Monastic Tithes
From their Origins to the Twelfth Century

In this study Professor Constable considers the tithes paid to and by monks in the Middle Ages.

Giles Constable (Author)

9780521072762, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 September 2008

372 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.1 cm, 0.47 kg

No tax in Europe can compare with tithes in its duration, the extent of its application and the economic burden it imposed. In this study Professor Constable considers the tithes paid to and by monks in the Middle Ages. In particular he examines why, by the twelfth century, most monks received tithes and many of them were freed from payment, in spite of earlier theory and practice by which monks, as distinct from the clergy, were usually forbidden to receive tithes and required to pay them. In the early Middle Ages monastic tithes were a matter not only of economics, but of doctrine, canon law and monastic theory. Their history lies in the borderland between theory and practice and Professor Constable studies them against a background of changes in property relationships, in the theory of tithing and in the nature of the monastic order.

Part I. Tithes in the Early Middle Ages 1. The Christian theory of tithes
2. The early practice of tithing
3. Carolingian legislation on tithes
Part II. Monastic possession of tithes: 4. From the seventh to the eleventh century
5. The policy of the reformed papacy
6. Monastic possession of tithes in the twelfth century
7. Opposition to monastic possession of tithes
8. The defence of monastic possession of tithes
9. The end of the opposition
Part III. Monastic Payment of tithes: 10. Monastic payment of tithes before the twelfth century
11. The growth of monastic freedom from tithes in the first half of the twelfth century
12. The crisis of monastic freedom from tithes.

Subject Areas: History [HB]