Tithe rule

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The tithe rule was a form of feudal rent and was a heavy burden for the peasants in the Middle Ages and early modern times .

The tithe rule was originally only exercised by monasteries (monastery tithes), church foundations or cathedral chapters; the tithe represented a fee for the (village) pastor and the local poor, was raised centrally by the bishop, delivered by the peasants as a natural item and stored in tithe barns. So it did not take long before the bishop and other ecclesiastical areas made use of them. As early as the early Middle Ages, secular landlords, above all nobles, tried to collect the tithe in addition to other taxes, such as taxes.

Two types of tithe were in use: The big tithe refers to the percentage of the gross yield of grain and wine to the landlord , while the small tithe extends the obligation to pay other products such as potatoes or clover. While the duty to pay the big tithe was widely recognized and accepted by the peasantry, there was resistance to the small tithe from the start.

The tithe burdened the peasants in two ways. On the one hand, the levy between ten and thirty percent of the harvest - which was not the only levy they had to pay to their landlords or tithe lords - was often an existential burden; on the other hand, the farmers were still forced to give up their tithing land in the traditional way to farm. Agricultural reforms of the 18th century, such as changes in crop rotation (moving away from doubtful and towards three-field farming) or potato cultivation, mostly met with bitter resistance from the tithe.

Therefore, farmers increasingly tried to lease the agricultural land for a certain number of years for a fixed sum of money in order to avoid disabilities. But this often turned out to be catastrophic given the sharp fluctuations in grain prices. Only with the replacement legislation , through which most of the feudal burdens were replaced by the second half of the 19th century , did the situation of the peasants who had previously been dependent improve.

literature

Hartmut Boockmann : Introduction to the history of the Middle Ages . 2nd improved edition. Beck, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-406-05996-1 , ( Beck's elementary books ).