Mr. J. S. Brewer.
Mr. J. S. Brewer in “The Endowment and Establishment of the Church of England,” supported the tripartite division of tithes. But after his demise, Mr. L. T. Dibdin[221] has edited a new edition in which he opposes Brewer’s views. He adopts the views of Archdeacon Hale and Lord Selborne. He states that the supporters of the tripartite division can bring forward only spurious canons and laws to prove their case, and then instances (1) a spurious passage in the “Penitential” of Archbishop Theodore, for proof of which he refers to “Haddan and Stubbs, ‘Councils,’ iii. 173, note 203”; (2) An alleged law of Ethelred (1013), and adds in reference to Ethelred’s law, “But the better opinion [he actually blends together the opinions of Price, Stubbs and Selborne] appears to be that the code, of which it is a part, is a private compilation or collection of points of Canon Law gathered indifferently from foreign and home sources, published tentatively, and not recognised as possessing any legislative force. With this exception (if it be one), no English law as distinguished from Ecclesiastical ordinance or opinion, directs the division of tithe into thirds or fourths, or refers to the supposed right of the poor to a share.”[222]
As regards the quotation from the well-known writings of Haddan and Stubbs, they actually held the opposite opinion to that attributed to them by Dibdin. They state that Theodore’s “Penitential” is genuine. Here are their words, which may be contrasted with Dibdin’s: “In 1851, at Halle, Dr. F. W. Wasserschleben, Professor of Law in the University of Halle, published from a comparison of several continental manuscripts, the work of the ‘Discipulus Umbrensium,’ which is to be found in our text.” They then enumerate nine editions of works published under Theodore’s name. They reject all as spurious except the “Discipulus Umbrensium,” which they printed from the Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS. 320. The three eminent scholars, Mr. Haddan, Bishop Stubbs and Professor Wasserschleben, pronounce distinctly and emphatically in favour of the genuineness of the treatise of the “Discipulus Umbrensium” as being the genuine “Penitential” of Theodore. The Cambridge manuscript, they assert, was written not later than the eighth century, although the reference to another copy found in lib. ii. c. xii. s. 5 seems to preclude the idea that it is the original.[223]
Bishop Stubbs, in his history, remarks that in this very “Penitential,” viz., lib. ii. c. xiv. s. 10, commencing, “Decimas non est legitimum dare,” the clergy had not the sole use of the tithes.[224]
I refer the reader to pp. 20-23 in this book for a full discussion on this point.
In the second place, as regards Mr. Price’s opinion, I must also refer the reader to p. 107.