A history of tithes

by Henry William Clarke

(1) The “Penitential,” a document of the tenth century.[40] There are four books prefaced with twenty-one canons. The first book only is Egbert’s.

(2) The “Confessional and Penitential.” The fourth book only of the “Penitential” is Egbert’s. And as regards the “Confessional,” he may have translated it.

(3) 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.[41]

Sir H. Spelman, Wilkins,[42] Johnson,[43] Bishop Kennett, Dr. Lingard,[44] Kemble, Thorpe,[45] 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’ [= Here begin the excerptions of the Lord Egbert, archbishop of the city of York, concerning the duty of priests], hath these words, ‘Ut unusquisque sacerdos cunctos sibi pertinentes erudiat, ut sciant qualitèr decimas totius facultatis ecclesiis divinis debitè offerant.’ [That every priest teach all that belong to him to know how they are to offer the tithes of all their substance in a due manner to the churches of God.] And immediately follows, ‘Ut ipsi sacerdotes à populis suscipiant decimas, et nomina eorum, quicunque dederint, scripta habeant, et secundum authoritatem canonicam coram testibus dividant, et ad ornamentum ecclesiæ primam eligant partem, secundam autem ad usum pauperum atque perigrinorum per eorum manus misericorditèr cum omni humilitate dispensent; tertiam verò sibimet ipsis sacerdotes reservent?” [That the priests themselves receive the tithes of the people, and write down their names and what they have given, and divide it according to canonical authority in the presence of witnesses, and choose the first part for the ornament of the church, and distribute the second part with their own hands tenderly and with all humility for the use of the poor and strangers; and let the priests reserve the third part for themselves.][46]

“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 ecclesiæ 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.”[47]

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,[48] 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.