Folia Theologica et Canonica 9. 31/23 (2020)
Ius canonicum
THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF PARISHES 81 V. The development of different institutional structures in the Early Middle Ages The most important element in the emergence of the parish in its various forms seems to have been the church as a sacred building. Already in late antiquity there were prohibitions on the celebration of the Eucharist in private houses without reference to the bishop.49 Even the Liturgy of the Hours had to be celebrated in a church, and particularly Vespers,50 so the need for churches to be built became obvious. Canon law,51 and sometimes also civil law,52 reaffirmed the need to involve the bishop in the building of a church. 1. Private churches or churches of a community? At the time of the Council of Ephesus (431), churches were already being built outside cities in the villages (vici) and on the great estates {villae), served by presbyters under the authority of the bishop of the city. The Council of Chalcedon forbade the ordination of presbyters without assigning them to a particular church.53 Responding to Christians’ spiritual needs could be a reason for building churches in the countryside.54 Thus, a norm of the Council of Agde established that a new church {oratorium) could only be built if the faithful (the members of a family) who lived a long way from the mother church needed it. In this text, the central church in a rural area is termedparrocia. Even though the faithful could attend their new closer church, they were obliged to go to the central parish church on great feasts. This obligation was naturally connected with the duty to bring an offering to the mother church.55 In the Western Church from the fourth century there were priests who had to reside habitually outside the city in a specific place.56 In the fourth century St Martin of Tours established churches in his diocese for the purpose of Christianising the population which were entrusted to priests. He only founded six such “parishes”, however, and there was not yet 49 Cf. Conc. Laodic. (s. IV/2) c. 58.; Conc. Antioch. (330/337) c. 5. 50 Cf. Conc. Tolet. (400) c. 9. 51 Cf. e.g., Conc. Chalc. (451) c. 4.; the canon is included in Gratian’s Decretum'. C.18 q.2 c.10. 52 Cf. Nov. 131,7. 53 Conc. Chalc. (451) c. 6. 54 For the origin and development of these churches in the south of France see Delaplace, C. (ed.), Aux origines de la paroisse rurale en Gaul meridionale (IV-IX’ siécle). Actes du colloque internationale tenu ä Toulouse les 21-23 mars 2003, Paris 2005. 55 Cf. Erdő, P., Usages populaires hongrois. L’offrande, in L’Année Canonique 21 (1983) 289- 305, especially 299. 56 Cf. Conc. Illiberit. (ca. 306) c. 18.
