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.

In early medieval Europe, monasticism constituted a significant force in society because the prayers of the religious on behalf of others featured as powerful currency. The study of this phenomenon is at once full of potential and peril, rightly drawing attention to the wider social involvement of an otherwise exclusive group, but also describing a religious community in terms of its service provision. Previous scholarship has focused on the supply and demand of prayer within the medieval economy of power, patronage, and gift exchange. Intercessory Prayer and the Monastic Ideal in the Time of the Carolingian Reforms is the first volume to explain how this transactional dimension of prayer factored into monastic spirituality. Renie S. Choy uncovers the relationship between the intercessory function of monasteries and the ascetic concern for moral conversion in the minds of prominent religious leaders active between c. 750-820. Through sustained analysis of the devotional thought of Benedict of Aniane and contemporaneous religious reformers during the reigns of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, Choy examines key topics in the study of Carolingian monasticism: liturgical organization and the intercessory performances of the Mass and the Divine Office, monastic theology, and relationships of prayer within monastic communities and with the world outside. Arguing that monastic leaders showed new interest on the intersection between the interiority of prayer and the functional world of social relationships, this study reveals the ascetic ideal undergirding the provision of intercessory prayer by monasteries.

In 1226, Pope Honorius III resolved a conflict between the Duke of Silesia, Henry I the Bearded, & Bishop Lawrence of Wroclaw, the see of that duchy. Henry alleged that the bishop had subjected the inhabitants of his duchy to ¿unowed exactions levied as tithes.¿ Henry alleged a devastating impact of Lawrence¿s demands on settlement in his duchy, on his authority over its inhabitants, & implicitly on the entire social, economic, & political order over which he presided. This is a study of the period in which parish churches & tithe revenues are documented. Identifies those features of local churches & tithing that were routine, innovative, & controversial. Assesses directions of change during the period of documentation. Illustrations.

Regarded by contemporaries as the chief dispute of our times, tithes were the subject of intense controversy in the 1650s. Ministers, reformers, radicals and sectarians all went into print to defend or destroy the clergy's right to a tenth of the produce of the land. Tithes pushed the limits of private property, and both their opponents and their defenders recognized their significance for ownership, the law, liberty and individuality.