The "Parson's Cause" was a legal and political dispute in the Colony of Virginia. Many people think it was an  important event leading up to the American Revolution. The case was about the payment of clergy of the Anglican Church in Virginia. At the time, a lot of tobacco was planted in Virginia. It was one of the commodity crops of the colony. The colony of Virginia had passed laws in 1748: These laws said that Virginia's Anglican clergy were to be paid 16,000 pounds of tobacco per year.