Crown, were granted to laymen, and were also granted to archbishops, bishops and chapters. The Crown separated in some cases the advowson from the great tithes, and sold or granted both to the same or different parties. Therefore we find two owners instead of one. The original patron never anticipated this change. An advowson or a rectory may be and is possessed in shares or turns by several owners. They are strictly treated as property and are dealt with accordingly. The sales of advowsons are carried on at public auctions and by private agents, and are given to the highest bidder. The public sale-room is now less resorted to, owing to the scandal thus created. But the sales are still vigorously pushed on _privately_ by family solicitors and professional agents. A living, for example, is worth, say, £800 a year from glebe and tithe-rent charge; the incumbent is old, and the owner of the advowson is desirous of finding a purchaser of next nomination after the death or resignation of present incumbent. A life-interest only is thus purchased. There are other cases in which the advowson is completely sold. The parishioners have no voice in the matter. As regards the payment of tithes, I shall show that for many years the English bishops and their clergy had threatened and cajoled the simple-minded Anglo-Saxons into the belief that the Church had the right to impose the Levitical obligations upon them. We have only to read the miraculous legends recorded by Bede and others to find out the means by which the clergy had imposed upon the credulity of those simple-minded people. It was by deceit, trickery, hypocrisy, and sham miracles that the Anglo-Saxon bishops and their clergy had obtained tithes, first as free-will offerings, then by legislative enactments, which made these free-will offerings compulsory. THE CONFESSIONAL. The Confessional was a powerful instrument in the hands of the clergy by which they obtained the payment of tithes. During the archiepiscopate of Theodore (668-690) auricular confession began to take the place of public discipline. Theodore’s “Penitentiary,” which was published with his authority, directed confessors how to conduct themselves in hearing confessions and how to enjoin penance. Confession to the priest was made necessary, not in order to obtain his absolution, but to be informed what sort of penance was required for every offence, and for the several degrees and circumstances of it. The most difficult part of the priest’s office was to proportion the private penance to the crime, and Theodore’s “Penitentiary” was looked upon as the best rule in this particular.[39] It is remarkable that the earliest mention of tithes in England is found in Theodore’s “Penitentiary.” CHAPTER V. _WORKS ATTRIBUTED TO EGBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK (734-766)._ Briefly stated, they are—