A history of tithes

by Henry William Clarke

Exemption from Paying Tithes by Religious Houses.

All abbots, priors, and other heads of monasteries had originally paid tithes. But Pope Paschal II. exempted generally all the religiosi from tithes on lands which were under their own management. About A.D. 1160, Pope Adrian IV. limited this exemption to the Templars, Hospitallers, and Cistercians, who alone were exempted from paying tithes for lands which were then, but not afterwards, acquired under their own immediate management. The privilege did not extend to lands let to farmers, but only to those which they occupied before the Council of Lateran A.D. 1215, which confirmed the above exemptions. A fourth order—the Premonstratensian—was added by Pope Innocent III. These were called the four privileged orders. After the passing of the Mortmain Act, which gave a terrible blow to the monastic bodies, the privileged order of Cistercians purchased bulls of exemption from paying tithes for their lands, tenements, and possessions let to farmers, and also for the lands which they acquired since 1215. These bulls had the force of law in the English canon law, and were allowed in actions for tithes. This objectionable mode of purchasing bulls of exemption was put a stop to in 1400 by 2 Henry IV. c. iv. which subjected the purchaser to premunire.[266] The Statute of Premunire was passed in 1393 (16 Richard II. c. v.) against “Procuring at Rome or elsewhere, any translations, processes, excommunications, bulls, instruments, or other things which touch the king, against him, his crown and realm, and all persons aiding or assisting therein shall be put out of the king’s protection, their lands and goods forfeited to the king’s use, and they shall be attached by their bodies to answer to the king and his council, or process præmunire facias shall be made out against them, as in any other cases of provisors.”

The lands of the four privileged orders which were thus exempted from paying tithes, are exempted up to the present day, because at the dissolution of the monasteries, the 31 Henry VIII. c. xiii., provided that all lands held by the monasteries, and exempted from tithes, should also be exempted when vested in the Crown, and the same Act extended the exemption to all those who should become possessors of such Crown property. There is also 2 Edward VI. c. xiii. This explains the fact that some of the present holders of monastic property pay no tithes; some do; and others are tithe-owners.

CHAPTER XV.
MONASTERIES.

In giving a history of tithes, it is absolutely necessary to give a brief account of the monasteries and monastic property in England.

Immediately after Augustine came to England, the age of building monasteries commenced. Before his arrival there were about twenty-one monastic establishments in the island not of the Benedictine order. The first British monastery, properly so-called, was established at Glastonbury, by St. Patrick, about A.D. 433. Previous to his arrival there was a sort of hermitage there, but when he came he formed the hermits into a society, framed monastic rules for their guidance, and made himself their abbot.

A monastery was a place where people of both sexes lived alone, secluded from the common employment of the world for sacred duties and devotion. Monk, A.-S. munuc, through the Latin monachus, Greek μοναχός = solitary. Nun, Latin nonna. The British monks and nuns married until the Benedictine rule was rigidly enforced by King Edgar and Archbishop Dunstan in the tenth century. The religious houses may be classified thus—cathedral churches, abbeys, and priories. There were four chief officers in the abbeys and priories—(1) the chamberlain, who provided the monks’ clothing; (2) the cellarer catered for them; (3) the treasurer or bursar collected their rents and other revenue, and paid all their expenses; and (4) the sacrista or sexton took charge of the buildings and church, and all the utensils, books, pictures, etc., in them.

The Benedictine monks were originally laymen, working in a very praiseworthy manner with their hands to support themselves. Some were ordained as the needs of the monastery required, and although ordained, they were still monks, and resided within the walls of their convent. The monastic life had taken a great hold as early as the seventh century upon the Anglo-Saxon kings and nobles. But we must look to the Norman period for the full development of monastic institutions in this country. The mode of life and dress of the monks and nuns fascinated the Anglo-Saxons, and struck them with awe. The monasteries were richly endowed with estates. They also monopolized the rich mortuary fees. The treasures of the Anglo-Saxon kings, of their families, and of wealthy laymen, were poured into the monasteries. But the time was fast approaching when all those costly buildings, rich treasures, and priceless libraries, were to be swept away and destroyed by foreign savage hordes. The Danes made their first appearance in England A.D. 787. They were implacable enemies of the Christian religion. Between A.D. 858 and 878 they rifled and burnt the British monasteries. Plunder was always their game, and therefore they first attacked the monasteries because they were defenceless, and contained immense wealth. This vandalism was disastrous to the nation, because it dried up the only channel of learning and education in the land, and destroyed the only existing libraries. The monasteries were the treasure-houses for charters and privileges granted by kings and nobles from time to time, which were deposited for safety in these sanctuaries. A carefully-written history of the country was also kept in many of the monastic libraries. The destruction of the monasteries by the Danes, and the dispersion of their inmates among the villages, gave a powerful impetus to the erection of more parish churches; for, after the departure of the Vandals, it was much cheaper to build a wooden church than to rebuild a monastery. The monastic churches served, up to the time of their destruction, as the parochial churches in many places. When these were destroyed, the nobility, wealthy landowners and bishops, exerted themselves to supply not only the deficiencies, but to increase the number of parish churches. The inmates of the monasteries scattered through the villages took, no doubt, an active part in church-building.

The monasteries remained in ruins until the reign of King Edgar, who was a great supporter of the Church, and seemed to be under the complete control of Archbishop Dunstan—the first episcopal pluralist—the originator of a practice, contrary to the primitive custom of the Church, which, in subsequent centuries, was carried to a most scandalous extent. Wolsey, in more modern times, held several bishoprics at the same time, and yet one of his great objects was the reformation of the Church. But he should have commenced at home. The ostensible reason assigned in Dunstan’s time for his conduct, was that there was a dearth of suitable men for the episcopal appointments; but the real cause was, as in the case of Bishop Oswald, to carry out the scheme for removing the seculars and bringing the monks into the cathedral churches. In Wolsey’s time the same ostensible reason could not be urged. But the revenues of a multiplicity of bishoprics were necessary to maintain his pride and extravagant living, and to build palaces, which he presented to an ungrateful king.

The leading church ideas of King Edgar during his reign were, (1) to rebuild the monasteries which lay in ruins, and (2) to drive the married clergy out of the convents, replacing them by monks. Dunstan, Athelwold of Winchester, and Oswald of Worcester (afterwards of York), were the king’s chief agents in carrying out his schemes. It does not appear that any of the other bishops had taken an active share in the work. Before King Edgar’s reign, the monasteries were filled with secular clergymen, who did duty outside their monasteries.

The English monks passed through three reformations: (1) At the Council of Cloveshoe, A.D. 747, where no reference was made to Benedict’s rule, although it had been framed in 529 and approved of by the Pope in 595. (2) At the Council of Winchester, A.D. 965, where Benedict’s rule was prominently set forth for general adoption. The monks were henceforth to confine themselves to their cloisters, to have no parochial cure of souls, and to adopt celibacy. These facts alone prove that the discipline of the Roman Church on the Continent, was imported into the English Church long before the Norman Conquest. Some writers, in treating of tithes and other church endowments, strive to show that the Church of England, before the Conquest, had not the same doctrines as the Roman Church. The object of this line of erroneous argument is to show that the endowments of the Church of England were given to her when her doctrines were different from those of the Church of Rome. The system of doctrinal development which was going on in the Roman Church on the Continent, was introduced and adopted in the Church of England by her hierarchy and priests. (3) At the Council of London, A.D. 1075, where monks were enjoined to adhere more strictly to the rule of Benedict.

As I have stated above, before King Edgar’s reign the monasteries were convents of secular married clergy, whose children kept up a monopoly of all the valuable appointments in the establishments. The result was certainly most pernicious to church and people. The clergy grew more and more indolent and illiterate, and their thoughts were entirely absorbed in the worldly affairs of their families, to the neglect of their spiritual duties. Although the monks had many faults, yet the English nation owes them a large debt of gratitude. They were better educated than the secular clergy; were more refined, and were therefore better able to raise the standard of civilization in the country. That is what the married clergy could not then have done. The monasteries were the only schools where the children of the kings, nobility and gentry could be educated. King Edward the Confessor received his early training in the monastery of Ely. Their schools formed models for our most ancient universities. The monasteries were like so many burning torches in the midst of darkness and ignorance, and were the only sources which could then supply men intellectually capable of occupying episcopal positions. Some of the noblest benefactors to the Church were bishops taken from the cloisters.