Note 245 — Chapter XI · THE FIRST POOR LAW ACT.

Matth. Paris, under A.D. 1240, has these words: “Cum ex auctoritatibus sanctorum patrum fructus ecclesiarum in certos usus, puta ecclesiæ, ministrorum et pauperum.” Mr. Fuller quotes the passage and thus translates: “That since, by the authority of the Holy Fathers, the revenues of the church were appropriated to the definite use of the church,” p. 139. There he stops, and omits, ministers and poor. The rectors of Reading referred to the tripartite division of their revenues, viz., to the church, ministers and poor. But it did not suit Fuller to give a fair, complete translation of the passage, because it referred to the tripartite division of the church revenues.