“This writing manifests how Eádgár the king was deliberating what might be a remedy for the pestilence which greatly afflicted and decreased his people, far and wide throughout his realm. And first of all it seemed to him and his Witan that such a misfortune had been merited by sin, and by contempt of God’s commandments, and most of all by the diminution of that need-gafol (necessary tax or rent or recognitory service) which men ought to render to God in their tithes. He looked upon and considered the divine usage in the same light as the human. If a geneát neglect his lord’s gafol, and do not pay it at the appointed time, it may be expected, if the lord be merciful, that he will grant forgiveness of the neglect, and accept the gafol without inflicting a further penalty. But if the lord, by his messengers, frequently remind him of his gafol, and he be obdurate and devise to resist payment, it is to be expected that the lord’s anger will so greatly increase, that he will grant his debtor neither life nor goods. Thus is it to be expected that our Lord will do, through the audacity with which the people have resisted the frequent admonition of their teachers, respecting the need-gafol of our Lord, namely our tithes and church-shots. Now I and the archbishop command that ye anger not God, nor earn either sudden death in this world, nor a future and eternal death in hell, by any diminution of God’s rights; but that rich and poor alike, who have any tilth, joyfully and ungrudgingly yield his tithes to God, according to the ordinance of the witan at Andover, which they have now confirmed with their pledges at Wihtbordesstán. And I command my reeves, on pain of losing my friendship and all they own, to punish all that will not make this payment, or by any remissness break the pledge of my witan, as the aforesaid ordinance directs: and of such punishment let there be no remission, if he be so wretched as either to diminish what is God’s to his own soul’s perdition, or in the insolence of his mood to account them of less importance than what he reckoneth as his own: for that is much more his own which lasteth to all eternity, if he would do it without grudging and with perfect gladness. Now it is my will that these divine rights stand alike all over my realm, and that the servants of God who receive the moneys which we give to God, live a pure life: that so, through their purity, they may intercede for us with God; and that I and my thanes direct our priests to that which the shepherds of our soul’s teach us, that is, our bishops, whom we ought never to disobey in any of those things which they declare to us in God’s behalf; so that through the obedience with which we obey them for God’s sake, we may merit that eternal life for which they fit us by their doctrine and the example of their good works.” Eádgár, Suppl. Thorpe, i. 270 seq. Such are the views of Eádgár under the influence of Dúnstán, Æðelwold and Oswald.
“And let God’s dues be willingly paid every year; that is, plough-alms fifteen days after Easter, the tithe of young by Pentecost, and of the fruits of the earth by Allhallows’ Mass, and Rome-fee by St. Peter’s mass, and lightshot thrice a year.” Æðelr. v. § 11; vi. § 17; ix. § 9. Cnut, i. § 8.
“Et ut detur de omni caruca denarius vel denarium valens, et omnis qui familiam habet, efficiat ut omnis hirmannus suus det unum denarium; quod si non habeat, det dominus eius pro eo. Et omnino Thaynus decimet totum quicquid habet.” Æðelr. viii. § 1. Thorpe, i. 336.
“Et praecipimus, ut omnis homo, super dilectionem Dei et omnium sanctorum, det Cyricsceattum et rectam decimam suam, sicut in diebus antecessorum nostrorum stetit, quando melius stetit; hoc est, sicut aratrum peragrabit decimam aeram. Et omnis consuetudo reddatur super amicitiam Dei ad matrem nostram aecclesiam cui adiacet. Et nemo auferat Deo quod ad Deum pertinet, et praedecessores nostri concesserunt.” Æðelr. viii. § 4. Thorpe, i. 338.
“And with respect to tithe, the king and his witan have chosen and decreed, as right it is, that one third part of the tithe which belongs to the church, go to the reparation of the church, and a second part to God’s servants there; the third part to God’s poor and needy men in thraldom.” Æðelr. ix. § 6. Thorpe, i. 342.
“And be it known to every Christian man that he pay to the Lord his tithe justly, ever as the plough traverses the tenth field, on peril of God’s mercy, and of the full penalty, which king Eádgár decreed; that is; If any one will not justly pay the tithe, then let the king’s reeve go, and the mass-priest of the minster or the landlord, and the bishop’s reeve, and take by force the tenth part for the minster to which it is due, and assign to him the ninth part: and let the remaining eight parts be divided into two; and let the landlord seize half, and the bishop half, be it a king’s man or a thane’s.” Æðelr. ix. § 7, 8. Thorpe, i. 342. Cnut, i. § 8. Thorpe, i. 366. Leg. Hen. I. xi. § 2. Thorpe, i. 520.
“De omni annona decima garba sanctae aecclesiae reddenda est. Si quis gregem equarum habuerit, pullum decimum reddat; qui unam solam vel duas, de singulis pullis singulos denarios. Qui vaccas plures habuerit, vitulum decimum; qui unam vel duas, de singulis obolos singulos. Et si de eis caseum fecerit, caseum decimum, vel lac decima die. Agnum decimum, vellus decimum, caseum decimum, butirum decimum, porcellum decimum. De apibus, secundum quod sibi per annum inde profecerit. Quinetiam de boscis et pratis, aquis, molendinis, parcis, vivariis, piscariis, virgultis, ortis, negotiationibus, et de omnibus similiter rebus quas dederit Dominus, decima reddenda est; et qui eam detinuerit, per iusticiam sanctae aecclesiae et regis, si necesse fuerit, ad redditionem cogatur. Haec praedicavit sanctus Augustinus, et haec concessa sunt a rege, et confirmata a baronibus et populis: sed postea, instigante diabolo, ea plures detinuerunt, et sacerdotes qui divites erant non multum curiosi erant ad perquirendas eas, quia in multis locis sunt modo iiii vel iii aecclesiae, ubi tunc temporis non erat nisi una; et sic inceperunt minui.” Eádw. Conf. § vii. viii.
Such are all the passages in the Anglosaxon Laws, directing the levy and distribution of the tithe.
APPENDIX C.
TOWNS.
The strict meaning of burh, appears to be fortified place or stronghold. It can therefore be applied to a single house or castle, as well as to a town. There is a softer form byrig, which in the sense of a town can hardly be distinguished from burh, but which, as far as I know, is never used to denote a single house or castle. Rome and Florence, and in general all large towns, are called Burh or Byrig. This is the widest term.