Editing Tithe (section)

===Tithes and tithe law in England before reform===
Excerpts from [[Sir William Blackstone]], ''[[Commentaries on the Laws of England]]'':

====Definition and classification and those liable to pay tithes====
<blockquote>. . . tithes; which are defined to be the tenth part of the increase, yearly arising and renewing from the profits of lands, the stock upon lands, and the personal industry of the inhabitants:
:the first species being usually called ''predial,''<ref>from praedium, a farm</ref> as of corn, grass, hops, and wood;
:the second ''mixed'', as of wool, milk, pigs, &c, consisting of natural products, but nurtured and preserved in part by the care of man; and of these the tenth must be paid in gross:
:the third ''personal'', as of manual occupations, trades, fisheries, and the like; and of these only the tenth part of the clear gains and profits is due.
...
in general, tithes are to be paid for every thing that yields an annual increase, as corn, hay, fruit, cattle, poultry, and the like; but not for any thing that is of the substance of the earth, or is not of annual increase, as stone, lime, chalk, and the like; nor for creatures that are of a wild nature, or ''ferae naturae'', as deer, hawks, &c, whose increase, so as to profit the owner, is not annual, but casual.<ref name = 'BlackstoneII'>{{cite book |last=Blackstone |first=William |title=Commentaries on the Laws of England vol II |date=1766 |place=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press|title-link=Commentaries on the Laws of England }}</ref>{{rp|24}}</blockquote>

====History====
<blockquote>We cannot precisely ascertain the time when tithes were first introduced into this country.  Possibly they were contemporary with the planting of Christianity among the Saxons, by Augustin the monk, about the end of the fifth century.  But the first mention of them, which I have met with in any written English law, is in a constitutional decree, made in a synod held A.D. 786, wherein the payment of tithes in general is strongly enjoined. This canon, or decree, which at first bound not the laity, was effectually confirmed by two kingdoms of the heptarchy, in their parliamentary conventions of estates, respectively consisting of the kings of Mercia and Northumberland, the bishops, dukes, senators, and people. Which was a few years later than the time that Charlemagne established the payment of them in France, and made that famous division of them into four parts; one to maintain the edifice of the church, the second to support the poor, the third the bishop, and the fourth the parochial clergy.<ref name = "BlackstoneII" />{{rp|25}}</blockquote>

====Beneficiaries====
<blockquote>And upon their first introduction (as hath formerly been observed), though every man was obliged to pay tithes in general, yet he might give them to what priests he pleased; which were called ''arbitrary'' consecrations of tithes: or he might pay them into the hands of the bishop, who distributed among his diocesan clergy the revenues of the church, which were then in common. But, when dioceses were divided into parishes, the tithes of each parish were allotted to its own particular minister; first by common consent, or the appointment of lords of manors, and afterwards by the written law of the land.<ref name = "BlackstoneII" />{{rp|26}}

...It is now universally held, that tithes are due, of common right, to the [[parson]] of the [[parish]], unless there be a special exemption. This parson of the parish, we have formerly seen, may be either the actual [[Incumbent (ecclesiastical)|incumbent]], or else the [[wikt:appropriator|appropriator]] of the [[United benefice|benefice]]: appropriations being a method of endowing monasteries, which seems to have been devised by the regular clergy, by way of substitution to arbitrary consecrations of tithes.<ref name = "BlackstoneII" />{{rp|28}}</blockquote>

====Exemptions====
<blockquote>We observed that tithes are due to the parson of common right, unless by special exemption: let us therefore see, thirdly, who may be exempted from the payment of tithes ... either in part or totally, first, by a real composition; or secondly, by custom or prescription.

First, a real composition is when an agreement is made between the owner of the lands, and the parson or vicar, with the consent of the ordinary and the patron, that such lands shall for the future be discharged from payment of tithes, by reason of some land or other real recompence given to the parson, in lieu and satisfaction thereof.

Secondly, a discharge by custom or prescription, is where time out of mind such persons or such lands have been, either partially or totally, discharged from the payment of tithes. And this immemorial usage is binding upon all parties, as it is in its nature an evidence of universal consent and acquiescence; and with reason supposes a real composition to have been formerly made. This custom or prescription is either ''de modo decimandi'', or ''de non-decimando''.

A ''modus decimandi'', commonly called by the simple name of a ''modus'' only, is where there is by custom a particular manner of tithing allowed, different from the general law of taking tithes in kind, which are the actual tenth part of the annual increase. This is sometimes a pecuniary compensation, as twopence an acre for the tithe of land : sometimes it is a compensation in work and labour, as that the parson shall have only the twelfth cock of hay, and not the tenth, in consideration of the owner's making it for him: sometimes, in lieu of a large quantity of crude or imperfect tithe, the parson shall have a less quantity, when arrived to greater maturity, as a couple of fowls in lieu of tithe eggs; and the like. Any means, in short, whereby the general law of tithing is altered, and a new method of taking them is introduced, is called a ''modus decimandi'', or special manner of tithing.<ref name = "BlackstoneII" />{{rp|28–29}}

A prescription ''de non-decimando'' is a claim to be entirely discharged of tithes, and to pay no compensation in lieu of them.  Thus the king by his prerogative is discharged from all tithes. So a vicar shall pay no tithes to the rector, nor the rector to the vicar, for ''ecclesia decimas non-folvit ecclesiae''. But these ''personal'' to both the king and the clergy; for their tenant or lessee shall pay tithes of the same land, though in their own occupation it is not tithable.  And, generally speaking, it is an established rule, that in ''lay'' hands, ''modus de non-decimando non-valet''. But spiritual persons or corporations, as monasteries, abbots, bishops, and the like, were always capable of having their lands totally discharged of tithes, by various ways: as
#By real composition :
#By the pope's [[Papal bull|bull]] of exemption :
#By unity of possession; as when the rectory of a parish, and lands in the same parish, both belonged to a religious house, those lands were discharged of tithes by this unity of possession :
#By prescription; having never been liable to tithes, by being always in spiritual hands :
#By virtue of their order; as the [[Knights Templars|knights templars]], [[cistercians]], and others, whose lands were privileged by the pope with a discharge of tithes. Though, upon the dissolution of abbeys by [[Henry VIII]], most of these exemptions from tithes would have fallen with them, and the lands become tithable again; had they not been supported and upheld by the [[Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1539]] ([[31 Hen. 8]]. c. 13) which enacted, that all persons who should come to the possession of the lands of any abbey then dissolved, should hold them free and discharged of tithes, in as large and ample a manner as the abbeys themselves formerly held them.

And from this original have sprung all the lands, which, being in lay hands, do at present claim to be tithe-free: for, if a man can shew his lands to have been such abbey lands, and also immemorially discharged of tithes by any of the means before-mentioned, this is now a good prescription ''de non-decimando''. But he must shew both these requisites; for abbey lands, without a special ground of discharge, are not discharged of course; neither will any prescription ''de non-decimando'' avail in total discharge of tithes, unless it relates to such abbeylands.<ref name = "BlackstoneII" />{{rp|31–32}}</blockquote>

<gallery widths="220px" heights="150px">
Image:The tithe barn, Abbotsbury near Weymouth.jpg|The Tithe Barn, [[Abbotsbury]], Dorset (scene of the sheep-shearing in [[Thomas Hardy]]'s ''[[Far from the Madding Crowd]]'')
Image:Tithe Barn at Bradford on Avon.JPG| [[Tithe barn]] at Bradford on Avon, West Wiltshire
Image:Tithe Barn Pilton interior.jpg|Interior of the [[Tithe Barn, Pilton|medieval tithe barn at Pilton]], Somerset
File:GrangeBarn-interior.jpg|[[Grange Barn, Coggeshall]], Essex; the timber has been dated to between 1130 and 1270.
</gallery>