hath to the nine and that he never purchased it and the like Vnto all which I answer That though it were true could be proved that mine Ancestors gave tythes and that for ever yet am I not thereby bound to pay them or stand any way chargeable with them It 's true when they were owners of Land they might themselves yeild and set forth what part of their encrease they pleased or might have given the tenth or any other part of their Land as they would or they might have charged upon the Land what Rent they liked but they could not charge their posterity with that which was no way theirs nor which in any true sence construction or understanding they could be said to have any property in and which is not paid by reason of that which is derived from them for tythe is neither paid of I and nor by reason of the Land but is paid by reason of the encrease or renewing and therefore the Doctrines of the old Fathers the Statute of Edw. 6. and so the Popish Laws for tythes do as well require the payment of the tenth part of mens profits and gain whetherby Trade Commerce or Merchandize as of the fruits of the earth yea the tenth part of wages and all personal â—â—crease though not raised immediately by Land And surely no man will say that he payes tythe of these because his Ancestor charged him with them nor will any man allow that another person by any gift of his Ancestor can have another distinst property in the tenth part of the fruit of his labours and the case is the same as to all tythes whether predial personal or mixt if I sit still and plough not no Corn will grow If I sit still and work not no profit will rise so that it 's my labour my diligence and industry that raiseth the tythe and in my power it is to make it lesse or more and sometimes yea often it falls out that the tythe of Corn is thrice more worth then the yearly value of the Land on which it grows and herein tythe of Corn is far more hard and unequal then personal tythes for the one payes but the tenth all charges deducted the other payes the tenth of charges and all Mine Ancestor could not charge me with that which doth not accrue by reason of that which I have from him nor am I bound because mine Ancestor left me Land to pay tythe which is not paid by reason of the Land but of the encrease unto which I am no more tyed by Law then he is who hath encrease without Land If I have Land and no increase I pay no tythes If I have encrease though no Land I ought by Law to pay tythes If I husband my Land so as the encrease of it is not to be severed no tythe can be recovered of it and therefore if I pasture my Land no tythe shall be paid for the grasse which is eaten unsevered but onely a rate-tythe for that which doth depasture on it which makes it plain that tythe is not paid by reason of the Land but of the Stock and in that also it lies in my power to make the tythe much little or nothing if I plow and sowe Corn the tenth part of the encrease is generally more worth then the Land on which it grows which comes by the Land which descends from the Ancestor but because of the encrease won by the great charge industry and labour of the Husbandman If I pasture my ground with Sheep that yeilds a Fleece the tythe will be considerable though not so much as by Corn. If I pasture with Cows or breeding Cattle a much-lesse tythe is paid And if I eat with Horses and barren Cattle a small and inconsiderable rate is onely required though in few places of the Nation would that be recovered in the times of greatest height of popish Laws But if I plant Wood and let it stand for Timber or if I store my Land with Beasts which be ferae naturae wherein there is no personal property no tythe shall be paid Or if I will let my Land lye waste which may be supposed because it may be done or will eat my Meadow or Corn standing no tythe can be required All these instances manifest that tythe hath still relation to tlie stock and personal estate and not to the Land and is paid by reason of the stock and not the Land and so no Ancestor could lay and perpetuate such a charge as tythe upon it nor could he bind his successor to it If by my Ancestor I am bound to pay tythes ratione tenuree or in consideration of the Land which he leaves me to what value must it be I may yearly pay more then the Land he leaves me is worth If I keep it in tillage and if I pasture it I need not pay the twentieth part have not I herein without fraud to my Ancestors power to pay much or little how is this like a Rent-charge certain which is by some objected If tythes were paid by reason of the Land surely there is most reason that the tenth part of the grasse renewing upon all pasture-grounds should be paid for the Land still brings that with it and it 's easily divideable by Rent or let by moneth If another hath as good right to the tenth part of the encrease as the owner hath to the nine why can he not take it without the owners seuing it out or recover it by Action of Debt or Trespasse But it is clear there is no title till it be set forth and then if the owner carry it away an Action of Trespasse lies because he had set it out and given it to another and so altered his property as one man doth by marking his Cattle for another man and therefore it is that the Law which commands tythes doth not give power to any to take the tythe because he had no title but enjoynes the owner to set it forth and so make it anothers by his own consent If any man claim tythes by my Ancestors gift may I not ask him to whom and for what my Ancestors gave them And it is plain beyond denial that all those gifts of Lands or Tythes in Englard since Augustine the Mouk planted the popish faith and preached up the new payment of tythes were given to popish Priests for saying prayers for the souls of the givers and their deceased Ancestors as old Consecrations do witnesse And therefore in reason if the consideration and service be ceased so ought also the wages for no man in law or equity ought to claim wages when he will not do the work for which it was given and seeing those popish Priests and Prayers are laid aside the gift if any such there were and could be binding ought to return to the Donor and may not without his consent be perverted to another use Tythe was never claimed in respect of any ownership in the Land
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
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
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
Minister have they no share in your Gospel because they have no maintenance Are none of your called to such places Or hath Christ no Seed of Election amongst them If this be not your Doctrine yet your practice preacheth it And if you were really for spreading your Gospel and enlarging profession you would forthwith throw away tythes for so long as they continue there can never be any possibility of raising maintenance in such places And secondly As to their Maintenance is there any indifferency equality proportion or justice in their present way of tything One man pleads he is to pay nothing to a Minister because the Pope hath given him a dispensation and made his Land tythe-free Another man saith he hath a prescription to pay but a penny it may be for the value of a shilling Another saith he hath converted his Lands into pastures and hath by his Artifice so ordered it that little is due for tythes Another saith he dwells in a City or Market-Town and hath no Land though it 's like he gains more by trade then ten poor countrey-men that pay tythes do by their Lands Another saith he payes tythe to an Impropriator and he cannot afford to pay both him and a Minister Is this your equal way of maintenance so long upheld and pleaded for And have you not a more righteous Rule The rich generally payes little and the poor Husbandman bears the burthen even he that supplies the Nation with the staffe of Bread who is notwithstanding at more charge in his Husbandry then any other and out of the tythe of such countrey-parishes of Tillage generally great sums are paid for Augmentations to Cities and Market-Towns when the Inhabitants that have far greater gains by trading go free For shame at length follow the example of your neighboring reformed Churches and throw away tythes as an old relique of Popery and no longer halt between two and betake your selves to a more Gospel-like way of maintenance for light now breaks forth and pretences will no longer cover It 's like you wil answer We confesse the present way of maintenance by tythes is very unequal unless the whole Nation could be brought to quit all their customes and prescriptions and pay tythe in kind and also all Merchants and Tradesmen would pay the tenth part of their gains as was by the Pope enjoyned but that will never be done and therefore it s better to hold some then lose all for we know not what better way would be provided But thew us how we may have a comfortable and certain maintenance and more like the Gospel and we shall most willingly quit the one and embrace the other To this I answer That there is a way which as it would establish the Nation upon a sure foundation of true freedom as to the conscience giving content to all separated Congregations Societies and persons so would it upon the same Basis of Liberty hold forth full satisfaction to all people of the Nation both as to Ministry and Maintenance and would be as acceptable to every one as the taking away tythes But I have said enough at once and when this is a little digested the other will be more fit to be proposed Onely to such as fear confusion or trouble or losse to the Nation by taking away tythes I would say a few words Do but look into almost every Country Town and there shall you find debate strife and variance either between man and man or between Parishes and their Ministers either about tythe it self the quantity or the setting it out look into Courts and there you shall find Suit upon Suit and at Assizes and before Justices of Peace multitudes of Tryals and Judgements about them Look into Prisons and there you shall find not a few restrained and lying under great oppressions because they cannot pay them And these suits and troubles are daylie encreasing and the number of those that will not pay them and these are no small confusions in our State for it is evident there are more suits and strife and difference about tythes then any one thing whatsoever in the Nation and how soon might all these be ended and every one satisfied by taking away tythes And then do but look upon the many Moores Commons and Wastes in the Nation amounting to a full third part of the whole as hath been computed to the many great Pastures and Meadows decayed for want of tillage to the many countreys which are turned into Pastures and Meadows because of the great charge of tillage husbandry and the unreasonable payment of a clear tenth part which in most places is half the profit and it will be found nothing doth so much hinder the improvement of the Nation which would ease the publike burthens and would soon be of more advantage then first fruits and tenths Nothing so much hinders Tillage which often puts the Nation upon hazard of ruine and forceth us to seek bread out of other Countreys at immoderate rates when as this Nation is generally so fit for Corn that it might be as a rich Granary not onely for our own supply but reliefe of our Neighbors when they want I might say a great deal more upon this subject but much to this purpose hath been said by others and therefore I shall conclude And let no man henceforth think it strange that any should refuse to pay tythes but rather wonder that any will do it THis is not written for them that know the truth but for them which know not the truth that they might be informed from the Light which sees the truth through the Reason to the same in the world that the truth they may see and understand in their own language FINIS
institutae And at this time no regard was had to the nature of the increase but whatsoever did arise in profit whether by trade merchandize or husbandry the tenth was required to be paid for tythes He preaching on Zacheus charity sayes Dedit proprium reddiâ—ic alienum Graviter ergo peccant qui decimas primitias non reddunt Sacerdotibus sed eas pro voluntate distribuunt indigentibus But still the people had more minde to give them for the poor rather then the priests as may be understood by the complaint of Pope Innocent the third who cryed out against those that gave their tythes and first fruits to the poor and not to the priests as haynous offenders his own words take in the margin Also a generall Council held at Lyons under Pope Gregory the tenth in the yeer 1274. Vt nulli hominum deinceps liceat decimas suas ad libitum ut amea ubi vellet assignare set Matrici Ecclesiae omnes decimas persolverent it was constituted that it should not thenceforth be lawful for men to give their tythes of their own pleasure where they would as it had been before but pay all their tythes to the Mother Church By these it may be seen that though the people who then generally were Papists did believe they ought to pay them yet were they free to dispose them where they pleased till these Popish Councils restrained their librrty Non sunt ferendi qui vaerijs artibus decimas Ecclesiis obvenientes substrahere moliuntur an t qui ab aliis solvendas temere occupant in rem suam vertunt cum decimarum solutio debita sit Deo qui eas dare noluerins aut dantes impediunt res alienas invadunt Praecipit igitur sancta Synodus omnibus cujuscunque gradus conditionis sint ad quâ—s decimarum solutio spectaâ— ut eaâ— ad quas dejure tementur in posterum Cathedrali aut quibuscunque aliis Ecclesiis vel personis quibus legitime debentur integrepersolvant Qui vero cas aut substahunt aut impediunt Exoommunicenâ—ur Nec ab hoc crimine nisi plona restitutione secuta absolvantur But the great Decree which speaks most plain and till which nothing was given foath which did-directly constitute them but rather still supposed them as due by some former right was made at the Council of Trent under Pope Pius the fourth about the year 1560. And yet that great Council followed the Doctrine of their Father and said they were due to God and had no new Authority for their great Decree which they command to be obeyed under the penalty of excommunication Having thus briefly run over the Ecclesiastical State abroad from the Infant-purity of the Church to the height of the Papal Domination and given a small glimpse through every Age to the point in hand I shall now more particularly return to what may concern this Natition I shall not trouble the Reader with a relation of Ioseph of Arimathea and his eleven Disciples coming into Britaine sent by Philip the A postle in the reign of Arviragus as Histories report nor of the conversion of King Lucius afterwards who is said to give great endowments to the Church Nor of the British Christians nothing at all appearing of the payment of tythes in their dayes But passing by them and those many years wherein the barbarous Saxons over-ran this Nation exercising most cruel persecutions till the very name of Christian was blotted out and those Heathens seated in the quiet possession of a sevenfold Kingdom in this Land About the year 600. or soon after Gregory the first new Pope of Rome sent over Augustine the Monk into England by whom Ethelbert King of Kent was converted and by him and his followers in processe of time other parts of the Nation and others of the Kings were also brought to their faith This Augustine was a Canon Regular and both he and his Clergy for long time after followed the example of former Ages living in common upon the offerings of their Converts those that received them were joined in societies in imitation of the primitive practice having such direction sent him by Pope Gregory that in the tendernesse of the Saxon Church he his Clergy should still imitate the community of all things used in the prituitive times under the Apostles that they might not make their Religion burthensom But afterwards having brought a great part of the Nation to their faith they began to preach up the old Roman Doctrine That tythes ought to be paid and having taught the people that the pardon of sin might be merited by good works and the torments of Hell be avoided by their charitable deeds it was no hard matter when that was believed to perswade them not onely to give their tythes but also their Lands as the outward Riches of those called Religious Houses then here and elsewhere may testifie for in this Nation they and the Clergy had almost gotten the third part of the whole Land and so besotted were the poor ignorant people that had not a Law against Mortmain prevented it a far greater part of the Nation had been in their hands As conceruing Laws and Canons for tythes amongst the Saxons it is reported That in the year 786. two Legates were sent from Pope Hadrian the first to Offa K. of Mercland and Aelfwolfe K. of Northumberland who made a Decree that the people of those two Kingdoms should pay tythes Also that Aethelulph K. of the West-Saxons in the year 855. made a Law That the tythe of all his own Lands should be given to God and his servants and should be enjoyed free from all taxes Great difference is amongst Historians about this Grant few agreeing in the words or substance of it as Selden shews some restraining it to the tythe of his own Demesne Lands others to the tenth part of his Land others to the tythe of the whole Nation At that time the Nation being under groat and heavy pressures by Danish irruptions intestive wars Promeae remedio animae Regni populi great spoiles and miseries he called a Council where were present Bernredus K. of Mercia and Edmund K. of East-Angles and they to remove the heavy judgements then over them grants the tythe of all their Land to God and his servants K. Athelstone about the year 930. K. Edmund about the year 940. K. Edgar about the year 970. K. Ethelred about the year 1010. K. Knute about the yeare 1020. Edward the Consessor and others of the Saxon Kings made several Laws for tythes as Histories report Quoniam Divina Misrecordia prâ—vidente cognovimus esse dispositum longe latique praedicante Ecclesia sonac omnium auribus divulgatum Quod Eleemosynarum largitione possunt absolvi vincula peccatoruÌ„ adquiri Caelestium praemia gaudioruÌ„ Ego Stephanus Dei gratia Anglorum Rex parteÌ„ habere voleus cuÌ„ illis qui felici commercio Caelestia
and here the poor people might easily understand what they might expect from them yet he that did not pay no great punishment could they inflict on him but excommunication out of their Church The Pope by all means willing to favour his chiefest props notwithstanding his general Decree could tell how to dispense with his own Lands at his pleasure and therefore frequently did grant exemptions to divers Orders to free them from payment of tythes witnesse the Hospitallers Cistercians Templers and generally to all I ands held in the occupation of the called religious Persons and Houses which is the ground of all those mens claims who have bought the Lands of dissolved Monasteries c. and say they are tythe-free When the Pope by colour of the Jewish Laws by which tythes were given to the Levitical Priesthood had gained an universal payment of tythes to all his Clergy in further imitation of that earthly Tabernacle he sets up a new building after the former pattern and therefore to himself he claims first-fruits and tenths as a Successor of the Jewish High-Priest fins also he undertook to pardon Cardinals also he appoints as Loaders of their Families Myters they were on their heads as Aaron did Synagogues they build with Singers Porters c. and into the sorm of the Levitical Priesthood they transform themselves thereby wholly denying Christ Jesus the end of Types and Figures to be come in the flesh Afterwards H. 8. King of England being a Papist and believing the Popes Doctrine as also did his Parliament that tythes were due to God and Holy Church made a Law that every one should set out and pay his tythes And seeing this is the great Law and the first of our Parliament-Laws for tythes and that upon which the rest are grounded I shall here insert the Preamble of it Forasmuch as divers numbers of evil-disposed persons having no respect to their dutyes to Almighty God but against right and good conscience have attempted to substract and with-hold in some places the whole and in some places great parts of their Tythes and Oblations as well personal as predial due unto God and Holy Church c. A second Law in his time was also made to the like purpose and in pursuance of the former and great reason he had and need there was for them for having dissolved many Monasteries who had many tythes and Rectories appropriated to them and either had them in his own hands or sold them to others to be held as lay-possessions and they having no Law whereby to recover them the Popes Laws not reaching to Lay-persons so called he was necessitated to make new Laws to enforce the payment of them which the better to colour over the matter he makes in general terms but still restrains the tryal of tythes to the Ecclesiastical Courts After him Edw. the sixth in pursuance of his Fathers Laws and upon the same grounds makes another Law for the payment of predial and personal tythes under penalty of trebble damages who also restrains the tryal to the Ecclesiastical Courts These Laws suppose that tythes were due to God and Holy Church and therefore they require that every man do yeild and set out his tythes as had been accustomed In pursuance of these Laws some Ordinances were made in the time of the long Parliament in the Exigences of the War because the Courts of Justice were obstructed And these are the substance of all our English Laws concerning Tythes Having thus generally and briefly run over the Laws and practices of tything both abroad and in this Nation I shall give some hints of the Opinions of former times concerning tythes About the yeare 1000. and 1200. after Christ when tythes were generally preached up and claimed great controversie did arise between the Canomists and the Clergy by what immediate Law tythes were payable The Canonists generally ground themselves upon the Decrees and Canons of the Church so called and on the Writings of Augustine Ambrose and the rest of the ancient Fathers who say they are due by Divine Right The Clergy of those times were at difference amongst themselves some of them saying That tythes quoad quotam partem or as it is a determined part is due onely by positive and Ecclesiastick Law but quoad substantiam suam or as it devotes a competent part to be allowed for the maintenance of the Ministry is due by Divine Law and that the tenth part was decreed by the Church per vim ejus exemplarem or by imitation of the Jewish State and not per vim obligativam or any continuing force of it under the Gospel and that the Church was not bound to this part but freely might as wel have ordained the payment of a 9th or 8th according to the various opportunity This was taught by Hales Aquinas Henricus de Grandavo Ride Media villa Cardinal Cajâ—ian Io. Mayer Snarez Malder and others who say it is the common Opinion of the greatest part of the Clergy of that time and that the tenth part was rather ceremonial then moral Here also was made a distinction and many said that predial and mixt tythes were due by the divine Ecclesiastick Law but personal tythes only by the Decrees of the Church but Hales said that tythes as well personal as predial are in the precept Quoad substantiam but neither Quoad quotam and therefore in Venice and other Cities where no predial tythes are a personal tythe is required by the positive Law of the Church by vertue of the substance not ceremony of the Command Another Opininion and that owned by many was drawn from the former Doctrine which concluded That seeing tythes as the quota pars were not enjoined by the command of God therefore they were meer Alms or as what debito Charitatis not debito justiciae was to be dispensed Of this Opinion were the Dominicans and Franciscans who both began about the year 1210. and by their Doctrine got many tythes to be given to their Monasteries and that whatsoever was given to the four Orders of Mendicant Fryars was a sufficient discharge from the Priest And our famous Reformers Iohn Wickliffe Walter Brute Will. Thorp and others whose Arguments are at large in Fox his Acts and Monuments did in their dayes bear their testimony against tythes for which some of them suffered in flames Agreeing herewith are the Articles of the Bohemians published near 300. years since wherein a divine right to tythes since the Gospel is denyed whereupon also long since they took all their temporalties from their Ministers And before Wickliffes time Gerardus Sagarellus was of the same mind And the great Erasmus also said That the common exacting of tythes by the Clergy of his time was no better then Tyranny Having thus briefly run over the Doctrines Decrees Practices and Opinions concerning tythes I shall make some short observations thereupon that the Reader may understand whereunto they tend and then proceed to the matter as it concerns
some of them have tythes been demanded and paid since the dark night of Apostacy overspread the earth under the Papal power till the Popes Supremacy and Religion was cast off in England and where the popish Religion is professed they are now by the same demanded and paid But now of late in England now Claims are made and the old pretences seem too much to savour of the popish Leven and therefore a humane right is pleaded which I shall briefly bring under these few heads 1. Some plead the gifts of Kings and Princes who were Rulers of the people as Ethelwosph c. 2. Others plead the temporal Laws of Kings Parliaments c. 3. Others plead the particular gifts appropriation consecration or donation of those who were former owners of the Land 4. Others plead prescription and a legal right by their possession 5. Others plead a legal right by purchase And besides these I never heard or read of any other pretence for tythes though I have diligently for two years and more laboured to inform my self fully what could be alledged for them To begin with the first Those that say tythes are due by Divine Right Some of them say That the Law given to Israel for payment of tenths to the Tribe of Levi doth also oblige Christians to pay tenths to their Ministers as succeeding in the Priests Office Ans To such it is clearly answered That the priesthood which had a commandment to take tythes being changed by Christ Jesus there is made of necessity also a change of the Law and now the priesthood is no more committed to the natural off-spring of Levi or any other tribe but to Christ Jesus the unchangeable priesthood whose Kingdom stands not in figures and carnal Ordinances but is the Substance of what that was but a figure And it is clear the primitive Church were assur'd of it who for some hundreds of years and till the mysterie of Iniquity began to work never called for the payment of tythes as is before plainly proved And how doth a Gospel Ministry succeed to the Levites who received tythes but were not priests much more colour had the Quiristers Singing-men and the rest of the Rabble brought into the late Cathedrals to claim them and onely to pay out a tenth part to the priests as the Levites did Others say That Abraham paid tythes to Melchisedec which was before the Levitical Priesthood and Christ Iesus is made a Priest after the Order of Melchisedec Abraham returning from the slaughter of the Kings was met by Melchisedec who brought him bread and wine and Abraham gave him the tenth of the tythes but what is this to the payment of tythes unlesse it oblige the Souldiers for it doth not appear that Abraham paid the tenth part of his own increase nor doth it appear that Abraham gave the tenth part at any other time and how will this prove a yearly payment of tythes to Ministers And what if Iacob gave tythes how are either of these examples more binding then any other of the good acts that either of these holy men did Object If it be said that Jesus Christ said ye tythe minâ— c. these things ye ought not to leave undone It 's answered that Jesus Christ then spoke to the Jewes in the time when the Levitical priesthood was not ended who were bound by the Law so long as it was of force till he was offered up and said It is finished But though Divine Right hath been of long pretended few are now left who will onely stand to it and the generalitie both of Lawyers Priests and people are of a contrary minde For if Tythes be absolutely due by the Law of God no custome usage prescription priviledge or popish dispensation can acquit from payment of the utmost peny of the tenth part but scarce the tenth person in England payeth Tyth in kinde and many plead they are tythe-free and pay none at all and others very small matters and so the greatest part of the people of England deny Tythes to be due by Gods Law Again if Tythes be due by the Law of God then is it to the end for which they were commanded for the Levites the Strangers the Fatherless and the Widows all therefore who plead for Tythes by Divine Right must not pay them to an Impropriator for by Gods Law he cannot claim neither ought any Impropriator of that minde to receive them And of late yeers it was by Rolls Chief Justice adjudged in the Vpper Bench That Tythes are not now due by the Law of God 2. To the next those that plead the Equity of the Law is still of force These plead not for Tythes properly but for a comfortable maintenance and by way of Tythes as they suppose most convenient c. And these bring many Scriptures in the New Testament that he that labors is worthy of his hire he that preacheth the Gospel ought to live of the Gospel let him that is taught communicate to him that teacheth and the like And to such I say that not onely the Equitie of the Leviticall Law for Tything the Doctrine of Christ Jesus and his Apostles do binde but even from natural thinge we are largely taught our duty therein No man muzleth the mouth of the Oxe and no man goeth a warfare at his own charge and he that plants a vinyard eats the fruit thereof And herein it is agreed that the Ministers of Christ Iesus who are called to his service and labour in the Word ought to be comfortably provided for that they go not a warfare at their own charge But this doth not require that the world which lies waste as a Wilderness and is not of the Vinyard should contribute much less be compelled to give a certain portion of the fruits of their labours towards the maintenance of Christs Ministers And these grant that every man is the sole owner of his own labour and possession and though by another he may not be compelled for such sacrifice God abhors yet ought every one freely to glorifie God with his substance to strengthen the weak hands and feeble knees and to give to him that teacheth those things that are needfull and such cheerfull givers God accepts And this leaves every one free to give to him that teacheth not binding to the maintenance of those who have lesse need then the giver or of those who are transformed as Apostles and Ministers of Christ who have the form but want the power who teach for filthy lucre keeping ever learning but cannot bring to the knowledge of the truth And of such as Christ Jesus sent forth he alwayes took care and they never wanted but they reaped the fruits of their labour and eat the fruits of their own Vinyards which they had planted by the Churches who were gathered out of the world were they maintained to preach the Gospel to th world unto whom they would not make the Gospel chargeable or burthensom which
was their glory and their Crown And herewith let all our now called Churches be proved and tryed who separate from the world and yet many of them receive pay and wages for their teachers from the world who send none at their own cost to preach to the world And here our Rulers should learn wisdom to with-hold their hands from upholding any with their worldly Sword and compelling others to maintain them and to leave Christs Kingdom to his own Rule who is Lord of the Harvest and sends forth labourers and hath spirit to put upon them who sends forth the-Fisher-men the Shepherds the Herdsmen the tillers of the ground and the keepers of flocks who speake plain words that wise men cannot understand who are wise in the worlds wisdom gathered in Schools whither they are sent to learn a trade thereby to get their livings and in the time of popery they studyed the popish Doctrine and then preached them to others and in the time of prelacy they changed to a new form And when that was laid aside Presbytery was set up and then such the Vniversities sent forth and since Independency was preferred great store of them are spread abroad and look what pleaseth them best that have the greatest livings in dispose that is the most cryed up and most studyed and preached and here is the spring of our Teachers the Vniversities and these say that Greek and Hebrew are the original which they go thither to learn that they may understand what Christ spoke and the Apostles preached But the Hebrews and Greeks who heard them speake in their own Language could not understand their Doctrine for it seemed foolishnesse to them and these by their original are in no better state nor nearer to the knowledge of the Gospel And let our Rulers consider that Christs love to the world for whom he dyed is not abated neither is his spirit diminished nor his powde shortened that he will not or cannot send forth and fit Ministers for his service or that he needs Vniversities to instruct or Magistrates to provide maintenance for those he sends forth And let them look to their own kingdom the world therein to punish restrain the evil to encourage protect the good then all would be agreed and the Nation kept in peace every one enjoying his true liberty and freedom For in this it is assented that the Ministers of Christ Jesus who sowe unto us spiritual things should reap of our temporals But here is the difference first That our consciences must be our judge who those Ministers are and no other mans direction for to the conscience were Christs Ministers alwayes made manifest and not approved with the reason and wisdom of man Secondly That our gift must be free and by no mans compulsion Would not this ease the Magistrate of much trouble that he makes to himself and be more acceptable to God and man for who hath made him a Judge in these things A third sort plead the Decrees Canons Constitutions of General Councils Popes Bishops Convocations To such I shall onely say that for the first 800. years after Christ no Canon or Decree was made by general Council nor was it then determined by the Church as 't was called what part every man should pay And the first eight General Councils do not so much as speak of the name of tythes and that was till about 1000. years and then about that time it came to be received and believed that tythes ought to be paid yet in England as well as other Nations every man might have given his tythe where he pleased till about the year 1200. as is already proved But I need not say much to these few being of this mind but those who own the Pope for their Head we having in England denyed and cast off his Supremacy though in this matter of tythes and many other things we still feel his power amongst us And now having briefly gone over the substance of what is pleaded for a Divine of Ecclesiastick right I come next to what is pretended for a humane Right And the first sort pleads the gifts of Kings as Ethelwolph c. To these I answer If they could prove the whole Land had been the particular possession of any such King they said something though that would not justifie the taking tythes from all the people as shall be more fully proved hereafter But by what right could he give the tenth part of the encrease and fruits of the labours of all the people of his Dominions who had no legal property therein It was an easie matter when the Popes Emissaries had taught the people that tythes were due to God and them and had perswaded Kings and Nobles that Heaven might be purchased by then works to procure from them the gift of that which was not theirs the poor peoples tythes especially considering the people were of the same mind and as zealous of all the popish superstitions as themselves and every one striving who should therein most excel witnesse those many rich Abbeys and Monasteries lately in this Land But if that K. Ethelwolphs Grant be the foundation of tythes then how many succeeding Kings and Bishops and others have violated his Deed by appropriating them to Abbeys Monasteries and such like Houses And how hath all Ages since Ethelwolphs taken upon themselve the disposition of tythes without any relation to what he did which shewes clearly That neither Kings Parliaments nor prople did ever take themselves bound by his Grant But the folly and vanity of this Argument will more plainly appear hereafter The next and those which seem to have the strongest plea do urge the temporal Laws of Kings and Parliaments and say by the Law they have as good property in tythes as any man hath in his Lands Ans To such I say The Law doth not give any man a property either in land or tythes or any other thing but onely doth conserve to every man his property which he hath in his land and possessions either by gift purchase or discent and secure him from the injury or violence of another But let us not be deceived with a new pretence lately taken up to delude the simple minds of a legal property and a civil right for that is but a shift and it matters not what any say or now pretend concerning the right of tythes when they see their other claims will not serve the turn but let us hear what the Makres of the Laws say of them those from whom they claim and passing by the Saxon times and K. Stephen and the rest of those who were in the mid-night of popery let us come to H. 8. who cast off the Pope and upon whose Law all others that were since made are builded and in the preamble of the Act it is declared That tythes are due to God and holy Church and they blame men for being so wicked as not to pay them and therefore
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-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