Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/39

 Ch. 3., arbitrary conecrations of tithes took place again afterwards, and became in general ue till the time of king John. Which was probably owing to the intrigues of the regular clergy, or monks of the Benedictine and other rules, under arch-bihop Duntan and his ucceors; who endeavoured to wean the people from paying their dues to the ecular or parochial clergy, (a much more valuable et of men than themelves) and were then in hopes to have drawn, by anctimonious pretences to extraordinary purity of life, all eccleiatical profits to the coffers of their own ocieties. And this will naturally enough account for the number and riches of the monateries and religious houes, which were founded in thoe days, and which were frequently endowed with tithes. For a layman, who was obliged to pay his tithes omewhere, might think it good policy to erect an abbey, and there pay them to his own monks; or grant them to ome abbey already erected; ince for this dotation, which really cot the patron little or nothing, he might, according to the upertition of the times, have maes for ever ung for his oul. But, in proces of years, the income of the poor laborious parih priets being candalouly reduced by thee arbitrary conecrations of tithes, it was remedied by pope Innocent the third about the year 1200 in a decretal epitle, ent to the arch-bihop of Canterbury, and dated from the palace of Lateran: which has occaioned ir Henry Hobart and others to mitake 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 ; whereas this letter of pope Innocent to the arch-bihop enjoined the payment of tithes to the parons of the repective parihes where every man inhabited, agreeable to what was afterwards directed by the ame pope in other countries. This epitle, ays ir Edward Coke, bound not the lay ubjects of this realm; but, being reaonable and jut (and, he might have added, Rh