Bishop of Salford, in a small pamphlet recently published, says of the Church of England, “Its bishops, ministers and people are busily engaged in ignoring or denouncing those very articles which were drawn up to be their eternal protest against the old religion. The sacramental power of orders, the need of jurisdiction, the Real Presence, the daily sacrifice, auricular confession, prayers and offices for the dead, belief in purgatory, the invocation of the Blessed Virgin and the saints, religious vows, and the institution of monks and nuns—the very doctrines stamped in the Thirty-nine Articles as fond fables and blasphemous deceits—all these are now openly taught from a thousand pulpits within the Establishment, and as heartily embraced by as many crowded congregations. Even the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been recently enthroned upon a majestic altar under the great dome of St. Paul’s.” From these facts Bishop Vaughan claims that England is already “half Catholic.” A HISTORY OF TITHES. CHAPTER I. _BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA._ The first instance on record of the payment of tithes is found in Genesis xiv. 20, when Abraham, after having rescued Lot, was returning a victor from the battle with the spoils of war. King Melchizedek met him on the way, and Abraham gave him, in his office of priest of God, “tithes of all.” It is a disputed point whether Abraham meant a tithe of all his property or of all spoils of war which he had with him. The next instance we find is the vision of Jacob’s ladder. He vowed to God “Of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee” (Gen. xxviii. 22). It is laid down in the Mosaic law, “And thou shalt surely tithe all the _increase_ of thy seed, that the field brought forth year by year” (Deut. xiv. 22). It is important to note the word “increase” in this passage, which in our law courts had often decided disputed cases, whether certain things were tithable or not. For instance, Were all herbs tithable? Only those which man eats. In Leviticus xxvii. 30-32, “All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s: and the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.” It was the custom for a person to be at the sheep-cot with a coloured rod, and as the sheep came out one by one, every tenth was marked with this rod; and that is what is meant by “passing under the rod.”