TABLE OF CASES CITED. ...... Acland v. Buller, 1 Exch. 837, 18 L. J. (Exch.) 51 Andrews v. Drever, 3 Cl. & F. 314, 9 Bli. (N. S.) 471 Camberwell Rent-charge, In the matter of, 4 Q. B. 151, 3 100 11, 12 Ely, Dean of, v. Bliss, 2 De G. M. & G. 459 Esdaile, In re, W. N. 1886, p. 47, 54 L. T. (N. S.) 637.... Esdaile v. Assessment Committee of City of London, 18 Q. B. D. 599; C. A., 19 id. 431, 56 L. J. (M. C.) 60; Farmer v. London and North Western Railway, 20 Q.B.D. Hackney and Lamberhurst Commutation, 1 E. B. & E. 1 12 19, 40 Payne v. Esdaile, H. L. 13 App. Cas. 613; in C. A. re- Reg. v. Tithe Commissioners, 12 L. J. (Q. B.) 109 St. John's Coll., Oxford, Ex parte, 22 Ch. D. 93, 52 L. J. 92 Stevens v. Bishop, 19 Q. B. D. 442; C. A., 20 id. 442, 56 L. J. (Q. B.) 454; C. A., 57 id. 283, 36 W. R. 421, 58 L. T. 169 .... 20 THE LAW OF TITHES. CHAPTER I. SKETCH OF THE HISTORY AND LAW OF TITHES PRIOR TO THE origin of tithes and the date of their introduction Down to the time of Edgar their payment seems to have been enforced by no law, properly so called, but only by the penalty of ecclesiastical censure; and those who paid them seem to have done so at their own caprice, so long as they were paid to some person or body for ecclesiastical purposes, the tendency being, however, to pay them to the older or "mother" churches. Edgar, according to Lord Selborne, was the first king to make any law attaching a legal penalty to the non-payment of tithes. He also recognized and en 1 "Ancient Facts and Fictions concerning Churches and Tithes." S. B Chap. I. joined their payment to the mother churches, permitting, however, anyone, who had on his land a origin of Parish & church with a burial-place, to give one-third of his tithes to that church. In these private churches Lord Selborne sees the origin of our modern parishes.1 In spite, however, of this law of Edgar's, and further ordinances of subsequent monarchs, it is by no means certain that, even at the date of the Conquest, the payment of tithes was altogether general or compulsory. Soon after the Conquest the payment appears to have become general, and the one-third, which Edgar allowed to be paid to the private (afterwards the parish) church, seems by a gradual process to have become in most cases the whole, but even then tithes were not by any means universally paid to the parish church, "arbitrary" consecrations, as Selden called them,2 to other churches and religious institutions continuing down to the time of John, and some even to Edward I. This is accounted for by the number and influence of the monasteries, which endeavoured to obtain the consecration of tithes to themselves, instead of to the secular or parochial clergy. According to the opinion hitherto commonly held, tithes were originally devoted to four purposes-1. The use of the bishop; 2. The maintenance of the church's fabric; 3. Distribution among the poor, including the entertainment of strangers; and 4. The use of the in 1 "Ancient Facts and Fictions concerning Churches and Tithes." 2 "History of Tithes." |