A more arbitrary distinction is into great and small tithes, the first being tithes of corn, hay, wood, etc.; the second being the other kinds of prindial tithes, as well as all personal and mixed tithes. This distinction, although purely arbitrary, is important, inasmuch as the great tithes of a parish belong to the rector (q.v.), and the small tithes to the vicar (q.v.). Tithes were originally paid " in kind;" that is, by the actual numer ation of the products of the land, and the apportionment in each of the numerical tenth' part, as of the tenth sheaf, the tenth lamb, calf, etc. The inconvenience and trouble, as well as the unsettled and variable quantities involved in this mode of payment, led to early attempts to provide other modes of apportioning the result (the particular manner being called technically a modes cleeimandi, or simply a mocks). This was done either by making an agreement to pay a fixed quantity irrespective of actual produce in each year, or by a money payment settled between the parties; or by a partial substitution of payment or labor, as when the party contributed a smaller quantity of produce, but free from the expense of harvesting, carriage, etc.; or finally, by a payment of a bulk sum in redemption of the impost, either for a time or forever, as the case might be, in which_ case the land so redeemed became temporarily or permanently tithe-free. By such com positions, many lands in England were made anciently tithe-free, and have so con tinued; but by 1 Elizabeth 19, and 13 Elizabeth 10, such alienations of tithe-payment were restricted to a term of twenty-one years, or three lives.
Besides the exemption from tithe thus created, a still more comprehensive occasion of immunity is traceable to the exemption enjoyed by the lands of religious houses. Originally, convents occupying lands in England paid tithes like other land-owners to• the parochial clergy; but a decretal of Paschal II. exempted them from such payments iu regard to lands held by themselves in their own occupation. This exemption was coufiued by subsequent legislation to the four orders—templars, hospitallers, Cister ciaus, and prmmonstratensians, and after the 4th council of Lateran (1215), only in respect of lands held by them before that year. Frequently, however, exemptions were given in favor of particular houses; and in cases in which religious communities were themselves the incumbents of a parish, as they could not pay tithes to themselves, their own lands within such parish became exempt by what was called "unity of poSsession." And thus it came to pass that a large extent of land in England and Wales was held free of tithes. Now, when, on the suppression of monasteries, those lands were assigned to
lay possessors, they passed of course into lay hands with the same immunity; and hence this exemption from tithe has become perpetual even in the hands of lay posses sors, as, on the other hand, by a similar transfer, lay proprietors have in many instances acquired the right to tithe, and the property of many rectories.
The arrangements between parties for commuting the mode of payment, to which_ allusion is made above, were permitted, and even protected by law ; but they were nevertheless purely voluntary and partial, and the perpetually recurring contests to which the system led, as well as the oppressive nature of the exaction when the parties from whom it was claimed did not belong to the church established by law, rendered the impost odious; and in Ireland it became impossible to enforce its collection in great. part of three of the four provinces. A measure of commutation became absolutely necessary. This had been recommended by committees as far back as 1822, 'but it did not pass into law until 1838. Various statutes for England or Ireland have since been enacted regulating the payment of tithe-6 and 7 Will. IV. c: 71, 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 69, 1 and 2 Vict. c 64, 2 and 3 Vict. c. 32, and 5 and 6 Viet. c. 54, Their object for England is to substitute a money rent-charge, varying on a scale regulated by the average price of corn for seven years, for all the other forms of payment. This commu tation may either be voluntary, or may be effected by the tithe commissioners, accord ing to a valuation. Land not exceeding twenty acres may be given by a parish in com mutation of tithes; but only in the case of ecclesiastical persons, and not of lay impro priators. Similar arrangements have been made in those few Catholic countries in which tithes still continue to be paid.
In Ireland the settlement was effected by a general commutation of tithe into a money rent charge, regulated by a valuation of the tithes (one-fourth being deducted for the cost of collection), and payable by the proprietors, who should receive it from the occupiers of the land. By the Irish church act (32 and 33 Viet. c. 42), this rent charge became vested in the commissioners of church temporalities, with power to sell such rent-charge to the owner of the land charged therewith at 22i years' purchase. Power is also given to such purchaser to pay by installments for 52 years, at the rate of 4+ per cent on the purchase-money, deducting the estimated charge for poor-rate; the rent-charge being extinguished at the expiration of the 52 years.