Invicta

Concerning point 2A.  Surely it was because Cain did not choose the best for God as Abel did, but just chose randomly.

Back before about 1850, here in England, tithes were expected by the Church of England.  They had tithe barns to receive the gifts. There were maps to show what the tithes were based upon. Tithe maps were the most accurate ancient maps of some towns and villages.  I have referred more than once to the 1851 religious census where every religious organisation had to complete.  Some CofE ministers complained that people were no longer paying their tithes. They sometimes recorded their ministry as a "living" and worth a certain amount of pounds.  Some had more than one living and recorded the value of each.  They also had pew rents.  By that I assume that a family would rent a pew, often with a gate to it, and have a plaque with their name on it and woe betide any one who was not of the family who sat in it.  The census required the name of the minister, the number attending the previous weeks services, total number of seats and the number of free seats and various other information. The same was true of other denominations.  One near here said they had 300 seats* of which 150 were free,  (I have been in the building which is no longer a church but a club, and I cannot see how the could net 300 seats in there.  They had to extend the room outward to fit a full size snooker table in there .)  There is a plaque on the wall that says it was a baptist church then a Calvinistic Weslean Church but I researched it carefully and found no evidence of the latter.  It seemed to have been mostly funded by a local coal merchant, who died in 1852, and also a tea dealer.  In 1859 in a trade directory it is listed a Baptist and Ministers: Various. In 1867 when the current Baptist church was formed their minutes said that they could not use the former Baptist building as it was now a Plymouth Brethren. Later when that had their first baptism they used that building and thanked Mrs Wilson for its use.  Mrs Wilson's former husband was the coal merchant. It seems from snippets I found, there was a small Baptist church in the town from about 1860, called Noah's Ark,  The last I found of that was going through old baptist magazines in a library in London a letter from the pastor or elder? in 1866, welcoming everyone to the Ark on Sundays.  Not sure if that was incorporated into the present Baptist Church which was opened by Spurgeon and the first pastor was from Spurgeon's college. I don't think Spurgeon would have anything to do with them today.

Sorry I have digressed as usual.  The Anglican church was the only church that I found that required tithes.  The RCC may have as well but they charge for everything anyway.  

http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/xmas/celeb.htm

https://bible.org/article/should-christians-celebrate-christmas

http://libcfl.com/articles/xmas.htm