Now, when did these twelve rectors close upon all the tithes? It was before the Reformation, because in the reign of Henry VIII. the Hospital had only the four churches. It is highly probable that the twelve rectors closed upon all the tithes during the period of the protracted quarrels between the Bishops of Winchester and the Priors of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, as to who should have the appointment of the master of the Hospital.[244]
The parochial incumbents commenced about the beginning of the fourteenth century to close upon all the tithes, and to ignore the claims of poor or church fabric upon these revenues. So at the period of the Reformation, the incumbents claimed to have a prescriptive right to all the tithes.[245]
CHAPTER XII.
CANONS FOR PAYMENT OF TITHES.
Alexander III., who was Pope from 1159-1181, was very active in writing to archbishops and bishops of foreign churches, commanding them to order the people to pay tithes. In 1170 he wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and to the Bishop of Winchester on the subject. The former prelate held a provincial synod in 1175, at Westminster, at which were present King Henry II., his crowned son, and all the bishops and abbots of the province. At this Synod the Pope’s letter for the payment of tithes was read. In compliance with such orders from a foreign bishop, the Synod commanded all tithes to be paid on crops from the ground and from trees, of young animals, wool, lambs, butter, cheese, etc. Anathemas and excommunications were hurled against all and every one who would not pay tithes.
The Archbishop of York, twenty years after (1195), held a similar synod in his province, which also commanded the payment of tithes; and this synod, like that of Westminster, wound up its proceedings with anathemas and excommunications—the great bugbear of those days—against all who would not pay tithes. These archbishops were only acting up to orders from Rome. They were tools in the hands of the Pope, to carry out the orders of a foreign bishop who usurped supremacy over all other Christian churches.
The most important canon of the English canon law for the payment of tithes, was that passed in A.D. 1295 (23 Edw. I.), at a provincial synod held in London by Robert Winchelsey, Archbishop of Canterbury (1294-1313). The canon sets forth that on account of the various quarrels, contentions, and scandal, arising between rectors and their parishioners, as regards several customs then in use of paying tithes, some uniform claim was necessary to be set forth. It then ordains that tithes were to be paid on the gross value of all crops from the ground, from trees, herbs, and hay. It also sets forth how tithes were to be paid on the produce of animals, lambs, and wool. If sheep were fed in one place in winter and in a different place in summer, the tithe was to be divided. Similarly, if any one should buy or sell sheep in the middle of the time, and it was known from which parish they came, the tithe of these sheep must be divided, as it followed the two residences. But if it were not known, then that church should have the whole tithe within whose limits at the time of shearing they were found. It further states how milk was to be tithed, and that tithes were to be paid for the pasture of animals, according to their number, and the number of days. Tithes were to be paid on mills, fisheries, bees, etc., etc., which were yearly renewed. There was nothing in this canon about paying tithes on timber wood, because it was part of the inheritance of the land.
The canon then passed from predial to personal tithes. Artificers and merchants were to pay tithes of the profits of their business; and carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers, and all other workmen working for wages, were to pay tithes of their wages. This meant that after deducting all reasonable and necessary expenses, they were to pay the tenth part of the profits.
The rector was also to receive his mortuary fees, viz., the clothes worn by the person before dying, also a horse and cow. These fees were to be paid as a satisfaction to the Church for the personal tithes which he had forgotten, or wilfully neglected to pay in his lifetime.[246] Henry VIII. fixed a money payment in lieu of the mortuary fees. This was the origin of burial fees. If parishioners would not pay their tithes, they were to be excluded from the Church until they did so; and if they continued contumacious, other ecclesiastical censures would follow. An Act was passed, 2 and 3 Edward VI. c. xiii. s. 9, that modified and limited the payments of personal tithes. “That in all such places where handicraftsmen have used to pay their tithes within these forty years, the same custom of payment of tithes to be observed and to continue; and if any person refuse to pay his personal tithes, etc., it shall be lawful for the Ordinary of the same diocese to call the same party before him, and by his discretion to examine him by all lawful and reasonable means, other than by the party’s own corporal oath, concerning the true payment of the said tithes.”
The main difficulty in collecting personal tithes arises in the want of any method of discovery.