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[1].
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[2]. 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[3].
Mr Camden[4] ſays England was divided into pariſhes by archbiſhop Honorius about the year 630. Sir Henry Hobart[5] 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[6], 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.
