A history of tithes

by Henry William Clarke

From A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1215 is a remarkable period in the history of the English Church and English monasteries. The monasteries were built and richly endowed with lands, churches, and tithes. All these were conveyed by deeds of gifts to their perpetual use. The benefactions were given for the special purpose of prayers being perpetually said by the monks in their respective churches for the repose of the souls of the donors and their relatives. In some cases the monasteries received the tithes without any churches; but when they received churches with the cure of souls, then the monastic corporations became rectors by virtue of which they were in possession of all the tithes of each parish. For many centuries the benefactions were conveyed by lay owners, without any reference to the king or bishop, for they were considered as private property, which the owner may dispose of to whom he pleased. Subsequently it was necessary, before such grants could be given, to obtain the licence of the king and bishop in order to complete the scheme. After the Conquest, the Norman monks invented the system of having churches with their tithes appropriated to them. Previous to the Conquest there were no appropriation of churches, but patrons granted to monasteries, bishops or chapters the advowsons of the churches. As religious services had to be performed in the church appropriated, the monastic body had either to depute one of their own fraternity in Holy Orders to do the duty, or to appoint a deputy or vicar to act for them and to whom they gave most miserable stipends. This latter alternative became the general rule. But the abbot or prior took care to get the lion’s share of both parochial tithes and offerings. The capitular bodies, nuns and religious military orders imitated the practice of the monks and received similar licences for appropriating churches from the king and bishop. The same system was adopted by single persons, such as deans, chancellors, treasurers, precentors, and archdeacons. Even parochial incumbents had nominated vicars to do their work, and they themselves became sinecure rectors. The pretext which the monks had given to gain appropriations was to obtain two parts of the tithes and profits, leaving a third to the parish. These two parts were for the relief of the poor and the repair of the church; but in course of time they neglected both poor and fabric, and the parishioners, for their own comfort, had actually subscribed towards a fabric fund and hence originated church rates which were, like tithes, at first purely voluntary, but subsequently became compulsory.

When the practice of appropriating churches, with their glebe and tithe endowments, was first introduced by the Norman monks in England, the patrons or owners considered that they were transferring a freehold property, and therefore thought the conveyance did not require the bishop’s confirmation. The patron conveyed his gift by placing the deed of conveyance and a knife or cup upon the altar of the church of the monastery, as this was then the usual mode of livery of seisin. In the deeds of conveyances some are given “Canonicis ibidem Deo servientibus,” etc.; others, “Canonicis regularibus ibidem Deo servientibus,” etc.; and, “Monachis ibidem Deo servientibus,” etc.

The lay patrons sometimes exercised the power of discharging the incumbent of his church and appointing another in his place. The church was not as now, the incumbent’s freehold property. He then held his position according to the will of the patron. We have sufficient evidence on this point. It is stated in the Acts of the Third Lateran Council of A.D. 1179-80, “So far has the boldness of laymen been carried, that they collate clerks to churches without institution from the bishops, and remove them at their will; and, besides this, they commonly dispose as they please of the possessions and goods of churches.” This council condemned “arbitrary consecrations,” as Selden calls them, of laymen. “Before the Council of Lateran (evidently the third), any man might give his tithes to what spiritual person he would.”[257] Four English bishops sat at this council. The Council gave the death-blow to arbitrary appropriations of tithes by laymen, without the consent of the bishop, to whatever church or monastery they pleased. It was ordained by this Council that no religious orders should receive any appropriations of churches or tithes without the assent of the bishop. In Anglo-Saxon times the tithes were given to the parish churches, but from A.D. 1066 to A.D. 1200, they were also given to monasteries, bishops, and capitular corporations. “Arbitrary consecrations of tithes,” says Blackstone, “were in general use till the time of King John, which was probably owing to the intrigues of the regular clergy or monks of the Benedictine and other rules, under Archbishop Dunstan and his successors, who endeavoured to wean the people from paying their dues to the secular or parochial clergy. A layman, who was obliged to pay his tithes somewhere, might think it good policy to erect an abbey, and there pay them to his own monks, or grant them to some abbey already erected, and thus have masses for ever sung for his soul.”[258] Not only had laymen appropriated tithes to episcopal, capitular, and monastic corporations, but, in Lord Selborne’s opinion, they may also have given them to parish churches. Hence, he thinks, the true origin of the endowment of parish churches with tithes.

The decree of the Third Lateran Council, making void arbitrary appropriations of tithes, was at first opposed by the laymen of England, and so the practice continued. But the English hierarchy from that time opposed the practice, and by degrees it gradually ceased.

Pope Innocent III., in a decretal epistle which he addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury about A.D. 1200, owing to the continued arbitrary appropriation of tithes by laymen in face of the decrees of the Third Lateran Council, enjoined the payment of tithes to the parsons of the respective parishes. But the epistle had no binding force on the lay subjects of this kingdom.

The arbitrary appropriation of tithes by landowners to monasteries, although according to their rights, was contrary to canon law.[259] At a national synod held at Westminster in 1125 (25 Henry I.) it was constituted that no abbot, prior, monk, or clergyman should accept a church or tithe or any other ecclesiastical benefice from a layman without the authority and assent of his own bishop. The lay patrons paid no attention to this canon, because they thought it was an ecclesiastical encroachment upon the rights of property. It was a part of the supremacy over the civil power which the Church was then usurping wherever she found weak instruments. In the reigns of Richard I. and John, however, laymen’s investitures gradually ceased. The Church became supreme. Archbishop Anselm was a very strong supporter of papal canons which inhibited the custom of lay investiture. The struggle continued after his death. The practice at the present time is, the patron nominates or presents, the bishop institutes, and the archdeacon inducts. But before the reigns of Richard I. and John, the lay patrons nominated, instituted, and inducted. The bishop had no voice in the matter. The practice, as I have already stated, was condemned and made void by the Third Lateran Council held in 1180.

At the General Council of Lateran, held in 1215, the arbitrary appropriation of tithes to monasteries or other ecclesiastical corporations which were not parochial, was strongly condemned, and the tithes were commanded to be paid in future to the parish churches. This council therefore gave the parsons the parochial right to tithes. It was certainly very wrong to hand over the parochial tithes to outsiders who did no parochial work and took no interest whatever in the parishes from which they drew large incomes, while the parochial clergy who did the work were most miserably remunerated. But we find that when the parsons received the tithes they became wealthy, indolent, and vicious. We have the trustworthy testimony of Wickliffe himself for this statement. No man could possibly write or speak stronger than he did against the conduct of the monks and secular clergy of his time.

In King John’s reign the papal power was supreme in England, and therefore the canon law gained strength as England became weak, particularly after Pope Innocent III. issued his interdict against the kingdom.

The decrees of the Council of Lateran, A.D. 1215, had not disturbed the then existing appropriations of tithes to monasteries, but were directed towards the future, and made void all new grants of tithes to monasteries after the date of this council. The council is a landmark for the following arrangements: (1) The tithes of parishes, which before A.D. 1215 could have been given by the owners of the property to any church they pleased, either in or out of the kingdom, were henceforth to be given only to the parsons of the parishes from which they arose. (2) The tithes which had been appropriated to corporations outside of the parishes, continued to be given to them. (3) The tithes which the parsons possessed before A.D. 1215 could not be appropriated afterwards to any other person. Therefore the tithes which rectors received were those which they possessed at the date of this council, and all tithes created after A.D. 1215.

The parish system which commenced in its germ about A.D. 686 was completed about A.D. 1200, thus covering a period of over five hundred years in its development.