TITHES. 



tlie title of tlie clorgy to tlicm upon any divine right ; 

 though fuch a right certainly commenced, and, as he appro- 

 liends, as certainly ceafed, with the Je\v4fh theocracy ; yet 

 an honourable and competent maintenance for the minifters 

 of the gofpel is, vnidoubtedly, jure tJivino ; whatever the 

 p?rticular mode of that maintenance may be. Accordingly, 

 all municipal laws have provided a liberal and decent main- 

 tenance for their national prieils or clergy : ours, in par- 

 ticular, have eftablithed this of tithes, probably in imitation 

 of the Jewifh law ; and, perhaps, confidering the degenerate 

 ftate of the world in general, it may be more beneficial to 

 the Englilh clergy to found their title on the law of the 

 land, than upon any divine right whatfoever, unacknow- 

 ledged and unfupported by temporal fanClions. But, how- 

 ever beneficial tliis appointment may be to the clergy, it 

 has been complained of as impolitic in a variety of refpefts, 

 and peculiarly burdenfome to the ftate. 



Mr. Smith obferves (Nature and Caufes of the Wealth 

 of Nations, vol. iii.), that tithes, as well as other fimilar 

 taxes on the produce of the land, are in reality taxes upon 

 the rent, and, under the appearance of equality, are very 

 unequal taxes ; a certain portion of the produce being in 

 different fituations, equivalent to a very different portion of 

 the rent. In fome very rich lands the produce is fo great, 

 that the one-half of it is fully fufficicnt to replace to the 

 farmer his capital employed in cultivation, together with 

 the ordinary profits of farming-ftock in the neighbourhood. 

 The other half, or, what comes to the fame thing, the value 

 of the other half, he could afford to pay as rent to the 

 landlord, if there was no tithe. But if a tenth of the pro- 

 duce is taken from him in the way of tithe, he muft require 

 an abatement of the fifth part of his rent, otherwife he can- 

 not get back his capital with the ordinary profit. lu this 

 cafe the rent of the landlord, inftead of amounting to a half, 

 or five-tenths of the whole produce, will amount only to 

 four-tenths of it. In poorer lands, on the contrary, the 

 produce is fometimes fo fmall, and the expence of cultiva- 

 tion fo great, that it requires four-fifths of the whole pro- 

 duce to replace to the farmer his capital with the ordinary 

 profit. In this cafe, though there was no tithe, the rent of 

 the landlord could amount to no more than one-fifth or 

 two-tenths of the whole produce. But if the farmer pays 

 one-tenth of the produce in the way of tithe, he muft re- 

 quire an equal abatement of the rent of the landlord, which 

 Tvill thus be reduced to one-tenth only of the whole produce. 

 Upon the rent of rich lands, the tithe may fometimes be a 

 tax of no more than one-fifth part, or four (hillings in the 

 pound ; whereas, upon that of poorer lands, it may fome- 

 times be a tax of one-half, or of ten ftiillings in the pound. 

 It is a great difcouragement to the improvement of land, 

 that a tenth part of the clear produce, without any deduc- 

 tion for the advanced expence of raifing that produce, 

 fliould be alienated from the cultivator of the land to any 

 other perfon whatever. The improvements of the landlord 

 and the cultivation of the farmer are both checked by this 

 unequal tax upon the rent. The one cannot venture to 

 make the moft important, which are generally the moft 

 expenfive improvements ; nor the other to raife the moft 

 valuable, which are generally too the moft expenfive 

 crops ; when the church, which lays out no part of the 

 expence, is to (hare fo very largely in the profit. When, 

 inftead either of a certain portion of the produce of 

 , land, or of the price of a certain portion, a certain 

 fum of money is to be paid in full compenfation for all 

 tax or tithe ; the tax becomes, in this cafe, exaftly of 

 the fame nature with the land-tax of England. It nei- 

 VOL. XXXV. 



ther rifes nor falls with the rent of the land. It ncithtr 

 encourages nor difcouragcs improvement. The tithe in 

 the greater part of thofe parifhes which pay what is called 

 a modus in lieu of all other tithes, is a tax of this kind. 

 Some have propofed, as a better method for raifing a re- 

 venue for the clergy, to lay an equivalent tax upon all 

 eftates, cultivated or not cultivated. It is well known, and 

 has often been lamented, even by the clergy thcmfelves, 

 that this method of raifing a revenue for their fubfiftencc, 

 is a continual fource of difpute between the clergy and their 

 parifhioners, and contributes to obftruft the ufcfuhiefs of 

 their miniftry. In Holland, and fome other Proteftant 

 countries, the civil magiftrates have adopted what fome 

 have thought a better plan, by allowing their minifters a 

 fixed ftipend, paid out of the public funds. 



In efieft, for the firft three hundred years after Chrift, 

 no mention is made in all ecclcfiaftical hiftory of any fuch 

 thing as tithes ; though, in that time, altars and oblations 

 had been recalled, and the church had mifcrably judaized in 

 many other things. The churchmen confcfTedly lived all 

 that time on free-will offerings : nor could the defeft of 

 paying tithes be owing to this, that there were wanting 

 civil magiftrates to enjoin it ; fince Chriftians, having lands, 

 might have given out of them what they pleafed ; and the 

 firft Chriftian emperors, who did all things by advice of 

 the bifliops, fupplied what was wanting to the clergy, not 

 out of tithes, which were never propofed, but out of their 

 own imperial revenues. 



The firft authority produced, fetting afide the Apoftolical 

 Conftitntions, which few of the patrons of the tithes will 

 infift on, is a provincial fynod at CuUen in 356, where 

 tithes are voted to be God's rent : but before that time, 

 divers other abufes and complaints had got ground, as 

 altars, candles at noon, &c. And thus one complaint be- 

 gat another ; as it is certain that tithes fuppofe altars. 



It is not eafy to afcertain the time when tithes were firft 

 introduced into this country. About the year 794, Offa, 

 king of the Mercians, made a law, by which he gave to 

 the church the tithes of all his kingdom, in order, as it is 

 faid, to atone for the death of Ethelbert, king of the Eaft 

 Angles, whom, in the preceding year, he had caufed to be 

 bafely murdered. But that they were paid in England 

 before this time, by way of offering, according to the ancient 

 iifage and decrees of the church, appears from the canons 

 of Egbert, archbifhop of York, about the year yjo, and 

 from an epiftle of Boniface, archbifhop of Mentz, written 

 about the fame time to Cuthbert, archbifhop of Canter- 

 bury, and from the 17th canon of the general council held 

 for the whole kingdom at Chalchuth, in the year 787. Dot 

 the law of Offa firft gave the church a civil right to them 

 in this land by way of property and inheritance, and enabled 

 the clergy to recover them as their legal due, by the coer- 

 cion of the civil power. However, this eftabUfhmcnt of 

 Offa reached no farther than to the kingdom of Mercia, 

 over which he reigned ; luitil Ethelwulph, about fixty 

 years after, enlarged it for the whole realm of England. 

 See Revenue. 



Judge Blackftone fays, that pofllbly tithes in this country 

 were contemporary with the planting of Chriftianity among 

 the Saxons, by Auguftinc, the monk, about the end of the 

 fixth century. But the firft mention of them, which he has 

 met with in any written Englifh law, is in a conftitutional de- 

 cree, made in a fynod held (as he fays) A. D. 786, in which 

 the payment of tithes in general is ftrongly enjoined. This 

 canon or decree, which did not at firft bind the laity, was effec- 

 tually confirmed by two kingdoms of the heptarchy, in their 

 5 A peilia- 



