Whether the Clergy Also Are Bound to Pay Tithes?
Objection 1: It would seem that clerics also are bound to pay tithes.
By common law [*Cap. Cum homines, de Decimis, etc.] the parish church
should receive the tithes on the lands which are in its territory.
Now it happens sometimes that the clergy have certain lands of their
own on the territory of some parish church, or that one church has
ecclesiastical property on the territory of another. Therefore it
would seem that the clergy are bound to pay predial tithes.
Obj. 2: Further, some religious are clerics; and yet they are bound
to pay tithes to churches on account of the lands which they
cultivate even with their own hands [*Cap. Ex parte, and Cap.
Nuper.]. Therefore it would seem that the clergy are not immune from
the payment of tithes.
Obj. 3: Further, in the eighteenth chapter of Numbers (26, 28), it is
prescribed not only that the Levites should receive tithes from the
people, but also that they should themselves pay tithes to the
high-priest. Therefore the clergy are bound to pay tithes to the
Sovereign Pontiff, no less than the laity are bound to pay tithes to
the clergy.
Obj. 4: Further, tithes should serve not only for the support of the
clergy, but also for the assistance of the poor. Therefore, if the
clergy are exempt from paying tithes, so too are the poor. Yet the
latter is not true. Therefore the former is false.
_On the contrary,_ A decretal of Pope Paschal [*Paschal II] says: "It
is a new form of exaction when the clergy demand tithes from the
clergy" [*Cap. Novum genus, de Decimis, etc.].
_I answer that,_ The cause of giving cannot be the cause of
receiving, as neither can the cause of action be the cause of
passion; yet it happens that one and the same person is giver and
receiver, even as agent and patient, on account of different causes
and from different points of view. Now tithes are due to the clergy
as being ministers of the altar and sowers of spiritual things among
the people. Wherefore those members of the clergy as such, i.e. as
having ecclesiastical property, are not bound to pay tithes; whereas
from some other cause through holding property in their own right,
either by inheriting it from their kindred, or by purchase, or in any
other similar manner, they are bound to the payment of tithes.
Hence the Reply to the First Objection is clear, because the clergy
like anyone else are bound to pay tithes on their own lands to the
parish church, even though they be the clergy of that same church,
because to possess a thing as one's private property is not the same
as possessing it in common. But church lands are not tithable, even
though they be within the boundaries of another parish.
Reply Obj. 2: Religious who are clerics, if they have care of souls,
and dispense spiritual things to the people, are not bound to pay
tithes, but they may receive them. Another reason applies to other
religious, who though clerics do not dispense spiritual things to the
people; for according to the ordinary law they are bound to pay
tithes, but they are somewhat exempt by reason of various concessions
granted by the Apostolic See [*Cap. Ex multiplici, Ex parte, and Ad
audientiam, de Decimis, etc.].
Reply Obj. 3: In the Old Law first-fruits were due to the priests,
and tithes to the Levites; and since the Levites were below the
priests, the Lord commanded that the former should pay the
high-priest "the tenth part of the tenth" [*Num. 18:26] instead of
first-fruits: wherefore for the same reason the clergy are bound now
to pay tithes to the Sovereign Pontiff, if he demanded them. For
natural reason dictates that he who has charge of the common estate
of a multitude should be provided with all goods, so that he may be
able to carry out whatever is necessary for the common welfare.
Reply Obj. 4: Tithes should be employed for the assistance of the
poor, through the dispensation of the clergy. Hence the poor have no
reason for accepting tithes, but they are bound to pay them.
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