Teinds, the name given in Scotland to tithes or the proportion of the annual produce of the earth devoted to the maintenance of the clergy. The growth of the system in Europe is recounted at TITHES. In Scotland personal teinds are practically unknown; and predial teinds, natural or industrial, drawn from the fruits of land, constitute the whole teinds leviable by the church. Predial teinds are of two kinds, parsonage and vicarage. The parsonage or greater teinds, due exclusively to the parson serving the cure, are payable out of grain at the terms Whitsunday and Michaelmas. Vicarage or lesser teinds are properly paid to the vicar, and are drawn from minor and accidental products, such as fowls, eggs, milk, fish, &c., according to the usage of each parish or benefice. Parsonage teinds being an inherent burden on the land, the right to levy them cannot be lost by prescription; vicarage teinds, on the other hand, being established both as to their kind and their amount solely by use, may be lost by non-use. By statute, 27 and 28 Vict. chap. 33, provision is made for vicarage teinds on fish being commuted.
The teinds due at common law to the incumbent of the parish had previously to the Reformation been to a large extent diverted to other purposes, with the result that the acting parochial clergy were greatly impoverished. In many cases, on a vacancy occurring in a parochial charge, the patron, acting as absolute proprietor of the benefice, appropriated its teinds to a monastery or other religious house, and although the disposal of tithes to laymen had been prohibited by several Lateran Councils, grants of part of the teinds of vacant benefices were frequently bestowed by patrons on needy lay friends and relatives. Further, a considerable proportion of teinds was diverted from the support of the parochial clergy by the practice of certain popes in granting to various orders of churchmen exemptions from the payment of tithe out of lands held by them. Soon also a custom grew up of granting feus of these church lands cum decimis inclusis, a provision which transferred to the grantee the same exemption from the payment of teind which the ecclesiastical proprietors had formerly enjoyed. In these various ways the revenues of the church had been extensively impaired long before the Reformation.
At the Reformation the great bulk of the church lands was acquired by the crown, either by resignation or annexation. The monasteries and priories fell at first into the hands of lay commendators, appointed by the king for life; but later they were erected into temporal lordships, the grantees being styled Lords of Errection or Titulars of the Tithes. In this way the possessions of the church were permanently transferred into the hands of laymen holding of the crown. The property of the lands erected and the right of exemption from teind, where such right existed, formed the temporality; while the teinds themselves constituted the spirituality of the benefice. For some years the presentations to vacant benefices were wholly in the hands of the lords of erection, and they also had the power of assigning to the presentees such stipends as they chose. Under the scheme known as 'the assumption of thirds,' however, a return was ordered of the rental of all ecclesiastical benefices within the kingdom, and factors were appointed to uplift one-third of the revenues thereof. This scheme, after being ratified by parliament, was subsequently adopted as the basis of the plan adopted for the support of the reformed clergy. By statute 1587, chap. 29, the practice of creating lords of erection received a check, and, with certain exceptions, the church lands which had been held of the crown before the Reformation were again inalienably annexed to the crown. On the restoration of bishops the annexations of their benefices and of their chapters were rescinded by 1606, chap. 9 and 1617 chap. 2 respectively; on the re-establishment of presbytery these measures were repealed by the Act 1690, chap. 29, and since that date the bishops' teinds have continued to be applied by the crown to public uses and pensions.
In spite of the assumption of thirds and other measures, the provision for the support of the reformed clergy continued very precarious till the accession of Charles I. Immediately after his accession in 1625 Charles, in view of the extent to which the property and revenues of the church had been dilapidated, executed a revocation of all grants of church lands and tithes made by James VI. to the prejudice of the crown. Next year there followed another revocation, conceived in even more ample terms, under which a reduction was brought of all erections whatever, whether made before or after the Act of Annexation. As the individuals who had profited by the prodigality of the crown were very numerous, these proceedings caused wide-spread alarm, and a strong petition or remonstrance was addressed to Charles, with the view of obtaining some modification of his demands. Eventually a compromise was agreed upon, and the parties principally concerned entered into four submissions, under which the whole question in dispute was referred to the determination of the king himself. By the decrees-arbitral, pronounced on the 2d September 1629, the king's right to the superiorities of erection was affirmed, and power was given to the heritor to have his teinds valued and his yearly charge thus permanently settled. Further, the proprietor was found entitled to bring an action of sale against the titular or his tacksman, by which he could obtain right to his teinds at nine years' purchase of the value where the seller had an heritable right. The provisions of the decrees-arbitral, relating to the superiorities of erections and the valuation and sale of teinds were subsequently ratified by a series of acts of parliament in 1633. In 1627 a commission, known as the 'Commission of Surrenders and Teinds,' had been appointed, and in 1633, for the purpose of carrying the decrees-arbitral into effect under judicial authority, another commission was nominated known as the 'High Commission' or the 'Commission for the Plantation of Kirks and the Valuation of Teinds.' These commissioners were instructed to prosecute and follow forth the valuation of all the teinds, parsonage and vicarage, that were yet unvalued; they were authorised to appoint sub-commissioners within presbyteries and parishes, and to them was committed the duty of modifying a constant local stipend to every minister to be paid out of the teinds of each parish. From time to time this commission was continued with increasing powers, or rather, a succession of commissions was kept up until at the Union their power and functions were vested in the Court of Session, where accordingly actions for the valua- tion of teinds now proceed at the instance either of a heritor or of the minister. The jurisdiction of the Court of Session in modifying stipends, &c. is treated under article STIPEND.
The teind was originally made effectual in Scotland as elsewhere by the beneficiary drawing it, that is, carrying off from the ground every tenth sheaf. This practice was very inconvenient, as the proprietor was obliged to allow the crop to remain on the ground, exposed to all the vicissitudes of the season, till the teind was drawn. Consequently, even prior to the Reformation, it was common for the beneficiary to commute his teind either for a fixed yearly payment of money or for a certain number of rental bolls. Teinds are debita fructuum, not debita fundi, and, consequently, arrears of teinds do not affect singular successors. Although prescription, as we have stated, cannot destroy the right to teinds, yet it is effectual to protect an old decree of valuation from challenge, except on the ground of some nullity ex facie apparent. The free or unexhausted teinds (i.e. such as, arising from increased rental, &c., are not yet appropriated for stipends) were in 1891 stated at about £129,000. See STIPEND, AUGMENTATION, FIARS.