PARISH. This word is probably de rived into the English language from the French paroisse, and the Latin paro chia or paroecia, and ultimately from the Greek paroikia erapoucia). At the present day it denotes a circumscribed territory, varying in extent and popula tion, but annexed to a single church, whose incumbent or minister is entitled by law to the tithes and spiritual offer ings within the territory. In the early ages of Christianity the term appears to have been used in some parts of Europe to signify the district or diocese of a bishop, as distinguished from the " pro vincia " of the archbishop or metropolitan. (Du Cange, Gloss., ad verb. • Parochia ;' Selden's History of Tithes, chap. vi. sect. 3.) These large ecclesiastical pro vinces were gradually broken down into subdivisions, for which ministers were appointed, either permanently or occa sionally, who were under the rale of the bishop, were paid out of the com mon treasury of the bishopric, and had DO particular interest in the oblations or profits of the church to which their ministry applied. This was the state of things in the primitive times, which proba bly continued till towards the end of the third century. After that period proprie tors of lands began, with the licence of the higher ecclesiastical authorities, to build and endow churches in their own pos sessions; and in such cases the chaplain or priest was not paid by the bishop, but was permitted to receive for his maintenance, and to the particular use of his own church, the profits or the proportion of the profits of the lands with which the founder had endowed it, as well as the offerings of such as repaired thither for divine service. This appears to be a probable account of the origin and gradual formation of parochial divisions in almost all countries. where Christianity prevailed ; and Seldeu h s satisfactorily shown that the history of parishes in England has followed the same course. Soon after the first intro duction of Christianity into this country, the heathen temples and other buildings were converted into churches or places of assembly, to which the inhabitants of the surrounding district came to receive religious instruction from the minister, and to exercise the rites of Christian worship. As the members of the new religion increased, a single or occasional minister was insufficient for the purpose; and a bishop, with subordinate priests, began to reside in the immediate neigh bourhood of the religious houses, having the charge of districts of various extent, comprehending several towns and vil lages, and assigned principally with a view to the convenience of the in habitants in assembling together at the church. Within these districts, or cir
cuits, as they were called, which were precisely analogous to the diocesan pa rishes in other parts of Europe, the ministering priests itinerated for the pur pose of exercising their shriving, but they always resided with the bishop. By degrees other churches were built to meet the demands for public worship, but still at first wholly depending upon the mother church, and supplied by the bishop from his family of clergy resident at the bishopric with ministers or curates, who were supported by the common stock of the diocese. For the fund or endow ment in each of these districts was com mon ; and whatsoever was received from tithes or the offerings of devotees at the different altars, or by any other means given for religious uses, was made into a general treasure or stock for the eccle siastical purposes of the whole diocese ; and was applied by the bishop in the, first place to the maintenance of himself and the college of priests resident with him at the church, and afterwards for distribution in alms among the poor, and for the reparation of churches.
This community of residence and in terest between the bishop and his attend ing clergy, who are often termed in the chronicles of those days episcopi elerus, constituted the notion of cathedral churches and monasteries in their sim plest form. How long this state of things continued does not precisely appear, though Selden expresses an opinion that it was in existence as late as the eighth century. (History of Tithes, chap. ix. sect. 2.) It has indeed been asserted by Camden (Britannia, p. 160), and was formerly the commonly received opinion, that Honorius, the first archbishop of Canterbury, after Augustin, divided his provinces into parishes about the year 630 ; but Selden proves satisfactorily that Honorius could not have made a parochial division in the sense in which we now uqderstand the term; and that, if made aVall, it must have been such a distribution into districts, then called parishes, as is above described, and which was so far from originating with Honorius, that it must have been nearly as ancient as bishoprics.