tithe, ninth, sheep fiftieth, labour service
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In the early Middle Ages it was tax which had to be paid to the church after certain products, it was the tenth of those products. Different fractions of it were collected for the bichop, the clergy, the poor, or for the maintanance of the church building. People had to pay the tithe after the following products in Hungary: grain crop, wine, sheep and honey. Originally it had to be paid in kind, but in the 13th century it was required in cash. Noblemen did not pay, but poorer noblemen (who owned only one piece of land) received their right to be free from paying it only from the end of the 14th century, beginning of the 16th century. Its Hungarian name is 'dézsma' (Latin decima = tenth). Nineth, which had to be paid to the landlord after the wine products, was also called 'dézsma'. Papal tithe was the tax collected from the income of ecclesiastic persons - in proportion it was also one tenth - for popes and the different purposes of Christianity. Records about the papal tithe collected between 1332-37 are very important historical and demographical sources of medieval Hungary.
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ninth
A tax paid by villeins to their landlords, which was first mentioned in Louis the Great's 1351 decree. It had to be paid after grain and wine products, first in kind then in the late Middle Ages in money. In spite of its name, it was not the one ninth of the product, but one tenth of it. Actually it was the ninth tenth, after paying the tenth tenth to the church. Only cities surrounded by walls were exempt form paying it. It was not collected at all, not even after 1351, and at many places villeins did not have to pay it at all. The tithe - as tax to the landlord - was known in other countries of Europe, too, but the closest relationship is between the Hungarian ninth and the German tithe, collected after cut-over areas.
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sheep fiftieth (tax)
The tax of the shepherding Rumanians and the Wlachs, who were non-Rumanian people, which had to be paid after every fiftieth sheep. At first it was paid to the king. After the settlement of Rumanians by the landlords, sometimes it was a tax to the landlord.
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labout service (robot)
Work as a service to the landlord, performed by villeins. Besides farming it consisted of hay making, wood cutting and sometimes transporting.
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