CHAPTER III

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_THE ROMAN MISSION TO ENGLAND._

In A.D. 596 Pope Gregory, commonly called Gregory the Great, selected Augustine, prior of St. Gregory’s monastery in Rome, to conduct in the same year a mission to Britain in order to convert the people to Christianity. The journey to Britain was then considered a hazardous undertaking, being thought in so remote a part of the world. Even this band of Christian pioneers became disheartened on their journey. Augustine, much discouraged, left his companions in France and returned to Rome, but Gregory sent him back, urging him and them to valiantly carry out their mission.

In 597 Augustine and forty companions landed in the Isle of Thanet. Ethelbert, a noble-hearted, liberal-minded and intelligent heathen, was then King of Kent; but his wife, Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of Paris, was a Christian. Augustine announced his arrival to the king, and the object of his mission. The king repaired to Thanet and granted an interview to Augustine and his companions. He was much impressed with their external ceremonies, and permitted them to reside in Canterbury, the metropolis of his kingdom. He presented his palace in Canterbury to Augustine as a residence for himself and his successors. On the 2nd of June in the same year the king publicly declared himself a Christian and was baptized. On the 17th November, 597, Augustine went to France and was consecrated archbishop by the Archbishop of Arles, and returned to England in 598.

There were at that time in the island some British Churches, bishops and clergy, but no divisions of parishes, no parish churches, no connection with the Roman Church, and indubitably no tithes whatever were paid. We are therefore on solid ground in asserting that during the first six hundred years of the Christian era there is no genuine record of tithes in any shape or form having been paid or given to the clergy of this island.

The Roman Mission subsequently produced mighty changes in the Church of England through this initial connection. In the several letters which the popes addressed to the kings and archbishops of England in subsequent centuries, constant references are made to Augustine’s mission; and the popes refer to this event as the source of their supreme authority over the Church of England.

King Ethelbert’s laws which were passed between 596 and 605, recognise Christianity and the Christian priesthood. Bede informs us that they were enacted by the advice of his Witan.[10]

Article 1. “The property of God and the Church [when stolen, a fine of] twelve-fold; a bishop’s property, eleven-fold; a priest’s property, nine-fold; a deacon’s property, six-fold, etc.”[11] The title runs thus, “These are the dooms which King Ethelbert established in the days of Augustine.” The Laws of Ethelbert and other Kentish kings are taken by Mr. Thorpe from the _Textus Roffensis_, in possession of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, and is the only ancient manuscript in which they are found. The manuscript is of the twelfth century.

“We shall hardly,” says Mr. Kemble, “be saying too much if we affirm that the introduction of Christianity was at least ratified by a solemn act of the Witan.”[12]

In 601 Augustine received his pall from Rome, died on the 26th of May, 605, and was buried in St. Augustine’s Abbey, near the high altar. He was not of the Benedictine order of monks, but followed the order of Pope Gregory in the cloister which he had founded in Canterbury.[13] In 602 he laid the foundation of his cathedral church in Canterbury. In 604 he ordained Mellitus, one of his companions, bishop of London; and Justus, another companion, bishop of Rochester. King Ethelbert granted them London and Rochester respectively as their episcopal sees.[14] These bishops and their clergy were then but missionaries among the heathen Saxons in the country, and being monks, had lived together close to their cathedral churches, from which they proceeded as itinerant preachers to the neighbouring localities. The bishop’s church was at first the only one in his diocese, hence it was called _mater ecclesia_. Subsequently it was called the _Cathedral Church_, because the bishop’s cathedra, sedes, stool or chair was in the choir and on the same level with the seats of other members of the choir. But now there are only two cathedral churches in England in which the bishop’s seat or _throne_ is in the choir, and that in a raised position. In all the other cathedrals, the _throne_ is placed outside the choir in a conspicuous part of the church.

The bishop’s circuit or diocese was the parish. It will hereafter be shown that the origin of parishes was erroneously traced back to the episcopal division of dioceses, when “parish” and “diocese” were synonymous.

The bishop was originally both bishop and rector of the parish or diocese, and the episcopi clerici were his curates.

Augustine, Mellitus, and Justus, and their respective clergy were supported by the offerings and oblations of their flocks, which were brought to the bishop’s house, and put into a common fund, which was disposed of by the bishop himself. Canon law gave the bishop the right over all these collections.

Augustine asked Pope Gregory, “Into how many portions ought the oblations given by the faithful to the altar to be divided?” “De his quæ fidelium oblationibus accedunt altari, quantæ debeant fieri portiones?” He answered, “That all emoluments which accrue ought to be divided into four portions, namely, one for the bishop and his family, because of hospitality and entertainments; another for the clergy; a third for the poor; and the fourth for the repair of churches.” “Ut in omni stipendio, quod accedit, quatuor debeant fieri portiones; una, videlicet, episcopo et familiæ propter hospitalitatem atque susceptionem, alia clero, tertia pauperibus, quarta ecclesiis reparandis.”

The pope added, “But because your brotherhood has been brought up under monastic rules, you ought not to live apart from your clergy in the English Church, which, by God’s assistance, has been lately brought to the faith; you ought to follow that course of life which our forefathers did in the time of the primitive Church, when none of them said anything that he possessed was his own, but all things were in common among them.” “Sed quia tua fraternitas monasterii regulis erudita, seorsum fieri non debet a clericis suis in ecclesia Anglorum, quæ, auctore Deo nuper adhuc ad fidem adducta est, hanc debet conversationem instituere, quæ initio nascentis ecclesiæ fuit patribus nostris; in quibus nullus eorum ex his, quæ possidebant, aliquid suum esse dicebat, sed erant eis omnia communia.”

He further adds, “But as for those who live in common, why need we say anything of making portions?” “Communi autem vita viventibus jam de faciendis portionibus, nobis quid erit loquendum.”[15]

This last passage is thus translated by Mr. Brewer and endorsed by the new editor, Mr. Lewis T. Dibdin, a barrister: “For those who are living in common (_i.e._ the monks) I need give no advice about dividing tithes or offerings among them.”[16] It is not only misleading, but bad scholarship to translate “portiones” by “tithes.” _Decimæ_ is always the word used in Latin for tithes.

The quadripartite division of Church funds mentioned here by the Pope existed in Italy and France. In Spain and other countries the tripartite division was the custom.

Pope Sylvester, early in the fourth century, decreed, it is said, but with which I do not agree, that the revenues of the Church should be divided into four parts. One part should be assigned to the bishop for his maintenance; another part to the priests and deacons and the clergy in general; the third part to the reparation of the churches; and the fourth part to the poor, and to the sick and strangers.[17] Pope Simplicius, in the fifth century, mentions the fourfold division of the Church funds in his third epistle. Pope Gelasius (A.D. 501), in his ninth epistle, renews the regulation of Simplicius, and orders the bishops to divide their diocesan revenues into four portions and distribute them as above indicated. This was before the establishment of tithes.

Augustine, being a monk, could have no separate share of his own, and the probability is that all the offerings were divided into three but not necessarily equal parts. One part was for the maintenance and clothing of the bishop and his clergy; a portion was given to the poor and strangers, and a portion went towards the repairs of the church and erecting oratories and schools.

Blackstone states that “At the first establishment of parochial clergy, the tithes of the parish were distributed in a fourfold division: one for the use of the bishop; another for maintaining the fabric of the church; a third for the poor, and the fourth to provide for the incumbent. When the sees of the bishops became otherwise amply endowed, they were prohibited from demanding their usual share of these tithes, and the division was into three parts only.”[18]

Wharton, in his “Defence of Pluralities,” refers to the fourfold and then to the tripartite divisions in England.[19]

The rules and vows of the monks prevented them from being scattered over the diocese. They lived together in common and within their monastery. Their chief functions were to instruct the converts, who, when duly prepared, were sent forth by the bishop as ordained itinerant ministers to convert their countrymen in the distant parts of the diocese where there were no churches but crosses erected at convenient spots, and around these crosses the people assembled to hear the word of God, to have their children baptized, and to partake of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Collections were always made on such occasions, which the preachers brought and deposited at the bishop’s house for the common fund. When the itinerant preachers saw people eager and zealous in their religious duties, they reported the same to the bishop, who caused to be built for them out of the common fund some wooden chapels, which served as chapels of ease to the mother-church. In some cases the bishop had a wooden house constructed close to the chapel, where a priest could permanently reside.

It is very improbable that Augustine preached or solicited the payment of tithes. It is stated in the alleged laws of Edward the Confessor, that “Augustine preached the payment of tithes, which were granted by the king (Ethelbert), and confirmed by the barons and people, but afterwards, by the instigation of the devil, many detained them; and those priests who were rich were not very careful in getting them,” etc.[20]

These so-called laws are pure fabrications. Thorpe takes his text from a Harleian manuscript written about the beginning of the 14th century. Internal evidence condemns their genuineness, for in law xi. there is a reference to the Church having been exempted from paying Danegeld, and adds, “This liberty had been preserved by Holy Church even to the time of William the Younger, called Rufus, who sought aid from the barons of England in order to keep Normandy from his brother Robert when he went to Jerusalem; and they granted him four shillings from every ploughland, not excepting Holy Church,” etc.[21]

The Rev. Morris Fuller, rector of Ryburgh, states, without the slightest authority, “May it not have a reference to the time of Ethelbert, who began to reign in Kent A.D. 566, _when tithes were by law paid to the clergy_, and the time of Ina, King of Wessex, who began to reign A.D. 688, _when there was a law by which they were then paid_.”[22] There is not one word about tithes in the laws of Ethelbert and Ina. John Pulman, a barrister, ventilated exactly the same opinions in 1864 in his “Anti-State Church Association Unmasked.” Fuller copied the erroneous views of Pulman.

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