convenient (e). The ten commandments form part of the English Communion Service. TENTHS are the tenth part of the annual profit of a spiritual preferment for the second and succeeding years, according to the valuation in the "King's Books." They are now to be paid to the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty. As to exemptions, &c., see FIRST FRUITS. TITHES. In apostolic times ministers were supported by voluntary contributions of indefinite amount (f). Later, the Jewish system of tithes was enjoined by the Church, but the payment of them continued for centuries to be voluntary. Then there came a time when the State stepped in and made the payments, which hitherto had been voluntary, compulsory on all. This took place in France in 779 A.D., and in England, as is supposed, somewhat later. Thus, as Milman says, "the tithe was by no means a spontaneous votive offering of the whole Christian people. It was a tax imposed by imperial authority and enforced by imperial power" (g). In other words it was a State endowment of the Christian religion, which was intended to be mainly devoted to the relief of the poor. For not tithes in particular, but all Church property of every kind, was, from early times and down, even, to the fourteenth century, described as the "patrimony of the poor" (h), and the clergy were regarded as almoners. At first the taxpayer paid his tithes to any church he pleased, but, after the division of dioceses into parishes, the tithes were allotted to the parish priest. Owing to the machinations of the monks in the Middle Ages, the tithes were very largely drawn into the coffers of religious houses, and the parochial clergy were deprived of the benefit of them. (e) Can. 82. (f) 1 Cor. xvi. 1,2; Acts. ii. 44, iv. 34. There is no injunction to pay tithes in the New Testament. (g) Vol. 2, p. 292, cited in Easterby D. on Tithes. And see Stubbs, Const. Hist. I. 228, and Kemble, Saxons in England, vol. 2, c. 10. (h) Lord Selborne, Ancient Facts, &c., p. 23, citing Van Espen. T This gave rise to what are known as appropriated tithes and the distinction between rector and vicar (q. v.). Tithes are primâ facie due to the rector, whether lay or clerical, unless there is a special exemption, or a portion of the tithes belong to some other person, who is called a portionist. An incumbent of one parish can be a portionist in another (i). Tithes may be described to be a right to the tenth part of the produce of lands, the stock upon lands, and the personal industry of the occupiers (). If the ground be not sown, if the farm be not stocked, if the fruits be not gathered, and à fortiori if the land be washed away by the sea, or otherwise destroyed by natural casualty, no tithe can possibly arise (1), nor can the rentcharge which is substituted for it (m). There is no personal liability by anybody to pay tithe or tithe rentcharge (n), but as between landlord and tenant, if payable at all, it must be paid by the "landlord" (owner). Formerly it was payable by the tenant (o), the law having been altered by the Tithe Act, 1891 (p). Tithes are incorporeal hereditaments (q), and are of three kinds: (1) prædial, arising merely and immediately from the vegetable produce of the land; because, a piece of land being called in the canon law prædium, whether it was arable, meadow, or pasture, the fruit or produce thereof is called prædial; nor is any allowance made for the trouble and expense of raising any species of vegetable which yields tithe (2) mixed, arising from the produce and increase of animals nourished by the land: (3) personal, the profits which arise from the labour and industry of man in some trade or employment, being the tenth of the clear profits after deducting all expenses. Tithes are again divided into (i) 3 Cruise, 47, 48. (k) Ibid. 37. (1) Ibid. 38, and 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71, s. 85. (m) Bailey v. Badham (1885), 30 Ch. D. 84. (n) 6 & 7 Will 4, c. 71, s. 67; 54 & 55 Vict. c. 8, s. 2 (9). See post. post. (2) And therefore "land" within the Settled Land Act. Re Esdaile (1886), W. N. 47. great, i. e., the prædial tithes of greater value, as corn, hay, wood; and small, i. e., other prædial tithes, as hops, potatoes, &c., and mixed and personal tithes. Prædial tithes are due as of common right, but mixed and personal tithes by custom only; therefore, unless they have been usually paid, they are not demandable (r). As a general rule, the great tithes belong to the rector, and the small tithes to the vicar. Exemption from tithes. The sovereign, rectors, and vicars are exempt, but if the incumbent of one parish holds glebe in another, he pays tithe on it (s). The land itself gets no discharge by having been in the hands of privileged owners; therefore tenants of privileged owners were formerly liable. Land may be freed from tithes by one of the five following methods: (1.) Non-payment. Mere non-payment, apart from statute, affords no exemption, even against a lay impropriator. Under the Tithe Prescription Act, 1832, where "the render of tithes in kind is demanded" (t), which applies to the majority of cases, non-payment for a period of sixty years (or thirty years, subject to proof of prior payment) creates a valid and indefeasible exemption, and it is not necessary to show a legal origin of such exemption. Where there has been non-payment of a part only of the tithes, a similar exemption extends to such part (u). In cases where (as in the city of London) the payments are "periodical sums charged on land," the Statutes of Limitations apply, and the claim is barred at the end of twelve years if no acknowledgment is given in writing in the meantime (v). (2.) Modus decimandi, i. e., a partial exemption from tithes where, by immemorial usage, a particular and exceptional (r) 3 Cruise, 39. (s) Warden of St. Paul's v. The Dean (1817), 4 Price, 65, p. 78. (t) 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 100, s. 1; Payne v. Esdaile (1888), 13 App. Cas. 613. (u) Salkeld v. Johnston (1849), 1 Mac. & G. 242; 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 100, 8. 1. (v) Payne v. Esdaile, ubi sup. ; 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 27, s. 1; 37 & 38 Vict. c. 57. manner of tithing has been allowed, e. g., twopence per acre for the tithe of land (x). (3.) Composition, e. g., a gift of land or other real recompense (called a real composition) to the parson or vicar in lieu of tithes (y). Such of these compositions as were duly made under a decree have been confirmed by statute (). Land not exceeding twenty acres may now be given in lieu of tithes or tithe rentcharge (a). In the city of London tithes were compounded for a fixed periodical money payment in the reign of Henry VIII. (b), and a special Act passed in 1881 (c) provided that such payments should be levied and collected in the same manner as poor rates. These payments are excluded from the operation of the Tithe Acts, and the owner is not rateable to the poor rate in respect of them (d). (4.) Redemption or merger, as to which see post. (5.) Commutation into tithe rentcharge. TITHE RENTCHARGE. Nearly all tithes have now been extinguished by commutation into rentcharge, under the provisions of the Tithe Act, 1836, and various amending statutes. The commutation may be effected in two ways-by a voluntary parochial agreement or by compulsory award; and thereupon any question as to exemption or modus is settled as provided by the Act (e), and the land is absolutely discharged from tithe (f). The amount of rentcharge payable each year fluctuates according to the average price of corn for the seven years preceding, and the payment varies so as always to equal the then value of the number of bushels of wheat, barley, and oats in equal shares which could have been purchased accord (x) See further, as to modus, 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 100; 2 Ste. Com. 739, and Burn. (y) 3 Cruise, 50. (z) 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 100, s. 2. (a) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71, ss. 29, 62; Payne v. Esdaile (1888), 13 App. Cas. 613; and see post. (b) 37 Hen. 8, c. 12; 22 & 23 Car. 2, c. 15. (c) 44 & 45 Vict. c. cxcvii.; see also 42 & 43 Vict. cc. xciii., clxxvi. (d) Esdaile v. Assessment, &c. (1887), 19 Q. B. 431. (e) As there are now hardly any commutations to be effected the mode of doing so is of mere historical interest. See the statutes collected in Chron. Index. (f) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71, ss. 57, 67. ing to the prices in December, 1836 (i. e., wheat, 78. 01d., barley, 3s. 11d., oats, 28. 9d. (g)), by the sum for which the parish tithes were commuted (gg). The septennial averages are now ascertained under the provisions of the Corn Returns Act, 1882, and are published in the London Gazette in January in every year (h). The rentcharge is subject to the same incidents as the tithes they represent (i). There are exceptions to this method of estimating the amount of the charge; thus, formerly, hop-grounds, orchards, fruit plantations, and market gardens were subject to an additional rentcharge by way of extraordinary charge, but the Extraordinary Tithe Redemption Act, 1886 (j), provided for the fixing of the capital value of the extraordinary charges then existing, and for the substitution of a rentcharge of four per cent. on such capital value, and declared that all such lands, newly cultivated after the 25th June, 1886, should be exempt from extraordinary charges under the Tithe Commutation Acts. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners may re-adjust extraordinary charges made on the benefice in favour of other benefices (sect. 13); and when the income of a benefice is diminished by the operation of this Act, Queen Anne's Bounty may modify the terms of any mortgage they may hold (sect. 12). Coppices (), commons (7), and lands inclosed from barren heaths and waste land (m) are also subject to special regulations. On a commutation the rent-charge is apportioned among the lands of a parish, and each portion has to bear its share unless more than one portion belongs to the same owner, when all the lands in the parish so held are liable (n); and it is in some cases, even now, often desirable to readjust the apportionment (o). This the Board of Agriculture, with (g) 1 Vict. c. 69, s. 7. (99) See note (ƒ), supra. (h) 45 & 46 Vict. c. 37, ss. 10, 19, repealing s. 56 of 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71. (2) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71, s. 71. (j) 49 & 50 Vict. c. 54. (k) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71, s. 41. (1) 23 & 24 Vict. c. 93, ss. 18—20. (m) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71, s. 43. (n) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71, ss. 55, 58, 85; T. A. 1891, ss. 1, 2, 8; see post. (0) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71, s. 81; see also T. A. 1891, s. 2 (3), post. |
