Note 1050 — Chapter II · RETROSPECT.
Reading edition
Representacion al Rey D. Felipe V dirigida al mas seguro aumento del Real Erario. Hecha por D. Miguel de Zavala y Auñon, pp. 7-35, 74-97 (Madrid, 1732).
It should be observed that in none of the descriptions of the burdens imposed on the peasantry is any allusion made to what perhaps was the most grievous of all, both in amount and method of collection—the tithe by which the enormous church establishment was supported. This was wholly beyond control by the secular power and was therefore left out of consideration.
In 1820, Dr. Sebastian de Miñano, in his Cartas del Pobrecito Holgazan, gives a graphic picture of the ecclesiastical burdens of the peasant—the first fruits, the tithes and the obligatory “almsgiving” to all the neighboring convents.—Ochoa, Epistolario español, II, 616.