The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects

The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects

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Title: The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects
Author: Sedley Lynch Ware
Release Date: May 11, 2004 [EBook #12324]
Language: English
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SERIES XXVI NOS. 7-8
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
IN
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Under the Direction of the Departments of History, Political Economy, and Political Science
THE ELIZABETHAN PARISH IN ITS ECCLESIASTICAL AND FINANCIAL ASPECTS
BY
SEDLEY LYNCH WARE, A.B., LL.B. Fellow in History.
PUBLISHED MONTHLY
July-August, 1908

PREFACE
These chapters are but part of a larger work on the Elizabethan parish designed to cover all the aspects of parish government. There is need of a comprehensive study of the parish institutions of this period, owing to the fact that no modern work exists that in any thorough way pretends to discuss the subject. The work of Toulmin Smith was written to defend a theory, while the recent history of Mr. and Mrs. Webb deals in the main with the parish subsequent to the year 1688. The material already in print for such a study is very voluminous, the accumulation of texts having progressed more rapidly than the use of them by scholars.
My subject was suggested to me by Professor Vincent, to whom as well as to Professor Andrews I am indebted for advice and assistance throughout this work. In England I have to thank Messrs. Sidney Webb, Hubert Hall and George Unwin, of the London School of Economics, for reading manuscript and suggesting improvements. For similar help and for reference to new material my acknowledgments are due to Mr. C.H. Firth, Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford, and to Mr. C.R.L. Fletcher, of Magdalen College. At the British Museum I found the officials most courteous, while the librarians of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, have given me every aid in their power.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I
.
THE ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT OF THE PARISH.
ITS IMPORTANCE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT
ARCHDEACONS' COURTS
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ACT BOOKS OF JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION
CHURCHWARDENS' DUTIES
MINISTERS' DUTIES
OBLIGATIONS EXACTED FROM ALL ALIKE
CONTROL OF CHURCH OVER EDUCATION AND OPINION
HOW COURTS CHRISTIAN ENFORCED THEIR DECREES
EFFECTIVENESS OF EXCOMMUNICATION
EVILS AND ABUSES OF THE SYSTEM
JURISDICTION OF QUEEN'S JUDGES IN ECCLESIASTICAL MATTERS

CHAPTER II
.
PARISH FINANCE.
ENDOWED PARISHES
EXPEDIENTS FOR RAISING MONEY
CHURCH-ALES, PLAYS, GAMES, ETC
OFFERINGS AND GATHERINGS
COMMUNION DUES
SALE OF SEATS, PEW RENTS
PARISH TARIFFS FOR BURIALS, MARRIAGES, ETC.
INCOME FROM FINES AND MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS
RATES AND ASSESSMENTS
INDEPENDENCE OF PARISH AS A FINANCIAL UNIT
SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS IN COUNTY GOVERNMENT

THE ELIZABETHAN PARISH IN ITS ECCLESIASTICAL AND FINANCIAL ASPECTS.

CHAPTER I
.
THE ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT OF THE PARISH.
The ecclesiastical administration of the English parish from the period of the Reformation down to the outbreak of the great Civil War is a subject which has been much neglected by historians of local institutions. Yet during the reign of Elizabeth, at least, the church courts took as large a share in parish government as did the justices of the peace. Not only were there many obligations enforced by the ordinaries which today would be purely civil in character, but to contemporaries the maintenance of the church fabric and furniture appeared every whit as important as the repairing of roads and bridges; while the obligation to attend church and receive communion was on a par with that to attend musters, but with this difference, that the former requirement affected all alike, while the latter applied to comparatively few of the parishioners.
In the theory of the times, indeed, every member of the commonwealth was also a member of the Church of England, and conversely. Allegiance to both was, according to the simile of the Elizabethan divine, in its nature as indistinguishable as are the sides of a triangle, of which any line indifferently may form a side or a base according to the angle of approach of the observer[1]. The Queen was head of the commonwealth ecclesiastical as well as of the commonwealth civil, and as well apprized of her spiritual as of her temporal judges[2]. For both sets of judges equally Parliament legislated, or sanctioned legislation. Sometimes, in fact, it became a mere matter of expediency whether a court Christian or a common law tribunal should be charged with the enforcement of legislation on parochial matters. Thus the provisions of the Rubric of the Book of Common Prayer were enforced by the justices as well as by the ordinaries. Again, secular and ecclesiastical judges had concurrent jurisdiction over church attendance, and--at any rate between 1572 and 1597[3]--over the care of the parish poor. Finally, it must not be supposed that