PARIS YELLOW. (Cototosiso Marrens.) I'AltlSII. This word is probably derived into the English language from the French perdue, and the Latin parechia or paroccia, and ultimately from the Greek parodic' (rapeucta). At the present day it denotes a circumscribed territory, varying In extent and population, but annexed to a single church, whose incumbent or minister is entitled by law to the tithes and spiritual offerings 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' provincia ' of the archbishop or metropolitan. (Du Cange, ' Gloss.; ad verb. ' Parochia;' Seldetie ' History of Tithes,' chap. vi., sects 3.) These large ecclesiastical provinces were gradually broken down into subdivisions, fur which ministers were appointed, either permanently or occasionally, who were under the rule of the bishop, were paid out of the common treasury of the bishopric, and had no 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 probably continued till towards the end of the 3rd century. After that period proprietors of lands began, with the licence of the higher ecclesiastical authorities, to build and endow churches in their own possessions; and in such eases the chaplain or priest was not paid by the bishop, but was permitted to receive for hie 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 Selden has satisfactorily shown that the history of parishes in England has followed the same course. Soon after the first introduction 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 dis trict 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 neighbourhood of the religious houses, having the charge of districts of various extent, comprehending several towns and villages, and assigned principally with a view to the convenience of the inhabitants in assembling together at the church. Within these
districts, or circuits, as they were called, which were precisely analogous to the diocesan parishes iu other parts of Europe, the ministering priests itinerated for the purpose of exercising their shriving, but they always resided with the bishop. By degrees other churches wore built to meet the demands for public worship, but still at first wholly de pending 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 endowment in each of these districts was common; and what soever 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 ecclesiastical 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 interest between the bishop and his attending clergy, who are often termed in the chronicles of those days episeopi citrus, constituted the notion of cathedral churches and monasteries in their simplest 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 nth century. (' History or 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 Augustine, divided his province into parishes about the year 630; but Scldeu proves satisfactorily that Honorius could not have made a parochial division in the sense in which we now understand the term ; and that. if made at all, 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.