A HISTORY OF TITHES
A
HISTORY OF TITHES
BY THE
REV. HENRY WILLIAM CLARKE, B.A.
Trin. Coll., Dub.
Author of “The Past and Present Revenues of the Church of England in Wales,” and
“The Public Landed Endowments of the Church in Anglo-Saxon Times.”
SECOND EDITION
London
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1894
In my former[1] as also in my present work, I have takenSelden’s “History of Tithes,” ed. 1618, as my chief authority. Iadopted his views on the interpretation of King Ethelwulf’s charteras having been the first legal title deeds of granting tithes tothe clergy.
After carefully consulting the best authorities, especially Mr.Kemble, Mr. Haddan, and Bishop Stubbs, I have in my presentwork adopted their views, that Ethelwulf granted a tenth part ofhis lands and not the tithes of the lands of his kingdom.
I have also considered Archbishop Egbert’s alleged canon forthe tripartite division of tithes as an anachronism.
In preparing my former work, I laboured under the great disadvantageof residing too far away from a good public library,where I could consult the best and most recent authorities onthe subject.
Just as the sheets of my former work passed through the press,a third edition of Lord Selborne’s work, “A Defence of theChurch of England against Disestablishment,” was published.And in the following year, 1888, appeared his “Ancient Factsand Fictions concerning Churches and Tithes.”
I could only then refer in the briefest manner in my formerbook to his first work. But his two works contain so manyerroneous and fallacious statements, that I thought it a publicduty to expose and refute them.
With this view and in order to prepare materials, I had taken[vi]steps to have access to the Library and to the manuscripts inthe Manuscript Department of the British Museum.
I had not gone far with my work when I found it absolutelynecessary to rewrite the whole of my “History of Tithes,” and tomake the present work, as it really is, quite a new one.
I had not only to deal with Lord Selborne’s works, but alsowith historians, who wrote private letters to parsons against thethreefold division of tithes, which letters contradicted statementsmade in their own histories which favoured the tripartite divisionof tithes, and the Church Grith law of A.D. 1014.
The tithe disputes in Wales brought forward crude, erroneous,misleading and ill-digested statements about the origin and historyof tithes in this country. “Our Title Deeds,” by the Rev.M. Fuller, is a most remarkable specimen of that class.
Directly and indirectly, I h