TITHES. 



revenues to ll.e ckrgy, but voluntarily, and not out of any 

 conilraint or obligation : tlic tirft inftances we have of this, 

 are in the fourth and fifth centuries. 



This pift was called tithe, not tliat it was really a tenth 

 part of their income, or near fo much ; but only in imita- 

 tion of the tithes of the old law. 



In the following age, the prelates in their councils, in 

 concert with tlie princes, made an exprefs law to the pur- 

 pofe ; and obhged the laity to give a full tenth part of their 

 revenues, their fruits, &c. to the eccleftaftics. 



This the church enjoyed without difturbance for two or 

 three centuries ; but in the eighth century the laity got hold 

 of part of thefe tithes, either by their own authority, or 

 by grants and donations of the princes ; and appropriated 

 them to their own ufcs. 



Some time afterwards tliey reftored them, or applied them 

 to the founding of monafteries or chapters, and the church 

 confented, at leall tacitly, to this reftitution. In 1 179, the 

 third council of Latcran, iield under Alexander III. com- 

 manded the laymen to rellore all the tithes they yet held to 

 the church. 



In 1 2 15, the fourth council of Latcran, held under 

 Innocent III., moderated the matter a little ; and, without 

 faying any thing of the tithes which the laity already pof- 

 feffed, forbad them to appropriate or take any more for the 

 future. 



We may obferve, that, upon the firft introduftion of 

 tithes, though every man was obliged to pay tithes in general, 

 yat he might give tiicm to what priefts he pleafed, which 

 were called arbitrary conjecrailons of tithes : or he might pay 

 them into the hands of tlie bifliop, who dillributed among 

 his diocefan clergy the revenues of the church, which were 

 then in common. But when diocefes were divided into 

 parifhes, the tithes of each pari(h were allotted to its own 

 particular minifter ; firft by common confent, or the ap- 

 pointments of lords of the manors, and afterwards by the 

 written law of the land. However, arbitrary confecrations 

 of tithes took place again afterwards, and became in general 

 ufe with us tiU tlie time of king John. This was probably 

 owing to the intrigues of the regular clergy, or monks of 

 the Benedicline and other rules, and will account for the 

 number and riches of the monafteries and religious houfes 

 which were founded in thofe days, and which were fre- 

 quently endowed with tithes. But in procefs of years, 

 the income of the laborious parifti-priefts being fcandaloufly 

 reduced by thefe arbitrary confecrations of tithes, it was 

 remedied by pope Innocent III. about the year 1200, in a 

 decretal epiftle, fent to the archbilhop of Canterbury, and 

 dated from the palace of Lateran, which enjoined the pay- 

 ment of tithes to the parfons of the refpedive parifhes, 

 where every man inhabited, agreeably to what was after- 

 wards direfted by the fame pope in other countries. This 

 epiftle, being reaConable and juft, and correfpondent to the 

 ancient law, was allowed of, and became lex terra. This 

 put an efFeftual ftop to all the arbitrary confecrations of 

 tithes ; except fome footfteps which ftill continue in thofe 

 portions of tithes, which the parfon of one parifh hath, 

 though rarely, a right to claim in another : for it is now 

 univerfally held that tithes are due, of common right, to 

 the parfon of the parifli, unlefs there be a fpecial exemption. 

 This parfon of the parifh may be either the aftual incnm- 

 bcnt, or elfe the appropriator of the benefice : appropri- 

 ations being a method of endowing monafteries, which 

 fccms to have been devifed by the regular clergy, by/ way 

 of fubftitution to arbitrary confecrations of tithes. 



Fa. Paolo, in his " Treatife of Beneficiary Matters," is 

 •f opinion, that the cuftom of paying tithes, under the new 



law, began in France ; and affirms, that there are no in- 

 ftances of it before the eighth and ninth centuries : but he 

 muft be miftaken ; for in the fecond council of Matifcona, 

 held in 585, it is faid exprefsly, that the Chriftians had a 

 long time kept inviolate that law -of God, by which tithe of 

 all their fruits was enjoined to be given to the holy places, 

 &c. 



In effeft, Origen (Horn. xi. on Numb.) thinks, that the 

 old laws of Mofes, touching the hrft-fruits and tithes, both 

 of cattle and of the fruits of the earth, are not abrogated 

 by the gofpel ; but ought to be obferved on their ancient 

 footing. 



The jth canon of the council of Matifcona orders tithe 

 to be paid to the minifters of tue ciiurch according to the 

 law of God, and the immemorial cuftoni of the Chriftians, 

 for the ufe of the poor, and ihe redemption of captives, 

 and that upmi penalty of excommunication : which is the 

 firft penalty we find impofed on fuch as would not pay 

 tithe. On which grounds it is that many among the modern 

 clergy hold their tithes to he jure Jivino. 



Others, on the contrary, plead, that the recompence to 

 be given church minifters, is diffei-putly ordained by God, 

 according to the differences he has put between his two 

 great difpenfations, the law and the gofpel : under the law 

 he gave them tithes ; under the gofpel, having left all 

 things in his church to charity, and Chriftian freedom, 

 he has given them only what (hall be given them freely, and 

 in charity. ' That the law of tithes is in force under the 

 gofpel, all the Proteftant divines, except fome among the 

 Englifti, deny ; for though hire to the labourer be of moral 

 and perpetual right, yet that fpecial kind of hire, the tenth, 

 can be of no right or neceffity, but to the fpecial labour for 

 which God ordained it ; that fpecial labour was the Levi- 

 tical and ceremonial fervice of the tabernacle, (Numb, xviii. 

 21. 31.) which was ai)oU{hed : the right, therefore, of the 

 fpecial hire muft be aboliflied too. 



That tithes were ceremonial, is evident from their not 

 being given to the Levites till they had been firft offered 

 as an heave-offering to the Lord, ver. 24. 28. 



He, then, who by the law brings tithes into the gofpel, 

 brings in likewife a facrifice, and an altar ; without which, 

 tithes, by the law, were unfanftified and polluted, ver. 32. 

 And, therefore, they were never thought of in the firft 

 Chriftian times, till ceremonial altars and oblations had been 

 brought back. 



The Jews themfelves, ever fince their temple was de- 

 ftroyed, though they have rabbies, and teachers of the 

 law, yet pay no tithes, as having no proper Levites to whom, 

 nor any altar upon which to hallow them ; which argues 

 that the Jews themfelves never looked on tithes as moral, 

 but merely ceremonial. Add, that tithes were not allowed 

 to the priefts and Levites merely for their labour in the 

 tabernacle ; but in confideration of this likewife, that they 

 were not allowed to have any other part or inheritance 

 in the land (ver. 20. 24.), and, by that means, for a tenth, 

 loft a twelfth. 



Befides, it has been urged, that the priefts and Levites 

 were properly the officers and minifters of ftate ur^der God 

 as king of Ifrael ; and the Ifraelites paying through their 

 hands one-tenth to him, was agreeable to the cuftom of 

 almoft all nations to pay one-tenth to their king. Tithes, 

 therefore, are to be confidered as an appendage to the 

 theocracy, and it has been faid, that it will be extremely 

 difficult to prove, that Chriftian minifters have a divine 

 right to demand them, from this circumftance of a confti- 

 tution peculiar to the Jewilh nation. As to the original 

 of tithes, judge Blackftone obferves, that he will not put 



the 



