311 mediaeval Swedish bishoprics are lost. The norms lor taxation of the Swedish beneficiaries to \’iennetithe are not clearly set ont in the papal decrees concerninjf the tax. To a certain extent these norms are illustrated in a document from 1319, which summarizes the decisions at a meetiiif' of two Swedish bishops and a number of Norwegian prelates, where the j)rinciples for the taxation were discussed. According to this document it was decided that a quarter of the revenues of the beneficiaries shoidd he deducted before a tenth was taken of the rest. .\ Swedish historian. I']. Liinnroth. has assumed that the tax was in principle a (lecinut of the revenues the beneficiaries had of their tithes and the ecclesiastical lands. Lönnroth believes that the amounts for the parishpriests in the Viennetithelist go back to an earlier tax to the Holy See. the so-called Lyon-tithe, charged according to a decision of the council in Lyon 1274. The ])roperties belonging to the parishchurches were at that time probably rather insignificant and because of that it can be assumed that even the rents from these properties had no great influence on the taxation. 'I'lius the taxation would have had as its only object the tithes of the |)arishpriests. Liinnroths assumptions are probably to the point. In analysing the economic basis for the taxation of the parish priests, the research must foremost concern the tithe as the source of income, on which the taxation was founded. According to the rpj)land law the peasants had to deliver tithe in corn and cattle. The corn tithe was divided up into four shares, the parishpriest got 1^3 and the bishop, the parishchurch and the canonries were entitled to 2/9 each. 'Fhe tithe in cattle went undivided to the parishj)riest. A rough calculation of the moneyworth of the corn-tithe going to the parishpriests in a bund can he made from the assumed assessment of the bund to be 400 marklands and the estimated annual income of the markland acreage. 0 mark: of a total income of 2.400 marks the priests would have had a tithe of 1/30 or 30 marks. 4'he meadows and the woods, the basis for the live slock, wonld have given the marklandpeasants an annual income to the value of 1.200 marks, which divided give the ])riesls a Linköping. Skara and Växjö —
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