s
enacted, that every man was to pay his tithes to those only, who
administered spiritual help to him in his own parish, settled the
affair; for he set up ecclesiastical courts, thundered out his
interdicts, and frightened both king and people.[31]

[Footnote 31: To shew the principles, upon which princes acted with
respect to tithes in these times, the following translation of a
preamble to a grant of king Stephen may be produced: "Because, through
the providence of Divine Mercy, we know it to be so ordered, and by the
churches publishing it far and near, every body has heard, that, by the
distribution of alms, persons may be absolved from the bonds of sin, and
acquire the rewards of heavenly joys, I, Stephen, by the grace of God,
king of England, being willing to have a share with those, who by a
happy kind of commerce exchange heavenly things for earthly, and smitten
with the love of God, and for the salvation of my own soul, and the
souls of my father and mother, and all my forefathers and ancestors,"
&c.]

Richard the second confirmed these tithes to the parishes, as thus
settled by this pope, but it was directed by an act, that, in all
appropriations of churches, the bishop of the diocese should ordain a
convenient sum of money to be distributed out of the fruits and profits
of every living among the poor parishioners annually, in aid of their
living and sustenance. "Thus it seems, says Judge Blackstone, the people
were frequently sufferers by the withholding of those alms, for which,
among other purposes, the payment of tithes was originally imposed." At
length tithes were finally confirmed, and, in a more explicit manner, by
the famous act of Henry the eighth on this subject. And here I must just
observe, that, whereas from the eighth century to this reign, tithes
were said to be due, whenever the reason of them was expressed, by
divine right as under the Levitical law, so, in the preamble to the act
of Henry the eighth, they are founded on the same principle, being
described therein, "as due to God and the church." Thus, both on the
continent of Europe, as well as in our own country, were these changes
brought about, which have been described. And they were brought about
also by the same means, for they were made partly by the exhortations
and sermons of monks, partly by the decrees of popes, partly by the
edicts of popish kings, and partly by the determinations of popish
councils.

It is not necessary, tha