Tithes were originally paid in kind, that is, the tenth wheat-sheaf, the tenth lamb or pig, as the ease might be, belonged to tho parson of the parish as his tithe. The inconvenience and vexation of such a mode of payment are obvious, but no attempt had been made in this country, till very recently, to introduce a general improvement in the mode of collection. The inconvenience of paying tithes in kind must long since have been felt, and certain modes of obviating it were occa sionally practised. Sometimes the owner of land would enter into a composition with the parson or vicar, with the consent of the ordinary and the patron of the living, by which certain land should be altogether discharged from tithes, on conveying tither land for the use of the church, or making compensation. In other words, the owner of tho land purchased an exemption from tithes. Such arrangements between landowners end the church were recognised by law ; but it was found that they were often injurious to the church by reason of an insufficient value being given for the tithes. The acts 1 Elizabeth, c. 19, and 13 Elizabeth, o. 10, were accordingly passed, which disabled archbishops, bishops, colleges, deans, chapters, hospitals, parsons, and vicars, from making any alienation of their property for a longer term than twenty one years or three lives. In order to establish an exemption from tithes on the ground of a real composition, it is therefore necessary to show that such composition had been entered into before the statutes of Elizabeth. Since that time compositions have rarely been made, except under the authority of private acts of parliament.
Another method of avoiding the payment of tithes in kind was by a meatus decimandi, commonly called a mocha. This consists of any custom in a particular place, by which the ordinary mode of collecting tithes has been superseded by some special manner of tithing. In some parishes the custom has prevailed, time out of mind, of paying a certain sum of money annually for every acro of land, in lieu of tithes. In others, a smaller quantity of produce is given, and the residue is made up in labour, as every twelfth sheaf of wheat Instead of the 10th, but to be housed or threshed by the tithe-payer.
A large portion of the land of England and Wales is tithe-free from various causes. Some has been exempted under real composition, as already explained, and some by prescription, which supposes a com position to have been formerly made. The most frequent ground of exemption is that the land once belonged tda religious house, and was therefore discharged in the following manner :—All abbots, priors, and other head; of religious houses, originally paid tithes from the lands belonging to them, until Pope Paschal II. exempted all spiritual per sons from paying tithes of lands which were in their own hands. This general discharge continued till the time of King Henry II., when Pope Adrian IV. restrained it to the three religious orders of Cister cians Templars, and Hoapitalers, to whom Pope Innocent III. added
the Icwmonstratenses. These four orders, on account of their exemp tion, were commonly called the privileged orders. The Council of Lateran, in 1215, further restrained this exemption to lands in tho occupation of those religious orders of which they were in possession before that council. Bulls were, however, obtained for discharging particular monasteries from the payment of tithes, which would not otherwise have been exempt ; by which means much land has been ever since tithe-free. Another mode by which binds belonging to religious houses became not liable to the payment of tithes was that of wait, of possession ; as where the lands and the rectory belonged to the same establishment, which would not, of course, pay tithes to itaelf. Yet, the Laude were not absolutely discharged by thin unity of posses sion, for, upon any disunion, the payment of tithes was revived ; so that the union only suspended the payment. The act 31 lien: VIII. c. 13, which dissolved several of the religious houses, continued the discharge of their lands from tithes, though in the possession of the king or any other person by grant from the crown; and, in conse quence of this, the lands of many laymen which were granted by the crown are tithe-free, and the right to tithe and the property in many rectories are vested in laymen. Many monasteries had previously been dissolved by act of parliament, but as no such clause as that contained in the 31 Heu. VIII. had been introduced into other acts, the lands of the monasteries dissolved by them became chargeable with tithes.
The payment of tithe. in kind has been a cause of constant dispute between clergymen and their parishioners. With the best intentions on both sides, the very nature of tithes is such, that doubts and diffi culties must arise between them : and even where there is no doubt, the form and principle of payment are odious and discouraging. Com mutation of the tithes has accordingly been attempted and has been found most successful. Dr. Paley, who saw so clearly the evils of tithes, himself suggested this improvement "No measure of such extensive concern appears to me so practicable, nor any single altera tion so beneficial, as the conversion of tithes into This commutation, I am convinced, might be so adjusted an to secure to tho tithe-holder a complete and perpetual equivalent for his interest, and to leave to industry its full operation and entire reward." (` Moral and Political Philosophy,' chap. ail.) This principle of commutation was first proposed to be applied by the legislature to Ireland. In addition to the common evils of a tithe system, that country was labouring under another. The mass of the people, who are Roman Catholics, were paying tithes to a Protestant clergy. Resistance to the payment of tithes had become so general that a commutation was deemed absolutely necessary for the safety of the church of Ireland. It was recommended by committees of both houses of parliament in but not finally carried into effect until 1838.