Tithing

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Tithing

In Western ecclesiastical law, the act of paying a percentage of one's income to further religious purposes. One of the political subdivisions of England that was composed of ten families who held freehold estates.

Residents of a tithing were joined in a society and bound to the king to maintain peaceful relations with each other. The person responsible for the administration of the tithing was called the tithing-man; he was a forerunner of the constable.

TITHING, Eng. law. Formerly a district containing ten men with their families. In each tithing there was a tithing man whose duty it was to keep the peace, as a constable now is bound to do. St. Armand, in his Historical Essay on the Legislative Power of England, p. 70, expresses, an opinion that the tithing was composed not of ten common families, but of ten families of lords of a manor.

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He reviews the extant documentation, including tithings, leet court, manorial, ecclesiastical, and royal records, as well as the archaeology of Essex houses, and carefully charts for us their limitations and their strengths.

A Rural Society After the Black Death: Essex, 1350-1535

Meanwhile, Pastor Robert Farah's Center Harbor Christian Church says it did receive a "substantial" amount of money from FRM--which was founded and operated by his son Scott--but the money was the result of "tithings," not ill-gotten gains, the church explained in a court filing last month.

But the church said it "was not aware of the asserted Ponzi scheme to any extent whatsoever"--and while the church "did receive substantial tithings from FRM," it shouldn't have to pay anything back.