(1) Before 970.—During the first three centuries of the Anglo-Saxon church there was in each diocese one common treasury, into which were paid the tithes and other offerings of the faithful. As to the distribution of these funds by the bishop, different usages prevailed in dif ferent parts of Western Christendom. In the Roman dioceses the customary divi sion was fourfold: (1) the clergy, (2) the poor, (3) the fabrics of churches, (4) the bishop. In some of the French and Spanish dioceses the division was threefold, the bishop being omitted. What usage prevailed in the Anglo-Saxon church is unknown. No division, quadri partite or tripartite, was ever enjoined by law or canon in England.
(2) From .970 to End of 12th Century. —In this transition period the parochial system grew up, and local appropriations were made to particular churches out of the common fund. Edgar's legislation (970) shows that the parochial system was already growing. His legislation points to the fact that landowners were building churches on their estates for their own and their tenants' benefit, and were endowing them with some portion of the tithe, which they otherwise paid to the diocesan treasury or to the nearest monastic or conventual establishment. It distinguishes three kinds of churches: (1) the mother church, general monastic or conventual; (2) churches with burial grounds attached, in private patronage on the estates of private landowners; (3) churches similarly situated, but without burial grounds. It recognizes the general presumption in favor of paying to the mother church the tithe of the district which it served, but if there was a church of the second class within the district it was entitled to a portion of the local tithe. In these churches we have the future appropriations of local tithes to parish churches.
Rectories together with tithes might be "appropriated" to monastic or non-paro chial corporations. The appropriators performed their duties by vicars. At the dissolution of the monasteries the rec torial tithes which had belonged to the dissolved communities passed to the crown, and were from time to time granted out to subjects, who became lay rectors or "impropriators" as they were called to distinguish them from the orig inal "appropriators," who must of neces sity have been spiritual. The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 provided for the commutation of tithes in Eng land and Wales into a money pay ment or rent charge. Though the an nual payment varies with the septennial average price of corn, it is fixed in the sense that the amount payable in each year is calculated on a rent charge or fixed valuation. The effect of this act is to render the old distinctions between great and small tithes, prmdial, mixed, and general tithes, and between the vari ous modes of payment by "moduses" mat ters of antiquarian knowledge. The value
of the tithes commuted in 1836 to tithe rent charge was at par value L4,053,985, 6s. Of this sum 1962,289, 15s. is payable to lay impropriators, leaving £3,091,695, 11s. for ecclesiastical owners. Of this latter sum £678,987, ls. 1 g/4 d. is payable to Ecclesiastical Com missioners. The remainder, £2,412,708, 9s. is payable to parochial incum bents. At the present values this sum is worth about in round numbers £1,800, 000. To this sum may be added about £8,000 for extraordinary tithe in Kent and Cornwall. In Ireland the settlement was effected by a general coinmu. tation 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 pro prietors, who should receive it from the occupiers of the land. By the Irish Church Act, 1869, this rent charge be came vested in the commissioners of church temporalities, with power to sell such rent charge to the owner of the land charged therewith at 221/2 years' purchase. Power is also given to such purchaser to pay by instalments 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. The Extraordinary Tithe Act, 1886, frees lands not at present cultivated as hop ground, orchard, fruit, plantation, or market garden, from lia bility to the separate tithe which, under the Act of 1836, could be claimed as extraordinary. It also provides for the redemption of the extraordinary tithe in existence upon the land actually under cultivation. The Tithe Rent Charge Re covery Act of 1891 has not materially affected the principle of the act of 1836. But instead of the old remedy of dis tress by the tithe-owner, it substitutes a process through the county court; in stead of permitting the tenant to be the conduit pipe of the land-owner's pay ment, it makes the landowner alone lia ble; instead of the corn averages abso lutely determining the amount of tithe rent charge which is payable, provision is made in certain cases for the reduction or the suspension of payment.
In 1891 a Royal Commission reported in favor of the compulsory redemption of tithes up to the value of 40s., of the abolition of the existing minimum of 25 years' purchase of the principle of al lowing the parties to make their own bargains subject to the approval of the Board of Agriculture.