TITHES, in ecclesiastical law, 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, 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. 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 sixth century. But the first mention of them which we have met with in any written English law, is in a constitutional decree, made in a synod held A. D. 786, by which 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 convention of estates, respectively consisting of the kings of Mercia and Northumberland, the bishops, dukes, senators, and people. This was a few years later than the time when 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. The next authentic mention of them is in the Footus, Edwardi et Guthruni, or the laws agreed upon between King Guthrun the Dane, and Alfred and his son Edward the Elder, successive kings of England, about the year 900. This was a kind of treaty between those monarchs, which may be found at large among the Anglo-Saxon laws. As Guthrun was a pagan, it was necessary to provide for the subsistence of the Christian clergy under his dominion; and accordingly we find the payment of tithes not only enjoined, but a penalty added upon non-observance. This law was seconded by the laws of Athelstan, about the year 930.