Note 981 — Chapter X · THE INCOME OF THE CLERGY.

Brompton says that Offa granted it, as far as Mercia was concerned, p. 772. Certainly, in general, Brompton’s authority is not very great; but I think that in this case he has probability on his side, if we restrict the grant to Offa’s demesne lands, or to a release of a tenth of the dues payable to the king on Folcland. A general enactment, comprising the whole kingdom, would scarcely have been omitted in any subsequent collection of laws. The law of Offa is indeed lost, but some of its provisions probably survive in the legislation of later kings. See Ælfr. Proem. Thorpe, i. 58. The absence of all mention of tithe by Ælfred is not conclusive: he takes just as little notice of cyricsceat, leohtsceat, sáwlsceat, and other payments which were unquestionably claimed by the church. Eádweard’s treaty with Gúðorm, though it does not define the parties from whom tithe was demandable, treats subtraction of it as an offence punishable at law.