TEINDS, the name given in the law of Scotland to tithes In Scotland tithes were only paid from the produce of land or cattle. The teinds of corn, called decimce garbales, greater teinds, or parsonage teinds, were generally exigible from all landed property, and originally paid to the rector or parson serving the cure, a small portion being claimed by the bishop. The tithe of the produce of animals, as wool, milk, cheese, was -called lesser teind, or vicarage teind, because, where due, it was paid to the vicar; but vicarage teind was only legally exigible where a usage of paying it could be shown. The teinds, supposed to be due at common law to the incumbent of the parish, had, previ ously to The reformation, been largely diverted elsewhere (see COMMENDATORS); in some instances, they had been bestowed on some favorite religions house by the patron, who seemed to consider himself their absolute proprietor; in others. they had been felled to some layman. In many cases the religious house which had acquired the teinds, profited, or at least saved itself from odium, by selling them to the crown, or to a lay subject; and not unfrequently the pope, who was viewed as patron of all benefices to which no one else could claim a right of presentation, granted to the lands of churchmen an exemption from the payment of teind. At the reformation, the church-lands were claimed by the crown ; those that had belonged to the religious houses were erected into temporal lord ships, whose proprietors, called lords of erection, or titulars, were nominally burdened with the support of the clergy, by salaries modified out of a third part of the benefices. At the majority of James VI., it was found advisable to check the practice of granting the lands of religious houses to laymen; and the church lands were declared, with certain exceptions, to be inalienably annexed to the crown.
The right to tithes was, in Scotland as elsewhere, originally made effectual by their owner drawing the ipsa corpora, separating every tenth sheaf after the crop was reaped. But this proceeding often became an instrument of oppression, as the proprietor was obliged to allow his crop to remain on the ground exposed to all the vicissitudes of the season, until the beneficiary chose to draw his teind; and prior to the reformation, agreements had become common by which a certain quantity of grain, called bolls, was accepted in full value of teind, while leases were sometimes granted of the teinds for a money payment.
Various not very successful attempts were made during the reign of James VI. to regulate the conflicting interests of heritor and titular, and to provide the clergy with stipends which would not be illusory, out of the teinds of their respective parishes. Charles I., soon after his accession, issued, without the intervention of parliament, a revocation of all appopriations of church lands and teinds made during the two pre ceding reigns. The powerful barons who were possessors of church property at first menaced resistance, but eventually showed a desire for compromise, and the parties principally concerned entered into four submissions, in which they accepted his majesty's arbitration. The decrees arbitral pronounced by the king resulted in the establishment
of valuations of teinds, and sales of them to the proprietor of the lands, by which the .division of the produce between the owner of the land and the owner of the teind was avoided; and the teinds were made available to their utmost extent for the support of the parochial clergy. A commission, appointed to carry out the decrees arbitral, was con tinued from time to time till the union, when its authority came to be vested in the court of session, as court of the commission of teinds, the same tribunal which still exercises jurisdiction, both judicial and ministerial, in questions relating to teinds. A heritor, and in some circumstances the minister, may pursue an action of valuation of teinds; and a heritor may also insist on purchasing the teinds of his lands when valued, that is, in paying the value of the annuity in a slump sum. The modifying of reasonable stipends to the clergy, out of the teinds of their respective parishes, is one of the func tions of the court of commission of teinds. The practice of augmenting stipends after they have once been modified was introduced with some hesitation; confined at first to stipends below the minimum, it afterward became general; and was recognized by act 48 Geo. III. c. 138, which provides that no stipend can be augmented till 20 years have elapsed from a previous augmentation. By 50 Geo. III. c. 54, it was provided that the minimum annual value of any stipend should be ,C150; and if such amount cannot be made up by the teinds, it is supplied from the exchequer. See STIPEND.
The present position of the tithes of Scotland is as follows: In the majority of cases they have been purchased by the proprietors of the respective lands, after the modifica tion of stipends to the ministers, and are held liable to the burden of augmenting those stipends to the extent of their value; in other words, there are no tithes, but part of the rent of the proprietors constitutes minister's stipend, and an additional part is liable to augmentation. of stipend. A part of the tithes are in the hands of titulars, also liable to stipend and augmentation—they are, however, no longer drawn in kind ; but paid according to valuation, or compounded for in the few cases where they remain unvalued. The teiuds which were held before the reformation by the bishops and other dignified clergy, are in the hands of the crown, liable to augmentation of stipend. The teinds which remained in possession of the parochial clergy, still belong to them, but are com muted; and those belonging to colleges and hospitals have in most cases been valued, and are paid by composition, but have not been sold to the owners of the lands.