A history of tithes

by Henry William Clarke

First Civil Law in England for Payment of Tithes.

The seventeenth Injunction is this:

“Of giving tithes, as it is written in the law. Thou shalt bring the tenth part of all thy crops or first fruits into the house of the Lord thy God. Again, by the prophet: ‘Bring,’ he says, ‘all the tithe into My barn, that there may be meat in My house, and prove Me upon this if I shall not open unto you the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing even to abundance, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, who eats and spoils the fruit of your land, and your vineyard shall no more be barren.’ As a wise man says, ‘No man can justly give alms of what he possesseth, unless he had first separated to the Lord what he from the beginning directed to be paid to Him.’ And on this account it often happens that he who does not give a tenth is himself reduced to a tenth. Wherefore we solemnly enjoin that all be careful to give tithes of all that they possess, because it is the special part of the Lord God; and let a man live on the nine parts and give alms, and we advise that these things should be done secretly, because it is written, ‘When thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee.’”[74]

“The terms of this article,” says Lord Selborne, “speak for themselves; their character is evident, being that of a pastoral precept, not legal enactment.”[75] He therefore rejects this as a civil enactment for payment of tithes.

“There can be no doubt,” says Haddan and Stubbs, “that the legatine canon, approved by the kings and Witan, had the force of law, although it is uncertain by what means the law was enforced, or whether it was enforced at all.”[76]

And Bishop Stubbs says in his history, “In 787 tithe was made imperative by the legatine councils held in England, which, being attended and confirmed by the kings and ealdormen, had the authority of Witenagemóts.”[77]

On the legal aspect of this question, Bishop Stubbs and Mr. Selden are correct. The tithe Injunction was not made legal or imperative by legatine councils quâ legatine councils, but because these councils were actual Witenagemóts, whose consent gave it the force of law in the respective kingdoms of the two kings. They made legal what was before customary, without attaching any punishment to its non-fulfilment. It will be seen as we proceed that the Anglo-Saxon laws had only endorsed the custom which previously existed of paying tithe. And as this custom became general, so the law enforced its payment. But this penal enforcement was not carried out in the laws of 787, because the custom of paying tithe was not then general.

It is important to notice here that the Anglo-Saxon ceorls, or churls, or freemen, occupying the social position between the thane and slave, had no voice whatever in the passing of the laws. The Witenagemóts, which sanctioned the payment of tithe, and granted away the national property, called folcland, to bishops, cathedral churches, and monasteries, were composed of archbishops, bishops, aldermen, abbots, priests, deacons, princes, dukes, earls, and thanes. In these assemblies, both secular and ecclesiastical laws were enacted, and charters embodying grants of public lands by kings were confirmed and ratified.

In the 17th Injunction, quoted above, there are references to Scripture in support of tithes. The two main positions taken up by Selden in his history of tithes are (1) that the tithes of the Christian Church are not the continuation of the tithes of the Levitical law as put forth by the Church in support of payment, and (2) that tithes had a legal as opposed to a Divine origin in the Christian Church. These two positions are impregnable, and can never be overthrown. The Levitical tithes were given to the Levites, “for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.”[78] But charity was at the very root of all primitive references to the payment of tithes in the Christian Church. Some writers assent to Selden’s second position as stated above, but will not admit that they were given for different purposes to those given to the Levites, and yet they were. In this respect they indicate inconsistency. They would be consistent if they should assert, which they do not, that the English parsons receive their tithes by Divine right, and in continuation of the Levitical law; then all the tithes would go to the parson as they went to the Levites. But the history of the origin of tithes in the Christian Church is quite opposed to all this. Those who uphold the Divine right consider the tithes as private professional incomes, and not as trust funds to be used for the benefit of the people. Most of the sermons preached in the eighth century placed the summit of Christian perfection in the payment of tithes. The people in England reluctantly submitted to a general permanent tribute in the shape of tithes.

The obligation of paying tithes was originally confined to predial or the fruits of the earth. But about A.D. 1200 the obligation was extended to every species of profit, and to the wages of every kind of labour. I have already stated the passage from the Old Testament on which the Christian clergy base their claim to personal tithes.