CHAPTER IV.
THE FIRST DOCUMENTARY STATEMENT OF TITHES IN ENGLAND.
The first genuine statement of the payment of tithes in England appears in the second book of Archbishop Theodore’s (668-690) “Penitential.” It was not composed by Theodore himself, but was drawn up under his direction and published with his authority. They are answers given by him to questions asked him on the subject of penance. It is edited by a “Discipulus Umbrensium,” or a Disciple of the Umbrians, for the benefit of the English. There is no doubt that this Penitential is genuine. Bishop Stubbs, Mr. Haddan and Professor Wasserschleben accept it as such.[23]
The following three notices of tithes appear in the “Penitential”:
1. “Presbitero decimas dare non cogitur.” The priest is not compelled to pay tithes.[24]
2. “Tributum ecclesiæ sit, sicut consuetudo provinciæ, id est, ne tantum pauperes inde in decimis aut in aliquibus rebus vim patientur.” Let the offering to the church be according to the custom of the province; that is, that no force should be put upon the poor as to tithes or anything else.[25]
3. “Decimas non est legitimum dare nisi pauperibus et peregrinis, sivi laici suas ad ecclesias.” It is not lawful to give tithes except to the poor and strangers, or laymen to their own churches.[26] This is a prohibition to the clergy against giving the laity presents out of the tithes.
“These articles,” says Lord Selborne, “put the payment of tithes on the footing of custom, depending for its observance upon episcopal or clerical influence, rather than ecclesiastical censures,”[27] the anathemas subsequently hurled against all who dared to keep them back from Holy Church.
Theodore’s “Penitential” was not a code of laws, but its contents are very important as reflecting the custom and practice existing with regard to tithes in that early age of the Anglo-Saxon Church.
The silence of Bede on Theodore’s “Penitential” is brought forward as evidence against it. But Haddan and Stubbs show conclusively that “Bede either did not know the book, or did not consider Theodore as the immediate author.”[28]