CHAPTER XIII
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_APPROPRIATION OF TITHES TO MONASTERIES._
From A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1215 is a remarkable period in the history of the English Church and English monasteries. The monasteries were built and richly endowed with lands, churches, and tithes. All these were conveyed by deeds of gifts to their perpetual use. The benefactions were given for the special purpose of prayers being perpetually said by the monks in their respective churches for the repose of the souls of the donors and their relatives. In some cases the monasteries received the tithes without any churches; but when they received churches with the cure of souls, then the monastic corporations became rectors by virtue of which they were in possession of all the tithes of each parish. For many centuries the benefactions were conveyed by lay owners, without any reference to the king or bishop, for they were considered as private property, which the owner may dispose of to whom he pleased. Subsequently it was necessary, before such grants could be given, to obtain the licence of the king and bishop in order to complete the scheme. After the Conquest, the Norman monks invented the system of having churches with their tithes appropriated to them. Previous to the Conquest there were no appropriation of churches, but patrons granted to monasteries, bishops or chapters the advowsons of the churches. As religious services had to be performed in the church appropriated, the monastic body had either to depute one of their own fraternity in Holy Orders to do the duty, or to appoint a deputy or vicar to act for them and to whom they gave most miserable stipends. This latter alternative became the general rule. But the abbot or prior took care to get the lion’s share of both parochial tithes and offerings. The capitular bodies, nuns and religious military orders imitated the practice of the monks and received similar licences for appropriating churches from the king and bishop. The same system was adopted by single persons, such as deans, chancellors, treasurers, precentors, and archdeacons. Even parochial incumbents had nominated vicars to do their work, and they themselves became sinecure rectors. The pretext which the monks had given to gain appropriations was to obtain two parts of the tithes and profits, leaving a third to the parish. These two parts were for the relief of the poor and the repair of the church; but in course of time they neglected both poor and fabric, and the parishioners, for their own comfort, had actually subscribed towards a fabric fund and hence originated church rates which were, like tithes, at first purely voluntary, but subsequently became compulsory.
When the practice of appropriating churches, with their glebe and tithe endowments, was first introduced by the Norman monks in England, the patrons or owners considered that they were transferring a freehold property, and therefore thought the conveyance did not require the bishop’s confirmation. The patron conveyed his gift by placing the deed of conveyance and a knife or cup upon the altar of the church of the monastery, as this was then the usual mode of livery of seisin. In the deeds of conveyances some are given “Canonicis ibidem Deo servientibus,” etc.; others, “Canonicis regularibus ibidem Deo servientibus,” etc.; and, “Monachis ibidem Deo servientibus,” etc.
The lay patrons sometimes exercised the power of discharging the incumbent of his church and appointing another in his place. The church was not as now, the incumbent’s freehold property. He then held his position according to the will of the patron. We have sufficient evidence on this point. It is stated in the Acts of the Third Lateran Council of A.D. 1179-80, “So far has the boldness of laymen been carried, that they collate clerks to churches without institution from the bishops, _and remove them at their will_; and, besides this, they commonly dispose as they please of the possessions and goods of churches.” This council condemned “arbitrary consecrations,” as Selden calls them, of laymen. “Before the Council of Lateran (evidently the third), any man might give his tithes to what spiritual person he would.”[257] Four English bishops sat at this council. The Council gave the death-blow to arbitrary appropriations of tithes by laymen, without the consent of the bishop, to whatever church or monastery they pleased. It was ordained by this Council that no religious orders should receive any appropriations of churches or tithes without the assent of the bishop. In Anglo-Saxon times the tithes were given to the parish churches, but from A.D. 1066 to A.D. 1200, they were also given to monasteries, bishops, and capitular corporations. “Arbitrary consecrations of tithes,” says Blackstone, “were in general use till the time of King John, which was probably owing to the intrigues of the regular clergy or monks of the Benedictine and other rules, under Archbishop Dunstan and his successors, who endeavoured to wean the people from paying their dues to the secular or parochial clergy. A layman, who was obliged to pay his tithes somewhere, might think it good policy to erect an abbey, and there pay them to his own monks, or grant them to some abbey already erected, and thus have masses for ever sung for his soul.”[258] Not only had laymen appropriated tithes to episcopal, capitular, and monastic corporations, but, in Lord Selborne’s opinion, they may also have given them to parish churches. Hence, he thinks, _the true origin of the endowment of parish churches with tithes_.
The decree of the Third Lateran Council, making void arbitrary appropriations of tithes, was at first opposed by the laymen of England, and so the practice continued. But the English hierarchy from that time opposed the practice, and by degrees it gradually ceased.
Pope Innocent III., in a decretal epistle which he addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury about A.D. 1200, owing to the continued arbitrary appropriation of tithes by laymen in face of the decrees of the Third Lateran Council, enjoined the payment of tithes to the parsons of the respective parishes. But the epistle had no binding force on the lay subjects of this kingdom.
The arbitrary appropriation of tithes by landowners to monasteries, although according to their rights, was contrary to canon law.[259] At a national synod held at Westminster in 1125 (25 Henry I.) it was constituted that no abbot, prior, monk, or clergyman should accept a church or tithe or any other ecclesiastical benefice from a layman without the authority and assent of his own bishop. The lay patrons paid no attention to this canon, because they thought it was an ecclesiastical encroachment upon the rights of property. It was a part of the supremacy over the civil power which the Church was then usurping wherever she found weak instruments. In the reigns of Richard I. and John, however, laymen’s investitures gradually ceased. The Church became supreme. Archbishop Anselm was a very strong supporter of papal canons which inhibited the custom of lay investiture. The struggle continued after his death. The practice at the present time is, the patron nominates or presents, the bishop institutes, and the archdeacon inducts. But before the reigns of Richard I. and John, the lay patrons nominated, instituted, and inducted. The bishop had no voice in the matter. The practice, as I have already stated, was condemned and made void by the Third Lateran Council held in 1180.
At the General Council of Lateran, held in 1215, the arbitrary appropriation of tithes to monasteries or other ecclesiastical corporations which were not parochial, was strongly condemned, and the tithes were commanded to be paid in future to the parish churches. This council therefore gave the parsons the parochial right to tithes. It was certainly very wrong to hand over the parochial tithes to outsiders who did no parochial work and took no interest whatever in the parishes from which they drew large incomes, while the parochial clergy who did the work were most miserably remunerated. But we find that when the parsons received the tithes they became wealthy, indolent, and vicious. We have the trustworthy testimony of Wickliffe himself for this statement. No man could possibly write or speak stronger than he did against the conduct of the monks and secular clergy of his time.
In King John’s reign the papal power was supreme in England, and therefore the canon law gained strength as England became weak,
## particularly after Pope Innocent III. issued his interdict against the
kingdom.
The decrees of the Council of Lateran, A.D. 1215, had not disturbed the then existing appropriations of tithes to monasteries, but were directed towards the future, and made void all new grants of tithes to monasteries after the date of this council. The council is a landmark for the following arrangements: (1) The tithes of parishes, which before A.D. 1215 could have been given by the owners of the property to any church they pleased, either in or out of the kingdom, were henceforth to be given only to the parsons of the parishes from which they arose. (2) The tithes which had been appropriated to corporations outside of the parishes, continued to be given to them. (3) The tithes which the parsons possessed before A.D. 1215 could not be appropriated afterwards to any other person. Therefore the tithes which rectors received were those which they possessed at the date of this council, and all tithes created after A.D. 1215.
The parish system which commenced in its germ about A.D. 686 was completed about A.D. 1200, thus covering a period of over five hundred years in its development.
From the beginning of the 13th century, tithes became payable to the parsons of the parishes by _common right_. But monasteries and chapters had to show their title to them either by _grants_ or by _prescriptions_. We may thus trace tithes in England from their origin, (1) as free-will offerings; (2) compulsory payment to some religious body, and (3) compulsory payment only to the incumbents of parishes. It is an error to state that all the tithes of England were paid freely. I have stated enough to show that it was not so.
Tithes appropriated to monasteries were of two kinds—(1) Monastical, (2) Parochial. With reference to (1), the monastic bodies performed no spiritual functions for the tithes which the benefactors had granted them out of demesnes which had no churches annexed. For these tithes they had distributed alms to the sick, the poor, and stranger who called at their gates; and said masses perpetually in their own churches for the souls of their founders and benefactors, and those of their heirs and relatives.
As regards the second case, they received churches, with the tithes and glebe lands annexed thereto, as a free gift from the owners, and had therefore the cure of souls. They purchased the advowsons of other churches, and even built churches themselves, of which as owners they possessed the advowsons. At first if the churches were near the monasteries, they sent members of their community, who were in holy orders, to perform the religious duties. But when the churches were situated at a considerable distance, and became numerous, the monastic bodies employed curates or vicars to perform the religious duties. These at first received no part of the tithes as their salaries, but only a small sum of money, just what the monks liked to give, and the miserable sum they allowed varied from year to year as it suited the caprices of the monks, who received all the tithes, offerings, and oblations. In the king’s licence, permitting the appropriation, there was the usual condition which the monks ignored, “that an adequate portion be allowed the vicar out of the profits of the church.” The wretched salaries of the curates or vicars produced great scandal and complaints. As the curate or vicar was liable to be dismissed at any moment by the appropriator, he was not likely to insist too rigidly on the sufficiency of his stipend, and so the miserable salary was continued after the passing of Richard II.’s Act. The bishops were much to blame in this matter. Some of them had been monks themselves from their youth; others were anxious to be buried among the monks, or their anniversaries kept by them. These considerations induced some, but not all of the bishops, to favour the appropriation of churches to monasteries. Again, the rich monasteries were able to bribe the bishops, and even the papal curia, and they did so; they allowed the bishops pensions out of the tithes, and even appropriated some of their churches, _i.e._ the rectorial tithes of their churches, to the bishop’s table, on condition that he, as bishop, allowed them to receive churches with all their endowments from the lay owners.[260]
The preaching friars and John Wickliffe opened the people’s eyes as to the monastic luxuries, and the poverty of the vicars whom they employed to do their work. The age of building monasteries and granting extravagant endowments had passed, never again to be revived, but there was a growing tendency to sweep all the monasteries away. The scandalous manner in which the monastic bodies had paid the vicars induced Parliament to pass the following Act in 1392.[261]
“IN APPROPRIATION OF BENEFICES THERE SHALL BE PROVISION MADE FOR THE POOR AND THE VICAR.”
“In every licence from henceforth to be made in the chancery of the appropriation of any parish church, it shall be expressly contained and comprised that the diocesan of the place, upon the appropriation of such churches, shall ordain, according to the value of such churches, a convenient sum of money to be paid and distributed yearly of the fruits and profits of the same churches, by those that shall have the said churches in proper use, and by their successors, to the poor parishioners of the said churches in aid of their living and sustenance for ever; and also that the vicar shall be well and sufficiently endowed.”
Lord Selborne remarks on this statute: “This law had nothing to do with tithes in particular, or with fruits and profits of any churches not appropriated to monasteries. If there had been then (_i.e._ in 1391) a law for a partition of tithes, as against all rectors, giving the poor one-third, or any other definite share, no such legislation could have been necessary; nothing would have been wanting, except simply to _enforce that existing law_.”[262]
These remarks are open to grave objections. The law refers to a provision being made for the vicar as well as for the poor. When a church was appropriated to a monastery, it simply meant that the monastic corporation appropriated all the endowments, lands and tithes of that church together with all oblations. The monastic corporation placed a deputy, called a vicar, in the parish to perform the ecclesiastical duties, and allowed him such a wretchedly poor stipend, insufficient to keep soul and body together. As for the poor of the parish, it is too much to expect, as Lord Selborne remarks above, that the poor of 1391, or 500 years ago, had their legal remedy against the powerful and rich monastic corporation in order to enforce their common law and legal rights to one-third of the tithes. Why, in this enlightened and advanced age, as compared with 1391, the poor are coerced and defrauded of their rights by the wealthy, who know that they have not the means “to enforce their rights” in the superior courts—a luxury which can only be enjoyed by those who have a good banking account.
Lord Selborne says the law had nothing to do with tithes in particular, and yet the provision for the vicar, namely the small tithes, formed his main endowments. This law, no doubt, referred to all the endowments of the vicar. The statute did not move the monastic bodies, who had still the power of removing at pleasure the vicar of the parish, until the Act 4 Henry IV. c. xii. (1402) was passed. “That from henceforth in every church appropriated, or to be appropriated, a secular person be ordained perpetual vicar, canonically instituted and inducted to the same, and _convenably endowed by the discretion of the Ordinary_, to do divine service, to inform the people and to keep hospitality there.” What is meant by keeping hospitality? To provide for the poor out of the endowments. Here is a list of the small tithes:—
Sir John de Cobham, appropriated Horton Kirby Church to Cobham Chantry. The Bishop of Rochester, when confirming this appropriation in 1378, assigned the vicar all the oblations, obventions, the tithe of flax, hemp, milk, butter, cheese, cattle, calves, wool, lambs, geese, ducks, pigs, eggs, wax, honey, apples, peas, pigeons, fisheries of ponds, rivers and lakes, fowling, merchandizing, trade, herbage, pasture, feedings, mills; all the herbage of the churchyard, and all other small tithes arising within the said parish. The bishop taxed all at seven marks = £4 13_s._ 4_d._ per annum. The chantry was to repair the chancel and parsonage house, but the vicar was to pay the procurations of the archdeacon. At the dissolution of monasteries, the parsonage and advowson were given to the Crown, who granted them away by sale. At the present time the impropriators receive £848, and Queen’s College, Oxford, £200 12_s._ tithe-rent charge per annum from Horton parish, whilst the vicar receives £266 12_s._ from the small tithes above stated, and has thirty-four acres of glebe. The present patron is H. B. Rashleigh, who is also the vicar, and his curate is C. Rashleigh. This is a good specimen parish as regards the distribution of tithes, and also the patronage, for £1,050 of the rent charge is in lay hands, and the advowson or patronage is a marketable commodity, and now in possession of the present vicar. It is also important to note that the vicarage has been augmented by Queen Anne’s bounty by the purchase of an estate at Brockhull in the same parish. We note that J. K. Rashleigh is vicar of Luxulyan, diocese of Truro; patron, Sir C. Rashleigh, Bart. There is an immense number of livings in possession of incumbents, obtained either by purchase or by family patronage.
The appropriator gave the vicar the small tithes because he found them more difficult to collect than the great tithes.
It is unreasonable to state that an unmarried parish priest with a free parsonage house would be allowed to enjoy all these tithes as his own income. No, for he was to keep hospitality. The rectors or monastic bodies, who had the great tithes, kept the chancel of the church in repair. And up to the present time, the owners of the great or rectorial tithes, _and not the owners of any other church endowment_, are legally bound to keep the chancels in good repair, and if they fall down, to build them up again. What is this but a compliance with the original division of tithes by which a portion was set apart for the repairs of the church. And, as I shall show, these repairs included the whole building, but in course of time the rectors kept the tithes and shifted this responsibility on the shoulders of the parishioners, which led to church rates. They did the same as regards the portion for the poor, who were pecuniarily unable to maintain their claims in the higher courts, to which legal remedy Lord Selborne refers.
In King Edmund’s law[263] the bishops were ordered to keep the churches in repair, as the whole tithes of the parish went to them; but in Canute’s laws of 1018, all the parishioners were ordered to keep their churches in repair. Canute’s change from the bishops to the parishioners can only be explained from the fact that the dilapidated condition of the churches, the result of the Danish invasions, and a general destruction of property throughout the country, made the funds at the bishops’ disposal insufficient for the purpose, and so the burden was thrown generally upon the inhabitants. But when the country increased in riches and prosperity, the liability for the repairs of the chancel was again, and is still, placed on the owners of the great or rectorial tithes.
The following canon 4 is taken from the provincial constitutions of John Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, made in a provincial council in London, 10th of October, 1342.
“Whereas ecclesiastical men are entrusted with dispensing of tithes and other things belonging to the church, _that the poor by their prudent management may not be defrauded_; yet the religious of our province having churches appropriate, do so apply the fruits of them to their own use, _as to give nothing in charity to the poor parishioners_, being regenerate sons of the churches, _to whom they are bound to do this_ more than to strangers; by which means such as owe tithes and ecclesiastical dues become not only indevout, but invaders, destroyers and disturbers, to the danger of their own souls and theirs, and to the scandal of many; therefore with the approbation of this sacred council, we ordain that the said religious, having ecclesiastical benefices appropriate, be compelled by the bishops every year to distribute to the poor parishioners a certain portion of their benefices, in alms to be moderated at the discretion of the bishops in proportion to the value of such benefices, under pain of sequestration of the fruits and profits thereof, till they yield a reasonable obedience in the premisses.”[264]
The inference to be drawn from this canon, and from the subsequent statute of 15 Richard II. c. vi. (1391), is that the poor had a claim on the tithes and other endowments; and this claim is admitted by Bishop Stubbs. But Lord Selborne, Fuller, and others, stoutly deny this claim. No doubt, the canon and Act refer to appropriated churches, when the avaricious monks retained all the tithes to their own use. But the inference above is generally applicable to all tithes. If not, what right had a provincial synod to make a canon, compelling appropriators who had neglected the poor to distribute to the poor, under the severe penalty of sequestration, a portion of the appropriated property? and almost all this property, unquestionably, consisted of tithes.
The vicar-perpetual of Henry IV.’s Act must not be confounded with the later “perpetual curate,” who by a recent Act is now styled “vicar.” The former is endowed with the small or vicarial tithes; the latter is not so endowed.
The most important parts of Henry IV.’s Act are, (1) permanently endowing the vicar, which, as regards tithes, equalled one-third part; and (2) giving the vicar as permanent a position in the parish as the rector.[265] But the autocratic freehold tenure has been grossly abused. This abuse, within the past thirty years, has much increased, owing to the lack of discipline and inability of the bishops to correct insubordinate and law-breaking parsons.
There is no parochial council to check the conduct and actions of the autocratic endowed incumbent. He snaps his fingers at the parishioners, bishop, archdeacon, rural dean, or any other episcopal officer. He is the bishop of his own parish. His freehold tenure and endowments make him independent and absolute master for life within his parochial limits.
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