Definition
A Latin term meaning "of not paying tithes." De non decimando refers to a prescriptive right or claim by which a person or institution is entirely discharged from the obligation to pay tithes — and, critically, from any compensation payable in lieu of tithes. The right operates as a complete exemption, not merely a reduction or deferral of the tithe obligation.
In English ecclesiastical law, tithes were a compulsory tenth-part payment of produce or income, owed historically to the Church. A prescription de non decimando asserted that, by long usage or legal entitlement, the claimant owed nothing at all — no tithe in kind, no modus decimandi (a fixed payment substituted for tithes in kind), and no other substitute obligation.
Common Confusion
De non decimando is easily conflated with two related tithe concepts. A modus decimandi is not an exemption but a substitution — a customary payment of a fixed sum or alternate render in place of the tithe proper. A prescription de modo decimandi claims a different manner of paying; a prescription de non decimando claims no payment at all. Researchers working with tithe disputes in ecclesiastical court records must distinguish these carefully, as the defenses available and the courts competent to hear them differed. A second source of confusion is the term non decimando appearing in early modern pleading without the full prescriptive formula, which may refer to a factual denial of liability rather than the formal prescriptive claim.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in sources touching English ecclesiastical law and tithe litigation, making it a narrow but precise research target. Several navigational points matter:
Temporal range. The doctrine was most actively litigated from the medieval period through the nineteenth century. The Tithe Commutation Act 1836 converted most remaining tithes to rent charges, largely ending practical tithe litigation and pushing the term toward historical obsolescence. Researchers encountering de non decimando in post-1836 sources are likely reading historical commentary, chancery proceedings over older rights, or academic treatments rather than live pleadings.
Jurisdictional layering. Tithe disputes in England sat at the intersection of ecclesiastical courts, common law courts, and equity. Which court had competence over a de non decimando claim was itself contested. Common law courts generally recognized the prescriptive claim; ecclesiastical courts had concurrent jurisdiction over tithe disputes but were sometimes ousted where the prescription was pleaded. Researchers should not assume that a de non decimando dispute will be found only in ecclesiastical court records.
Prescription requirements. The prescriptive right required immemorial usage — use from time beyond legal memory. This standard, and the evidence needed to establish it, shaped litigation strategy and the types of documents generated. Surveys, terriers, and manorial records are likely evidentiary sources alongside court pleadings.
Corpus connections. The term connects directly to broader Law Mind corpus materials on tithes, ecclesiastical courts, prescriptive rights, and the modus decimandi. Researchers working backward from tithe commutation records into earlier tithe law will encounter this term as a marker of the older exemption doctrine.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries — Black's (1st ed.), Black's (2nd ed.), and Burrill — are in complete agreement, each tracing the definition to the same passage in Blackstone's Commentaries (2 Bl. Comm. 31). The uniformity reflects the term's narrow, settled meaning in the historical sources: a complete prescriptive discharge from tithes and from any substitute compensation.
No dictionary provides significant elaboration beyond the Blackstone citation, which is itself characteristic of a term whose operational content lived in the case law and ecclesiastical court practice rather than in doctrinal development. The historical dictionaries do not address the procedural context of the claim, its relationship to modus decimandi, or the jurisdictional questions that made tithe litigation complicated in practice — gaps that researchers should fill by consulting treatises on ecclesiastical law and tithe practice directly.
Jurisdictional Note
De non decimando is a term of English ecclesiastical law with no direct equivalent in American legal practice. Tithes as a legal obligation were never established in the United States, making this term irrelevant to American legal research except as a historical or comparative matter. Researchers in Scottish, Irish, or Welsh legal history should note that tithe law in those jurisdictions developed along parallel but distinct lines, and the prescriptive formulas may differ.