Perpetual curate

A Perpetual Curate was a clergyman of the Church of England officiating as parish priest in a small or sparsely peopled parish or district which was not served by a rector or vicar and to which he had been nominated by the impropriator and licensed by *(usually) the bishop.

As noted below the term perpetual was not to be understood literally but was used to indicate he was not a curate (assistant parish priest) but the parish priest and of higher standing.

Perpetual curates did not undergo institution or induction and did not receive the temporalities.

Unlike rectors and vicars their income did not derive from the possession of tithes but from the diocese.

Such appointments became 'perpetual' in that the incumbent could only be removed by his licensor *(usually) the bishop.

Appointees might be inexperienced, aged or infirm, or otherwise judged to be capable of handling only light responsibilities.

Refer Priest-in-Charge

"Before the Pluralities Act of 1838 perpetual curacies were not formally regarded as benefices. In cases where a perpetual curacy received an augmentation from Queen Anne's Bounty the livings were declared perpetual cures and the incumbents bodies politic. In the wake of the legislation relating to the Bounty and the increasing prevalence of the appointment of other types of curate, in particular stipendiary curates and assistant curates, the office was increasing described as a perpetual curacy to mark its superior status.^[1]

A curate not a perpetual curate was a temporary curate.^[2]

References

1. ^ Glossary Clergy of the Church of England Database.
2. ^ Archibald John Stephens, A practical treatise of the laws relating to the clergy, W Benning & Co 1848