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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90205	An indictment against tythes: or, Tythes no wages for Gospel-ministers: wherein is declared, I. The time when tythes were first given in England. II. By whom, and by whose authority and power tythes were first by a law established in England. III. To whom, and to what end and purpose tythes were first given, and after continued in England. IV. Ministers pretending a threefold right to tythes, 1. By donation. 2. By the laws of the nation. And 3. By the Law of God; examined and confuted ... To which are added, certain reasons taken out of Doctor Burgess his Case, concerning the buying of bishops lands, which are as full and directly against tythes, as to what he applied them. Likewise a query to William Prynne. By John Canne. By John Osborne, a lover of the truth as it is in Jesus.	Osborne, John, lover of the truth as it is in Jesus.; Canne, John, d. 1667?	1659 (1659)	Wing O525; Thomason E989_28; ESTC R203025	30,438	45

understands the present state of the Nation how impossible it is that such unsavory salt should be cast out to the dunghil while Tythes do stand Those that would be rid of Rooks for the hurt and annoyance they do them destroy their Nest If England be ever freed of such unclean Birds viz. ignorant and scandalous Priests Tythes must be taken away for the truth is this is that which keeps them in publick places as the Nest doth the Rook. I cannot but wonder that such who pretend to a godly and Gospel-Ministry should plead for Tythes considering and they cannot but see it if they will open their eyes that so long as such a way of maintenance stands most unworthy wretches will creep into publick places what care soever be taken to prevent it But 3. Howsoever some men have very little hope 3 Reason as things now stand that this Parliament will take them away yet this I say whatever they do or not do many Reasons may be given why the contrary may be expected from them 1. It is well known that such as are the Parliaments best and real Friends and have at all times adhered to them have not onely often declared their dissatisfaction concerning Tythes but shewed in many particulars what a grievous burden and oppression they are to the Nation Alexander was wont to say His trusty Friends were his chiefest Treasure 2. Whatsoever encouragement is given to the continuance of Tythes yet this we know they who cry out loudest for them are for the most part for a Single Person or for them Interest of Charles Stuart I say more a great deal for a King then a free Commonwealth Ingratus si non quisquis amatur amat I much question whether the establishing of Tythes will ever bring over the National Clergy heartily to this present Government or to subscribe affirmatively ex animo to a Parliament without King and House of Lords Now it is a State-Maxime Not to trust such men too far whose Friendship if you have it must be bought or hired 3. Never Parliament had a fairer opportunity and more encouragement to do great things for the Interest of Christ and his people and the publick Freedom of the three Nations then this both in respect of the Army and good people every where But saith the Sluggard There is a Lyon in the way I answer It is onely feared and nothing else The ruines of Babels Tower seem big they say and very great at a distance But the neerer thou come to it the lesser Works of Reformation are Mountains far off but when Men come to them with Zeal and Resolution they are mole-hills And this the Parliament knows to be true by some former experiences 4. Who can think that the Lord will make use of him and honour him in things of great concernments if he have no heart for God and his Cause in lower and lesser matters He that cannot indure the light of the Candle how will he indure the Suns light If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee then how canst thou contend with horses Jer. 12. 5. There are things expected and to be managed by the Peoples Representatives far higher then what at present are under debate The Lord will do his work his strange work and bring to pass his act his strange act Isa 28. 21. And therefore if we are not fit to do a little much less a great deal 5. It is thought by some that the Parliament sees cause enough to take away Tythes and intend to do it when opportunity serves because they speak in their last Vote of looking out some better and more equal way If it be true what is commonly reported viz. That some poor men have been imprisoned for non-payment of a Groat and two Pence for Tythes others forced to pay them that had the Alms of the Parish Poor Labourers that could hardly get bread for their Families have had their little houshold goods taken from them Others forc't to pay 70 or 80 l. whereas the debt was not above 5 or 6 l. If these things I say be true and the Parliament upon examination shall finde it so I cannot but think they will consider of some better and more equal way and not suffer such crying sins in the Nation especially to be practised by men who call themselves the Ministers of the Gospel and Embassadors of Jesus Christ Besides in their last Act of Indempnity they declare to be much for mercy new one would think men of such vast pity cannot but take some pity on other poor people who are dayly undone through the oppression of Tythes Oh let not that be said of them Dat veniam corvis vexat Censura Columbas I have but this to add and it is to wipe off an aspersion which some would fasten upon us as if in seeking to have Tythes down we sought to destroy the preaching of the Gospel To which I answer We are so far from seeking to stop the passage of the Gospel as that one main end why we desire the removing of them it is to have the Gospel thereby advanced and ignorant and carnal people the sooner turn'd from the Errour of their Wayes And doubtless whensoever this shall come to pass the truth of God and the power of it will more increase and spread abroad then ever it hath done since the rise of the Beast Again Though we are against Tythes yet not against a Godly Gospel-Ministry but would have it in all places where it is encouraged yea and care taken that the people every where thorow the Nation may be instructed in a way agreeable to the Gospel I have been often askt by Friends why I have not answered William Prynne in regard there is scarce a book which he hath lately published but hath my name in it Now to satisfie such and others 1. I know how to improve my time better and to more advantage especially being an old man then to answer one who hath no reason with him but rayling and in his writing is like to one that turns himself many times about but moves not out of the place All that he saith concerning me is Homaeologia one thing often said over and over But 2. Howsoever he useth my name often and quotes a book of mine yet I never saw any Answer that he hath made to my Reasons there against Tythes But as Lizards who out of the open field do run into bushes so he leaves the Question and Case truly stated and hides himself under a multitude of frothywords bitter Invectives and old Moth-eaten Statutes not any thing to the matter or purpose What Origen said of Celsus works may fitly be applied to his later writings Non est periculum ut eis subvertuntum ullus fidelium Lib. 1. cont Cels There is no danger lest any faithful man be subverted by them But 3. That the man is so froward and angry I marvel not being as

is to be feared under the sprinkling of a Vial. He hath had something of the mark of the Beast so long upon him as no wonder if a noysome and Grievous Sore be upon him for it Neither do I expect under the pain and torment he is but he will more and more blaspheme the name of God his Tabernacle them that dwell in heaven 4. And to observe here the wise mans counsel Pro. 26. 4 5. thus far I take notice of the man seeing he will be doing and by the ten idle Queries which he put forth the other day it is apparent his wit lies not that way I will put this Question to him Suppose a man hath a fair pool of water in his ground the which in time becomes corrupted Weeds grow Mud increaseth and Frogs creep into it Now to help this the Owner cuts a new channel and draws the Water out to another place and leaves the filth and corruption behinde The Question is and the Case is put to Will. Prynne in the behalf of the Frogs Whether the water be the Frogs because the pit is theirs in which the waters formerly stood and whether the Frogs have cause to croak foam as if they had wrong done them or condemn those Fishes for Hereticks Sectaries and Schismaticks which refuse the stinking Mud for the other Christal Stream This pit we will take to be the old Form of Government by King Lords and House of Commons the Weeds and Mud Tyranny and Idolatry of all sorts and sizes the Frogs Archbishops Bishops and the whole Hierarchie down to the Parish-Clerk not excluding the Lawyers the Waters the just Rights and Liberties of the People in things Civil and Ecclesiastical the Owner the People in their Representatives Now something is already done in cutting a new channel and drawing the Waters to another place to wit a free Commonwealth and to leave the Weeds and Mud behinde And here is some work for William Prynne if he can leave his peevish passion and be sober a while to shew us what wrong the owner doth to these Frogs and why they must be Sectaries Anabaptists Jesuites c. that prefer the sweet and wholesome waters of Truth and Righteousness before the Weeds and Mud of Tyranny and Idolatry We will allow William Prynne the Pit and the Weeds and Mud But the water is the Owners of the ground And therefore if the Peoples Representatives shall go forward in bringing away all the good Water to this other place I mean a Commonwealth and leave the Weeds and Mud to the Frogs in the Pit there are not a few will justifie their doing against all that William Prynne can say for the Pit the Weeds Mud and Frogs For conclusion Great is the difference among us about the Good Old Cause one saith it is thus and another takes it otherwise Now the way to be patient quiet contented it is to take notice that the Lord is coming forth to decide the controversie And it will not be long I am strongly perswaded but he will make it clear and certain that he may run that readeth whether the Case which William Prynne hath stated be the Good Old Cause or what others otherwise have asserted It was the Lord who by a wonderful appearing decided the Controversie between Moses and the Magicians so afterwards between Elias and the Priests of Baal I am apt to think the present difference about the Good Old Cause will not be decided but by some visible and eminent hand of God There have been many Appeals especially of late put up to God about it and I am waiting and many more by faith and prayer for an answer from Heaven that is shortly to see shame and final confusion upon whatsoever is not the Good Old Cause but cried up by corrupt men for self-interest and what is the Good Cause indeed to be glorious and alone exalted Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is raised out of his holy habitation Zech. 2. 13. From my house without Bishopsgate at the three Stills the 13th of the 5th month 1659. John Canne AN INDICTMENT Against TYTHES THe consideration of the great oppression that is now exercised in this land by imposing upon men that intolerable burthen of Tythes wich lieth heavy upon and is grievous to the people of this Nation in general and more particularly to the Husbandmen and Farmers of Lands who after great labor and charges in plowing and ordering their Land and sowing their Seed and maintaining their Family and Cattel and payment of Rents and other Charges and Taxes imposed upon them wait patiently for a plentifull Harvest to countervail their pains and charges but then cometh a Tythe taker with his Cart and sweepeth away in the name of a Tenth a fourth if not a third part of the Husbandmans profit But most especially this unlawfull payment of Tythes is most burthensome to the conscientious and faithfull Servants of Jesus Christ who desire to obey him and his Commandments These I say and such like considerations have incited me to inquire seriously and to search out diligently First the time 1. The time when 2. By whom 3. To whom and to what end when Tythes were first given in England Secondly by whom and by whose Authority a Law for payment of Tythes was first established and after confirmed And thirdly to whom and for what end and purpose Tythes have been formerly and yet are paid in England And of these I shall speak briefly in order as I have laid them down And first to the time when Tythes were first given 1. The time in England I finde it affirmed by several Authors that in the first Three hundred years after Christ no Tythes were paid in England but the Priests in those times were maintained by the free benevolence and contribution of the people as Tertullian Origen and Cyprian do testifie And in the next Three hundred years in the time of the Danes and Saxons Heathenism and Paganism did totally overspread this Land until about the year of our Lord Six hundred when Gegory the great sent over Augustine the Monk into England assisted with forty Preachers to convert the Saxons from Paganism to Popery which was effected in the time of Ethelbert the first Christian King of Kent who being converted was afterward an instrument for the conversion of his Nation the Saxons This Ethelbert is reported to have been very bountifull to the said Austine the Monk and gave him the Lordship and Royalty of his chief City Canterbury but that he gave him any Tythes or ever commanded Tythes to be paid to him or to any other or made any Law for payment of Tythes it doth not appear to me by any History Nor can it be proved that any Law was made for payment of Tythes in England until the year of our Lord 786. And then in the time of Off a King of Mercia which was in 2. By whom the time

of the Heptarchy there was a great Council holden in Mercia by two Legats sent from Pope Hadrian the first wherein as it 's reported Tythes were first established So that the first Law for payment of Tythes came from the Pope and decreed onely by his Agents in the Kingdom of Mercia being but a seventh part of England and afterwards as Popery increased so Tythes also were established in other parts of England by the several Kings thereof who out of an ignorant superstitious zeal being thereunto perswaded by the Pope and his Agents did many things contrary to the Law of God And this leads me to my third particular viz. to whom and to what end and purpose Tythes were formerly given and yet are paid in England It is reported that the foresaid Offa King of Mercia 3. To what end was a man of a high stomack and stoutness endeavouring by wars and bloodshed to enlarge his own Kingdom and after many conquests making Egfryd his Son a King with him in great devotion went to Rome where with the like zeal and example of Inas the West-Saxon King he made his kingdom subject to a Tribute then called Peter-pence afterwards Rome-scot besides other rich gifts that he gave to Pope Hadrian for canonizing Albane a Saint And returning home again about the year of our Lord 795. in honour of the Saint and pretending repentance for his sins built a Magnifick Monastery over against Verolanium indowing it with Lands and rich Revenues for maintenance of one hundred Monks Also in testimony of his repentance for the blood he had spilt and the sins he had committed he gave the tenth part of all his own goods to the Churchmen and to the poor hoping thereby to expiate his sins and to merit Salvation The next in order was Ethelwolph the nineteenth King of the Ethelwolph West-Saxons who in his youth was committed to the care of Helmestan Bishop of Winchester and by him to Swithun a famous learned Monk of that time took such a liking to the quiet and solitary life onely enjoyed by men of Religion that he undertook the Monkish vow and profession and was made Deacon and afterwards elected Bishop of Winchester But the death of his father King Egbert immediately following by great intreaty of the Nobles and partly by constraint of the Clergy he was made King and was by the authority of Pope Gregory the fourth whose Creature he was in both Professions absolved and discharged of his vows In the nineteenth year of his Reign remembring his former Ecclesiastical Profession ordained That Tythes and Lands due to holy Church should be free from all Tributes or Regal Services And in great devotion went himself to Rome where he was honourably received and entertained the space of a whole year new built the English-School that Offa the Mercian King before had there founded confirming also his grant of Peter-pence and further covenanting to pay yearly Three hundred marks to Rome to be thus imployed One hundred to St. Peter's Church another hundred to St. Paul's Light and the third to the Pope It is also said that Athelstan King of the West-Saxons Ethelstan about the year of our Lord 924. to pacifie the Ghost of his murthered brother Edwin to whose death he is said to have consenced did not onely undergo seven years Penance but also built certain Monasteries and decreed that Tythes should be paid by himself his Bishops and Officers but not by all his Subjects hoping thereby to expiate his sins Such was the blindness and ignorance of men in those times being seduced and led away from the truth by the Pope and his ungodly Agents being perswaded in their hearts that the Pope had power to pardon all their sins were they never so great and hainous Edgar about the year of our Lord 959 is said to Edgar have confirmed the payment of Tythes upon as bad a ground as Athelstan did This Edgar was a man of a vicious life favourable to the Monks he displaced the married Priests and brought in Monks of single life to possesse their places He built Forty seven some say and repaired divers Monasteries and Nunneries he was cruel to Citizens and a deflowrer of Maidens The first act was committed against the Virgin Wolfhild a sacred Nun the second offence was against the virgin Ethelfleda another of his lascivious acts was joyned with the blood of Earl Ethelwold that he might enjoy Elfrida his wife And as one saith For the most part such seed-plots were ever sown in the furrows of blood as plainly appears in these and divers other examples Canutus also the first Danish King who being guilty of Canutus the blood of Edward and Edmund sons of Ironside and Heirs to the Crown about the year 1016. confirmed Tythes built the Abby of St Bennet in Norfolk and in Suffolk he with great devotion built and endowed the Monastery of St Edmund which Saint he most dreadfully feared for the seeming Ghost of him often affrighted him for which cause as also to expiate the sins of his Father he confirmed Tythes c. Unto such strange illusions were the Princes then led by the blinde Guides that ever made gain of their devotions Many other such like examples I might produce but the few before mentioned may suffice to shew First When 1. The time when Tythes were first given in England Secondly By whom and whose authority the first Law for payment of Tythes in 1. By whom England was made And thirdly To whom and to what end and purpose Tythes were first paid in England not to Ministers 3. To what end of Christ to preach the Gospel but to Antichristian Idolaters and to a wicked idolatrous superstitious end viz. for satisfaction of the sins of the Donor to maintain a popish idle sottish Clergy to say and sing mass to pray for the souls of the Donors their wives and children living and dead And as at the first Tythes were given to Mass-Priests to read and sing the Latine-Mass So they have for many years been since continued for reading the English-Mass the book of Common-Prayer as may plainly be made to appear by the Statutes of the second year of Edward 6. and the Statute of the first of Eliz. and no Law extant for payment of Tythes to Ministers for preaching the Gospel For although heretofore in the time of the Bishops a Minister preached never so often yet if he refused to read the Book of the Common-Prayer he was by the Law to be deprived of his spiritual promotions Seeing then that Tythes were first established and since continued upon so evil and sandy foundation and to wicked ends Therefore they ought utterly to be abolished and rooted out of this and all other Christian Common-wealths as popish idolatrous superstitious and derogatory to the worship and service of God because God never commanded that Tythes should be paid to any man but to the Priests and Levites

Law never intended that any penalty given by the first branch of that Statute should be recovered in any temporal Court but if any place then in the Ecclesiastical Court onely And I am induced so to judge for these five reasons following First because if they had intended to have given Reason 1. power to sue at the Common-Law for any forfeiture given by that first branch they would therein as fully have declared their meaning as they did in the latter branch of that Act. Secondly Because this Act is called an additional Act Reason 2. added to the two former Acts of the 27 and 32 of Hen. 8. and herein onely some penalties added whereof that of treble value is one but nothing taken away by this Act from the said two former Acts and therefore the Proviso contained in the said Act of the 32 of Hen. 8. whereby all men are restrained to sue for Tythes in any temporal Court standeth still firm in full force and unrepealed And it is and hath been the opinion of some men that this penalty of treble value expressed in the said Act of 2. Edw. 6. was rather in terrorem to cause men for fear of a greater danger to pay their Tythes willingly then that the said forfeiture should be exacted Thirdly because the Bishops were at that time powerful Reason 3. in this land and then sitting in Parliament and can it be conceived that had they understood that the Parliament intended to give liberty thereby to sue for that forfeiture 〈◊〉 the Common-Law in temporal Courts and thereby to deprive the Bishops Courts of their Priviledges and their Officers of their profits that ever they would have consented to the passing of that Act for it is well known that they did alwayes endeavour to uphold their Ecclesiastical Courts and to continue and enlarge their own profits pomp and lordly dignity and were more willing to hold Plea in Causes that belonged not to their Cognizance then to abate any of their Priviledges as appeareth by a Prohibition directed to the Prelates Archdeacons c. of the Diocess of Norwich which is to be seen in Rastals Abridgement Fourthly because all the Judges in their Answers to Reason 4. the Bishops Objections in the fourth year of the late King James acknowledge that if the question be upon payment or setting out of Tythes they send it to the Ecclesiastical Court there to be determined Fifthly because it is most fit that where the principal Reason 5. viz. Tythes are to be recovered there the accessary viz. the forfeiture should be demanded for Tythes are the principal the forfeiture of treble value is but accessary Therefore they that say that they sue not for Tythes but for the forfeiture of treble value do but delude men as if they would teach them to build an House without a Foundation Tythes are the Foundation for if a man pay his Tythes there can be no forfeiture nor cause of action So that it is a meer juggle and a forged cavil of those men who so object Sir Edward Cook in the first part of his Instit saith That it is the most natural and genuine exposition of a Statute to construe one part of the Statute by another part of the same Statute for that best expresseth the meaning of the makers And again every penal Law is to be taken according to the letter of the Law without wresting or adding and not according to mens various conceits and interpretations And so King James very well told his Judges in the Star-chamber in the year of our Lord 1616. charging them to do Justice uprightly and indifferently without delay or partiality and yet not to utter their own conceits but the true meaning of the Law not making laws but declaring the Laws and that according to the true sence thereof remembring that their Office is jus dicere and not jus dare to declare the Law not to give a Law And the same King James in a Speech to the Parliament in the year of our Lord 1607. telleth them That as every Law would be clear and full so the obscurity in some points of our written Law and want of fulness in others the variation of Cases and mens curiosity breeding every day new questions hath inforced the Judges to judge in many Cases here by Cases and Presidents wherein I hope Lawyers themselves will not deny but that there must be a great uncertainty And where there is variety and uncertainty although a just Judge may do rightly yet an ill Judge may take advantage to do wrong and then are all honest men that succeed him tyed in a manner to his unjust and partial conclusions Wherefore leave not the Law to the pleasure of the Judge but let your Laws be looked into for I desire not the abolishing of the Laws but onely the clearing and sweeping off the rust of them and that by Parliament our Laws be cleared and made known to all the Subjects So far King James And I desire with all mine heart that you our Worthies the Representatives now assembled in Parliament and all others that may succeed you would seriously consider and set upon the regulating of the Laws of this Commonwealth and repeal such as are unnecessary reform such as are faulty explain such as are dark and mystical and make such new ones as may be to the glory of God and comfort of all his faithfull and peaceable Servants But it may be some will here object and say that Objection Tythes are paid in England by an ancient custom and our Law is grounded much upon custom Then I demand who first brought in that custom was it Answer not the Pope and why is not that custom one and the same in all places of this Land and why are there several and divers customs and manner of tythings in several Parishes And why are not all reduced to one kinde and manner of tything in all the Parishes of England For in some Parishes the tenth of all the Corn Grain and Hay is paid in kinde and in some Parishes onely a small sum of money and in others a piece of Meadow is allowed for the Tythe of all the Hay arising yearly within that Parish Also in some Parishes tythe-milk is paid in kinde every tenth day during the greatest part of the year and in other places but two pence or it may be less for a Cows milk for the whole year If any one of these Customs be good and warrantable why are not all the rest made conformable thereunto But if all be evil as certainly they are why are they not all abolished For it is a Maxime in the Law Malus usus abolendus est An evil Custom is to be abolished Doctor Ridley in his view of the Civil-Law Pag. 147. saith That the Customs we pay our Tythes by at this day were setled upon this Kingdom by the Popes Legats in Provincial and Synodal constitutions And Mr