The means provided for the support of the clergy were various at various periods, consisting sometimes merely of voluntary donations on the part of the people, sometimes of grants of lands, or settled endowments, and sometimes of fixed charges upon persons and property, recognized by the state and levied under its authority: and after the secure establishment of a Christian church in Britain, it is probable that all these several sources of income were combined to supply its ministers with a decent maintenance, if not even an easy competence. The grant of lands whereon to erect a church or a monastery was generally calculated also to furnish arable and pasture for the support of its inmates: for the earliest clergy were in fact cœnobites, and lived in common, even if they were not monks, and subject to the Benedictine or some other Rule. It is not at all probable that the heathen priesthood should have been without an adequate provision, whether in land or the free oblations of the people, and very likely that their Christian successors profited by the custom. As the piety or superstition of the masses increased the landed possessions of the clergy, these not only could depend upon the
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produce of their estates, but upon the rents in kind, in money or in service, which they received from tenants or poor dependents. And from early periods, either custom or positive law had established a right to claim certain contributions at fixed periods of the year, or on particular occasions; such were tithes of fruits of the earth, and young of cattle; cyricsceat or first-fruits of seed, light-money, plough-alms, and sáwlsceat or mortuary fees. The numberless grants of lands recorded in the Codex Diplomaticus in favour of the clergy, dispense with the necessity of entering at any length upon this head; but some more detailed examination of the other church-dues is desirable, inasmuch as they have been in some degree misunderstood by several writers who have heretofore treated of them. In truth, it was comparatively difficult to deal with these subjects, till the publication of all the Anglosaxon laws and a very large body of the charters so greatly increased the number of data upon which alone sound conclusions could be formed.
The subject of tithe is surrounded with difficulty, not only from the obscurity which belongs to its history, but still more from the nature of the discussions to which it has given rise. That from periods so early as to transcend historical record the clergy should have been permitted universally to claim a tenth of all increase, does indeed seem so startling a proposition, that we are little surprised at its having met with angry opposition. It does not seem consonant to the general experience of man that in all nations precisely the same mode
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should be adopted of supporting any class of men; nor is it natural or easy to believe that a missionary body, in constant danger of finding all their efforts vain, should prevail at once to establish so serious a claim against the income of their converts.
Still there are various circumstances which tend to explain this process and show how a general consent upon this subject did gradually prevail. From the first moment when the clergy appear as a separate class from the whole body of the faithful, they appear as a body formed upon the plan and guided by the maxims of the Jewish hierarchy. While the church was literally performing the command of the Saviour,—when those who had anything, sold all they had and gave it to the poor, through the hands of the Apostles,—there was no particular necessity to define very closely the functions or the remuneration of the ministers; these gave their services as others did their wealth, as an acceptable sacrifice to the Giver of all good things. But when the number of the congregations increased, when compromises were made, and more complicated duties were imposed upon the ministers of the church, it was only reasonable that some arrangement should be made for their support, and some rule imposed for their direction. It was not too much to require that they should devote their whole time and talents to the service of the congregation, and that these in turn should relieve them from the necessity of daily labour for subsistence. When the duty of teaching, as well as visiting the sick, distributing the alms of the faithful,
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and providing for the due celebration of the religious rites, principally devolved upon them, it would have been as impolitic as unjust to have condemned them to uncertainty or anxiety as to their daily bread. At a very early period the voluntary oblations of the faithful were duly apportioned, and a part devoted to the support of the clergy. But no one, I imagine, will consider this to be a perfectly satisfactory mode of providing for the ministers of the church: its inconveniences are daily manifested in our own time, and would now probably not be submitted to at all, had opposition not lent a dignity to the principle, and did the case present any but the actual alternative. It nevertheless seems that for nearly four hundred years this was the only mode of providing not only for the maintenance of the clergy, but for the acts of charity which the Christian congregations considered their especial duty[973]; although perhaps here and there
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the wealthier or more pious communicants might have charged their estates with settled payments at
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fixed times; or the liberality of individuals might have presented estates to the church of particular
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districts; or some imperfect system of funding might have been adopted by the managers to equalise the otherwise irregular income of various years.
The growing habit of looking upon the clergy as the successors and representatives of the Levites under the Old Law, may very likely have given the impulse to that claim which they set up to the payment of tithes by the laity. But it is also probable that in course of time tithes had actually been given to them among other oblations, and had so helped to strengthen the application of the Levitical Law by an apparent legal prescription. There is not the least reason to doubt that payments of a tenth had been in very common use before the introduction of Christianity, and among people who have a decimal system of notation, a tenth is not an unlikely portion to be claimed as a royalty, a recognitory service, or a rent. The emperors had royalties of a tenth in mines: the landlords very frequently reserved a tenth in lands which they put out on usufructuary tenure. These rents and royalties, like other property, had been granted to the church. Again the piety of the laity had occasionally remitted the tenths due upon
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the lands in the holding of the clergy, which was in fact equivalent to a grant of the tithe[974]. And lastly tithe being paid on some estates to the clergy as landlords, there was a useful analogy, and colourable claim of right: and thus sufficient authority was found in custom itself to corroborate pretensions set up on grounds which could not be very satisfactorily or safely demurred to, in the fourth and fifth centuries.
But there is not the slightest proof that tithe of increase was demanded as of right even in the fifth century, in all the churches; although a growing tendency in that direction may be detected in the African and the Western establishments. Nor does any general council exist containing any regulation on the subject[975], till far later periods. But in 567 the clergy at the synod of Tours for the first time positively called upon the faithful to pay tithes[976], and eighteen years later at the Council of Macon,
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the command was enforced, as a return to a just and goodly custom which had fallen into desuetude, but which had the sanction of “the divine law, specially taking care of the interests of priests and ministers of churches.” The daringly false assertions by which this usurpation was attempted to be justified are recorded in the annexed note, if indeed the acts of this council are genuine[977]: I have only to add that they were subscribed by forty-six bishops, and the representatives of twenty more,—making
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a total of sixty-six prelates, a number quite sufficient in the year 585 to gain currency for any fabrication however impudent. The clergy however still thundered in vain; nor was it till 779 that they succeeded in getting legislative and state authority for their claim through the political interests of the Frankish princes. The Capitulary of that year enacts that every one shall give tithes, and that these shall be distributed by the direction of the bishop[978].
Ten years after the council of Macon had thus boldly announced its views with regard to tithe, Augustine set out for England.
The question as to the origin of tithes in England, as to its date, and the authority on which the impost rested, has been much discussed, but not altogether satisfactorily. Nevertheless when divested of the extraneous difficulties with which polemical zeal, and selfish class-interests have overwhelmed it, it does not seem incapable of a reasonable solution. It is well known that the earliest legislative enactment on the subject in the Anglosaxon laws is that of Æðelstán, bearing date in the first quarter of the tenth century; and that nearly every subsequent king recognized the right of the clergy to tithe, and made regulations either for the levying or the distribution of it[979]. But although this is the case, I entertain no doubt whatever that the payment of tithe was become very general in England at an earlier period. It is recognised in
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the articles of the treaty of peace between Eádweard the elder and Guðorm, in A.D. 900 or 901, in such a way as to assume its being a well-known and established due to the Church[980], even though no legislative enactment on the subject can be shown in the Codes of Ælfred, Ini or the Kentish kings[981]. The well-known tradition of Æðelwulf’s granting tithe, throughout at least his kingdom of Wessex, carries it back still half a century. But even this falls short of the antiquity which we must assume for the custom, if we believe in the genuineness of the ancient Poenitentials and Confessionals. In the eighth century Theodore determines, in a work especially intended for the instruction of the clergy, “Tributum aecclesiae sit, sicut est consuetudo provinciae, id est, ne tantum pauperes in decimis, aut in aliquibus rebus vim patiantur. Decimas non est legitimum dare, nisi pauperibus et peregrinis[982].”
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The Excerptions of Archbishop Ecgberht[983] contain a prohibition against subtracting tithes from churches of old foundation, on pretence of giving them to new oratories. And further, the following exhortation respecting this payment[984]: “In lege Domini scriptum est: ‘Decimas et primitias non tardabis offerre.’ Et in Levitico: ‘Omnes decimae terrae, sive de frugibus, sive de pomis arborum, Domini sunt; boves, et oves, et caprae, quae sub pastoris virga transeunt, quicquid decimum venerit, sanctificabitur Domino.’ Non eligetur nec bonum nec malum, nec alterum commutabitur. Augustinus dicit: Decimae igitur tributae sunt aecclesiarum et egentium animarum. O homo, inde Dominus decimas expetit, unde vivis. De militia, de negotio, de artificio redde decimas; non enim eget Dominus noster, non proemia postulat, sed honorem.” The same ancient authority thus also impresses upon priests the duty of collecting and distributing the tithe[985]:—“Ut unusquisque sacerdos cunctos sibi pertinentes erudiat, ut sciant qualiter decimas totius facultatis aecclesiis divinis debite offerant. Ut ipsi sacerdotes a populis suscipiant decimas, et nomina eorum quicumque dederint scripta habeant, et secundum auctoritatem canonicam coram [Deum] timentibus dividant; et ad ornamentum aecclesiae primam eligant partem; secundam autem, ad usum pauperum atque peregrinorum, per eorum manus misericorditer cum
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omni humilitate dispensent; tertiam vero sibimetipsis sacerdotes reservent[986].”
When we consider the growing tendency in the clergy to make payment of tithe compulsory, the repeated exhortations of provincial synods to that
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effect, and the universal ignorance of the people, we shall have little difficulty in acknowledging that the English prelates laid a good foundation for the custom of tithing, long before they succeeded in obtaining any legal right from the State. In the course of three centuries which preceded Eádweard’s reign they had ample time and opportunity to threaten or cajole a simple-minded race into the belief that they had a right to impose the levitical obligations upon them: in the seventh century Boniface testifies to the payment of tithe in England, nearly a century before the state enacted it in Germany: about the same period Cædwealha of Wessex, though yet nominally a pagan, tithed his spoils taken in war; and I have little doubt that at least prædial tithe was almost universally levied long before the Witena gemót made it a legal charge, though I cannot concur with Phillips in believing that it was so decreed by Offa, or confirmed by Æðelwulf[987], for the whole kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex.
We will now return to Æðelwulf’s so-called grant, in which many of our lawyers and historians have been content to see the legal origin of tithing in this country[988]; but which I must confess appears to me to have nothing to do with tithing whatever, in the legal sense of the word. The reports of the later chroniclers need not be taken into account;
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we may confine ourselves to the early and trustworthy sources, whose assertions we are quite as likely to make proper use of as the compilers of the fourteenth century.
Under date of the year 855, the Saxon Chronicle says. “This same year, Æðelwulf booked the tenth part of his land throughout his realm, for God’s glory and his own salvation.” Asser, who was no question well acquainted with the traditions of Æðelwulf’s house, varies the statement: “Eodem anno Æðhelwulfus praefatus venerabilis rex decimam totius regni sui partem ab omni regali servitio et tributo liberavit, in sempiternoque graphio in cruce Christi, pro redemptione animae suae et antecessorum suorum, uni et trino Deo immolavit[989].” In this he is followed verbatim by Florence of Worcester. Æðelweard, a direct descendant of Æðelwulf, thus records the grant[990]: “In eodem anno decumavit Æðulf rex de omni possessione sua in partem Domini, et in universo regimine principatus sui sic constituit.”
Simeon has:—“Quo tempore rex Ethelwulfus rex decimavit totum regni sui imperium, pro redemptione animae suae et antecessorum suorum.”
Huntingdon:—“Æðelwulfus decimo nono anno regni sui totam terram suam ad opus aecclesiarum decumavit, propter amorem Dei et redemptionem sui.”
Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris, upon the authority of Æðelwulf’s charter of 854, say:—“Eodem
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anno rex magnificus Athelwulfus decimam regni sui partem Deo et Beatae Mariae et omnibus sanctis contulit, liberam ab omnibus servitiis saecularibus exactionibus et tributis.” And again in 857, speaking of Æðelwulf’s will:—“Pro utilitate animae suae et salute, per omne regnum suum semper in decem hidis vel mansionibus pauperem unum indigenam, vel peregrinum cibo, potu et operimento, successoribus suis usque in finem saeculi post se pascere praecepit, ita tamen ut si terra illa pecoribus abundaret et ab hominibus coleretur.”
Malmesbury, who calls the charter of 854 “scriptum libertatis aecclesiarum quod toti concessit Angliae,” thus describes its effect:—“Ethelwulfus ... decimam omnium hidarum infra regnum suum Christi famulis concessit, liberam ab omnibus functionibus, absolutam ab omnibus inquietudinibus.” And in 857, with reference to Æðelwulfs will:—“Semperque ad finem saeculi in omni suae haereditatis decima hida pauperem vestiri et cibari praecepit.”
These passages obviously relate to two several transactions, one which took place in the year 854, before Æðelwulf’s visit to Rome, the second in the year 857, after his return to England: and the Codex Diplomaticus contains a series of documents referring to them[991]. A portion of these fall under the description of Malmesbury, viz. that of “scriptum libertatis aecclesiarum.” and as he cites one
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of them himself by that title, it is certain that these are what he intends. Now this document, after the usual proem, recites that Æðelwulf with the consent of his witan, not only gave the tenth part of the lands throughout his realm to holy churches, but granted to his ministers, appointed throughout the same, to have in perpetual freedom, so that his donation might remain for ever free from all royal and secular burthens: in consideration of which the bishops agreed to a special service weekly for the king and his nobles[992], every Saturday.
Another class, and probably the most genuine, comprises the numbers 275 and 1048; in these documents, which are also grants of immunity to the clergy and to laics, the granting words are as follows:—“Quamobrem ego Æðelwulfus rex Occidentalium Saxonum cum consilio episcoporum et principum meorum, consilium salubre atque uniforme remedium affirmavi; ut aliquam portionem terrarum haereditariam, antea possidentibus gradibus omnibus,—sive famulis et famulabus Dei Deo
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servientibus, sive laicis,—semper decimam mansionem, ubi minimum sit, tum decimam partem,—in libertatem perpetuam perdonare diiudicavi; ut sit tuta et munita ab omnibus saecularibus servitutibus, fiscis regalibus, tributis maioribus et minoribus, sive taxationibus quae nos dicimus Wíterǽden; sitque libera omnium rerum, pro remissione animarum et peccatorum nostrorum, Deo soli ad serviendum, sine expeditione, et pontis instructione et arcis munitione, ut eo diligentius pro nobis ad Deum preces sine cessatione fundant, quo eorum servitutem saecularem in aliqua parte levigamus.” In consideration of this alleviation the grateful clergy were to perform on the Wednesday in every week the same services as the first class of documents stipulates for the Saturday. It is to be observed that the two documents of this particular class, though the authority for them is of the lowest description, and the dates are altogether suspicious, seem to be of a much more genuine character as to the grant itself than the first class: there is a certain satisfactory accuracy about the definition of Wíterǽden which is in so far suggestive of an authentic original; and when we translate the very bad Latin “sine expeditione,” etc. by the genuine “bútan fyrdfare,” etc., we shall have the following reasonable account to give of the proceedings. Æðelwulf, being humbled and terrified by the distresses of wars and the ravages of barbarous and pagan invaders, devised as a useful remedy thus; he determined to liberate from all those various exactions and services which went by the general name
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of wíteræden, the tenth part of the estates which, though hereditary tenure had grown up in them, were still subject to the ancient burthens of folcland, whether they were in the hands of laics or clergy; that where the estate amounted to ten hides, one was to be free; where it was a very small quantity, at all events a tenth was to be so enfranchised: and as the greater part of this land either was in the hands of the clergy, or was very likely ultimately to come there, he granted this charitable act of enfranchisement that on these estates the holders might be the better able to devote themselves to the service of God, all other service being discharged, except indeed the inevitable three. This seems best to accord with Asser’s assertion that the king sacrificed to God the services which arose to himself over a tenth part of all his realm. Now it is to be observed that this could not apply to booklands which already possessed an exemption, but only to folcland, whether become hereditary or not; nor could regnum possibly mean territory, but royal rights, for Æðelwulf had no territory except his private estates; nor could the “trinoda necessitas” be called a “regale servitium et tributum.” These were the dues demandable by the king from folcland, and could only be discharged by consent of the Wítan. The expression of Simeon appears also to be susceptible of no other translation: when he says the king tithed “totum regni sui imperium,” I can see no territorial division in his words, but only that the king relinquished a
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tenth part of those imperial rights which he had as king.
A third class of documents however yet remains to be considered. In these a clear division of lands is intended and is recorded. The first of these in point of time are the Nos. 1051 and 1052, which bear the suspicious dates of Easter in the year 854, the first indiction, and the palace at Wilton: that is, with the exception of the indiction, the dates of the first class of documents. These two charters declare that Æðelwulf being determined by the advice of St. Swithin to tithe the lands of all the realm that God had given him[993], increased the estate which queen Friðogyð had granted to the church at Winchester, in Taunton, by a certain amount of hides in various places. These are followed by another of the same year, but with the proper indiction, viz. the second, declaring that on the same occasion he gave other lands to Winchester[994]; and in the succeeding year 855, we find him giving an estate in Kent to Dun a minister or thane, “pro decimatione agrorum, quam Deo donante, caeteris ministris meis facere decrevi.” I do not very much insist upon giving one sense rather than another
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to this “pro decimatione,” and am ready to admit that it may mean, ‘in respect of the general tithing of lands which I intend to make to yourself as well as the rest of my thanes,’ or that it may be read, ‘in place of that tithing of lands which I intend to make to the rest of my thanes, I give you such and such a particular estate.’ We must not be very fastidious with Æðelwulf’s Latin, especially as there is much reason to believe that in this case it is a mere translation of what would have been far more intelligible and trustworthy Saxon.
Trustworthy, however, I can hardly term the last document I have to notice[995], Saxon though it be: this appears to be one of a very suspicious series of instruments, prepared for the purpose of corroborating some ancient claim on the part of Winchester, to have its hundred hides at Chilcombe rated at one hide only. It bears marks of forgery in every line, and seems to have been made up out of some history of Æðelwulf’s sojourn in Rome, but still is worth citing as evidence of the tradition respecting tithe:—“In the name of him who writeth in the book of life in heaven those who in this life please him well, I Æðulf the king in this writ notify concerning the franchise of Chilcombe, which Kynegils the king, who first of all the kings in Wessex became a Christian, granted to his baptismal father Saint Birinus; and which since then all the kings who have succeeded one another in Wessex have enfranchised and advanced, although
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it never was reduced to writing until the time of myself, who am the ninth king. Also I notify that I established this franchise before Saint Peter in Rome, and the holy Pope Leo, even so as it was settled between me and all my people, ere I went to Rome, that is, that all the land comprised in this franchise shall for ever be acquitted for one hide; because God’s possessions should ever be more free than any worldly possession: and also my son Ælfred, who went with me and was there consecrated king, pledged himself to the Pope, both to further this franchise himself, and to urge his children to the same, if God should grant him any. I also, before the same Pope, tithed all the landed possessions which I had in England, to God, into holy places for myself and for all my people: and in Rome with the assistance and by the leave of the Pope, I wrought a minster for the honour of God and to the worship of Saint Mary, his holy mother, and placed therein a company of English, who ever both by night and day shall serve God, for our people: and when I returned home I told all the people what I had done in Rome. And they very earnestly thanked both God and me for this, and all this pleased them well, and they said that with their good will it should be so for ever. Now I implore, through the holy Trinity and Saint Peter, and all the halidome that I visited in Rome, both for myself and my people, that never either king or prince, bishop or ealdorman, thane or reeve diminish what hath been established with such witness: doubtless he that doth so will anger God and Saint
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Peter, and all the saints that repose in the churches at Rome, and miserably earn for himself the punishments of hell. Moreover, the aforesaid holy Pope Leo laid God’s curse and Saint Peter’s, and all the Saints’ and his own, on him that ever violates this; and also all this people both ordained and laic did the like when I returned home and announced this to them.”
If these data then be correct, Æðelwulf did three distinct things at different times: he first released from all payments, except the inevitable three, a tenth part of the folclands or unenfranchised lands, whether in the tenancy of the church or of his thanes. In this tenth part of the lands so burthened in his favour he annihilated the royal rights, regnum or imperium; and as the lands receiving this privilege were secured by charter, the Chronicle can justly say that the king booked them to the honour of God. A second thing he did, inasmuch as he gave a tenth part of his own private estates of bookland to various thanes or clerical establishments. And lastly, upon every ten hides of his own land he commanded that one poor man, whether native born or stranger, that is, whether of Wessex or some other kingdom, should be maintained in food and clothing. It is unnecessary to waste words in showing how utterly different all this really is from any grant of tithe, and how entirely unfounded is the opinion that Æðelwulf made the first legal enactment in behalf of tithe in this country. All that it proves is, that Æðelwulf made a handsome endowment for the clergy, and
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that a tenth part or a tenth person seemed to him to mark the proper proportion between what he kept and what he gave up. It renders it probable that the claim to tithe had already become familiar, since Æðelwulf divided his land by ten; but it also shows that even the Levitical tithe itself was misrepresented, if he believed this donation of his to bear any resemblance to it. We may suppose the squire in a country parish to have let the parson a house, and subsequently excused him a tenth of the rent. This might be a very charitable act, and might be done from very pure religious motives; but it would scarcely be called tithe in the proper ecclesiastical sense of that word. This is precisely what Æðelwulf did in Wessex.
In addition to leohtsceat, or money paid to supply lights, sulhælmysse or plough-alms, and sáwlsceat, a present made to the church where a testator desired to rest, in consideration of religious services to be performed for the good of his soul, there was a due commonly known under the name of cyricsceat. It is not clear w............