Disputes touching tithes payable to city clergy, 1527-1534.
In the city the question of tithes payable to the clergy had been always more or less a vexed question. Before the commencement of the thirteenth century the city clergy had been supported by casual dues in[pg 384] addition to their glebe land. These casual payments were originally personal, but subsequently became regulated by the amount of rent paid by parishioners for their houses. A question arose as to whether the citizens were also liable to pay personal tithes on their gains, and it was eventually decided that they were so liable.[1154]
On the 31st August, 1527, a committee, which had been specially appointed to enquire into matters concerning the city's welfare, reported, among other things, upon the tithe question as it then stood in the city.[1155] The "curates," they said, had purchased a Bull of Pope Nicholas, on the 6th August, 1453, and this Bull had been confirmed by Act of Common Council on the 3rd March, 1475. Not only was the amount of the tithe payable fixed by the Bull, but the Bull itself was to be publicly read by the curates four times a year, so that no doubt should exist in the minds of the parishioners. This the curates had failed to do, and had caused their parishioners heavy legal expenses in disputing demands for tithes. One man was known to have spent as much as £100 in his own defence. The committee suggested that the whole question should be referred to the Bishop of London, and that a translation of the Bull should be exhibited in every church. The citizens were the more aggrieved because many parsonages and vicarages were let to ferm.[1156]
The curates' book of articles.
The curates made their defence in a book of eighteen articles touching tithes and other oblations,[pg 385] the chief point being that every householder, time out of mind, had been bound to pay to God and the Church one farthing out of every 10s. of rent, a half-penny out of 20s. and so forth, on 100 days of the year; amounting in all to 2s. 1d. for every 10s. rent per annum. This manner of payment proving tedious, the curates and their parishioners came to an agreement that 1s. 2d. should be paid on every 6s. 8d. or noble, and this sum the curates had been receiving time out of mind, none reclaiming or denying. But, inasmuch as this payment by occupiers of houses was only ordained for a "dowry" to the parish churches of London which had no glebe lands, the curates demanded that all merchants and artificers, with other occupiers of the city, should pay personal tithes of their "lucre or encrece" according to the common law, and as "well conscyoned" men had been in the habit of paying in times past.[1157] The book of articles was laid before the Court of Common Council on the 16th February, 1528, by Robert Carter and six other priests, on behalf of their entire body. On the following 16th March the Court of Aldermen for themselves agreed to pay tithe at the forthcoming Easter according to the Bull of Pope Nicholas, and not after the rate of 1s. 2d. on the noble,[1158] whilst four days later the Common Council decided that, for the sake of convenience, bills should be posted in every parish church within the city showing the number of offering days (viz., eighty-two) and the amount to be offered by inhabitants of the city.[1159]
So matters continued until, early in 1534, it was agreed to submit the whole question to the lord chancellor and other members of the council, who made their award a few days before Easter.[1160] It decreed that at the forthcoming festival every subject should pay to the parson or curate of his parish after the rate of 2s. 9d. in the pound, and 16 pence half-penny in the half-pound, and that every man's wife, servant, child and apprentice receiving the Holy Sacrament should pay two pence. These payments were to continue to be paid "without grudge or murmur" until such time as the council should arrive at a final settlement.[1161]
Elsing Spital and Holy Trinity Priory surrendered to the king, 1530-1531.
In the meanwhile the city had been made to feel the heavy hand of the king and of his new minister, Thomas Cromwell. In May, 1530, Elsing Spital, a house established by William Elsing, a charitable mercer, for the relief of the blind, but which had subsequently grown into a priory of Augustinian canons of wealth and position, was confiscated by the Crown. What became of the blind inmates is not known. In the following year (1531) the Priory of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, shared the same fate. The priory had existed since the time of Henry I and the "good queen" Matilda,[1162] and its prior enjoyed the singular distinction of being ex[pg 387] officio an alderman of the city. The canons were now removed to another place and the building and site bestowed by Henry upon his chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley.[1163]
The Great Beam reconveyed to the City after the lapse of ten years, 1531.
Between 1531 and 1534 the City enjoyed some respite from attack. It even recovered some of its lost privileges. In 1521 Henry had deprived the City of its right to the Great Beam, and of the issues and profits derived from it, and had caused a conveyance of it to be made to Sir William Sidney. In 1531 the beam was re-conveyed to the City.[1164] The Grocers' Company were scarcely less interested in the beam than the City, for to them was deputed the choice of weighers, who were afterwards admitted and sworn before the Court of Aldermen. Both the City and the company used their best endeavours to recover their lost rights, the former going so far as to sanction the distribution of the sum of £23 6s. 8d. between the king's sergeant, the king's attorney, and one "Lumnore,"[1165] a servant of "my lady Anne,"[1166] with the view of gaining their object the easier.[1167] A compromise was subsequently effected by which Sir William Sidney continued to hold the beam at an annual rent payable to the City,[1168] until, in 1531, he[pg 388] consented to a surrender, and it became again vested in the Corporation.