"Nullus Pres bid by our Saxon canons." byter fidelibus sanctæ Dei ecclesiæ de alterius presbyteri parochiâ persuadeat, ut ad suam ecclesiam concurrant, relictâ propriâ ecclesiâ, et suas decimas sibi dent. Sed unusquisque, suâ ecclesiâ et populo contentus, quod sibi nonvult fieri, alteri nequaquam faciat." 16. Every parish priest kept a matricula, or register, wherein he entered the names of the poorest inhabitants; and, calling them over at the church door, distributed to every one as his stock would afford, and their necessities required; and did occasionally lodge and feed the pilgrims and strangers; for which reason the parsonage houses, as well as the monasteries, were built on the highways, or on the edge of wide commons.' 16. "The tripartite division of tythes soon occasioned great disorder. The lay patrons inferred that the third part of the revenues of a church was sufficient for the supply of it; and they undertook to dispose of the remaining two parts; at first pretending to apply them to the like pious uses; but then by degrees detaining them in their own hands, and even at last getting them infeofed in them and their heirs, especially within their own demesnes. Nay, this lay-usurpation of tythes proceeded so far, that in some parts, and particularly in Wales, the powerful patrons seized upon the whole predial tythes, and left the alterage or smaller tythes (which were at first voluntary oblations, and therefore reckoned a part of the alterage,) to the portion of the parish priest; setting a precedent of impropriations in lay hands, even before the religious fell into that method. Usus enim inolevit et prava consuetudo ut viri in parochiâ potentes, primi tanquam Economi seu potius ecclesiarum patroni et defensores a clero constituti, postea processu temporis auctâ cupidine totum sibi jus usurparent; solum altaria cum decimis et obventionibus clero relinquentes, et hæc ipsa filiis suis clericis, et cognatis assignantes."-GIRALD. Camb. Itin. Cambr. 1. 2, c. 3. All, however, had been entirely given back before the Reformation. 19. "The cathedral canons first placed annual curates in their rural churches, till the bishops compelled them to present their clerks to the full title, then they reserved a rent or pension to themselves, which, though at first moderate, they often advanced to the great oppression of the country clergy. The regulars also, in like manner, appointed secular priests, with fairer excuse, being bound by stricter rules to their cells. Lay patrons followed the example, so that, within one hundred years after the Conquest, most of the parish priests in England were become tributary to their patrons; and paid out such large pensions to them, that they were not able to subsist with decency and credit.'" 59. "The modus decimandi (which must every age grow into a greater oppression of the vicar) was in great measure a stratagem of the monks, to incline the tenants to pay the full tenth of corn and hay to their proper uses, and to give but a trifle for their smaller tythes to the vicar.” 150. Philip and Mary extinguished the first fruits and tenths, and restored all impropriate churches and tythes that remained in the crown, "to the intent the poor benefices and cures of this realm, and other the dominions thereto belonging, may be hereafter furnished with good and able curates, to instruct the people with good and sincere doctrine, and to be able to maintain hospitality, and for and to other godly intents and purposes." 154. 66 Elizabeth resumed them. She kept the first fruits and tenths, but regarded the stated revenue of the church in tythes, oblations, and glebe lands, as a sacrilegious alienation, and procured an act to grant and convey them to the several episcopal sees in exchange for lay fees. She took, however, care to make a good exchange for herself." 170. A bill against pluralities was brought in, in the 43 Eliz. A petition of the clergy against it, stated that "it re quireth an impossibility; for of 8800 and HENRY WHARTON. odd benefices with cure, there are not Defence of Pluralities. 1692. P. 55. "PAROCHIAL churches were no 177. A. B. Bancroft says, in one of his circular letters, that "such as have all the best ecclesiastical livings in the land, named impropriations, — make no conscience in suffering them to be served with very simple curates. God knoweth, such as will be content in effect to serve the same, (as the disdainful speech of many runneth), for ten groats a year, and a canvas doublet." 405. “We allow a competent provision for each parochial minister to be £100 per annum, as has been allowed by the confession of several parliaments (1704), and if impartial enquiries were now made upon this rule, perhaps it would appear that of 9000 benefices, near 7000 of them are beneath a competency." Appendix. SIR BENJAMIN RUDYER, 1628. He had moved, in the first year of Charles I., for the increase and enlarging of poor ministers' livings. "There were then, as now, many accusations on foot against scandalous ministers. I was bold to tell the house that there were scandalous livings too, which were much the cause,-livings of five marks, and five pounds a year,— that men of worth and of good parts would not be muzzled up to such pittances." other than chapels of ease to the mother church, and the presbyters officiating in them no other than curates to the bishop, employed by him, and removable at his pleasure. To these the right of administering baptism, and consecrating the sacred elements of the eucharist, was not permitted. That was reserved solely to the bishop, and the cathedral church, and not communicated to the auxiliary churches till after some ages. The elements were sent from the cathedral to the parochial churches of the diocese, to be communicated to all those who could not come to the mother church. This practice continued in the church of Rome till after the beginning of the fifth century." 59. "At first in all churches there was no other than a general endowment of the whole diocese, which consisted as well in lands and possessions, as in voluntary oblations of the laity. Of this endowment the first and general design was, that a competent number of clergy might be maintained, who under the Bishop should supply the service of the whole diocese in sacred matters." 63. "It is certain that our church was formed after the example and model of the Gallican church,--it being easy to observe that the greater part of the canons and constitution of our church made before the Norman Conquest were taken out of the French capitulars." 76. "In the first foundation of bishopricks among the Saxons, the dioceses had the same limits with the kingdoms, and so continues at this day, as many of them as have not been subdivided." 99. Before the time of the Confessor, that very division of parishes was generally fixed which had obtained in England." ANGLO-IRISH HISTORY. IR JOHN DAVIES. Discovery of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued, nor brought under obedience of the Crown of England, until the beginning of his Majesty's happy reign. James I. Dublin, 1761. P. 6. MINDS and bodies of the people endowed with extraordinary abilities of nature. Manners little altered since Henry II. though "if the people were numbered at this day by the poll, such as are descended of English race would be found more in number than the ancient natives." 7. England always wished to civilize Ireland, but in every age there were found such impediments and defects in both realms, as caused almost an impossibility that things should have been otherwise than they were" 8. Till the 39th of Elizabeth all English forces sent thither or raised there were ill paid and worse governed. 11. "A barbarous country is not so easily conquered as a civil ;"-and again, "a country possessed with many petty lords and states, is not so soon brought under entirely, as an entire kingdom governed by one prince, and therefore the late King of Spain could sooner win the kingdom of Portugal than reduce the states of the Low Countries." Sir John here overlooks moral and religious causes. 22. In thesauro nihil, occurs in all the Pipe Rolls of Henry III. and Edward I. II. and III. between the receipts and allow ances. 23. Under Edward II. Maurice Fitz Thomas, of Desmond, began "that wicked extortion of coigne and livery and pay, that is, he and his army took horse meat, and man's meat and money at their pleasure, without any ticket, or any other satisfaction. And this was after that time the general fault of all the governors and commanders." 131. Only the golden saying of Sir Thomas Rookesby, who was justice in the 30th Edward III. is recorded, "that he would eat in wooden dishes, but would pay gold and silver for his meat." and "And because the great English lords and captains had power to impose this charge when and where they pleased, many of the poor freeholders were glad to give unto those lords a great part of their lands, to hold the rest free from that extortion; many others, not being able to endure that intolerable oppression, did utterly quit their freeholds, and returned into England. By this means the English colonies grew poor and weak, though the English lords grew rich and mighty, for they placed Irish tenants upon the lands relinquished by the English; upon them they levied all Irish exactions; with them they married and fostered and made gossips, so as within one age the English, both lords and freeholders, became degenerate, and mere Irish in their language, in their apparel, in their arms and manner of fight, and all other customs of life whatsoever." Coigne and livery.-"It is said in an ancient discourse of the Decay of Ireland, that though it were first invented in hell, yet if it had been used and practised there as it hath been in Ireland, it had long since 26. Irish horsemen called hoblers, because they served on hobbies. 32. First statute against absentees 3 Rich. II. requiring them to reside, or forfeit two thirds of the profits. 67. Henry VII. "For more than half the space of his reign there were walking spirits of the house of York, as well in Ireland as in England, which he could not conjure down without expense of some blood and treasure." 69. Elizabeth's Irish wars cost more than a million. 72. "Often adjudged no felony to kill an Irishman in time of peace." 39. From Richard II. to 39 Elizabeth, never any competent force sent over, but the war made by the colonies to defend their borders: "or if any forces were transmitted over, they were sent only to suppress the rebellions of such as were descended of English race, and not to enlarge our domi-England. They were the O'Neil's, O'Monion over the Irish." 73. The Quinque Sanguines; five enfranchised Septs, who by special grace were enabled to take the benefit of the laws of laghlins, O'Connoghors of Connaught, O'Briens, and Mac Murroghs. 74. Denizations of the Irish never out of use till the accession of James; and till such a charter was purchased the meer Irish were not reputed free subjects, nor admitted to the benefit of the laws of England. 43. When the York and Lancaster wars began, Ireland was in such a state, owing to its neglect under the Red Rose Dynasty, that "the native subjects of Ireland, seeing the country utterly ruined, did pass in such numbers into England, as one law was made in England to transmit them back again, and another law made here (in Ireland) to stop their passage in every portable and creek. Yet afterwards, the greatest part of the nobility and gentry of Meath past over into England, and were slain with York at Wakefield." 64. 45. Edward IV. did not pay any army in Ireland during his reign, but the men of war paid themselves by taking coigne and livery upon the country. 48. Law under Poynings (Henry VII.) "that no subject should make any war or peace within the land, without the special license of the King's Lieutenant or Deputy. A manifest argument that at that time the bordering wars there were made altogether by voluntaries, upon their own head, without any pay or entertainment, and without any order or commission from the state." 48. 19 Henry VII. "famous battle of Knocktow in Connaught, wherein Mac William, with 4000 of the Irish and degenerate English were slain,-only upon a private quarrel of the Earl of Kildare. So loosely were the martial affairs of Ireland carried during the reign of King Henry VII." 78. Killing a mere Irishman was punishonly by the Brehon law. 80. The statutes speak of English rebels and Irish enemies. 83. "Only that ungrateful traitor Tyrone, though he had no colour or shadow of title to that great lordship, but only by grant from the Crown, and by the law of England, (for by the Irish law he had been ranked with the meanest of his sept) yet in some of his capitulations with the state, he required that no sheriff might have jurisdiction within Tirone, and consequently that the laws of England might not be executed there." 86. "For the conquest is never perfect till the war be at an end; and the war is not at an end till there be a peace and unity; and there can never be unity and concord in any one kingdom, but where there is but one king, one allegiance, and one law." 88. 40th Edward III. use of the Brehon law prohibited but for the English only. 92. Edward I. abolished some of the Welsh laws. Wales was rebarbarized during the civil wars, but Henry VIII. (27 and 32 of his reign) abolished gavel-kind, and did all that ought to have been done of the parties might in former times have in Ireland. been challenged by our law, i. e. even in England." 94. "The scopes of land which were granted to the first adventurers were too large; and the liberties and royalties which they obtained therein were too great for subjects." 97. "Our great English lords could not endure that any kings should reign in Ireland, but themselves; nay, they could hardly endure that the Crown of England itself should have any jurisdiction or power over them." 136. "The saying of Henry Savage, mentioned in every story, is very memorable, that a castle of bones was better than a castle of stones.' ("Ov XíƉoç, &c.) But for want of strong holds this family 'were utterly driven out of the Great Ardes into a little nook of land near the river of Strangford."" 142. The Desmond family the first that imposed coigne and livery, the first that made a distinction between English by blood and English by birth, and the only noble house of English blood utterly rooted out by the hand of justice. 152. "The Irish, after a thousand conquests and attainders by our law, would in 106-7. Fostering, and consequent dege- those days pretend a title still, because by neracy. the Irish laws no man could forfeit his land." 111. Edward's vigorous war with Wales. 112-13. Error of the first settlers in taking for themselves the open, instead of the strong country. The very forest law would have driven into the place the Irishmen. 114. 153. Acts against absentees. 155. Richard II. shewed some wisdom in Ireland. 157. Richard Duke of York played a double game there, aiming at the crown, 115. But when the English Hibernicized which was his right. the evil became hopeless. 116. Irish customs were such "that the people which doth use them must of necessity be rebels to all good government, destroy the commonwealth wherein they live, and bring barbarism and desolation upon the richest and most fruitful land of the world." 123. Idleness and fear made the Irish "the most inquisitive people after news of any nation in the world. And because" such "news-carriers did by their false intelligence many times raise troubles and rebellions in this realm, the statute of Kilkenny doth punish news-tellers (by the name of Skelaghes) with fine and ran 165. Henry VIII. " when the Irish had once resolved to obey the King, they made no scruple to renounce the Pope." 163. Something like wise government began in that reign with Lord Leonard Gray. 172. Sidney's good laws. 176. The best of their governors, Sidney |