YORK BOOKS: XXXII 
 Continuity Tracts 
 
 THE 
 
 ORIGIN & GROWTHfl 
 
 of the ' ' 
 
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 Illustrated by Material taken from the 
 Exeter Episcopal Registers 
 
 OSWALD J. REICHEL, B.C.L., M.A., F.S.A. 
 
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 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE Church began among the Jews as a section of the 
 synagogue. Previously to the year 60 Nazarites, as 
 Christians were at first called, were looked upon as a 
 Jewish sect. Christianity, like Judaism, followed trade 
 and spread from city to city. In some cities all the elders 
 of the synagogue accepted it, in others only a few, in 
 others none at all. Thus its institutions followed those of 
 the synagogue. In each city it was under collegiate 
 government, that of presbyters and deacons presided over 
 by a ruler in place of the ruler of the synagogue. And 
 when the breach with Judaism finally came local churches 
 still continued under collegiate government, but subject 
 to the apostles' authority until all of these had passed 
 away. Some fifty years later a ruling presbyter, over- 
 looker, or bishop is found occupying the place of the 
 ruler of the synagogue in every city to which the faiths 
 had penetrated. 
 
 I. THE PARISH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 The collegiate churches of the great Roman cities are 
 not, however, the basis of the parochial system, the origin 
 of which it is here proposed to investigate. On the 
 contrary the term TrapoiKia, in Latin parcecia or parish, 
 when first met with in the fifth century is used of districts 
 outside those cities. Innocent I. (401-416 A.D.) uses the 
 term to express an outside or suburban district or chapel. 
 
 1 
 
iri 'his 'Weil-known letter to Decentius (Ep. 25 c. 5) he 
 writes that the presbyters of the Roman city churches 
 (tituli) celebrated the Eucharist every day in union with 
 him their bishop, but on Sundays being obliged to preside 
 in their district churches (tituli) for the sake of the people, 
 he was in the habit of sending to them by collets the 
 Eucharist consecrated by himself that they might not 
 deem themselves on that day separated from his com- 
 munion. He does not, however, adopt the same course in 
 dealing with the outside or suburban churches (parcecice) 
 because the sacramental signs ought not to be carried about 
 for long distances. Long before Innocent's time St. Paul 
 in his letter to the Ephesians (ii. 19) had described Chris- 
 tians as being no longer strangers and outsiders (-TrdpotKoi) 
 but fellow-citizens with the saints ; and St. Peter (Ep. i. 1) 
 had exhorted the scattered Christians in Asia Minor as 
 outsiders (TTGLPOIKOI) to the life of the world to abstain 
 from fleshly lusts. These passages show that the TrdpoiKos 
 meant one who dwells close by but not in the city. 
 A city church was not called a parish before the year 
 
 801 A.D. 1 
 
 From being used of outside or suburban chapels to being 
 used of any and all chapels dependent on a cathedral or 
 collegiate church the transition was easy ; and so we find 
 in North Africa and in the sixth century in Spain the term 
 used as we now use it to express a country church or 
 district served by a single priest. The statutes of the 
 early church [of Aries] in 505 Can. 31 run : " Let not deacons 
 nor presbyters appointed to any parish (parochia) venture 
 to exchange away (commutare) any property of the 
 church." The 4th Council of Toledo in 633 Can. 26 runs : 
 When presbyters are appointed to parishes. The earlier 
 name, however, for what are now called parishes was 
 plebs, a people. 2 A rural church in this country was never 
 called a parish before the 12th century, but a mass-priest's 
 scyre or district. On the other hand, until the 12th century 
 
 1 Leo III., A.D. 801, in Decret, Lib. III., Tit. IV., c. 1, says : Anastasius 
 cardinal-presbyter of the city church (titulus) of St. Marcellus, was 
 canonically deposed by all in synod, because he deserted his parish for 
 5 years contrary to canonical rule. 
 
 * For instance, in 348 the 1st Council of Carthage, Can. 5 : " Let no 
 one employ a clergyman belonging to another people " (hominem alterius 
 plebis). In 397 the 3rd Council of Carthage, Can. 20 : Let no bishop 
 usurp the people of another " nor supersede a brother bishop (collegum) in 
 his own diocese." Council of Antioch, A.D. 341, Can. 3 : No presbyter or 
 deacon to leave his own parish for another. 
 
 2 
 
parish was here used of the sum total of a bishop's rural 
 churches, which is now called a diocese. 3 
 
 II. THE PAKISH IN SAXON ENGLAND. 
 
 In the 6th century when Christianity was first intro- 
 duced among the Saxons by Roman missionaries they 
 brought with them the institutions and usages to which 
 they had been accustomed at home. They therefore first 
 set up churches in the cities of Britain, Canterbury (Bede, 
 
 I. 26), London (ibid., II. 3), Rochester (ibid., II. 3), York 
 (ibid., II. 14), Dorchester near Oxford (ibid., III. 7), 
 Winchester (ibid., III. 7). In each of these centres a bishop 
 took up his abode with his family or staff of assistants, his 
 mission being to evangelise the country round about, here 
 called his parish or outside district, the peculiar feature of 
 these early settlements being that both bishops and his 
 assistants were monks. There must have been many 
 others established as collegiate churches besides those 
 named as existing names indicate, Wimborn minster 
 established in 713 destroyed by the Danes (Dugdale, Mon. 
 
 II. 88), and in the 10th century Axminster (ibid., VI. 1450) 
 and Exminster (GildroU, XXXVII. 11). Many of these 
 appear to have existed at first independent of the bishop, 
 but in time were included in one or other episcopal 
 district, whether called parish 4 , territory, 5 province, 6 or 
 diocese. 7 
 
 8 Concil. Tolet. III. in 627, Can. 3 : Should a bishop assign any 
 [property] belonging to his parish to secure the prayers of monks without 
 detriment to the church, the gift shall stand. Concil. Cloueshoe (Lewis- 
 ham), A.D. 747, Can. 3 requires every bishop to go round his parish 
 every year. The papal legates at the Council of Cealchythe (Chelsea) in 
 787 commands every bishop to go round his parish once a year. In 963 
 archbishop Odo admonished his bishops to go about their parishes every 
 year preaching the word. A decretal of uncertain origin but prior to the 
 llth century (in Gratian, Caus. XVI., Qu. I., c. 9) speaks of monks and 
 abbots in the bishop's parish. Concil. Lat. 1, A.D. 1123, Can. 17, in 
 Mansi XXI. 285, decrees That abbots and monks apply to the bishops 
 in whose parishes they dwell for chrism and the holy oil. 
 
 4 Egbert's Excerption, 28, c. 900, A.D. : Let every bishop take care 
 that the churches in his parish are well built. 
 
 5 Concil. Aurel. I. A.D. 541, Can. 17 : All churches (basilicce) wherever 
 built shall be subject to the bishop within whose territory they lie. 
 
 6 Concil. Tolet. XII. A.D. 681, Can. 12 : According to the institutions 
 of the ancient fathers let the bishops of the several provinces (i.e. 
 dioceses) meet every year on 1st November. Concil. Tolet. XVII. 
 A.D. 694, Can. 6. 
 
 7 Concil. Tarracon. A.D. 516, Can. 8 : Let a bishop every year visitj 
 his diocese (diocesim). 
 
 3 
 
'bishop's parish supersedes the tribal system. 
 
 In the century which elapsed between the coming of 
 Augustin (A.D. 596) and the archiepiscopate of Theodore 
 (673-692) the Saxon church grew up around the principal 
 cities on a tribal basis. The bishop's parish consisted not 
 of an area but of a tribe or clan. The Jutes around Canter- 
 bury, the East and Middle Saxons around London, the 
 West Saxons around Winchester, the Anglians of Norfolk 
 and Suffolk, the Midlanders of Dorchester, and the North- 
 umbrians of York each had their several bishops to govern 
 them in spirituals. Such a method of personal government 
 could not survive where individuals frequently changed 
 their place of abode, and so archbishop Theodore, who as 
 Bede says was the first bishop whom the whole people of 
 England obeyed, divided rural chapels of the kingdom 
 into parishes, i.e. dioceses, substituting local areas for 
 tribal units. This creation of areal dioceses was the first 
 step towards the subsequent creation of parishes. 
 
 Inclusion of collegiate churches (dioceses) in the bishop's 
 
 parish. 
 
 The next step was the inclusion of collegiate churches 
 in the bishop's parish. Owing to a strange objection 
 dating from the 4th century 8 it had become the custom not 
 to appoint a bishop except in large cities, but collegiate 
 churches were founded in all respects self-governing except 
 in matters requiring episcopal order. The common name 
 for such churches was administrative districts or dioceses. 9 
 The Saxons called them ancient minsters, 10 and it is in 
 reference to these ancient minsters that Egbert's 25th 
 Excerption prescribes : Let one entire hide (mansus = 
 120 acres) be given to every church service free. 11 We 
 
 8 Concil. Antioch, A.D. 341, Can. 9 : " Let those in villages and rural 
 places and those called rural bishops, even if they have received the 
 ordering of bishops, know their places." Concil. Laodicea, A.D. 363, 
 Can. 57 : Let not bishops be appointed in villages and rural places other 
 than visiting ones (ireptoSevrcU). 
 
 9 Concil. Tarracon. A.D. 516, Can. 6 and 7 : Let presbyters and 
 deacons in collegiate churches (diocesance ecclesice) keep week-day 
 services. Concil. Brae. II. A.D. 572, Can. 2 : Let no bishop when he 
 visits his collegiate churches (dioceses) take more than 2 shillings. 
 
 10 Wihtraed's Privileges, A.D. 692, No. 1 : " Let all the minsters and 
 churches that have been given and bequeathed to the honour of God 
 . . . remain to the honour of God." Edgar's Law, A.D. 958 : " Let 
 every church-shot go to the ancient minster." Ethelred's Law, 4, A.D. 
 1014 : Let every due go to the mother church. 
 
 11 Gratian, Caus. XXIII., Qu. VIII., c. 25 ; Decretals, Lib. III., Tit. 
 
hear of collegiate churches as well as see-churches founded 
 almost immediately after the coming of Augustin. In 602, 
 for instance, King Ethelbert not only gave to Augustin 
 " a church which he was informed had been used by the 
 ancient Roman Christians where he established a residence 
 for himself and his successors " [the see-church of Christ 
 at Canterbury] ; but he also " erected the church of SS. 
 Peter and Paul not far from the city where he placed a 
 body of monks " (St. Augustin's monastery, Bede, I. 32). 
 In 633 Fursey founded a collegiate church at Cnobher's 
 town in Suffolk now called Burgh Castle (Bede, III. 19). 
 In 653 bishop Cedd built collegiate churches at Blackwater 
 River near Maldon in Essex (Ithancestre), and at Tilbury 
 on the Thames (ibid., III. 22). His brother Chad in 660 
 founded monastic churches at Lastingham (ibid., III. 23) 
 besides others in 669 at Barton upon Humber in Lincoln- 
 shire, at Barrow (At Barue) Chertsey (Ceortesei) and 
 Barking in Essex (Bercingum, ibid., IV. 6). After defeating 
 Penda at Winwidfield near Leeds in 655 King Oswy 
 founded collegiate churches at Hartlepool (Heruten or 
 Hart-island), Whitby (Streaneshalch or Lighthouse Bay), 
 and Gilling in Yorkshire (Ingethlingum, ibid., III. 24). 
 About the same time Sexwulf founded Peterborough 
 (Medeshamstead or Meadow Hamlet, ibid. 9 IV. 6), and 
 in 688 King Ina built the minster at Glastonbury (Saxon 
 Chronicle ad an.). 
 
 By the Saxons these see and collegiate churches stood 
 on a platform by themselves. The well-known law of 
 Canute (No. 3 in 1017), which mentions four kinds of 
 churches in all, calls see-churches head-churches, and 
 ancient minsters middling churches. The breach of 
 protection, it runs in a head-church is in the case of 
 satisfaction equal to the breach of royal protection, that is 
 according to English law 5 pounds ; and in a middling 
 church 120 shillings, which is the same with the mulct 
 to the king. 
 
 Establishment of rural churches a work of time. 
 
 Cnut's law then goes on to mention two other kinds of 
 churches which it calls lesser churches. A subsequent age 
 spoke of them as donative churches in contrast to collegiate 
 
 XXXIX., c. 1. Gratian quotes this as a decree of the Council of Worms, 
 but the Correctores state that it was a constitution of the King of the 
 Franks* 
 
 * 5 
 
churches which were known as elective churches. And 
 they are stated in the document known as King Edward's 
 Ecclesiastical Laws to have become about three or four 
 times as numerous as they were in King Alfred's time 
 (Eccl. Laws, No. 9). As these lesser churches form the 
 basis of the present parochial system, it is obvious that 
 (1) that system could not have come into being until such 
 churches had become fairly numerous, and (2) not even 
 then until they had become amenable to episcopal 
 authority. 
 
 The origin of these rural churches was the erection of a 
 building by the lord of the manor either to serve as a 
 private chapel 12 for himself and his family or for a less 
 worthy motive to be a source of income to himself out of 
 the offerings there made after paying a priest to perform 
 the services of religion. 13 
 
 Within 100 years of the first introduction of Chris- 
 tianity among the Saxons we hear of two lesser churches 
 being founded in Yorkshire, one hi 686 at South Burton, 
 the country house of earl Puch about 2 miles distant from 
 the monastery of Jarrow which John bishop of Hexham 
 (Hagulstad) was invited to consecrate (Bede, V. 4) ; the 
 other at North Burton, earl Addi's estate which the same 
 bishop consecrated (ibid., V. 5). In both these cases the 
 church was built by an earl, and the mass-priest was his 
 private chaplain. Of course, no one who only held folk- 
 land could build a church upon it for his own benefit. This 
 privilege could only be exercised by a holder of bookland. 
 Hence private churches must have been at first few and far 
 between. They could not have become common until 
 booklands had become common, i.e. until after Alfred's 
 time. But before the Conquest all the land in the kingdom 
 except the royal estates and the royal forests had been 
 
 " Concil. Agath. A.D. 506, Can. 21 ; Should any one, outside the 
 parishes in which the lawful and ordinary services are held, desire to have 
 a prayer-station on his estate we allow him to have prayers there on 
 other festival days to prevent fatigue to his household ; but at Easter, 
 Christmas, the Epiphany, the Lord's Ascension, Pentecost and St. John 
 the Baptist's day or any other great festival let them attend nowhere 
 save in the city or the parish. 
 
 18 Concil. Brae. II. A.D. 572, Can. 6 : If any one builds a country 
 church (basilica) not from devotion to the faith but out of covetousness 
 intending to share what is given by way of offering to the clergy there, 
 on the ground that the church stands on his land (as is said to be the 
 custom in some parts), let the rule be in force for the future that no 
 bishop give countenance to such an abominable intention (votum) or 
 dare to consecrate it. 
 
granted out and the owners of most booklands had either 
 themselves built churches or joined with neighbouring 
 bookland-holders in building them. The power of building 
 a church was an appurtenance of bookland and the church 
 when built, like a borough, a market, or a fishery, was the 
 property of the bookland-owner. If the bookland-owner 
 desired to have service in the church it was his business 
 or that of his villagers to provide the mass-priest with a 
 maintenance. Or, on the other hand, he might farm out 
 the church to the mass-priest for a fixed or a variable rent, 
 and could appoint or dismiss him at will. When, therefore, 
 we read in Domesday of laymen possessing churches or 
 portions of churches, we must understand that this means 
 'really possessing them, 14 not only the site on which the 
 churches were built but the tithes, 15 offerings, 16 and dues 17 
 which were appurtenant to the site, and possessing them 
 so that they could give them to whom they liked and upon 
 what terms they pleased. The bishop had only to be 
 consulted if the nominee needed ordination. With such a 
 state of things no wonder the complaints about simony 
 were overwhelming. 
 
 III. THE PARISH IN NORMAN TIMES. 
 
 Three things about the parish call for attention in 
 Norman times : (1) the parish boundaries, (2) the position 
 of the temporal or manorial lord in relation to it, and 
 (3) the position of the spiritual head, the chaplain. 
 Respecting the boundaries, the area of the parish con- 
 sisted of the lands of one or more manorial lords who had 
 built or combined to build the church, or of the lands of a 
 submanor held under the crown or some important baron. 
 The frequent occurrence of outliers is accounted for by 
 these being outlying lands belonging to the same manorial 
 
 14 For instance, " In the manor of Wane tinge in Berkshire Peter the 
 bishop holds 2 parts of the church with 4 hides thereto belonging which 
 never paid geld. Now they are in the King's hand because they were 
 no part of his bishopric. The 3rd part of the aforesaid church William 
 the deacon holds together with one hide." In Suffolk the ^ of a church 
 belonged to a small manor of 30 acres (D.-B. I. 75). 
 
 16 Evidence of tithes being held by laymen is the numerous grants of 
 them by laymen. 
 
 16 The 1st Lateran Council in 1123 in its 14th Canon forbids laymen 
 to take any part of the offerings made to churches. 
 
 17 Such as the church -shot. See Trans. XXXIX. 368, n. 16. In 
 Worcestershire the lord of a manor paid a horse-load ( = 240 Ib.) of corn 
 as church-shot. The villager usually paid a cock or a hen valued at 
 one penny. 
 
 7 
 
lord as the parish. An instance of a parish made up by the 
 joint action of several manorial lords is Combe-in-Teign- 
 head which includes the manors of Combe, Combe Cellars, 
 Netherton, Buckland Baron, Middle Rocombe, and part of 
 Haccombe (Trans. XL VII. 234). Exminster parish 
 includes, besides Exminster manor, Shillingford Abbot, 
 Matford Butter, Peamore, and Towsington (ibid., 235). 
 The parish of Bradwood Wyger includes the manors of 
 Bradwood Wyger, Downaeary, Moor, and Norton Bauzan 
 (Trans. XLVI. 238). On the other hand, Exminster, 
 ienton, and Kenn have each a distant outlier. Bystock 
 is an outlier of Colaton Raleigh. Frithelstock has four 
 outliers to the South West. Many more might be quoted. 
 
 The manorial lord gives place to the parson. 
 
 The first business which the Norman prelates set out to 
 pursue, or rather those of them who were not engaged in 
 fighting, hunting or hawking, was to establish episcopal 
 control over donative churches. At a Council held at 
 Winchester in 1070 Can. 6 ordained : "That bishops have 
 free power in their dioceses over the clergy and laity." 
 In the following year Can. 8 of Lanfranc's Council at 
 Winchester ordered : " That masses be not celebrated in 
 churches before they have been consecrated by bishops." 
 Can. 15 of Anselm's canons of Westminster in 1102 : 
 " That new chapels be not made without consent of the 
 bishop." Archbishop Carboyl's 9th canon at Westminster 
 in 1127 in execution of canons 4 and 18 of the 1st Lateran 
 Council, decreed : " We forbid churches or tithes to be 
 given or taken by any person without the bishop's consent." 
 The 5th Legatine canon at Westminster in 1138 : " Let no 
 one accept a church or benefice from the hand of a lay- 
 man." Canon 10 of the 3rd Lateran Council in 1179 : 
 " We enjoin that laymen who hold churches do either 
 restore them to the bishops or submit to excommunication." 
 There were, however, always some manorial lords who 
 stood out for their rights of property. Their churches have 
 survived in independence almost to the present day and are 
 now alone called donatives. 
 
 One church-due only seems to have escaped central 
 control, viz. the church -shot. This due, which dates from 
 the time of King Ina (A.D. 692), had in many cases in 
 Hampshire been given in whole or in part to the local 
 chaplain, by whom it was held in the time of Domesday. 
 8 
 
Originally like other church property it was in the hands 
 of the manorial lord ; and according to the evidence of 
 after-death inquests was in later times still held as an 
 appurtenance of the manor. The Walraund Papers, for 
 instance, show that at Steeple Launton in Wiltshire there 
 were there " 293 acres of arable land, each acre being 
 worth 4 pence, also 9 acres of arable land each acre being 
 worth one shilling, pasture for 24 oxen, the pasture of each 
 being worth 5 pence, pasture for 550 sheep, the pasture of 
 each one worth a halfpenny ; rent of assise 103 shillings 
 and 5 pence, a rent of 4 Ibs. of wax to be paid at Pentecost ; 
 for churcheshot (chersetum) 56 hens each worth one 
 penny and the court and garden worth J mark " (p. 26). 
 Among the revenues of the manor of Langford of which 
 sir Robert Waulrond held the third part are enumerated 
 " the churchshot whereof the third part is 11/10J" (ibid., 
 29). At Winterbourn Asserton the manor revenues 
 included " churchshot on the feast of St. Martin 28 hens 
 and 10 cocks each worth Id." (pp. 11 and 18). Among the 
 manor revenues of Yatesbury " church-shot 10 cocks and 
 30 hens " (ibid., pp. 14 and 17), and among the revenues of 
 Wadden manor the church-shot is given as 17d. (ibid., 30). 
 In all these cases the church-shot was still owned by the 
 manorial lord and is treated as part of his manorial income. 
 
 The claim of the bishop to control the patron's choice of 
 incumbent by insisting on the necessity of his institution 18 
 was based on the ground that since a cure of souls was 
 appurtenant to possession of the site of the church, the 
 fitness of the holder must be subject to the bishop's 
 approval. This was the view taken by the Lateran 
 Councils. Closely connected therewith was the further 
 claim that tithes being God's right 19 ought only to be paid 
 to those " whom the bishop could freely coerce." If, 
 therefore, the manorial-lord had the patronage because 
 the site of the. church was held of him as feudal lord, the 
 bishop claimed the administration of the tithes either by 
 men in orders or by men of religion because tithes ought 
 to be administered as a sacred trust. 
 
 In the Council held at Westminster in 1102 Canon 13 
 
 18 Concil. Westminster, A.D. 1138, Can. 5 : When any man takea 
 investiture from the bishop let him swear on the Gospel that he has 
 neither given nor promised anything. Const. 18 Langton, A.D. 1222 ; 
 Lyndwood, p. 108. 
 
 19 Concil. Westminster, A.D. 1127, Can. 9 : Tithes as the portion of 
 God should be paid in full. 
 
 9 
 
ruled : " That tithes be not paid but to the church only." 
 This canon merely repeated what various councils had 
 decreed in Saxon times, but which as Domesday shows 
 was still a dead letter. But the ruling came with different 
 authority when the 1st Lateran Council decreed in 1123 
 (Can. 4 in Gratian Caus. XVI., Qu. VII., c. 20 ; Mansi XXI. 
 282) that " In accordance with the ruling of the most 
 blessed pope Stephen we decree that laymen, albeit they 
 may be men of religion, have no power of disposing of 
 ecclesiastical property ; but according to the canons of 
 the apostles let the bishop have charge of ecclesiastical 
 property (res) and dispose of the same in the sight of 
 God." ' 
 
 This decree was followed by one more stringent at the 
 2nd Lateran Council in 1139 which laid it down (Can. 10 
 in Mansi XXI, 528) that "Tithes of churches which 
 canonical authority shows were given for pious uses we 
 forbid by apostolic authority to be in the possession of 
 laymen. Whether they got them from bishops or kings 
 or from any other persons let them know that unless they 
 restore them to the church they are committing the crime 
 of sacrilege and incur the risk of eternal damnation." In 
 1179 the 3rd Lateran Council finally closed the door to 
 laymen, keeping in their hands the administration of tithes 
 by decreeing (Can. 14 in Mansi XXII. 226 ; Decretals of 
 Gregory IX., Lib. III., Tit. XXX., c. 19) : Also we forbid 
 laymen who at the peril of their souls withhold tithes to 
 transfer the same in any way to other laymen. Should 
 anyone receive them and not hand them over to the church, 
 let him be deprived of Christian burial." 
 
 The effect of this canonical legislation was twofold. 
 (1) The customary gifts in kind made to the local chaplain 
 were now systematised and included among tithal obliga- 
 tions under the name of altalage. (2) The disposal of what 
 had hitherto been exclusively called tithes, that is the tithe 
 of corn and grain and of all things grown in the open field 
 was taken out of the hands of the manorial lord, all that 
 was left to him being the power with the bishop's consent 21 
 to assign them to what church he liked. 
 
 81 Cohcil. Westminster, A.D. 1127, Can. 9: We forbid churches or 
 tithes or ecclesiastical benefices to be given or taken by any person with- 
 out the bishop's consent. Concil. Westminster, A.D. 1200, Can. 12 : 
 According to the tenor of the Lateran Council we decree That no Brothers 
 Templars, Hospitallers or any men of religion accept churches, tithes or 
 any ecclesiastical benefice without the authority of the bishop. 
 
 10 
 
Three alternatives in disposing of the tithe. 
 
 Three alternatives now presented themselves to every 
 dutiful patron of a Church who desired Christian burial. 
 Either (1) he might appoint some trustworthy person 
 (certa persona) 22 to undertake the administration of his 
 tithes who should become an officer of the church by 
 being tonsured and admitted to minor orders. Or (2) he 
 might bestow his tithes on the chaplain of his own church. 
 Or (3) he might give them to some religious house or 
 foundation with the bishop's consent. 
 
 In places where the first course was adopted the place 
 of the lord of the manor was taken by an officer of the 
 church henceforth known as the trustworthy person (certa 
 persona) or parson, 22 whose duty it was to receive and 
 expend the tithes and other spiritual revenues in accord- 
 ance with the canons. It will, however, be apparent from 
 the quotations already made from the Walraund papers, 
 that as the Lateran canons do not mention the church- 
 shot, this source of income was in many places retained by 
 the manorial lord. 
 
 The earliest instance that I can quote for the use of the 
 term parson in the sense of the man who is responsible to 
 the bishop for the temporal administration of the church 
 is the 20th canon of the 1st Lateran Council in 1123. It 
 runs (Mansi XXI. 286) : " We ordain that churches 
 together with their goods, as well parsons as property to 
 wit clergy and monks and their lay brethren (conversi) 
 also tillers of the soil and the implements they use shall be 
 safe and free from molestation." The 12th Constitution of 
 Clarendon in 1164 provides that when a church is vacant 
 the king shall send his mandate to the chief parsons of 
 that church and they are to make the election in the King's 
 chapel " with the advice of the King's parsons whom he 
 shall call for that purpose." Afterwards the term becomes 
 common to designate the administrator of the temporalities 
 of the church just as the term chaplain is used of the 
 administrator of the spiritualities who has the cure of souls. 
 The 13th Constitution of archbishop Langton in 1222 
 forbids any " church to be committed to two rectors or 
 two parsons." As the process of consolidation was then in 
 full swing the use of the term parson in its proper sense 
 soon disappears and it was generally in vogue as the 
 equivalent of rector. 
 
 28 LyndwoocL 1P< 
 
 11 
 

 Gifts to monastic or secular churches. 
 
 Two or three instances of gifts to a monastic church of 
 lands and tithes in Devon may be supplied from the 
 Calendar of Documents in France : William de Poillei 
 who in 1086 held Stoke Rivers, Seaworthy, Cadbury, 
 Bickleigh, Buckland Monachorum and Sampford Spiney 
 in Devon gave a third of the tithes of the corncrop from 
 all his lands in Devon to St. Martin of Seez (Cal. Docts. in 
 France 235). Similarly Joslin de Pomeray in 1125 gave 
 to the church of St. Mary du Val and to the canons there 
 serving God according to the rule of St. Augustin not 
 only land but also the tithe of his mares in Normandy and 
 England . . . the tithe of his pigs and his mills at Berry 
 [Pomeroy], his chaplain - dues (capellaria) in England 
 [i.e. his small tithes] to wit the tithe of wool and cheese 
 and piglets and lambs at [Upjottery (Otreuum) and of all 
 belonging to his chaplain-dues in England (ibid., 536). 
 
 Again William de Braose about 1160 in a charter ad- 
 dressed to Robert [Warelwasst 1155-61] bishop of Exeter 
 confirmed a grant made by Juhel his grandfather of lands 
 and churches for the support of the monks of Clugny on 
 the day when he founded [about 1080 A.D.] the dependent 
 house (obedientiam) of St. Mary Magdalene, viz. Pilton 
 and PiUand the churches of Bardestaple with the chapel 
 of St. Salvius and all appurtenances, the mill of Barn- 
 staple with milling-rights over the whole town and castle, 
 the churches of Tawstock with all their appurtenances . . . 
 two thirds of the tithes of Fremington and half the tithe of 
 Tawstock together with the tithe of fish (ibid., 460). 
 
 The instruments by which these gifts were assured 
 usually specify the purpose of the gift. Thus bishop 
 Bronescombe's appropriation of Dean Prior to Plymton 
 Priory on 15 Oct., 1270 (Bronescombe 65), which is ad- 
 dressed to the Prior and Convent of Plymton, sets forth : 
 " Wherefore beloved in Christ, we being minded to further 
 your humble devotion with paternal affection, in order to 
 relieve the necessities of the poor and of strangers that 
 flock to you, with consent of the dean and chapter of our 
 church of Exeter . . . give and confirm to you in full 
 right 23 the church of Dene with its fruits and obventions 
 ... to hold for ever to your own proper uses saving a 
 suitable portion for the vicar to be canonically presented 
 
 " When a church was given in full right, the gift was a grant of the 
 site, of the tithes and of the altalage or small tithes and offerings. 
 
 12 
 
to us and our successors by you." When appropriating the 
 church of St. Breward to the dean and chapter of Exeter 
 on 5 Sept., 1278, the same bishop required that on the 
 solemn anniversary every year the aforesaid dean and 
 chapter should supply 50 poor invalids with food and 
 drink to the value of one penny each (ibid., 243). 
 
 Examples of gifts to the chaplain. 
 
 Among examples of gifts to the chaplain of which docu- 
 mentary evidence survives the majority no doubt being 
 simply f eof ments. ' 'About 1 1 30 Simon bishop of Worcester 
 (1125-1151) allowed and confirmed a gift of tithes made 
 by the good men of Exhall (Eccleshale) in Worcestershire 
 to the church which they had themselves built " (Dugdale, 
 Hist. Warwick, 1656, p. 630). About the same date 
 bishop Bernard of St. David's confirmed a gift of land and 
 tithes to the church of St. Mary of Hay in Brecknockshire 
 made by the lord of the manor William Revel with consent 
 of his overlord Bernard de Novo Mercarto (Selborne, 
 Ancient Facts and Fictions, 1892, p. 352). The deed sets 
 forth that " he gave to the same church the tithe of his 
 land of Hay in all things and of the land of Ivo and 
 Malenianc and of all those who held of the fee of Hay. And 
 lest there should be a doubt in future [about what was 
 included] he gave and firmly granted the following 
 tithes, viz. of the sheaf and hay, of fowls and calves, of 
 lambs and piglets, of wool and cheese, of the fruit garden 
 (virgultum), of his rents in Wales, pannage and plea-dues " 
 (ibid., 352). This was the gift of the entirety of the church, 
 of the great tithes as well as of the small tithes to the 
 chaplain of the church. 
 
 The mass-priest becomes the chaplain. 
 
 Turning to the spiritual side of the parish ; just as the 
 manorial lord gave place to the parson in Norman times, 
 so the mass-priest holding office at the will of the lord gave 
 place to the chaplain instituted by and amenable to the 
 bishop, in other words the incumbent became emancipated 
 from lay control and was brought under episcopal control. 
 This change involved three things, each of which was only 
 gradually effected : (1) The recognition of institution by 
 the bishop as necessary to obtain possession of a church ; 
 (2) the limitation of the services or payments which a 
 patron or other interested person could demand from an 
 
 13 
 
incumbent ; and (3) protection against being disturbed in 
 possession except by canonical process. 
 
 Already in the 56th of Egbert's Excerptions, wrongly 
 attributed to archbishop Theodore but which is far 
 more likely a reproduction of a canon of the Council of 
 Mainz in 813 A.D. (ap. Gratian, Caus. XVI., Qu. II., c. 37), 
 we find it laid down that : " Without the authority and 
 consent of the bishop let no mass-priest be appointed to 
 any church or deprived of the same." But this was of no 
 avail until the 1st Lateran Council in 1123 took the case 
 up and by its 18th canon (Mansi XXI. 285) decreed : 
 " Let presbyters be instituted by bishops (constituantur) to 
 whom they shall be answerable for the cure of souls and 
 for such things as belong to the bishop ; but let them not 
 take over tithes or churches from laymen without the 
 bishop's consent." Following this the Council of London 
 in 1126, Can. 4, decreed: "Let no monk or clergyman 
 accept a church, tithe or any ecclesiastical benefice without 
 the bishop's consent." The same ruling is repeated in 
 Can. 9 of the Council of Westminster in 1127, in Can. 5 of 
 the Council of Westminster held in 1138 and presided over 
 by Alberic legate of pope Innocent II. 
 
 To prevent the chaplain suffering from the covetous 
 demands of the manorial lord Lanfranc's Council held at 
 Winchester in 1076 decreed (Can. 3) : That no clergy- 
 man either in town or country pay any service for his 
 ecclesiastical benefice other than what was paid in the 
 time of King Edward. 
 
 Manorial lord's opposition to fixity of tenure. 
 
 Notwithstanding the efforts made by the bishops to 
 secure fixity of tenure against the patron for rural chaplains, 
 the old idea that the lord of the manor, as owner of the 
 soil, could do what he liked with the church and therefore 
 that if an estate changed hands it might also change 
 chaplains still held its ground. Hence, when William Rufus 
 gave the church of Button Courtney in Berkshire to the 
 abbey of Abingdon, Aelfwij the priest appeared before 
 the abbot and humbly prayed that possession of the church 
 might be continued to him (Chronicon Monasterii de 
 Abingdon II. 28). When Juhel gave the church of 
 St. Mary at Totnes to the monastery of St. Sergius and 
 Bacchus the presbyters Hubert and Anschetit appeared 
 before the representative of the monastery and prayed to 
 14 
 
be allowed to retain the fee which had been granted to 
 them by Juhel (Trans. XXIX. 234, n. 17 ; Oliver, Mon. 
 241). To prevent a chaplain being dispossessed by his 
 patron Can. 9 of the Council of London in 1126 ruled : Let 
 no abbot, clerk or layman oust any one from a church to 
 which he was instituted by the bishop without the bishop's 
 sentence. Alexander III. (1159-1181) found it necessary to 
 protest against the view that the chaplain's tenure of the 
 benefice depended upon the lord's tenure of the estate. 
 To Henry II. he wrote (Mansi XXII. 440) : " We have 
 received a letter of your majesty addressed to us on behalf 
 of R. a knight as to the patronage-right of the church 
 of ... (Ligurgis al. Bligurd). . . . But seeing that it is 
 contrary to the rules of the holy fathers were we to allow 
 clergy to be put out of churches which they have canorti- 
 cally acquired under cover of patronage, we cannot with 
 good conscience oblige the said knight as requested." 
 Another decretal of the same pope Alexander III. (Mansi 
 XXII. 238 ; Decretals Lib. III., Tit. XXXVIII., c. 9) 
 declares : We have received a complaint addressed to us 
 by the prior and convent of Lanthony (Lanch) setting 
 forth that R[oger] sometime earl of Hereford (1144-50) 
 acknowledged before J[ohn de Pagham] of happy memory 
 sometime bishop of Worcester (1151-58) the right which 
 the said prior and brethren ought to have in the church of 
 Wick by grant of H[ugh de Lacy] founder of the said 
 church [in 1108] and father-in-law of the said Roger. . . . 
 But after the aforesaid earl had divorced C[ecilia daur. of 
 Payne Fitzjohn] his wife, the same C[ecilia] married 
 W[illiam] of Poitiers who withdrew all the fruits of the 
 benefice from the said prior and brethren and bestowed 
 them on R. priest of the same place without the bishop's 
 authority. Afterwards when on the death of W[illiam] the 
 said C[ecilia] married for the third time W[illiam] de Mayne, 
 this Wfilliam] persisted in the same evil course on the 
 ground . . . that what the bishop had done in the church 
 which was his wife's advowson at the time when she was 
 under coverture could not prejudice him, and that unless 
 be could bestow the church as he liked his wife's patrimony 
 would not come to him in its entirety. Now seeing that 
 it is monstrous and unreasonable that appointments to 
 churches should be made to depend on changes of patrons 
 ... we enjoin upon you, etc. 
 
 Abuses, however, still continued, as is evidenced by 
 
 15 
 
Canon 14 of the 3rd Lateran Council in 1179 (Mansi XXII. 
 226 ; Decretals, Lib. III., Tit. XXXVIII., c. 4) which 
 declares : " Seeing that the audacity of some has got to 
 such a pitch that setting at naught the authority of 
 bishops they institute clergy to churches and remove them 
 at their own sweet will and also as they list dispose of their 
 property and other ecclesiastical goods ... we ordain 
 that they who in future shall be guilty of such conduct 
 shall be struck with anathema." 
 
 In 1180 Alexander III. wrote to the archbishop of 
 Canterbury (Mansi XXII. 378) : From constant com- 
 plaints of persons we learn that in your parts a bad and 
 abnormal custom prevails of clergy out of sheer avarice 
 taking over churches and ecclesiastical benefices without 
 the consent of the diocesan bishop or his officials. . . . We 
 therefore command that every bishop in his bishopric 
 shall at least 4 times a year renew the sentence of ex- 
 communication against such as do so, and do ye cause 
 [this command] to be carried out barring cavil and 
 appeal. 
 
 Even after the civil legislation of Henry II. we find the 
 4th Lateran Council in 1215 in its 32nd Canon (Mansi XXII. 
 1021) complaining : An evil and corrupt practice which 
 ought to be put down has grown up that in some places 
 patrons of parish churches and others claim for themselves 
 their entire income leaving so slender a portion for the 
 presbyters told off to serve them that they can scarcely 
 subsist upon it. We therefore ordain that notwithstanding 
 any custom pleaded by bishop or patron or by any other 
 person a portion shall be assigned to the presbyters 
 sufficient to maintain them. 
 
 The possession of land. 
 
 The most effectual thing, however, whereby the 
 chaplain's fixty of tenure was secured was the possession 
 of land and the legislation of Henry II. 
 
 According to the evidence of Domesday very few 
 parochial chaplains were in 1086 holders of land. Even 
 the site of the church was still regarded as the possession of 
 some lay lord or else as held as a tenement of some manor. 
 At Wantage, however, both the parson and the chaplain 
 had an estate in land. Peter the bishop had 4 hides as 
 parson not belonging to his see and William the deacon as 
 chaplain had 1 hide free of geld. The church of Hanney 
 16 
 
held by Turold the priest was endowed with one hide. At 
 Compton the church was endowed with J hide ; at Lockinge 
 with J hide, at Sparsholt Edred the presbyter had 1 hide. 
 
 In Devonshire in a list of 12 estates " given to God in 
 alms," only two were held by the chaplains of non-collegiate 
 churches. Sawin the queen's priest had at Swymbridge an 
 estate of 3 virgates. Algar had at Braunton one hide of 
 land. 
 
 The legislation of Henry II. 
 
 If by gifts of land fixity of tenure was secured to a small 
 number of rural chaplains, the legislation of Henry II 
 (A.D. 1154-1189), which made possession nine points of the 
 law, affected all but a very few. This legislation following 
 that of the Civil Law, the knowledge of which had been 
 lately introduced by Vacarius at Oxford distinguished 
 
 between proprietary and possessive S As professor 
 
 Maitland observes (Constitutional History, 12) : " Pro- 
 prietary actions still went to the feudal court. But Henry 
 by some ordinance that we have lost took under his royal 
 protection the possession, or seisin as it was called of all 
 freeholders." " He provided in his own court remedies 
 for all who were disturbed in their possession. These 
 remedies were the possessory assises [or sittings of the King 
 and his barons to try actions] concerning Novel Disseisin 
 and Mort (TAncestre. There was a third assise that of 
 Darrain presentment or Last presentation. The machinery 
 was in the first place intended to protect possession only, 
 but it was gradually extended to all other actions. Henry 
 himself extended it to proprietary actions for land in the 
 form of the Grand assise. By means of this writ the person 
 sued might refuse trial by battle, the usual method in the 
 feudal court, and have the question ' Who has the best 
 right to this land ? ' submitted to a body of his neighbours 
 sworn to tell the truth." Hence, whereas in Saxon times 
 the right to the church followed the property in the manor 
 of which it formed part, by Henry's legislation possession 
 was the important thing. When once put into lawful 
 possession of freehold land, the possessor could not be 
 disturbed by the claim of the stronger but only by legal 
 action. As Glanvill writing about 1180 expresses it 
 (Lib. XII., c. 20) : " A fit person instituted by the bishop 
 shall retain his benefice during his life whatsoever may 
 afterwards happen in respect to the advowson." 
 
 17 
 
Inquests of patronage. 
 
 Inquests of patronage held at a somewhat later date 
 illustrate the effects of this legislation. They state that the 
 incumbent of a benefice is a life-tenant because he is in 
 lawful possession by induction or seisin, though the 
 property in the land of the benefice may still be in the lord 
 of whom the land is held. They also explain why ordinary 
 village churches are not mentioned in the pages of Domes- 
 day, because the land or site of the church to which the 
 chaplain-dues belong, was like other unrecorded freeholds 
 included in the manor. Thus on 28 Feb., 1445, the 
 chapter of the deanery of Trigg minor make return upon 
 oath (Bronescombe 471): "The true patron of St. Tudy 
 for this turn is John Nantan and the right of presentation 
 belongs to him for this turn by reason of a grant made to 
 him in fee simple of lands and tenements within the manor 
 of Trethywelle and St. Tudy, together with the glebe and 
 all appurtenances ... to which the right of presentation 
 is appurtenant " (Lacy, 294). 
 
 Again on 16 Feb., 1448, the chapter of North Tawton 
 return upon oath : The most illustrious King Henry VI. 
 last time presented to North Tawton by reason of the 
 minority of Thomasia daughter and heiress of Richard 
 Hankforde, lord of a certain glebe within the parish of 
 Cheping Tawton to which the right of patronage is appur- 
 tenant" (Lacy, 330). 
 
 In almost the same words the chapter of Shirwell 
 deanery state upon oath : "On the last occasion the 
 right of presentation to Laxhore belonged to sir Richard 
 Chichester, knight by hereditary right by reason of a 
 certain glebe existing within the parish of Lokyshore to 
 which the right of patronage in the said church is appur- 
 tenant" (Lacy, 330). 
 
 In all these cases and many more to the same effect 
 might be quoted the finding is that the glebe being held 
 of the lord as part of his fee and the church being appur- 
 tenant to the glebe, give to the lord the right of presentation 
 whenever there is a vacancy. 
 
 IV. THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE PARISH. 
 
 Of the three varieties of persons to whom grants of 
 tithes might be made pursuant to the decrees of the Lateran 
 Councils, those made to religious houses were by far the 
 18 
 
most satisfactory. Those made to individuals who were 
 admitted to minor orders in order to take them proved 
 eminently unsatisfactory. An example of such unsatis- 
 factoriness is the way in which William Tracy disposed 
 of his churches and tithes " before his crime against 
 St. Thomas." As lord of the barony of Braneys William 
 de Tracy was patron of a group of churches including 
 Huntshaw, Countesbury, Lynton, Combe-in-Teignhead, 
 Cruwys Morchard and Whipton. All of these he made 
 over by one grant to Alan de Tracy, presumably a relative 
 but not his heir, a clerk in minor orders, and Alan de Tracy 
 granted them to one Thomas, a clerk at a fixed pension. 
 From a charter executed by William's nephew Hugh de 
 Coterna between 1186 and 1191 we learn that on William's 
 death Hugh confirmed his uncle's grant to Alan de Tracy 
 and that Alan appeared before John bishop of Exeter 
 (1186-1191) to have possession assured to him after the 
 death of Thomas the clerk in possession (KaL, Docts. in 
 France 194). 
 
 To prevent abuses such as this the bishops encouraged 
 the consolidation of benefices that is the union of the 
 parsonship and the chaplaincy in the hands of one and the 
 same person ; and although the record is wanting con- 
 solidation must have proceeded apace before the time of 
 bishop Bronescombe whose registers are only evidence of 
 the practice at the finish. 
 
 Examples of consolidation. 
 
 Among other churches consolidated in the diocese of 
 Exeter in the time of bishop Bronescombe (A.D. 1257-1280) 
 " Richard de Hydone was admitted to the whole church of 
 Meshaw on 3 Sept., 1263, by consolidating the portion 
 which the presbyter Juvenal long held in it with the 
 parsonship (personatus) or portion of 2 shillings " (Brones- 
 combe, 155). On 19 Oct., 1258, the vacant vicai^ge of 
 the church of Churchstaunton was " consolidated with the 
 parsonship on condition that the rector of the same church 
 should keep personal residence in the same " (ibid., p. 124). 
 On 28 August, 1260, the same bishop " on the presentation 
 of Richard de Trendelesho admitted Henry a presbyter 
 for some time vicar of the said church to the vacant rent- 
 charge of 2J marks in the same church, and considering 
 that the resources of the church were insufficient for [the 
 
 19 
 
support of] two, instituted him to the entirety (ibid., 188). 
 On the same day the bishop on the presentation of William 
 de Raleghe " consolidated the vacant vicarage of Laxhore 
 with the parsonship and instituted Roger a presbyter there 
 as rector of the said church in its entirety " (ibid., 152). 
 On 25 April, 1261, the bishop " consolidated the then 
 vacant vicarage of the church of Hamme (Georgeham) 
 with the parsonship of the same, saving to the dean of 
 Exeter and his successors a rent-charge of 20 shillings by 
 reason of the church of Braunton [of which Georgeham 
 formed part] being annexed to the deanery of Exeter " 
 (ibid., 93). On 26 April, 1261, the bishop consolidated the 
 church of Lawhitton and assigned it to the rector of the 
 same to hold by the title of perpetual commendation 
 (ibid., 149). On 26 Dec., 1262, William de Membiri 
 subdeacon was admitted to the entirety of the church 
 of Methe in which he previously had 5 marks yearly by 
 the name of the parsonship (ibid., 155). On 1 March, 1264, 
 the bishop admitted Roger de Sane to Constantino, clerk, 
 to the parsonship of 2 marks in the church of St. Newlyn 
 with right to succeed to the entirety on the death of the 
 chaplain [in possession]. Again on 25 January, 126|, the 
 bishop admitted Richard de Bamfeld to half a mark of 
 silver (6/8) by name of the parsonship of Thoverton with 
 right of succeeding to the entirety on the death of Richard 
 de Chipestable and instituted him as rector in the same 
 church (ibid., 185). A later instance of consolidation 
 occurred in July, 1282, when bishop Peter Quivil decreed 
 the consolidation of the vicarage of St. Phillack with the 
 parsonship there into a rectory (Quivil, 366). 
 
 The effect of consolidation was to unite the temporal 
 and the spiritual administration in the same person and to 
 establish in rural districts an officer exercising all the 
 powers previously exercised by a bishop in his see-church, 
 barring those requiring episcopal order. This officer is 
 henceforth known as the rector. 24 
 
 24 The term rector or ruler was originally confined to the bishop, and 
 then given to the head of a collegiate church owing to the strange 
 prejudice current since the 5th century of not having a bishop except 
 in a large city. It is used of the bishop in the Constitution of Otho, 
 A.D. 962 ; ap. Gratian, I. Dist. LXIIL, c. 33 ; to the head of a collegiate 
 by Concil. Clevesho, A.D. 747, Can. 24 : Let bishops of churches and 
 rectors of monasteries know, etc. It is used of the head of a rural church 
 in 655 by Concil. Tolet. IX., Can. 2, and in 675 by Concil. Brae. III., 
 Can. 7. 
 
 20 
 
Vicars temporary and perpetual. 
 
 It was obviously impossible for a religious house or a 
 collegiate church to which a distant rural church or its 
 tithes had been given to discharge either its temporal or its 
 spiritual duties except by deputy, and such a deputy 
 when appointed with the bishop's sanction was commonly 
 called a vicar, but sometimes a prior, for instance at 
 Ipplepen, Woodland and Otterton. When a religious 
 house held a church in full right, it usually served it by 
 sending a monk who was a priest to act as temporary 
 chaplain or vicar with one or more members to bear 
 him company and the chaplain was constantly changed. 
 Where a vicar was perpetual, a religious house often only 
 allowed him what seemed to secular clergy a very diminu- 
 tive allowance. Hence Alexander III. (1159-1181) was 
 fain to address a decretal to the bishop of Worcester 
 (Decretals, Lib. III., Tit. V., c. 12 ; Mansi XXII. 397). "As 
 to monks who so grind down the vicars of parochial 
 churches that they cannot exercise hospitality and have 
 not even enough to support themselves, be. pleased to 
 give heed not to admit any one on the monks' presentation 
 unless in your presence a sufficiency has been assigned to 
 him from the revenues (proventus) of the church where- 
 with to discharge episcopal-dues and to supply him with 
 adequate support." Some religious houses, however, 
 preferred to make a grant of the rectory for life to the 
 vicar upon terms satisfactory to both parties. Exminster 
 church, for instance, which William de Vernon earl of 
 Devon had given on 8 June, 1208, to Plymton priory 
 (Devon Fine, No. 59) and which hi 1288 was valued at 
 17.6.8. (Bronescombe, 452) was given by that priory to the 
 chaplain of Exminster who thus became rector at a 
 reserved rent of 6. 13. 4. (ibid., 453). Afterwards the 
 reserved rent was reduced to 66 shillings and 8 pence and 
 this sum continued to be paid by the rector of Exminster 
 to Plymton priory until the dissolution (Oliver, Mon. 149). 
 Similarly the rectory of Down St. Mary valued in 1288 at 
 40 shillings (Bronescombe, 455) was granted by Buckfast 
 abbey, the impropriators to the chaplain of Bucfast at a 
 reserved rent of 24 shillings (Oliver, Mon. 377). In most 
 cases the bishop settled what the vicar was to receive and 
 so protected him against the caprice of the rector. Such a 
 settlement was termed a taxatio. On 17 August, 1269, 
 
 21 
 
bishop Bronescombe settled all the Cornish vicarages in 
 the deaneries of Trigg major, Trigg minor, East and West 
 (Reg. 269) ; on 28 August, 1269, aU the vicarages East of 
 the Exe and on 26 August all the vicarages in the arch- 
 deaconry of Barnstaple (ibid., 270). Particulars of a large 
 number of those settled after 1259 are to be found in the 
 Episcopal Registers, but only a very few of those made 
 before that date are extant. Attention may be drawn to 
 two points about them all, viz. : (1) the distinction 
 between tithe from the curtilage and garden and tithe 
 from the open field ; and (2) the way in which parochial 
 charges are usually thrown on the vicar who by way of 
 compensation usually receives a good deal more than the 
 small tithes. Thus, for example, the tithe of peas grown 
 in the garden or curtilage is usually assigned to the vicar 
 together with offerings under the name of altalage, whilst 
 the tithe of peas grown in the open field goes to the rector. 25 
 The charges which are commonly thrown on the vicar are 
 the archdeacon's procuration, the bishop's caihedraticum 
 or see-due, a sum fixed not to exceed 2 shillings 26 and the 
 bishop's synodaticum or synodals, 27 often confounded with 
 procurations. It is also worthy of note that although much 
 abuse has been lavished on the monks since Henry VIII. 's 
 time, yet to judge by the recorded settlements the vicar 
 of an English parish fared much better at their hands than 
 at the hands of a secular collegiate church. So carefully 
 had the monasteries discharged their duty to the poor, in 
 
 25 Thus at East Budleigh all the altalage and the whole tithe of beans, 
 peas or vetches growing in gardens was on 28th August, 1269, assigned 
 to the vicar (Bronescombe, 40). On the same day at Halberton the whole 
 altalage and the whole tithe of hay, flax, beans and peas growing in 
 gardens was assigned to the vicar (ibid., 99). At Kingsteignton the vicar 
 was to have the tithes of beans and peas from the curtilage, however 
 grown, and master Thomas the parson was to have the tithe of beans and 
 peas grown in the open field (ibid., 191). At St. Issy the vicar was to have 
 the tithe of hay of the whole parish together with the tithe of beans and 
 peas growing in gardens and hitherto cultivated as such (ibid., 250). At 
 St. Kea he was to have the altalage of the mother church and its 2 
 chapels but not the tithe of beans and peas growing in the open field (in 
 campis) (ibid., 250). At St. Keverne the vicar was to have the tithe 
 of beans and peas " in the ancient curtilages existing at the date 
 of the present settlement," but not the tithe of beans, peas and 
 vetches growing in the open field of the whole parish (ibid., 251). 
 See also St. Marychurch (ibid., 253), Yarcombe (ibid., 285) and Zennor 
 (ibid., 285). 
 
 26 See the case of Antony (in Stapeldon, 32), Barnstaple (ibid., 41 and 
 Trans. L.), Upottery (ibid., 397). At Rattery the vicar was to pay one- 
 third and the appropriators two -thirds of both ordinary and extraordinary 
 charges (Bronescombe, 370). 
 
 22 
 
nursing the sick and exercising hospitality that notwith- 
 standing the shortcomings of individuals most of them had 
 incurred liabilities in meeting their expenses and were 
 deeply in debt at the time of the dissolution. 
 
 Statutory requirement that vicars shall be perpetual and be 
 adequately endowed to exercise hospitality and almsgiving. 
 
 Although the bishop's institution was necessary to put 
 a man in possession of a cure of souls, yet such institution 
 might be given either for a limited term of years or for life 
 as a perpetuity. The universal requirement of institution 
 for life, whereby an incumbent acquired a freehold was the 
 result of a statutory enactment at the end of the 14th 
 century. But even when a man had been instituted for 
 life, a parish might still be exposed to perpetual changes if 
 the vicar were a man of religion under a vow of obedience 
 to his abbot, because the abbot might at any time call upon 
 him to resign. Moreover, church property even when 
 conscientiously administered by a religious house, did not 
 always benefit the poor or the sick of the parish from which 
 it was forthcoming. The religious house usually lay far 
 away ; the villagers were not benefited by its well-kept 
 infirmary, its hospitality to strangers, or the excellence of 
 its library. Hence the local tithe-payer had a grievance 
 intensified possibly by the tradition of times when the 
 dispensation of tithes was in the hands of the manorial 
 lord. These grievances made themselves felt in time, and 
 in 1391 found expression in an Act of Parliament which 
 among other things ordained (15 Ric. II., c. 6) : 
 
 " Whereas divers losses and inconveniences have oft- 
 times happened and do happen from day to day to the 
 parishioners of divers places by the appropriation of the 
 benefices of the same places, it is agreed and allowed 
 that in every license to be henceforth made in the 
 chancery, for the appropriation of any parish church, it 
 shall be expressly contained and set forth that the 
 diocesan of the place upon the appropriation of such 
 churches shall ordain, having regard to the value of such 
 churches, a convenient sum of money to be paid and 
 distributed yearly out of the fruits and profits of the 
 same churches by those that shall have the said churches 
 in proper use and by their successors to the poor 
 parishioners of the said churches in aid of their living 
 
 23 
 
and sustenance for ever ; 27 and also that the vicar be 
 well and sufficiently endowed." 
 
 Not content with this statute, 11 years later in 1402, 
 Parliament passed a further Act (4 Hen. IV., c. 12) which 
 after re-enacting the above made the following additions : 
 
 " From henceforth in every church so appropried or 
 to be appropried a secular person shall be appointed 
 perpetual vicar, canonically instituted and inducted 
 and adequately endowed at the ordinary's discretion, 
 to do divine service, to instruct the people and to keep 
 hospitality there ; and that no man or religion be in any 
 wise made vicar in any church so appropried for the 
 time to come." 
 
 To sum up, the elaboration of the English parish took 
 more than 700 years to complete. It began as a private 
 institution among the Saxons and for 300 years it con- 
 tinued more or less a private institution, created and 
 endowed by the manorial lord and treated as an appur- 
 tenance of the manor. During the next 200 years under 
 Norman administration and as a result of the decisions 
 of three of the Lateran Councils it attained a canonical 
 position. The manorial lord gave place to the parson 
 as administrator, and the mass-priest-at-will to the 
 chaplain, whose tenure was dependent on the bishop, not 
 on the caprice of the manorial lord. Finally, at the end 
 of another 200 years, by the intervention of the State, the 
 incumbent acquired the benefice as a freehold, and some 
 provision was secured for the local poor out of the resources 
 of the parish. The parish, as we know it, was complete in 
 1402, and its canonical position was not altered by the 
 passing of the first Poor Law Act in 1601 rendered neces- 
 sary to provide a substitute for the charitable offices 
 previously provided by the religious houses gratuitously. 
 
 27 When I was vicar of Sparsholt, Co. Berks, of which the rectory was 
 appropriated to Queen's College, Oxford, in 1387, I received every year 
 from the college 13/4 or 1 mark under the heading Pauperibus, i.e. For 
 the poor. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY