244 History of the English Landed Interest. 



money was not his own until after he had deducted the few 

 pence which he was told belonged to the Deity. Nor was it 

 permitted for any individual to assume that he was giving 

 alms until after his tithe had been paid. This brings up the 

 subject of the poor and their maintenance, for which we shall 

 shortly see the producer alone was taxed. There were, and 

 there always have been, three degrees of pauperism, namely, 

 (1) The impotent poor, such as the aged, orphan, lunatic, and 

 diseased. (2) The poor by casualty, such as the disabled, 

 decayed, and unfortunate. (3) The thriftless poor, such as 

 the vagrant, idle, riotous, dissolute and the like. Before the 

 statute of 43 Elizabeth there was no universal provision by 

 law for relieving any of these three degrees in poverty. It 

 has alwaj's been supposed that the religious houses were by 

 virtue of their institution obliged to make some provision for 

 the poor. It is so essential that the reader should be quite 

 clear on each important stage in the National Poor Law history, 

 that it is necessary, even at the risk of repetition, to once more 

 beat the bounds of early tithe distribution. In the days, then, 

 prior to the institution of parishes, when it was the practice 

 of the bishop to send out his clergy to preach in the several 

 parts of his diocese, he divided all the tithes that were paid 

 into his hands according to the quadripartite distribution ; 

 viz., one part for the maintenance of himself and clergy, a 

 second for the repairs and ornament of the churches, a third 

 for use of the ministers ojSficiating therein, and a fourth for the 

 succour of the poor and necessitous traveller. Directly, how- 

 ever, that the episcopal sees became endowed with lauds, the 

 bishops themselves proffered their particular share of the tithe 

 fur the encouragement of the Parish Church movement. On 

 receipt of this fourth part of the tithe the resident parish 

 cleryman adopted the same tripartite distribution just intro- 

 duced by his diocesan ; that is to say, he used it for his own, 

 his church's, and his poor's maintenance. What had thus been 

 begun voluntarily was soon made obligatory by canonical, if 

 not by secular law. It has been argued that this fraction of 

 the tithe was insufficient to support the poor of the nation, and 

 that if the Saxon laws are searched, traces of Poor Law legis- 



