— Also termed modus de non decimando.
“A prescription de non decimando is a claim to be entirely discharged of tithes, and to pay no compensation in lieu of them. Thus the king by his prerogative is discharged from all tithes. So a vicar shall pay no tithes to the rector, nor the rector to the vicar …. But these privileges are personal to both the king and the clergy; for their tenant or lessee shall pay tithes …. And from this original have sprung all the lands, which, being in lay hands, do at present claim to be tithe-free: for, if a man can show his lands to have been such abbey lands, and also immemorially discharged of tithes … this is now a good prescription, de non decimando. But he must show both these requisites for abbey lands, without a special ground of discharge, are not discharged of course; neither will any prescription de non decimando avail in total discharge of tithes, unless it relates to such abbey lands.” 2 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 31–32 (1766).
