[966]. Eadmer, Vit. Oswald, p. 202. Ang. Sac. i. 542. Hist. Rames. p. 400.
[967]. Cod. Dipl. Nos. 674-678.
[968]. In Nos. 675, 678. In the other charters where this Leófwine occurs, he is even called clericus, unless it were another person of the same name.
[969]. An. 969. “S. Oswaldus, sui voti compos effectus, clericos Wigorniensis aecclesiae monachilem habitum suscipere renuentes de monasterio expulit; consentientes vero, hoc anno, ipso teste monachizavit, cisque Ramesiensium coenobitam Wynsinum, magnae religionis virum, loco decani praefecit.”
[970]. Cod. Dipl. No. 553.
[971]. Ibid. No. 586.
[972]. Ibid. No. 615.
CHAPTER X.
THE INCOME OF THE CLERGY.
The means provided for the support of the clergy were various at various periods, consisting sometimes merely of voluntary donations on the part of the people, sometimes of grants of lands, or settled endowments, and sometimes of fixed charges upon persons and property, recognized by the state and levied under its authority: and after the secure establishment of a Christian church in Britain, it is probable that all these several sources of income were combined to supply its ministers with a decent maintenance, if not even an easy competence. The grant of lands whereon to erect a church or a monastery was generally calculated also to furnish arable and pasture for the support of its inmates: for the earliest clergy were in fact cœnobites, and lived in common, even if they were not monks, and subject to the Benedictine or some other Rule. It is not at all probable that the heathen priesthood should have been without an adequate provision, whether in land or the free oblations of the people, and very likely that their Christian successors profited by the custom. As the piety or superstition of the masses increased the landed possessions of the clergy, these not only could depend upon the produce of their estates, but upon the rents in kind, in money or in service, which they received from tenants or poor dependents. And from early periods, either custom or positive law had established a right to claim certain contributions at fixed periods of the year, or on particular occasions; such were tithes of fruits of the earth, and young of cattle; cyricsceat or first-fruits of seed, light-money, plough-alms, and sáwlsceat or mortuary fees. The numberless grants of lands recorded in the Codex Diplomaticus in favour of the clergy, dispense with the necessity of entering at any length upon this head; but some more detailed examination of the other church-dues is desirable, inasmuch as they have been in some degree misunderstood by several writers who have heretofore treated of them. In truth, it was comparatively difficult to deal with these subjects, till the publication of all the Anglosaxon laws and a very large body of the charters so greatly increased the number of data upon which alone sound conclusions could be formed.
The subject of tithe is surrounded with difficulty, not only from the obscurity which belongs to its history, but still more from the nature of the discussions to which it has given rise. That from periods so early as to transcend historical record the clergy should have been permitted universally to claim a tenth of all increase, does indeed seem so startling a proposition, that we are little surprised at its having met with angry opposition. It does not seem consonant to the general experience of man that in all nations precisely the same mode should be adopted of supporting any class of men; nor is it natural or easy to believe that a missionary body, in constant danger of finding all their efforts vain, should prevail at once to establish so serious a claim against the income of their converts.