The Land Burdens of the Era. 243 



Parliament, there were certain regular and irregular charges 

 on particular estates, for foreign service, such as the king's 

 gahelle (a tax originally levied on salt, but afterwards signify- 

 ing a tribute), the ward of the sea, and the burial of the dead 

 on the Scotch battlefields of 1321.^ 



Next perhaps to taxation, the heaviest claim on the farmers' 

 produce must have been those multifarious market dues which 

 have been alluded to in a former chapter. If any further proof 

 of their severity were needed it would be forthcoming in the 

 fact that the freeing of the markets from all dues formed on3 

 of the four clauses in "Wat Tyler's first formula of terms. In 

 addition to the tithe, a percentage was often levied on receipts 

 by the Pope or other Church dignitaries ; but this charge dis- 

 appeared after the reign of Edward III. As soon as the land- 

 owner ceased to cultivate his lands, or to share in the profits of 

 their cultivation otherwise than indirectly through the medium 

 of rents, the burden of the tithe fell upon the farmer. If we 

 except that due upon timber, the whole of the mixed and pre- 

 dial tithes were obtained from the farmer's crops, wool, milk, 

 and young live stock. Great though the parson's profits must 

 have been, it is scarcely credible that Professor Rogers can 

 have computed them correctly when he estimates them at 

 rather more than two-fifths of the lord's income, even though 

 he includes in this calculation those accruing from the cultiva- 

 tion of the glebe. ^ 



There is very little evidence about personal tithe at this 

 time, nor need we stop to consider its importance in a history 

 such as this, which deals with real property only. Since, 

 however, in a.d. 866 the Bishop of Utrecht was advancing a 

 claim even on wreckage,^ it is not likely that the English 

 monastic clergy, who aped all that was foreign in their Church 

 polity, would have overlooked this source of income. The 

 ecclesiastic preached the duty of bestowing a tenth on God's 

 service in so drastic a fashion, that even the child's pocket- 



' Eogers, 8ix Centuries of Work and Wages, p. 209. 

 2 Id., Ibid., p. 161. 



^ Taswell Langmeade, Eacjl. Constit. Hist. ; vide Appendix on Tithes, 

 by Carmichael. 



