Template:Tithingman

A Tithing was a group of ten men. Their chosen titular leader was a Tithingman but he was a part of another group of ten men. The leader of the Tithingman's group was to help coordinate their resources as a part of a network of men without incorporating as a legal body in order to maintain the welfare of a hundred men and their families in matters of law justice, mercy and fidelity and eventually in the continuation of these groups of tens, hundreds and thousands for a whole and free nation. When the righteous Social Virtues predominated in the people with each man doing his duty unselfishly this system worked well.

Tithingman Defined

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 presided over its gatherings but also linked it to other gatherings representing the interest of the tithing and 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. They 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 or a tithing was known as a 'tēothingman' which became known as a tithingman. In prehistoric West Germanic form it was a *tehuntha-, among the Latins it was a 'decānus, or among others he was a dean or doge. Later in England we see terms like borsholder appeared.

These men who served a tithing gathered with other men like themselves and chose their leader. This next layer of the network was called a Hundredsman. The hundredsmen networked among themselves and chose someone they called a shire or eolderman which became an alderman.

With a healthy network of honorable and loyal men, an army could be mustered overnight to deal with fire, flood or invasion on a local or national level.

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:

These leaders had a grave responsibility to deal with the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and fidelity and provide a Daily ministration for the needy.

They had not only the compassion to administer charity and mercy to the people but also answered the Hue and cry of those who were unjustly abused. The social virtue apparent in a man was an essential ingredient for whole communities relied on his relationship of trust and honor in shoring up the network.

If they did not cement their relationships with fellow tithing-men, or hundredsmen, or eoldermen the aid that might be needed to save them might be delayed or not come at all.

These systems or networks were forms of self-government that provided assistance for people in times of need like injury, illness or deaths in a family but in more dire times it was often a matter of life and death.

This was your social insurance for you and your family and sometimes for your whole community and even your entire nation. Through the administration of these men of service all justices and mercy could be provided.

• They were a peacemaker not a placater.
• They would rebuke unrighteousness not pander to men of vise.
• They valued strength and dedication so refused to weaken the poor.
• Because what would be given in time of need was freely given by friends in personal sacrifice the motivation to use the resources of the government was wisely bestowed upon the deserving.

Around the tenth century the role of the tithing man had begun to shift. While their position in the community was one of service and their authority was only over what had been given, the tithings became more like gangs as jealousy and envy ate away at the once noble office.

A new element in society began to grow with power and influence. Kings rose to positions of power more than nobility. They were crowned and sanctioned by a Church established by the spiritual blessing of Constantine and Charlemagne. The moral code, courage and caring of the people no longer turned back the tide of tyrants and despotism dug in its heals against the liberty of the people.

Freedom waned under the weight of the organized armies of these kings like Stephen, De Bullion and, Carte and William the Conqueror. The union and discipline of earlier networks of societies across Europe were not as intimidating to these despotic kings as they had been under Emperors of Rome.

As always it was not the machinery of these kings that brought the people down from liberty to subjection but it was the spirit of self-interest that crept into the hearts of the people, tipping the scales of righteousness that made the people subject. Over time the sloth, avarice and self-interests brought the tithings to a stagnate realm because leaders became more concerned about the support they received from their local group than they were concerned about righteousness needed to hold the nation together.

The early Church appointed by Christ, as well as early Levites of Israel, and evidently the altars of Abraham used these patterns of Tens to form voluntary governments that brought the people together without compromising freedom of Choice.

Governments often need to be able to muster people into a large force for the aid, protection and defense against injustice, disaster, calamity or even invasion. To do this they formed these groups of Tens and linked them in order to gather with a network of respected individuals who diligently dedicated themselves to the mission of procuring the loyalty and love of an entire nation... not just for each other but for righteousness.

When the spirit of pride touches our choices and actions a spiritual current begins to poison society. When the local Tithing begins to neglect the rest of the nation or people of God's kingdom the spirit of God departs and the spirit of evil fills the vacuum.

The people often have their eyes upon the kings and rulers of the world thinking their salvation or social security rises or falls in their great power. But it is the humble ways of self-sacrifice where we live that makes the real difference.

When the Tithingman begins to focus on his local Tithing more than the Kingdom of God and those duties within his congregation of ministers he is in fact leading the people back into bondage. It is absolutely essential he lead the congregation he serves to care about all the other congregations his fellow ministers serve as much as their own. He can only do that if he realizes and emphasizes that his congregation of ministers is his congregation and the elders who gather and choose him as their minister are merely a congregation he serves.