Note 537 — Chapter XXIII · THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

The décime was an extraordinary royal revenue derived from the payment by the clergy of a tenth of the annual income from their benefices. Its prototype was the Saladin tithe, imposed by Philip Augustus (1180-1223) for the financing of his crusade. In the latter half of the thirteenth century, and throughout the fourteenth, the décime was called for by the kings with considerable frequency, often ostensibly for crusading purposes, and it was generally obtained by a more or less compulsory vote of the clergy, or without their consent at all.