The canons which these synods enacted led the way to a national system of law.
[Sidenote: Wulfhere] The organization of the episcopate was followed by the organization of the parish system.

The mission-station or monastery from which priest or bishop went forth on journey after journey to preach and baptize naturally disappeared as the land became Christian.

The missionaries turned into settled clergy.

As the king's chaplain became a bishop and the kingdom his diocese, so the chaplain of an English noble became the priest and the manor his parish.

But this parish system is probably later than Theodore, and the system of tithes which has been sometimes coupled with his name dates only from the close of the eighth century.