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 *Fœdus Edwardi et Guthrumi*, 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. By the original law, all the land of the country was titheable, except such as belonged to the Crown and to the Church itself. From various causes, however, a large portion of England and Wales is now tithe-free. Much of the church lands, which, at the Reformation, were disposed of to laymen, and would thus have become titheable, were specially exempted; some have also been exempted by composition, and some by prescription. By the 13th Elizabeth, however, all subsequent compositions are limited to a period of three lives, or twenty-one years. No general attempt was made till very recently to remedy the inconvenient and vexatious mode of paying tithes in kind. By Act 6 and 7 Will. IV., cap. 71, a board of commissioners was appointed for the purpose of converting the tithes into a rent-charge payable in money, but varying in amount according to the average price of corn for the seven preceding years. The amount of the tithes was to be calculated on an average of the seven years preceding Christmas 1835; and the quantity of grain thus ascertained was to remain for ever as the annual charge upon the parish; and the annual money-value was ascertained from the returns of the comptroller of corn, who publishes annually in January the average price of an imperial bushel of wheat, barley, and oats, computed from the weekly averages of the corn returns during the seven preceding years. See ENGLAND.