The English Civil Parish
English constitutional history, since the beginning of the political revolution in the seventeenth century, has been the subject of study of every civilized nation. This wide spread interest has resulted in a thorough search through English documents for every available source of information. There is however one field of English insitutuional history that has received little attention, that is the development of English vivil parish before the seventeenth century. The origin of the parish in both civil and ecclesiastical forms has recieved some notice from the older constitutional writers, and recently has been made the subject of special studies. The Elizabethan parish has been fully treated in the general works and in monographs dealing with special functions. However, no writer has attempted to trace the consecutive development of the civil parish from its origin to the heighth of its activity in the seventeenth century. This development is peculiarly important from the standpoint of the growth of English nationalism, yet is has been entirely overlooked. (1)