e observed) to what church or
parish he pleased. But this being liable to be attended with either
fraud, or at least caprice, in the persons paying; and with either
jealousies or mean compliances in such as were competitors for
receiving them; it was now ordered by the law of king Edgar[n], that
"_dentur omnes decimae primariae ecclesiae ad quam parochia
pertinet_." However, if any thane, or great lord, had a church within
his own demesnes, distinct from the mother-church, in the nature of a
private chapel; then, provided such church had a coemitery or
consecrated place of burial belonging to it, he might allot one third
of his tithes for the maintenance of the officiating minister: but, if
it had no coemitery, the thane must himself have maintained his
chaplain by some other means; for in such case _all_ his tithes were
ordained to be paid to the _primariae ecclesiae_ or mother-church[o].

[Footnote n: _c._ 1.]

[Footnote o: _Ibid._ _c._ 2. See also the laws of king Canute, c. 11.
about the year 1030.]

THIS proves that the kingdom was then universally divided into
parishes; which division happened probably not all at once, but by
degrees. For it seems pretty clear and certain that the boundaries of
parishes were originally ascertained by those of a manor or manors:
since it very seldom happens that a manor extends itself over more
parishes than one, though there are often many manors in one parish.
The lords, as christianity spread itself, began to build churches upon
their own demesnes or wastes, to accommodate their tenants in one or
two adjoining lordships; and, in order to have divine service
regularly performed therein, obliged all their tenants to appropriate
their tithes to the maintenance of the one officiating minister,
instead of leaving them at liberty to distribute them among the clergy
of the diocese in general: and this tract of land, the tithes whereof
were so appropriated, formed a distinct parish. Which will well enough
account for the frequent intermixture of parishes one with another.
For if a lord had a parcel of land detached from the main of his
estate, but not sufficient to form a parish of itself, it was natural
for him to endow his newly erected church with the tithes of those
disjointed lands; especially if no church was then built in any
lordship adjoining to those out-lying parcels.

THUS parishes were gradually formed, and parish churches endowed with
the tithes that arose within the