that the means by which it was acquired were not all without reproach, there may at least be room for reasonable doubt, whether, upon the whole, the Church did not suffer as much by violence as it gained by fraud, in ages equally favourable to the exercise of both.

There is another source of ecclesiastical wealth which we have not yet mentioned, because it acquired no certain existence before the reign of Charlemagne-the possession of Tithes; but it is here proper to employ a few sentences on that subject. It seems quite clear that no sort of tithe was paid to the ante-Nicene Church, nor imposed by any of its councils, nor even directly claimed by its leading ministers. The Levitical institution is indeed mentioned both by Cyprian and Origen; by the former slightly and almost incidentally; by the latter with rather more fulness †, in a homily respecting the first-fruits in the law. But even Origen goes no farther in his conclusion, than that the command concerning the first fruits of corn and cattle should still be observed according to the letter;' and we have no evidence to persuade us that even that limited position was carried into general practice.

In the records of Constantine's generosity to the new establishment there is no mention made of tithes : nevertheless, the expressions both of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine on this subject forbid us to doubt, that such payment was voluntarily, though perhaps very partially made, at least in the Western Church, before the end of the fourth century. St. Ambrose boldly claims it as due by the law of God-'It is not enough that we bear the name of Christians, if we do not Christian works: the Lord exacts of us the annual tithe of all our corn, cattle,' &c. &c. • Whosoever is conscious that he hath not faithfully given his tithes, let him supply what is deficient; and what is the faithful payment of tithes, except to offer to God neither more nor less than that portion, whether of your corn or your wine, or the fruit of your trees, or your cattle, or of the produce of your garden, your business, or your hunting? Of all substance which God has given to man, he has reserved the tenth part to himself, and, therefore, man may not retain that which God has appropriated to his own use.' St. Augustin, in a homily on that subject, presses the same right to the same extent ‡, in terms not less positive; with this difference, however, that he puts forward more zealously the charitable purpose of the institution. About the same time St. Chrysostom and St. Jerome added their exhortations to the same effect, though they did not specify so exactly the nature of the contribution, nor insist so strongly on the divine obligation. There can be no question that the exertions of individual ministers effectually influenced the more devout amongst their listeners, especially in the Western nations, and in somewhat later ages: accord

Epist. 66. De Unitat. Eccles. sec. XXIII. In the former place he is reproaching one Geminius Faustinus, a priest, for having undertaken the discharge of a secular office- quæ nunc ratio et forma in Clero tenetur, ut qui in Ecclesia Domini ad ordinationem Clericalem promoventur, nullo modo ab administratione divina avocentur, sed, in honore sportulantium fratrum, tanquam Decimas ex fructibus accipientes ab altari et sacrificiis non recedant.... In the latter, while deploring the lukewarm devotion of the faithful, he complains, 'at nunc de patrimonio nec decimas damus.' See Selden, chap. 4.

This may surprise those historians who distinguish Origen from the Church writers, and exalt him accordingly. Had Cyprian published a homily to inculcate the divine obligation of paying first-fruits to the priest, he would have been stigmatized as the most avaricious (he is already denounced as the most ambitious) among those early church

men.

↑ Quodcunque te pascit ingenium Dei est; et inde decimas expetit unde vivis; de militia, de negotio, de artificio redde decimas: aliud enim pro terra dependimus, aliud pro usura vitæ pensamus. Selden appears to share in a doubt which has been raised, whether the Homily in question be really the production of Augustin.

ingly we find that in sundry places Tithes were paid both to monasteries, to the poor, and to the clergy, by many pious individuals during the four centuries which followed. It has also been asserted (though the evidence is not sufficiently clear) that they already engaged the attention, and even claimed the authority, of one or two provincial † councils. Moreover, it seems probable, that some special endowments of them were made on particular Churches before the time of Charlemagne, though these were few in number, and scarcely earlier than the end of the seventh age. But, on the other hand, it is unquestionably certain that no canon or other law for the purpose of compelling the payment of tithes was generally received before the concluding part of the eighth century. The offerings hitherto contributed under that name were made in compliance with the doctrine which pleaded the divine right, or with the precepts, or perhaps even with the practice of particular Churches, but they were not yet exacted either by civil or ecclesiastical legislation-not even in the West; and in the Eastern Church we have not observed that any law has at any time been promulgated on this subject.

·

The first strictly legislative act which conferred on the clergy the right to tithe was passed by Charlemagne. In the year 778, the eleventh of his reign over France and Germany, in a general assembly of estates, both spiritual and temporal, held under him, it was ordained, That every one should give his tenth, and that it should be disposed of according to the orders of his bishopt.' Other constitutions to the same effect were afterwards published by the same prince, and repeated and confirmed by some of his descendants; they were iterated by the canons of numerous provincial councils, and re-echoed from the pulpits of France and Italy. Nevertheless, it was found exceedingly difficult to enforce them. The

These may not have been in fact exactly tenths, but some indefinite proportion of things titheable, varying according to the abundance or devotion of the contributor.

We refer particularly to Selden's 5th chap., and his remarks on the Council of Mascon (in 586). Thomassin (Vetus et Nova Ecclesiæ Disciplina, P. III. 1. i. c. vi.) presses the authority of the Second Council of Tours. At any rate the prelates on that occasion proceeded no farther than exhortation-commonemus,—those of Maçon decree—statuimus et decernimus.

Ut unusquisque suam decimam donet; atque per jussionem Episcopi sui (or Pontificis, as some copies read) dispensetur. This must be understood with some limitation, since the tripartite division of tithes seems to be properly ascribed to Charlemagne ; that of one share for the bishop, and clergy, a second for the poor, a third for the fabric of the Church. It seems uncertain what part of these was at first intended for the maintenance of a resident clergy. Parochial divisions, such as they now exist, were still not very common, though they may be traced to the endowment of churches by individuals as early as the time of Justinian. The rural churches were, in the first instance, chapels dependent on the neighbouring cathedral, and were served by itinerant ministers of the bishop's appointment. It was some time before any of them obtained the privileges of baptism and burial; but these were indeed accompanied by a fixed share of the tithes, and appear to have implied in each case the independence of the Church and the residence of a minister.

§ The celebrated Council of Francfort (in 794) published a canon for the universal payment of tithes, besides the rents due to the Church for benefices. See Fleury, 1. xliv, s. Ix. and Thomassin, P. III. 1. i. cap. vii.

There is an epistle of Alcuin, in which he exhorts his master not yet to impose upon the tender faith of his new converts, the Saxons and Huns, what he calls the yoke of tithes. The passage deserves citation- Vestra sanctissima pietas sapienti consilio prævideat, si melius sit rudibus populis in principio fidei jugum imponere Decimarum, ut plena fiat per singulas domus exactio illarum; an apostoli quoque ab ipso Deo Christo edocti et ad prædicandum mundo missi exactiones Decimarum exegissent, vel alicui demandassent dari, considerandum est. Scimus quia Decimatio substantiæ nostræ valdè bona est. Sed melius est illam amittere quam fidem perdere. Nos vero in fide Catholica nati, nutriti et edocti vix consentimus substantiam nostram pleniter decimari; quanto magis tenera fides et infantilis animus et avara mens illorum largitati non consentit ?' The passage is quoted by Selden in Chapter v.

laity were strongly disposed to disobey such commands as went to diminish their revenues, and the violation of any law was easy in those disordered times. But the long and lawful perseverance of the clergy at length prevailed; and, during a contest of nearly four centuries, they gradually entered into the possession of an unpopular, but unquestioned right.

We can scarcely consider the payment of tithes to have been universally enforced until the end of the twelfth century, when ecclesiastical authority had risen to a great height, through the exaltation of the See of Rome. The first of the General Councils which mentions them is the Ninth, that of Lateran, held under Calixtus II., about the year 1119; but even there they are spoken of only as they were received by special consecrations. Nor does it appear that the payment was expressly commanded as a duty of common* right' before the Pontifical Council held in the year 1215. It was held under Innocent III.; and in that age, and especially during that pontificate, the canons of the church were not lightly received nor contemned with security.

Such are the principal quarters from which the revenues of the Western church were derived. They varied in fruitfulness in different times and provinces, according to the extent of ecclesiastical influence, or the degree of civil anarchy which prevailed. In the ages immediately following the barbarian conquests, they may have lost by the violence of the invaders more than they gained by their piety or superstition; but those losses were afterwards compensated by a liberality which was sometimes heedless, sometimes political; and, upon the whole, in spite of occasional spoliations, the funds of the Church continued to extend themselves. They did not, however, reach any unreasonable extent until the reign of Charlemagne and those of his successors; but thenceforward, as their security increased with their magnitude, they swelled to such inordinate dimensions, and assumed so substantial a shape, that they are not incredibly asserted to have comprehended, in the twelfth century, one half of the cultivated soil of Europe. Nevertheless, it is impossible to dispute, that by far the greater proportion of that property was acquired by just and lawful means; and that we may not depart from this inquiry with the impression, that the prosperity of the Church was either universally abused, or wholly unmerited, it is proper to mention some of the blessings which it conferred upon society, during a period when the condition of man stood most in need of aid and consolation.

We do not here propose to enumerate the beneficial effects of the religion itself, which are scarcely contested by any one; but only General Benefits to mention some of the good fruits of the Institution conferred by the called the Church-benefits produced in subservience to Church. Christianity, in as far as its principles and motives were derived from that source, but in contradistinction to it, in as far as its outward form, government and discipline were of human creation. all its earthly imperfections and impurities, the Church was still a powerful,

With

See Selden, chap. vi. There were various pontifical decrees respecting Tithes by Nicholas II., Alexander II., and Gregory VII. in the eleventh century. Selden mentions the direct command of Nicholas in 1059. Præcipimus ut Decimæ et Primitia seu oblationes vivorum et mortuorum Ecclesiis Dei fideliter reddantur a Laicis, et ut in dispositione Episcoporum sint: quas qui retinuerint a S. Ecclesiæ Communione separentur.' Ten years earlier we observe that Leo IX., in his council against Simony, restored Tithes to all the Churches, with the admission, that no mention was at that time made of them in Apulia, and some other parts of the world.' A double division of them is on that occasion mentioned-between the Bishop, and the Altar, or Minister of the Church. See Wibertus, ap. Pagi., Vit. Leo IX.

if not necessary, instrument for the support of the religion and the diffusion of its principles; and even among those very imperfections there were some which it pleased Providence to turn to its own honour, by converting them to the service of man.

Before the end of the fifth century, the ecclesiastical body was in possession of very considerable dignity and power throughout the whole of Christendom; and in that body the episcopal order had risen into a preeminence, not indeed in unison with its ancient humility, but attributable to its activity and its virtues more than to its ambition, and perhaps to the circumstances of the empire even more than to either. In the enjoyment of extensive revenues, of some* municipal authority, of certain judicial privileges and immunities, of high rank and reputation, and of very powerful influence over the people, and united for all grand purposes by common principles and common interests, the hierarchy occupied the first station among the subjects of the empire. Its weight was felt and acknowledged by every rank of society, from the court downwards: the more so, as it formed the only moral tie which bound them together. The Unity of the Church was not merely the watchword of bigotry, the signal for injustice and oppression, but also a principle of some effect in maintaining the unity of Christendom. Such was the position of the Church, and such the means at its disposal, when the Western Empire was overthrown and occupied by unbelieving barbarians.

At this crisis it is not too much to assert, that the Church was the instrument of Heaven for the preservation of the Religion. Christianity itself (unless miraculously sustained) would have been swept away from the surface of the West,† had it not been rescued by an established body of ministers, or had that body been less zealous or less influential. Among the conquered, the common people were, for the most part, recent and not always very serious converts from polytheism; the higher classes were neither numerous nor powerful, nor had any interest in the support of Christianity: the clergy alone composed the vital and efficient portion of the aristocracy. Among the conquerors, the rudest soldier brought with him a superstitious reverence for the office and person of a religious minister, which prepared him for adhesion to the religion itself, especially where the ministers were honoured and the ceremonies splendid; and the illiterate prince readily gave attention to the counsels of the bishops, who were the most learned and the most respected among his new subjects. Thence resulted the gradual conversion of the invaders, by the agency of the visible Church. Without those means-had Christianity then existed as

* See Cod. Justin. 1. i., tit. iv. De Episcopali Audientia, s. 26, 30. The superintendence of public works, and of the funds for defraying their expenses, was intrusted to the bishop, together with some of the leading men in the city.

Guizot-who treats ecclesiastical matters with profoundness, ingenuity, and judg ment, and has brought to that subject (a rarer merit) a mind unbiassed by the prejudices of a churchman, or the antipathies of a sectarian or an infidel, and that fearless, uncompromising candour which becomes a philosopher and a historian-Guizot (Histoire Générale, &c. Leçon II.) has expressed the same opinion with the same confidence. 'Je ne crois pas trop dire en affirmant qu'à la fin du quatrième et commencement du cinquième siècle, c'est l'Eglise Chrétienne qui a sauvé le Christianisme. C'est l'Eglise, avec ses institutions, ses magistrats, son pouvoír qui s'est défendue vigoureusement contre la dissolution intérieure de l'empire, contre la Barbarie; qui a conquis les barbares, qui est devenue le lien, le moyen, le principe de civilisation entre le monde Romain et le monde barbare,' &c. &c.

That their conversion was, in the first instance, imperfect, perhaps in many cases merely nominal, has been already admitted. Still, where the affair was with a nation, and that too a very barbarous nation, it was impossible, humanly speaking, that it could have been otherwise than imperfect.

a mere individual belief, or even under a less vigorous form of human government-the religious society would have possessed neither the energy nor discipline necessary for resistance to the deluge which endangered it.

Let us next inquire, what influence did the Church afterwards exert on the society which it had assembled in the name of Christ? by what exertions, by what habits, did it enforce the principles of the religion which it had preserved? First-by the general exercise of charity. The generosity of its benefactors had often been directed, in part at least, to that purpose. That excellent rule which had been received from the earliest ages was not discontinued; the relief of the poor was associated with the ministry of religion; the worldly necessities of the wretched were alleviated by their spiritual Pastors, and the most excellent virtue of Christianity was inculcated by the practice of its Ministers. We intend not to exalt the merit of that body in dispensing among the indigent the funds entrusted to them for that purpose; we only assert its great utility as a channel for the transmission of blessings, which in those ages could not otherwise have reached their object-as a sacred repository, where the treasures of the devout were stored up for the mitigation of misery which had no other resource or hope. Secondly-the penitential discipline of the Church was extremely efficacious in enforcing the moral precepts of the religion; and whatsoever advantage may have been conferred on ancient Rome by the venerable office of the Censor, whatsoever restraints may have been imposed on the habits of a high-minded people by the fear of ignominious reproach; awe more deep and lasting must have been impressed upon the superstitious crowd by the terrible denunciations of the Church, by the deep humiliation of the penitent, by his prolonged exposure to public shame, by the bitterness and intensity of his remorse. Without affecting to regret, as some have done, the present disuse of the penitential system in the present enlightened state both of society and religion, we cannot close our eyes against its extraordinary power, as an instrument of moral improvement, in ages when the true spirit of religion was less felt and comprehended; when education furnished very slender means for self-correction; and when even the secular laws were feebly or partially executed. Thirdly-After the fifth century the office of Legislation throughout the Western provinces devolved in a great measure on the ecclesiastical body-directly, in so far as they composed, or assisted in, public assemblies; indirectly, as they influenced the councils of Princes and their nobility. Their power was effectually exerted for the improvement of the barbarous system of the invaders, the suppression of absurd practices, and the substitution of reasonable principles. I have already spoken,' says Guizot, of the difference which may be observed between the laws of the Visigoths, proceeding in a great measure from the Councils of Toledo, and those of the other barbarians. It is impossible to compare them without being struck by the immense superiority in the ideas of the Church in matters of legislation and justice, in all that affects the pursuit of truth and the destiny of man. It is true that the greater part of these ideas were borrowed from the Roman legislation; but if the Church had not preserved and defended them, if it had not laboured to propagate them, they would have perished.' Fourthly—In furtherance of this faithful discharge of its duties to the human race, the Church unceasingly strove to correct the vices of the social system. worst of these, and the principal object of her hostility, was the abomination of slavery; and if it be too much entirely to attribute its final extirpation to the perseverance of the Church in pressing the principles of

The