Settled re immediate no appropriated clergy belonging to them, but were served 6 As to country-churches, the case is very plain, that presbyters were more early fixed and appropriated peculiarly to them, there being not the same conveniency of serving them in common by the presbyters of the city-church. Therefore we may observe, that the Council of Neocæsarea 98 makes a distinction between the exploι πρеσẞúтEроl, the countrypresbyters, and those of the city, forbidding the former to officiate in the city-church, except in the absence of the bishop and city-presbyters: which plainly implies, that country-parishes were then served by fixed presbyters of their own, who had nothing to do with the service of the city-church. And the same appears from the account which Athanasius gives of the presbyters of the villages of Mareotis under Alexandria, and many other passages of the ancient writers. 6. But we are to observe, that the being settled in a parishvenues not cure, whether in city or country, did not immediately entitle a man to the revenue arising from that cure, whether in tithes or oblations, or any other kind. For anciently all church-revenues were delivered into the common-stock of the bishop's ly fixed upon parishes at their first 96 Defence of Diocesan Episcopacy. (p. 47.) There is one thing more, &c. 97 In 1. Tim. 3. [12, 13.] (t. 2. append. p. 295 e.) Nunc autem septem diaconos esse opportet, et aliquantos presbyteros, ut bini sint per ecclesias, et unus in civitate episcopus. ... Omni enim hebdomada offerendum est, etiam si non quotidie peregrinis, incolis tamen vel bis in hebdomada, etsi non desint qui prope quotidie baptizentur ægri. 98 C. 13. See before, ch. 6. s. 21. p. 386. n. 46. into the stock. church; whence by the direction and approbation of the division, bishop, who was the chief administrator of the revenues of his but paid diocese, a monthly or an annual division was made among the common clergy under his jurisdiction, as has been showed before 99, in giving an account of ecclesiastical revenues and their distribution. Where among other things it has been observed out of Theodorus Lector, that at Constantinople no parish-church had any appropriated revenues till the time of Gennadius, in the middle of the fifth century, anno 460, when Marcian's œconomus first ordered the clergy of every church to receive the offerings of their own church, whereas before the great church received them all. In the Western Church, particularly in Spain, in the middle of the sixth century, it appears from the first Council of Bracara2, that the bishop and city-clergy had still their revenues in a common fund, which was divided into four parts: one for the bishop, another for the clergy, a third for the fabric and lights of the church, and a fourth for the relief of the poor, to be dispensed by the hands of the archpresbyter or archdeacon, with the bishop's approbation. But the country-clergy, as to their revenues, were now or shortly after upon a different foot: for in the second Council of Bracara3, which was held but nine years after the first, anno 572, we find a canon forbidding bishops to have any share in the oblations of the parochial churches, and assigning that third part to maintain the fabric and lights of the church; only allowing them to receive two solidi by way of honorary acknowledgment, (honor cathedra, the canon terms it,) in their parochial visitations. So that, at least from this time, we may 99 B. 5. ch. 6. s. 1. v. 2. p. 182. 1 L. I. (v.3. p. 566. 10.) Пpoeßáλετο δὲ Γεννάδιος Μαρκιανὸν οἰκονόμον, τῆς τῶν Καθαρῶν ὄντα θρησκείas, εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν μετελθόντα· ὃς, ἅμα τῷ γενέσθαι οἰκονόμος, τὰ προστ φερόμενα ἐν ἑκάστῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοὺς τοῦ τόπου κληρικοὺς κομίζεσθαι διετύπωσεν, ἕως τούτου τῆς μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας πάντα κομιζομένης. 2 C. 25. [al. Bracar. 2. c. 7.] (t. 5. p. 840 e.) Item placuit ut de rebus ecclesiasticis tres æquæ fiant portiones, id est, una episcopi, alia clericorum, tertia in reparatione vel in luminariis ecclesiæ. De quarta [qua] parte sive archipresbyter sive archi- 3 [al. Bracar. 3.] c. 2. (ibid. p. date the appropriation of revenues in Spain to the country parochial churches. In the same Council there is another canon which corrects an abuse that plainly implies such an appropriate settlement upon country-churches. For some patrons, it seems 4, would build churches on their own lands, not for piety, but for lucre's sake, that they might go halves with the clergy in whatever was collected of the oblations of the people. To remedy which inconvenience the Council orders, 'that no bishop should consecrate any church for the future, that was built upon such an abominable contract and tributary condition.' This is further evidence that the revenues of countrychurches were then appropriated to them, else such abuses as these could not have had any foundation. But in Germany and France the revenues of the parochial churches seem to have continued in the hands of the bishop, at least he had his dividend of a fourth part for some ages longer. For there are rules in the Capitulars of Baluzius's and Goldastus's editions, which order tithes and oblations to be divided into four parts, according to ancient canon, and one fourth to be given to the bishop. And some learned persons 6 who have narrowly examined our English constitution, seem to be of opinion, that the bishops had their portion of the ecclesiastical revenues with the parochial clergy, for some considerable time after the first designation and settlement of parishchurches. For they suppose that originally the bishop's cathedral was the only church in a diocese, from whence itinerant or occasional preachers were sent to convert the country people, 4 Ibid. c. 6. (p. 897 e.) Si quis basilicam, non pro devotione fidei, sed pro quæstu cupiditatis, ædificat, ut quicquid ibi de oblatione populi colligitur, medium cum clericis dividat, eo quod basilicam in terra sua ipse [al. quæstus causa] condiderit, quod in aliquibus locis usque modo dicitur fieri. Hoc ergo de cætero observari debet, ut nullus episcoporum tam abominabili voto consentiat, nec basilicam, quæ non pro sanctorum patrocinio, sed magis sub tributaria conditione est condita, audeat consecrare. 5 Lib. 7. c. 375. (Capitul. Reg. Franc. t. 1. p. 1104 lin. ult.) Scilicet ut quatuor partes ex omnibus decimis et oblationibus fiant. Quarta episcopo referenda.-Conf. Goldast. Constit. Imper. t. 3. c. 23. (p. 158.) Ut decimæ populi dividantur in quatuor partes, id est, una pars episcopo, alia clericis, tertia pauperibus, quarta ecclesiæ in fabricis applicetur, sicut in decreto Gelasii papæ continetur. 6 See Dr. Kennet's Case of Impropriations. (p. 9, &c.) And these were indeed as many acknowledgments, &c.-Mr.Wharton's Defence of Pluralities, c. 2. (p. 71 and onward.) When Augustin, the first archbishop of Canterbury, came into England, &c. who for some time resorted to the cathedral for solemn divine worship. Afterwards by degrees some other churches were built among them; first private oratories or chapels, without any parish-bounds, for the conveniency of such, as being at too great distance from the cathedral, might more easily resort to them. Then parish-churches with certain limits were erected, some by the liberality of the people themselves in more populous and wealthy places, others by the bishops, and others by the Saxon kings; but chiefly the lords of manors, the thanes, as they then called them, were great instruments in this work of founding parish-churches. Whence it was that parish-bounds were conformed to the limits and extent of a manor, as I have shown that the bounds of an ancient diocese were to the territory of a city; and hence the lord of a manor had his original right of patronage and presentation. Yet this did not destroy the bishop's right to a share in the revenue of his whole diocese. But time made an alteration in this matter: for our bishops seem voluntarily to have relinquished their title to parochial revenues, as the Spanish bishops had done before them; though whether they made any canon about it, as the other did, I am not able to inform the reader. But Dr. Kennet has observed out of Dugdale, that notwithstanding the alteration that was made in this matter, the bishops of the Isle of Man continued to have their tertiana or third part of all church-revenues in that island: which I suppose was be 7 See ch. 2. the latter part of s. 3. p. 255. 8 Case of Impropriations. (p. 28.) And for the same reason, the bishops of Man had their tertiana or third part of all churches in that island. 9 Monastic. Angl. (t. 1. p. 718.) Confirmatio ecclesiarum et terrarum, &c. Universis sanctæ matris ecclesiæ filiis, præsentes literas inspecturis vel audituris, Thomas, Dei gratia, rex Mannæ et Insularum, comes Derby et dominus Stanley, salutem in Domino sempiternam. Universitati vestræ innotescimus, quod nos, pro salute animæ nostræ et animarum antecessorum nostrorum atque omnium fidelium defunctorum, concessimus et dedimus di lecto nobis in Christo patri ac domino, domino Huano, permissione divina Sodoriensi episcopo moderno, in puram et perpetuam eleemosynam, ad mensam suam episcopalem, omnes ecclesias, terras, decimas, ac possessiones, quas antecessores nostri reges et domini Mannæ ecclesiæ Sodoriensi et episcopatui ejusdem dederunt, concesserunt, et confirmaverunt. Videlicet cathedralem sancti Germani in Holme Sodor vel Pele vocatam...et tertiam partem decimarum de omnibus ecclesiis de Manne, confirmantes eis tertianam plenæ villæ de Kirkby propinquiorem ecclesiam sancti Bradani cum terra sancti Bradani, et tertianam plenæ villæ de Kirkmarona, &c. cause they were not liable to any alterations made here, as not being then of the English jurisdiction. Thus I have given a short account of the original and ancient state of parochial churches, but it is beyond my design to carry this inquiry any further. They, who would know by what steps and encroachments parish-churches lost their revenues again, first by the confusion of parish-bounds, and a liberty granted to men to pay their tithes and oblations where they pleased, and then by appropriations to monasteries, and impropriations granted to laymen, may find these things handled at large in Dr. Kennet's elaborate Discourse of Impropriations and Augmentation of Vicarages, to which I refer the inquisitive reader. THE CONCLUSION. Wherein is proposed an easy and honourable method for establishing a primitive diocesan episcopacy, conformable to the model of the smaller sort of ancient dioceses, in all the Protestant Churches. ALL I have further to add upon this subject is only to make one seasonable and useful reflection upon what has been discoursed in this last Book, with relation to the long wished for union of all the Churches of the Reformation in the same form of episcopal government, agreeable to the model and practice of the primitive Church. One great objection against the present diocesan episcopacy, and that which to many may look the most plausible, is drawn from the vast extent and greatness of most of the northern dioceses of the world, which makes it so extremely difficult for one man to discharge all the offices of the episcopal function. To take off the main force of which objection, I have been at some pains to show, that for the preservation of episcopacy, there is no necessity that all dioceses should be of the same extent, since there was so great differ |