but ex debito SHEPHERD by the Law of God for substraction whereof no remedy lay at the common-Law and therefore if a Parson let a Lease of his Glebe to another with all the Appurtenances yet he himself shall have tythe of it Terrae non sunt decimbiles and therefore neither Mynes nor Quaryes of Iron COOK Brasse Tin Lead Coles Stones Tile Brick or Lime are tytheable ner Houses Consimilar is felony trespasse between free-hold moveable goods nor Trees nor Grasse or Corn till they be severed from the Land the real Estate which descends by inheritance from the Ancestor and made a distinct personal possession And therefore tythe is not paid of Land nor by reason of the Land nor is it a charge upon Land like a Rent-charge nor was it ever so claimed till of late that the popish covers were not broad enough Obj. But some object and say When I bought my Land I bought not the tythe nor paid any thing for it Ans I answer That I and all men bought all our Land and that without any charge of tythe upon it and therefore in all Conveyances it 's still said All that c. and never any covenant for or exemption of a tenth part either of land or encrease and he that saith the seller or his Ancestor charged it with tythes as a Rent I say Where a Rent is charged it 's still expressed and finde any such exception or covenant and I will freely pay them as a just debt And is it not ridiculous for any to talk of parchasing his tythe for with his labour charge and husbandry he payes deere enough for his whole encrease Obj. Another objects That though I bought all my Land yet I bought it cheaper because it was supposed that it ought to pay tythes then I could have bought such Land as was known to be tythe-free and therefore having a cheaper bargain I am bound in equity to pay tythes Ans I answer That I have already proved all Land is tythe-free and the charge of tythe is upon the stock and personal Estate and not upon the Land And the strength of this objection lies in comparing those that pay tythes with those that are free they that buy lands tythe-free are eased of this oppression and are in no hazard and though all others ought to be so yet being a question whether they can ease themselves of the burthen they buy under a hazard and as subject to such a charge but if they can cast off the yoke they get but what is their own And seeing we have denyed the Popes Authority and Supremacie we may so soon as we can wholly cast off the burthens which he laid on us And thus he that buyes Land in yeers of trouble and heavy taxes may perhaps buy much cheaper then when none or little is paid shall he therefore alwaies be required to pay taxes when others are discharged or shall he that bought cheap pennyworths on the borders between England and Scotland when those parts were insected with Mosse-Troopers alwaies maintain or pay tribute to thieves and robbers We bought Land when the Popes yoke was upon our necks and if we can cast it from us we may by as good reason be eased of our tythes as they of their taxes But if I bought cheaper what is that to the State or to a Priest If in equity I be bound to pay any more it is must just that he have it of whom I bought my Land and not another There are others who plead a legal right by prescription and that they have a good right because they have so long possessed them This was the old device first to preach that tythes were due and then to limit them to the Parishes and when fourty yeers was past to claime that as a debt which before was paid as charity or ar most as a free-will-offering of the owner And thus the Pope got first fruits and tenths and Peter-pence and many great sums out of this and other Nations which long continued and he might as well have pleaded his prescription as any of his branches now can do In temp H. 3. the Pope had above 120000. l. per. an out of this Nation which was then more worth then the Kings revenue Is any so blind as not to see what poor shifts are now made to uphold so great an oppression which can find no better ground for its support then this that it hath been so long continued But shall the continuance of an oppression give right to perpetuate the grievance How many great and heavy pressures in other things did long lye on this Nation of customs and practices of former times which daylie were and still have been abolished as light did more and more encrease witness those many Laws and Statutes made and now in force abolishing the usages and customs of former ages but yet this is a great mistake for by the Common-Law and the old popish Ecclesiastick Law is out of doors no man can prescribe to have tythes though many may prescribe to be free from tythes or part thereof for he that claims tythes except Impropriators to whom I shall speake hereafter must claim them as a Parson Vicar or other called Ecclesiastick Officer and as I have hinted before he claims them not as such a person but as such an Officer and the prescription if any were is to his Office Now if no such Office be in being his claim is at an end That there is now no such Office is plain for when H. 8. renounced the Pope he was declared by Act of Parliament which was assented to by all the Clergy in their Convention to be the Head of the Church and all Arch-Bishops Bishops and all others in Ecclesiastical Orders were no longer to hold of the Pope but of the King and not to claim their Benefices by title from the Pope but of the King by vertue of that Act of Parliament And here the Succession from the Pope was cut off and discontinued and the King by his new Authority as Head of the Church made Bishops and gave them power to make Parsons Vicars and others called Ecclesiastick Officers Afterwards as the King renounced the Pope so the Parliament of England laid aside Kings who had assumed the Title and Stile of Head of the Church and also abolished Arch-Bishops and Bishops and all their dependancies root and branch and here the whole Ecclesiastick state was dissolved and the Body fell with the Head and the Branches with the Root both Parsons Vicars and Curates and all the whole progeny and off-spring and so all their right title and claim to tythes was and is at an end as is more plainly and more fully set forth in a late printed paper by Ier. Benson to which I refer And now I come to the last those that claim by purchase and these are the Impropriators and they say they have bought them of the State and have
that Law is made and here is the ground of the Law not any property or civil right in priests or others and therefore if the Law require them as due by Divine Right he that saith they are onely due by humane right cannot claim them nor ought to recover them by that law for he claims them by another right and for any man to claim that by humane right from humane law which commands them as due by divine right is but a meer deceit And that law of H. 8. and the rest did upon any civil ground set up or constitute the payment of tythes but takes it for granted that tythes are due to God and holy Church and therefore the foundation of the law being taken away that they are not due to God and holy Church the law falls to the ground for the law not making them due but supposing them due by a former right if they were not so due the law cannot be binding That tythes were never till now of late pretended a civil right is plain for as they were imposed by the Pope so were they tryable in his courts and those very laws made by late Parliaments did appoint them to be tryed in the Ecclesiastical courts and restrained the temporal Jurisdiction as the Acts themselves testifie But what is the property that is now claimed is it in a person that cannot be for the priest hath them not till he enter his Office and when he parts with that he loseth his tythes So the priest hath no property but his Office and what is that it was a popish Office when tythes were first paid to it and how comes the property to continue now the Office is laid aside and the Pope that set them up But how can a civil right or property be pretended when the Author was the Pope The end for a called spiritual Office and recovered in an Ecclesiastical called Court are not these covers grown too short And in the Act of 32 H. 8. tythes are called Spiritual Gifts and there of impropriate tythes sold after the dissolution it s said they are now made temporal And before that time it was never heard that tythes were called a temporal right But it 's further said These Laws were made by Parliaments the Representatives of the people And though tythes were not due before yet they might give tythes because their own they being the body of the people This would suppose a particular consecration or donation of the people not onely as in their Legislative capacity to bind themselves by a Law but by a particular Act of Free-gift but it 's plain the Act never intended any such thing for it gives nothing but commands what was before And as to the Law it self and all other Laws of Kings Parliaments Popes Councils Bishops and what ever else was by any man made for the payment of tythes since Christ Jesus came in the flesh joyned all together how do they all or any of them bind the conscience for if tythes be not due by the Law of God as is herein proved and almost generally granted Who hath set them up the law of man at best And who is man that makes a law in the place where God disannulled his own command is it better to obey man then God or is man grown wiser then his Maker Who put this power into the hand of man to raise a compulsary maintenance for Ministers That any Parliament have power to make any binding law for the maintenance of those they call Ministers for doing a work which they call Worship of God and force the people to submit to it the clear light of this age doth generally condemn for they are much more like to set up and maintain those who are contrary to Christ then Christs Ministers who never looked for nor durst own such a way of provision Will any say they have power from whom had they it Is it derived from the people that cannot be Have they any other power committed to them how is it as they are Magistrates If so the Turk and all infidel Magistrates have the like Or is it as they are Christian Magistrates then may not France Spain c. claim the same for what Nation in Europe will not say they have a Christian Magistracy though far the greater part of them be Papists And may not a Papist by as good right require and compel maintenance for his Ministers as H. 8. or any other could or can do But that I may not be mistaken as if I went about to take away the Magistrates power to raise Taxes Sessements or other charges for the service and defence of the Nation it is needful to distinguish between those things that are called civil and such as are called spiritual For civil ends and uses the people may give power to their Representatives to raise moneys or any other civil thing because in such things they are their own Masters But in matters of Religion and spiritual things no man can give power unto another to impose any thing upon himself or his neighbor for in those things every one is to be accountable unto God and to stand and fall to his own Master And thus we give unto God the things that are Gods and unto Caesar the things that are his paying tribute to whom tribute is due But as for all laws made in the will of man in the things of God and their heavy punishments inflicted upon such as cannot for conscience sake conform unto them they reach not the conscience and therefore make no sinne against God And as concerning the laws of K. H. 8. and Edw. 6. it may be considered some of them were made by a Popish King and Parliament and the rest in the glimmerings of light when men were but seen as trees and therefore to make their laws a Rule for this day of clear and Sun-shine light savours too much of the old Popish Spirit and is a shame to our reformation And if it be said Papists might and did make good laws It 's true in temporal things they did but not in things of Religion wherein they are differenced from us because Papists But were the law just in commanding tythes can it be equal to give double or trebble damage where they are not paid If any man be oweing a just and due debt no more by law can be recovered but what the Debt is besides the charges of the law How cruel therefore are these Laws and Ordinances which in a matter of so much just scruple require and impose the double or trebble value And how unrighteous are all such persons as by force of such laws receive them for if tythes were due is therefore the trebble value due because the law hath made that penalty Where is equity or justice in either The Pope and his Adherents did onely excommunicate the refuser till he conformed and till these late laws such penalties as imprisonment and trebble damage were
never known And here what was by our forefathers superstition whom we look back at as afar off and pitty begun in ignorance we build up and confirm with tyrannie and instead of their Rods make to our selves Scorpions But herein is not all but the law requires every man to set out the tenth and so makes him a voluntary Agent in that against which his conscience testifies which is most cruel and unrighteous and he that cannot do so they sue and hale before Courts and Magistrates and there they get judgement of trebble damage and by that judgement frequently take five-fold yea sometime ten-fold the value Shall not these things render this age which so much pretends to reformation contemptible to future generations and for these things shall not even Papists rise up in judgement against us and condemn us But how is it that any law for tythes is now executed do not all laws and statutes for tythes restrain the tryal of them to the Ecclesiastical Courts and prohibit the temporal Courts from medling with them And since the Ecclesiastical Courts are destroyed who have power to give judgement for tythes no temporal Judge proceeding according to the laws for tything How is it then that so many persons are sued prosecuted and unjustly vexed for tythes in all the Courts at Westminster and not onely so but in the Sherifts Court and other petty Courts in the countrey Obj. If it be said The Statute gives double damages and costs and no Court being appointed where that shall be recovered it must be supposed to be the Common-Law Courts I answer by asking of what must they give the double or trebble damage seeing they are restrained from trying for the single value if they cannot judge the one how can they award the other will they condemn an accessary before they try the principal what is this but to make the law a Nose of Wax or any thing to uphold another unrighteous Kingdom Obj. It will be said Iustices of Peace have power It may be so by an Ordinance but no Act of Parliament which is the Law of England and that they do it many poor people feel for generally they give trebble damages for all manner of tythes when as the Statute gave but double and costs and that onely for predial tythes And they usually execute their precepts by such persons as will do it effectually who take generally five times more then the value which they prize and sell far under the worth and he that cannot comply with their cruelty and confesse their judgement just by accepting back what they will return doth frequently suffer five or six-fold yea often ten-fold damage And here the fingers of the Justices are too often found by consciencious men far more heavy then the loynes of the Law nay more then of the old Ecclesiastical Courts or the Pope himself who hath no such penalties I write what I can prove by manifold instances Though these oppressions be many and great yet are they not all that this age exercises for by a new device under pretence that Priests are not able to pay tenths to the Protector unlesse every man pay them their tythes they sue men for all manner of tythes by English Bill in the Exchequer and there would force them upon their oaths to declare what tythes they have when as in the Ecclesiastical Courts the Ordinary might not examine a man upon his own oath concerning his own tythe And here such as either make conscience of swearing which Christ forbids or cannot themselves tell what tythe they had are cast into prison for contempt where they may lie as long as they live no Law in the Nation reaching them any relief And divers upon this account have long lain in the Fleet yet are there and I believe above a hundred suits are in the Exchequer depending and proceedings stopt at this point the hearts of the very Officers of the Court relenting with pitty towards such numbers of poor men brought thither very Term from the most remore parts of the Nation and some of them not for above twelve pence such mercilesse cruelty lodges in the hearts of many if not the most of our pretended Gospel Ministers Oh shameful reformation What! compel a man himself to set out the tythe of his own Goods to maintain a Hireling-Priest it may be one openly prophane and so make him sin against his own conscience or take from him thrice or rather five times as much and not onely so but to force him to swear what tythes he had or commit him to prison there to lie without hope of relief doth not the cry of these abominations reach through Palace-Walls and enter Parliament-doors surely they reach the Gates of Heaven And though man have forgotten his fair promises God will in due time break these bands and send relief another way Oh cursed first fruits and tenths the superstitious relique of Popery and wages of unrighteousnesse the cause and cover of all these Exchequer Suits and of most of these mischiefs Must we still have Priests and tythes then may we not wish for old Priests and old Ecclesiastical Courts for much more moderation was in them and even Papists would blush at our cruelties Did but the Magistiate see what havock is made in the North what driving of Goods the Oxen out of the plow the Cows from poor and indigent children what carrying of Pots Pans and Kettles yea and fetching the very clothes of poor peoples Beds he would either be ashamed of such Justices or such Priests or Tythes or of them all Such instances I could give as would make the Readers ears to tingle and he that cannot believe me let him send into Cumberland and he shall meet with sew that cannot inform him of it or do but let him go a little after Harvest and he may find the Justices so busie as if they had little other work to be doing But whither have I digressed let me return to heare what the next can say 3. And these plead the gift of those that were formerly possessors of the Land and say Those that pay tythes do but that which their Ancestors justly charged upon them To such I answer That it 's true many Ancestors gave tythes which of them were required as before hath been declared but what is that to us or how are we thereby bound Did ever any man in any Deed or conveyance of his Land expresse any such gift or made any exception of tythes I never saw or heard of such a thing and let those who can find such reservations make their claim but I believe it will not be in England That which this sort pleads seems to make a ground for a distinct property for if there be a property it must of necessity arise from him that was the true owner and had power to charge himself and his posterity and these say they have as good right to the tenth part as the owner
paid great summes of money for them and many of them have no other subsistance To these I answer That I have shewed before that in the root all tythe is alike whether it be now claimed by a Priest or an Impropriator and both must fall together And seeing those that sold them had no good title neither can theirs be made good which is derived from them But seeing it was the State that sold them and that the whole Nation had the benefit of their moneys it is equal and just when they cannot have what is sold that their moneys be repaid to which point I shall speak more fully hereafter in answer to an objection which I meet with in my way needful to be resolved And thus I have briefly gone over the whole matter and heard what every one can say and have returned them answers by which it doth plainly appear That no man at this day can claim tythe of another either by divine or humane right and that tythes are neither due by the express Law of God nor by the equity of that Law nor by the Decrees of the Church nor grants of Kings nor Laws of Parliaments nor gifts of the people nor prescription of the possessors nor the purchase of Impropriators It now onely remains that I answer some general objections which I shall do in as much brevity at I can and so leave the whole to the Reader The first is made by the State The second by Impropriators And the third by Parish-Ministers And all these together object and say That though it should be granted that the right of tythes cannot be proved yet if it be found that taking of them away will bring great losse to the Publique Revenue much damage if not ruine to many particular persons and families and great hazard of bringing confusion to the Nation by such a great alteration after so long a settlement and endanger the very publike professien of Religion by taking away Ministers maintenance and consequently Ministry it self it is not prudence for satisfying some to bring so many and great inconveniences upon the Nation These objections plead not for the right of tythes but against the removing of them to prevent inconvenience and if the one be granted that tythes are an innovated popish exaction and oppression and neither due by law of God or man such considerations as these ought not to obstruct the removal of so heavy a grievance and oppression but that which is just ought to be done which is a general good to the whole body and almost every individual member and then such parts as are sound grieved may be afterwards eased and relieved and though all these should in some measure suffer it were but just seeing their compliance with the oppressor hath brought such a general yoke and barthen upon the whole body and now they are become the onely obstructions of the general easement and publike freedom And yet a few words I shall answer to every one and first to the State which complains of a great losse by taking away first fruits and tenths which are paid out of tythes When the Pope had established the payment of tythes and set up a new Hierarchie after the pattern of the Jewish Priesthood he tooke upon on himself to be Successor to the Jewish High-Priest Ierom in Ezek. ch 44. v. 28. c. and claimed tenths from all his inferior priests jure divino and in processe of time he got to himself by the like colour first fruits also and though it was long ere he brought his work to pass in England yet at last it was effected you may by these following instances know how much our English Nation strugled against them The King forbad H. P. the Popes Nuntio te collect first fruits 2 Ed. 3. Rol. Claus M. 4. Parl. 1 Ri. 2. Nu. 66. Rol Parl. 4 R. 2. Nu. 50. The Popes Collector was willed no longer to gather the first fruits it being a very novelty and no person was any longer to pay them The Commons Petition that provision may be made against the Popes Collectors for levying of first fruits The King in Parliament answers There shall be granted a prohibition in all such cases where the Popes Collectors shall attempt any such Novelties Vpon complaint made by the Commons in Parliament Rol. Parl. 6. R 2. N. 50. the King willeth that Prohibitions be granted to the Popes Collectors for receiving of first fruits First fruits by Arch-Bishops and Bishops to the Pope were termed an horrible mischief 6 H. 4. Rol. Parl. 9 H. 4. N. 43. and damnable custom The Popes Collector were required from thenceforth not to levy any money within the Realm for first fruits The Pope thus claiming first fruits and tenths as annexed to his Chair Successor to the Jewish High-priest and Head of the Church continued to collect them till H. 8. discontented with the Pope though himself was a papist renounceth the Popes Supremacy and assumes it to himself and by Act of Parliament in 16. of his reign got first fruits and tenths annexed to his Crown as Head of the Church and so himself became worse then the Pope taking the wages but not doing the Popes work and that which before by Parliaments in height of popery was declared a damnable custom was now in the beginning of reformation made a foundation-stone to support the greatness of the new made Head Afterwards Q. Mary not daring to assume the Head-ship of the Church did relinquish and by Act of Parliament wholly took away first fruits and tenths she doing no work to deserve such wages And what a shame is this to our Nation and our great professions after so long talk of reformation now to plead for such wages of unrighteousnesse first exacted by the Pope and then by such as assumed to themselves the stile of Head of the Church upon that very account had them annexed to the Crown And shall we now who pretend to have cast off the Pope and left the Head-ship of the Church unto Christ worse like then Queen Mary uphold such wicked oppressions which are the ground of a great part of goods mens sufferings for tythes this day for the pretence of paying tenths is the ground of the many suits for tythes in the Exchequer where otherwise by law they could not nor ought to be recovered And as to the Publique Revenue I am informed they add not much thereunto but all or a great part of them are give in augmentations to Priests who no doubt will receive them without scruple though I know many of them not long since did complain against them as a popish oppression But take away tythes and there are as many Glebe-Lands ' will fall to the State as will fully make up that losse which they may as well take away as their predecessors did the Revenues of Abbeys and Monasteries and when the people are eased of tythes they will be better able and more
willing to enlarge the Publique Treasury if it be sound wanting But it 's hoped our State rather looks at the freedom of the people then the encrease of the Revenue seeing so lately they took away the profits of the Court of Wards which was a much better and greater income and granted many great men such freedom for nothing as they could neither in right claim nor in reason expect without a very great sum their Estates being given to them to hold by such services and surely they will not deny the poorer sort of people their own and deer-bought encrease Secondly To Impropriators and such as have more lately bought Tythe-Rents And to these I say Though it be a general Rule Caveatemptor yet seeing the ignorance of former dayes but peeping out of popery did take it for granted both Buyer and Seller that the title was good and since the purchasers did pay great sums of money for them to the State which went to the bearing and defraying the publike charge of the Nation it is just that they have a moderate price for them with which I believe most if not all of them would be well pleased and content onely in the estimate of that rate they must consider that they bought no more but what the Abbey Monastery or other dissolved House had and these Houses out of their appropriate tythes were to find a sufficient Priest or Curate Canonically instituted which was to have allowance at the discretion of the Bishop of the Diocess and also a convenient portion of the tythe was to be set apart for the yeerly maintenance of the poor of the parish for ever as is provided by divers Acts of Parliament And after the dissolution and sale of tythes the like charge was and ought to be continued upon them as at large is proved in a Treatise called The poor Vicars Plea and let but such purchasers look to their original Grants they shall find that the yeerly value was but little and the rate small after which they paid for them and in regard of the charges and hazards upon them they were seldom or never esteemed more worth then ten years purchase and that rate at an indifferent yeerly value may well beaccepted for them This Answer will please the Impropriator well who hath not been without his fears to lose his tythes and get little or nothing for them and it cannot much displease others because it is equal and just that seeing he cannot have what is bought he have his money returned without losse But the great difficulty seemeth the raising of so great a sum of money and who shall pay it for first There are many who plead Our Lands are wholly tythe-free Others say We pay a Rate or small prescription-Rent or have a modus decimandi and our tythe is very small though our Lands be of good value Others say We have converted our Lands into Pastures and pay little tythe and therefore it seems not equal that we should pay as much as those whose Lands consist of Tillage whose tythes are often as much worth as the Land I answer That the raising of this sum is not to follow the Rate of tythe nor hath it any relation to tythe for if it had many would as justly scruple the payment of any thing towards it as they do the payment of tythes but the case must be thus considered At the dissolution Tythes of Abbeys Monasteries c. were taken into the hand of the State they sold them and the money raised went to the defraying and carrying on the great charge then upon the Nation as it was of late in our dayes when tythe-Rents were sold and at that day there were wars with France and Scotland and many great Exigences of State as the Statutes for the ground of the dissolution shews And in the service and use of these moneys the whole Nation and every man therein had his share and so far as those moneys went the people were spared as the Case was with us of late and so he that had Land tythe-free and he that paid onely a small rate for tythes and he that hast pastures and no tillage all these shared in the sum yea and the very Impropriator himself and not according to the proportion of tything but according to the value of their Estates in Lands or Goods by which they had been otherwise chargeable And so the Impropriator depositing so much money upon a pledge the one being required the other must be returned and by a general tax it must be raised wherein every one must bear his proportion the very Impropriator himself But then comes in he that bought the Lands of Abbeys c. which he saith The Pope had made tythe-free and that when he bought his Land he also paid for the tythe and so he must either be freed from paying to the Impropriator or must have his money returned as well as he I answer Though there are many such purchasers yet I believe to the freeing the Nation from this great and long-continued oppression they or most part of them would be content to contribute without any such demand But if any stand upon it let him shew what he paid for his tythe he shall have it which was not a penny for search the Court of Augmentations and it will be found that there was not in the value of Land the least difference made between tythe-free and that which paid tythes as there was not of late in the sale of Bishops and Dean and Chapters Lands many of which also were as much tythe-free and so if they bought Land tythe-free as cheap as if they had paid tythes they have had profit enough and may now well afford to pay with their neighbors Thirdly To Parish-Ministers And with these I desire a little to expostulate the matter first as touching the end of their work and secondly as to the way of their maintenance Their work as they pretend is to preach the Gospel and to propagate Religion Now I would ask them why they suffer not only so many Villages Countrey-Towns and Parishes but even great and populous Cities and Market-Towns and whole corners of countreys to lye destitute who never could get any other Minister then a poor Vicar or Reading Curate they will presently answer me There is no maintenance without that they cannot live If I ask them further Why there is no maintenance they will tell me It is either a City or Market-Town to which there belongs no Land and so no tythes or it is an Impropriation and payes onely a small stipend or the Lands are tythe-free or claim customs and prescriptions and onely pay small rates for tythes or otherwise the people have converted their arable Lands into pastures and their tythe is of small value and will not afford a maintenance I would yet ask them again Is not a third part of the Nation in this condition and must they never have an able