Folia Theologica et Canonica 9. 31/23 (2020)
Ius canonicum
THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF PARISHES 77 churches had been confiscated and often destroyed.16 When the persecution was over and the Church’s buildings had been returned, there was a surge in the building of new Christian churches and the reconstruction of old ones.17 On the occasion of the consecration of these churches, bishops often came together and also held a council.18 Then, in 380, the edict of Theodosius declared Christianity in its “catholic” form (i.e. Nicene orthodoxy) the official religion of the whole Empire.19 Large swathes of the population consequently came into the Church. The needs of the mission and the preparation of new members, as well as the life of the Church centred on the Eucharist, required that churches be established and built in villages and on the outskirts of cities; this process also meant the formation of new local communities. These were the circumstances to which the origin of parishes can be traced.20 Despite the fundamental significance of the social and political changes, however,21 the development from these origins of parishes as institutions responding to the definition given above was far from an automatic process. How were the new communities to be constituted, and who was to be responsible for them? One consideration was the need to guarantee the provision of all - or almost all - the basic functions of the Church in a particular place. From this point of view it seemed almost self-evident that the community should be entrusted to a bishop, and yet small settlements were not entirely suitable for an episcopal see. In Africa, but also in southern Italy and elsewhere, dioceses were founded for even the smallest of towns. The canons of the Council of Sardica,22 and also those bearing the name of the Council of Laodicea, already clearly forbid the appointment of bishops to villages;23 instead, they recommend sending a “visitor”. Especially in the East, provision was made for villages and small country towns in the figure of the chorepiscopus, a consecrated bishop sub16 Hist. eccl. VIII,2,1.4; cf. ibid. VIII, 1,9; cf. Erdő, P., II consenso del vescovo richiesto per la costruzione delle chiese. Osservazioni al can. 1215 CIC, in Periodica de re canonica 101 (2012) 597-626, especially 599-600. 17 In the end the Church herself expressed reservations over the unjustified efforts of some people who sought to multiply beyond measure the number of churches and oratories. Cf. e.g., Conc. Chalced. (451) c. 4; Conc. Carth. (401) c. 17; Conc. Aurelianen. (511) c. 17; Conc. Epaonen. (517) c. 25. 18 Cf. e.g., Fischer, J. A. - Lumpe, A., Die Synoden von den Anfängen bis zum Vorabend des Nicaenums (Konziliengeschichte, ed. W. Brandmüller, Reihe A: Darstellungen), Paderborn-München-Wien-Zürich 1997. 453-454. 19 Cod. Theod. XVI, 1,2; Cod. 1,1,1. 20 On the origins of the parish see e.g., Basdevant-Gaudemet, B., Histoire du droit et des institutions de l’Eglise latiné. XV-XXe siecle (Corpus Histoire du Droit, ed. Rigaudiére, A.), Paris 2014. 287-290 (with bibliography). 21 Cf. Borras, A., Laparoisse et au delä, 784-785. 22 Conc. Sardicen. (342/343) c. 6; cf. Stickler, A. M., La parrocchia nella sua evoluzione storica, in La parrocchia (Studi Giuridici 43), Cittá del Vaticano 1997. 7-19, especially 7. 23 Conc. Laodic. (s. IV/2) c. 57.
