Lands or Rents and for them haue like remedie by the Statut of 32. Hen. 8. cap. 7. by reall action as Assise Dower or other originals as for Lands Rents or other Lay possessions by the cōmon Law they might haue But although in other States these Infeodations or Conueiances of the perpetuall right of Tithes to Lay men be very ancient and frequent also yet no such certain or obuious testimonie of their antiquitie is in the moniments of England as can enough assure vs that they were before the Statut of Dissolutions in any common vse here But some were and for aught appears in the practice of the time many more might equally haue been And what scruple was there but that long before the generall dissolution of Monasteries Henrie the fift might by the Law of the Kingdom haue made Infeodations into Lay hands as Henrie the eight did of all Tithes belonging to the Priors aliens whose possessions were giuen to him by Parliament he had them setled in the Crown in Fee and afterward disposed of them to other Ecclesiastique Corporations at his pleasure no otherwise then of other Lay possessions By the way we vnderstand in these Infeodations by the name of Lay men only such as were not either in Orders or professed in Religion for otherwise all the possessions of Tithes enioied by Nunnes and the like that were indeed Lay though not commonly called so might be comprehended vnder the name of Infeodations But that some were here obserue that of Odo Bishop of Bayeux and Earle of Kent which is before cited out of the liues of the Abbots of S. Augustines in Canterburie The words are Decimas aliquas quas mei fideles habebant c. What can that be according to the words other then Tithes that were in the hands of some of his Tenants You may adde that of Robert S. Iohn cited before out of the Book of Bosgraue where he had by the gift of his brother William certain Tithes which he gaue to the Priorie for maintenance of a fourteenth Monk And obserue the rest of the Deed there So out of the Book of Osney it appears before that Decimatio Nicholai de Stodeham quam Fromundus Capellanus tenebat is granted by D'Oilly Had not D'Oilly this from Stodeham Or was Stodeham here one of his Bailifes or Fermors whose Tithe he graunted as Lord or according to couenant with the Lessee Other such occurre sometimes And perhaps Decimae hominū meorum the like granted may suppose a title possessed in the Tithes by the Lay grantor And in the same Book of Osney in a Passage writen in a hand of about Hen. 5. touching the conueyances of Tithes by Lay men to Monasteries it is related that he that wrote it saw Quendam Rogerum D'Oyly Dominum cuiusdam partis de Bampton in Episcopatu Lincolniensi suis Decimis ita vti vt nunc vni nunc alteri de suis Valettis ipsas conferret annuatim qui sibi in diuersis officijs ministrabant vntill afterward hee erected a Chaunterie with them in the Church of Bampton These Grants to his Valets plainly were as Infeodations And what els was in that known case of Herne and Pigot in Mich. 39. 40. Elizab. but an ancient kind of Infeodation at least an Inheritance of Tithes from immemoriall time in a Lay man That and other like to it might begin vpon reall compositions and so the Tithes be deriued out of the Church But regularly I thinke at this day no kind of Infeodation is here allowable in Lay mans making title to a perpetuall right of Tithes except only by the later Statuts of Dissolutions vnlesse it either be deriued from some old Graunt of discharge from the Parson Patron and Ordinarie in which case hee to whom the Infeudation should be made could haue it only as a Lay profit issuing out of the discharged land or ioyned with a Consideration to be giuen for maintenance to the Parson by him that receiues them and this either from time immemoriall or by ancient composition So I take the meaning of our reuerend Iudges to haue been touching this point In summe then we may affirme that some such ancient Infeodations haue been in England as in other States but that of later time none are allowable if deriued from other ancient originall then from the Statuts of Dissolutions vnlesse they bee anciently deriued out of the Church first by discharge or appeare to be but as a Reward giuen in pernancie or as Consideration for a Pension or other competent Maintenance yeerely payable to the Parson Which withall well stands with the common opinion of the originall of such Infeodations whereof we haue alreadie spoken And whereas it hath been resolued that without these reasons a Lay man was not here capable at the common Law of Tithes by pernancie it well agrees with a Decretall of Alexander the third which forbids one that maried a Parsons sister to enioy a Tithe giuen him by the Parson as for the mariage portion although the Parson were still liuing But also that we may not defraud you of any testimonie of former times that may seeme obseruable touching these Infeodations whereof so few examples and so ltttle mention is in the Moniments of England take this speciall Disquisition writen
at this day So was the Law anciently also Beside these discharges some may here expect that part of our Laws which with vs as the Philippine in France and the Carolines in Spain discharge some things from payment of Tithes and seem to permit some customs de non Decimando But for that matter so much as vpon consideration was thought fit to be sparingly said of it is referd to the passages in the next Chapter that touches ancient prohibitions de non Decimando Neither indeed doth that part of our English customs belong to the title of Exemption or Discharge for Exemption and Discharge are properly singular rights to this or that person or Land and against the currant of the practiced Law but those things touching which any such prohibitions de non c. by our Law should be granted are supposed generally according to the reasons and practice of the Laws of England of their own nature not titheable So that not so much a discharge is found in that course as a preuention of an vnlawfull charge which the Canons would lay vpon that which the Laws of the Kingdom account not at all in its own nature chargeable But thereof somewhat more anon CAP. XIV I. The iurisdiction of Ecclesiastique causes in the Saxon times exercised by the Shrife and the Bishop in the Countie Court and among them that of Tithes also was then to haue been there determind The Bishops Consistorie seuered from the Countie Court by William the first II. After the Normans Originall suits for Tithes were aswell in the Temporall Courts as in the Spirituall and that continued till Henrie the second or about King Iohn III. Of the time since about King Iohn or Henrie the second Of the Indicauit and the Writ of right of Aduowson of Tithes What the Law was in an Indicauit before that Statut of Westm. 2. A touch of ancient Prohibitions De non Decimando IV. Writs of Scire facias for Tithes Enquests taken vpon Commission to enquire of the right of Tithes V. Fines leuied of Tithes in the time of Richard the first of King Iohn and Henrie the third vpon Writs of right of Aduowson VI. Scire facias by the Patentees against the pernor of Tithes granted by the King VII Command of paiment by the Kings Writ And of Tithes in Forests Triall of the right of Tithes incident in some issues AS a corollarie to the former parts that directly concerne the payment or consecration of Tithes we thought fit to adde here in the Conclusion of the Treatise the Historie also but only the Historie of the iurisdiction of Tithes in this Kingdom It is cleer by the practiced cōmon Law both of this day as also of the ancientest times that we haue in our yeer books that regularly the iurisdiction of spiritual Tithes that is of the direct and originall question of their right belongs I thinke as in all other States of Christendom properly to the Ecclesiasticall Court and the later Statuts that haue giuen remedie for Tithes infeodated from the Crown after the Dissolution leaue also the ancient right of Iurisdiction of Tithes to the Ecclesiastique Courts But how the difference of Ages hath herein bin amongst vs is litle enough known euen to them which see more then vulgarly In declaration thereof we shall aptly deuide the time tripartitly into that of the Saxons that from the Normans till about Henrie the second and what intercedes from thence till this day I. In the Saxon times a iurisdiction of Ecclesiastique causes among which you may reckon that of Tithes although not much signe of it in exacting payment of them appears in the moniments of that age was exercised iointly by the Bishop of the Diocese and by the Shrife or Alderman of the sciregemot or Hundred or Countie Court where they both sate the one to giue Godes right the other for ƿuruldes right that is the one to iudge according to the Laws of the Kingdom the other to direct according to Diuinitie and in the Laws made for Tithes by K. Edgar and K. Knout you see vpon default of paiment it is ordaind that the Bishop and the Kings Bailife or Shirife with the Bailife of the Lord of the Land should see that iust restitution should be made particulars of the exercise of this kind of iurisdiction I haue not seen But at the Norman Conquest this kind of holding Ecclesiastique pleas in the Hundred or Countie Court was taken away Remember that as at this day most of the Pleas Ecclesiastique are in the Ordinaries Court within the Diocese so most suits in the secular or common Law were Viscontiel and held in the Countie or Hundred Court of the Shrife in those ancienter times which may best be obserued out of one of the books of Ely the most especiall moniment that is extant for the holding of Pleas in the Saxon times That alteration at the Norman Conquest was by a Law made by the Conqueror and directed to all Tenants in the Diocese of Remy that was first Bishop of Lincoln whither his See was then translated from Dorchester and although it be sent in the direction by name to them only yet it seems it grew afterward to be a generall Law no otherwise then the Statut of Circumspectè agatis that hath speciall reference only to the Bishop of Norwich The words of it as they are recorded are Sciatis vos omnes caeteri mei fideles qui in Anglia manent quod Episcopales leges quae non benè secundum sanctorum Canonum praecepta vsque ad mea tempora in regno Anglorum fuerunt communi Consilio Archiepiscoporum meorum caeterorum Episcoporum Abbatum omnium Principum Regni mei emendandas iudicaui Proptereà mando Regiâ autoritate praecipio vt nullus Episcopus vel Archidiaconus de legibus Episcopalibus amplius in Hundret placita teneant nec causam quae ad regimen animarum pertinet ad iudicium secularium hominum adducant sed quicunque secundum Episcopales leges de quacunque causa vel culpa interpellatus fuerit ad locum quem ad hoc Episcopus elegerit nominauerit veniat ibique de causa sua respondeat non secundum Hundret sed secundum Canones Episcopales leges rectum Deo Episcopo suo faciat Which I rather transcribe here because also it seems to giue the originall of the Bishops Cosistorie as it sits with vs diuided from the Hundred or Countie-Court wherewith in the Saxon time it was ioyned And in the same Law of his is further added Hoc etiam defendo vt nullus Laicus homo de legibus quae ad Episcopum pertinent se intromittat c. II. Afterward vnder the succeeding Princes till about Henrie the second it seemes that the Iurisdiction of Tithes was exercised in both Courts as well Secular as Spirituall and that by originall suit not only in the one by the first instance
Westminster the 2. giues the Writ of Right only where the Indicauit is first sued And for this matter of Indicauit which concernes properly suit between Rector and Rector not between the Rector and the Parishioner take as a note by the way the aduice of the Bishops among themselues in 41. Hen. 3. against the Temporall Courts In the Annales of Burton it is extant thus speaks Concilium Archiepiscopi omnium Episcoporum super Articulis propositis apud London Petit persona Ecclesiastica Decimas coram Iudice Ecclesiastico Iudicanti petenti porrigitur Regia Prohibitio nomine Patroni Ecclesiae cuius Rector conuenitur ne super Aduocatione seu Patronatu Ecclesiae Iudex ille cognoscat si actor prosequatur Iudicantis officium assumat vterque attachiatur attachiati veniunt Consilium tale est quod si Iusticiarij causam Decimarum sub colore querelae Aduocationis Ecclesiarum ad se trahere velint de non prosequendo vlterius causam Decimarum in foro Ecclesiastico Iudice siue a Parte securitatem exigunt in nullo eis caueatur Et si propter hoc aristentur per loci Diocesanum requirantur siue per Episcopum proprium Et si libere non tradantur Ecclesiae competenti monitione praemissa excommunicentur Iudicantes detentores Et si queratur a Iudice quota pars vel quanta petatur non respondeatur But this aduice of theirs was to litle purpose nor durst they questionlesse haue put it in execution The Statuts of Westminster the 2. and Circumspectè agatis gaue them some remedie whereof enough alreadie IV. Of Writs of Scire facias graunted to call men to answer in the Chancerie for Tithes sufficient testimonie is in the Statute made for the Clergie in 18. Ed. 3. chap. 7. Item que per la ou briefs so are the words de Scire facias eient este grantez a garnir Prelates Religieuses autres Clerks a respondre des Dismes en nostre Chancellarie a monstre s'ils eient riens pur eux ou sachent riens dire pur quoy tielx Dismes a les demandants ne deuient estre restituees a responder auxibien a nou◠come a la partie de tielx Dismes c. By this it appeares that some vse was to graunt such Writs for Tithes Whence also Fitzherbert well inferres that the right of Tithes was determinable in the Kings Court But wee haue not in our Yeere-Bookes any case of further declaration of that vse before the Statute But out of good ground you may coniecture that in these Three speciall cases Writs of Scire facias were grantable anciently for Tithes and that in those times before the Statut either vpon the title of the demandant first found by Inquest to the Tithes or returnd by the Shirife or out of Fines it seemes leuied of Tithes or vpon Patents of Tithes legally graunted by the King when against the Grant any Clergie man by the Canon Law took them from the Patentee Of all these there is faire proof enough But the third it seems hath principall reference to that Statute as shall anon be shewed For the course of taking an Inquest by commission which being returnd might be sufficient ground for a Scire facias it appeares in Escaet 8. Ed. 1. numer 67. that a commission was sent to Adam of Eueringham Steward of the Forest of Shirewood to enquire by Oath of the Foresters and Verderors whether the Priors of Lenton had vsed to haue all Tithes of the Kings Venison taken in the Countie of Notingham which they claimed per Cartas quorundam praedecessorum c. And in the Inquisition returned it is found that they had vsed to haue it and that first by the Grant of King Iohn And in the same bundell num 72. a Commission is to Nicholas of Stapleton commanding him to enquire whether the Prior of Wyrkesep ought to haue the Tithes of all profits of the Mannor of Gringeley Nobis super iure Prioris in hac parte facto contrario that is the subtraction of them by Henrie de Alemannia against whom the Prior complaind certiorari volentibus c. Whereupon the Commissioner returnes that the Priorie had right by prescription and that Henry de Alemannia had subtracted them What could be more proper then to haue a Scire facias vpon the Inquisition according to the intent of that preample of 18. Ed. 3. in which Scire facias the right might be tried between the parties and so iudgement be giuen To these may be added that in Inquis ad quod damnum 8. Ed. 2. num 79. Where per Petitionem in Consilio the Abbesse of Godestow hath a Writ directed Custodi equitij sui de Woodstock c. which relates that ex parte dilectae nobis in Christo Abbatissae de Godestow per petitionem suam coram nobis in Consilio nostro exhibitam nobis est ostensum quod cum per cartas progenitorum nostrorum quorundam Regum Angliae Concessum sit ei quod ipsam Decimam omnem in Manerio nostro de Wodestoke parco nostro ibidem per annum renouantium percipiat habeat praetextu cuius the Abbesse and her Predecessors had enioied it and that the Bailife kept from her the Tithe of the Colts bred in the same Park wherefore it commands him to restore them if they be so due which supposes I think that he should return an inquest or some discouerie of the truth or falshood of the Plaintifes pretence although indeed this example may serue also for that part of our diuision of this kind of proceeding which touches Patents But to that Writ is annext the return that is the Bailifes acknowledgment in French of her right his name is William Beauxamys So in Escaet 7. Ed. 3. num 83. a Commission is sent out to enquire of the right of the Tithes of the Demesnes of the Kings Castle of Tikhull which the Prior of S. Oswald claimed the enquest was taken of it at Le Faure Okes in the confines of Yorkeshire and Nothingham and in it the particulars of the right are returned and what should want that vpon such returns writs of Scire facias might not haue been granted we omit that before cited out of the Parlament Rols of 18. Ed. 1. And light also to this practice in the temporall Courts of that elder time may be had from other Cōmissions or Processe in the Rolls as from that sent by Henrie the third into Ireland to the Archbishop of Cassile the Bishop of Ferne and the Bishop of Lismore commanding them that taking with them Ieffrey de Marisco then Iustice or Lord Deputie of Ireland or some other whom hee should appoint they should enquire by the Othes of both Lay and Clergie men whether Bartholmew de Camera Parson of the Chappell of Limeric or William of Caerdiff Treasurer there had seisin of the Tithes De Piscaria
of them so the Priests or Posteritie of Eleazer Ithamar were deuided by King Dauid but might be accounted a very rich or largely furnisht man and he tells vs further that the Iews were so readie in paying them that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is They preuented the Officers demanding them paid them before they were due by Law and as if they had rather taken a benefit then giuen any both sexes of their own most forward readinesse in euery first fruit season brought them in with such courtesie and thanks-giuing as is beyond all expression All which is spoken only of first Fruits and Therumahs not of Tithes as it is falsly in the Latin translation where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone is ignorantly vnderstood for Tithes paid by the Laitie to the Priests the truth being that the Laitie paid only first Fruits not Tithes immediatly to the Priests but only to the Leuits that is those which were as Philo saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in the second rank and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Wardeins Huishers Singers and other such Ministers And the Leuits paid the Tithe of their Tithe to their Priests who so through the Leuits receiud Tithes out of the possessions of the Laitie as also the holy Autor to the Ebrews is interpreted where he saies That those of the sonnes of Leui that had receiud the Priesthood had a commandement to take Tithes of the people according to the Law For the posteritie of Aaron that had the Priesthood receiud none from the people but immediatly and through the Leuits In the same holy Epistle their continuance of paiment of Tithes which as long as their Priesthood de facto and the politique form of gouernment instituted by the Almightie continued was euen ex conscientia to be performed as some teach is also manifested after Philo's time The Iews are told in it that here men that die receiue Tithes but there he of whom it is witnessed that he liueth That here being plainly referd to the vse of the Iews to whom the Epistle was sent vnder the second Temple So Primasius an old African Father interprets it Hic inquit saith he hoc est in praesenti seculo vel in Templo quod adhuc stabat Morientes homines filij videlicet Leui qui mortales ac moribundi sunt Decimas accipiunt But about this time also it appears in Storie that Tithes were still paid by the Leuits to the Priests which supposes the peoples paiment to the Leuits Remember that of Fl. Iosephus where he tells that when Foelix was Lieutenant of Iudea such a tumult and sedition happend twixt the high Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the rest of the Priests and the chiefest of the Laitie that the high Priests to satisfie their malice vpon the rest of the Priests violently took away the Tithes that were kept in Granges and Barnes for their maintenance and in so much wronged them that some of the poorest of them euen died for want This was about the beginning of Nero and Euschius and Nicephorus relating it from Iosephus refer it to him although Ruffinus in his translation of Eusebius rather place it vnder Claudius but vnder both Foelix was Lieutenant By the way you may note that in Nero's time diuers of the Priests were grown much poorer then they had been lately before if Philo be to be credited who liued also but litle before Nero's Empire It was very hard with some of them it seemes that the taking away their Tithes only should starue them Those high Priests here spoken of are such as were the chiefest of the XXIV Orders for so also were the Priests deuided There was neuer but one high Priest properly and that according to the first institution but others that had a supremacie among those orders were also called so as both heere and in holy Writ and they were to the high Priest as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Eastern Patriarchats which are as Suffragans to exercise the Patriarchs office in his absence or as the Bishop-Cardinals in Rome and the first and chiefest of these high Priests in the plurall number was as a designed successor to him that properly bare that name and was his Prime Vicar chief Suffragan or the second Priest as Zephaniah was to Seraiah and as Annas to Caiphas For so the most learned vnderstand that of them two being high Priests together in the Gospell but this by the way yet who knows it not may soon stumble at the Storie and if not admonisht trouble himselfe with as good a disquisition about it as that Abbot Paschasius long since fell into about what follows out of Saint Matthew in the 7. § where the strict payment of Tithes vsed among the Scribes and Pharisees is spoken of He being too ignorant of the particulars of the Iewish state doubted much how the Scribes and Pharisees should so pay their Tithes Cùm ipsi as his words are Sacerdotes erant Leuitae qui magis accipiebant Decimas à populo quam darent But I wonder what made him so much as dream so indeed he answers himselfe also But plainly the Scribes and Pharisees as known by that name only had no more reference to the Tribe of Leui then to any other of the Twelue Children in the holy Text or the Iewish storie know it That generall rule of their Lawiers in the same § taken out of Rabbi Ben-Maimon is first in their Talmud where also the Gemara that is the following opinions of their Doctors hath many speciall cases of this or that fruit or encrease of the earth but often litle to the purpose one thing their Misnah or Text addes further to that rule that is whatsoeuer fruit or herb is fit to be eaten both while it is yong or new as also when it is a full growth must pay Tithes aswell when it is yong as at full growth but if while it be yong it be not fit to be eaten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is it is not subiect to tithe vntill it be come fit to be eaten That in § 8. of them that take the profits of Land among the Samaritans or in Aram that is Syria must be vnderstood of a Iew dwelling among them and tilling the Land there For regularly if the fruits of Lands in Syria were taken by a Iew residing still in his own Countrie he was to pay Tithe of them Touching their Tithing after the second Temple destroied although for want of a Temple and a Priesthood at this day they Tithe not legally yet among their Aphorismes both diuine and morall they tell vs that as the Masoreth is the defence of the Law so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maighsheroth seag laighsher that is Tithes paid are the defence of riches Whereupon one notes that at this day qui religiosiores sunt inter Iudaeos loco Decimarum eleemosynam
Lent out of S. Gregorie is not easily perhaps apprehended by euery Reader without a litle more explication The Sundaies as they were exempt out of the number of daies so were they from the fasting of Lent thence comes his conceit of the Tithe of Time in XXXVI daies which is 1 10. of CCC.LXV so Fractions be omitted and to make vp fortie which is exprest in Quadragesima the known name for Lent the four daies preceding Quadragesima Sunday are to be added this was the intent of that fancie But how sleight and nothing to the purpose that obseruation of the Tenth of Time is howeuer the Canonists as sworn to their Text make of it is easily seen not only in the abusd libertie of calculation of it but also by the customs and Laws of both Churches the West and East in their various limits of this time of fasting Popes Telesphorus they say made it VII Weeks and other diuersities hath it had in the Western Church and the Eastern church exempted both Saterdaies and Sundaies from fasting through all Lent except only the Saterday that next preceded Easter Sunday as also they fasted not on the day of the Annunciation What regard had they then think you to the Tithe of Time Of the VI. Chapter THe practice of paiment in the third CCCC yeers was Parochially obserued in some places but especially by Clergie men to Clergie men who with such as were reputed among them subiected themselues more to their Canons then the Laitie could be brought to do But it seems somewhat plain by the many examples of Arbitrarie Consecrations to Monasteries and other Churches related in § 2. whereto ioine also the English practice in the XI Chapter and the Charter of Henrie the eighth Duke of Bauiere of the Tithes of Ranneshâ—fen giuen to the Church of S. Pancrace that the paiment of them Parochially performd by Lay men was yet frequently omitted or continued to their own wills Whence otherwise could the Founders and Benefactors of Monasteries haue made Tithes part of their endowments it was not in these elder times so much by giuing them Churches as the most that speak of this ignorantly think telling vs that all Tithes came into Monasteries by appropriating of Parish Churches as by conueying to hem diuers Tithes alone and newly created and after those gifts Consecrations or new creations nâ— other Tithes were paid vpon any other right out of that Land which was so charged with them But most of those Consecrations were at one time or another at length confirmd by Popes and Bishops and so cleerly after enioyd which plainly also supposed a former strength in them For regularly Confirmatio ex proprio significatu denotat firmitatem actus confirmati as Panormitan and other Canonists say and nihil iuris noui tribuit sed tantum vetus confirmat But it is plain that after Parochiall right established that is since about M.CC. when the Canons grew more powerfull and obedience to them became more readie such confirmations by bishops and Popes and such consecrations creations or new grants by Lay men of Tithes haue bin taken and declared cleerly void as you may see in a decree of Pope Innocent the III touching Tithes so granted by a Knight of Berry in France and confirmd by the Archbishop and in another of his about Tithes so giuen or created to a Church by the King and Queen of Hungarie and after confirmd by a Pope or two and who can doubt now but that all such grants in regard of preuention of the Parsons right be not only void by the practiced Canon Law of this day but also by the Secular or common Laws of most States if not of all where Tithes are paid in Christendom For admit at this day that Titius grant Decimas suas of such an Acre to the Parson Abbot or Bishop of such a Church and this be confirmed by whom you will The Tithe due from him Parochially is not toucht by it why because they are setled iure communi as the Law is practiced in the Parish Rector but in those elder times such an arbitrarie grant vested the Tithe in the Church to which it was giuen and no other afterward was paid Why because then notwithstanding the Canons no ius commune no Parochiall right of Tithes was setled or admitted in the practice of the Laitie And for those ancienter grants be not deceiud by such as tell you they were alwaies of Tithes formerly infeodated from the Church that hath no ground to iustifie it neither can any man at al proue any common course of such Infeodation of Tithes from the Church into Lay hands to haue been in any State till the later times of Reformation of Religion in some places and dissolution of Monasteries and those two examples which are in Pope Innocents decrees are expresly of new creations at least not of infeodated Tithes as euery Canonist will acknowledge But cleerly they both were in themselus according to the many other but they had not the fortune to be confirmd in such time as the Pope or Clergie vsually gaue way to the former practice of arbitrarie Consecration And doubtlesse also after such time as the Clergie saw that the Canons made for Parochiall right of Tithes had gotten force and that the former creations or grants of Tithes by Lay men which were indeed practiced agianst many Canons both Papall and Synodall were by that name of Lay-mens grants creations or consecrations declared vtterly void by the Pope and his Canon Law although confirmed by whomsoeuer such of them as had originally no other true titles to Tithes so commonly consecrated by Lay men subtilly enough in the next foure hundred yeers left off the pretence of their Lay grantors bountie especially if the Grantor had been a common person and betook themselues only to prescription of XL. yeers and to what other times might be allowd to setle a right to them vpon a possession of Tithes and by what way retaind safely what otherwise if they had held themselues to the deeds of their Lay grantors and to Confirmations had been in danger enough of being recouered from them by Parish Rectors So that when the prescription was good in regard of time and possession although the originall Title it selfe were naught yet because any other iust Title might be pretended to ground the prescription on which also was not of necessitie to be proued incorporeall things it was not difficult to haue a faire course to maintaine their possessions and right of such consecrated Tithes as had been possest so fortie yeers before they were questioned by Parsons which claimed them iure communi For against them such a prescription by any other Church Abbey or Bishoprique or such like is a good Title Remember also their erecting of Parochiall Chappell 's within the larger Territories out of which they had portions plainly the erecting of such Chappell 's for Parish
also by expresse declaration in some of his Patents he before pretended his right from the Confessors gift In ore gladij saith he Regnum adeptus sum Anglorum deuicto Haraldo Rege cum suis complicibus qui mihi regnum cum prouidentia Dei destinatum beneficio concessionis Domini cognati mei gloriosi Regu Edwardi concessum conati sunt auferre c. And the stories commonly tell vs that the Confessor successionem Angliae ei dedit And although Harold also pretended a Deuise of the Kingdom to himselfe made by the Confessor in extremis and vrged also that the custom of England had been from the time of Augustines comming hether Donationem quam in vltimo fine quis fecerit eam ratam haberi and that the former gift to the Norman and his own Oth for establishment of it were not of force because they were made absque generali Senatus Populi conuentu edicto yet for his own part he was driuen to put all vpon the fortune of the field and so lost it and the Norman with his sword pretence of the sufficiencie precedence of the gift made to himself got the Crown as if he had bin a lawfull Successor to the Confessor and not a vniuersall Conqueror All this is plain out of the stories and iustified infallibly by that of the Titles of many coÌ„mon persons made to their possessions in England after his Kingdom setled vpon the possession of themselues or their Ancestors in time of the Saxon Kings especially of the Confessor but this was alwaies in case where they by whose possession the title was made had not incurrd forfeiture by Rebellion many such Titles are cleerly allowd in the book of Domesday writen in the Conquerors time one specially is noted by the most learned Camden in his Norfolk that as I remember is toucht in Domesday also but enough others are dispersed there which agree with it How could such Titles haue held if he had made an absolute conquest of England wherein a vniuersall acquisition of all had been to the Conqueror and no title could haue been deriud but only from or vnder him More might be brought to cleer this but we adde here only the iudicious assertion of a great Lawier of Edward the thirds time Le Conquerour saith he ne vient pas pur ouster eux que anoient droiturell possession mes de ouster eux que de lour tort auoient occupie ascun terre en desheritance del Roy son Corone It was spoken vpon an Obiection made in a Quo warranto against the Abbot of Peeterborough touching a Charter of King Edgar which the Kings Counsell would haue had void because by the CoÌ„quest all FraÌ„chises they said were deuolud to the Crown But by the way for that of his neernesse of bloud which could not but aide his other pretended Title let it not seem meerly vain in regard of his being a Bastard There was good pretence for the helpe of that Defect also For although the Laws of this Kingdom and I think of all other ciuill States at this day exclude Bastards without a subsequent legitimation from enheritance yet by the old Laws vsd by his Ancestors Countrie men that is by those of Norway a Princes sonne gotten on a Concubine bond or free was equally inheritable as any other born in Wedlock which was I beleeue no small reason why he stood at first so much for the Laws of Norway to haue been generally receiud in this Kingdom and some Stories also which make mention of Duke Robert his getting William on that Arlet or Arirâ— as shee is sometimes writen say that shee was to him a good while vice vxoris So Henrie of Knighton Abbot of Leicester Transiens saith he Robertus aliquando per Phaleriam vrbem Normanniae vidit puellam Arlec nomine Pellâ—parij filam inter cateras in chorea tripudiantem nocte sequente illam sibi coniunxit quam vice vxoris aliquamdiù tenens Willielmum ex ea generauit And he tells vs also the common tale of tearing her smock If shee were so his Concubine or Viceconiux between whom and a wife euen the old Imperialls make no other difference but honor and dignitie and by them also some kind of inheritance is allowd to such Bastards as are Naturales liberi that is gotten on Concubines it was much more reasonable that her sonne should be reputed as legitimate then that the sonne of euery single woman bond or free whether Concubine or no should be so as those Laws of Norway allow and when he had inherited his Dukedome he made doubtlesse no question but that his bloud was as good in regard of all other inheritances that might by any colour be deriud through it and therefore William of Malmesburie well stiles him proximè consanguineus also to the Confessor as he was indeed on the Mothers side and those of the posteritie of Edward sonne to Ironside were then so excluded or neglected that their neernesse on the Fathers side could not preuent him you may see the common stories of them But whereas that excellent Lawier Litleton saies that William the Conqueror was called a Bastard because he was born before mariage had between his Father and Mother and that after he was born they were maried which indeed by the Imperialls and by the generall Law of France would haue made him wholly legitimat I doubt he had but litle or no ground to iustifie it Had he been so legitimat it is not likely he should haue been stiled so commonly and anciently Bastardus which name euen in his own Charters he sometimes vsed with cognomento as also the Bastards of the old Philip Duke of Burgundie were wont to do although of later time it bee reputed as a name of dishonor and the actio iniuriarum or an action vpon the case lies where euer it be falsly obiected as some will haue it But these things proue enough that this William seised the Crown of England not as conquerd but by pretence of gift or adoption aided and confirmd by neernesse of bloud and so the Saxon Laws formerly in force could not but continue and such of them as are now abrogated were not at all abrogated by his Conquest but either by the Parlaments or Ordinances of his time and of his successors or else by non-vsage or contrarie custom The Laws that are here gatherd are for the most part Latin Saxon or French The Saxon is interpreted by the old Latin But the Latin and French are left only in their own words I presume scarce any man that with the least care studies the subiect wil confesse he vnderstands not the context of such Latin And the French I translated not specially because it is but the same which is in our old yeer Bookes and Statutes and may indeed euen as soon be vnderstood by any fit Reader
Mascon Afterward also we find that Leges Episcopales which were serued by William the first from the Hundred and confined to the Bishops Consistorie that wee may omit the Nationall or Prouinciall Constitutions of this Kingdome made in those elder times according to the old Canons of the Church of Rome And X. yeers before Gratians Decree writen it is certaine that the Canons of the Church generally by the name of Canones and Canonum Decreta for diuers collections were of them an some also confirmd by Papall autoritie beside the Codex Vetus before that of Gratian were familiarly talkt of and vrged in that great Controuersie in the Synod of Winchester in the fourth yeere of King Stephen touching the Castles of Newarke Salisburie and the Vies where the King denied vtterly Censuram Canonum pati that is to haue it determined by them whether or no the two Bishops Roger of Salisburie and Alexander of Lincolne might lawfull keepe their Castles that they had fortified But while the rest of the Bishops stood so much vpon their Canons and euen in the face of Maiestie profest a rebellion the King and the Lay subiects it seems grew so exasperated against them that by publique command for preseruation of the libertie of the Crown and Laitie they were forbidden to be of any more vse in the Kingdom For so perhaps is that to be vnderstood as we haue elswhere noted in Iohn of Chartres where he sayes that Tempore Regis Stephani à regno iussae sunt Leges Romanae quas in Britanniam domus Venerabilis Patris Theobaldi Britanniarum Primatis asciuerat Ne quis etiam libros retineret edicto Regio prohibitum est What he calls Leges Romanae the most learnd Frier Bacon mentioning the same storie stiles Leges Italiae and takes them for the Roman Imperialls and not for the Canan Law I confesse I see not enough cleerly here to iudge vpon the words of Iohn of Chartres whether it were the Canons or the Imperialls on the one side If we say he meant that Theobald or his Clergie brought the Roman Canon Law it might so seem as if it had not been here before in the hands of the Clergie nor partly practiced by them Which doubtlesse is otherwise If on the other side we vnderstand the Imperialls Copies of which indeed might well be at that very time brought as a noueltie hither for they were then newly found and plainly in Henrie the seconds time they were here in the hands of the more curious Scholers as you may see by Iohn of Chartres his citing of them how then is that true which he presenly after saies of the encreasing power and force of those Leges Romanae Sed saith he Deo faciente eò magis virtus legis inualuit quo eam amplius nitebatur impietas infirmare What force or power at all had the Imperiall here afterward where is any signe of it But the obiection against that which might proue them not to haue been the Canon Laws may not difficultly perhaps be answered It is true that the Canons of Rome were here before and read and partly practiced in the Church But diuers Collections were of them about this age of King Stephen and perhaps some later and larger Collection might be brought hither by Archbishop Theobald or some of his Clergie which are vnderstood I think in that Domus Venerabilis Patris Theobaldi He himselfe perhaps might bring Iuo's Decree when he came from Rome in 3. of King Stephen and endeuour the strict practice of it here which the King and the Lay subiect had reason enough to dislike or some of his Clergie might perhaps afterward bring in Gratians Decree that was both compild by Gratian and confirmd by Pope Eugenius the third about ten yeers before Theobalds death that is about 16. of King Stephen And this way those words of Legis virtus inualuit may haue their truth For howeuer that opposition against the Canon Law were it is most certain that this first part of the body of it the Decree was presently vpon the first publication of it in vse in England and familiarly cited by such Diuines as talk◠of what had reference to it witnesse especially Giraldus Cambrensis in his Epistles and the practice of the Canon Law here for the time of Henrie the second is seen in the Epistles of that Iohn of Chartres which yet remain and are I think the ancientest examples of proceedings in our spirituall Courts But notwithstanding that first part of the body of the Canon Law which expresly commanded Tithes to be generally paid were here soon receiud among the Clergie yet about L. yeers after that the former course of Arbitrarie Consecrations of them continued and both that and the rest of those courses in disposition of Church-reuenues which so differ from the Canons and from the practice of this day was not fully alterd till some Decretalls came hither with more powerfull and dreadfull autoritie as the times were of some of the following Popes especially of Alexander the third and Innocent the third which two alone I think sent as many commanding Decretalls into euery Prouince as all their Predecessors had before done and especially into England as is alreadie shewd they sent diuers only for the matter of Tithes which were all first of Papall autoritie for the particular ends for which they were sent and so were obeid as Canon Law although none of them became parts of the generall Canon Law vntill Gregorie the ninth put some of them into his Decretalls autorised by him in the yeer M.CC.XXX about which time perhaps and diuers yeers before the Canon Law of Rome was not only read here priuatly among the Clergie but professed also in Schooles appropried to it so I ghesse is that close Writ of 19. Hen. 3. to be vnderstood which prohibited the holding of Scholae Legum in London it was directed to the Maior Shrifes commanding them Quod per totam Ciùitatem London Clamari faciant firmiter prohiberi ne aliquis Scolas regens de Legibus in eadem Ciuitate de caetero ibidem Leges doceat Et si aliquis ibidem fuerit huiusmodi Scolas regens ipsum fine dilatione cessare faciat T. Rege apud Basing XI die Decembris This was fiue yeers after the Decretalls published and it seems most probable that these Leges were Canon Laws perhaps mixt as vsually they were in the profession also with the Imperials for both of them were it seems studied here vnder Henrie the third by the Clergie more then any other part of learning and therefore were forbidden as being both in regard of their own autoritie against the supreme Maiestie and independencie of the Crown of England The end of the Reuiew The ancient Records and other Manuscripts Vsed in this Historie of Tithes with references to the places where they are cited and to the Offices and Libraries wherein they
remain they are specially therefore here collected that the more learned Reader being perhaps out of his owne Studies furnished with the most or all of what we haue out of printed Testimonies may at one view without pains of reading the whole be directed to all of them I presumd he might wish for such a collection which was neither difficult for me to make nor will it be hard for any man that hereafter transcribes or Prints it to alter the numbers of the Pages according to his transcribed or printed Copie the Margine will easily help him Wâ—th these I reckon also that book of Parlaments for the most part of the time of Ed. 1. remaining in the hands of that courteous and worthy Gentleman Mr. I. Borough it is cited pag. 285.286.366.367 Records in the Tower of London Of the time of King Ethelbert p. 252. William the first pag. 351.413.483 William the 2. p. 416. Henrie the first p. 325.352.353.417 Henrie the 2. p. 350.351.445 King Iohn chap 2. § 8. p. 352 353.387.4â—5 Henrie the 3. chap. 6. § 2. pag. 194 265.267.284.286.352.358.391.4â—3.435.436.437.444.445.446.491 Edward the first p 364.435.438 Edward the 2. p. 368.436 Edward the 3. p. 106.176.237.238.239.240.241.436.441.442.443 Henrie the 4. p. 242 3â—3 Henrie the fift p. 369. Wâ—th these I reckon also that book of Parlaments for the most part of the time of Ed. 1. remaining in the hands of that courteous and worthy Gentleman Mr. I. Borough it is cited pag. 285.286.366.367 In the Office of Receipt of the Exchequer The Booke of Domesday p. 203.216.279.280.281.361.405.483 Records of the time of Richard the first p. 374.381.386 King Iohn p. 382.383.384.439 440. Edward the first p. 366 367·389.390.332 Edward the second p. 448. Edward the third p. 363. In the Office of the Kings Remembrancer The Red Booke of the Exchequer pag. 227. In the Princes Librarie King Knouts Laws pag. 223.224 It is a most ancientest and perfit Copie of them in Latin In the publique Librarie of Oxford Ioannes Anglicus his Historia Aurea pag. 275. The Legend of the Lord and Parson of Cometon at the end of Iohannes de Grandisono his life of Thomas Becket ibid. An Epistle of the Vniuersitie touching Personall Tithes to the Conuocation of the Clergie p. 171. Thomas Elmham Prior of Lenton his Chronicle of Henrie the fift Chap. 1. § 4. In the Inner Temple Librarie The yeeres of Edward the second at large pag 481. In the Librarie at Paules Iuo his Decreta Chap. 5. § 5. twice In Sir Robert Cottons Librarie Chartularies or Leiger-bookes of the Church of Vtrecht chap. 5. § 2. in marg chap. 6. § 2. Abbey of Abingdon chap. 5. § 3. p. 208.282.298.299 c. to 306.419.420.482 Church of Worcester chap. 5. § 3. Church of Landaff or Tile p. 250. in margine Priorie of Gisburn p. 272.308.441 Church of Rochester p. 282.310 c. to 318. Abbey of Reding p. 283.284 319. Abbey of Osney pag. 306.307.308.357.397.398.399.400.401.402 Nunnerie of Clerkenwell p. 319. Nunnerie of Chartris pag. 363. Abbey of S. Albons p. 324.325 to 329.447 Priorie of Bosgraue p. 330. to 334.397 Priorie of S. Needs p. 334.378 Hospitall of S. Leonards p. 336.337 Priorie of Merton p. 440. A most ancient copie of the Synod of 742. held vnder Carloman bound with a Ms. Ansegisus chap. 5. § 3. Fridegodus pag. 271. And a Bull of Lucius the second in the same Volume pag. 97 Bernardus Morlanensis pag. 118 Iuo's Epistles pag. 125 A Volume of Decretall Epistles wherein are the most of those in Appendix Concilij Lateranensis pag. 145. 161 Henry Knighton Abbot of Leicester his Historie pag. 147.484 Excerptiones Ecberti Arch. Eboracensis pag. 196.197 Nicholas of Glocester pag. 204 and a French fragment in the same Volume pag. 205 Robert of Glocester pag. 206 Iohn Pike pag. 206 Saxon Chronicles of Peterborough Abingdon Canterburie pag. 206. Statuta Synodorum pag. 210.211.212.263.264 Saxon Lawes in Saxon pag. 213.219 222. And an old Exhortation in one of the Volumer of them in 8. chap. 5. § 6. Historia Iornallensis writen by Iohn Brampton pag. 213.214.215.219.222.223 Saxon Laws in Latin p. 214 Bede in Saxon p. 253.259.271.276 Fleta p. 216.428 The storie of the Church of Landaff pag. 250. and a Councell of the yeer 816. vsed in pag. 261. 277. and some Decrees of Odo Archbishop of Cantâ—rburie are bound vp with it cited pag. 217. And in the same Volume the life of S. Cadoc pag. 276 A Councell vnder King Ethelred pag. 220.221.222 A Booke full of late collections out of some Saxon and Latine Moniments of this Kingdome in a large 4. pag. 225.226.227 Lanfranks Epistles pag. 227 Regularis Concordia Monachorum c. pag. 263 Fulcardus Dorobernensis pag. 272. and in the same Volume a Bull of Gregorie the ninth and a Charter of Athelstan cited pag. 271. 272. and a Writ to the Shiriffe of Yorke about Tithes pag. 417 Turgotus Prior Dunelmensis pag. 276. The life of Saint Cuthbert pag. 282. Thomas Sprot a Monk of Canterburie p. 321.322.323.397 Petrus Blesensis his continuance of Ingulphus p. 323 Matthew Paris his liues of the Abbots of S. Albons p. 329 Originall Instruments remaining there pag. 193.338.339 to 350.359.373.379.414.415 Anselmes Epistles pag. 376.377 the published copie wants verie manie Giralaus Cambrensis his Symbolum electorum p. 382.383.490 Matriculus Ecclesiarum in Archidiacon Leicest p. 385 Radulphus de Diceto p. 388.389 The ancientest Booke of Ely p. 412. The Epistles of Robert Grossetest p 430. 431. The historie of Lichfield p. 482 Gulielmus Pictauensis his life of William the first p. 483. It is now on the Presse at Paris with other things belonging to Normandie In the Librarie of Mr. Tho. Allen of Glocester Hall Robert of Glocester pag. 206 Annales of the Monasterie of Burton pag. 216.229 in margin 232 266.422.429.433 And in that Volume are bound Constitutiones cuiusdam Episcopi cited pag. 231. Turgotus Dunelmensis pag. 229. in marg 276. In Mr. Patrik Yongs Librarie Theodore Balsamon vpon the Councels and some Canonicall Epistles in Greeke pag. 463 In my own hands Our Prouinciall Constitutions in course of time p. 236 A Book of Constitutions and other things belonging to the Church of Yorke pag. 337. 418. And a Reference is in page 232. to one of the Constitutions of the same Prouince that I long since found in the Librarie of Mr. Henrie Sauill The Eire of Darby of 4. of Edward the third pag. â—87 Roger of Houeden pag. 202 Exposition of old Law-termes pag. 216. An English Penitentiall to direct Priests in Auricular Confession pag. 169 Two of those commonly calld Bretons much corrupted in the Print pag. 390 Bracton much corrupted also in the Print pag. 405 Faults committed in the Print PAge 93. l. 10. Epistles p. 125. l. 21. Ecclesia and l. 22. lege Sed ita se habet etiam editio secunda Iuonis autorem verò prima in eo loco vsus esse videtur atque eam recte in