Therein we see how one day they resolved to report to the House the conclusions at which they had arrived, and the course which they recommended to be pursued; and how, another day, they finally declared what should be done "by virtue of an order of both Houses."
Dipping into these records, we find the Committee resolving upon the augmentation of poor livings. For example, £8 payable to Ussher, Bishop of Carlisle, out of the impropriate tithes of Allhallows, Cumberland, and the further annual sum of £20, out of the impropriate tithes forfeited by a delinquent, are granted, March 3rd, 1646, for the purpose of increasing the stipend of such minister as the Committee should approve to officiate in the church of Allhallows. A grant of £40, out of a Papist's impropriation, is made on the 15th of July, 1646, for the maintenance of a minister to a chapelry in Lancashire, subject to the approbation of the Divines appointed by ordinance of Parliament for examination of ministers in that county. The incomes of several vicarages are noticed as augmented by grants out of forfeited revenues. Grants also appear for weekly lectures by assistant ministers; for instance, at Tamworth, "by reason of the largeness of parish, and the concourse thereto from other places." A petition to the Committee for sequestration which met at Goldsmiths' Hall is reported as coming from the parish of Benton, and from two contiguous chapelries, complaining that there was but one minister for all those places, and that he was a reader and an alehouse keeper; and also stating that, by reason of the corruption of Episcopacy, only £10 a year out of the glebe lands and tithes had been paid to a curate, who, on account of his poverty, was constrained to keep an alehouse.
Tithes, of course, were payable when harvest came. Each rector would, as of old, have the right of sending an agent among the corn shocks, that he might affix to every tenth some twig or other sign of ecclesiastical appropriation. But the revolution at the commencement of the civil wars had thrown into jeopardy such ecclesiastical claims. Not only could the farmer then, as always, expose the rector to damage and loss, but he could also successfully resist the setting out and appropriation altogether. Greater hazard still, perhaps, attached to the demand "of rates for tithes;" and altogether it is plain that the distress of the clergy must in some cases have been very great.[485] Consequently, on the 8th of November, 1644, Parliament issued an ordinance stating, that there remained not any such compulsory means for recovery of tithes by ecclesiastical proceedings as before had been the case; and the remedy now provided was to make complaint to two justices of the peace, who were authorized to summon the person complained of, and after examination on oath, to adjudge the case with costs; a method which, at least for its simplicity and summariness, presented a striking contrast to all previous modes of procedure in ecclesiastical or civil courts. In case of non-payment, distraint might be made by order of the justices, and if there remained nothing available for that purpose, the defaulter could be committed to prison.[486] The city of London was exempted from the operation of the ordinance, an exemption afterwards repealed. We may add that vicars probably would be exposed to special inconvenience in collecting their small tithes, whilst their incomes, even when fully paid, would in many cases be very inconsiderable. Hence, on turning over the Parliament Journals, we find orders given for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to consider how poor vicarages and cures could be raised to a competent maintenance out of Cathedral revenues and impropriate parsonages.