upon what authority this statement is made. There is nothing about it in Josephus. There is no order in the New Testament for the payment of tithes. No order of a general or provincial council. We read nothing of this in the writings of the first and second centuries. We read of exhortations to pay tithes in the writings of the third and fourth centuries. We read of canons having been made for their payment in the fifth century. But I have failed to find any evidence to support the statement quoted above from the “Brief.” The Provincial Council of French bishops, held at Masçon in A.D. 586, is commonly considered to have been _the earliest council_ which ordained the payment of tithes. It ordained, “Ut decimas ecclesiasticas omnis populus inferat, quibus sacerdotes aut in pauperum usum, aut in captivorum redemptionem erogatis, suis orationibus pacem populo ac salutem impetrent.” Isidore, in his compilation of decrees of councils, makes no reference to this council. Friar Crab is the first to have mentioned it in his edition of the councils under Charles V. Lord Selborne considers the canon of this council as spurious, because it proves too much, for it wanted to prove that the Mosaic Law, as regards the payments of tithes, was regarded in A.D. 586 not only as binding from the first upon Christians, but also as having been for centuries universally observed. This was going too far, in his lordship’s opinion, and therefore he stamped it as spurious. Selden was the first to throw considerable doubt upon the genuineness of this canon at the Council at Masçon.[9] The mistake originated in calling the offerings and oblations tithes. The same mistake is repeated by writers at the present time. For instance, Dr. J. S. Brewer, in his “Endowments and Establishment of the Church of England,” 2nd Edition, 1885, translates “portiones” (quoted from Bede), _tithes_. Pope Gregory says in his reply to Archbishop Augustine’s question, “Communi autem vita viventibus jam de faciendis _portionibus_, vel exhibenda hospitalite et adimplenda misericordia, nobis quid erit loquendum.” “But as for those who live in common, why should we say anything now of making _portions_?” etc. Brewer translates the passage thus, “As for those who are living in common, I need give no advice about dividing _tithes_,” etc. Now, the Latin word for tithe is decima, and is so used in all the monastic charters. The same writer states, and he is followed by writers of leaflets for the Church Defence Institution, that the scriptural precept, “To live of the Gospel” (1 Cor. ix. 14), refers to the payment of tithes. I am certain that St. Paul never intended anything of the sort. I fully admit that the passage may cover a tithe free-will offering, as it would any other free-will offering, but I cannot admit that it implies a compulsory payment of tithes, that is, to carry it to its logical sequence, a distraint on the goods of a person who is unable or unwilling to pay tithe. Such