Question I

GRATIAN. PART I. That all these things are by right to be paid to the former church, the plaintiffs strive to prove by these arguments. It is established that every baptismal church has a diocese lawfully assigned to it, just as parochial churches also have parishes apportioned to them. Hence Dionysius the Bishop to Bishop Severus, [letter II]:

We have given individual churches to individual priests; we have divided parishes and cemeteries among them, and we have established that each is to have his own right, in such a way, namely, that no one invade the boundaries or right of another's parish, but let each be content with his own boundaries and so guard the church and people committed to him that before the tribunal of the eternal Judge he may render an account for all things committed to him and receive not judgment but glory for his deeds. GRATIAN. Moreover, from whatever estates are cultivated in the designated diocese, the revenue of the tithes assigned to the baptismal church ought to be paid. Therefore, because these estates are contained within the boundaries of our diocese, the revenue of the tithes lawfully assigned to us is to be paid to our church. PART II. § 1. To these matters reply is thus made: Tithes were established by God through Moses so that they might be paid by the people to the sons of Levi for the ministry in which they served Him in the tabernacle. The sons of Levi did not receive tithes except from those for whom they offered prayers and sacrifices. Therefore, because we serve the Lord in the tabernacle by offering prayers and sacrifices for these persons, they also ought to pay us tithes and first fruits. § 2. Likewise, when tithes were given to the sons of Levi, they were not paid according to the choice of the offerer, so that, after despising the Levite who was with him, he might himself choose to whom he wished to give the tithes. For it was said: “The Levite who sojourns with you and dwells within the walls of your city shall eat them.” For that reason also they received cities for habitation from each of the tribes, so that each tribe might pay tithes to those who were with it. For Moses commanded the children of Israel, as is read in Deuteronomy: “In the place which the Lord your God shall choose, that His name may be therein, thither you shall bring all the things that I command: holocausts and sacrifices and tithes and first fruits of your hands, and whatever is foremost among the gifts which you have vowed to the Lord. There you shall feast before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites who sojourn in your cities. For he has no other part and possession among you.” And below: § 3. “The tithe of grain and wine and oil, the firstborn of herds and flocks, and all things that you shall vow and wish to offer spontaneously, and the first fruits of your hands, you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God shall choose—you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and maidservant, and the Levites who remain in your cities.” § 4. Therefore, because we reside within the walls of the city of these persons and are joined to them by habitation, we rightly receive tithes from them. Likewise the Prophet says: “Bringing forth hay for beasts of burden, and grass for the service of men.” Hay and grass are brought forth from the earth—but for whom? For the beasts of burden that water it, for the men who cultivate it and in this serve Him. Likewise the Apostle: “But let him who is catechized in the word communicate with him who catechizes him.” This he says to the Galatians. But to the Corinthians he proves that support is specially owed to him because he ministered spiritual things to them, saying: “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things?” Likewise: “If others have become sharers in your power, why not we rather?” Likewise: “Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit?” We planted the vineyard, and do you wish to eat its fruits? Likewise the Lord commanded Moses that no one put his sickle into another’s harvest. This harvest is ours, and do you wish to put your sickle into it? Likewise: “You shall not bind the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain.” We are the oxen treading out the grain; do you seek to bind our mouth and seek sustenance for yourselves from our threshing? Likewise the Apostle: “Let those who serve the altar live from the altar.” But surely not from that altar which they do not serve? Likewise: “Those who work in the sanctuary share with the sanctuary.” But surely not with that in which they do not work? We serve the altar; do you wish to share in it, while seeking to dismiss us empty and destitute? Likewise the Apostle: “It is fitting that the laboring husbandman first partake of his fruits”; but do you seek the contrary? We are the laboring husbandmen; do you wish first to partake of our fruits? Indeed, not first, because you do not wish to leave even the last portion to us. For, beginning from the first things, you creep forward little by little and strive to usurp the whole, so that it may appear to have been said of you: “Bit by bit the wolf eats the lamb.” Likewise: “Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who feeds a flock and does not eat of its milk?” We serve as soldiers, and do you seek for yourselves the stipends of our military service? We feed the flock, and do you wish to receive its milk and wool for yourselves? It is wisdom to seek sustenance from another’s labor—if it is wisdom to will what you cannot obtain. § 5. Likewise the Lord said to His disciples: “Into whatever house you enter, remain in that same house, eating and drinking the things that are among them. But when you enter, first say: Peace to this house.” We entered this house; we offered peace to it. But do you rejoice to be fed as idle men by another’s food? See lest this be turned against you: “See what idleness and another’s food may do.” § 6. Likewise the Prophet: “Take up a psalm and give the timbrel.” These persons take up the psalm from us, and do you seek the timbrel from them? § 7. Likewise Leo IV: “Concerning tithes, not only to us but also to our predecessors it seemed by a just order that they ought to be given only to parish churches where the most sacred baptisms are administered.” § 8. But to which parish churches are they owed: to those from which they receive baptism, or to others? We baptize them, and do you take tithes from them? It is an honorable interpretation; would that you might find those who interpret thus for you. Therefore, because we water this people, ministering to it the rain of doctrine, and because we cultivate it with the ploughshare of preaching, opening its hearts to the faith, if you are unwilling to permit it, at least suffer it to bear fruit for us, and beware of inflicting upon us such things as you do not wish to be done to you, lest, if you persist in saying what you wish, you hear what you do not wish.

PART III. § 9. To these arguments: With a crafty and indeed manifold argumentation you strive to take away our rights, in such a way that, if credence were given to words, you would carry back not words for words but things for words. But, God being favorable, if you have given words, you will receive words. § 10. You charge us with seeking to steal away those things which are owed to you, because we pursue our own things. A judgment indeed wise and uttered by a philosophical mouth: is pursuing one’s own to plunder another’s? From where has this judgment flowed to you, unless because you covet our things with such ardor that you think your own things are taken away from you when we obtain ours? Hence, when our case has attained its due end, you will exclaim: “Ah, wretched me, I am tortured that so great a morsel has been snatched from my jaws.” But see lest you seek to obtain compensation for the loss of the ointment poured out. You have appointed yourselves planters of vineyards, diggers of fields, threshers of threshing floors, waterers of fields; you have assumed for yourselves many other offices of this kind and have complained that services owed to you are withdrawn from you by us. But we do not deny what is yours. Straw and coverings are preserved for the ox that treads out grain. Let these be yours, and leave the kernels to us. Cultivators of vineyards, diggers of fields, and waterers of fields, once they have received a daily wage, leave the fruits that arise to the owners. Therefore, having received the recompense for your work in the daily offerings and the other services which are daily brought in return for the spiritual things they receive from you, leave to us the resulting fruits of tithes and first fruits. § 11. Likewise the Lord commanded His disciples to eat and drink the things that were among their hearers, but He did not command them to cast the owners out of their houses and despoil them of their goods. You will not easily find those who willingly receive such guests. A mouse in a purse, fire in the bosom, a serpent in the lap reward their hosts badly. Hence it is said in Proverbs: “He who nourishes a serpent in his bosom will be struck by it.” May you find such hosts for yourselves as you wish to be for us. It is not enough for you to eat and drink the things that are in our house while you receive the daily fruits of offerings, from which you may have food and clothing, with which you ought to be content with the Apostle; but you are unwilling, because you are not imitators of him. Rather, you strive to expel us from our house and wholly despoil us of our goods when you do not wish to leave us even the tithes of these things. § 12. But in order that all things may be gathered universally, we refer everything that has been introduced on your behalf—whether concerning the laboring husbandman or concerning him who does not serve as a soldier at his own expense—to this point: that you receive in the offerings and daily services of these persons the fruit of your work which you so greatly strive to receive, but leave untouched to us their tithes, which are owed to us, lest, while you seek to usurp what is not yours, by just punishment you be compelled also to lose that which seemed in some manner to belong to you. § 13. But that these tithes are owed to you by no right, we shall easily prove. For it is said in a certain council: “If any layman or cleric, or a person of either sex, the places of his property, etc.,” as they are found noted in the same chapter in the cause concerning monks. Therefore, if a layman or cleric or any person, when selling or donating places belonging to his property, can in no way withdraw the revenue of the tithes from the church to which it was lawfully assigned, neither can these persons, by passing from diocese to diocese, take away from us the tithes of their estates which are contained within the boundaries of our parish. For, so far as the right of receiving tithes is concerned, it is the same thing for the possessor to pass from diocese to diocese as for the possession to be transferred from one diocesan to another.