Bishops and tithes
THIS PLACE is said from the time of archbishop
Theodore, until that of archbishop Lanfranc, that is,
for the space of 349 years, to have been A BISHOP'S
SEE; but what renders this almost incredible, is,
that there is no mention made of any such in any history whatever, till near the time of the Norman conquest, and then of only two, Eadsin and Goodwin,
who are both stiled bishops of St. Martin's; the former is mentioned as such from the year 1032 to
1038; (fn. 1) the latter seems to have been constituted
bishop of this see in 1052, by archbishop Robert,
and died in the year 1061, according to the Saxon
chronicle.
THE OFFICE of these suffragan bishops has been already fully treated of in the History of Kent, under
the account of those of Dover; as to those of St.
Martin's, the office of it being vacant a few years before archbishop Lanfranc came to his see, he, after he
became archbishop, whether because two bishops were
too many for one city, the reason, as some say, which
he gave for what he did, or having respect to that ordinance of the council of London, holden anno 1075,
requiring the removal of bishops sees from obscure
rural villages to cities, or because this bishop was a
chorepiscopus, a kind of country suffragan, an order of
prelates he no doubt well knew had been for just reasons abolished abroad, and to foreign customs, he had
according to all accounts, too much partiality; for
one or more of these reasons, he refused to consecrate
any other bishop in this see; but as he needed the
help of a substitute, he created in the place of it a
kind of new office of archdeacon, in which place he
put Valerius. one of his chaplains, who became the
first archdeacon of Canterbury, at least in the light
that office has been looked on ever since, (fn. 2) and thus
ended this suffragan see of St. Martin.
THE ENDOWMENTS of these churches, as well within
as without the walls of this city, in respect to tithes,
ought not to be passed by in silence; the custom and
manner of the payment of which, Mr. Somner says,
in his time, whether predial or personal, was not in
kind, but by and according to the rents of houses,
viz. after the rate of 10d. in the noble, quarterly
payable. This, he says, was the general custom of
tithing throughout this city, one parish, St. Andrew's,
only excepted, where, by what means was unknown,
the custom was to pay something more, viz. 10½d. in
the noble. How long this custom had been in force,
was not found; but by records in the archbishop's
registry (fn. 3) it appeared, that antiently the clergy of this
city were in the same situation for their tithes and offerings, as their brethren the clergy of London were,
and partook with them of their custom; but how
long afterwards this continued, or when or why it
ceased and was changed, and abated into the present
manner of tithing, and whether or no personal tithes
were then paid besides, (as Linwood's opinion is, that
they ought to be, this being according to him, a predial tithe) was not found; but he says, he persuaded
himself, that personal tithes were likewise paid, and
that, because almost every testator, as well of this
city, as the country round about it, gave some satisfaction more or less by his will, to the parish priest
for his tithes forgotten, or negligently paid, which it
was conceived could not easily happen in this certain
kind of payment. Yet it was rather than otherwise
supposed, these privy personal tithes were seldom or
never drawn from the parishioner by any legal compulsory way, or from any course taken for their recovery, in fore exteriori, as it is called, but by other
means as prevalent in those times. That is, one me
thod, by the calling the parishioner to account for
them, in foro conscientiæ, in the court of conscience,
at the time of confession, or thrist (perhaps the reason
of their being called privy tithe); another by the terrifying danger of incurring the greater curse of excommunication, (which confirmed him much in his
persuasion of the usual payment of them) declared in
every parish church in town and country, until the
reformation, four times in the year, against all such
as withheld these tithes; the cause, perhaps, why
every man was so careful not to die in his priest's debt
for them. (fn. 4)