CHAPTER X. 



CHURCH, CROWN, AND CHARITY ESTATES. 



In the early period of Christianity in this Tithes for 



support of 



country, among other ecclesiastical laws intro- religion in 



England : 



duced from the neighbouring Continent, the 

 Scriptural principle of reserving for the support 

 of religion a tenth part of the produce of 

 industry was enjoined. This included not only 

 a tenth part of the produce of the crops and 

 stock payable in gross, but also a tenth of the 

 clear gains from manual occupations and trades. 

 This large proportion of the total produce of 

 those countries which had embraced Christianity 

 was apportioned, more than a thousand years 

 ago, into four divisions : one to maintain the 

 edifice of the church, the second to support the 

 poor, the third the bishops, and the fourth 

 the parochial clergy. Originally all the land in 

 the country was titheable except such as be- 

 longed to the Crown and to the Church itself. 

 At the time of the Reformation, much of the 

 Church lands in this country passed into the 



