the ordeal of battle in their behalf.

For such purposes it was neighbouring layman, dis

necessary to call in the aid of some tinguished by influence or by personal prowess; and his services were usually recompensed by the use of lands belonging to the church, and adjacent to his own, in addition to a share of the fines inflicted in his court, and to other pecuniary dues. The appointment of an advocate was at first a voluntary act; but Charlemagne ordered that every church should be provided with such a champion. The qualifications for the office were very particularly defined, with a view of guarding against misconduct or encroachment; and the advocates were subject to the inspection of the imperial commissioners. The sovereign assigned advocates to churches which were themselves unable to find any. As such grants had the nature of a favour, the advocates thus appointed required higher terms than those whom churches chose for themselves; and from them the others gradually learnt to assume a superiority over the ecclesiastical bodies with which they were connected, to claim dues which absorbed a large portion of the revenues, and to become tyrants instead of protectors, both to the clergy and to their tenants. It was not, however, until after the period which we are now surveying that their relation to the church assumed this character.

(11.) Another encroachment on the church arose out of the system of lay patronage, which had become general throughout the west. In some cases, the right of presentation to a church expired with the founder, while in others it was continued to his representatives. But patrons were not always content with the power of nominating clerks. Sometimes the builder of a church reserved to himself a certain portion of its revenues; sometimes the church was built on speculation-the founder expecting to get more than a reimbursement from the oblations, while he made a composition to pay the incumbent a certain allowance.m Against this practice canons were directed, which forbad bishops to consecrate churches erected on such conditions;" but the patron was considered to have a legal interest in the preservation and right disposal of the property belonging to his church.

e Planck, ii. 455-7; Rettb. ii. 611-2. f Ducange, s. v. Advocatus, p. 107; Planck, ii. 459, 463.

c. 13.

Capit., A.D. 733, c. 3; A.D. 802,

Ducange, s. v. Advoc. p. 108; Planck, ii. 464-6; Rettb. ii. 616; Floto, Hein

rich IV.,' i. 83.

See vol. i. p. 554.

k Planck, ii. 623-5.

Charlemagne

allows the sale of churches ;P and Louis the Pious enacted that, if the incumbent of a church should have a surplus of income, he should pay "due service" to his landlord. The division of inheritance was sometimes carried into the disposal of churchpatronage, so that an "altar" might be divided into several portions, belonging to a like number of priests: such divisions were forbidden by a capitulary of Louis the German, in 851.

A canon of the fourth Council of Toledo provides that, if the founder or benefactor of a church, or his descendants, fall into poverty, an allowance shall be made to them out of its revenues.t

The question of patronage was a fruitful source of disagreements between bishops and secular lords." Canons were passed for the purpose of guarding against abuses on both sidesenacting that no layman should present or eject a clerk without the consent of the bishop; while, on the other hand, the bishop was forbidden to reject a presentee except on good and valid grounds.*

(12.) In the beginning of the period, we find many denunciations of simony in the writings of Gregory the Great. He complains of this "first of heresies," this " buying and selling of doves in the temple," as prevailing in all quarters--in Gaul, in Germany, in Africa, in Greece and Epirus, in the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem; and he continually urges both princes and high ecclesiastics to join with him in labouring to suppress it. But in defiance of all denunciations and penalties, the evil continued, and from age to age there are frequent complaints both against patrons who, for the sake of gifts, nominated worthless persons to ecclesiastical office, and against bishops who corruptly conferred ordination."

(13.) The Frankish church continued to increase in wealth. Estates, sometimes of very great extent, were bestowed on it with the declared object of securing for the giver the remission of his sins and the salvation of his soul. And the inducements to make

P Capit. Francof. A.D. 794, c. 54 (Pa- 813); Capit. A.D. 817, c. 9; Thomass. trol. xcvii.). II. i. 31.

4 Capit. A.D. 817, c. 10. Thomass. II. i. 31-4.

$ C. 5. Cf. Conc. Tribur. A.D. 895,

c. 32.

E. g. Epp. v. 53, 55, 57; vi. 8 ; ix. 49, 106; xi. 46; xii. 28; xiii. 41; Hom. in Evang. I. iv. 4.

E. g. Capit. A.D. 789, c. 21; Conc. Mog. A.D. 813, c. 30; Conc. Rem. A.D. 813, c. 21; and some of the canous cited in note above.

See Marculf's Formularies, ii. 2, seqq. (Patrol. Ixxxvii.)

such donations were increased by the system of precarious contracts-so called because the giver, in endowing the church with his lands, prayed that the use of them might be allowed him for his lifetime, or perhaps that it might be continued to one or more persons in succession after him. Thus many who would have scrupled to deprive themselves of the income arising from an estate, were enabled to perform an act of bounty without expense to themselves, or even to make a profit by it; for the church, in consideration of the reversion assured to itself, in many cases allowed a donor to enjoy not only his own land, but other lands of perhaps much greater value than that which was eventually to pass from his heirs. With a view to the limitation of this abuse, it was enacted by the council of Epernay, in 846, that a donor of land should not be allowed to receive more than twice the value of his gift by way of addition; that kings should not sanction precarious contracts except at the request of the church; and that, agreeably to ancient custom, the contract should require renewal every fifth year."

(14.) The lands of the church were either cultivated by its serfs for the benefit of the owners, or they were let to tenants, whether free or servile, who paid a fixed proportion of the produce by way of rent. In addition to these lands and to the oblations, the ecclesiastical revenues were now swelled by the general imposition of tithes. Under the old Roman system, a tenth of the produce of land was paid by the coloni to the state as rent; and when lands were granted on this condition to a corporation, a second tenth-a ninth of the remaining produce-was paid by the tenant to whom it was underlet. These two payments were known by the name of "tenths and ninths" (decima et nona). The church, as a large holder of lands under the state, exacted the ninths from its tenants; while sometimes, by special grant, it was excused from the payment of the fiscal tenth, and consequently was entitled to receive tenths as well as ninths for its own benefit.

The ecclesiastical or Levitical tithe was a third charge, distinct from these rent-payments. The earliest canon which required

b They were also styled præstariæ, because the church lent the lands on the terms proposed. Rettb. ii. 704. See Marculf, ii. 40, and many forms in the appendix; Thomass. III. i. 8; Guizot, iii. 26. Ducange, s. vv. Præstaria, Precaria.

Planck, ii. 390-4; Rettb. ii. 704-5. See Marculf, ii. 39. The additional grant

was sometimes continued to one or more
successors. Ducange, s. v. Precaria.
d C. 22. See Pertz, Leges, i. 388,

390.

e Rettb. ii. 718-720.

f Rettb. ii. 708-710; Giesel. II. i. 74. Rettb. ii. 627-633, 710, 713.

h See Giesel. II. i. 74; Döllinger, ii. 32; and Rettb. ii. 711-5, with his cita

m

But it would

it was passed, by the council of Mâcon, in 585. seem that this canon had little effect, and no attempt to reinforce it was made by the Frankish councils during the remainder of the Merovingian period. Pipin for the first time added the authority of the secular power to that of the church for the exaction of tithes; but little was done until the reign of Charlemagne, who, by a capitulary of 779, enacted that they should be paid." The payment was enforced, not only by excommunication, but by heavy civil penalties, graduated according to the obstinacy of the delinquent; and the obligation was extended to the newlyacquired territories beyond the Rhine, where (as we have already seen) it had the effect of exciting a strong prejudice against the Christian faith.P The council of Frankfort (A.D. 794) represents the opposition to tithes as one of the offences by which a late scarcity had been provoked; devils, it is said, had been seen devouring the hoarded corn of those who refused the church its due, and voices had been heard in the air, uttering reproof of the general sin.

The tithe had at first been exacted only for corn. It was then extended to other productions of the soil, such as flax and wine, and in some places to the increase of animals. The enactments of Charlemagne's time usually speak of it as payable on the "whole property;" but it was long before the clergy succeeded in establishing a general compliance with their claims in this respect.

The capitulary of 829 forbids the receiver of tithe to give the payers food, or any other consideration which might lead them to suppose that the payment depended on their own will.

In England, tithes appear not to have been enforced until about the end of Bede's lifetime. But soon after this, they are mentioned in the Excerptions of Egbert, archbishop of York;" and Boniface, whose exertions contributed to the establishment of the impost among the Franks and their dependents, is a witness for the payment of tithes in his native country.*

(15.) The abuse by which the Frankish princes granted the beneficial use of church-lands to laymen had defied the efforts of Boniface, and continued throughout the reign of Charlemagne. The holders of such benefices were now required by canons to pay tenths and ninths to the church, and also to repair, or contribute to repair, the churches which were situated on their lands." But it would appear that great difficulty was found in enforcing the canons against this powerful class; the council of Tours, in the last year of the reign, states that complaints had often been made to the missi of their neglect to pay tenths and ninths, but that such complaints met with no attention."

(16.) The disposal of the church's income was still in the hands of the bishops; but in the new kingdoms of the West the deacons did not, as such, take the same part in the administration of it by which their order had become so important in the earlier ages. The steward (œconomus), by whom the bishop was assisted in this part of his administration, might be either a deacon or a priest; his dignity was next to that of the bishop, and he had the guardianship of the see when vacant. In some places the division of the funds was quadripartite-one portion being assigned to the bishop and his household, one to the rest of the clergy, one to the poor and strangers, and one to the fabric and expenses of the church; in other places, it was tripartite-a third to the bishop, one to the clergy, and one to the necessities of the church. The tripartite division was known as the Spanish custom; the quadripartite, as the Roman and bishops are found announcing that, although entitled to the third part which was prescribed by the canon of Toledo, they will be content with a quarter, agreeably to the usage of Rome. The bishops were sometimes charged by the

much discussion as to a grant by which Ethelwulf, the father of Alfred, in 8545, bestowed some kind of tenth on the church. (Asser, in Mon. Hist. Brit. 470; Ang. Sax. Chron. A.D. 855.) This has been described as the first English law for the general payment of tithes (Inett, i. 271-280); but the best authorities consider that it related, not to tithes payable by the king's subjects, but to a tenth part of the crown land in Wessex. See Spelman's Life of Alfred, with Hearne's note, Oxf. 1709, p. 22; Lingard, Hist. Eng. i. 175; Hallam, Suppl. Notes, 181; Williams, n. in Florent. Wigorn. i. 74.

This was the only sense of the word benefice then known. Ducange, s. v. Beneficium; Fleury, Disc. ii. c. 8. See Guizot, iii. 22.

b Planck, ii. 445-7. See vol. i. pp. 157, 300.

e Thomass. III. ii. 8-9.

d See Conc. Tolet. IV. A.D. 633, c. 33; Capit. A.D. 799, c. 13; Capit. Aquisgr. A.D. 801, c. 7, etc.; Planck, ii. 240; Rettb. ii. 722. Thomassin mentions other divisions, III. ii. 15-8.

See Pope Simplicius, Ep. 3, a.d. 475 (Patrol. Iviii.). Archdeacon Hale, in two pamphlets published in 1832-3, has shown reason for believing that these divisions never existed in England.

E. g. Heito, of Basel, about A.D. 820, Capit. 15 (Hard. iv. 1243). So the Lombard bishops at Pavia, A.D. 856, c.