Tithes

“ The priests at Jerusalem received the first fruits and heave offerings, but not the tithes. The heave offerings were the one-sixtieth of the gross produce. But the tithes were devoted to the whole tribe of Levi at Jerusalem, and they gave the tithe of their tithes to the priests—that is, one-hundredth part. It was from this custom, and in order to support the Crusades, that the popes of Rome exacted, early in the fourteenth century, the first fruits and the tithe of the tithes from the hierarchy and beneficed clergy, who were under their spiritual jurisdiction. ”

“ The result was that the people gave the tithes to the friars, both personal and predial, as alms. The parish priests seriously felt the diminution of their revenues. Convocation, of course, moved vigorously in the matter. [267]
The begging friars knew how to draw water to their own fountains, and succeeded well. But “Holy Church” proved too powerful for them. They were pronounced heretics for preaching against the payment of tithes to the parsons, and for receiving the parsons’ tithes themselves. ”

“ They cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. They cannot consistently address private letters to clerical tithe-owners expressing opinions against the threefold division of tithes, and Church Grith law, which contradict their historical opinions and statements. ”

“ The Mishna (Ma'aseroth i. 1) says “ everything that is eaten and is watched over and grows out of the ground is liable to tithe."
History, as Selden showed in his learned and exhaustive treatise (History of Tithes 1618) , does not bear out this view? In the words of Hallam, “the slow and gradual manner in which parochial churches became independent appears to be of itself a sufficient answer to those who ascribe a great antiquity to the universal payment of tithes.”“
Long before the 8th century payment of tithes was enjoined by ecclesiastical writers and by councils of the Church ”

“ There is an immense number of livings in [156] possession of incumbents, obtained either by purchase or by family patronage.
The appropriator gave the vicar the small tithes because he found them more difficult to collect than the great tithes.
It is unreasonable to state that an unmarried parish priest with a free parsonage house would be allowed to enjoy all these tithes as his own income. No, for he was to keep hospitality. The rectors or monastic bodies, who had the great tithes, kept the chancel of the church in repair. ”

“ This council condemned “arbitrary consecrations,” as Selden calls them, of laymen. “Before the Council of Lateran (evidently the third) , any man might give his tithes to what spiritual person he would.” [257] Four English bishops sat at this council. The Council gave the death-blow to arbitrary appropriations of tithes by laymen, without the consent of the bishop, to whatever church or monastery they pleased. It was ordained by this Council that no religious orders should receive any appropriations of churches or tithes without the assent of the bishop. ”

“ They sent their legates to England to attend provincial synods and to pass canons for the payment of tithes, without consulting the laity. The Church of Rome never allows the laity to have a share or a voice in any ecclesiastical matters. That was always, and is still, the most prominent feature in her organization. In the eighth century, tithe free-will offerings were first given in England by a few individuals. In the ninth century Charlemagne passed the first lay law for the payment of tithes in his dominions. ”

“ At the General Council of Lateran, held in 1215, the arbitrary appropriation of tithes to monasteries or other ecclesiastical corporations which were not parochial, was strongly condemned, and the tithes were commanded to be paid in future to the parish churches. This council therefore gave the parsons the parochial right to tithes. It was certainly very wrong to hand over the parochial tithes to outsiders who did no parochial work and took no interest whatever in the parishes from which they drew large incomes, while the parochial clergy who did the work were most miserably remunerated. ”

“ The first law making the payment of tithes legally imperative was enacted in 779 by Charles, King of France, in a general assembly of his estates, spiritual and temporal, viz., “Concerning tithes, it is ordained that every man give his tithe, and that they be distributed by the bishop’s command.” ”

“ It is again stated in the “Brief” that tithes are not endowments (!) and that they were given “without any specific conditions being attached to their payment.” Is it reasonable to think that tithes were given to the parish priest without a “quid pro quo”? Is not the “quid pro quo” implied in his office? The “Brief” further observes at p. 52: “It is an interesting work for all zealous people concerned in such matters to see, as a matter of public trust, that those who now possess such property [256] shall fulfil the conditions attached to its original grant or bequest.” ”

“ They do not, however, issue out of the land like rents, but are collateral to it. Accordingly tithes are always freehold, even though they are charged on copyhold lands. Tithes are presumed to go to the parson of the parish. This presumption may be rebutted by proof that some or all the tithes go to the vicar, where the rector is in holy orders, or to a lay impropriator. It is said that about a third part of the tithes in England is in the hands of laymen. At one time arbitrary consecration of tithes was allowed, that is, payment to any priest at the will of the tithe payer. ”

“ Shall we say it is according to the rabbis, for they make a distinction between common food and tithes? According to whom, then, would be the latter part of the Mishna: The garments of a common person are defiled by pressure for Pharisees; the garments of Pharisees are defiled by pressure for those that eat heave-offering? which is certainly in accordance with R. Meir, who says, common food and tithes are exactly the same? ”

“ I must also remark, that the rentals of the episcopal, capitular and prebendal tithes, were only one-third [249] their rack-rental value, because the owners had for centuries let all their properties on beneficial leases for years, or on lives for one-third their rack-rental value. The lessees retained the other two-thirds. The tithe-payers had to pay them their tithes in full. In 1835, appeared, for the first time since the reign of Henry VIII., an official Parliamentary Report of the revenues of the Church. ”

“ From the beginning of the 13th century, tithes became payable to the parsons of the parishes by common right. But monasteries and chapters had to show their title to them either by grants or by prescriptions. We may thus trace tithes in England from their origin, (1) as free-will offerings; (2) compulsory payment to some religious body, and (3) compulsory payment only to the incumbents of parishes. It is an error to state that all the tithes of England were paid freely. ”

“ Nothing satisfactory, however, was accomplished in reference to the collection of tithes, in spite of the concession of the ministers. The old difficulty remained. Tithes could not be collected except at the point of the bayonet, which of course was followed by crimes and disturbances that government could not prevent. In 1833 the arrears of tithes amounted to over a million of pounds, and the Protestant clergy were seriously distressed. The cost of collecting tithes was enormous, from the large coercive force which the government was obliged to maintain. ”

“ They were intended for a priest, a main part of whose business it was to distribute the tithes amongst the poor and the strangers! The parson, in this case, at Corsley, says, “too small for an incumbent with a family.” Ah! there is the mischief. It was never intended to give men tithes as a premium for breeding! Malthus does not seem to see any harm in this sort of increase of population. It is the working population, those who raise the food and the clothing, that he and Scarlett want to put a stop to the breeding of! ”

“ Other tithe-owners, such as the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, impropriators, colleges, schools, etc., will make no deduction whatever, but sternly carry out the provisions of the Act by making distraints on the lands. Similar conduct was pursued before the passing of the Commutation Act. The parochial clergy, in the most sympathetic manner, accepted very [206] low tithes in years of agricultural depression, but the clerical appropriators and all the impropriators strictly exacted every part of their tithes. ”

“ Selden says, “It may be seen by this that some other law preceded for the payment of tithes, or else that the right of them was otherwise supposed clear.” [125] There may have been some previous secular law which is now lost. As I have stated before, [70] we have lost most valuable Anglo-Saxon charters and laws during the incursions of the Danes and the disturbed state of the whole country. There is a dead silence as regards tithes for 120 years between the Council of Chelsea, A.D. 787, and the treaty between Edward and Guthrum, A.D. 909. ”

“ Blackstone states here the parson’s common law right to the tithes, but after he receives them the same common law right obliges him to share them according to the usage and canons of the Church. The bishop was originally the recipient and distributor of all Church revenues. The parochial incumbents had taken his place and were bound to distribute them according to the original custom. It would never suit for the poor to collect their own share of the tithes. ”

“ If any one do not perform that, let him forfeit 60 shillings and render the Church-scot twelve-fold.” [148] This Act was passed more than 200 years before the legal enactment of tithes. It is strange that we should find firstfruits but not tithes enacted by King Ina. The omission proves that tithes were not then paid in Wessex. In Athelstan’s law passed at Greatanlea, it is stated, “I will also that my reeves so do that there be given the church-scots.” [149] Between the laws of Ina and that of Athelstan, there is no mention of church-scots in Anglo-Saxon laws. ”

“ John Wickliffe, rector of Lutterworth, who died A.D. 1384, preached the same views about tithes as the friars did. He strongly asserted that tithes were only alms, and may be given for any religious use, or retained, according to the will of the donor. The Church, of course, considered his statement rank heresy, and a council of ecclesiastics condemned his opinions as heretical. The cry, “the Church in danger,” was then heard as loudly as in our own times whenever any salutary changes for her [172] improvement have been suggested, or when scandals and abuses are attempted to be removed. ”

“ These things being thus considered, let your most holy piety take into wise consideration whether it is well to impose upon an ignorant race, at the beginning of the faith, the yoke of tithes, so that [288] they shall be fully exacted from house to house. It is worth considering whether the Apostles, taught by the God Christ Himself, and sent to preach to the world, required the exaction of tithes or anywhere demanded them. We know that the tithing of our substance is a very good thing; but it is better to sacrifice the tithe than to lose the faith. ”

“ But what and where was Jacob when he used this language? A sneak and a fugitive from the just wrath of his brother. It is safe to say that never afterwards, certainly never after he became an honest man did he speak of or regard the payment of the Tithe as a “gift” to God. It looks as though the Pharisee boasted of giving Tithes, but there is no use in painting him blacker than he was. Let us hope he had in mind that he gave tithes to the Temple service, in which case the word he used was correct. It is unfair to charge even him with claiming that he gave Tithes to God. ”

“ It was considered in the Middle Ages that tithes might be applied to any church purpose, and were not the exclusive right of the actual parish priest, provided he obtained a sufficient maintenance, which in those days of celibacy was not very expensive. The bishops and other patrons thus assigned the great tithes of corn of many parishes to religious foundations elsewhere, only leaving the incumbent the smaller tithe from other crops—an arrangement which has resulted in many abuses. ”

“ The Ordinances of Habam are found only in Bromton’s history, and they contain one important provision as to tithes and other Church dues. Art. 4: “And we charge that every man, for the love of God and all His saints, give church-scot, and his rightful tithe as it stood in the days of our ancestors, when it stood best; that is, as the plough shall pass through the tenth acre, and let every customary due be paid for the love of God to our mother-church to which it is near. And let no one take away from God what belongs to God, and our ancestors have granted.” ”

“ About one-fourth of the whole tithe rent charge is appropriated or rather misappropriated to lay purposes by laymen, many of whom are quite unconnected with the religious duties of those parishes from which the tithes arise. ”

“ Theodore’s statement was written not later than A.D. 686. The second reference to tithes is in Bede’s “Eccl. Hist.,” where he states that Bishop Eadbert gave (A.D. 686) one-tenth of his own goods to the poor. [90] “Not tithes in particular,” says Lord Selborne, “but all church property of every kind was from early times, and down even to the fourteenth century, described as the patrimony of the poor. The poor were always, and almost must be in an especial degree, objects of the Christian ministry.” [91]
In Anglo-Saxon times the State did not provide for the poor. ”