VIII. Of the Rents and Patrimony of the Kirk.

The ministers and the poor, together with the schools, when order shall be taken thereanent, must be sustained upon the charges of the Church. Provision must therefore be made, how and from whom the necessary sums must be lifted. But, before we enter upon this head, we must crave of your honours, in the name of the Eternal God and of His Son, Christ Jesus, that ye have respect to your poor brethren, the labourers and manurers of the ground. These have been so oppressed by these cruel beasts, the Papists, that their lives have been dolorous and bitter. If ye will have God author and approver392 of your reformation, ye must not follow their footsteps. Ye must have compassion upon your brethren, appointing them to pay reasonable teinds, that they may feel some benefit of Christ Jesus, now preached unto them.

With grief of heart we hear that some gentlemen are now as cruel over their tenants as ever were the Papists, requiring of them whatsoever before they paid to the Church; so that the papistical tyranny is only like to be changed to the tyranny of the lord or of the laird. We dare not flatter your honours, neither yet is it profitable for you that so we do: if you permit such cruelty to be used, neither shall ye, who by your authority ought to gainstand such oppression, nor shall they that use the same, escape God's heavy and fearful judgments. The gentlemen, barons, earls, lords, and others, must be content to live upon their just rents, and suffer the Church to be restored to her liberty, that, in her restitution, the poor, who heretofore by the cruel Papists have been spoiled and oppressed, may now receive some comfort and relaxation.²⁶⁰²⁶⁰Concluded by the Lords: that these teinds and other exactions be clean discharged, and never be taken in time coming, such as the Uppermost Cloth, the Corps-present, the Clerk-mail, the Easter offerings, Teind Ale, and all handlings Upaland can neither be required nor received of godly conscience. (Additio.)

Nor do we judge it to proceed from justice that one man shall possess the teinds of another; but we think it a thing most reasonable that every man have the use of his own teinds, provided that he be answerable to the deacons and treasurers of the Church for that which justly shall be appointed unto him. We require deacons and treasurers to receive the rents rather than the ministers themselves; because not only the ministers, but also the poor and schools must be sustained from the teinds. We think it most expedient, therefore, that common treasurers, to wit, the deacons, be appointed from year to year, to receive the whole rents appertaining to the Church; and that commandment be given that no man be permitted either to receive, or yet to intromit with anything appertaining to the sustentation of the persons foresaid, but such as by common consent of the Church are thereto appointed.

393

If any think this prejudicial to the tacks and assedations²⁶¹²⁶¹Leases. of those that now possess the teinds, let them understand that an unjust possession is no possession before God. Those of whom they received their title and presupposed right were and are thieves and murderers, and had no power so to alienate the patrimony and common good of the Church. And yet we are not so extreme, but that we wish just recompense to be made to such as have disbursed sums of money to those unjust possessors, so that it has not been so disbursed of late days to the prejudice of the Church. Such alienations as are found and known to be made by plain collusion ought in nowise to be sustained by you. For that purpose, we think it most expedient that whosoever have assedation of teinds or churches be openly warned to produce their assedation and assurance, that, cognition²⁶²²⁶²Evidence. being taken, the just tacksman may have a just and reasonable recompense for the years that are to run, the profit of the years passed being considered and deducted; and that the unjust and surmised may be served accordingly. Thus the Church, in the end, may recover her liberty and freedom, and that only for relief of the poor.

Your honours may easily understand that we speak not now for ourselves, but in favour of the poor and the labourers defrauded and oppressed by the priests and by their confederate pensioners. For, while the priests' pensioner's idle belly has been delicately fed, the poor, to whom a portion of that appertains, have pined with hunger. Moreover, the true labourers were compelled to pay that which they ought not: for the labourer is neither debtor to the dumb dog called the bishop, nor yet unto his hired pensioner; but is debtor only unto the Church. And the Church is only bound to sustain and nourish at her charges the persons before mentioned, to wit, the ministers of the Word, the poor, and the teachers of the youth.

But now to return to the former head. The sums able to sustain these forenamed persons, and to furnish all things appertaining to the preservation of good order and policy within the Church, must be lifted from the teinds, to wit, the394 teind sheaf, teind hay, teind hemp, teind lint, teind fishes, teind calf, teind foal, teind lamb, teind wool, teind cheese, etc. And, because that we know that the tithes reasonably taken, as is before expressed, will not suffice to discharge the former necessity, we think that all things doted to hospitality, all annual rents, both in burgh and land, pertaining to Priests, Chantery,²⁶³²⁶³Chanters were laics endowed with ecclesiastical benefices. Colleges, Chaplainries, and to Friars of all orders, to the Sisters of the Sciennes, and to all others of that order, and such others within this realm, should be received still to the use of the church or churches within the towns or parishes where they were doted. Furthermore, there should be appropriated for the upholding of the Universities and sustentation of the Superintendents, the whole revenue of the temporality of the Bishops', Deans', and Archdeacons' lands, and all rents of lands pertaining to the Cathedral churches whatsoever. Besides, merchants and rich craftsmen in free burghs, who have nothing to do with the manuring of the ground, must make some provision in their cities, towns, or dwelling-places to support the need of the Church.

To the ministers, and failing these the Readers, must be restored their manses and their glebes; otherwise they cannot serve their flock at all times as their duty is. If any glebe exceed six acres of land, the rest shall remain in the possessor's hands until order be taken therein.²⁶⁴²⁶⁴The Lords condescend that the manse and yards be restored to the ministers. And all the Lords consent that the ministers have six acres of land, except Marischall, Morton, Glencairn, and Cassillis, where manses are of great quantity. (Additio.)

The receivers and collectors of these rents and duties must be the deacons or treasurers appointed from year to year in every church, by common consent and free election of the church. The deacons may distribute no part of that which is collected, but by commandment of the ministers and elders; and they may command nothing to be delivered, but as the Church before hath determined; and the deacons shall pay the sums, either quarterly, or from half year to half year, to the ministers which the Kirk hath appointed. The same395 they shall do to the schoolmasters, readers, and hospitals, if any be, always receiving acquittances for their discharge.

If any extraordinary sums fall to be delivered, then must the ministers, elders, and deacons consult whether the deliverance of these sums doth stand with the common utility of the Church or not; and if they do universally agree and condescend either upon the affirmative or the negative, then, because they are in credit and office for the year, they may do as best seemeth unto them. But if there be controversy amongst themselves, the whole Church must be made privy; and after the matter has been exponed and the reasons heard, the judgment of the Church, with the ministers' consent, shall prevail.

The deacons shall be bound and compelled to make accounts to the ministers and elders of that which they have received, as oft as the policy shall appoint; and the elders when they are changed, which must be every year, must clear their accounts before such auditors as the Church shall appoint. When the deacons and elders are changed, they shall deliver to them that shall then be elected, all sums of money, corns, and other profits remaining in their hands. The tickets for these must be delivered to the Superintendents in their visitation, and by them to the great Council of the Church, that the abundance as well as the indigence of every church may be evidently known, and that a reasonable equality may be had throughout the whole realm. If this order be precisely kept, corruption cannot suddenly enter. The free and yearly election of deacons and elders will not suffer any one to usurp a perpetual dominion over the Church; the knowledge of the rental shall suffice them to receive no more than whereof they shall be bound to make accounts; and the deliverance of the money to the new officers shall not suffer private men to use in their private business that which appertaineth to the public affairs of the Church.