ABSTRACT
By the thirteenth century, parishes were territories with strictly defined boundaries, and a parish church was distinguished from other churches by the exclusive right to possess a font and a graveyard for the service of its parishioners. This familiar parish structure which covered England was the outcome of a slow-working process that extended over several centuries. Some parish churches had originated in Anglo-Saxon times as official minsters or baptismal churches, which had been under episcopal supervision from the outset. Lay control over the clergy and property of the Church was unacceptable to those who had imbibed Gregorian ideas of ecclesiastical order. During the twelfth century, therefore, the canonists brought about a change in the status of the landlord in relation to his church. The clergy in possession put up a stiff fight, and several English bishops found it necessary to get papal mandates to deprive offenders.
