TITHES AS PAROCHIAL ENDOWMENTS 339 



national assembly established the primd facie right of the parochial 

 clergy to the tithes of the parish, they would have relied, not on 

 custom, but on statute. If, as parochial endowments, tithes were 

 statutory in their origin, we should expect to find that they commence 

 with the legislation by which they are alleged to be created, and 

 that the payment was certain hi practice, uniform in amount, 

 identical in source. If, on the other hand, the endowment of parish 

 churches with tithes originated in a series of voluntary dedications, 

 and if the State merely protected a property which was none the 

 less real because it began as a free-will offering, we should expect 

 to find that customary payments preceded any recorded legislation, 

 and were uncertain in practice, varying in amount, irregular in 

 source. Historical facts confirm the second view. The voluntary 

 payment of tithes in this country preceded, by upwards of three 

 centuries, parochial organisation, as well as both ecclesiastical and 

 secular legislation. The first secular enactment on the subject 

 assumes the prior existence of the charge, and for more than two 

 centuries afterwards allows tithe-payers a wide freedom in the 

 choice of the religious body to which payment was made. When 

 this freedom was limited, it was restricted not by legislation but 

 by the growth of custom. Both in respect of the persons to whom 

 tithes were due, and of the produce on which they were payable, 

 the practice was not certain, but uncertain. The amount paid was 

 varying, not uniform. The sources from which the payment was 

 derived, are not identical, but irregular. If, therefore, the State 

 endowed parochial churches with tithes, all those signs, which 

 would naturally accompany such a national act, are conspicuously 

 absent. On the other hand, all those signs, which naturally 

 indicate the legislative protection of customary practices, are con- 

 conspicuously present. 



The gradual, piecemeal, and discretionary endowment of parochial 

 churches with the tithes of the parish has left its mark on the 

 existing organisation. It explains, for instance, as no other assump- 

 tion can explain, the freedom from the payment which the " Hall," 

 " Court," or " Manor " farm frequently enjoyed ; it lies at the root 

 of the distinction between rectorial and vicarial tithes, and between 

 ecclesiastical appropriators and lay impropriators ; it suggests the 

 reason why land in one parish should be charged with tithes for the 

 benefit of the church of another parish. Many of the old anomalies 

 in the law of tithes have been smoothed into comparative uniformity 



