CHAPTER V.

Irish Clergy--Revenues provided for their maintenance— Canons of the Irish Church on the administration of their revenues— Tithes-Contributions levied on ecclesiastical possessions by the state, and by private persons—

Termon Lands-Peter Pence.

THE obligation of contributing to support the ministers of the altar has been recognised in every age, by the professors of natural, as well as of revealed religion. Before the introduction of the Mosaic dispensation, sacred history represents the Father of the faithful, as distributing with generous piety, to Melchisedech, the Priest of the Most High God, the tenth of those spoils, which Abraham had received from his vanquished enemies. When the Jewish law was established, its Divine Author was careful to provide for the decent maintenance of the ministers whom he ordered to be set apart for the service of his sanctuary. According to the economy of the ancient covenant, the tribe of Levi was not to have any participation, in the division which was made of the promised land among the Jewish people. By the divine ordinance the members of the Levitical tribe were to be dispersed among their brethren throughout Judea, that by their presence, they might at once repress superstition, and promote the legitimate worship of the true

God. In return for these services, the law ordained in behalf of this portion of the Jewish people, that a tenth of his profits should be paid by each Israelite, for the maintenance of the ministers of religion. Besides his proportion in this revenue, the Priest, on whom it devolved to offer up sacrifice, was permitted to make use of part of the victim, which he immolated in sacrifice. One case only was excepted. If the sacrifice which he offered were a holocaust, the victim was to be then entirely consumed by fire, and no part of the oblation was to be appropriated to the Priest. The sacrifice of holocaust was offered, as a publick and solemn acknowledgment, of the supreme dominion of the Almighty over creation. It was fitting therefore, that the rite to be observed in its oblation, should adequately express the sublime truth, to announce which the holocaustic sacrifice was ordained. When the priesthood of Aaron gave way to the Pontiff of the New and Eternal Testament, the law, by which the ministers of the Jewish sanctuary were maintained, ceased to be obligatory. The obligation indeed of affording a competent support to the ministers of religion, the Christian dispensation declared to be yet in force. But the mode, in which this duty was to be complied with, not being particularly determined by the Gospel, was left to the conscientious discretion of those who embraced the Christian doctrine.

While the profession of Christianity was deemed a crime deserving the vengeance of the civil law, the temporal condition of its ministers could not have been, at least generally, very prosperous. But, after the conversion of the Emperors, when the terror of persecution had subided, the faithful indulged their piety in contributing liberally to the grandeur of the publick worship, and to the maintenance of the ministers of religion. On some occasions, nor were

these of rare occurrence, their generosity did not confine itself to donations of a transitory or precarious nature; but, in order that the accomplishment of the sacred purposes which they had in view, might be perpetually secured, they transferred for ever to the Church even their immoveable possessions. In many countries in which the Gospel was established, the system in use under the Jewish dispensation, for the support of the Priesthood, seemed to the rulers, to be that which was the best adapted to provide for the maintenance of the Christian ministry.

In Ireland, the usage which was introduced for the maintenance of the Clergy, appears to have been very similar to that which prevailed in the early ages of Christianity. In every part of the country, tracts of land, sometimes of great extent, were consecrated by their proprietors to the support of the officiating Clergy, or the endowment of some religious institution. At certain seasons of the year, as well as on some particular occasions also,* each Pastor received from his people such offerings, as usage, or the ecclesiastical ordinances of the Irish Church had appointed for him. With the system of tithes, the people of Ireland, at least generally, were unacquainted, until the period of the English invasion. Even after the invasion, and despite of the efforts of the settlers, to promote the adoption of that system here, the payment of tithe does not appear to have been ever formally acquiesced in by the Irish nation.†

Nor should the opposition of the Irish people to this mode of supporting the Clergy appear surprising. The first

* According to a fixed rule of the Irish Church, a certain part of the property of a deceased person was reserved for the Church.-D'Achery, L. 1, c. 6. Lanigan, chap. 30, sect. 11, vol. 4.

+ Cambrensis admits that even after some years had elapsed since the English settled in Ireland, the Irish people continued to disregard the enactments that were made to enforce the payment of tithes.

pastors of the Irish Church were men, who fully understood the injurious consequences, of which the inordinate wealth of the Clergy could not fail to be productive. Against these evils, they had, from an early period, taken the most salutary and effective precautions.

To arrange the contribution, which the people of each district should give to their Pastor, in such a manner, as would make their offerings to be exactly adequate to the Clergyman's decent support, was obviously impracticable. The generosity of his flock might, in many instances, supply a plentiful income to a Priest, whose appointed dues would supply only a scanty competency. The canons of Irish discipline therefore ordained, that the superfluous riches of the Priest, should be returned by him to the particular church, in the service of which these revenues had been received.* From the fund, which was thus established, the expenses necessary for the decency of publick worship, for the repairs of the church, and for the wants of the poor were to be deducted.

But while the solicitude of the holy men, who enacted the discipline which regulated the primitive church of Ireland, guarded the inferior Clergy against the danger of worldly wealth, it did not neglect to adopt a similar precaution with regard to those, who discharged the more exalted duties of the Hierarchy. In virtue of ancient usage, it was customary, that whenever the Bishop visited the churches subject to his authority, certain offerings should be presented to him. These offerings, if they were neces

*

Synodus decrevit, ut sacerdos omne, quod superfluum habet, det in Ecclesia, et ut quantum Ecclesiæ dimiserit, tantum Ecclesia demat de superfluis ejus.-Ap. D'Achery, L. 2, c. 20.

+ Besides the dues to which every Bishop was entitled, the Primate received certain offerings from every part of the kingdom, according to the regulations of

sary

for his decent support, the Bishop might appropriate to that purpose. But if his other revenues were sufficient for his maintenance, the canons then enjoined him to distribute these offerings among the indigent.* Nor were these disciplinary enactments left without the sanction neces-sary to enforce their observance. The ecclesiastick who was found to have violated these solemn ordinances, the same canons reproved as a person whose heart was taken up with the love of filthy lucre, and ordered, that he should be cut off from the communion of the Church.+

But the discipline of the Irish Church interfered not only to check the indulgence of avarice in the clergy, but it imposed, moreover, a judicious restraint on the pious liberality of the faithful. In the fervour of his last moments, and when preparing to appear before his Creator, the dying Christian might desire to render himself acceptable to his Creator, by consecrating his earthly goods to the service of religion. Such a disposition of his property might, in some instances, interfere with his obligations towards those, with whom the ties of relationship had connected him. To guard against this inconvenience, the canons of the Irish Church ordained, that the claims of the sons, the brothers, or the other near relations of the deceased, should not be prejudiced by the enactments of a last testament.‡

what was termed the law of St. Patrick. In the year 835, the Primate collected these oblations in Connaught, and in 1106 the same tribute was paid by the people of Munster.

* Si quæ a religiosis hominibus donata fuerint diebus illus, quibus pontifex in singulis habitaverit ecclesiis, pontificalia dona, sicut mos antiquus, ordinare, ad episcopum pertinebunt, sive ad usum necessarium, sive egentibus distribuendum, prout ipse episcopus moderabit.-Canon the twenty-fifth of Patrick, Auxilius, &c. + Si quis vero Clericus contravenerit, et dona invadere fuerit deprehensus, ut turpis lucri cupidus ab Ecclesia sequestretur.-Can. 26, Ibid.

Nullum oportet fraudare filios aut fratres aut propinquos. Item ecclesia nonnisi partem Dei accipit: cum enim heres mundi venerit, retrahet ea quæ mundi sunt.-D'Achery. from L. 4. cap. 6.