A history of tithes

by Henry William Clarke

In the early history of the Christian Church, the citizens of London made oblations or offerings at every mass on Sundays and holidays, and such oblations were applied to the relief of the poor, the repairs of the church and the support of the clergy. From these purely voluntary oblations grew up a custom in the City of London, that every person paying 20s. a year rental should give to God and the Church, ½d. for every Sunday or Apostle’s day, the vigil of which was a fast. If he paid only 10s. a year rental, he was to give ¼d. This amounted in the former case to 2s. 6d. in the pound, and 1s. 3d. in the latter, per annum. These were customary payments, and were applied for the same three purposes—poor, fabric and clergy. As these customary payments were found to decrease, it was deemed necessary to promulgate an order to permanently fix the customary payments. Bishop Roger took up the subject immediately after his consecration as Bishop of London. The following are the facts of the case:—

(1) In A.D. 1228, in the reign of Henry III., Bishop Roger, surnamed Niger, or Le Noir, of London, made a constitution or modus, that every occupier of a house should offer as his tithe to his parish church, ½d. for 20s. a year rental, and ¼d. for 10s. a year rental, for every Sunday and every Apostle’s day, whereof the evening was fasted. There were fifty-two Sundays and eight Apostles’ days in the year that were fasted. Two shillings and sixpence a year was then the amount of the modus decimandi which the former occupier had to pay, and one shilling and three pence a year the latter. The amounts would be less when any of the Apostles’ days fell upon Sundays.

The above particulars appear in the Records in the Town Clerk’s office, London. It is a well-known point in law that a house quâ house is not liable for the payment of tithes. Tithes were paid for what issued or grew out of the ground. Enormous house properties have been erected in and around all our cities and towns, for which one penny as tithe-money has never been paid, and yet the house property in the City and Liberties of London, and landed property throughout the country, have to pay a modus and tithe-rent charges.

(2) Bishop Roger’s modus was paid for 160 years, viz., from 1229 to 1389, when Archbishop Arundel, of Canterbury, interfered with the arrangement in the latter year. He was not satisfied with the interpretation put upon Bishop Roger’s Constitution as regards the number of Apostles’ days, and so he added twenty-two more saints’ days, thus increasing the payments from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 5d. a year, and this he did without consulting the payers. The citizens of London were quite indignant at the additional number of saints’ days, and placed on record their protest against the same for the information of future generations. There were constant quarrels between the citizens and their clergy in the ecclesiastical courts, and at the Pope’s court at Rome, with regard to the payment of the extra 11d. The Archbishop appealed to the Pope as to the soundness of his interpretation, and as a matter of course, Pope Innocent VII., in 1403, confirmed the interpretation. But the Pope’s bull did not pacify the citizens of London. They considered the additional 11d. a cheat—a fraud. Besides, the Pope’s bull could not compel them to pay the additional amount. In 1453, however, it appears, by a record in the Town Clerk’s office,[274] that Archbishop Arundel’s order is declared by the Common Council to be “destructory rather than declaratory, and that it was obtained surreptitiously and deceptiously, without assent on the part of the citizens, or summoning them.” I should imagine that the Church, with its terrible ecclesiastical courts made them pay the 3s. 5d., for we find no change in the payment until 1535, when the whole subject was considered by the Privy Council, who made an order for the payment of 2s. 9d. in the pound. Therefore in the same year an Act was passed,[275] authorizing the citizens of London to pay their tithes at the rate of 2s. 9d. in the pound. Ten years later another Act was passed,[276] “That the citizens and inhabitants of the City of London and Liberties of the same shall yearly, without fraud or covin, for ever pay their tithes to the parsons, vicars, and curates of the said City, and their successors for the time being, after the following rate: For every 10s. rent by the year of all houses, shops, warehouses, cellars, tables, etc., within the City and Liberty, 16½d.; and for every 20s. rent by the year, 2s. 9d.; and so above the rent of 20s. by the year, ascending from 10s. to 10s., according to the rate aforesaid.”

(3) The next account of tithes in London was after the great fire in 1666. An Act which I call the first Fire Act was passed in 1670,[277] for the better settlement of the maintenance of the parsons, vicars and curates in the parishes of the city of London burnt by the great fire. The preamble runs thus:—

“Whereas the tithes in the city of London were levied and paid with great inequality, and are, since the late dreadful fire there, in the rebuilding of the same, by taking away some houses, altering the foundations of many, and the new erecting of others, so disordered, that in case they should not for the time to come be reduced to a certainty, many contrivances and suits of law might arise, be it enacted that the annual certain tithes of every parish in the City of London and its Liberties, whose churches have been demolished or in part consumed by the late fire, be paid according to the sum opposite each.”

Sec. 3. “Which respective sums of money to be paid in lieu of tithes within the said respective parishes, and assessed as hereinafter is directed, shall be and continue to be esteemed, deemed and taken to all intents and purposes, to be the respective annual maintenance (over and above glebes and perquisites, gifts and bequests to the respective parson, vicar and curate of any parish for the time being, or to their successors respectively, or to others for their use) of the said respective parsons, vicars and curates, who shall be legally instituted, inducted and admitted in the respective parishes.”

In subsequent sections assessments were ordered to be made before the 24th July, 1671, upon all houses, shops, warehouses, cellars, and other hereditaments, except parsonage and vicarage houses.

Three transcripts were to be made by the assessors, containing the respective sums to be payable out of all the premises within each parish; one was for the Lord Mayor, the second for the Bishop of London’s registry, and the third was to remain in the vestry. The payments were to be made in four quarterly payments.

If any inhabitant should refuse payment the Lord Mayor should issue his warrant of distress on his goods. If the Lord Mayor should refuse to issue his warrant, then it shall be lawful for the Lord Chancellor, or Keeper of the Great Seal, or any two or more of the barons of his Majesty’s Court of Exchequer to issue warrants of distress.