A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

The word parish is from the Greek word παροικία, (paroichia,) which signifies sojourning, or living as a stranger or inmate; for so it is used among the classical Greek writers. The Septuagint translate the Hebrew word גר, (Ger,) peregrinus, by πάροικος, (Gen. xv. 13, &c.,) and the word מגור, (Magor,) peregrinatio, by παροικία. (Ps. cxix. 54.)

The primitive Christians received a great part of their customs, and also their phraseology from the Jews; who, when they travelled abroad, and many of them were settled in any town, either built them a synagogue, or else procured a large room, where they performed their public worship; and all that were strangers in that place met there at the times of public devotion. This brotherhood of Jews, which was mixed with the inhabitants of the place, they called the παροικία, or the society of the sojourners. At the beginning of Christianity, the Christians were in the same condition with the Jews, they being themselves either Jews, or Jewish proselytes, or living in a retired condition, sequestered from the world, and little mixing with affairs. Upon which account St. Peter addresses them ὡς παροικοὺς, &c., as strangers and pilgrims. (1 Pet. ii. 11.) This number of strangers in the heathen cities was called the παροικία, over which there was set, by apostolical authority, a bishop, a προεσθώς, a cazan, (an inspector,) or a rhosh cohel (a head of the congregation); all which names denoted the episcopal authority, and which in little time centred in the one most usual name, of ἐπίσκοπος, or bishop, as is plainly seen by the Ignatian epistles. So that the ἐπίσκοπος and παροικία became relative terms; he that had the superintendency of the congregation, whether one or more, was called the bishop, and the congregation under his care was called the παροικία. Hence, in the most early time of the Greek Church, the word παροικία was used to signify, what we now call a diocese; and thus, in the apostolic canons, a bishop that leaves his diocese παροικίαν for another is to be reduced to lay-communion. Hence it is said, “The bishop of the diocese παροικιας of Alexandria departed this life.” And again, “the glory παροικιας of the diocese of Cæsarea.” The Latins took up the same way of expression, from the Greek, denoting a diocese by the word parochia, which mode of expression lasted till after the time of Charlemagne.

But it is to be observed, that when the word parochia signified a diocese, the word diocesis signified a parish. So in the Council of Agatha, presbyter dum diocesin tenet, “whilst the presbyter is in possession of his living.” And in the third Council of Orleans, diocesis is the same with basilica, a parish church. But in the seventh or eighth century, when parish churches began frequently to be founded in villages, the old names shifted, and diocesis was used to denote the extent of the bishop’s jurisdiction; and parochia, the place where the presbyter’s care was limited.

That the word παροικία was not exclusively applied to a parish, and that a bishop’s diocese was not anciently confined to a single parish, as it has been asserted by the advocates for Presbyterianism, see Maurice’s “Defence of Diocesan Episcopacy,” and Scater’s “Original Draught of the Primitive Church.”

How ancient the division of parishes is, may at present be difficult to ascertain; for it seems to be agreed on all hands, that, in the early ages of Christianity in this island, parishes were unknown, or at least signified the same that a diocese does now. There was then no appropriation of ecclesiastical dues to any particular Church; but every man was at liberty to contribute his tithes to whatever priest or church he pleased, provided only that he did it to some; or if he made no special appointment or appropriation thereof, they were paid into the hands of the bishop, whose duty it was to distribute them among the clergy, and for other pious purposes, according to his own discretion. Mr. Camden says, England was divided into parishes by Archbishop Honorius, about the year 630. Sir Henry Hobart lays it down, that parishes were first erected by the Council of Lateran, which was held A. D. 1179. Each widely differing from the other, and both of them perhaps from the truth; which will probably be found in the medium between the two extremes: for Mr. Selden has clearly shown, that the clergy lived in common without any division of parishes, long after the time mentioned by Camden; and it appears from the Saxon laws, that parishes were in being long before the date of that Council of Lateran, to which they are ascribed by Hobart.

Many parish churches were founded in great towns and villages in Italy, Spain, and France, during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, under the cathedral church of the bishop; and though they were later in England, yet there are some instances as early as the year 700: for about that time Bede relates, that the bishop of Hexham consecrated a parish church in the manor of one Pach, a Saxon earl, and not long after for one Addi. Nay, before this he relates of Birinus, first bishop of the West Saxons, that he built and dedicated several churches in his diocese of Dorchester. When Egbert, archbishop of York, made his constitutions, about the year 750, they seem to be growing up apace. By that canon, “Unusquisque sacerdos ecclesiam suam cum omni diligentia ædificet.”—Spelman. And he forbids that the tithes formerly paid to the mother-church should be paid to the new-built oratories. By the time of Edward the Confessor these parishes were grown so numerous, that complaint was made that the clergy were impoverished thereby. After which time the division of parishes was not much altered; for the survey of England in Doomsday Book is not very different from our later ones.—Nicholls.

Before the establishment of parishes in England, the bishops sent out their clergy (who lived with them) to preach to the people as occasion required; but as Christianity extended, and the number of converts increased, this method became inconvenient, and a resident clergy was found expedient. Parishes were then formed, and churches were built, and endowed by lords of manors and others; and hence arose the patronage of laymen.

The cause of the great difference in the extent of different parishes is this: that churches were most of them built by lords of the manor for their tenants; and so the parish was of the size of the lord’s manor.

In 1520, according to a book made out by Cardinal Wolsey, the number of parish churches is reckoned 9407, but Chamberlain makes them 9913. Camden reckons 9284. The number of charity briefs issued was according to an account in Burns’ “Ecclesiastical Law,” 10,489. Formerly Archdeacon Plymley, in his charge to the clergy of Salop, 1793, says that, from the “Liber Regis,” there were in England and Wales 5098 rectories, 3687 vicarages, and 2970 churches, neither rectorial nor vicarial; in all 11,755 churches in the 10,000 parishes. It is scarcely necessary to add, that both churches and parishes have much increased since that period.

As to divisions and consolidations of parishes, see 58 Geo. III. c. 45; 59 Geo. III. c. 134; 8 & 9 Vic. c. 70. See also 3 & 4 Vic. c. 60, sec. 6.