Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	king_n	lord_n	tenant_n	3,351	5	9.8475	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86306	The undeceiving of the people in the point of tithes: wherein is shewed, I. That never any clergy in the Church of God hath been, or is maintained with lesse charge to the subject, then the established clergy of the Church of England. II. That there is no subject in the realme of England, who giveth any thing of his own, towards the maintenance of his parish-minister, but his Easter-offering. III. That the change of tithes into stipends, will bring greater trouble to the clergy, then is yet considered; and far lesse profit to the countrey, then is now pretended. / By Ph. Treleinie Gent.	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.	1647 (1647)	Wing H1741; Thomason E418_1; ESTC R204596	25,471	32

hath his Stipend from the publick Treasurer the Doctor being maintained wholly as I am credibly informed at the charge of the people and that not onely by the bounty or benevolence of landed men but in the way of Contribution from which no sort of people of what rank soever but such as live on alms or the poore mans box is to be exempted But this is onely in the churches of Calvins platform those of the Lutheran party in Denmark Swethland and high Germany having their Tithes and Glebe they had before and so much more in offerings then with us in England by how much they come neerer to the church of Rome both in their practise and opinions especially in the point of the holy Sacrament then the English doe And as for our dear brethren of the Kirk of Scotland who cannot be so soon forgotten by a true born English man the Tithes being settled for the most part on Religious houses came in their fall unto the Crown and out of them a third was granted to maintain their Minister but so ill paid while the Tithes remained in the Crown and worse when alienated to the use of private Gentlemen that the greatest part of the burden for support of the Ministery lay in the way of contribution on the backs of the people And as one ill example doth beget another such Lords and Gentlemen as had right to present to churches following the steps of those who held the Tithes from the Crown soon made lay-fees of all the Tithes of their own demesnes and left the presentee such a sorry pittance as made him burthensome to his neighbours for his better maintenance How it stands with them now since these late alterations those who have took the Nationall covenant and I presume are well acquainted with the Discipline and estate of the Scottish Kirk which they have bound themselves to defend and keep are better able to resolve us And so much for the proof of the first proposition namely That never any Clergy in the church of God hath been or is maintained with lesse charge of the Subject then the established Clergy of the church of England And yet the proof hereof will be more convincing if we can bring good evidence for the second also which is II. That there is no man in the Kingdome of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance and support of his Parish-Minister but his Easter-offering And that is a Paradox indeed will the Reader say Is it not visible to the eye that the Clergy have the tenth part of our corn and cattell and of others the increase and fruits of the earth Doe not the people give them the tenth part of their estates saith one of my pamphlets have they not all their livelihoods out of our purses saith another of them Assuredly neither so nor so All that the Clergy doth receive from the purse of the Subject for all the pains he takes amongst them is two pence at Easter He claims no more then this as due unlesse the custome of the place as I think in some parts it is bring it up to sixe pence If any thing be given him over this by some bountifull hand he takes it for a favour and is thankfull for it Such profits as come in by marriages churchings and funerall Sermons as they are generally small and but accidentall so hee is bound unto some speciall service and attendance for it His constant standing fee which properly may be said to come out of the Subjects purse for the administration of the Word and Sacraments is nothing but the Easter-offering The Tithes are legally his own not given unto him by the Subject as is now pretended but paid unto him as a rent-charge laid upon the land and that before the Subject either Lord or Tenant had any thing to do in the land at all For as I am informed by Sir Edw Coke in his Comment upon Littletons Tenures li. 1. cap. 9. Sect. 73. fo. 58. It appeareth by the Laws and Ordinances of ancient Kings and specially of King Alfred that the first King of this Realm had all the lands of England in Demesne and les grands manours royalties they reserved to themselves and with the remnant they for the defence of the Realm enfeoffed the Barons of the Realm with such jurisdiction as the court Baron now hath So he the professed Champion of the Common laws And at this time it was when all the lands in England were the Kings Demesne that Ethelwolph the second Monarch of the Saxon race his father Egbert being the first which brought the former Heptarchie under one sole Prince conferred the Tithes of all the kingdome upon the Church by his royall Charter Of which thus Ingulph Abbot of Crowland an old Saxon writer i An. 855. which was the 18 of his reign King Ethelwulph with the consent of his Prelates Princes which ruled in England under him in their severall Provinces did first enrich the church of England with the tithes of all his lands and goods by his Charter Royall Ethelward an old Saxon and of the bloud royall doth expresse it thus k He gave the tithe of his possessions for the Lords own portion and ordered it to be so in all the parts of the Kingdome under his command Florence of Worcester in these words l King Ethelwolfe for the redemption of his own soul and the souls of his Predecessors discharged the tenth part of his Realm of all tributes and services due unto the Crown and by his perpetuall Charter signed with the signe of the Crosse offered it to the three-one God Roger of Hovenden hath it in the self-same words and Huntingdon more briefly thus m that for the love of God and the redemption of his soul he tithed his whole dominions to the use of the Church But what need search be made into so many Authours when the Charter it self is extant in old Abbot Ingulph and in Matthew of Westminster and in the Leiger book of the Abbey of Abingdon Which Charter being offered by the King on the Altar at Winchester in the presence of his Barons was received by the Bishops and by them sent to be published in all the Churches of their severall Diocesses a clause being added by the King saith the book of Abingdon that whoso added to the gift n God would please to prosper and increase his days but that if any did presume to diminish the same he should be called to an accompt for it at Christs judgment seat unlesse he made amends by full satisfaction In which as in some other of the former passages as there is somewhat savouring of the errour of those darker times touching the merit of good works yet the authorities are strong and most convincing for confirmation of the point which we have in hand Now that the King charged all the lands of the Kingdome with the payment of

tithes and not that onely which he held in his own possession is evident both by that which was said before from Sir Edw Coke and by the severall passages of the former Authours For if all the lands in the kingdome were the Kings Demesnes and the King conferred the tithes of all his lands on the church of God it must follow thereupon that all the lands of the Realm were charged with tithes before they were distributed amongst the Barons for defence of the kingdome And that the lands of the whole Realm were thus charged with tithes as well that which was parted in the hands of tenants as that which was in the occupancy of the King himself the words before alledged doe most plainly evidence where it is said that he gave the tenth of all his lands as Ingulph the tithe of his whole land as Henry of Huntingdon the tenth part of his whole kingdome as in Florence of Worcester the tenth part of the lands throughout the kingdome in the Charter it self And finally in the book of Abingdon the Charter is ushered in with this following title viz. Quomodo Ethelwolfus Rex dedit decimam partem regni sui Ecclesiis that is to say how Ethelwolf gave unto the church the tenth part of his kingdome This makes it evident that the King did not only give de facto the tithe or tenth part of his whole Realm to the use of the Clergy but that he had a right and a power to doe it as being not onely the Lord Paramount but the Proprietary of the whole lands the Lords and great men of the Realm not having then a property or estates of permanency but as accomptants to the King whose the whole land was And though it seems by Ingulph their consents were asked and that they gave a free consent to the Kings Donation yet was this but a matter of form and not simply necessary their approbation consent being only asked either because the King was not willing to doe any thing to the disherison of his Crown without the liking and consent of his Peers or that having their consent and approbation they should bee barred from pleading any Tenant-right and be obliged to stand in maintenance and defence thereof against all pretenders And this appears yet further by a Law of King Athelstanes made in the year 930 about which time not only the Prelates of the church as formerly but the great men of the Realm began to be settled in estates of permanency and to claim a property in those lands which they held of the Crown and claiming to make bold to subduct their tithes For remedy whereof the King made this Law commanding all his Ministers throughout the kingdome that in the first place they should pay the tithes o of his own estate that is to say that which he held in his own hands and had not estated out to his Lords and Barons and that the Bishops did the like of that which they held in right of their churches his Nobles and Officers of that which they held in property as their own possessions or inheritance By which we finde that tithes were granted to the Clergy out of all the lands in the kingdome and the perpetuall payment of them laid as a rent-charge on the fame by the bounty and munificence of the first Monarchs of this Realm before any part thereof was demised to others And if perhaps some of the great men of the Realm had estates in property as certainly there were but few if any which had any such estates in the times we speak of they charged the same with tithes by their own consent before they did transmit them to the hands of the Gentry or any who now claim to lay hold under them So then the land being charged thus with the payment of tithes came with this clog unto the Lords and great men of the Realm and being so charged with tithes by the Kings and Nobles have been transmitted and passed over from one hand to another untill they came to the possession of the present owners Who whatsoever right they have to the other nine parts either of fee-simple lease or copy have certainly none at all in the tithe or tenth which is no more theirs or to be thought of then the other nine parts are the Clergies For whether they hold their lands at an yearly rent or have them in fee or for tearm of life or in any other tenure whatsoever it be they hold them and they purchased them on this tacite condition that besides the rents and services which they pay to the Lord they are to pay unto the Clergy or unto them who do succeed in the Clergies right a tenth of all the fruits of the earth and of the fruits of their cattell and all creatures tithable unlesse some ancient custome or prescription doe discharge them of it And more then so whether they hold by yearly rent or by right of purchase they held it at lesse rent by far and buy it at far cheaper rates because the land it self and the stock upon it is chargeable with tithes as before was said then they would doe or could in reason think to do were the land free from tithes as in some places of this Realm it is To make this clearer by example of an house in London where according to the rent which the house is set at the Minister hath 2 s. 9 d. out of every pound in the name of a tithe Suppose we that the rent of the house be 50 l. the Ministers due according unto that proportion comes to 6 l. 17 s. 6 d. yearly which were it not paid and to be paid by law to the Parish-Minister there is no question to be made but that the Landlord of the house would have raised his rent and not content himself with the 50 l. but look for 56 l. 17 s. 6 d. which is the whole rent paid though to divers hands And if this house were to be sold at 16 years purchase the Grantee could expect no more then 800 l. because there is a rent of 6 l. 17 s. 6 d. reserved to the Minister by Law which is to be considered in the sale thereof whereas if no such rent or tithe were to issue out of it he would have as many years purchase for the sum remaining which would inhaunce the price 110 l. higher then before it was Now by this standard we may judge of the case of lands though by reason of the difference of the soil the well or ill husbanding of grounds and the greatnesse or smalness of the stock which is kept upon them it cannot be reduced to so clear a certainty But whatsoever the full tithe of all be worth to the Minister we may undoubtedly conclude that if so much as the tithe comes to yearly were not paid to him the Landlord would gain it in his rent and the Grantee get it in the sale no benefit at

all redounding to the Tenant by it nor any unto him that buyeth it Or if we will suppose with one of my pamphlets and let it be supposed this once for our better proceeding that he who officiates in a parish where tithes are paid in kind without any substractions hath the fift part of every landed mans estate that is to say four pounds in every 20 l. per annum the Purchaser or Tenant be he which he will may positively build on this in his better thoughts that if four pounds in twenty were not paid to the Minister the Tenant must pay to his Landlord and the Purchaser must buy it at the same rates as he did the rest of the land But being that neither the Tenant pays rent for it nor the Purchaser hath it in his grant for him that selleth the land unto him the tithe of the increase of their land and stock and other creatures tithable in their possession can be none of their own but must be his and onely his whom the munificence of Kings and Princes confirmed by so many Laws and Statutes have conferred it on His part indeed it is not ours not the tenth part of our estates as my pamphlet saith he receives it of us as a rent or duty transmitted to us with the land from one hand to another not as a matter of gift or an act of courtesie If then we pay not any thing of our own to the Parish-Minister which ariseth to him from the increase of corn and cattell and other creatures tithable by the law of the Land I think it cannot be affirmed by discerning men who are not led aside by prejudice and prepossessions that we give any thing at all of our own unto them more then our Easter-offering be it more or lesse 'T is true some Statutes have been made about the payment of personall tithes out of the gains arising in the way of trade and I remember Dr Burgesse writ a book about it for which he stands as highly censured by the Independent p as for other things by those of the Prelaticall party But then I think it is as true that either those Statutes were drawn up with such reservations or men of trades have been so backward to conform unto them that little or no benefit hath redounded by them to the Parish-Minister more then to shew the good affections which the Parliaments of those times had unto the Clergy And if we pay nothing of our own towards the maintenance of the Clergy out of the increase of our grounds and stock as I have plainly proved we doe not and that no benefit come unto them from the gains of trading as I think there comes not if those small vailes and casualties which redound unto him from Marriages Churchings and the like occasions be given unto him for some speciall service which he doth perform and not for his administration of the Word and Sacraments I hope my second Proposition hath been proved sufficiently namely that there is no man in the kingdome of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance of his Parish-Minister but his Easter-offering if so as so it is for certain there hath been little ground for so great a clamour as hath been lately raised about this particular lesse reason to subduct or to change that maintenance which the piety of our Kings have given and the indulgence of succeeding Princes have confirmed in Parliament without any charge unto the subject Which change though possibly some specious colors may be put unto it will neither be really beneficiall to the Clergy or Laity And that conducts me on to my last Proposition viz. III. That the change of Tithes into Stipends will bring greater trouble to the Clergy then is yet considered and far lesse profit to the Country then is now pretended This is a double Proposition and therefore must be looked on in its severall parts first in relation to the Clergy whose ease is very much pretended and next in reference to the Occupant whose profit onely is intended in the change desired It is pretended for the Clergy q to be a very difficult thing to know the dues demandable in their severall parishes that it maketh them too much given unto worldly things by looking after the inning and threshing out of their corn and doth occasion many scandalous and vexatious suits betwixt them and their neighbours all which they think will be avoided in case the Ministers were reduced to some annuall stipend And to this end it is propounded by the Army in their late Proposals that the unequall troublesome and contentious way of Ministers maintenance by Tithes may be considered of in Parliament and a remedy applied unto it But under favor of the Army and of all those who have contrived the late Petitions to that purpose I cannot see but that the way of maintenance by annuall stipends will be as troublesome unequall and contentious too as that of Tithes by Law established especially if those annuall stipends be raised according to the platform which is now in hand For as far as I am able to judge by that which I have seen and heard from the chief contrivers the design is this A valuation to be made of every benefice over all the kingdome according to the worth thereof one year with another a yearly summe according to that valuation to be raised upon the lands of every parish which now stand chargeable with Tithes the mony so assessed and levied to be brought into one common treasury in each severall County and committed to the hands of speciall Trustees hereunto appointed and finally that those Trustees doe issue out each halfe year such allowances to the Ministers of the severall parishes respect being had unto the deserts of the person and the charge of his family yet so that the Impropriatours be first fully satisfied according to the estimate of their Tithes and Glebe This is the substance of the project And if the moneys be assessed in the way proposed onely upon the landed men whether Lords or Tenants and not upon Artificers handicrafts and men of mysterious trades who receive equall benefit by the Ministers labours the way of maintenance by stipends will be as unequall altogether as by that of tithes And if it be but as unequall I am sure it will be far more troublesome For now the Minister or Incumbent hath no more to doe but to see his corn brought in and housed being to be cut and cocked to his hand both by law and custome and being brought in either to spend it in his house or sell the residue thereof to buy other provisions Which if hee think too great an avocation from his studies he may put over to his wife or some trusty servant as Gentlemen of greater fortunes doe unto their Bailifs And I my self know divers Clergy men of good note and quality to whom the taking up of Tithes brings no

parish where the tax or sessement cometh to 400 l. per annum the Minister may not be allowed above an hundred The residue will be wholly in Mr Treasurers power either to feast it with his friends or lay up for his children or at the best to settle it on such who relate unto him or can make means and friends to enlarge their pensions though such perhaps as were never seen nor heard of by the parish whence the money comes And if men think it as it is an ill peece of husbandry to have the soil carried off their own land and laid on anothers to the impoverishing of their own and enriching of his I cannot see but that it will be thought a worse peece of husbandry and prove of very ill digestion to most Country stomacks to have the fat of their livings carried to another place and given unto a man whom they never saw and who is never like to feed their souls with the bread of life or their bodies with the life of bread their own poor Minister mean while from whom they have reason to expect it being so discouraged and impoverished that he can doe neither For whereas those who were possessed of the richer benefices did use to keep good hospitality to entertain their neighbours and relieve their poor and doe many other good offices amongst them as occasion served both to the benefit and comfort of all sorts of parishioners it may so happen and it will as before I said that the Minister may be so ill befriended by Mr Treasurer and the rest of the Trustees for the County that in stead of being either a benefit or a comfort to them in the way proposed he may prove a burden a charge And though I doubt not but as great care will be taken as can be desired in the choice of those who are to have the disposing of the publick monies yet to suppose that men once settled in an office of such trust and power may not be subject unto partialities and corrupt affections were an imagination fitter for the Lord Chancelour Verulams new Atlantis or Sr Thomas More his predecessors old Vtopia or a Platonick Common-wealth then the besttempered government in the Christian world For my part looking into the designe with the best eyes I have and judging of it by the clearest light of understanding which God hath given me I am not able to discern but that the change of Tithes into Stipends in the way propounded will bring greater trouble to the Clergy then is yet considered and far lesse profit to the countrey then is now pretended which is the third and last of my Propositions and is I hope sufficiently and fully proved or at the least made probable if not demonstrative I have said nothing in this Tract of the right of Tithes or on what motive or considerations of preceding claim the Kings of England did confer them upon the Clergy contenting my self at this time with the matter of fact as namely that they were settled on the Church by the Kings of this Realm before they granted out estates to the Lords and Gentry and that the land thus charged with the payment of Tithes they passed from one man to another untill it came unto the hands of the present Occupant which cuts off all that claim or title which the misperswaded subject can pretend unto them I know it cannot bee denied but that notwithstanding the said Grants and Charters of those ancient Kings many of the great men of the Realm and some also of the inferiour Gentry possessed of Manours before the Lateran Councell r did either keep their Tithes in their own hands or make infeodations of them to Religious houses or give them to such Priests or Parishes as they best affected But after the decree of Pope Innocent the 3d which you may find at large in Sr Edw Cokes Comment upon Magna Charta and other old Statutes of this Realm in the Chapter of Tithes had been confirmed in that Councel Anno 1215 and incorporated into the Canons and conclusions of it the payment of them to the Minister or Parochiall Priest came to be settled universally over all the kingdome save that the Templars the Hospitalers and Monkes of Cisteaux held their ancient priviledges of being excepted for those lands which they held in occupancy from this generall rule Nor have I said any thing of Impropriations partly because I am perswaded that the Lords and Gentry who have either Votes or Friends in Parliament will look well enough to the saving of their own stakes but principally because coming from the same original grant from the King to the Subjects by them settled upon Monasteries and Religious houses they fell in the ruine of those houses to the Crown again as of due right the Tithes should doe if they be taken from the Clergy and by the Crown were alienated in due form of law and came by many mean conveyances to the present Owners Onely I shall desire that the Lords and Commons would take a speciall care of the Churches Patrimony for fear lest that the prevalency of this evill humour which gapes so greedily after the Clergies Tithes doe in the end devour theirs also And it concerns them also in relation to their right of Patronage which if this plot goe on will be utterly lost and Churches will no longer be presentative at the choice of the Patron but either made Elective at the will of the People or else Collated by the Trustees of the severall Counties succeeding as they doe in the power of Bishops as now Committee-men dispose of the preferments of the sequestred Clergy If either by their power and wisdome or by the Arguments and Reasons which are here produced the peoples eyes are opened to discern the truth and that they be deceived no longer by this popular errour it is all I am at who have no other ends herein but onely to undeceive them in this point of Tithes which hath been represented to them as a publick grievance conducing manifestly to the diminution of their gain and profit If notwithstanding all this care for their information they will run headlong in the ways of spoil and sacriledge and shut their eyes against the light of the truth shine it never so brightly let them take heed they fall not into that infatuation which the Scripture denounceth that seeing they shall see but shall not perceive and that the stealing of this Coal from the Altars of God burn not down their houses And so I shut up this discourse with the words of our Saviour saying that no man tasteth new wine but presently he saith that the old is the better FINIS a As in the answer to those of Hartford Kent c. b Levit. 2. 3. 7. 5. 7. c Lev. 7. 33 34. d Ib. v. 8. e Lev. 27. 12 13. f Tithegatherers no Gospel-Ministers g Locuples dives in dominicum sine sacrificio venis partem sacrificii quod pauper obtulit sumis Cypde piet Eleemos h Beda in histor Eccles. l. 1. i Anno 855. Rex Ethelwulfus omnium Praelatorum Principum suorum qui sub ipso variis Provinciis totius Anglia praeerant gratuito Consensu tunc primo cum decim●s terrarum bonorum aliorum sive Catallorum universam dotavit Ecclesiam per suum Regium Chirographum Ingulph k Decimavit de omni possessione sua in partem Domini in universo regimine Principatus sui sit constituit Ethelward l Aethelwulphus Rex decimam totius Regni sui partem ab omni Regali servitio tribut● liberavit in sempiterno Graphio in Cruce Christi pro Redemptione Animae suae Praedecessorum suorum uni trino Deo immolavit Florent Wigorn m Totam terram suam propter amorem Dei redemptionem ad opes Ecclesiarum decimavit Henr. Huntingd. n Qui augere voluerit nostrā donationem augeat omnipotens Deus dies ejus prosperos siquis verò mutare vel minuere praesumpsert noscat se ad Tribunal Christi redditurū ration● nisi prius satisfactione emendaverit o Vt imprimis de meo proprio reddant Deo decimas Episcopi mei similiter faciant de suo proprio Aldermanni mei Praepofiti mei p As in the Book called Tithegatherers no Gospel-officers q As in the Kentish Petition and other projects of that kind r Ante Concilium Lateranense bene poterant Laici decimas sibi in feudum retinere vel aliis quibuscunque Ecclesiis dare Lindwood in Provine cap. de decimis