arch-bishop's jurisdiction. Each province contains divers dioceses, or
sees of suffragan bishops; whereof Canterbury includes twenty one, and
York three; besides the bishoprick of the isle of Man, which was
annexed to the province of York by king Henry VIII. Every diocese is
divided into archdeaconries, whereof there are sixty in all; each
archdeaconry into rural deanries, which are the circuit of the
archdeacon's and rural dean's jurisdiction, of whom hereafter; and
every deanry is divided into parishes[h].

[Footnote h: Co. Litt. 94.]

A PARISH is that circuit of ground in which the souls under the care
of one parson or vicar do inhabit. These are computed to be near ten
thousand in number. How antient 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[i].

[Footnote i: Seld. of tith. 9. 4. 2 Inst. 646. Hob. 296.]

MR Camden[k] says England was divided into parishes by arch-bishop
Honorius about the year 630. Sir Henry Hobart[l] 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 shewn[m], 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.

[Footnote k: in his Britannia.]

[Footnote l: Hob. 296.]

[Footnote m: of tithes. c. 9.]

WE find the distinction of parishes, nay even of mother-churches, so
early as in the laws of king Edgar, about the year 970. Before that
time the consecration of tithes was in general _arbitrary_; that is,
every man paid his own (as was befor