Legal Definitions - nonae et decimae

Nonae et Decimae is a historical legal term referring to two distinct payments made by tenants who farmed land owned by a church or religious institution.

• The first payment, known as the nonae (meaning "ninths"), was essentially the rent paid for the use of the land itself.
• The second payment, the decimae (meaning "tenths"), was a tithe – a traditional religious obligation requiring a tenth of one's produce or income to be given to the church.

This system ensured that the church received both compensation for the use of its property and a share of the agricultural output from its tenants, reflecting both a landlord-tenant relationship and a religious duty.

Examples:

• Imagine a peasant family in 13th-century England who cultivated a plot of fertile land belonging to a powerful local abbey. Each year, after the harvest, the family would be required to deliver two separate contributions to the abbey. The first contribution, the nonae, would be a specific amount of grain or other goods representing the rent for the land they farmed. The second contribution, the decimae, would be a tenth of their total harvest, such as a portion of their wheat, barley, or livestock, fulfilling their religious obligation as a tithe. This illustrates how the two payments were distinct yet simultaneously demanded by the church from its tenants.

• Consider a medieval monastery in France that owned vast tracts of agricultural land, which it leased out to numerous tenant farmers. The monastery's financial records from the 15th century would meticulously detail the income received from these tenants. Entries would distinguish between the "nonae" payments, which were fixed rents for the use of specific fields, and the "decimae" payments, which fluctuated based on the tenants' annual crop yields, representing the one-tenth tithe. This demonstrates how the church itself categorized and managed these two different types of revenue from its landholdings.

• During a period of poor harvests in 16th-century Germany, a tenant farmer who leased land from a bishopric might appeal for a reduction in their obligations. The farmer might argue that while they were still prepared to pay the agreed-upon nonae (the rent for the land), the severe crop failure made it impossible to provide the full decimae (the one-tenth tithe) without facing starvation. This scenario highlights that the nonae and decimae were recognized as separate financial burdens, each with its own basis (land use versus religious obligation), and could be individually negotiated or disputed.