The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects

The study examines the structure and operation of the parish in Elizabethan England, combining analysis of ecclesiastical government and parish finance. It outlines court structures and procedures—archdeacons' and bishops' visitations, churchwardens' and sidemen's duties, and mechanisms such as presentments, excommunication, and lay participation in ecclesiastical courts—illustrated with act-book examples. It then surveys sources of parish revenue and local fundraising practices, from endowed lands and communion dues to church-ales, pew rents, burial and marriage fees, fines and rates, and considers the parish's financial autonomy and its effects on wider county administration while noting attendant abuses and enforcement difficulties.