Modus Decimandi - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition modus-decimandi

Definition :

Modus decimandi, a particular manner of tithing arising from immemorial usage, differing from the payment of one-tenth of the annual increase; being sometimes a pecuniary compensation, as two pence per acre for the tithe of land; sometimes a compensation in work and labour, as that the parson should only have the twelfth cock of hay, and not the tenth, in consideration of the owner's making it for him; sometimes in lieu of a large quantity of crude or imperfect tithe a less quantity when arrived to greater maturity, as a couple of fowls in lieu of tithe eggs and the like. Any means, in short, whereby the general law of tithing was altered and a new method of taking tithes was introduced, was called a modus decimandi, or special manner of tithing, 2 Bl. Com. 29. A too large modus was called a 'rank' modus, and the (English) Tithe Act, 1832 (2 & 3 Wm. 4, c. 100), required evidence of usage for thirty years.