However, arbitrary conſecrations of tithes took place again afterwards, and became in general uſe till the time of king John[1]. Which was probably owing to the intrigues of the regular clergy, or monks of the Benedictine and other rules, under arch-biſhop Dunſtan and his ſucceſſors; who endeavoured to wean the people from paying their dues to the ſecular or parochial clergy, (a much more valuable ſet of men than themſelves) and were then in hopes to have drawn, by ſanctimonious pretences to extraordinary purity of life, all eccleſiaſtical profits to the coffers of their own ſocieties. And this will naturally enough account for the number and riches of the monaſteries and religious houſes, which were founded in thoſe days, and which were frequently endowed with tithes. For a layman, who was obliged to pay his tithes ſomewhere, might think it good policy to erect an abbey, and there pay them to his own monks; or grant them to ſome abbey already erected; ſince for this dotation, which really coſt the patron little or nothing, he might, according to the ſuperſtition of the times, have maſſes for ever ſung for his ſoul. But, in proceſs of years, the income of the poor laborious pariſh prieſts being ſcandalouſly reduced by theſe arbitrary conſecrations of tithes, it was remedied by pope Innocent the third[2] about the year 1200 in a decretal epiſtle, ſent to the arch-biſhop of Canterbury, and dated from the palace of Lateran: which has occaſioned ſir Henry Hobart and others to miſtake it for a decree of the council of Lateran held A. D. 1179, which only prohibited what was called the infeodation of tithes, or their being granted to mere laymen[3]; whereas this letter of pope Innocent to the arch-biſhop enjoined the payment of tithes to the parſons of the reſpective pariſhes where every man inhabited, agreeable to what was afterwards directed by the ſame pope in other countries[4]. This epiſtle, ſays ſir Edward Coke[5], bound not the lay ſubjects of this realm; but, being reaſonable and juſt (and, he might have added,
