RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Parish and Pastor
cathedral long remained the only church, or at least the only one in which baptism was administered; but as early as the eighth and ninth centuries parish churches were introduced even in cities. At the same time, Patronage (q.v.) became an important factor, even in episcopal cities, when controlled by monasteries and collegiate churches, the rise of the city parish system being immediately connected with the latter. It would seem, however, that parish and baptismal rights were acquired by the collegiate churches only gradually, either in consequence of their own exertions or of episcopal transfer and division of older ecclesiastical districts. The cathedral or its baptistery accordingly often long retained either a concurrent or exclusive right of baptism, etc., the latter still being the case in some Italian cities, such as Bologna, Florence, and Parma. In the Middle Ages many of the German city parishes had no fixed boundaries, a situation which the Council of Trent sought to amend. Other conditions, such as the rivalry of collegiate churches, also tended to produce city parishes, which are found after the eleventh and twelfth centuries. These seem to have been served originally from the collegiate church, which still formed the center of parish worship; but in course of time the evils of non-residence appeared here also, especially as the parishioners not infrequently preferred vicars to the collegiate clergy. Finally, many city parishes, like large numbers of those in the country, became the property of monasteries, thus involving the principle of patronage. In cities containing a court, on the other hand, the right of patronage formed the foundation of the city parish, while the market churches both in the north and in the south of Germany were at once placed under the control of patrons. In yet other cases the citizens of a community built and endowed parish churches at their own expense, the patronage of the churches in question consequently belonging to the cities concerned, so that the pastoral care in such a municipality became a part of the civic administration.
In canon law the parish priest is simply the assistant and representative of the bishop, entrusted with pastoral care in a definite district, instituted by the bishop (or presented by a patron), dependent on his diocesan, and liable to deprivation (see Degradation; and Deposition) for due cause. In theory the parishioners are dependent on their
parish priest for all means of grace
4. Canonical excepting the sacraments of confirma-
and Prates- tion and ordination, which are the
tant Theory, exclusive prerogatives of the bishop;
but in practise the rights of the parish priest are subject to many exemptions (see Exemption), especially in favor of the regular clergy, the mendicant friars being empowered to preach and to hear confession concurrently with the parish clergy. On the other hand, since the Lateran Council of 1215, all the faithful who have reached the years of discretion are bound to confess at least once each year to their parish priest, and to receive the Eucharist from him at Easter; and the decrees of the Council of Trent require the publication of the banns by the parish priest if the marriage is to
be regular. Among the Reformers Luther and Zwingli took over the parish from Roman Catholic church law, although in both cases subsequent developments led to the formation of national churches in which the parishes remained the normal districts for pastoral care, subject in part to the parishioners both in the institution of the clergy and in the financial administration of the parishes. The suppression of monasteries, moreover, put an end to many abuses, as did the secularization of 1803, preventing, for instance, non-residence, and frequently giving a pastor an assistant in the form of a deacon, subject to the head of the parish in administration, but equal to him in ecclesiastical prerogatives. In like manner, the pastor is under the control of administrative officers, though the latter do not possess superior spiritual rank, so that the ecclesiastical functions formerly reserved to the bishop are abrogated. Calvinism, while not unacquainted with the concept of the parish in its administrative sense, has been debarred, by its stress on the Church as the " congregation," from any sympathy with the parochial system.
In Roman Catholic church law a parish is that district, normally strictly delimited, in which a parish priest, subject to his bishop, exercises right and lawful pastoral care. The parish bounds may canonically be changed only by the bishop, and by him only in case of necessity or obvious utility. There are also " personal parishes," such as court or
military chaplaincies, and missions are
5. The Ro- likewise movable and without definite
man Catholic boundaries in many cases, although
Parish and in some places they are practically
Rector. equivalent to regular parishes. A
congregation is not recognized as a corporation by Roman Catholic church law, the legal personality being the parish, the parish church, or the benefice. Parishioners are those residing within a parish or possessing a quasi-domicile in it after a residence of six months. It is possible, therefore, to belong to more than one parish if the parishioner concerned has more than one domicile. Protestants who have been validly baptized are regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as heretical Catholics; but while theoretically such Protestants are held to belong to the parish, practically this tenet is now in abeyance. All Roman Catholics are, however, subject to the ecclesiastical control of their parish priest, who may forbid any other clergy to officiate in his parish unless possessed of papal or episcopal authorization, and has the exclusive right, except in urgent contingencies, of baptism, publication of the banns, marriage, the viaticum, extreme unction, burial, and Easter communion. Male religious orders and their institutions are exempt from parish control, and generally have papal privileges empowering them to exercise spiritual functions within the parish bounds. The head of the parish need not be a priest, though he must be ordained to the priesthood within a year; but if he be a deacon, such functions as require priestly ordination, particularly the celebration of mass, must be performed by a vicar in priest's orders. The parish priest is presupposed to be beneficed and to be perpetual, so that neither mission clergy,
Parish and Pastor Parker