Offa’s supposed Law of Tithes in A.D. 794.
Dr. Humphrey Prideaux, Dean of Norwich, published a work on Tithes in 1709, 2nd ed. 1736. The title is, “The Original and Right of Tithes for the maintenance of the ministry in a Christian Church.”
His main object was to prove the Divine in opposition to the legal right of tithes. He quotes questionable authorities in support of his views.
In reference to King Offa, he says, “And in imitation [of Charlemagne’s Capitulars] Offa made a law about the year 794, whereby he gave to the Church the tithes of all his kingdom, which the historians tell us was done to expiate for the death of Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, whom in the year preceding he had caused basely to be murdered on his coming to his court to marry his daughter.”[79] He quotes as his authority for this story the chronicle of Bromton, abbot of Jervaulx, in Yorkshire, who lived towards the end of the 14th century. Now, in referring to this chronicle, I find that Prideaux made two wrong quotations, viz. (1) that Offa made a law; (2) that he gave tithes of all his kingdom of Mercia. Let John Bromton speak for himself. “This Offa, by the wicked advice of his wife, treacherously (prodicionaliter) put to death St. Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, who was on a visit to him for the purpose of marrying his daughter; in atonement for which sin he brought down his pride to such a degree of humility and penitence that he gave to Holy Church a tenth of all that belonged to him.”[80]
Roger of Wendover gives a very graphic account of the murder of King Ethelbert by Offa’s wife in 792, in order to add his kingdom to Mercia. After his death Offa annexed it to his own.[81]
Polydore Vergil followed Bromton, and Holinshed followed Polydore. Selden quotes from Polydore thus: “Offa’s giving the tithe of his estate to the clergy and the poor.”[82]
Bromton says that he gave the tithe to Holy Church. Polydore explains what Bromton meant by Holy Church; viz., “The clergy and the poor.” Polydore was an Italian priest sent to England by the Pope to collect Peters pence. He was archdeacon of Wells, and wrote a history of England, which he dedicated to Henry VIII. In this history he explains what was meant by “Holy Church” thus: “He (Offa) gave the tenth part of all his goods to priests and other poor men.”[83] Holinshed says, “He granted the tenth part of his goods unto churchmen and poor people.”[84]
The poor were always considered in grants of tithes or offerings, because charity was, and is, the basis of the Christian religion. And this fundamental principle of Christianity runs through all donations to Holy Church in Anglo-Saxon and Norman times.
Lord Selborne considers Bromton’s statement as regards Offa’s grant of tithes, as a “mythical story,”[85] because other chroniclers do not mention it. Is Lord Selborne consistent in pushing on this theory of ignoring any statement which is not confirmed by some other independent writer? Let us take for example, the Ordinances made at Habam about A.D. 1012. They are found only in Bromton’s work. They are not confirmed by any other writer, but are copied by writers from this source. Does Lord Selborne state that they are “mythical,” because other chroniclers do not mention them? No. He admits them as genuine.[86] So does Mr. Thorpe.[87] If Lord Selborne were consistent, he would have rejected them, because they are not confirmed by other independent writers. No one knows from what source Bromton had taken his text.
Lord Selborne admits the other two statements made by Bromton; viz., (1) King Ethelbert’s murder. (2) The grant of Peter’s Pence.
Now, it appears to me that this so-called “mythical story” was not unreasonable, (1) because King Offa enacted the payment of tithes in his own kingdom in 787; and (2) because it was a tenth of his own property which was granted. It certainly was not a general enactment for the payment of tithes throughout his kingdom.
Kemble says on this point, “I think that in this case he [Bromton] has probability on his side, if we restrict the grant to Offa’s demesne lands, or to a release of a tenth of the dues payable to the King on folcland.”[88] This is exactly my opinion also.
Dean Prideaux is not correct when he states, “This law of Offa was that which first gave the Church a civil right in tithes in this land, by way of property and inheritance, and enabled the clergy to gather and recover them as their legal due by the coercion of the civil power.”[89] This dignitary of the Church, so often quoted, polluted the tithe question with so much fiction and ill-digested conclusions that he has made the true history of tithes very embarrassing. But there is one comfort that the light which the latest researches have thrown upon the whole tithe question has completely dissipated the numerous fictions which surround it.
It is erroneously stated that when tithes originated in England there were no poor, although our Lord says we should always have the poor among us; and that the owner of the soil was bound to support all that were born on his soil; that they worked and lived for him, and therefore there was no necessity for making provision for the poor out of the tithes. Now on this special point we have overwhelming genuine documentary evidence that provision was distinctly made for the poor in the first mention of tithes being paid in England. “It is not lawful,” says Archbishop Theodore, “to pay tithes except to the poor and strangers.” This is the first instance in which tithes are mentioned in English writings. It is therefore wrong to say that there were no poor in this country when the custom of paying tithes commenced in England. Theodore’s statement was written not later than A.D. 686. The second reference to tithes is in Bede’s “Eccl. Hist.,” where he states that Bishop Eadbert gave (A.D. 686) one-tenth of his own goods to the poor.[90] “Not tithes in particular,” says Lord Selborne, “but all church property of every kind was from early times, and down even to the fourteenth century, described as the patrimony of the poor. The poor were always, and almost must be in an especial degree, objects of the Christian ministry.”[91]
In Anglo-Saxon times the State did not provide for the poor. It demanded that every man should be answerable for himself in a mutual bond of association with his neighbour, or should place himself under the protection of some lord. The man without means or protection was treated as an outlaw. This was heathenism and not Christianity. The grand humanitarian, philanthropic principles of the Christian religion were taught the Saxon heathen from the very first by the Christian missionaries. Unquestionably these missionaries found poor, outcast Anglo-Saxons to whom they preached the Gospel, and assisted them with their charity and protection. This was the special function of the bishops and their clergy in their dioceses, and monks in their monasteries. When they appealed to the people for their voluntary offerings of tithes, the strongest point in that appeal was for means to help the poor and strangers, and so tithes went partly towards poor rates, partly towards a church rate to repair the edifice, and partly towards the clerical sustentation fund. These were originally the three distinct functions of tithes in England. There is sufficient evidence for a reasonable conviction on this much-disputed point of the division of tithes.
CHAPTER VII.
KING ETHELWULF’S ALLEGED GRANT OF TITHES.
“But this establishment,” says Prideaux, “reached no further than the kingdom of Mercia, over which Offa reigned, till Ethelwulf, about sixty years after, enlarged it for the whole realm of England. And because hereon the civil right of tithes in this land had its main foundation, and this matter hath been much perplexed by those who have wrote of it, both pro and con, I shall for the clearing of it from all objections and difficulties raised about it, here give a thorough and full account of the whole matter,” etc.[92] This erroneous view has been long exploded.
It is amusing to read what Prideaux calls Selden’s able and learned history of tithes: “Mr. Selden’s wild chimera,” and again, “his wild conceit”; but nothing could be wilder than his own conceit on the Divine origin of tithes in the Church of England. Another Dean—Comber—also wrote strongly against Mr. Selden’s “Tithes.”[93]
Mr. Selden had taken Ethelwulf’s charter passed in a Witenagemót, A.D. 844, as the first legal title-deed of granting tithes to the clergy. In this view he was followed by Prideaux, Hume, Collier, Rapin, Milman, Echard, and others.
Sir Henry Spelman had taken another view, and supposed the grant to have been the origin of the glebe-lands of the Church; but this opinion was wrong, because churches had been endowed with glebe lands prior to these grants.
The great question at issue is, “Did Ethelwulf’s charters grant a tithe of yearly increase?” They did not.
I have consulted the following chronicles on this matter:—
(a) The Saxon Chronicle under the year A.D. 855 writes: “In this year Ethelwulf, inscribing in a book the tenth part of the land and also of his whole kingdom, dedicated it to God’s praise, and thereby seeking also his own eternal salvation.” [“Decimam terræ suæ et regni quoque totius partem libro inscribens, in laudem Dei, suæque etiam æternal saluti consulens, dicavit.”]
(b) Simeon has under A.D. 855: “At this time King Ethelwulf tithed all the empire of his kingdom for the redemption of his own soul and the souls of his ancestors.” [“Quo tempore rex Ethelwulfus decimavit totum regni sui imperium, pro redemptione animæ suæ et antecessorum suorum.”]
(c) Huntingdon, under A.D. 854, writes: “Ethelwulf in the nineteenth year of his reign tithed all his land to the uses of the Churches for God’s love and his own redemption.” [“Ethelwulfus decimo nono anno regni sui totam terram suam adopus ecclesiarum decimavit, propter amorem Dei et redemptionem sui.”]
(d) Wendover, A.D. 854: “In this same year the magnificent King Ethelwulf conferred upon God and the blessed Mary and all the saints the tenth part of his kingdom free from all secular services, exactions, and tributes.” [“Eodem anno rex magnificus Athelwulfus decimam regni sui partem Deo et Beatæ Mariæ et omnibus sanctis contulit, liberam ab omnibus servitiis sæcularibus exactionibus et tributis.”]
(e) Malmesbury says: “Ethelwulf granted to Christ’s servants the tenth part of all the ploughlands within his kingdom, free from all duties, and discharged from all liability to disturbance.” [“Ethelwulfus decimam omnium hidarum infra regnum suum Christi famulis concessit, liberam ab omnibus functionibus absolutam ab omnibus inquietudinibus.”]
(f) Asser, surnamed Menavensis, from the place of his birth, writes, under A.D. 855: “In the same year Ethelwulf released the tenth part of his whole kingdom from all royal service and tribute, and by a perpetual inscription offered it as a sacrifice on the cross of Christ to the Trinity for the redemption of his own soul and the souls of his ancestors.” [“Eodem anno Æthelwulfus decimam totius regni sui partem ab omni regali servitio et tributo liberavit, in sempiternoque graphio in cruce Christi pro redemptione animæ suæ et antecessorum suorum, uni et trino Deo immolavit.”]
Asser was well acquainted with the traditions of the king’s house, having been tutor and biographer of Alfred, Ethelwulf’s son.
(g) Ingulphus, A.D. 855: “It added to the prosperity of the old age (of Guthlæ, Abbot of Crowland) that Ethelwulf, the famous king of the West Saxons, when he recently returned from Rome (where, with his younger son Alfred, he had visited abroad the thresholds of the Apostles Peter and Paul and the most holy Pope Leo), with the free consent of all his prelates and princes who ruled under him, the various provinces of all England, then first endowed the whole English Church throughout his kingdom with the tithes of the lands and other goods and chattels, by a writing under his own hand in this form,” then follows the charter. [“Accessit ad prosperitatem senii sui, quod inclytus rex west saxonum Ethelwulphus cum de Roma, ubi limina Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, ac sanctissimum Papam Leonem, multa devotione una cum juniore filio suo Alfredo peregre visitaverat, noviter revertisset, omnium Prælatorum ac principum suorum, qui sub ipso variis provinciis totius Angliæ præerat, gratuito consensu, tunc primo cum decimis omnium terrarum, ac bonorum aliorum sive catallorum, universam dotaverat ecclesiam Anglicanam per suum regium chirographum confectum inde in hunc modum.”][94]
(a) Refers to grant of lands, and not tithes; (b, c) use the word decimavit; (d, e, f) refer to a grant of lands freed from secular services, exactions, and tributes; (g) refers to tithes.
The word decimare had been often used as regards gifts in tenths quite apart from the idea of tithes. The whole difficulty in reference to Ethelwulf’s grants, turns upon his use of the word tenth as a convenient measure for ecclesiastical and other benefactions. This fact testifies to another fact; namely, the growing recognition of the tithe as the clerical portion.[95]
In order to get a correct idea of the application of the charters, it is essentially necessary to make oneself familiar with the proper meanings of “Folcland” and “Bocland.”