TITHES (A. S. teotha, a tenth; Lat. decima, i.e., pars, a tenth part), the tenth part of the produce of the land, which, by ancient usage, and subsequently by law, is set aside for the support of ,the clergy, and other religious uses. This provision for the clergy passed at a very early period from the Jewish into the Christian church, and indeed the same or some analogous appropriation has been traced in the other ancient religions. It is observable under the patriarchal system in the words employed by Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 22), and in the offering of Abraham to Melchisedec (Gen. xiv. 20); and mystical reasons have been devised for the selection of the tenth part, rather than any other fractional portion of the produce of the earth, to be consecrated to the uses of religion and the ministers of religion. (See Spencer, De Legibus Ilebrceorum, iii. 1 to 10.) The details of the institution among the Jews will be found in Levit. xxvii., Dent. xiv., and many other places. The tribe of Levi not having lands assigned, as was the case with the other tribes, drew their support from this impost.
In the Christian dispensation the very circumstance of the existence of the clergy as a distinct class supposed a certain fixed provision for their maintenance. The necessity of such provision, and the right on which it is founded, is distinctly expressed in many passages and allusions of the New Testament, as Matt. x. 10, Luke x. 7, Rom. xv. 27, 1 Cor. ix. 7 to 14. The obligation in the general sense which these passages involve has been put forward in ecclesiastical legislation from the earliest period. The apogtolical canons, the apostolic constitutions, St. Cyprian on The Unity of the Church, and the works of St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and the other fathers of both divisions of the church, abound with allusions to it. As yet, however, this obligation was discharged mainly in the form of voluntary offerings; and the legislation of the first Christian emperors, while it presupposed the duty of maintaining the clergy, and even assigned lands and other property for their support, did not extend to any general enact ment for the payment of the tenth of the produce of the lands. The council of Tours, 567 A.D., the second council of Macon, 585, that of Rouen, 650, of Nantes 660, of Metz, 756, and some others, distinctly sanction that form; and at length Charlemagne :by his capitularies formally established the practice within those portions of the ancient Roman empire to which his legislation extended.
From this and other sources the payment of a tenth to the church extended through out western Christendom. By some the claim was held to be of divine law; by others, of human institution; but in the gradual progress of relaxation it came to pass that the right thus established solely for the church began to be usurped for themselves and for purely secular uses by nobles or other powerful laymen. See IMPROPRIATION.
The first introduction of tithes into England is ascribed to Offa, king of Mercia, in the close of the 8th century. The usage passed into the other divisions of Saxon Eng land, and was in the end made general for all England by Ethelwulf. It.would seem that. at first, although all were required to pay tithes, it was optional with each to select the church to which his payment should be made; but by a decretal of Innocent ILL, addressed to the archbishop of Canterbury in 1200, all were required to pay tithes to the clergy of their respective parishes, and this parochial distribution of tithes has ever since obtained in England. The ancient canon and civil law distinguishes many varieties of tithes, into which we shall not enter, as royal, indominicate, fiscal, salic, etc. We shall confine our remarks to the provisions of the English law, premising that in most respects it is founded upon the general principles of the civil and canon law.
Tithes are of three mixed, and personal. Predial tithes are those which arise immediately from the earth itself, as of grain of every kind, fruits, and herbs. Mixed tithes are those proceeding from things nourished by the earth, as calves, lambs, pigs, colts, chickens, milk, cheese, eggs, etc. Personal tithes are those arising from the profits of personal industry, in the pursuit of a trade, profession, or occupa tion; but it is commonly held that personal tithes were ordinarily paid in the form of a voluntary at Easter or some other period of the year. From these explanations, it will be understood that no tithe was due from the proceeds of mines or quarries, as their produce is not the result of any growth or increase of the earth, but forms part of its substance; nor from houses, as having no annual increase. The common law, more over, held wild animals, game, fish, etc., not to be proper subjects of tithe, as also tame animals kept for pleasure or curiosity, and not for profit or use.