If cattle which have neither been used in husbandry, nor for the pail, are, after having been kept some time, killed, to be spent in the Family of the occupier of the land on which they are depastured, no tithe is due for their pasture. No tithe is due for the cattle, either of a stranger or an occupier, which are depastured in grounds that have in the same year paid tithe of hay. But it is generally true, that an agistment tithe is generally due for de pasturing any sort of cattle, the property era stranger. Cro. Eliz. 276.
No agistment tithe is due for such beasts, either of a stranger or an occupier, , as are depastured on the bead lands of ploughed fields : provided these are not wider than is sufficient to turn the plough' 'and horses upon. Nor is tithe due for such cattle as are depastured upon land that has the same year paid tithe of corn.
If land which has paid tithe of corn one year, is left unsown the next year, no a gistment is due for such land: because, by this lying fresh, the tithe of the next crop of' corn is increased. But if land, which has paid tithe of in one year, is left unsown the next year, no agist ment is due for such land; but if suffered to lie fallow longer than by the course of husbandry is usual, an agistment tithe is due for the beasts depastured upon such land.
Sheep, after paying tithe of wool, had been fed upon turnips not severed, by which they were bettered. to the value of five shillings each, and were then sold : it also appeared, that before the next shear ing time, as many had been brought in as were sold, and that of these tithe of wool had been paid. It was insisted, that if an agistment were to be paid for the sheep sold, it would be a double tithing : but the court held that this was a new in crease, and decreed the defendant to ac count for an agistment tithe. But in a lat ter case the court held, that no agistment tithe should be paid.
Corn. It is held, that no tithe is due of to rakings acorn involuntarily scattered. Cro. Eliz. 278. But if more of any sort of coin be fraudulently scattered than there would have been if proper care bad been taken, tithe is due of the rakings of such corn. Cro. Eliz. 475. No tithes are due of the stubbles left in corn fields after mowing or reaping of corn.
Tithe of hay is to be paid, though beasts of the plough, or pail, or sheep, are to be foddered with such hay. But no tithe is due of hay upon the head lands of plough ed grounds, provided that such head lands are not wider than is sufficient to turn the plough and horses upon.
It is laid down in an old case, that if a man cut down grass, and, while it is in the swathes, carry it away, and give it to his plough-cattle, not having sufficient suste nance for them otherwise, no tithe is due thereof. And in a modern case, the Court
of Exchequer was of opinion, that no tithe is due of vetches, or of clover, cut green, and given to cattle in husbandry.
Tithe of wood is not due in common right, because wood does not renew an nually ; but it was in ancient times paid in many places by custom. Exemptions from tithes are of two kinds : either to be wholly exempted from paying any tithes, or from paying tithes in kind. The fbr mer is called de non decimando ; the latter de modo decimandi.
Prescription de non decimando is to be free from the payment of tithes, without any recompense for the same. Concern ing which the general rule is, that no layman can prescribe de non decimando, that is, to be discharged absolutely of the payment of tithes, and to pay nothing in lieu thereof; unless he begin his prescrip tion in a religious or ecclesiastical person. But all spiritual persons, as bishops, deans prebendaries, parsons, and vicars, may prescribe generally in non decimando.
A modus decimandi, usually called by the name of /nod= only, is where there is by custom a particular manner of tithing, different from the general laws of taking tithes in kind. This is sometimes ń pecu niary compensation, as so much all acre for the tithe of land; sometimes a compensa tion in work and labour ; as that the par son 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, when arrived to great 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 mocks decimandi, or special method of tithing. In order to make a modus or prescription good, several qualfications are requisite. It must be supposed to have had a rea sonable commencement, as that at the time of the composition, the modus was the real value in money, although it is now become much less. lt must be some thing for the parson's benefit; therefore, the finding straw for the body of the church, the finding a rope for a bell, the paying five shillings to the parish-clerk, have been adjudged not to be good. But it is a good mocks to be discharged, that one bath time out of mind been used to employ the profits for the repair of the chancel, for the parson bath a benefit by that.