Theodore encouraged landowners to build churches on their estates by permitting them to have the appointment of the priests who were to officiate in them. It is remarkable that Bede, in his ecclesiastical history, mentions the word “decima” only once. It appears in bk. iv. c. 29. Writing of Bishop Eadbert, the successor of Bishop Cuthbert at Lindisfarne, he says, “So that according to the law, he gave every year the tenth part, not only of four-footed beasts, but also of all corn and fruit, as also of garments _to the poor_.” [Ita ut juxta legem, omnibus annis _decimam_, non solum quadrupedum, verum etiam frugum omnium atque pomorum, necnon et vestimentorum partem, _pauperibus_ daret]. The law referred to here was the Mosaic or Divine law. Eadbert was made bishop A.D. 688, two years before Theodore died. He gave the tenth part _to the poor_. Bede’s history comes down to A.D. 734, and yet this is the only instance in which tithe is mentioned in his writings, and then it was given to the poor—strong evidence as to the common law right of the poor to a share of the tithe. Dr. Lingard quotes another passage from Bede, which he says appears to him to allude to tithes, viz., “That there was not a village in the remotest parts of Northumbria which could escape the payment of TRIBUTE to the bishop.”[30] If Bede alluded to tithes, he would have written _decimæ_ and not _tributa_. _Tributum_ is from _tribuo_, which is allied to _tribus_, _i.e._, _pars_, and so _tribus_ = to divide into parts. Hence _tributa_ = parts or portions. Bede also uses the word “portiones” to express the same idea without any reference whatever to tithes. Theodore, in his “Penitential,” uses the two words, _tributum_ and _decimæ_ in the same passage with separate meanings. _Tributum_—a tax, contribution, tribute, collection, subscription.[31] Before leaving Theodore’s genuine “Penitential,” I must refer to the second revised edition of Mr. J. S. Brewer’s “Endowments and Establishment of the Church of England,” by Chancellor Lewis T. Dibdin, published in 1885. In his preface, the new editor “gratefully acknowledges the valuable aid he received from Dr. Wace and the Bishop of Chester (Dr. Stubbs, now Bishop of Oxford) through more than one difficulty on endowments as to which he was in doubt.”[32]