Diezmo
Encyclopedia
The diezmo was a compulsory ecclesiastical tithe
collected in Spain
and its empire
from the Middle Ages
until the reign of Isabella II
in the mid-19th century.
in Aragón
and Catalonia
when they were frontier regions of the Carolingian Empire
. It later spread to the rest of Spain in the course of the Reconquista
and later to the Spanish colonies. It was a compulsory payment to the Catholic Church of one tenth of the fruits of agriculture
or animal husbandry
. There were two categories of tithes, one category for general products such as cereals, wine
, oil, cattle
, sheep, etc. and another category that included more specific assets such as poultry
, vegetable
s, honey
.
The taxes were paid to a "collector" and distributed among the parish
es, abbot
s and bishop
s. To facilitate the process, neighbors could designate a dezmero who would physically transport the products from the households of the contributors.
In theory, at least, the diezmo was divided into three equal portions (tercios, "thirds"): one for the construction of churches, one to cover the costs of the clergy
, and one to cover the needs of the abbeys, convents, and monasteries. In practice, the diezmo did not always retain its original purpose of subsidizing the Church. Feudal
lords who were patrons of a monastery
or church would gain the benefit of the tithe, or they might outright by the right to the tithe from the Church, becoming, effectively, tax farmers
.
Despite the name, the diezmo was not always exactly ten percent. The actual amount differed in different places and times. Nor was it extended to all products of agriculture and husbandry, which led to market distortion
s as farmers shifted to whatever was not taxed. The most efficacious measure against fraud was excommunication
, which would remain in place until one's debt was paid.
In the Middle Ages, monarch
s managed to participate in the benefit of the diezmo. Ferdinand III of Castile
proposed to Pope Innocent IV
the possibility that the royal treasury would receive the third of the diezmo destined for the construction of churches, in order to pay the costs of the siege of Seville
. A share of two ninths was granted in 1247; Seville was captured in 1248. Once this first participation was agreed to, the royal share came and went for some years. Beginning in 1340, a portion of the diezmo was repeatedly assigned to the State, under the designation of tercias reales ("royal thirds"). This became permanent in 1494.
Philip II of Spain
gained a new concession, el excusado ("the excused [portion]"), that reserved for the monarch the portion of the diezmo obtained by the leading dezmero in each parish. The reason invoked was Spain's wars against "infidel
s and "heretics
".
The diezmo was greatly reduced during the Trienio liberal of 1821–1823 (a decree of 29 June 1821 cut it by half), but restored in full force by the absolutist
government that followed. In 1837 the permanent Spanish diezmo was suppressed, although it was extended year by year in order to pay the costs of the First Carlist War
. In 1841, the diezmo was abolished and a lesser tax to support religion and clergy was established. However, the entire tax system of Spain was soon overhauled in the Spanish tax reform of 1845
.
who made up the vast majority of the population in colonial Spanish America were exempted from paying tithes on such native crops as maize
and
potato
es that they raised for their own subsistence. After some debate, Indians in colonial Spanish America were forced to pay tithes on their production of European agricultural products, including wheat, silk, cows, pigs, and sheep.
When various Latin America
n countries gained their independence from Spain in the 19th century, their governments took over the tax, which was considered an abuse by the Creole
landowners. The tithe was abolished in several countries, including Mexico
, soon after independence, around the time of the presidency of Santa Anna; others, including Argentina
and Peru
still collect tithes today for the support of the Catholic Church.
word tithe, the Spanish
word diezmo can refer to the tenth part of anything. Consequently, the term diezmo—usually diezmo del rey ("king's tenth")—was applied to various tariff
s as well as to the Church's tithe. The diezmo y media ("tenth and a half") or diezmo de lo morisco ("Moorish
tenth") applied to trade with the Emirate of Granada
. The diezmos de la mar ("tenths of the sea") applied to maritime trade between Galicia and northern Europe. The term was also applied at times to other taxes such as the diezmo de aceite ("tenth of oil").
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
collected in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and its empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
from the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
until the reign of Isabella II
Isabella II of Spain
Isabella II was the only female monarch of Spain in modern times. She came to the throne as an infant, but her succession was disputed by the Carlists, who refused to recognise a female sovereign, leading to the Carlist Wars. After a troubled reign, she was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of...
in the mid-19th century.
History
The obligatory tithe was introduced to the Iberian peninsulaIberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
in Aragón
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
and Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
when they were frontier regions of the Carolingian Empire
Carolingian Empire
Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term which has been used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty in the Early Middle Ages. This dynasty is seen as the founders of France and Germany, and its beginning date is based on the crowning of Charlemagne, or Charles the...
. It later spread to the rest of Spain in the course of the Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
and later to the Spanish colonies. It was a compulsory payment to the Catholic Church of one tenth of the fruits of agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
or animal husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
. There were two categories of tithes, one category for general products such as cereals, wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
, oil, cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
, sheep, etc. and another category that included more specific assets such as poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
, vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s, honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
.
The taxes were paid to a "collector" and distributed among the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
es, abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
s and bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s. To facilitate the process, neighbors could designate a dezmero who would physically transport the products from the households of the contributors.
In theory, at least, the diezmo was divided into three equal portions (tercios, "thirds"): one for the construction of churches, one to cover the costs of the clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
, and one to cover the needs of the abbeys, convents, and monasteries. In practice, the diezmo did not always retain its original purpose of subsidizing the Church. Feudal
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
lords who were patrons of a monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
or church would gain the benefit of the tithe, or they might outright by the right to the tithe from the Church, becoming, effectively, tax farmers
Tax farming
Farming is a technique of financial management, namely the process of commuting , by its assignment by legal contract to a third party, a future uncertain revenue stream into fixed and certain periodic rents, in consideration for which commutation a discount in value received is suffered...
.
Despite the name, the diezmo was not always exactly ten percent. The actual amount differed in different places and times. Nor was it extended to all products of agriculture and husbandry, which led to market distortion
Market distortion
In neoclassical economics, a market distortion is any event in which a market reaches a market clearing price for an item that is substantially different from the price that a market would achieve while operating under conditions of perfect competition and state enforcement of legal contracts and...
s as farmers shifted to whatever was not taxed. The most efficacious measure against fraud was excommunication
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
, which would remain in place until one's debt was paid.
In the Middle Ages, monarch
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
s managed to participate in the benefit of the diezmo. Ferdinand III of Castile
Ferdinand III of Castile
Saint Ferdinand III, T.O.S.F., was the King of Castile from 1217 and León from 1230. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile. Through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. He finished the work done by his maternal grandfather Alfonso VIII and consolidated the...
proposed to Pope Innocent IV
Pope Innocent IV
Pope Innocent IV , born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was pope from June 25, 1243 until his death in 1254.-Early life:...
the possibility that the royal treasury would receive the third of the diezmo destined for the construction of churches, in order to pay the costs of the siege of Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
. A share of two ninths was granted in 1247; Seville was captured in 1248. Once this first participation was agreed to, the royal share came and went for some years. Beginning in 1340, a portion of the diezmo was repeatedly assigned to the State, under the designation of tercias reales ("royal thirds"). This became permanent in 1494.
Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
gained a new concession, el excusado ("the excused [portion]"), that reserved for the monarch the portion of the diezmo obtained by the leading dezmero in each parish. The reason invoked was Spain's wars against "infidel
Infidel
An infidel is one who has no religious beliefs, or who doubts or rejects the central tenets of a particular religion – especially in reference to Christianity or Islam....
s and "heretics
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
".
The diezmo was greatly reduced during the Trienio liberal of 1821–1823 (a decree of 29 June 1821 cut it by half), but restored in full force by the absolutist
Absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...
government that followed. In 1837 the permanent Spanish diezmo was suppressed, although it was extended year by year in order to pay the costs of the First Carlist War
First Carlist War
The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833-1839.-Historical background:At the beginning of the 18th century, Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, promulgated the Salic Law, which declared illegal the inheritance of the Spanish crown by women...
. In 1841, the diezmo was abolished and a lesser tax to support religion and clergy was established. However, the entire tax system of Spain was soon overhauled in the Spanish tax reform of 1845
Spanish tax reform of 1845
The Spanish tax reform of 1845 made major changes to the tax system of Spain, and established the basis for a system that continues to this day.- Context :...
.
Spanish America
In the American portions of the Spanish Empire, the diezmo was collected directly by civil functionaries for the Crown, on the condition that they would erect, subsidize, and maintain churches. This tax constituted roughly ten percent of the Spanish Crown's income, and was collected from owners of ranches and rural buildings. In general, the IndiansIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
who made up the vast majority of the population in colonial Spanish America were exempted from paying tithes on such native crops as maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
and
potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es that they raised for their own subsistence. After some debate, Indians in colonial Spanish America were forced to pay tithes on their production of European agricultural products, including wheat, silk, cows, pigs, and sheep.
When various Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n countries gained their independence from Spain in the 19th century, their governments took over the tax, which was considered an abuse by the Creole
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
landowners. The tithe was abolished in several countries, including Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, soon after independence, around the time of the presidency of Santa Anna; others, including Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
still collect tithes today for the support of the Catholic Church.
Other Spanish taxes called diezmo
Unlike the EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
word tithe, the Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
word diezmo can refer to the tenth part of anything. Consequently, the term diezmo—usually diezmo del rey ("king's tenth")—was applied to various tariff
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
s as well as to the Church's tithe. The diezmo y media ("tenth and a half") or diezmo de lo morisco ("Moorish
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
tenth") applied to trade with the Emirate of Granada
Emirate of Granada
The Emirate of Granada , also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada , was an emirate established in 1238 following the defeat of Muhammad an-Nasir of the Almohad dynasty by an alliance of Christian kingdoms at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212...
. The diezmos de la mar ("tenths of the sea") applied to maritime trade between Galicia and northern Europe. The term was also applied at times to other taxes such as the diezmo de aceite ("tenth of oil").