Perpetual curate
Perpetual curate was a class of resident
In the 19th century, when large numbers of new churches and parochial units were needed in England and Wales
There were two particularly notable effects of this early 19th-century practice: compared to rectors and vicars of ancient parishes, perpetual curates tended to be of uncertain social standing; and also be much less likely to be adequately paid.
Perpetual curates disappeared from view in 1868, after which they could legally call themselves vicars, but perpetual curacies remained in law until the distinct status of perpetual curate was abolished by the Pastoral Measure 1968.
Meaning
Perpetual in the title meant that, once licensed, they could not be removed by their nominating patron; and could only be deprived by their diocesan bishop through the ecclesiastical courts. Curate meant they were licensed by the diocesan bishop to provide "cure of souls" for the people of a district or parish.
All incumbents in England could, technically, have been considered perpetual curates. However, following the Gregorian reforms of the 11th century, parochial cure of souls in England became the freehold property[1] of the incumbent; whose income in the forms of tithe and glebe constituted a benefice, and who then carried the title of rector.
Origin of the post and characteristics
Parish churches in England originated in the 11th and 12th centuries as the personal property of (predominantly lay) patrons; who had the right to appoint and dismiss the parish priest, to receive an entrance fee on appointment, and to charge an annual rent thereafter.
Post-reformation perpetual curacies
It is this latter small group of parochial churches and chapels without beneficed clergy that, following the Dissolution of the monasteries constituted the initial tranche of perpetual curacies. At the dissolution, rectors and vicars of most former monastically owned churches remained in place, their incomes unaffected. But for these unbeneficed churches and chapels-of-ease, lay purchasers of the canons' tithing rights could not themselves fulfil the spiritual obligations of a parochial cure, and nor was it considered proper that they appoint stipendiary priests for the function, as the canons had done.[7] Instead lay purchasers of appropriated tithes, termed 'impropriators', were required in these instances both to nominate a clergyman to the diocesan bishop to serve the cure, and also to provide a fixed stipend of appropriate annual value to support the new perpetual curacy.[8] In practice, most of the nominated incumbents to the new perpetual curacies were the canons or stipendiaries who had been serving those cures before the dissolution.[9] Over the years, the arrangement by which the impropriator acted as both patron and paymaster of a perpetual curacy proved liable to break down, especially as the original cash stipend could be reduced to a small part of its former value through inflation. In some cases continued appointment to the cure was possible if the diocesan bishop was able to assume the responsibility of paymaster, having been provided with an enhanced portion of the tithe income from the parish or other endowment to do so. Otherwise, the impropriator might nominate a neighbouring incumbent to serve the cure; taking advantage of the fact that, as the curacy did not then count as a benefice, there was no legal barrier to its being held in plurality. As was also the case for the much larger numbers of inadequately funded rectories and vicarages, the continued provision of incumbents to serve perpetual curacies now depended on the living attracting additional endowments, a process that became much easier when perpetual curacies were brought within the terms of Queen Anne's Bounty in 1704.
Perpetual curacies in the nineteenth century
By the beginning of the nineteenth century there were 10,500 ancient parishes in England and Wales; their boundaries fixed, and until 1818, only able to be changed or split by private acts of Parliament. In addition, there were around 2,000 chapels of ease with defined parochial districts, mainly in the North of England; most of which were supported with more or less generous endowments administered by trustees. However, only 4,400 parishes had a resident incumbent,
A much bigger problem was raised by rapidly expanding urban populations. Even with former ancient chapelries upgraded to perpetual curacies, there was still a gross under-provision of churches and parishes in industrial towns and cities; and a corresponding over-provision in many rural areas of the South East. A rapid expansion of urban parish numbers was required, and it was found that the status of perpetual curate (following its re-classification as a 'benefice') provided a readily available legal template for the creation of new incumbencies. Various Church Building Acts
Legal status
In simple terms, every incumbent was either a rector, vicar or perpetual curate; but while this was a fully accurate summary of the relevant law within the Church of England,[17] the creation of perpetual curacies had been an ad-hoc expedient at the dissolution of the monasteries, to provide ministers for existing worshipping congregations with the minimum of disturbance to long-standing spiritual and temporal property rights, other than the transfer of those rights out of the hands of the monks and into those of lay tenants and grantees.[18] Where these congregations were in unbeneficed parishes, it is likely that few would otherwise have been able to provide a competent living for a vicar had they instead been restored as beneficed vicarages; where the congregations were in former priory churches or chapels, they could not otherwise have been endowed as parochial chapelries except at a financial cost to the rector of the parish. The expedient remained for three centuries a relatively rare exception to the general rule of parochial provision; not least because (unlike rectories or vicarages) perpetual curacies had no corporate personality, and hence endowments could not be settled on the office rather than the individual.[8] This disability was remedied for some churches, when those perpetual curacies which qualified for augmentation from Queen Anne's Bounty were declared "perpetual benefices" and their incumbents bodies politic.[19] All other perpetual curacies were reclassified as full benefices by the Pluralities Act of 1838.[20] This could be a two-edged sword however for those perpetual curacies, a substantial number, which had by this date become effectively annexed to a neighbouring vicarage or rectory, but which the Pluralities Acts required now to be served as an independent cure; often initially with wholly inadequate endowment and no parsonage house. Although thereafter a "beneficed clergyman",[8] unlike a rector or vicar, a nineteenth or twentieth century perpetual curate was neither instituted to receive the spiritualities nor inducted into the temporalities, admission by episcopal licence rendered both ceremonies unnecessary.[21]
The title: 'Vicar'
Those ancient parishes served by perpetual curates remained legally 'vicarages'; and hence the
Examples in fiction
There are inescapable parallels with The Hunting of the Snark; which, given Lewis Carroll's birth within the vicarage of a perpetual curacy, may well not be coincidental.[original research?] In Anthony Trollope’s novel The Last Chronicle of Barset (1866) the inviolable position of Josiah Crawley, perpetual curate of the parish of Hogglestock, is a cause of dissent between Bishop Proudie and his domineering wife; Mrs Proudie believes Crawley to be guilty of theft and urges her husband to remove him, whereas the bishop knows that he has no power to do so without the authority of the ecclesiastical courts. In Season 4, Episode 3 of Lark Rise to Candleford, Burn Gorman plays a perpetual curate who causes scandal when he is seen leaving the Timmins cottage after dark while Robert Timmins is away.
See also
- Curate, which explains the differences between the various uses of the term "curate"
- Priest in charge
- Margaret Oliphant, author of the novel The Perpetual Curate (1864)
References
- ^ Neep, E. J. C and Edinger, George, A Handbook of Church Law for the Clergy. A. R. Mowbray, 1928 pp. 6, 7.
- ^ Knowles, David The Monastic Order in England Cambridge University Press, 1940, p. 593.
- ^ Knowles, David The Monastic Order in England Cambridge University Press, 1940, p. 597.
- ^ Knowles, David The Religious Orders in England, Vol II Cambridge University Press, 1955, p. 290.
- ^ Knowles, David The Religious Orders in England, Vol. II Cambridge University Press, 1955, p. 291.
- ^ Knowles, David The Religious Orders in England, Vol. II Cambridge University Press, 1955, p. 292.
- ^ Macnamara, W. H. Steer's Parish Law; 6th ed. Sweet & Maxwell, 1899, p. 54.
- ^ a b c d Cross, F. L. & Livingstone, E. A., eds. Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church; 3rd ed., art Perpetual Curate, 1997.
- ^ Knowles, David The Religious Orders in England, Vol. III. Cambridge University Press, 1959, p. 409.
- ^ a b Chadwick, Owen The Victorian Church, Part I. Black, 1966, p. 34.
- ^ a b c Chadwick, Owen The Victorian Church, Part I. Black, 1966, p. 127.
- ^ Edwards, David Christian England; Volume 3. Collins, 1984, p. 102.
- 8 & 9 Vict.c. 70 ss. 9 and 17.
- ^ Port, M. H. Six Hundred New Churches; 2nd ed. Spire, 2006, p. 252.
- ^ Chadwick, Owen The Victorian Church, Part I. Black, 1966, p. 137.
- ^ Oliphant, Margaret The Perpetual Curate Blackwood, 1864, 540 pp.
- ^ Macnamara, W. H. Steer's Parish Law; 6th ed. Sweet & Maxwell, 1899, p. 53.
- ^ Youings, Joyce The Dissolution of the Monasteries. Allen and Unwin, 1971, p. 84.
- 1 Geo. 1. St. 2c. 10) s. 4.
- ^ Glossary: Perpetual Curate in "CCEd, the Clergy of the Church of England database" (Accessed online, 2 February 2014).
- ^ Neep, E. J. C and Edinger, George, A Handbook of Church Law for the Clergy A. R. Mowbray, 1928, p. 11.
- ^ Macnamara, W. H. Steer's Parish Law; 6th ed. Sweet & Maxwell, 1899, p. 55.