Sir John de Cobham, appropriated Horton Kirby Church to Cobham Chantry. The Bishop of Rochester, when confirming this appropriation in 1378, assigned the vicar all the oblations, obventions, the tithe of flax, hemp, milk, butter, cheese, cattle, calves, wool, lambs, geese, ducks, pigs, eggs, wax, honey, apples, peas, pigeons, fisheries of ponds, rivers and lakes, fowling, merchandizing, trade, herbage, pasture, feedings, mills; all the herbage of the churchyard, and all other small tithes arising within the said parish. The bishop taxed all at seven marks = £4 13s. 4d. per annum. The chantry was to repair the chancel and parsonage house, but the vicar was to pay the procurations of the archdeacon. At the dissolution of monasteries, the parsonage and advowson were given to the Crown, who granted them away by sale. At the present time the impropriators receive £848, and Queen’s College, Oxford, £200 12s. tithe-rent charge per annum from Horton parish, whilst the vicar receives £266 12s. from the small tithes above stated, and has thirty-four acres of glebe. The present patron is H. B. Rashleigh, who is also the vicar, and his curate is C. Rashleigh. This is a good specimen parish as regards the distribution of tithes, and also the patronage, for £1,050 of the rent charge is in lay hands, and the advowson or patronage is a marketable commodity, and now in possession of the present vicar. It is also important to note that the vicarage has been augmented by Queen Anne’s bounty by the purchase of an estate at Brockhull in the same parish. We note that J. K. Rashleigh is vicar of Luxulyan, diocese of Truro; patron, Sir C. Rashleigh, Bart. There is an immense number of livings in possession of incumbents, obtained either by purchase or by family patronage.
The appropriator gave the vicar the small tithes because he found them more difficult to collect than the great tithes.
It is unreasonable to state that an unmarried parish priest with a free parsonage house would be allowed to enjoy all these tithes as his own income. No, for he was to keep hospitality. The rectors or monastic bodies, who had the great tithes, kept the chancel of the church in repair. And up to the present time, the owners of the great or rectorial tithes, and not the owners of any other church endowment, are legally bound to keep the chancels in good repair, and if they fall down, to build them up again. What is this but a compliance with the original division of tithes by which a portion was set apart for the repairs of the church. And, as I shall show, these repairs included the whole building, but in course of time the rectors kept the tithes and shifted this responsibility on the shoulders of the parishioners, which led to church rates. They did the same as regards the portion for the poor, who were pecuniarily unable to maintain their claims in the higher courts, to which legal remedy Lord Selborne refers.
In King Edmund’s law[263] the bishops were ordered to keep the churches in repair, as the whole tithes of the parish went to them; but in Canute’s laws of 1018, all the parishioners were ordered to keep their churches in repair. Canute’s change from the bishops to the parishioners can only be explained from the fact that the dilapidated condition of the churches, the result of the Danish invasions, and a general destruction of property throughout the country, made the funds at the bishops’ disposal insufficient for the purpose, and so the burden was thrown generally upon the inhabitants. But when the country increased in riches and prosperity, the liability for the repairs of the chancel was again, and is still, placed on the owners of the great or rectorial tithes.
The following canon 4 is taken from the provincial constitutions of John Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, made in a provincial council in London, 10th of October, 1342.
“Whereas ecclesiastical men are entrusted with dispensing of tithes and other things belonging to the church, that the poor by their prudent management may not be defrauded; yet the religious of our province having churches appropriate, do so apply the fruits of them to their own use, as to give nothing in charity to the poor parishioners, being regenerate sons of the churches, to whom they are bound to do this more than to strangers; by which means such as owe tithes and ecclesiastical dues become not only indevout, but invaders, destroyers and disturbers, to the danger of their own souls and theirs, and to the scandal of many; therefore with the approbation of this sacred council, we ordain that the said religious, having ecclesiastical benefices appropriate, be compelled by the bishops every year to distribute to the poor parishioners a certain portion of their benefices, in alms to be moderated at the discretion of the bishops in proportion to the value of such benefices, under pain of sequestration of the fruits and profits thereof, till they yield a reasonable obedience in the premisses.”[264]
The inference to be drawn from this canon, and from the subsequent statute of 15 Richard II. c. vi. (1391), is that the poor had a claim on the tithes and other endowments; and this claim is admitted by Bishop Stubbs. But Lord Selborne, Fuller, and others, stoutly deny this claim. No doubt, the canon and Act refer to appropriated churches, when the avaricious monks retained all the tithes to their own use. But the inference above is generally applicable to all tithes. If not, what right had a provincial synod to make a canon, compelling appropriators who had neglected the poor to distribute to the poor, under the severe penalty of sequestration, a portion of the appropriated property? and almost all this property, unquestionably, consisted of tithes.
The vicar-perpetual of Henry IV.’s Act must not be confounded with the later “perpetual curate,” who by a recent Act is now styled “vicar.” The former is endowed with the small or vicarial tithes; the latter is not so endowed.
The most important parts of Henry IV.’s Act are, (1) permanently endowing the vicar, which, as regards tithes, equalled one-third part; and (2) giving the vicar as permanent a position in the parish as the rector.[265] But the autocratic freehold tenure has been grossly abused. This abuse, within the past thirty years, has much increased, owing to the lack of discipline and inability of the bishops to correct insubordinate and law-breaking parsons.
There is no parochial council to check the conduct and actions of the autocratic endowed incumbent. He snaps his fingers at the parishioners, bishop, archdeacon, rural dean, or any other episcopal officer. He is the bishop of his own parish. His freehold tenure and endowments make him independent and absolute master for life within his parochial limits.