to collect a portion of ones' tithes during the
offertory In the
New Testament, the
Letter to the Hebrews recalls that Abraham had paid a tenth of the spoils he recovered to Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God (cf. Genesis 14:20). Many churches practiced tithing, as it was taught by the
Council of Tours in 567, and in the
Third Council of Mâcon in AD 585, a penalty of
excommunication was prescribed for those who did not adhere to this ecclesiastical law. Tithes can be given to the Church at once (as is the custom in many Christian countries with a
church tax), or distributed throughout the year; during the part of
Western Christian liturgies known as the
offertory, people often place a portion of their tithes (sometimes along with additional offerings) in the collection plate. talks about giving cheerfully, encourages giving what one can afford, discusses giving weekly (although this is a saved amount for
Jerusalem), exhorts supporting the financial needs of Christian workers, promotes feeding the hungry wherever they may be and states that pure religion is to help widows and orphans. Of those surveyed, 87% of
Baptist believers, 86% of
Pentecostal believers, 81% of
Non-denominational believers share this position.
Denominational positions Adventist churches The
Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches in its
Fundamental Beliefs that "We acknowledge God's ownership by faithful service to Him and our fellow men, and by returning tithes and giving offerings for the proclamation of His gospel and the support of His Church." However, Article XIII of the
Baptist Faith and Message recognizes a Christian obligation to contribute but does not specifically mention tithing as a requirement. Other Southern Baptists do not observe a tithe, only an offering. Representing
Southern Seminary, Professor Tom Schreiner states, "Is a tithe required?[...] I would say no, because a tithe is part of the Mosaic covenant." The
National Baptist Convention of America teaches that "Baptists believe that a proper sense of stewardship begins with the 'tithe'; a presentation of which belongs to Him. 'The tithe is the Lord's.' We have not given as a result of presenting the tithe. Our giving begins with the offering [after we have tithed]."
Catholic Church The
Council of Trent, which was held after the
Reformation, taught that "tithes are due to God or to religion, and that it is sacrilegious to withhold them", but the Catholic Church no longer requires anyone to give ten percent of income. According to the
Catechism of the Catholic Church "The faithful also have the duty of providing for the material needs of the Church, each according to his own abilities".
Lutheran churches The
Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod teaches that "Encourage[s] cheerful, first-fruit, proportionate (including but not limited to tithing) living and giving in all areas of life by Christian stewards". The
Book of Discipline of the
United Methodist Church states that it is the responsibility of ecclesiastics to "educate the local church that tithing is the minimum goal of giving in The United Methodist Church."
The Church of the Nazarene teaches Storehouse Tithing, in which members are asked to donate one-tenth of their income to their local church—this is to be prioritized before giving an offering to apostolates or charities.
Moravian Church The
Moravian Church encourages its members to "financially support the ministry of the Church toward the goal of tithing." The
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America teaches "proportionate giving and tithing as normal practices of Christian giving". Tithing is defined by the church as payment of one-tenth of one's annual income. Many church leaders have made statements in support of tithing. Every
Latter-day Saint has an opportunity once a year to meet with their
bishop for
tithing declaration. The payment of tithes is mandatory for members to receive the
priesthood or obtain a temple recommend for admission to
temples. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a
lay ministry. The money that is given is used to construct and maintain its buildings as well as to further the work of the church. None of the funds collected from tithing is paid to local church officials or those who serve in the church. Those serving in full-time church leadership do receive stipends for living expenses, but they are paid from non-tithing resources, such as investments.
Brigham Young University, a church-sponsored institution, also receives "a significant portion" of its maintenance and operating costs from tithes of the church's members.
Church collection of religious offerings and taxes England and Wales The right to receive tithes was granted to the English churches by
King Ethelwulf in 855. The
Saladin tithe was a royal tax, but assessed using ecclesiastical boundaries, in 1188. The legal validity of the tithe system was affirmed under the
Statute of Westminster of 1285. The
Dissolution of the Monasteries led to the transfer of many rights to tithe to secular landowners and
the Crown – and tithes could be extinguished until 1577 under an Act of the 37th year of
Henry VIII's reign (Tithes in London Act 1545).
Adam Smith criticized the system in
The Wealth of Nations (1776), arguing that a fixed rent would encourage peasants to work far more efficiently.
Dissenters In the seventeenth century various dissenting groups objected to paying tithes to Church of England.
Quakers were prominent among these, objecting to 'forced payments for the maintenance of a professional ministry'. In 1659 guidance was issued for a national system for recording the fines,
impropriations and imprisonments for non-payment of tithes as seen in the following extract from a document. These records were eventually collated and published in 1753 by
Joseph Besse, documenting widespread persecution throughout the British Isles and further abroad. This only abated in the 1680s, due in no small measure to the efforts of
William Penn who, through
his father's earlier connections at court, was friendly with
Charles I and
James, Duke of York and interceded with them in behalf of Quakers in England and on the Continent, respectively.
See below for a fuller description and history, until the reforms of the 19th century, written by
Sir William Blackstone and edited by other learned lawyers of the period.
End of the tithing system The system gradually ended with the
Tithe Commutation Act 1836, whose long-lasting Tithe Commission replaced them with a commutation payment, land award and/or rentcharges to those paying the commutation payment and took the opportunity to map out (apportion) residual
chancel repair liability where the rectory had been appropriated during the medieval period by a religious house or college. Its records giving a snapshot of land ownership in most parishes, the Tithe Files, are a socio-economic history resource. The rolled-up payment of several years' tithe would be divided between the tithe-owners as at the date of their extinction. This commutation reduced problems to the ultimate payers by effectively folding tithes in with rents however, it could cause transitional money supply problems by raising the transaction demand for money. Later the decline of large landowners led
tenants to become
freeholders and again have to pay directly; this also led to renewed objections of principle by non-
Anglicans. It also kept intact a system of chancel repair liability affecting the minority of parishes where the rectory had been lay-appropriated. The precise land affected in such places hinged on the content of documents such as the content of deeds of merger and apportionment maps.
Spain and Latin America , Málaga, Spain Both the tithe (), a levy of 10 per cent on all agricultural production, and "first fruits" (), an additional harvest levy, were collected in Spain throughout the medieval and early modern periods for the support of local
Catholic parishes. The tithe crossed the Atlantic with the
Spanish Empire; however, the
Indians who made up the vast majority of the population in colonial
Spanish America were exempted from paying tithes on native crops such as corn and potatoes that they raised for their own subsistence. After some debate, Indians in colonial Spanish America were forced to pay tithes on their production of European agricultural products, including wheat, silk, cows, pigs, and sheep. The tithe was abolished in several
Latin American countries, including Mexico, soon after independence from Spain (which started in 1810). The tithe was abolished in Argentina in 1826, and in Spain itself in 1841.
Governmental collection of Christian religious offerings and taxes Austria In Austria a colloquially called
church tax (
Kirchensteuer, officially called
Kirchenbeitrag, i. e.
church contribution) has to be paid by members of the
Catholic and
Protestant Church. It is levied by the churches themselves and not by the government. The obligation to pay church tax can just be evaded by an official declaration to cease church membership. The tax is calculated on the basis of personal income. It amounts to about 1.1 per cent (Catholic church) and 1.5 per cent (Protestant church).
Denmark All members of the
Church of Denmark pay a church tax, which varies between municipalities. The tax is generally around 1% of the taxable income.
Finland Members of
state churches pay a church tax of between 1% and 2% of income, depending on the municipality. In addition, 2.55 per cent of corporate taxes are distributed to the state churches. Church taxes are integrated into the common national taxation system.
Germany Germany levies a
church tax, on all persons declaring themselves to be Christians, of roughly 8–9% of their income tax, which is effectively (very much depending on the social and financial situation) typically between 0.2% and 1.5% of the total income. The proceeds are shared among Catholic, Lutheran, and other Protestant Churches. In addition to the government, the taxpayer also must notify his employer of his religious affiliation (or lack thereof) in order to ensure proper tax withholding. This opt-out is also used by members of "free churches" (e.g. Baptists) (non-affiliated to the scheme) to stop paying the church tax, from which the free churches do not benefit, in order to support their own church directly.
Italy Originally the Italian government of
Benito Mussolini, under the
Lateran treaties of 1929 with the
Holy See, paid a monthly
salary to
Catholic clergymen. This salary was called the
congrua. The eight-per-thousand law was created as a result of an agreement, in 1984, between the Italian Republic and the
Holy See. Under this law Italian taxpayers are able to vote how to partition the 0.8% ('eight per thousand') of the total income
tax IRPEF levied by Italy among some specific
religious confessions or, alternatively, to a
social assistance program run by the Italian State. This declaration is made on the
IRPEF form. This vote is not compulsory; the whole amount levied by the
IRPEF tax is distributed in proportion to explicit declarations. The last official statement of Italian Ministry of Finance made in respect of the year 2000 singles out seven beneficiaries: the Italian State, the
Catholic Church, the
Waldenses, the
Jewish Communities, the
Lutherans, the
Seventh-day Adventist Church and the
Assemblies of God in Italy. The tax was divided up as follows: • 87.17% Catholic Church • 10.35% Italian state • 1.21% Waldenses • 0.46% Jewish communities • 0.32% Lutherans • 0.28% Adventists of the Seventh Day • 0.21% Assemblies of God in Italy In 2000, the
Catholic Church raised almost a billion
euros, while the Italian state received about €100 million.
Scotland In Scotland
teinds were the tenths of certain produce of the land appropriated to the maintenance of the Church and clergy. At the Reformation most of the Church property was acquired by the Crown, nobles and landowners. In 1567 the
Privy Council of Scotland provided that a third of the revenues of lands should be applied to paying the clergy of the reformed
Church of Scotland. In 1925 the system was recast by statute and provision was made for the standardisation of stipends at a fixed value in money. The
Court of Session acted as the Teind Court. Teinds were finally abolished by section 56 of the
Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000.
Switzerland There is no official state church in Switzerland; however, all the
26 cantons (states) financially support at least one of the three traditional denominations —
Roman Catholic,
Old Catholic, or
Protestant — with funds collected through taxation. Each canton has its own regulations regarding the relationship between church and state. In some cantons, the church tax (up to 2.3 per cent) is voluntary but in others an individual who chooses not to contribute to church tax may formally have to leave the church. In some cantons private companies are unable to avoid payment of the church tax.
Tithes and tithe law in England before reform Excerpts from
Sir William Blackstone,
Commentaries on the Laws of England:
Definition and classification and those liable to pay tithes . . . tithes; which are defined to be the tenth part of the increase, yearly arising and renewing from the profits of lands, the stock upon lands, and the personal industry of the inhabitants: :the first species being usually called
predial, as of corn, grass, hops, and wood; :the second
mixed, as of wool, milk, pigs, &c, consisting of natural products, but nurtured and preserved in part by the care of man; and of these the tenth must be paid in gross: :the third
personal, as of manual occupations, trades, fisheries, and the like; and of these only the tenth part of the clear gains and profits is due. ... in general, tithes are to be paid for every thing that yields an annual increase, as corn, hay, fruit, cattle, poultry, and the like; but not for any thing that is of the substance of the earth, or is not of annual increase, as stone, lime, chalk, and the like; nor for creatures that are of a wild nature, or
ferae naturae, as deer, hawks, &c, whose increase, so as to profit the owner, is not annual, but casual.
History We cannot precisely ascertain the time when tithes were first introduced into this country. Possibly they were contemporary with the planting of Christianity among the Saxons, by Augustin the monk, about the end of the fifth century. But the first mention of them, which I have met with in any written English law, is in a constitutional decree, made in a synod held A.D. 786, wherein the payment of tithes in general is strongly enjoined. This canon, or decree, which at first bound not the laity, was effectually confirmed by two kingdoms of the heptarchy, in their parliamentary conventions of estates, respectively consisting of the kings of Mercia and Northumberland, the bishops, dukes, senators, and people. Which was a few years later than the time that Charlemagne established the payment of them in France, and made that famous division of them into four parts; one to maintain the edifice of the church, the second to support the poor, the third the bishop, and the fourth the parochial clergy.
Beneficiaries And upon their first introduction (as hath formerly been observed), though every man was obliged to pay tithes in general, yet he might give them to what priests he pleased; which were called
arbitrary consecrations of tithes: or he might pay them into the hands of the bishop, who distributed among his diocesan clergy the revenues of the church, which were then in common. But, when dioceses were divided into parishes, the tithes of each parish were allotted to its own particular minister; first by common consent, or the appointment of lords of manors, and afterwards by the written law of the land. ...It is now universally held, that tithes are due, of common right, to the
parson of the
parish, unless there be a special exemption. This parson of the parish, we have formerly seen, may be either the actual
incumbent, or else the
appropriator of the
benefice: appropriations being a method of endowing monasteries, which seems to have been devised by the regular clergy, by way of substitution to arbitrary consecrations of tithes.
Exemptions We observed that tithes are due to the parson of common right, unless by special exemption: let us therefore see, thirdly, who may be exempted from the payment of tithes ... either in part or totally, first, by a real composition; or secondly, by custom or prescription. First, a real composition is when an agreement is made between the owner of the lands, and the parson or vicar, with the consent of the ordinary and the patron, that such lands shall for the future be discharged from payment of tithes, by reason of some land or other real recompence given to the parson, in lieu and satisfaction thereof. Secondly, a discharge by custom or prescription, is where time out of mind such persons or such lands have been, either partially or totally, discharged from the payment of tithes. And this immemorial usage is binding upon all parties, as it is in its nature an evidence of universal consent and acquiescence; and with reason supposes a real composition to have been formerly made. This custom or prescription is either
de modo decimandi, or
de non-decimando. A
modus decimandi, commonly called by the simple name of a
modus only, is where there is by custom a particular manner of tithing allowed, different from the general law of taking tithes in kind, which are the actual tenth part of the annual increase. This is sometimes a pecuniary compensation, as twopence an acre for the tithe of land : sometimes it is a compensation in work and labour, as that the parson shall have only the twelfth cock of hay, and not the tenth, in consideration of the owner's making it for him: sometimes, in lieu of a large quantity of crude or imperfect tithe, the parson shall have a less quantity, when arrived to greater maturity, as a couple of fowls in lieu of tithe eggs; and the like. Any means, in short, whereby the general law of tithing is altered, and a new method of taking them is introduced, is called a
modus decimandi, or special manner of tithing. A prescription
de non-decimando is a claim to be entirely discharged of tithes, and to pay no compensation in lieu of them. Thus the king by his prerogative is discharged from all tithes. So a vicar shall pay no tithes to the rector, nor the rector to the vicar, for
ecclesia decimas non-folvit ecclesiae. But these
personal to both the king and the clergy; for their tenant or lessee shall pay tithes of the same land, though in their own occupation it is not tithable. And, generally speaking, it is an established rule, that in
lay hands,
modus de non-decimando non-valet. But spiritual persons or corporations, as monasteries, abbots, bishops, and the like, were always capable of having their lands totally discharged of tithes, by various ways: as • By real composition : • By the pope's
bull of exemption : • By unity of possession; as when the rectory of a parish, and lands in the same parish, both belonged to a religious house, those lands were discharged of tithes by this unity of possession : • By prescription; having never been liable to tithes, by being always in spiritual hands : • By virtue of their order; as the
knights templars,
cistercians, and others, whose lands were privileged by the pope with a discharge of tithes. Though, upon the dissolution of abbeys by
Henry VIII, most of these exemptions from tithes would have fallen with them, and the lands become tithable again; had they not been supported and upheld by the
Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1539 (
31 Hen. 8. c. 13) which enacted, that all persons who should come to the possession of the lands of any abbey then dissolved, should hold them free and discharged of tithes, in as large and ample a manner as the abbeys themselves formerly held them. And from this original have sprung all the lands, which, being in lay hands, do at present claim to be tithe-free: for, if a man can shew his lands to have been such abbey lands, and also immemorially discharged of tithes by any of the means before-mentioned, this is now a good prescription
de non-decimando. But he must shew both these requisites; for abbey lands, without a special ground of discharge, are not discharged of course; neither will any prescription
de non-decimando avail in total discharge of tithes, unless it relates to such abbeylands. Image:The tithe barn, Abbotsbury near Weymouth.jpg|The Tithe Barn,
Abbotsbury, Dorset (scene of the sheep-shearing in
Thomas Hardy's
Far from the Madding Crowd) Image:Tithe Barn at Bradford on Avon.JPG|
Tithe barn at Bradford on Avon, West Wiltshire Image:Tithe Barn Pilton interior.jpg|Interior of the
medieval tithe barn at Pilton, Somerset File:GrangeBarn-interior.jpg|
Grange Barn, Coggeshall, Essex; the timber has been dated to between 1130 and 1270. ==Islam==