A history of tithes

by Henry William Clarke

The Monks.

It gives great pleasure to a certain class of writers to blacken the characters of the monks, and to extol Henry VIII. and the favourites and courtiers who surrounded him. But the present age is too critical and well-informed to be misled by the prejudiced and bigoted statements which have no foundation in fact. The monks were no doubt superstitious, and so were the parochial clergy; but the former were not ignorant men, as Judge Blackstone states in his Commentaries. He was much indebted to them for the preservation of ancient charters, laws, and historical annals, which form so important a part of his Commentaries. The various charters of English liberty, wrung from English sovereigns from time to time, were deposited in the monasteries by the barons for safe keeping, where they were carefully and faithfully preserved by the so-called “ignorant and superstitious monks.”

In every great abbey there was a large room called the “Scriptorium,” where several writers made it their sole business to transcribe books for the use of the library. They were generally engaged upon the Fathers, Classics, Histories, etc., etc. There was then no printing press. So zealous were the monks in general for this work, that they often had lands given to them and churches appropriated to them for carrying on the work. In all the great abbeys persons were appointed to take notice of the principal occurrences of the kingdom, and at the end of every year to digest them into annals. The constitutions of the clergy in their national and provincial synods, and even Acts of Parliament, were sent to the abbeys, in order to be duly recorded. The choicest records and treasures of the kingdom were preserved in the monasteries. A copy of the charter of liberties granted by Henry I. was sent to some abbey in every county to be preserved. The abbeys were schools of learning and education, for every convent had one person or more appointed for this purpose, and all the neighbours that desired it, might have their children taught certain branches of education free of charge. In the nunneries, also, young women were taught to work, and to read English and Latin also. Most of the daughters of noblemen and gentlemen were educated in those places.

Again, the monasteries were great hospitals, and most of them were obliged to relieve poor people every day. They served the same purposes of relieving the poor and strangers as the workhouses which originated in the reign of Queen Elizabeth did. When the monasteries were dissolved, and all their properties handed over as a free gift by Parliament to Henry VIII., to do with them as he pleased, there were no longer any places where the poor and strangers could be relieved. If all the monastic properties had then been placed under a Board of Commissioners to be utilized towards the relief of the poor, an annual income would now be at the command of such Commissioners as would be sufficient to cover the eight and a half millions per annum, the present cost of the relief of the poor of England and Wales, and thus the ratepayers of the kingdom would be relieved of the payment of poor rates. The annual value of all the property was £250,000, including the tithes possessed by the monastic bodies. If we take into account the valuable landed estates which the bishops and chapters were forced to exchange for the monastic appropriated tithes, firstfruits, and tenths, we shall get a revenue of at least £300,000 per annum, which, at the present time, would realize eight and a half millions per annum. To place such vast properties at the free disposal of Henry VIII. and his successors on the throne, is the most convincing proof of the subservient and even slavish Parliaments of the Tudor sovereigns.[168]

It is important to observe that we have no trustworthy record of any single event of English history previous to the arrival of Augustine. We have tradition, but nothing more. No great power of writing existed up to that period. But Augustine and his companions did more than introduce Christianity among the Saxons. They also introduced writing, annals, and other forms of Roman civilization. The first Anglo-Saxon charter is dated April 28, A.D. 604, by which Ethelbert, king of Kent, granted to the Cathedral church of Rochester, lands at Southgate. This charter was granted by the advice of Bishop Laurence and of all the king’s princes.[169] There are no signatures, but ends with “Amen.” The second charter, dated A.D. 605, granting land in Canterbury to found an abbey, is signed by King Ethelbert, Archbishop Augustine, Edbald the King’s son, Duke Hamigisil, Angemund referendarius, Hocca comes, Grafio comes (count or comites of the King), Tangilisil regis optimas, Pinca, and Geddi. The first charter is remarkable, in which Laurence is styled “bishop.” Augustine had not died until the 26th May, 605,[170] so he must have consecrated Laurence as Archbishop more than thirteen months before his death. Augustine signed the Charter dated 9th January, 605, as a member of the Witenagemót.