1803.] Hijlory of TytheSi as flpplicahk to Srctlan^, ^i$ 



FOR THE farmer's magazine. 



A^fhort Hijlory of Tythes, Teinds or Tenths, as opplicalU to Scoilant 



Tythes are of Jewiih inilitution. Under the law of Mofes, 

 the whole tribe of Levi were to be maintained out of the in- 

 dufiry of the other eleven Ifraelitiili tribes, who were bound to 

 pay them a tenth part of their own income, iiut u'e fcem to 

 have as little conncdtion with this particular part of the Jewifli 

 policy, as with that other part of the ceremonial law which for- 

 bids the race of Jacob to eat fwine's fleih. Accordingly the A- 

 poflles, when the quellion was debated, whether the Gentile con- 

 verts to Chriftiai.ity (hould be bound by the precepts of the cere- 

 monial law of Mofes, obfcrve, •* Now, therefore, why tempt 

 *« yc God to put a yoke on the neck of the dilciplcs, which nei- 

 *' ther we nor our fathers were able to bear.*' 



Tythes were, however, a yoke of too much importance for the 

 ' good of the Romifh clergy to be ailoweci to reft in this way ; and 

 no fooner were corruptions begun to take place in the early 

 Chriilian church, than the clergy made ufe of the threatenings 

 of the Jewifh law^ to compel their Chrif\ian flock to be tythed. 

 The ftratagems they fell upon for this purpofe, when hardly one 

 of the laity of Europe, could either read or write, may be gather- 

 ed from their own repoiitories ol Monkifh Latin ; and were fuc- 

 cefsfully prajSlifed in the ages of darknefs and fuperftition. 



Montefquieu is of opinion, that the Emperor Charlemagne was 

 the firif that eftablilhed tythes in the Chriftian world ; but in this 

 I think it is probable he is miftaken, for in a letter wrote by 

 Saint Hieronymus to Damafu?, who wa; Biihop of Rome as 

 early as 366, he fpcaks of tythes as a thing from which he had 

 his living j and this Saint made a celebrated difcourfe, which is 

 extant, upon the payment of tythes, from the tiiird chapter of 

 Malachi, verfe 7. and feq. There is a fermon of St. Auguftine 

 alfo extant upon the lame fubjcvSc, wherein he brings forward 

 and enforces the rights of Romilli priefts to receive tythes, in iucli 

 ingenious and dexterous terms, that it is not wonderful the ig- 

 norant people believed and obeyed. 



We have upon record among the exiravagcvi'es ccmmuKes a di^ 

 "jsrfis Romanis pojitificibus, a long direction by Pope Boniface th& 

 8th, in the year 1301, to the colle^ftors of t\thes, fpecifying all 

 the particular articles for which tythes were to be demanded; 

 fuch as for woods, gardens, wine, wheat, and out of perfonal 

 labours and income of every kind. 



Tythes are defined, by the pontifical law, to be the tcr.th part 

 of all moveable goods, wliich belongs to ^nd is due to God, aud 



whici^ 



