As a matter of fact the
justices, when they had a large sum to levy on the county at large,
almost always apportioned it in lump sums among the hundreds, or among
the parishes of their respective divisions, according to "the bygnes
or smallnes of their parishes."[322] It comes, then, to all practical
intents and purposes to this: that each parish is left to produce
according to its own local methods, or rating, the wherewithal for
carrying on county government.
While in local government itself the parishioners have practically no
voice, the large measure of freedom they enjoy for the devising of
ways and means to meet the demands made upon them (though they have no
option whatever in granting or withholding supplies) gives to the
parish a vigorous entity and a certain autonomous life of its own,
which otherwise it never could have possessed over against the
all-regulating and inquisitorial Tudor machinery of Church and State.
As the reign advanced the parish developed a selfish, jealous and
exclusive gild life of its own, especially under the operation of the
poor laws.
Non-parishioners, or "foreigners," were viewed with the strongest
suspicion. Generally they were discriminated against if they happened
to have dealings with the parish. Wedding or funeral fees were doubled
in their cases.
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