Note 906 — Chapter IX · THE CLERGY AND MONKS.

Elmham says of Theodore:—“Hic excitavit fidelium voluntatem, ut in civitatibus et villis aecclesias fabricarentur, parochias distinguerent, et assensus regios his procuravit, ut siqui sufficientes essent, super proprium fundum construere aecclesias, eorundem perpetuo patronatu gauderent; si inter limites alterius alicuius dominii aecclesias facerent, eiusdem fundi domini notarentur pro patronis.” Such churches had nevertheless at first not the full privileges of parish-churches. The twenty-first canon of the Council of Agda decreed: “Si quis etiam extra parochias, in quibus est legitimus ordinariusque conventus, oratorium in agro habere voluerit, reliquis festivitatibus, ut ibi missas teneat, propter fatigationem familiae, iusta ordinatione permittimus. Pascha vero, Natale Domini, Epiphania, Ascensionem Domini, Pentecosten, et Natalem sancti Johannis Baptistae, vel si qui maximi dies in festivitatibus habentur, non nisi in civitatibus, aut in parochiis teneant. Clerici vero, si qui in festivitatibus quas supradiximus, in oratoriis, nisi iubente aut permittente episcopo, missas facere aut tenere voluerint, a communione pellantur.”—Concil. Agathense, A.D. 506. cap. xxi. That there were at this period parish-churches in Gaul, served by a single presbyter, appears from other decisions usually attributed to this council, but really published by the Council of Albon, held eleven years later. They are in fact not found in the three oldest MSS. of the Concilium Agathense. “Diacones vel presbyteri in parochia constituti de rebus aecclesiae sibi creditis nihil audeant commutare, vendere vel donare, quia res sacratae Deo esse noscuntur.... Quicquid parochiarum presbyter de aecclesiastici iuris proprietate distraxerit, inane habeatur. Presbyter, dum diocesim tenet, de his quae emerit ad aecclesiae nomen scripturam faciat, aut ab eius quam tenuit aecclesiae ordinatione discedat.” Concil. Epaonense. A.D. 517. As late as the time of Eádgár a regulation was made in England as to the payment of tithe by a landowner who happened to have a church with a churchyard upon his estate. “If there be any thane who has a church with a churchyard upon his bookland, let him give the third part of his tithe to his church. But if any one have a church that has no churchyard, let him give his priest what he will out of the nine parts,”—that is out of what remains after the payment of his tithe to the cathedral church. Eádg. i. § 2. Thorpe, i. 262. Probably there were many such churches in existence, which had descended together with the estates from the first founders, and whose owners could not agree with the ecclesiastical authorities as to their liabilities. The right of patronage was abused unfortunately at a very early period, both by clerics and laymen, as we learn abundantly from the decrees of the several provincial councils.