The people of the seigneuries paid a tithe or ecclesiastical tax for the support of their parish church.  In origin, as its name implies, this payment amounted to one-tenth of the land’s annual produce; but in New France the tithe was first fixed in 1663 at one-thirteenth, but in 1679 this was reduced to one twenty-sixth.  At this figure it has remained to the present day.  Tithes were at the outset levied on every product of the soil or of the handiwork of man; but in practice they were collected on grain crops only.  When the habitants of New France began to raise flax, hemp, and tobacco some of the priests insisted that these products should yield tithes also; but the Superior Council at Quebec ruled against this claim, and the king, on appeal, confirmed the council’s decision.  The Church collected its dues with strictness; the cures frequently went into the fields and estimated the total crop of each farm, so that they might later judge whether any habitant had held back the Church’s due portion.  Tithes were usually paid at Michaelmas, everything being delivered to the cure at his own place of abode.  When he lived with the seigneur the tithes and seigneurial dues were paid together.  But the total of the tithes collected during any year of the old regime was not large.  In 1700 they amounted in value to about five thousand livres, a sum which did not support one-tenth of the colony’s body of priests.  By far the larger part of the necessary funds had to be provided by generous friends of the Church in France.

Churches were erected in the different seigneuries by funds and labour secured in various ways.  Sometimes the bishop obtained money from France, sometimes the seigneur provided it, sometimes the habitants collected it among themselves.  More often a part of what was necessary came from each of these three sources.  Except in the towns, however, the churches were not pretentious in their architecture, and rarely cost much money.  Stone, timber, and other building materials were taken freely from the lands of the seigneury, and the work of construction was usually performed by the parishioners themselves.  As a result the edifices were rather ungainly as a rule, being built of rough-hewn timber.  In 1681 there were only seven stone churches in all the seigneuries, and the royal officers deplored the fact that the people did not display greater pride or taste in the architecture of their sanctuaries.  Bishop Laval felt strongly that this was discreditable, and steadfastly refused to perform the ceremony of consecration in any church which had not been substantially built of stone.