dral to which they were
paid; or, again, of "Whitsun farthings;" of "Pentecost farthings,"
etc., according to the _time_ of the year at which the payments were
made.[310] These payments must not be confused with "Peter's pence,"
which had before the Reformation been paid by English parishes to
Rome.[311]

Lastly the mother parish church, in large parishes requiring chapels
of ease, would exact (when it could) contributions from those
congregations who frequented for ordinary divine worship these chapels
of ease within the parish. And these exactions would be made
irrespective of the fact that these congregations were bound to repair
their own chapels and possessed their own churchwardens.[312]

When the means or expedients we have hitherto set forth were found
insufficient, or impracticable, or too tardy for an emergency, the
parish was compelled to resort to _Rates_ or _Assessments_.

Assessments were levied in all sorts of ways and for all sorts of
purposes. In an emergency, or if the sum to be raised was not large, a
levy might be made by the principal men of the parish upon themselves
only.[313] A "rate" might, however, be made to collect a very small
sum, as well as a very large one.[314] All kinds of units or rules of
assessment were resorted to from parish to parish, and (apparently)
sometimes no fixed unit at all was taken, men's ability to pay being
roughly gauged, or a man being permitted to rate himself,[315] or give
his "benevolence."

In the wardens' accounts are frequently seen long lists of names, each
being taxed at a sum varying from 1/2d. to three or four shillings.
Such lists may represent an attempt to tax each man at 1/2d. or 1d. in
the pound, or, likely as not, it may merely mean a crude sizing up of
the ability of each to contribute.

Furthermore, a "rate" might consist in a fixed sum, the same for all,
and levied by polls or by households,[316] say 1d. or 2d. each. Or,
again, it might be levied by pews at varying sums.[317] Assessments to
pay the parish clerk or sexton might sometimes be made in kind, and
issue from households, from cottages, or from ploughlands: so much
corn at Easter, so much bread, so many eggs.[318]

When it came to the more accurate basing of rates upon lands, or goods
at a valuation, the inhabitants of the various communities observed no
uniform ratio of taxation from parish to parish, nor even in the same
parish, and disputes were always recurring.[319]

It must b