41 



TAXATIO ECCLESIASTICA. 



TAXATIO ECCLESIASTICA. 



42 



game position as if they had been contented to tax none but their 

 own subjects. In this power of retaliation lies the antidote to the 

 evil of one state being forced to bear the burdens of another as 

 well as its own. Every state would naturally resist such an impo- 

 sition upon its subjects, and export duties can therefore only be 

 safely resorted to in such peculiar cases as we have noticed, where 

 foreigners are willing to pay an increased price for commodities which 

 they must have, and which they cannot obtain so good or so cheap 

 from any other place. 



TAXA'TIO ECCLESIA'STICA, signifies the assessment and levy 

 of taxes upon the property of the church and of the clergy. The pope 

 once claimed in all countries the first year's whole profits and the tenth 

 part of the whole annual profits of every ecclesiastical benefice. These 

 were called " First-Fruits and Tenths " [FlKST-FRurrs ; TENTHS], and 

 were, for the most part, paid willingly by the clergy to their ecclesias- 

 tical superior. The popes founded their claim upon scriptural precepts 

 and practice, from the time of Melchizedek. The pope had his 

 collectors in every diocese, who sometimes by bills of exchange, but 

 generally in specie, yearly returned the tenths and first-fruits of the 

 clergy to Rome. 



But while the clergy were thus liable to taxation by their ecclesias- 

 tical head, it was maintained by the Roman Catholic church that then- 

 property enjoyed complete immunity against all claims of temporal 

 powers, being set apart for the service of God, the support and dignity 

 of the Christian church, and for works of charity. Upon this point 

 frequent contests very naturally arose, and the vast possessions of the 

 church tempted the pope and temporal princes by various modes to 

 exact contributions from the clergy. The means resorted to by these 

 respective powers to raise a revenue from the clergy, and the laws and 

 customs that prevailed upon the matter, may be conveniently stated by 

 dividing the subject into 



1. Taxation of the church or clergy by the pope for ecclesiastical 

 purposes. 



2. By temporal princes for the service of the state. 



1. The pope was by no means satisfied with the regular contributions 

 of the clergy, but continually applied to them for extraordinary funds 

 for special purposes. In 1199, Pope Innocent III. issued a bull com- 

 manding the prelates and clergy of the Christian church to pay the 

 fortieth part of all their revenues to defray the expenses of a crusade. 

 This is said to have been the first attempt to impose a tax on the 

 clergy of all nations by the authority of the pope as head of the 

 church. The practice became frequent ; and in 1225 the pope enter- 

 tained a project by which the revenues of two prebends in every cathe- 

 dral, and the portion of two monks in every monastery, in all the 

 countries in communion with the Church of Rome, were to have been 

 granted to the pope for the better support of his dignity. When this 

 project was laid before the parliament of England in 1226, they evaded 

 a direct answer to the papal legate, by alleging " that this affair con- 

 cerned all Christendom ; and that they would conform to the resolu 

 lions of other Christian countries." (Wilkin's ' Concilia,' vol. i.) 



Two years afterwards, the king of England, Henry III., in order to 

 induce the pope to interfere in a dispute concerning the appointment 

 of an archbishop to the see of Canterbury, recently vacant by the death 

 of Cardinal Langton, promised him a tenth of the moveables not only 

 of the clergy but of the laity. In this proceeding there appears to 

 have been a twofold peculiarity. First, a temporal prince offered the 

 ]K>pe a contribution from his clergy, which commonly originated with 

 the pope ; and, secondly, a tax was to be levied upon the laity, not for 

 the service of the state, but for the benefit of a foreign ecclesiastic. 

 The strangeness of the circumstances, however, did not prevent the 

 pope from taking immediate advantage of the king's offer, and he 

 accordingly sent a legate into England to collect the tenths. His 

 demand met with some opposition, chiefly from the barons, but the 

 pope and the king together were too powerful to be resisted. In the 

 same reign the pope's legates were constantly demanding presents from 

 the bishops, monasteries, and clergy, and convening assembh'es of the 

 church, with no other object than to extort money. Their proceedings 

 created such disgust that the great barons sent orders to the wardens 

 of the seaports to stop all persons bringing any bulls or mandates from 

 Rome, and at last succeeded in driving the legate himself out of the 

 kingdom ; but the sums which the pope continued to draw from the 

 clergy at that time appear to have been enormous, and the histories ol 

 that period are full of complaints and remonstrances against papal 

 exactions. An act was passed by the parliament in 1307 (' Statute ol 

 Carlisle,' 35 Edward I.) to restrain, in some measure, the exactions ol 

 the see of Rome, but apparently with little good results ; for seventy 

 yean afterwards we find the Commons in parliament still protesting 

 against the extortions of the pope. In their remonstrance to the king 

 upon that grievance, they asserted " that the taxes paid to the pope 

 yearly, out of England, amounted to five times as much as the taxes 

 paid to the king." (Cotton's ' Abridgment.') 



Although complaints continued long after this period, no measures 

 were effectual in limiting the demands of the court of Rome until the 

 authority was altogether suppressed in England at the Reforma- 

 tion in the reign of Henry VIII. 



'2. Thi! immunities claimed by the church were not effectual in pro- 



i% its revenues from being laid under contribution for the service 



i if UK: state. The kings of England, sometimes by the pope's authority, 



sometimes by forced or voluntary compliance on the part of the 

 church, and sometimes by their own direct power, obtained large sums 

 from the clergy. 



William the Conqueror found the church very wealthy, and subjected 

 it to much spoliation. A singular occasion for taxing the clergy arose 

 in the reign of Henry I., A.D. 1129. An ecclesiastical council, assem- 

 bled at London, denounced all married clergymen, and decreed that 

 they should put away their wives. The council committed to the king 

 the execution of their decrees ; but he, instead of compelling the 

 clergy to send away their wives, imposed a tax on those who chose to 

 retain them, which is said to have been very productive. 



The pope was not unwilling to assist in oppressing the clergy for the 

 benefit of kings, when they were inclined to further his own objects, 

 either by undertaking crusades, carrying on wars against his enemies, 

 or making concessions to him. He would not suffer the immunities 

 of the church to be infringed by the temporal power, but often placed 

 at the disposal of princes the revenues of the church by his own 

 authority. Thus, the pope, by virtue of his apostolical power, granted 

 King Henry III., by several bulls, the goods of all clergymen who died 

 intestate, the revenues of all vacant benefices, and of all non-residents. 

 In 1288, Pope Nicholas IV. granted the tenths to King Edward I. for 

 six years, towards defraying the expenses of an expedition to the Holy 

 Land ; and in order to collect them at their full value, a taxation by 

 the king's precept was begun in that year, and finished, as to the pro- 

 vince of Canterbury, in 1291, and as to that of York in the following 

 year, the whole being under the direction of the bishops of Winchester 

 and Lincoln. This taxation is a most important record, because all 

 the taxes of the church, as well to the kings of England as to the pope, 

 were afterwards regulated by it until the survey made by Henry VIII. ; 

 and because the statutes of colleges which were founded before the 

 Reformation are also interpreted by this criterion, according to which 

 their benefices, under a certain value, are exempted from the restric- 

 tion in the statute 21 Henry VIII. concerning pluralities. (' Preface 

 to Taxatio Ecclesiastica, P. Nieh. IV., by the Record Commissioners.') 



In 1295, Edward, notwithstanding the pope's grant, and numerous 

 exactions from the clergy in the meantime, being still in great need of 

 money to carry on his wars, summoned deputies from the inferior 

 clergy for the first time to vote him supplies from their own body. In 

 the preceding year he had, by threats and violence, exacted a tax of 

 half the revenues of the clergy ; but now he thought it prudent to 

 obtain their consent to his demands in a more regular manner. The 

 clergy, however, would not obey the king's writ of summons, lest they 

 should appear to acknowledge the temporal power ; and in order to 

 overcome this objection, the king issued his writ to the archbishop, 

 who, as their spiritual superior, summoned the clergy to meet in con- 

 vocation. (Gilbert's ' History of the Exchequer.') 



This was the commencement of the constitutional practice of the 

 clergy meeting iu Convocation at the same time as the Lay Parliament, 

 and voting subsidies by its own voluntary act for the service of the 

 state. It was not viewed without alarm by the pope and the high 

 church dignitaries ; and in order to put a stop to all such exactions of 

 princes from the clergy, Pope Boniface VIII. issued a bull in 1296, 

 which forbade churchmen of every degree to pay any tribute, subsidy, 

 or gift to laymen, without authority from the see of Rome ; and de- 

 clared that if they should pay, or princes exact, or any one assist in 

 levying such unauthorised taxes, all such persons respectively would 

 incur the sentence of excommunication. (Rymer's 'Focdera,' vol. i., 

 part 2.) 



In the same year, however, Edward I. demanded of the clergy a fifth 

 of their moveables, which they resisted, on the ground that they could 

 not disobey the pope ; but the king was not inclined to desist ; and in 

 order to force the acquiescence of the clergy, he put them out of the 

 pale of the laws. Orders were issued to the judges to hear no cause 

 brought before them by the clergy, but to decide all causes in which 

 they were sued by others. The clergy could not long resist these 

 oppressions ; and although unwilling to disobey the papal bull, they 

 evaded it by voluntarily depositing a sum equivalent to the amount 

 demanded of them in some church, whence it was taken by the king's 

 officers. In this expedient the whole ecclesiastical body acquiesced, 

 and thus yielded up then- spiritual privileges, under coercion by the 

 temporal power. 



At the Reformation, the chief source of revenue to the pope, namely, 

 first-fruits and tenths, was transferred to the king " for more aug- 

 mentation and maintenance of the royal estate of his imperial crown 

 and dignity of supreme head of the Church of England." (Stat. 26 

 Henry VIII., c. 3.) In order to collect this revenue, a court of first- 

 fruits was established, and the king ordered a valuation to be made of 

 all the episcopal sees and benefices in England. The book which con- 

 tains this valuation is called the ' Liber Regis.' The first-fruits and 

 tenths continued to form part of the royal revenue until Queen Anne, 

 by the Act 2 & 3 of her reign, c. 11, gave up the proceeds thereof on 

 the part of herself and her successors, and assigned them for ever to 

 the augmentation of poor livings. 



It now only remains to notice more particularly the practice of 

 taxing the clergy in convocation, which continued in full force till the 

 reign of Charles II. It had afforded the kings of England a lucrative 

 revenue from the church. Their influence as heads of the church, and 

 as having ecclesiastical preferments to bestow, was very great after the 



