PARISH. In the early Christian Church each district was administered by a bishop and his attendant presbyters and dea cons, and the word parochia was frequently applied to such a district. Scattered congregations or churches within the parochia were served by itinerant presbyters. Towards the close of the 4th century it had become usual for the bishop to appoint resi dent presbyters to defined districts or territories, to which the term "parish" came gradually to be applied. (See also DiocEsE.) Parish, in English ecclesiastical law, may be defined as the town ship or cluster of townships assigned to the ministration of a single priest, to whom its tithes and other ecclesiastical dues were paid; but the word has now acquired several distinct meanings.
The parish as an institution is later in date than the township, for the latter has been in fact the unit of local administration ever since England was settled in its several States and kingdoms. The beginnings of the parochial system in England are attributed to Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury towards the close of the 7th century. The system was extended in the reign of Edgar, but was not complete until the reign of Edward III.
After the abolition of compulsory church rates in 1868 the old ecclesiastical parish ceased to be of importance as an instru ment of local government. Its officers, however, have still impor tant duties to perform. The rector, vicar or incumbent is a cor poration-sole, in whom is vested the freehold of the church and churchyard, subject to the parishioners' rights of user; their rights of burial have been enlarged by various Acts. (See CHURCHWARDEN.) The other officials are the parish clerk and sexton. They have freeholds in their offices and are paid by cus tomary fees, but can now be dismissed by a joint act of the in cumbent and the parochial church council. The office of the clerk is regulated by an Act of 1844, enabling a curate to undertake its duties. The only civil function of the parish clerk remaining in 1894 was the custody of maps and documents, required to be deposited with him under standing orders of parliament before cer tain public works were begun. By the Local Government Act they are now deposited with the chairman or clerk of a parish council. Church parochial councils have been created by the Parochial Church Councils (Power) Measure 1921. The primary duty of the new church parochial council is to co-operate with the incumbent. It is a body corporate with perpetual succession. The powers of the vestry and church trustees have been mostly trans ferred to it and it has power to levy a voluntary church rate.
Under the powers given by the Church Building Acts, and Acts for making new parishes, many populous parishes have been subdivided into smaller ecclesiastical parishes. This division has
not affected the parish in its civil aspect. For purposes of civil government the term "parish" means a district for which a separate poor-rate is or can be made, or for which a separate over seer is or can be appointed; and by the Interpretation Act 1889 this definition is to be used in interpreting all statutes subsequent to 1866, except where the context is inconsistent therewith. The civil importance of the poor-law parishes may be dated from the introduction of the poor law by the statute of 43 Elizabeth, which directed overseers of the poor to be appointed in every parish, and made the churchwardens into ex officio overseers. The chief part of the parochial organization was the vestry-meeting. The vestry represented the old assembly of the township, and retained so much of its business as had not been insensibly transferred to the court-baron and court-leet. The freemen, now appearing as the ratepayers, elected the "parish officers," as the churchwardens and way-wardens, the assessors, the overseers, and (if required) paid assistant-overseers, a secretary or vestry-clerk, and a collector of rates if the guardians applied for his appointment. The Local Gov ernment Act 1894 restored the parish to its position as the unit of local government by establishing parish councils. (See UNITED KINGDOM. ) The Parish in Scotland.—There can be little doubt that about the beginning of the 13th century the whole, or almost the whole, of the kingdom of Scotland was divided into parishes. It seems probable that the bishops presided at the first formation of the parishes—the parish being a subdivision of the diocese—and down to the Reformation they exercised the power of creating new parishes. After the Reformation the power of altering parishes was assumed by the legislature. The existing parochial districts being found unsuited to the ecclesiastical requirements of the time, a general Act was passed in 1581, which made provision for the parochial clergy, and, inter alia, directed that "a sufficient and competent" district should be appropriated to each church as a parish (1581, cap. Ioo). Thereafter, by a series of special Acts in the first place, and, subsequent to the year 1617, by the decrees of parliamentary commissions, the creation of suitable parochial districts was proceeded with. In the year 1707 the powers exer cised by the commissioners were permanently transferred to the Court of Session, whose judges were appointed to act in future as "commissioners for the Plantation of Kirks and Valuation of Teinds." Under this statute the areas of parishes continued to be altered and defined down to 1844, when the Act commonly known as Graham's Act was passed. This Act, which applied to the disjunction and erection of parishes, introduced a simpler procedure.