Definition
Nonje et decimæ (sometimes rendered "nonæ et decimæ") refers to two distinct ecclesiastical payments historically owed to the Church of England by tenants of church-held agricultural lands. The first, nonæ, was a rent or duty assessed upon goods and products connected with husbandry — essentially a tithe-adjacent levy on farming activity. The second, decimæ, was a more general claim asserted as a matter of ecclesiastical right, independent of the tenancy relationship. Together, the terms describe a dual-payment obligation that straddled the line between landlord-tenant rent and canonical ecclesiastical dues.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in ecclesiastical law contexts from the medieval and early modern English periods. Researchers encountering it in historical sources — particularly pre-Reformation ecclesiastical records, church court proceedings, or disputes over glebe lands — should treat the two components as analytically distinct: nonæ arose from the agricultural tenancy, while decimæ derived from the inherent jurisdictional claim of the Church. Conflating them in a research context can obscure whether a dispute sounds in landlord-tenant law, canon law, or both.
The term surfaces most reliably in materials touching on tithe law, church farms (glebe), and the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts before the Judicature Acts reorganized English court structure. After the Reformation and the dissolution of monastic and church landholdings under Henry VIII, the practical context for these payments shifted considerably, and the term largely fell out of active legal use. Researchers working in post-Reformation sources will rarely encounter it as a live legal claim, but may find it in historical recitals or title documents tracing the provenance of church lands.
Because Black's 2nd Edition treatment is sparse and sourced through Wharton, researchers should not treat that entry as exhaustive. The better research path runs through primary ecclesiastical and canon law sources, English tithe dispute records, and Wharton's Law Lexicon directly for any fuller exposition Wharton may have provided.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Edition, Supplemental) provides the sole dictionary entry available in the Law Mind corpus. The entry is brief: nonæ is characterized as a rent or duty for things belonging to husbandry, while decimæ is described as a claim asserted in right of the Church — with Wharton cited as the authority. The distinction Black's draws, brief as it is, is analytically meaningful: it separates a contractual or quasi-contractual agricultural obligation (nonæ) from a jurisdictional ecclesiastical right (decimæ). This mirrors the broader structure of tithe law, in which some payment obligations ran with the land or tenancy while others arose from ecclesiastical jurisdiction regardless of tenure. No other historical dictionary entry in the corpus addresses the term, and Black's 2nd Edition offers no case authority or statutory reference to anchor the definition further.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to English ecclesiastical law and has no recognized equivalent in American law. Researchers working in U.S. legal sources will not encounter it as an operative legal concept. Its relevance is confined to English legal history, canon law, and the history of church property.