tithe.
the importance of this subject requires a full statement of details: the following are all the passages in the anglosaxon law which have reference to this impost.
“i æðelstán the king, with the counsel of wulfhelm, archbishop, and of my other bishops, make known to the reeves in each town, and beseech you, in god’s name, and by all his saints, and also by my friendship, that ye first of my own goods render the tithes both of live stock and of the year’s increase, even as they may most justly be either measured or counted or weighed out; and let the bishops then do the like from their own property, and my ealdormen and reeves the same. and i will, that the bishop and the reeves command it to all who are bound to obey them, so that it be done at the right term. let us bear in mind how jacob the patriarch spoke: ‘decimas et hostias pacificas offeram tibi;’ and how moses spake in god’s law: ‘decimas et primitias non tardabis offerre domino.’ it is for us to reflect how awfully it is declared in the books: if we will not render the tithes to god, that he will take from us the nine parts when we least expect; and, moreover, we have the sin in addition thereto.” æðelst. i. thorpe, i. 195.
there is a varying copy of this circular, or whatever it is, coinciding as to the matter, but differing widely in the words. thorpe, i. 195. the nature of the sanction is obvious: it is the old, unjustifiable application of the jewish practice, which fraud or ignorance had made generally current in europe. the tithe mentioned by æðelstán is the prædial tithe, or that of increase of the fruits of the earth, and increase of the young of cattle.
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the next passage is in the law of eádmund, about 940. he says: “tithe we enjoin to every christian man on his christendom, and church-shot, and rome-fee and plough-alms. and if any one will not do it, be he excommunicate.” thorpe, i. 244.
“let every tithe be paid to the old minster to which the district belongs; and let it be so paid both from a thane’s inland and from geneátland, as the plough traverses it. but if there be any thane who on his bookland has a church, at which there is a burial-place, let him give the third part of his own tithe to his church. if any one have a church at which there is not a burial-place, then of the nine parts let him give his priest what he will.... and let tithe of every young be paid by pentecost, and of the fruits of the earth by the equinox ... and if any one will not pay the tithe, as we have ordained, let the king’s reeve go thereto, and the bishop’s, and the mass-priest of the minster, and take by force a tenth part for the minster whereunto it is due; and let them assign to him the ninth part; and let the eight parts be divided into two, and let the landlord seize half, the bishop half, be it a king’s man or a thane’s.” eádg. i. § 1, 2, 3. thorpe, i. 262. cnut, i. § 8. 11. thorpe, i. 366.
“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
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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
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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
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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.
