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Spiritualities

Clerical income deriving from tithes or other religious sources

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
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Source updated October 25, 2025

Spiritualities is a term, often used in the Middle Ages, that refers to the income sources of a diocese or other ecclesiastical establishment that came from tithes. It also referred to income that came from other religious sources, such as offerings from church services or ecclesiastical fines.

Under canon law, spiritualities were only allowed to the clergy.

In the 19th century, the spiritualities (or spirituals) were revenues connected with the spiritual duties and the cure of souls, and they consisted almost entirely of tithes, glebe lands, and houses.

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This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Spiritualities”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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