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 commonwe