THE TITHE IN ENGLAND.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1948, 3 January 1914, Page 9

THE TITHE IN ENGLAND.

Preaching in Westminster Abbey on behalf of: tho 'Queen. .Victoria Clergy. Fund, tho Bishop of Itoeliester ii'sclf tho apostolic ' eiaim that preachers should "liver of tho Gospel." The English people had deliberately decided:', against » celibate clergy, but the lot of) the married clergy was nob always o«.j viable. Take tho iilcoiiio of tho countryl clergy. ;Tithe rent chaa-go stood at £7't| 14s. 'Jfd. This meant that 25 pn' cent,, hud to he deducted for o.ver.v £100; which might have been expected from! this source on tho basis of tho Com-' mutation Act of 1830. This depreci-.i-i twn had becomo chronic, and thirty,? year* had passed sinco the. ias'fc year---! 1883 —when tithe rt>»fc charge stood at/ par. Meanwhile living had become mom' expensive,'and vicarage bouses,' erected l for.the conditions of butter times, a serious burden on country clergyA through Ibe legal enactment of dsliipida-i tions. The paralysis caused by this, condition, of affairs was best known to| tlm Bishops. .Many an incumbent ;<>: whom a change of sreno would be ssl sahitarjvas to his people could not exj change .his living, could not accept pro-; motion, because of tho dilaptdatimu question. He was unable to imd thoj ■ means to put tho. houso and glebo iitt order. Ho had no other •'•ours.!?, there-j fore, than to remain where be was, j waiting ifntil death set free the insurance money which was his provision fori that emergency. \ In Australia, where the Bis!]op la-i br,tired for ten years, such a eoimition.l of things, lie said, would not bo tolpr-j ated for a single moment. There the j t laity, not the clergy, kept ,in order tho' 1 rectory houso and other property of the Church, just as they Were responsible for the regular payment of tho clerical stipends. Further, tho laity resented, rather than encouraged, contributions by the clergy for special pftto* oliial objects, such as tho building of, churches ami the prevision of Sunday: schools, .for tho laity this. ]u> fancied, was the oases ill every' branch of the Colonial Church —that tho work of the ck>rgy was spiritual work, not- tho'serving of tables nor. the provision of tho meat to bo" placed on tho tables.