Tithes and their Apportionment.

III

serving the cure, who was then the rector of the parish, or it might be a monastery or a religious corporation, in which case the minister serving the cure, as the representative of the monastery or corporation, was styled the vicar, and received as his stipend a portion of the tithes "the small tithe," as it was called. There were differences of custom in the apportionment of the tithes in different countries. In some, there was a division into four parts-one part for the minister, one part for the poor, one part for the church fabric, and one part for the bishop. In others, there was a tripartite division. In others, again, the bishop received all, and distributed the amount as seemed good to him. Lord Selborne has shown that such formal apportionments did not obtain in England; and they did not obtain in Scotland.1

The beginning and the growth of the parochial system, with a provision for the celebration of worship and for the religious and social work of the Church, are difficult to trace. The system was more or less in evidence at a time long anterior to any action by the State. For its origination we are mainly indebted to the piety or the superstition of lords of manors and owners of lands. "When," writes Selden as to England, "devotion grew firmer, and most laymen of fair estate 1 Defence of the Church of England, chaps. vii., viii.

desired the country residence of some chaplains that might be always ready for Christian instruction among them, their families, and adjoining tenants, oratories and churches began to be built by their orders, and, being hallowed by the bishop, were endowed with peculiar maintenance from the founders for the incumbents that should there only reside. Out of these lay foundations chiefly came those kind of parishes which at this day are in every diocese; their differences in quantity being originally out of the differences of the several circuits of the demesnes or territories possessed by the founders." 1

In Scotland, the process in the formation of parishes was similar to that in the southern kingdom. There was an ecclesiastical arrangement for generations before any formal sanction was given by the State. How remote the date of the first ecclesiastical arrangements was may be inferred from this, that, as early as the twelfth century, the lands devoted to the ministration of religion or for religious orders by the Scottish Crown were by statute made subject to the

payment of tithes. "This payment," observes Sheriff Johnston, "came to be so general that the obligation gradually acquired the force of law universally applicable to all land through1 History of Tithes, vol. iii. chap. ix.

Establishment of National Churches.

113

out the country without inquiry into past dedication or reservation." 1

Thus, the parochial economy of the National Churches of Great Britain was consolidated and established. Our condemnation of the middle ages as being dark and dreary may be qualified by the recollection, that we are indebted to the piety (however at many points misinformed) and the liberality of men who lived in them for institutions that have largely contributed to the making of the English and Scottish peoples. And, with reference to these institutions, it is well-in view of statements which are persistently made— to be reminded that they were not, and are not, mere State Churches. They were not created by the State. They are not departments of the State. Public law only confirmed them in the position which they occupied, antecedently to any legal recognition, as the branches of the Church of Christ in the realms. At the Reformation of the Church in the sixteenth century, no novel framework was introduced. The old framework, lightened of some of its objectionable features, was continued under altered under altered circumstances. There were 8467 parishes in England when King Henry VIII. severed the connexion of the English Church with the Roman See. These

1 Handbook of Scottish Church Defence, p. 177.

H

parishes remained as they had been, though they were afterwards modified. In Scotland, there were 940 parishes: they were also continued, though at a later date they, too, were modified. And each parish possessed an endowment, not out of a common fund, not in consequence of any general tax, but an endowment belonging to itself, the fruit of the tithes of a past age, which the civil magistrate had secured in permanent form for the glory of God and the service of the people.

CHAPTER VII.

NATIONAL REFORMED CHURCHES-THE CHURCH

OF SCOTLAND.

THE effect of the great ecclesiastical upheaval in the sixteenth century on the development of national life, and of a national spirit in Christendom, was far-reaching. In its nobler aspect, this upheaval marked an endeavour after re-formation -that is, the forming of the Church back on the lines indicated in the New Testament. The Protesters felt that "what is first is best," that it is a more exact interpretation of the ideal. They did not question the progression of thought, but they held that the progression had been diverted from its legitimate course, by the growth of the hierarchical spirit, by the importation into Christianity of elements that were alien to it, and by the corruption of the simplicity of Christ through the dogmas, practices, and ramifications of the Papacy. Therefore, from the Cæsar of Rome