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means of their own aggrandizement . Their treasures became enormous ; it is computed that at one period thejy po ssessed seven-tenths of all the property of the kingdom ; for , unlike others , they kept and transmitted from age to age their various acquisitions , and a treasure once gained never left the Church . There was no alienation ; the property , when it had fallen into the possession of the priesthood , fell , to use the allusion of several statutes passed to check these shameful accumulations , into the hands of one who , in respect of the exchange and transfer of property , was a dead man .
This allusion leads us to remark , that the evils of which we have spoken
became so enormous and crying , that the magistrate , in order to prevent the complete absorption of property in the hands of the priests , found himself obliged to interfere . In reference to this interposition , Sir W . Blackstone thus speaks : ** In deducing the history of which statutes , it will be matter of curiosity to observe the great address and subtle contrivance of the ecclesiastics in eluding from time to time the laws in being , and the zeal with which successive Parliaments have pursued them through all their finesses ; how new remedies were still the parents of new evasions , till the legislature at last , though with difficulty , hath obtained a decisive victory . "
Of the property thus amassed by the Church , some at the time of Henry VIII . went to the nobility , some to the king , the major part to the clergy of the Church of England . The priesthood of the day , in imitation of the king-, changed their faith , and thus kept their benefices ; they abjured the Pope , and retained what , by Papal influence , they and their predecessors had acquired . True , a portion of the property underwent many mutations .
On a part the king and nobles rioted . With another part new bishoprics were founded out of the sums of proscribed monasteries . There was one thing in which all agreed— each to keep all he could get , and to take care that the poor man came in for no share . As far as the people were concerned , the change was merely a change of masters j the king being placed in the chair of Christ ' s vicar ; or rather it was a change for the worse ; since
the rich absorbed what had previously ministered in part to the needs of the indigent . It would have been an act of justice to restore to the people gain so ill-gotten , especially in those who soon after denounced the Roman
clergy as greedy wolves and devourers of God ' s heritage . Alas ! how can men be so inconsistent ; how can he who lives on the ill-gotten gain of another , have the effrontery to miscall him by whose turpitude he enjoys his riches ? But so it is ; the history of the property of the Church of Rome is the history of the property of the Church of England , and yet the Church of England term the Roman clergy wolves in sheeps * clothing ; little thinking that when a daughter miscalls her mother , she uses foul language of herself . But it may be said the Church of England no longer practises these arts for the enrichment of her coffers . No \ independently of the fact that the day will not endure such deeds of darkness , Blackstone has given us the
reason— ' * the magistrate at last , though not without difficulty , hath obtained a
decisive victory . " But there are facts connected with the present condition of the Church that are enough to make one fear that it is rather the way than the will that is wanting ; certainly they prove beyond a question that the day of p ious frauds is not yet entirely past . This leads us to speak of the inequality which prevails in the emoluments enjoyed by the members of the Church . The higher clergy live in princely affluence , while they do little or nothing ; the lower clergy live in poverty , and have all the labour to perform . This evil the magistrate has seenremedy after remedy he has devised , but all nearly in vain . The higher
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1831, page 302, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2597/page/14/
