Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	king_n	scotland_n	2,696	5	8.4241	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91565	The great case of tythes truly stated, clearly opened, and fully resolved. By a countrey-man, A.P.	Pearson, Anthony, 1628-1670?	1657 (1657)	Wing P989; Thomason E931_2; ESTC R207656	39,708	44

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

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