Template:Tithingman

A Tithingman was a leader of ten men. The ten men were the heads of families in old England. The chief man of a tithing and presided over its gatherings but also linked it to other gatherings representing the interest of the titthing an communal gatherings but titular in nature.

A tithing or tything was a historic English administrative or legal unit, originally one tenth of a hundred families.

National Network

A little known truth of history is that “our modern reliance on government to make law and establish order is not the historical norm.”

Nations often united in groups of ten and formed a network. The kept these networks alive through systems of charity that helped people in times of need. The leader had no power over the people but were to facilitate a network that gathered all the different groups of ten in a meaningful and organized manner.

In ancient nations such rulers of ten did not really have authority over the men or people. They used these networks to bind people together by common sense of loyalty. There were several important elements required to maintaining these networks in a viable and healthy state.

A leader of ten men was known as a decānus, or dean or doge. Later in England we see terms like borsholder or tēothingman which became known as a tithingman. The next layer of the network was a Hundredsman and then a shire or eolderman which becam an alderman.

These systems met with varied success depending on numerous elements in the relationship of these groups and the men who wove them together as a nation. In fact there were several criteria that proved essential to the strength of those national societies.

Patterns of Networks:

• There needed to be an actual service performed to the people of a local group of ten families which passed through the hands of the Tithingman.
• To do this that group must give the means to the Tithingmen through charitable offerings to provide those service, not just for their group but for the whole nation.
• The Tithingman needed to know the families of the group he served but also keep himself somewhat separate and impartial to the group.
• The group he served was not his group but a group of other Tithingmen.
• The bonds of trust and honor between the other Tithingmen he gathered with was absolutely critical to the health of the Network as a national group.
• The same was true of the Shire or Eolderman who served the Tithingmen. He also gathered in a small group of ten Eolderman.

Status of Position:

The early Church as well as early Israel used these patterns of Tens to form voluntary governments. Governments needed to be able to muster people into a large army for the protection and defense against invasion. To do this they formed these groups of Tens and linked them to gather with a network of individuals also gathering in patterns.

These voluntary networks were formes

One of these criteria was the leader only received offerings that were com