Show TITHE A RELIC OF OTHER DAYS but la Is recognized as property by english law the recent revolt of 10 farmers in southern england to resist the payment of tithes directs attention to this form of taxation which has from time to time been the cause of considerable agitation in that coun try more than a bear ear ago reports came from a sussex town to the ef feet that angry farmers had at tacked a bailiff who attempted to seize belonging to a neighbor who hid had failed to meet his tithe pa pai ments due the church of englan I 1 in the present situation auctioneers who rho have tried to sell the proper property tv of farmers who owe tithes have met with ith as little success as the aue tio pioneers in foreclosure sales in parts of our own mid west tithe payments are a rel c of an dent clent days when persons were called upon to pay one tenth of the produce of all land and labarto labor to the support of the church they were stabilized in england in 1920 1923 by an act of par lament which laid down a fixed schedule of payments since then however the prices of live stock and agricultural produce have dropped by about 50 per cent the tithe probably originated in a tribute levied by a conqueror or ruler upon his subjects and perhaps the custom of dedicating a tenth of the spoils of war to the gods led to the religious extension of the term before the eighth century pay ment of tithes was enjoined by ec writers and church coun ells CBS but the earliest authentic ex ample of a law of the state encore in ing payment Is probably that in the CapItula capitularies rles of charlemagne in en england and the earliest example of legal recognition of tithes Is believed to be a decree of a synod in the church received tithes in n the middle ages but trouble arose under the reign of henry VIII when this monarch raided the mon as he transferred their tithe privileges to his friends the tithe Is property and if the government abolished it or even amended it in 7 principle it Is argued it would then have to reform all property laws so the tithe question Is one of parliaments knottiest problems |