A history of tithes

by Henry William Clarke

Landowners’ Churches.

The nobility and landed gentry were not slow in fully appreciating the advantages of resident over itinerant priests. Some of the princes, in changing from place to place, selected certain of the clergy to accompany them for the performance of divine service for their families. The Thanes followed their example and appointed chaplains, for they felt the great inconvenience, especially in winter, in attending services at the mother-church, which might have been at a very considerable distance from their residences. The villagers were even in a worse condition. To remedy these inconveniences, the landowners commenced slowly to erect churches on their estates about A.D. 686, but more actively about A.D. 700. The limits of these were conterminous with the extent of their properties. Hence we find some of the old parishes of very unequal extent. It is impossible to state exactly, in the absence of documentary evidence, the origin of the modern parish churches and much less their endowments. “At the original endowment,” Blackstone says, “of parish churches, the freehold of the church, the churchyard, the parsonage house, the glebe, and the tithes of the parish were vested in the then parson by the bounty of the donor.” 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. As Bishop Kennett says, the parish priest was the bank.

The manorial church was certainly the germ of the modern parish church. And we can trace this germ back to A.D. 686. From that time to Edgar’s reign the germ rapidly expanded, and the country became dotted all over with manorial or landowners’ churches, when Edgar passed his celebrated law which gave these with burial grounds a legal right to one-third part of the tithes of the estate. This Act upsets Blackstone’s statement, that the incumbent received all the tithes of the parish. It is true what Mr. Freeman says about the opinion of lawyers. “As for modern writers,” he says, “on the subject of the division of tithes, it is utterly useless to go to the opinion of mere lawyers, Blackstone or any other, as giving any help to either side. We may safely go to them to learn what is the law in force at the present moment; for historical purposes they are worse than useless.”[36] I endorse every word he says. Mr. Fuller did not take this advice, but quotes Blackstone as above. Lawyers are no better informed on this point than other men. When Blackstone wrote his Commentaries, he gave us what was then the accepted law, that the parson had a right to the tithes, and hence he is quoted as the best authority on this point. But he omitted to state that although the parson is the general collector, is the bank, by common law right, yet as trustee he is only entitled to a share of church funds, and the poor and the church building have also a common law right to a share of what the parson received. Edgar’s law, which was re-enacted by Canute, gave the manorial priest but one-third. When, then, did he get the whole? This is answered further on.

Bede gives an account as early as A.D. 686 of the erection of churches by landowners on their own private estates. “Not very far,” he says, “from our monastery, about two miles off, was the country house of one Puch, an earl. It happened that the man of God [Bishop John of Beverley] was at that time invited thither by the Earl to consecrate a church”[37] [at South Burton, Yorkshire].

“At another time also [A.D. 686] he [Bishop John] was called to consecrate the church of Earl Addi.”[38] These landed proprietors, who also had the advowsons, made a provision for the priests of their churches by erecting residential houses and attaching to the churches some glebe lands, from five acres to a hide and more. Add to the glebe the daily oblations. To the land and oblations were added in course of time one-third of the tithe of the produce of the manorial lands. Is it reasonable that a single man should have for his own personal use all the tithes of the estate, together with the glebe lands and oblations? No. Originally he had none of the tithes, all of which went to the mother or parish church. Edgar’s law, giving him one-third, was re-enacted by Ethelred in 1014, and again re-enacted by Canute, and the one-third of the tithes to the manorial church is to be seen in the Domesday Survey of 1086. The mother or monastic church discharged the poor man’s common-law right to a share in the tithes. His common-law right to a share not only in tithes but in oblations also, was as well established as that of the parson’s. But the parson in course of time became the recipient of all the tithes in a manner which I shall hereafter explain, and was obliged by the canons and custom of the church to distribute a portion to the poor and to repair the church and defray other church expenses out of the tithes and oblations after having allowed himself his own share.

As Christianity advanced in England the foundations of private oratories became very numerous, for almost every great man, as soon as he was converted to the Christian religion, built an oratory for the convenience of his family, tenants, and dependents. The bishops had prudently encouraged laymen to build such churches on their estates, and allowed them to have the advowsons. Residences for the incumbents were built close to the churches, and the landowners endowed them with lands varying in extent from five acres to over a hide as I have stated before. In course of time, they endowed them with the one-third of the tithes of their estates, transferring the remaining two-thirds to the monastic or conventual church, which was the mother-church of the entire parish. In these churches all seats were free. Pew-rents were then unknown. The church built by a layman had to be consecrated by the bishop, but the lay owner had the advowson or nomination of the incumbent. This was the origin of lay patronage in the Church of England. The church so built belonged to the manor or estate. When in course of time the property was sold or otherwise disposed of, the church and advowson went with the property. In the change of ownerships, the rectory and advowson were often separated from the manor, and were at first appropriated by the owner to bishops, chapters, or monasteries. At the Reformation, churches and advowsons, which became the property of the 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.