church of ease

— Very probable it is, on the other hand, that if the distinction of parishes was began before this time, it had hitherto made but a little progress; and that those few churches which had been erected in towns and villages, were chapels or churches of ease to the mother churches of the diocese rather than proper parish churches: it is probable that they had not fixed and settled pastors in them, but were generally supplied from those collegiate societies which at this time passed under the general name of monasteries; and that these foundations so exhausted the charity of the age as to stop the progress of parochial institutions, and thereby obstruct the propagation and interest of religion.