CHA P. VII.

Of the Original of Parishes and Parish Priests.

S the number of the Faithful encreased, it was found necessary to fix a Presbyter in some certain Precinct to attend upon the Service of God in that Place. Upon this the Council of Chalcedon decreed, That no Perfon fhould be abfolutely ordained either Priest or Deacon, unless he was particularly defigned to fome Church, either in the City or the Country. Yet tho' a Priest was by this Means obliged to be constantly refident at fome particular Church, either Cathedral or Parochial, yet was he not properly incumbent of that Church in the Senfe we now understand a Man to be an incumbent, that is to be maintained by the Church-dues arifing within that Precinct in his own Right. The Church-revenues throughout the whole Diocefs were ftill collected and paid to the Bishop, by whom they were divided into four Parts and distributed as has been already obferved: Which Custom continued in fome places till the ninth Century or longer. For in the Council of Salisburg convened A. D. 807. it was decreed, That according to ancient Cuftom the Tythes fhould be divided into four Parts, viz. one to be allotted to the Bishop, another to the Clergy, a third to the Poor, and a fourth to the Buildings belonging to the Church. In the Council of Tribur in Germany, An. 895.† it was Ordained, That the Tithes and Oblations of the Church fhall be divided into four Parts, the first to the Bishop, the fecond to the Clergy, the third to

the

the Poor, and the fourth to the Reparation of the Church. And Walafridus Strabo, who flourished about the middle of the ninth Century, in his Treatise of the Beginning and Progrefs of Divine Worship, taking occafion to speak of Tithes, fhews that they ought to be given to the Clergy, who must divide them into four Parts, whereof one is for the Bishop, another for the Clergy, a third for the Poor, and the last referved for the Buildings of the Church. Even as low as the Tenth Century Du Pin tells us, That the Ecclefiaftical + P. 68. Revenues were ufually divided into four Parts, and the Bishops affumed the fole Administration of them: But in fome Churches Clergy-men had particular Revenues which they enjoyed independently of the BiShops. Nay, at the conclufion of the twelfth Century, An. 1199. The * Council of Dalma- Can, 4tia approved the ancient way of dividing the Church · Revenues into four Parts.

However, tho' Tithes and Offerings were for fo long time in fome places at least, not to fay generally brought into the common Stock, and divided into four Parts for the Purposes above recited, yet the Divifion of Diocefes into Parishes is of much elder Original. Some will have this Division to have been made by Fabianus Bishop of Rome, about the middle of the third Century, who divided the feven Regions of the City between the feven Deacons. But this was no Parochial Divifion; Neither were the Deacons employed by Fabian to teach and inftruct the People, but only to collect and keep a Register of the Acts of the Martyrs, as Platina informs us in the Life of that Pope. If any Credit was to be given to the Decretal Epistles of the first Popes, and that we had not very good Reasons to fufpect them to be meer M 4

Forgeries

Spel. Glofs.

verb. Paroch. &

nys. &c.

C. I.

Forgeries to the time of Sincius, who was Bifhop of Rome, An. 385. I fhould (* as others Plat, in vit. Dio- have done) attribute this Divifion into Parishes to Dionyfius, who fucceeded in that See about thirty Years after Fabian. For we have + Caus. 13. q. 1. a Decretal Epiftle put upon him, and pretended to be written to Severus or Severinus Bifhop of Corduba, wherein are thefe Words: We have given to each Presbyter his Church, and fet out to every one of them his Parish and his Churchyard; and appointed to him to have his proper Right, So that no one fhall invade the Bounds or Right of a nother's Parish; but that every one be content with his own Bounds, and so watch over the Church and People committed to him, that he may give an Account of all that are committed to him before the Tribunal of the Eternal Judge: and may not receive Judgment, but Glory for his Works. This would be a very clear and plain account of this Matter if this Epiftle was Authentick, but as its Authority is at leaft dubious, not to fay certainly Spurious, it is convenient that we fearch further to find out the Truth.

As 2.46.

That Chriftians from the Beginning had fe veral places for publick Affemblies in the fame City or Diocefs is evident from the Scriptures themselves, where we read that they broke Bread, that is, celebrated the Eucharift from Houfe to Houfe. Which certainly implies that they had more places for the Performance of Divine Service than one or two in that City of Terufalem. And that the Houfes which were fet apart for this Purpose were even in the Apoftles Days called by the name of Churches is Cor. 11. 22. manifeft from St. Paul's Words, What have ye not Houfes to eat and to drink in? Or defpife ye the Church of God, and shame those that have not?

Not

Eufe-* Lib. 6. c. 43.

Not only the Antithefis between Houses to cat and drink in, and the Church of God, but also the Difference between fhaming the Poor and defpifing the Church of God, feems to require that the Word Church is there put to fignifie the Place of Affembly, and not the People Affembled. Now if there were feveral Places or Churches fet apart for the Worship of God in the fame City, as I think is evident from the Scriptures, and that there was but one Bishop in a City as I have before proved, it must follow that the Churches in which the Bishop himself could not officiate, were fupplied by Presbyters, and it is not improbable that there were near as many of thefe Churches in a Diocefs as there were Presbyters. For Cornelius, in his Letter to Fabius Bishop of Antioch, cited by bius, tells him that the Church of Rome had then fix and forty Priefts; and Optatus, in his fecond Book, affirms, that the Christians had in Rome when the Donatifts first came thither forty Churches and upwards: So near came the Number of Churches at the Donatifts coming to Rome, to the number of Priests in Cornelius's Time, in the distance of between three and fourscore Years. I know we have many places alledged out of Origen, Arnobius, Lactantius and others that defend Christianity against the Gentiles, to fhew that Chriftians then had no Temples. But the effect of them lies in the Word Temple, as it fignifies a stately Fabrick, erected for the magnifying the profeffed Religion by those that built it; which the Chriftians could not then have when their Religion was oppressed and perfecuted by the State. In the mean time they could no more be without places for the opportunity of affembling themselves,than they

could

*

could be without Affemblies for the Worship of God.

These places of publick Worship fet apart to that Service, were at firft called Titles: Several of which were within the City it self, and others in the Country Villages which belonged to the City, and were within the Bounds of the Epifcopal Diocefs, and the Duties belonging to them were performed by the Presbyters who were of the Bishops College, who were all maintained, as has been obferved, out of the publick Stock of the Church. But I conceive that a Presbyter was not originally fixed to one of these Titles immediately at his Ordination: He was then indeed taken into the College, and had fome Duty or other affigned him; but I am perfwaded was moved from one Church or Title to another, as the Bishop and College faw expedient. However it appears as if before the end of the fifth Century all the Presbyters of Rome had fixed Titles, because about that time we find they added their particular Titles to their Names in their Subfcriptions, and as we now write our felves Rectors or Vicars of fuch a Place, fo they wrote Calius Januarius Presbyter Tituli Veftina, Nov. Colle&. Martianus Presbyter Tituli Sancta Cecilia, &c. * And Baluzins gives us sixty eight fuch Subfcriptions of Presbyters to a Council at Rome, A. D. 499. Whereas before we find Presbyters only in general called Priefts of fuch an Epifcopal Church, as a Pricft of Rome, a Priest of Alexandria, a Prieft of Antioch, &c.

Concil. p. 1462.

+ Vindication. p. 65.

Dr. Maurice is of Opinion, that the first fixed Presbyters were at Alexandria; For tho', fays he, other Churches had Titles or Parishes it may be as early as this, yet the

Pres