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TITHES
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TITHES , a See also:form of See also:taxation, See also:secular and ecclesiastical, usually, as the name implies, consisting of one-tenth of a See also:man's See also:property or produce. The tax probably originated in a See also:tribute levied by a conqueror or ruler upon his subjects, and perhaps the See also:custom of dedicating a tenth of the spoils of See also:war to the gods led to the religious See also:extension of the See also:term, the See also:original offerings to deity being " firstfruits."
The custom was almost universal in antiquity; for See also:Greece and See also:Rome see Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycloptidie, iv. 2306, 2423; for See also:Babylon, M. Jastrow, See also:Religion of Babylonia and See also:Assyria, p. 668; for See also:China, J. See also:Legge, See also:Chinese See also:Classics, i. 119; for See also:Egypt, G. See also:Maspero, Struggle of Nations, p. 312.1 The See also:general notion of tax or tribute often prevailed over that of " the tenth " See also:part, so that in See also:Dion See also:Halicarnassus (i. 23) and See also:Philo (De mutat. nom. 607) aira pxai and 5ehrau are synonymous, and in See also:Mahommedan See also:law the " tithe " is sometimes only 2 0th or nth.
Among the See also:early See also:Hebrews the See also: 15, 17). On the religious See also:side the See also:oldest See also:laws (e.g. Exod. xxxiv. 26) speak of bringing the firstfruits of the See also:land to the See also:house of Yahweh. In the 8th See also:century the term " tithe " was used in See also:Israel of religious dues (See also:Amos iv. 4; Gen. See also:xxviii. 22), and in the 7th century Deuteronomic legislation the word is often found. In See also:Deuteronomy the new point emphasized is not that tithes must be paid, but that they must be consumed at the central, instead of a See also:local, See also:sanctuary (Deut. xii. 6, I1, xiv. 23 sqq.), apparently at the See also:great autumn feast or feast of See also:Tabernacles (q.v.).2 Such a tithe is still nothing more than the old offering of " firstfruits " (bikkurim) made definite as regards quantity, and it was only natural that as See also:time went on there should be some fixed See also:standard of the due amount of the See also:annual sacred tribute.3 The See also:establishment of such a standard does not necessarily imply that full See also:payment was exacted; in Gen. xxviii. 22 See also:Jacob vows of his own See also:free will to pay tithes, just as the See also:Arabs used to See also:vow the tithe of. the increase of the See also:flock (schol. on Harith, Moall. 1. 69, ed. See also:Arnold). The Arab did not always fulfil his vow, and there was no force to make him do so. A distinction is See also:drawn in Deuteronomy between the See also:ordinary annual tithe, which may not have been a full tenth, and the " whole " or " full tithe," paid once in three
1 For other instances see See also:Spencer, De legibus hebraeorum, See also:lib. iii. cap. to, § 1. Among the Semites in particular See also:note the tithe paid by the Carthaginians to the Tyrian Melkarth (Diod. xx. 14), and the tithe of See also:frankincense paid in See also:Arabia to the See also:god Sabis (See also:Pliny, II N. xii. 32; and cf. W. R. See also: Damasc. fr. 24). 2 Cf. Dent. See also:xxvi. with r Sam. i. 21 (See also:Sept.) and See also:Jerome on Ezek. i. 3; and see WeIlhausen, Prolegomena, p. 94 (Eng. trans., p. 92 seq.). 2 In Deuteronomy, accordingly, the firstfruits (bikkurim) are not mentioned; the tithe takes their See also:place. The word translated " first-fruits " in Deut. (reshith) is a small See also:gift to the priests, a See also:mere basketful (xviii. 4, xxvi. 2 seq.). years (Deut. xiv. 28, xxvi. 12), which the legislator directs to be stored at See also:home, and spent in feeding the poor. Amos iv. 4, " Bring your sacrifices every See also:morning and your tithes every three days " (not " years " as E.V.), hardly implies more than that occasions of See also:sacrifice were three times as frequent as tithe- I See also:day, and so alludes to the fact that there were by old usage three annual feasts and one annual tithe. A triennial sacrificial tithe is inconceivable when it is remembered that the tithe is only an extension of the firstfruits. The triennial tithe in Deuteronomy seems to be rather an innovation necessary in the interests of the poor, when sacrificial feasts were transferred to the central sanctuary, and ceased to benefit the neighbours of the offerer, who, as stated above, had a prescriptive claim to be considered on such occasions (cf. r Sam. See also:xxv. 8 sqq.; Neh. viii, ro; See also:Luke xiv. 13). The priests of the sanctuaries had of old a See also:share in the sacri- ficial feasts,' and among those who are to share'in the triennial tithe Deuteronomy includes the See also:Levites, i.e. the priests of the local sanctuaries who had lost their old perquisites by the centralization of See also:worship. In See also:Ezekiel as in the Law of Holiness there is no mention of tithes; he proposes to support all public worship from the proceeds of a general tax (xlv. 13) levied by the See also:prince, the old firstfruits being allotted to the priests. In the See also:Persian See also:period the tithe was converted to the use of the See also:Temple (Mal. iii. 8-ro). As See also:Malachi speaks in Deuteronomic phrase of the " whole tithe," the payment to the Levites (now subordinate ministers of the Temple) was perhaps still only triennial; and if even this was difficult to collect, we may be sure that the See also:minor sacrificial tithe had very nearly disappeared. The indifference complained of in Mal. i. was in great part due to the fundamental changes in the religion of Israel, which made private See also:altar gifts and feasts almost meaning-less. On the other See also:hand, the See also:provision of See also:regular support for the priests and Levites, the ministers of the public See also:ritual, was now all important, and received See also:special See also:attention from See also:Ezra and See also:Nehemiah (Neh. x. 37 sqq., xiii. io sqq.). They effected it by enforcing the new law of the priestly See also:code (Num. xviii. 21 sqq.), in which it is formally laid down that the tithe is a tribute paid to the Levites, who in turn pay a tithe of it to the priests. It is doubtful whether the See also:system ever worked. The See also:plain intention of the priestly code is to allow the old tithe of Deuteronomy to drop; but the harmonistic See also:interpretation of the later See also:scribes was to the effect that two tithes were to be paid every See also:year, and a third tithe, for the poor, on every third year (Tob. i. 7 seq.; Jos. See also:Ant. iv. 8, § 22). The last See also:change in the system was the See also:appropriation of the Levitical tithe by the priests, which apparently was effected by See also: 780; and the See also:works on Hebrew antiquities by H. Nowack and I. Benzinger. (A. J. G.)
Tithes in Law.
Tithes were generally regarded up to the 17th century as existing jure divino, and as having been payable to the sup-See also:port of the See also: See See also:Kuenen, Godsdienst, ii. 269 seq., and See also:Wellhausen, Prolegomena, v. 1, § 2 (Eng. trans., p. 155 seq.), who argue that the passage in See also:Leviticus is a later addition. The tendency of the See also:Pharisees was to pay tithe on everything, and to make a self-righteous boast of this (Matt. See also:xxiii. 23 ; Luke xviii. 12). 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." See also:History, as See also:Selden showed in his learned and exhaustive See also:treatise (History of Tithes 1618),does not See also:bear out this view.' In the words of See also:Hallam, " the slow and See also:gradual manner in which parochial churches became See also:independent appears to be of itself a sufficient See also:answer to those who ascribe a great antiquity to the universal payment of tithes." 4 See also:Long before the 8th century payment of tithes was enjoined by ecclesiastical writers and by See also:councils of the Church; but the earliest See also:authentic example of anything like a law of the See also:state enforcing payment appears to occur in the Capitularies of See also:Charlemagne at the end of the 8th or the beginning of the 9th century. Tithes were by that enactment to be applied to the See also:maintenance of the See also:bishop and See also:clergy, the poor,' and the fabric of the Church. In course of time the principle of payment of tithes was extended far beyond its original intention. Thus they became transferable to laymen and saleable like ordinary property, in spite of the injunctions of the third Lateran See also:Council, and they became payable out of See also:sources of income which were not originally tithable. The See also:canon law contains numerous and See also:minute provisions on the subject of tithes. The Decretum forbade their See also:alienation to See also:lay proprietors, denounced See also:excommunication against those who refused to pay, and based the right of the Church upon scriptural precedents .° The See also:decretals contained provisions as to what was and what was not tithable property, as to those privileged from payment, as to See also:sale or hypothecation to laymen, as to priority over state taxes, &c.' Various questions which arose later were settled by See also:Boniface VIII.$ The Council of See also:Trent enjoined due payment of tithes, and excommunicated those who withheld them?
In See also:England the earliest example of legal recognition of tithes is, according to Selden, a See also:decree of a See also:synod in 786.10 Other examples before the See also:conquest occur in the Foedus 1Elfredi et Guthruni and the laws of See also:Athelstan, See also:Edgar and Canute."
A full discussion of their origin and history is to be found in See also:Lord See also:Selborne's See also:Ancient Facts and See also:Fictions concerning Churches and Tithes (1888); the History of the Law of Tithes in England, by G. See also:Edwardes See also: The tithes of tithable cattle pasturing in any See also:waste or common ground, whereof the parish is not certainly known, were made payable to the parson of the parish where the cattle dwell by a See also:statute of See also:Edward VI. Tithes were classified according to their nature as praedial, or ' It was his denial of the divine right of tithes that brought down the wrath of the See also:Star Chamber upon the author. He was forced to retract an See also:opinion. too liberal for the time. (See SELDEN.) 4 Hallam, See also:Middle Ages, ii. 205. ' See See also:Dante, See also:Par. xii. 93, " decimas quae sunt pauperum Dei." ° Pt. ii. 16, 7. ' Bk. iii. 30. ° Extray. See also:Comm. bk. iii. 7.
° Sess. xxv. 12. 10 C. viii. § 2.
"The See also: The principle of the Tithe Commutation Acts (1836–186o) is to make permanent and general the system which had been only partial or temporary (in most cases), After the and to " substitute a corn rent (known as a tithe Commutarent See also:charge), permanent in quantity and payable tionActs. in money, but fluctuating in value, for all tithes, whether payable under a modus or composition or not, which may have heretofore belonged either to ecclesiastical or lay persons "
arising immediately from the ground, e.g. See also:grain of all sorts, See also:hay, See also:wood and the like; mixed, or arising from things immediately nourished by the ground, e.g. colts, See also:lambs, eggs and the like; or See also:personal, namely, of profits arising from the honest labour and See also:industry of man, and being the tenth part of the clear gain, e.g. fishing, See also:mills and the like; or according to value, as great, e.g. corn, hay and wood; or little, which embraced all others. Of common right tithes were only payable of such things as yield a yearly increase by the See also:act of God, and generally only once a year. They were not payable of the following, except by custom: things of the substance of the See also:earth, such as coals, minerals, See also:turf and the like; things ferae naturae, such as See also:fish, See also:deer and the like; things tame, such as fowls, hounds or fish kept for See also:pleasure or curiosity; barren land, until it is converted into arable or meadow land, and has been so for seven years; forest land, if in the hands of the king or his lessee, unless disafforested; a See also:park which is disparked; or See also:glebe land in the hands of the parson or vicar, which was mutually exempted from payment by the one to the other, but not if in the hands of the vicar's lessee. Another exception to the incidence of tithes were See also:abbey lands. These were exempted generally by See also:Pope See also:Pascal II. while in the hands of their owners, but the See also:privilege was restricted by Pope See also:Adrian IV. in the time of See also: Under the See also:Limitation Act of 1833 twenty years of adverse possession of an See also:estate in tithes gave a See also:good See also:title, except as against spiritual or eleemosynary corporations sole whose right to recover tithes was limited, if at all, to a period of two incumbencies and six years afterwards, or sixty years (s. 29).
Tithes were generally recovered by a See also:writ against the owner of the tithable property usually brought in the ecclesiastical courts (questions of title to tithes being reserved to the temporal courts), the See also:jurisdiction of which in this respect was confirmed by the statutes Circumspecte agatis (13 Edw. I.), Articuli Glen (9 Edw. II.), and others of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and was enforced by ecclesiastical censures and the writ De excommunicato capiendo; and an act 2 & 3 Edw. VI. made any See also:person refusing to set out tithes liable to pay See also:double the value in the ecclesiastical See also:court or See also:treble in a common law court. Tithes of small amount or due from See also:Quakers could be recovered by See also:summary proceedings before justices under statutes ranging from See also: The rent charge is apportioned on all the lands liable in the parish, and such See also:apportionment may be altered or a new one made: and the value of the rent charge is fixed at the value (at the time of See also:confirmation of the apportionment) of the number of imperial bushels and decimal parts of bushels of See also:wheat, See also:barley and oats as the same would have See also:purchased at the prices so ascertained by the See also:advertisement (of prices of corn) to be published immediately after the passing of the act 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 71, in case one-third part of such rent charge had been invested in the See also:purchase of wheat, one-third part in the purchase of barley, and the remaining third part in the purchase of oats; and the respective quantities of wheat, barley and oats so ascertained shall be stated in the draft of every apportionment. The See also:price at which the See also:conversion from money into corn is to be made at the time of confirmation of such apportionment, according to the provisions of the said act, are 7s. old. for a See also:bushel of wheat, 3s. 111d. for a bushel of barley and 2s. 9d. for a bushel of oats (7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 69) ; the average price of the bushel of each grain is now computed by substituting for the " advertisement " above the statement of the septennial average price of the imperial bushel of See also:British corn made under the Corn Returns Act 1882 ; and thus the value of the statutory amount of corn is now fixed for each year at the beginning thereof at the average price of the three components of corn for the previous seven years. The extent of the depreciation in value of tithe may be gathered from the fact that for 1902 the price of the wheat bushel is thus fixed at 3s. 5id., that of the barley bushel at 3s. old. and that of the oats bushel at 2s. 1d. As already indicated above, certain lands are exempt from payment of tithes while in the occupation of their owners, either by See also:reason of their having been parcel of the possessions of any privileged See also:order, or by reason of their being of the See also:tenure of ancient See also:demesne and exempt whilst in the tenure, occupation or manurance of the Crown, its tenants, farmers and lessees or under-tenants, although they are subject to tithes when aliened or occupied by subjects not being such; and in these and in all such cases, with the consent of such owners, a fixed rent charge may be substituted for any contingent rent charge imposed on them (2 & 3 Vict. C. 62 ; 3 & 4 Vict. c. 15, now repealed except as to tithes not commuted). In certain cases where commutation of tithes for rent charge in the ordinary way was impracticable, e.g. in the case of See also:Lammas lands or in the case of common lands, See also:power was given to charge a fixed sum or rate per See also:head of the cattle there pasturing, with an exception in the case of Lammas lands which for seven years before Christmas 1835 had paid no tithe; and also to See also:fix a rent charge in respect of tithes of common appurtenant on the See also:allotment made in respect of the lands to which such right of common attached (2 & 3 Vict. c. 62 ; 3 & 4 Vict. C. 15 ; 9 & 10 Viet. C. 73). By an act of 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. C. 93) a gross rent charge can be substituted for a commutation of tithes on common rights at a fixed sum per head; a gross rent charge made payable in respect of the tithes of a gated or stinted pasture rated to the See also:relief of the poor may be apportioned thereupon and enforced in the method prescribed by the other Tithe Acts; a rent charge on commons may be commuted for part of the land or redeemed, if the landowners and persons liable for tithe so agree; and upon enclosure, a rate per head may be converted into a rent charge on the lands allotted. These rent charges are not subject to the Tithe Act of 1891. This act of 186o also gave power to convert the corn rents established under local acts into rent charges. In the case of See also:hop-grounds, orchards, See also:fruit-plantations and gardens power was given to the commissioners to value them separately, according to the average rate of composition for the seven years preceding Christmas 1835, and to fix an ordinary and an extraordinary charge for tithes thereof, the former for such lands going out of cultivation, the latter for such as were there-after newly cultivated: lands subject to the latter were exempted during their first years of cultivation; and such lands were only subject to it if situated in a parish in which an extraordinary charge had been distinguished at the time of commutation (6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 71 ; 2 & 3 Vict. c. 62 ; 3 814 Vict. C. 15 ; 23 & 24 Vict. C.93 ; 36 & 37 Vict. c. 42). In 1886, however, it was enacted that no such extraordinary charge shall be levied on any such grounds so newly cultivated in future; the See also:capital value of the existing charges was assessed, and the payment of See also:interest thereon was made a rent charge on the land payable in priority to all other charges until its redemption, and recoverable in the same way as ordinary rent charge and exempt from ail rates, charges and assessments: the charge was redeemable at the capital value, and, saving existing contracts, it was as between landlord and See also:tenant payable by the landlord, any agreement to the contrary notwithstanding; and it is not subject to the Tithe Act of 1891. Under the act of 1840 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 15) gardens and lawns and the like, of small See also:size, could be exempted from tithes. Besides the tithes dealt with by local acts as already mentioned, certain other kinds of tithes are outside the See also:scope of the Commutation Acts, namely, tithes of fish and fishing, personal tithes other than tithes of mills, and See also:mineral tithes, unless the landowners and tithe-owners consent to make a parochial agreement for commutation before the confirmation of an apportionment after a compulsory award in such parish. As already seen, fish being ferae naturae are only tithable by custom; but fish taken in the See also:sea by the custom of the See also:realm are tithable as a personal tithe, i.e. in some small sum for the See also:net profits of the fishing, and customs for payment in See also:kind have been upheld by the courts. Personal tithes, if not commuted or otherwise still payable, are regulated by a statute of Edward VI., which (except in the case of fishing and tithes for houses in cities and towns, which may be due by custom) restricted them to such persons exercising merchandises, bargaining and selling clothing, handicraft or other See also:art or See also:faculty in such places as had for See also:forty years previously so used to do. Personal tithes are now rare, except of fish caught at sea, when they are payable to the church where the taker hears divine service and receives the sacraments. Tithes on houses or customary payments in lieu of tithes have, by local acts, in some cases been turned into church rates. Statutory provision is also made for allowing tithes and tithe rent charge to be exchanged for land, and for the redemption of rent charges made under the acts, and also of corn rents under the local acts. Tithe rent charge may also be merged in the land tithable, with the consent of the tithe commissioners and the Iandowner, by the legal and equitable owners of tithes in See also:fee See also:simple or fee tail, or persons having power to appoint the fee simple in tithes, or owners of glebes, or owners of lands and tithes settled to the same uses. Tithe rent charge under these acts is subject to the same liabilities and incidents as tithes, such as parliamentary, parochial, county and other rates, especially the poor rate and See also:highway rate; but the owner of tithe rent charge attached to a See also:benefice has been exempted by an act of 1899 from payment of See also:half the amount of any rate which he would be liable to pay under the Agricultural Rates Act 1896, the other half being See also:borne by the Inland See also:Revenue Commissioners. The limitation of time for recovery of tithes or estates in tithes, whether between See also:rival claimants to tithes or tithe-owners or tithe-payers, if belonging to lay individuals or lay or spiritual corporations aggregate, is a period of twelve years, as in the case of other real property (37 & 38 Vict. C. 57) ; and in the case of spiritual corporations sole the period of limitation of actions, if any, is governed by the Limitation Act 1833, s. 29, already quoted, the act 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 10o being held only to apply to demands of tithe in kind. The method of recovering rent charge under the Commutation Acts was distraint where the rent charge is in arrear for twenty-one days after the half-yearly days of payment, and entry and possession with power of letting if it is in arrear for forty days, and arrears for two years are so recoverable: this power of See also:distress and entry extends to all lands occupied by the occupier of the land whose tithe is in arrear as owner or under the same landlord; but no See also:action lies against the owner or occupier of the land personally. If a tenant quits leaving tithe unpaid, the landlord may pay it and recover it from him. The tithe-owner cannot recover See also:damages from the tithe-payer for not cultivating the land. Special provision is made for the recovery of the rent charge in railway lands. The act of 1891, has, however, altered this method of recovering tithes, and substituted another intended to shift the See also:burden of responsibility from the occupier to the landowner, by making the latter directly and solely responsible, but giving the remedy against the land. The landowner is madh liable to pay the rent charge in spite of any See also:contract to the contrary between him and the occupier; the rent charge if in arrear for three months is recoverable by an order of the county court, whatever its amount may be: if the land is occupied by the owner, the order is executed by the same means as those prescribed in the Tithe Acts; but if it is not, then by a See also:receiver being appointed for the rents and profits of the land: neither landlord nor occupier is personally liable for payment; and See also:appeal lies to the High Court on points of law; and a remission of rent charge may be claimed when its amount exceeds two-thirds of the annual value of the land. The act does not apply to the particular kinds of rent charges mentioned above. The Tithe Acts do not apply to the city of London, which has always had its own See also:peculiar customary payment regulated by episcopal constitutions of 13 See also:Hen. III. and 13 Ric. II. and statutes of Henry VIII., confirming a decree of the privy council, under which the rate of tithes was fixed at See also:Mid. for every 1os. rent, and at 2S. 9d. for every 20s. rent of houses, shops and the like by the year. Provision was made by statute after the See also:fire of London for certain annual tithes to be paid in parishes whose churches had been destroyed, and there have been local acts from time to time with regard to particular parishes therein. (G. G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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