In the early history of the Christian Church, the citizens of London made oblations or offerings at every mass on Sundays and holidays, and such oblations were applied to the relief of the poor, the repairs of the church and the support of the clergy. From these purely voluntary oblations grew up a custom in the City of London, that every person paying 20s. a year rental should give to God and the Church, ½d. for every Sunday or Apostle’s day, the vigil of which was a fast. If he paid only 10s. a year rental, he was to give ¼d. This amounted in the former case to 2s. 6d. in the pound, and 1s. 3d. in the latter, per annum. These were customary payments, and were applied for the same three purposes—poor, fabric and clergy. As these customary payments were found to decrease, it was deemed necessary to promulgate an order to permanently fix the customary payments. Bishop Roger took up the subject immediately after his consecration as Bishop of London. The following are the facts of the case:—

(1) In A.D. 1228, in the reign of Henry III., Bishop Roger, surnamed Niger, or Le Noir, of London, made a constitution or modus, that every occupier of a house should offer as his tithe to his parish church, ½d. for 20s. a year rental, and ¼d. for 10s. a year rental, for every Sunday and every Apostle’s day, whereof the evening was fasted. There were fifty-two Sundays and eight Apostles’ days in the year that were fasted. Two shillings and sixpence a year was then the amount of the modus decimandi which the former occupier had to pay, and one shilling and three pence a year the latter. The amounts would be less when any of the Apostles’ days fell upon Sundays.

The above particulars appear in the Records in the Town Clerk’s office, London. It is a well-known point in law that a house quâ house is not liable for the payment of tithes. Tithes were paid for what issued or grew out of the ground. Enormous house properties have been erected in and around all our cities and towns, for which one penny as tithe-money has never been paid, and yet the house property in the City and Liberties of London, and landed property throughout the country, have to pay a modus and tithe-rent charges.

(2) Bishop Roger’s modus was paid for 160 years, viz., from 1229 to 1389, when Archbishop Arundel, of Canterbury, interfered with the arrangement in the latter year. He was not satisfied with the interpretation put upon Bishop Roger’s Constitution as regards the number of Apostles’ days, and so he added twenty-two more saints’ days, thus increasing the payments from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 5d. a year, and this he did without consulting the payers. The citizens of London were quite indignant at the additional number of saints’ days, and placed on record their protest against the same for the information of future generations. There were constant quarrels between the citizens and their clergy in the ecclesiastical courts, and at the Pope’s court at Rome, with regard to the payment of the extra 11d. The Archbishop appealed to the Pope as to the soundness of his interpretation, and as a matter of course, Pope Innocent VII., in 1403, confirmed the interpretation. But the Pope’s bull did not pacify the citizens of London. They considered the additional 11d. a cheat—a fraud. Besides, the Pope’s bull could not compel them to pay the additional amount. In 1453, however, it appears, by a record in the Town Clerk’s office,[274] that Archbishop Arundel’s order is declared by the Common Council to be “destructory rather than declaratory, and that it was obtained surreptitiously and deceptiously, without assent on the part of the citizens, or summoning them.” I should imagine that the Church, with its terrible ecclesiastical courts made them pay the 3s. 5d., for we find no change in the payment until 1535, when the whole subject was considered by the Privy Council, who made an order for the payment of 2s. 9d. in the pound. Therefore in the same year an Act was passed,[275] authorizing the citizens of London to pay their tithes at the rate of 2s. 9d. in the pound. Ten years later another Act was passed,[276] “That the citizens and inhabitants of the City of London and Liberties of the same shall yearly, without fraud or covin, for ever pay their tithes to the parsons, vicars, and curates of the said City, and their successors for the time being, after the following rate: For every 10s. rent by the year of all houses, shops, warehouses, cellars, tables, etc., within the City and Liberty, 16½d.; and for every 20s. rent by the year, 2s. 9d.; and so above the rent of 20s. by the year, ascending from 10s. to 10s., according to the rate aforesaid.”

(3) The next account of tithes in London was after the great fire in 1666. An Act which I call the first Fire Act was passed in 1670,[277] for the better settlement of the maintenance of the parsons, vicars and curates in the parishes of the city of London burnt by the great fire. The preamble runs thus:—

“Whereas the tithes in the city of London were levied and paid with great inequality, and are, since the late dreadful fire there, in the rebuilding of the same, by taking away some houses, altering the foundations of many, and the new erecting of others, so disordered, that in case they should not for the time to come be reduced to a certainty, many contrivances and suits of law might arise, be it enacted that the annual certain tithes of every parish in the City of London and its Liberties, whose churches have been demolished or in part consumed by the late fire, be paid according to the sum opposite each.”

Sec. 3. “Which respective sums of money to be paid in lieu of tithes within the said respective parishes, and assessed as hereinafter is directed, shall be and continue to be esteemed, deemed and taken to all intents and purposes, to be the respective annual maintenance (over and above glebes and perquisites, gifts and bequests to the respective parson, vicar and curate of any parish for the time being, or to their successors respectively, or to others for their use) of the said respective parsons, vicars and curates, who shall be legally instituted, inducted and admitted in the respective parishes.”

In subsequent sections assessments were ordered to be made before the 24th July, 1671, upon all houses, shops, warehouses, cellars, and other hereditaments, except parsonage and vicarage houses.

Three transcripts were to be made by the assessors, containing the respective sums to be payable out of all the premises within each parish; one was for the Lord Mayor, the second for the Bishop of London’s registry, and the third was to remain in the vestry. The payments were to be made in four quarterly payments.

If any inhabitant should refuse payment the Lord Mayor should issue his warrant of distress on his goods. If the Lord Mayor should refuse to issue his warrant, then it shall be lawful for the Lord Chancellor, or Keeper of the Great Seal, or any two or more of the barons of his Majesty’s Court of Exchequer to issue warrants of distress.

The payments made by 22 & 23 Car. II. c. xv. (1670) were increased by 44 George III. c. lxxxix. (1804).

As the City and Liberties of London are converted into offices, banks, warehouses, etc., and are almost depopulated, it is important and instructive to give the names of the parishes which appear in the Fire Act of 1670, with the respective annual sums allowed in 1670 and the modified annual sums allowed in 1804. The first sum is for 1670, the second for 1804, and the third shows net income in 1890, with population from Clergy List, 1891.

With respect to other parishes in the City and Liberties of London which are not included in the Fire Act, the incumbents received the tithes specified in the Acts 27 Henry VIII., c. xxi. and 37 Henry VIII. c. xii., viz., 2s. 9d. in the pound upon the rentals of the houses. The whole sum was paid into the common treasury of the parish, and was applied to three purposes, viz. (1) the support of the clergy; (2) the relief of the poor; and (3) the repairs of the church. Here is the tripartite division.[279] By the London (City) Tithes Act, 27, 28 Vict. c. cclxviii. (1864), annual fixed sums are paid in lieu of tithes, but subject to a revision on the first avoidance of the benefice that happens after the expiration of a period of 28 years from the passing of the Act.

These are the benefices:—

Sec. 17 of this Act made legal the prospective agreements between the incumbent and vestry as regards the fixed annual sums in lieu of tithes, viz.:—

By Sec. 18, All Hallows Staining, Mark Lane. Population, 175.

Agreement published in the London Gazette, 21 March, 1865, Tithes commuted for fixed annual sum of £1,600. Out of the proceeds of this tithe-rate, two new churches—All Hallows, Bromley, and S. Anthony, Stepney—have been built, and their vicars endowed each with £500 per annum, and the balance is accumulating for the erection of a third church and the endowment of its vicar.

The tithes of the following parishes have been commuted by local Acts.

The rector of S. Giles-in-the-Fields has a charge of £300 net a year on next avoidance of S. Botolph without, Bishopsgate.

Under the London (City) Tithes Act, 1879, portions of the sums payable as above have been redeemed, the consideration being such sum as will, if invested in 3 per cent. consols., produce an annual sum equal as near as may be to the annual amount of such rent-charge. The consideration is paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who pay the dividends on the stock to the incumbents.

It is important to give seriatim some further particulars about the above benefices.

(1) Of the £2,500 of S. Andrew Undershaft, w. S. Mary-at-Axe, eight parishes receive in the aggregate £500 a year.[282] The Bishop of London is patron; the rector is Bishop Billing, his suffragan; his net income is £2,057, with £375 a year for house rented; total, £2,432. Church accommodation, 210; population, 315.

(2) The fixed tithe of S. Catherine Colman is £1,550, out of which six parishes at Bethnal Green receive in the aggregate £400, S. Thomas Charterhouse £150, the rectors of S. Giles-in-the-Fields £100, and S. Mary, Whitechapel, £500 per annum.[283] Bishop of London, patron; rector, Bishop Wilkinson; income, £1,500 per annum, including £1,100 a year from rentals. Church accommodation, 290; population, 277.

Here are two rich London benefices in the gift of the Bishop, who gave them to his two suffragan bishops; the Bishop of London sticks fast to his own £10,000 a year, and gives nothing to his suffragans from this immense income.

(3) S. Olave, Hart Street, w. All Hallows Staining. Rector’s gross income, £2,050,[284] of which S. Olave’s, Mile End, has £600 per annum, and house. Church accommodation, 250; population, 430.

(4) All Hallows, London Wall; fixed tithe £1,700; church accommodation, 250; population, 535; patron, Lord Chancellor; present rector was appointed in 1834; on next vacancy £1,400 will be divided into four parts; the rector will take one part £350 + £300 = £650; Holy Trinity, Barking Road, £350; S. Gabriel, Canning Town, £350; St. Luke, Victoria Dock, £350.

(5) All Hallows Barking; fixed tithe, £2,000; church accommodation, 600; population, 350; the incumbent has 4 curates for a population of 350 (!); they are all well looked after.

(6) S. Ethelburga; fixed tithe, £950; income, £1,050; church accommodation, 300; population, 199. On next avoidance, £400 a year will be given to S. Botolph without, Aldgate.

(7) S. Alphege, London Wall; fixed tithe, £1,350; church accommodation, 200; population, 31; on which S. George-in-the-East has a charge of £500 per annum. The rector has £925 for 31 of population!

(8) S. Martin Outwich, Threadneedle Street, was pulled down and sold; fixed tithe, £2,250. Three churches erected out of proceeds, and vicars endowed, thus. The charges on this tithe are £600 Holy Trinity, Dalston; £300 Christ Church, Stepney; £592 S. Peter’s, Limehouse; rector of S. Helen, Bishopsgate with S. Martin Outwich, receives £858 per annum, with house. Population, 541.

(9) S. Peter-le-Poer w. S. Benet-Fink; fixed tithe, £1,725; church accommodation, 690; population, 530. The charges on this tithe are £125, S. Mary Charterhouse; £200 a year each to Holy Trinity, Haverstock-hill; Old Saint Pancras; St. Peter’s, Regent Square; S. Mary, Somers Town; and; £100 to Holy Cross, S. Pancras. The rector has a gross income of £1,000 a year.

(10) S. Giles’, Cripplegate; commuted tithe, £1,800; subject to revision every ten years; in 1890 the value = £1,100, with house; population, 2,473; S. Luke’s, Old Street, has a charge of £200 a year net.

(11) S. Martin, Ludgate, w. S. Mary Magdalene and S. Gregory by S. Paul. The tithes of S. Gregory were commuted under sect. 12 of S. Paul’s Cathedral Minor Canons Act, 1875, by agreement published in the London Gazette of 19th March, 1878, for a fixed annual sum of £4,000, receivable by the holder of the beneficial lease granted by the minor canons. When the lease will lapse, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners will receive the £4,000 per annum. What does the vicar get who has to look after the 1,200 parishioners? £468, plus £100 from the E.C., arising out of local claim. The minor canons must have received £10,000 at least for that lease.

(12) S. Mary Abchurch w. S. Laurence; income, £590, with house; population, 236.

(13) S. Catherine Cree w. S. James, Duke’s Place; income, £583; population, 1,480. The latter was united to former by Order in Council, Gazette, 6th May, 1873, taking £300 net a year, which it had from 1867, from S. Peter’s, Cornhill.

(14) S. Dunstan-in-the-East; income, £536, from house property chiefly; population, 442.

(15) S. Bartholomew the Great w. Smithfield; income, £650; population, 2,373.

(16) S. Botolph without, Aldersgate. By 7 Geo. IV. c. cxvi., the tithes were commuted for a fixed sum of £1,150 per annum payable to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster as rectors. This sum, less £300 a year payable to the vicar, they leased, and the lessee retains £850 a year. Income of vicar, £390; population, 3,330.

(17) S. Botolph without, Bishopsgate, has been given. Has a house.

(18) S. Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street. By 1 Geo. IV. c. lix., the tithes were commuted to an annual payment by the ratepayers of £359, of which £5 went to the Crown. By an order in Council dated 16th April, 1886, S. Thomas in the Liberty of the Rolls was united to the above parish, but the church of S. Thomas was taken down and the site and materials sold. The proceeds are to go towards building another church elsewhere, erecting a new parsonage for the rector of S. Dunstan and augmenting his income, which is £500 per annum; population, 2,300.

These eighteen incumbents receive £18,632, or average of over £1,000 each per annum. But it must be noted that the lessees of three parishes receive £11,350 per annum, in lieu of tithes, from the ratepayers, viz.: S. Botolph without, Aldgate, £6,500; S. Gregory-by-S.-Paul, £4,000; and S. Botolph without, Aldersgate, £850. This £11,350 is not included here in any of the incumbent’s incomes.

But here arises the public scandal. Eleven of these eighteen incumbents receive £13,341 per annum for an aggregate population including children, of 3,886, or £3 9s. per head.

The populations are taken from the census of 1881; and it is probable that a considerable reduction in population will appear from the census returns of 1891. But the clerical incomes are not reduced.

Again, twenty-six incumbents of Fire parishes receive £15,702 for a population of 14,000. If we compare the income of £350 for the incumbent of only one of the parishes in Bethnal Green, with a population of close on 14,000, with the £15,702 for a similar population in the aggregate, we at once perceive the public scandal.

Again, eleven incumbents of the Fire parishes have £8,050 for an aggregate population of 7,000. If we take a single parish outside of the City and Liberties of London, we shall find it with a population much larger than 7,000, and yet the incumbent would consider himself fortunate to receive a net income of £300 per annum.

I have now given sufficient data to prove that there exists reasonable grounds for the public scandal as regards the parishes in the City and Liberties of London. It is not my province to suggest remedies, but to indicate facts and figures.

But eleven incumbents to receive £13,341 for an aggregate population of 3,886 forms the coping-stone not to a public scandal, but to a public disgrace, in this Christian country.

But the greatest public disgrace of all is to see the Bishop of London himself receiving £10,000 net per annum, with three suffragan bishops not paid by him, but paid out of parochial revenues.

Then, on the top of the hill, is S. Paul’s Cathedral, with a net income of £25,000 per annum, and with palatial residences, which recently cost £20,000, close to the cathedral, for the canons. Truly it may be said of them, Lac et lanas ovium Christi suscipiunt, sed curam gregis Domini deponunt.

The City of London Tithes Act of 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. clxxvi.) provides for the commutation of tithes and payments in lieu of tithes arising or growing due in certain parishes in the City of London, and for the redemption of rent-charges charged upon lands under the above Act.

By the Christ Church (City) Tithe Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. xciii.), S. Bartholomew’s Hospital receives in lieu of tithes the annual sum of £1,800, which is levied and collected as tithe rates by the hospital from persons rateable to poor rates in that parish. Tithes in arrears are recoverable by distress in the same manner as stated in the Commutation Act of 1836. The vicar of Christ Church, Newgate Street, with S. Leonard, Foster Lane, has £456 per annum; population, 1,380. This is a Fire parish.

Mr. Edward Jeffries Esdaile and his successors are the owners by purchase, £20,000, of the tithes of the parish of S. Botolph without, Aldgate. Disputes arose after the Act of 1879 as to payments to be made to Mr. Esdaile in respect of tithes. An Act was therefore passed in 1881, called, “The City of London Tithes, S. Botolph without, Aldgate,” (42 & 43 Vict. c. cxcvii.) to commute the tithes.

By sec. 3 of this Act, the tithe-owner is to receive £6,500 a year in lieu of tithes, which was to be levied and collected by the churchwardens from the persons by law rateable to poor rates, and shall be assessed on the annual rateable value of the houses assessed for poor rates. The £6,500 a year was to be paid by the churchwardens to the tithe-owner after the 29th September, 1881, by two half-yearly payments. The cost of making and collecting the tithe-rates is to be paid by the ratepayers, and is to be exclusive of the £6,500. The owners of houses can redeem the tithes as if they were rent-charge under the Tithes Commutation Act of 1836.