This passage from Emperor Lothar's Capitulare missorum of 832 establishes a very specific and explicit relationship between the delivery of pastoral care and the obligation on the part of the recipients to pay tithes in return for it and to participate in the restoration of the church from which they receive their sacraments. The direct relation between the reception of cura animarum and the payment of church dues represents an important and recurrent aspect of Carolingian legislation on tithes.

Although in the Old Testament and in the early history of Christianity tithes were considered the special property of God, it soon became canonically accepted that they could be used for the support of the poor and the repair of churches. Originally, the bishops and clergy who controlled such payments were not even entitled to a share, but with the development of a territorial ecclesiastical organisation, new elements began to appear. For instance, in 722 Pope Gregory II wrote a letter to Bishop Boniface in Thuringia (a region which was still missionary land), specifying that he had to divide the revenue of the church and the offerings of the faithful into four parts: one for Boniface himself (i.e. the bishop); one for the clergy; a third part for the poor; and the last part for the maintenance of ecclesiastical buildings.