Ancient Impositions Of Th...
The Times, 1824-11-08T00:00:00

neetitng of the City Tlthe Co( mittee was held the other day, ntt.uildhall, upon v hicht Omcsice.a very curious docuinent, iliup. trative of the grievances under which the citizens of London for hundreds of years bqvo laboured from the tithe system? Was pre. sented. It wqs found imong4r the ancient records of the city. The following extracts from a translation of the docuraent, whici is writteni in Latin, will nhowv the unjust principle upon which the sums now. received by the clerv in the riame of tithes under the statute of Heary VIIE. are found6d. It will hb'netssary to premise, that at common law no tiLhe is payable for housea, but only by custom. This custom in Papal times produiced a i3Urce of revenue to the elergy from what were denominated voluntary offerings on Sundays and principal feast days, bat vere in eEfect entirely compulsory, being under penalty of excammunieft".A, punishmient, at those periods, little, if at all, inferior im the nitnds of the public to death and the otferings varied in amoant according as the ecclesiastics issued ordinances under thie authority of the Pope. Sometimes I theyamountedinthecourseeftheyeartoas much as 4s.2d.in the pound upon the rent of the citizens, and in the document referred to, is i8I the 3d ear of Henry VI., after noticing the institution or ordinance i6sue by Roger Niger, Bishop of London, 13th oHenry II3., it is stated that some citizens, of their mnere iberality and fervour of devotion, gave to God and the church more than acording to the rate ordained by Niger; and tben it proCtesd to state, that, "Nevertleless certain curates, not being conteelt withsufficient and abundant provision, enrdeavour- ed to convert that which only of mere devotion and free will was so sometimes practised into a perpetual bond of right and debt to the church, and rurrertitiously and privately obtained, ini the timke of Archbishop Arenel, letters declaratory of the said constitutSon, but more truly deRtructive iod subversiveofthe true sense ofthe samc,con- firmed by Pope Innocent (the citizens being entirely unconscious anl ignoraut of the obtaining of such declarution) ; and thereupon sucb curates have very frequently vexed and molested many citizens, and grievous murmurs and inconveniences have arisen, and the fer- vour of holy devotion grown cold and lukewarm: wherefore, the Honourable John Norman, Mayer, the aldennen, and citizens, con- Iddteng what grievaus Inco :veruences did hung on them, exterted by the conning and har-litiess of litignous men, upon m3ture deli. eration, find that certain curates, deceitfully bestirring themselves, have procured from the Lord the Pope, letters apostolic, strongly prejudicial and derogatory to the said citizens, contain- ing grievous pains, and censures, by which they pretend the citizens, their places and estates are bound to the obligas uon of new, unusual, divers, and unheard-of charees, not to be borne by the taid citizens, and have threatened to expel and rennove them from the holv and sacramental services. Wlhereupon the Mayor and Aldermen, considering that the citizens may be unduly aggrieved, did in purauance assemble it Commron Couicil. on the 12th of lMarch, in the 32d year of Henry VI., and appoint a con. fereasce with the Bishop of London: and so on the morrow they went to the BMshop of Liondon, at the church of St. Paul, to the Chapter. house, where Thomas Byllyng, Recorder of Londoni then publiclv declared al} the matter above said, desiring from the Bishoi, a true copy of the letterx by the said curates obtainea from the Lord the Pope; anil the Bishop considering the desire to be consonant to reason, grunted that they miglht have a copy, which copy they could not obtain, although they daily used all their diligence in that beh,slf. At length the samre Bishop, frautdulently contriving to delude the aforesai(( Afayor, sent one of his servants, praying the Mayor that he would vouchsafe to come to the church of St.Paul after the noon of the csame day; and the said Alayor, with cheerful heart, went to the clurch aforesaid, and there, in a certain small chapel near the consistorv, thie Bishopmettthe MIayor, saying, " Ayv Lord Mayor, sonie of this city tve been veryoften with me to demand and ltve a copy of a etrtain papqr bull lately by the curAtes of the citY obtained; and upon my soul and body I have no cognizance of it at all." The Comnmittee expressed their conviction, upon examining this ancent test of the disgusting impositions which have descended upon the citizess of Londo,n as an inheritance, that if more arguments were necessary to prove the illegality of the source from which the burden of the oppreased parishes sprung, here was a conclusive proof_here was a powerful instance tbat the citizens laboured under tancertaic and Arbitriary exactions in the shape of uffrrings, before the Reformation; and that whatever might have been the intention of Bisthop Bonner, In the 37th year of Henry VilI., in delivering the decree under which the clergy and impropriators now claiin to his registrar, instead of having tne same enrolled in Chancery, the intervention of the Legislature is, at the present day, imperatively called for, when local acts in certain parishes have not already been obtaineiL Tbe committee, at the same time, concur i:s the opinion, of the necessity of substituting a fair and liberal allow- ance, in the place of tithe, for those ministers of the gospel who are so anxious to graspat earthly as well aslieavenlvadvantates. The Commnittee have ascertained that the clerical ana lay impro- priators, who were mnentioned in this paper some dcays ago as in- fluenced by the spirit of litigation, are determined to persevere itt the course in which tbey set out, and have positively refused tn subrnit the decision of their claims to Parliament. Those individua4la who have refused to pay the amount demanded are not themiiselves to defray the expense.3 which are consequent upon legal investigation. It is determined that each parish shall tahie the responsibility attacli- ed to every case upon itself. A.NC9rNT IMPOSIr!ONS OF THE CLRRGY.