Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	church_n	pope_n	vicar_n	3,197	5	10.9896	5	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

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