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priests, and stage-players, and carters, and harlots may inherit, only clerks and monks are prohibited; and that not by persecuting emperors, but Christian princes. He adds, that it was a very prudent caution in the law, but yet it did not restrain the avarice of such persons, who found out an artifice to elude the law, per fidei-commissa, by getting others to receive in trust for them. Which shows us the sense St. Jerom had of this matter, that he did not think the emperors were injurious to the church in making such a law, but those persons were only to be blamed, whose avarice and sordid flatteries compelled them to make it. And any one that will consult St. Ambrose, or the author under his name, will find that they give the same account of it. Theodosius indeed some years after made a law, relating particularly to such deaconesses of the church as were of noble families, that they should not" dispose of their jewels, or plate, or furniture, or any other such things as were the ancient marks of honour in their families, under pretence of religion, while they lived; nor make any church, or clerk, or poor, their heirs when they died. But as this law was made upon some particular reasons of state, so it did no harm to the church; for within two months the same emperor recalled " it by a contrary law, which granted liberty to such deaconesses to dispose of their goods in their life-time to any church or clerk whatsoever. And Marcian made the law a little more extensive, allowing 29 deaconesses and all other religious women, to dispose of any part of their estate, by will or codicil, to any church, or oratory, or clerk, or monk, or poor whatsoever. Which law Justinian also confirmed and inserted it into his Code. So that Constantine's law continued always in its full force, and the succeeding princes did not derogate from the privilege which he had granted the church in this respect, for fear (as Baronius pretends) lest the liberality of the subject to the church should impoverish the commonwealth. Men were very liberal indeed in their gifts and donations to the church in this age, but yet not so profuse as to need statutes of mortmain to restrain them.

Sect. 7. 3rdly, Another part of church reve

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For besides the liberality of the subjects, the emperors in these ages

idolorum, mimi, et auriga, et scorta hæreditates capiunt; solis clericis et monachis prohibetur: et prohibetur non a persecutoribus, sed a principibus Christianis. Nec de lege conqueror, sed doleo cur meruimus hanc legem, &c. 25 Ambros. Ep. 31. ad Valentin. p. 145.

25 Idem, Homil. 7.

Cod. Th. lib. 16. Tit. 2. de Episc. Leg. 27. Nihil de monilibus et supellectili, nihil de auro, argento, cæterisque claræ domus insignibus, sub religionis defensione consumat. -Ac si quando diem obierit, nullam ecclesiam, nullum clericum, nullum pauperem scribat hæredes, &c.

Ibid. Leg. 28. Legem, quæ diaconissis vel viduis nuper est promulgata, ne quis videlicet clericus, neve sub ecclesiæ nomine, mancipia, prædam, velut infirmi sexus despoliator,

ances out of the em

found it necessary to make the clergy nues raised by allow an allowance out of the public reve- peror's exchequer. nues of the empire; which was another way of providing a maintenance for them. Constantine both gave the clergy particular largesses, as their occasions required, and also settled upon them a standing allowance out of the exchequer. In one of his epistles to Cæcilian, bishop of Carthage, recorded by Eusebius," he acquaints Cæcilian with his orders which he had given to Ursus, his general receiver in Africa, to pay him three thousand polles, τρισχιλίες φόλλεις, to be divided at his discretion among the clergy of the provinces of Africa, Numidia, and the two Mauritanias. And if this sum would not answer all their present necessities, he gave him further orders to demand of his procurator Heraclides whatever he desired more. I need not stand here to inquire critically what this sum of three thousand polles was, (though it may be computed above twenty thousand pounds,) since Constantine gave the bishop unlimited orders, to demand as much as the needs of the clergy should require. But he not only supplied their present necessities, but also gave orders for a standing allowance to be made them out of the public treasury. For Theodoret 2 and Sozomen 3 say, he made a law requiring the chief magistrates in every province to grant the clergy, and virgins, and widows of the church, an annual allowance of corn, irýoia oirnpέoia, out of the yearly tribute of every city. And thus it continued to the time of Julian, who withdrew the whole allowance. But Jovian restored it again in some measure, granting them a third part of the former allowance only, because at that time the public income was very low, by reason of a severe famine; but he promised them the whole, so soon as the famine was ended, and the public storehouses were better replenished. But either Jovian's death prevented his design, or the necessities of the clergy did not afterward require it. For though Sozomen seems to say the whole was restored; yet Theodoret, who is more accurate, affirms, that it was only rρirηuopiov, a third part; and that so it continued to his own times. In this sense therefore we are to understand that law of the emperor Marcian, which Justinian has inserted into his

et remotis adfinibus et propinquis, ipse sub prætextu catholicæ disciplinæ se ageret viventis hæredem, eatenus animadvertat esse revocatam.

29 Marcian. Novel. 5. ad calcem Cod. Th. Generali lege sancimus, sive vidua, sive diaconissa, sive virgo Deo dicata, vel sanctimonialis mulier, sive quocunque alio nomine religiosi honoris vel dignitatis femina nuncupetur, testamento vel codicillo suo-ecclesiæ, vel martyrio, vel clerico, vel monacho, vel pauperibus aliquid vel ex integro vel ex parte, in quacunque re vel specie credidit relinquendum, id modis omnibus ratum firmumque constet.

30 Cod. Justin. lib. 1. Tit. 2. de Sacrosanct. Eccl. Leg. 13. 31 Euseb. lib. 10. c. 6. 32 Theod. lib. 1. c. 11.

33 Sozomen, lib. 5. c. 5.

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of clergymen dying without heirs and

manner.

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will, settled in like ference to the temporal possessions of the clergy: That if any presbyter, or deacon, or deaconess, or subdeacon, or other clerk, or any man or woman professing a monastic life, died without will and without heirs, the estates and goods they were possessed of should fall to the church or monastery to which they belonged, unless they were antecedently tied to some civil service. This implies that the clergy were at liberty to dispose of their own temporal estates as they pleased; and they fell to the church only in case they died intestate. But the council of Agde, in France, under Alaric the Goth, anno 506, went a little further, and decreed, that every bishop," who had no children or nephews, should make the church his heir, and no other: as Caranza's edition, and Gratian, and some others, read it. And the council of Seville made a like decree for the Spanish churches; upon which Caranza makes this remark, That the canon was fit to be renewed in council, that the church should be the bishop's heir, and not the pope. And that it was against the mind of those fathers, that bishops should set up primogenitures, or enrich their kindred out of the

39

34 Cod. Justin. lib. 1. Tit. 2. de SS. Eccles. Leg. 12. Salaria quæ sacrosanctis ecclesiis in diversis speciebus de publico hactenus ministrata sunt, jubemus nunc quoque inconcussa, et a nullo prorsus imminuta præstari.

35 Euseb. Vit. Const. lib. 2. c. 36.

36 Cod. Th. lib. 5. Tit. 3. de Bonis Clericor. Leg. 1. Cod. Just. lib. 1. Tit. 3. de Episc. Leg. 20.

97 Conc. Agathen. c. 24. al. 33. ap. Gratian. Caus. 12. qu. 2. c.31. Episcopus qui filios aut nepotes non habuerit, alium quam ecclesiam non relinquat hæredem.

33 Conc. Hispalens. 1. c. 1.

39 Caranz. in loc. Hic canon erat renovandus in concilio, ut hæres defuncti episcopi esset ecclesia, non tamen papa.

revenues of the church. Which reflection, among other things, might perhaps contribute towards his being brought into the Spanish inquisition, though he was archbishop of Toledo; after which he underwent a ten years' imprisonment at Rome, and had some of his books prohibited in the Roman Index, of which Spondanus," in his Annals, will give the reader a further account. But I return to the primitive church.

Sect. 10. 6thly, Heathen temples and their given to the church.

Where we may observe another addition made to the revenues of the clergy, by the donation of heathen revenues sometimes temples, and sometimes the revenues that were settled upon them. For though the greatest part of these went commonly to the emperor's coffers, or to favourites that begged them, upon the demolishing of the temples; as appears from the laws of Honorius" and Gratian, and several others in the Theodosian Code; yet some of them were given to the church: for Honorius 42 takes notice of several orders and decrees of his own, whereby such settlements had been made upon the church, which were to continue the church's property and patrimony for ever. And it is probable some other emperors might convert the revenues of the temples to the same use. At least the fabrics themselves, and the silver and golden statues that were in them, were sometimes so disposed of. For Sozomen says, the μipov, or temple of the sun at Alexandria, was given to the church by Constantius. And we learn from Socrates," that in the time of Theodosius, the statues of Serapis, and many other idols at Alexandria, were melted down for the use of the church; the emperor giving orders that the gods should help to maintain the poor.

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Seet. 13.

No disreputable ways of augmenting church-revenues en

couraged. Fathers not to disinherit their children to make the church their heirs.

48

But I must observe, that as these methods were generally reputed legal and allowable, so there were some other as generally disallowed and condemned. Particularly we find in St. Austin's time, that it was become a rule in the African church, to receive no estates that were given to the church to the great detriment and prejudice of the common rights of any others. As if a father disinherited his children to make the church his heir, in that case no bishop would receive his donation. Possidius tells 18 us St. Austin refused some estates so given, because he thought it more just and equal, that they should be possessed by the children, or parents, or next kindred of the deceased persons. And that he did so, is evident from his own words in his discourse de Vita Clericorum," where he says he had returned an estate to a son, which an angry father at his death had taken from him: and he thought he did well in it; professing for his own part, that if any disinherited his son, to make the church his heir, he should seek some one else to receive his donation, and not Austin; and he hoped by the grace of God there would be none that would receive it. He

46 Socrat. lib. 7. c. 7.

Cod. Justin. lib. 1. Tit. 3. de Episc. Leg. 53. Si illi monasteria aut ecclesias relinquant, atque mundani fiant; omne ipsorum jus ad monasterium aut ecclesiam pertinet. Vid. Novel. 5. c. 4 et 6. It. Novel. 123. c. 42.

48 Possid. Vit. Aug. c. 24.

Aug. Serm. 49. de Diversis, t. 10. p. 520. Quando donavi filio, quod iratus pater moriens abstulit, bene feci. -Quid plura, fratres mei? Quicunque vult exhæredato filio hæredem facere ecclesiam, quærat alterum qui suscipiat, non Augustinum; imo Deo propitio neminem inveniat.

so Id. ibid. Quidam cum filios non haberet, neque speraret, res suas omnes, retento sibi usufructu, donavit eccle

adds in the same place a very remarkable and laudable instance of great generosity and equity in Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, in a case of the like nature. A certain man 50 having no children, nor hopes of any, gave away his whole estate to the church, only reserving to himself the use of it for life. Now it happened afterwards, that he had children born to him; upon which the bishop generously returned him his estate, when he did not at all expect it. The bishop indeed, says St. Austin, had it in his power to have kept it, sed jure fori, non jure poli, only by the laws of man, but not by the laws of Heaven. And therefore he thought himself obliged in conscience to return it. This shows how tender they were of augmenting the revenues of the church by any methods that might be thought unequitable, or such as were not reputable, honest, or of good report; herein observing the apostle's rule, to let their moderation, rè ETIKEç, their equity, be known to all men; not doing any hard thing for lucre's sake, nor taking advantages by rigour of law, when conscience and charity were against them.

Sect. 14. Nothing to be demanded for admin

istering the sacra

ments of the church, nor for consecrating ment of the dead.

churches, nor inter

To avoid scandal also, and to provide things honest in the sight of all men, they forbade any thing to be demanded for administering the sacraments of the church. The council of Eliberis seems to intimate, that it was customary with some persons at their baptism to cast money into a bason, by way of gratuity to the minister; but even this is there forbidden by the canon, lest the priest should seem to sell what he freely received. Whence we may conclude, that if the people might not offer, the priest might much less exact or demand any thing for administering the sacrament of baptism. In other churches a voluntary oblation was allowed of, from persons that were able and willing to make it; but all exactions of that nature from the poor were still prohibited, for fear of discouraging them from offering themselves or their children to baptism. Thus it was in the Roman church in the time of Gelasius, as we learn from his epistles ; 52 and in the Greek church in the time of Gregory Nazianzen, who takes occasion to answer this objection which poor men made against

siæ. Nati sunt illi filii, et reddidit episcopus nec opinanti quæ ille donaverat. In potestate habebat episcopus non reddere; sed jure fori, non jure poli.

51 Conc. Eliber. c. 48. Emendari placuit, ut hi qui baptizantur (ut fieri solebat) nummos in concham non mittant; ne sacerdos, quod gratis accepit, pretio distrahere videatur. 52 Gelas. Ep. 1. al. 9. ad Episc. Lucaniæ, c. 5. Baptizandis consignandisque fidelibus pretia nulla presbyteri præfigant, nec illationibus quibusdam impositis exagitare cupiant renascentes; quoniam quod gratis accipimus, gratis dare mandamur. Et ideo nihil a prædictis exigere moliantur, quo vel paupertate cogente deterriti, vel indignatione revocati, redemptionis suæ causas adire despiciant

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coming immediately to baptism," because they had not wherewith to make the usual present that was then to be offered, or to purchase the splendid robe that was then to be worn, or to provide a treat for the minister that baptized them. He tells them, no such things would be expected or exacted of them they need only make a present of themselves to Christ, and entertain the minister with their own good life and conversation, which would be more acceptable to him than any other offerings. This implies, that it was then the custom for the people to make a voluntary oblation at their baptism; but not the custom for ministers to demand it, as a matter of right, for fear of giving scandal. Some editions of Gratian" and Vicecomes allege a canon of the third or fourth council of Carthage to the same purpose; which, if the allegation were true, would prove that the same custom obtained in the African church. But, as Antonius Augustinus 56 and the Roman correctors of Gratian" have observed, there is no such canon to be found in any African council; but it is a canon of the second council of Bracara in Spain, which finding a corrupt practice crept in among the clergy, (notwithstanding the former prohibition of the Eliberitan council,) that ministers did exact pledges of the poor, who had not ability to make any offering, endeavoured to redress this corruption, by passing a new order, that though voluntary oblations might be received, yet no pledge should be extorted from the poor who were not able to offer, because many of the poor for fear of this kept back their children from baptism. The same council of Bracara made a decree, that no bishop should exact any thing as a due of any founders of churches for their consecration; but if any thing was voluntarily offered, he might receive it. And so in like manner for confirmation," and administering the eucharist,“1 all bishops and presbyters are strictly enjoined not to exact any thing of the receivers, because the grace of God was not to be set to sale, nor the sanctification of the Spirit to be imparted for money. St. Jerom assures us further, that it was not very honourable in his time to exact any thing for the burying-places of the dead, for he censures those that practised it, as falling short of the merit of Ephron the Hittite, whom Abraham forced to receive money

58

p.

655.

53 Naz. Orat. 40. de Bapt. t. 1.
54 Gratian. Caus. 1. qu. 1. c. 108.
55 Vicecom. de Ritib. Bapt. lib. 4. c. 2.

56 Anton. Aug. de Emend. Gratiani, lib. 1. Dial. 14.
57 Gratian. ibid. Edit. Rom. an. 1582.

58 Conc. Bracar. 2. c. 7. edit. Crab. al. 3. Bracar. Ed. Labbe. Qui infantes suos ad baptismum offerunt, si quid voluntarie pro suo offerunt voto, suscipiatur ab eis; si vero per necessitatem paupertatis aliquid non habent quod offerant, nullum illis pignus violenter tollatur a clericis. Nam multi pauperes hoc timentes, filios suos a baptismo retrahunt.

The oblations of

one of the most

church revenues.

for the burying-place which he bought of him: but now, says he, there are some who sell buryingplaces and take money for them, not by compulsion, as Ephron did, but by extortion rather from those that were unwilling to pay. By which we may understand, that in his time it was hardly allowable to demand any thing for the use of a public or private cemetery: nor was this any part of the church revenues in those days, when as yet the custom of burying in churches was not generally brought in, but was the practice of later ages; of which more when we come to speak of the funeral rites of the church. If any one is desirous to know what Sect. 15. part of the church revenues was an- the people anciently ciently most serviceable and benefi- valuable parts of cial to the church, he may be informed from St. Chrysostom and St. Austin, who give the greatest commendations to the offerings and oblations of the people, and seem to say, that the church was never better provided than when her maintenance was raised chiefly from them. For then men's zeal prompted them to be very liberal in their daily offerings; but as lands and possessions were settled upon the church, this zeal sensibly abated; and so the church came to be worse provided for under the notion of growing richer. Which is the thing that St. Chrysostom complains of in his own times, when the ancient revenue arising from oblations was in a great measure sunk, and the church, with all her lands, left in a worse condition than she was before. For now her ministers were forced to submit to secular cares, to the management of lands and houses, and the business of buying and selling, for fear the orphans, and virgins, and widows of the church should starve. He exhorts the people therefore to return to their ancient liberality of oblations, which would at once ease the ministry of all such cares, and make a good provision for the poor, and take off all the little scoffs and objections that some were so ready to make and cast upon the clergy, that they were too much given to secular cares and employments, when indeed it was not choice, but necessity, that forced them to it. There are, says he, in this place, (at Antioch he means,) by the grace of God a hundred thousand persons that come to church. Now, if every one of these would but give one loaf of bread

63

59 Ibid. can. 5.

60 Gelas. Ep. 1. al. 9. ad Episc. Lucan. c. 10. 61 Conc. Trul. c. 23.

62 Hieron. Quæst. Hebraic. in Gen. xxiii. t. 3. p. 214. Postquam pretio victus est, ut sepulcrum venderet, &c., appellatus est Ephran: significante scriptura, non eum fuisse consummatæ perfectæque virtutis, qui potuerit memorias vendere mortuorum. Sciant igitur qui sepulcra venditant, et non coguntur ut accipiant pretium, sed a nolentibus etiam extorquent, immutari nomen suum, et perire quid de merito eorum, &c.

Chrys. Hom. 86. in Matth.

daily to the poor, the poor would live in plenty. | Whether the primitive fathers esteemed them to be

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If every one would contribute but one halfpenny, no man would want; neither should we undergo so many reproaches and derisions, as if we were too intent upon our possessions. By this discourse of Chrysostom's it plainly appears, that he thought the oblations of the people in populous cities, when men were acted with their primitive zeal, was a better provision for the clergy than even the lands and possessions of the church. And St. Austin seems to have had the same sense of this matter. For Possidius tells us in his Life, that when he found the possessions of the church were become a little invidious, he was used to tell the laity, that he had rather live upon the oblations of the people of God than undergo the care and trouble of those possessions; and that he was ready to part with them, provided all the servants and ministers of God might live as they did under the Old Testament, when, as we read, they that served at the altar were made partakers of the altar. But though he made this proposal to the people, they would never accept of it. Which is an argument, that the people also thought, that the reducing the clergy's maintenance to the precise model of the Old Testament would have been a more chargeable way to them than the other; since the oblations of the Old Testament included tithes and first-fruits; concerning the state and original of which, as to what concerns the Christian church, I come now to make a more particular inquiry.

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4 Possid. Vit. Aug. c. 23. Dum forte (ut adsolet) de possessionibus ipsis invidia clericis fieret, alloquebatur plebem Dei, malle se ex collationibus plebis Dei vivere quam illarum possessionum curam vel gubernationem pati; et paratum se illis cedere, ut eo modo omnes Dei servi et ministri viverent, quo in Veteri Testamento leguntur altari deservientes de eodem comparticipari. Sed nunquam id laici suscipere voluerunt.

1 Bellarmin. de Clericis, lib. 1. c. 25.

2 Rivet, Exerc. 80. in Gen. xiv. p. 386.

6

Selden, Hist. of Tithes, c. 4.

Andrews, de Decimis, inter Opuscula.

Carleton, Divine Right of Tithes, c. 4.

Montague, Diatribæ, &c. Tillesly, Answ. to Selden. Orig. Hom. 11. in Num. xviii. t. 1. p. 210. Quomodo ergo abundat justitia nostra plusquam scribarum et Pharisæorum, si illi de fructibus terræ suæ gustare non audent, priusquam primitias suas sacerdotibus offerant et Levitis decimæ separentur? Et ego nihil horum faciens, fructibus terræ ita abutar, ut sacerdos nesciat, Levites ignoret, Divinum altare non sentiat?

due by Divine right? Secondly, If they did, why they were not always strictly demanded? Thirdly, In what age they were first generally settled upon the church? As to the first inquiry, it is generally agreed by learned men, that the ancients accounted tithes to be due by Divine right. Bellarmine indeed,' and Rivet, and Mr. Selden, place them upon another foot: but our learned Bishop Andrews' and Bishop Carleton, who wrote before Mr. Selden, and Bishop Montague and Tillesly,' who wrote in answer to him, (not to mention many others who have written since,) have clearly proved, that the ancients believed the law about tithes not to be merely a ceremonial or political command, but of moral and perpetual obligation. It will be sufficient for me in this place to present the reader with two or three of their allegations. Origen, in one of his homilies on Numbers, thus delivers his opinion about it: How does our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, if they dare not taste of the fruits of the earth, before they offer the first-fruits to the priests, and separate the tithes for the Levites? Whilst I do nothing of this, but only so abuse the fruits of the earth, that neither the priest, nor the Levite, nor the altar of God shall see any of them? St. Jerom' says expressly, that the law about tithes and first-fruits was to be understood to continue in its full force in the Christian church; where men were commanded not only to give tithes, but to sell all that they had, and give to the poor. But, says he, if we will not proceed so far, let us at least imitate the Jewish practice, and give part of the whole to the poor, and the honour that is due to the priests and Levites. Which he that does not, defrauds God, and makes himself liable to a curse. St. Austin as plainly favours the same opinion, telling men," that they ought to separate something out of their yearly fruits, or daily income; and that a tenth to a Christian was but a small proportion. Because it

9 Hieron. Com. in Mal. iii. Quod de decimis primitiisque diximus, quæ olim dabantur a populo sacerdotibus ac Levitis, in ecclesiæ quoque populis intelligite: Quibus præceptum est, non solum decimas dare et primitias, sed et vendere omnia quæ habent et dare pauperibus, et sequi Dominum salvatorem. Quod si facere nolumus, saltem Judæorum imitemur exordia, ut pauperibus partem demus ex toto, et sacerdotibus et Levitis honorem debitum deferamus. Quod qui non fecerit, Deum fraudare et supplantare convincitur, &c.

10 Aug. Com. in Psal. cxlvi. t. 8. p. 698. Præcidite ergo aliquid, et deputate aliquid fixum vel ex annuis fructibus, vel ex quotidianis quæstibus vestris.- Decimas vis? Decimas exime, quanquam parum sit. Dictum est enim, quia Pharisæi decimas dabant, &c. Et quid ait Dominus? Nisi abundaverit justitia vestra plusquam scribarum et Pharisæorum, non intrabitis in regnum cœlorum. Et ille, super quem debet abundare justitia tua, decimas dat: tu autem nec millesimam das. Quomodo superabis eum, cui non æquaris?

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