PARISH (ante) has in this country a usage different from that in England; and its usage is not the sante in all the states. In Louisiana it is synonymous with county in the other states. The legal significance of the English parish arises from the right of the rector to receive tithes of the agricultural products of the parish. In America no such right ever existed. But from the first settlement of the country, associations were formed or corporations organized for religious worship; and parish denoted the terri torial limit of a church. In New England, where the connection between church and state was originally very close, and where at one time only church members were quali fied to vote, the.parish was the town; that is, the whole body of qualified citizens, acting as the town in civil matters, constituted and acted as the parish in ecclesiastical matters.
The same town-meeting, for instance, would vote an appropriation for the roads of the town, and another appropriation for the salary of the pastor of the town church. There was originally but one church and one parish in each town; but as population increased new parishes were set off, still remaining territorial divisions for ecclesiastical purposes. Finally, as Congregationalism ceased to be the sole form of religion in New England, and new denominations sprang up, and new churches were organized, the theocratic idea died, and it was recoguized that all denominations should be on an equality. The state and the town as such ceased to provide for the support of religious worship, and parish henceforth denoted a voluntary association of persons with the same religious worship, without reference to locality or residence.