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"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."

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 quae fidelium oblationibus accedunt altari, quantae 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 familiae 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, quae, auctore Deo nuper adhuc ad fidem adducta est, hanc debet conversationem instituere, quae initio nascentis ecclesiae fuit patribus nostris; in quibus nullus eorum ex his, quae 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."

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. Pope Simplicius, in the fifth century, mentions the fourfold division of the Church funds in his third epistle. Pope Gelasius , 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."

Wharton, in his "Defence of Pluralities," refers to the fourfold and then to the tripartite divisions in England.

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 , 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.

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.

The first genuine statement of the payment of tithes in England appears in the second book of Archbishop Theodore's "Penitential." It was not composed by Theodore himself, but was drawn up under his direction and published with his authority. They are answers given by him to questions asked him on the subject of penance. It is edited by a "Discipulus Umbrensium," or a Disciple of the Umbrians, for the benefit of the English. There is no doubt that this Penitential is genuine. Bishop Stubbs, Mr. Haddan and Professor Wasserschleben accept it as such.

The following three notices of tithes appear in the "Penitential":

"These articles," says Lord Selborne, "put the payment of tithes on the footing of custom, depending for its observance upon episcopal or clerical influence, rather than ecclesiastical censures," the anathemas subsequently hurled against all who dared to keep them back from Holy Church.

Theodore's "Penitential" was not a code of laws, but its contents are very important as reflecting the custom and practice existing with regard to tithes in that early age of the Anglo-Saxon Church.

The silence of Bede on Theodore's "Penitential" is brought forward as evidence against it. But Haddan and Stubbs show conclusively that "Bede either did not know the book, or did not consider Theodore as the immediate author."

Theodore encouraged landowners to build churches on their estates by permitting them to have the appointment of the priests who were to officiate in them.

Before leaving Theodore's genuine "Penitential," I must refer to the second revised edition of Mr. J. S. Brewer's "Endowments and Establishment of the Church of England," by Chancellor Lewis T. Dibdin, published in 1885. In his preface, the new editor "gratefully acknowledges the valuable aid he received from Dr. Wace and the Bishop of Chester through more than one difficulty on endowments as to which he was in doubt."

LANDOWNERS' CHURCHES.

Bede gives an account as early as A.D. 686 of the erection of churches by landowners on their own private estates. "Not very far," he says, "from our monastery, about two miles off, was the country house of one Puch, an earl. It happened that the man of God was at that time invited thither by the Earl to consecrate a church" .

As regards the payment of tithes, I shall show that for many years the English bishops and their clergy had threatened and cajoled the simple-minded Anglo-Saxons into the belief that the Church had the right to impose the Levitical obligations upon them. We have only to read the miraculous legends recorded by Bede and others to find out the means by which the clergy had imposed upon the credulity of those simple-minded people. It was by deceit, trickery, hypocrisy, and sham miracles that the Anglo-Saxon bishops and their clergy had obtained tithes, first as free-will offerings, then by legislative enactments, which made these free-will offerings compulsory.

THE CONFESSIONAL.

The Confessional was a powerful instrument in the hands of the clergy by which they obtained the payment of tithes. During the archiepiscopate of Theodore auricular confession began to take the place of public discipline. Theodore's "Penitentiary," which was published with his authority, directed confessors how to conduct themselves in hearing confessions and how to enjoin penance. Confession to the priest was made necessary, not in order to obtain his absolution, but to be informed what sort of penance was required for every offence, and for the several degrees and circumstances of it. The most difficult part of the priest's office was to proportion the private penance to the crime, and Theodore's "Penitentiary" was looked upon as the best rule in this particular. It is remarkable that the earliest mention of tithes in England is found in Theodore's "Penitentiary."

Briefly stated, they are--

The "Penitential," a document of the tenth century. There are four books prefaced with twenty-one canons. The first book only is Egbert's.

The Excerptions. Mr. Thorpe takes these from Cott.: Nero, A. 1. They are in Latin, numbering 163. The first twenty-one are ninth century canons. There is another different compilation of excerpts in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, K. 2. The excerptions which appear in these two manuscripts are not Egbert's.

Sir H. Spelman, Wilkins, Johnson, Bishop Kennett, Dr. Lingard, Kemble, Thorpe, and others believed that the Excerptions were written in the eighth century by the archbishop himself, and some of these writers have referred to them in support of the threefold division of tithes. But there is ample internal evidence in the canons themselves to condemn them as the genuine production of Egbert, or that they could have been written during his archiepiscopate.

If any one should take the trouble or be obliged to refer to Dr. Lingard's History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, published in two volumes in 1845, he will observe the numerous references which this Roman Catholic historian makes to Egbert's Excerptions and Penitentials, but which are now condemned as spurious. This is a serious matter for his Church, because he mainly supports many important acts of discipline in the Anglo-Saxon Church by such references. But when the references are condemned as spurious, all his arguments founded upon them fall of course to the ground.

Mr. Haddan and Bishop Stubbs say that the excerptions are not Egbert's. What does Mr. Selden say? "An antient collection of divers canons written about the time of Henry the First, with this inscription of equal age, 'Incipiunt excerptiones Domini Egberti Archiepiscopi Eburace Civitatis, de jure sacerdotali' , hath these words, 'Ut unusquisque sacerdos cunctos sibi pertinentes erudiat, ut sciant qualit?r decimas totius facultatis ecclesiis divinis debit? offerant.' And immediately follows, 'Ut ipsi sacerdotes ? populis suscipiant decimas, et nomina eorum, quicunque dederint, scripta habeant, et secundum authoritatem canonicam coram testibus dividant, et ad ornamentum ecclesiae primam eligant partem, secundam autem ad usum pauperum atque perigrinorum per eorum manus misericordit?r cum omni humilitate dispensent; tertiam ver? sibimet ipsis sacerdotes reservent?"

"If the credit of this," continues Selden, "be valued by the inscription, then it is about 850 years old. For, that Egbert lived Archbishop of York from the year 743 to 767 . But the authority of that title must undergo censure. Whoever made it, supposed that Egbert gathered that law and the rest joined with it out of some former church constitutions; neither doth the name 'Excerptions' denote otherwise. But in that collection some whole constitutions occur in the same syllables, as they are in the Capitularies of Charles the Great, as that of 'unicuique ecclesiae unus mansque integer,' etc., and some others, which could not be known to Egbert, that died in the last year of Pipin, father to Charles. How came he then by that? And how may we believe that Egbert was the author of any part of those Excerptions? unless you excuse it with that use of the middle times which often inserted into one body and under one name laws of different ages. But admit that; yet, what is 'secundum canonicam autoritatem coram testibus dividant'? The ancientest 'canonica autoritas' for dividing tithes before witnesses is an old Imperial, attributed in some editions to the eleventh year of the reign of Charles the Great, being King of France; in others to the Emperor Lothar the First. But refer it to either of them, and it will be divers years later than Egbert's death. And other mixed passages there plainly show that whosesoever the collection was, much of it was taken out of the Imperial Capitularies, none of which were made in Egbert's time."

This is a reasonable and argumentative statement of facts. In addition to the above, I may refer to the seventh canon, "That all priests pray assiduously for the life and empire of our lord the emperor, and for the health of his sons and daughters." Again, canon 24 is found in Charlemagne's Capitulary of A.D. 813. Egbert died on the 19th November, 766, and Charles became King of France in 768. These dates are very important in this controversy.

The first twenty-one canons are from the Audain manuscript in the monastery of St. Herbert in the Ardennes. Canons 22 to 28 inclusive are taken from other Gallican Capitulars. These twenty-eight canons were made between A.D. 789 and 816. The remaining 135 canons are taken from other foreign sources.

It is quite unnecessary to introduce into the discussion of the threefold division of tithes in England, doubtful canons, such as the "Excerptions" of Egbert and other writings copied from them. There are, without these, sufficient solid, genuine facts at our command with which to prove the threefold division of tithes in England, and these are stated further on.

The first law making the payment of tithes legally imperative was enacted in 779 by Charles, King of France, in a general assembly of his estates, spiritual and temporal, viz., "Concerning tithes, it is ordained that every man give his tithe, and that they be distributed by the bishop's command."

Charles's civil law had only enforced by coercion the existing ecclesiastical law or custom of payment of tithes; and the ecclesiastical law was founded upon the Levitical law; but I hold that the Levitical law, as regards tithes, was not binding on Christians. In the New Testament there is no reference whatever to tithes to be given to the Christian priesthood. None of the apostles claimed tithes from their followers.

"The growing habit," says Kemble, "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."

The establishment of the right in England followed the same course as that in France.

It is important to give Milman's observations on the working of the above law.

PAPAL LEGATES IN ENGLAND, A.D. 787.

For 190 years no papal legate appeared in England since Augustine landed on our shores in 597. When Pope Gregory sent his missionaries to England, he thought the whole country was inhabited by English, and so ordered that there should be two provinces, each containing twelve Episcopal sees and governed by two Metropolitans, one at London and the other at York. Still Gregory must have been aware of the existence of a British Church in the island, for British bishops were present at the Synods of Arles, A.D. 314; Sardica, 347; and Rimini, 359.

The following historical facts should be carefully noted. Each of the several divisions of England--call them the Heptarchy or anything else--owed its evangelization to a source not exclusively of the Roman mission. Kent and Essex had certainly remained Christian under the successors of Augustine; but Wessex, with Winchester as its capital, was converted by Birinus a missionary from Northern Italy; East Anglia by Felix, a Burgundian; Northumbria and Mercia by Irishmen; Essex by Cidd and Sussex by Wilfrid. Therefore the Roman mission, after the death of King Ethelbert whose successors relapsed into heathenism, was rather a failure. Augustine was narrow-minded and sectarian, attached to everything Italian. There were seven British bishops then in England. In 602 a meeting was held at which representatives of the Italian and British Churches were present. Augustine demanded that the Celtic Church should change the time of keeping Easter in order to adopt the Roman time. The British bishops declined to do anything of the sort, and then Augustine lost his temper and rebuked them. His conduct thus exasperated the members of the Celtic Church. The Italians were looked upon as foreigners seeking to lord it over the native Church, and the Scots and Britons were determined to yield their independence to neither threats nor entreaties.

Augustine claimed metropolitan power, but the Celtic bishops haughtily rejected such a proposal.

But there is no evidence to show that the Celtic bishops acquiesced in this power of metropolitan over all England conferred by the Pope on the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was therefore an arbitrary assumption of ecclesiastical authority exercised by the Pope of Rome over the Anglo-Saxon Church, simply because a Roman mission was sent to Christianize the Saxon heathen. But other missionaries were at work in the same field, who were quite unconnected with Rome or its bishop.

The time of keeping Easter was the terrible stumbling-block in the way of a union between the Roman and Celtic missionaries.

In A.D. 664, a synod was held at Streaneshalch; the subject of the proper time of keeping Easter was discussed in the presence of King Oswy of Northumberland by Bishop Colman and Wilfrid. In the same year Deusdedit, Archbishop of Canterbury, died. The result was that the king espoused the Roman style. Then followed an interregnum of four years. Wilfrid's strong opinions about Easter kept him out of the archiepiscopate.

It is vitally important to note this turn of the tide to Rome. I take all particulars from Bede's Ecclesiastical History. If this turn had not occurred there would have been two separate and independent Churches in England, the Celtic and the Roman.

In 664 a synod was convened in the monastery of Streaneshalch presided over by King Oswy, who was at first a follower of the Celtic ritual, for the discussion of the proper time for keeping Easter. Bishop Colman spoke for the Celtic Church; Priest Wilfrid for the Roman time. The latter had previously gone to Rome to learn the ecclesiastical doctrine. Colman traced the Celtic time to the teaching of St. John the Evangelist; Wilfrid traced his to St. Peter, and then quoted, "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and to thee I will give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven." This quotation turned the scales, as will be seen from what followed. "Is it true, Colman," said the King, "that these words were spoken to Peter by our Lord?" "It is true, O King!" "Can you show," said the King, "any such power given to your Columba?" Colman answered "None." "Then," added the King, "do you both agree that these words were principally directed to Peter, and that the keys of heaven were given to him by our Lord?" They both answered, "We do." Then the King concluded, "And I also say unto you that he is the door-keeper, whom I will not contradict, but will, as far as I know and am able in all things, obey his decrees, lest when I come to the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven, there should be none to open them, he being my adversary who is proved to have the keys." The King having said this, all present resolved to conform to the Roman ritual. This was not the first nor the last case in England in which St. Peter and the power of the keys did good duty for the Church of Rome. The result of this discussion turned the scales from Irish to Roman Christianity as the religion of England.

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