The following is intended to show the functions of the various people in the Church of England at around the time which the Topographical Dictionary of Yorkshire and other books transcribed on this site were written. It is a combination of several people's inputs, each of whom have agreed that it is correct; this does not of course mean that it is, and if you know something we don't, or feel something should be added, then please drop me a line via the link at the bottom of the page.
Thanks - Colin Hinson
THE MONARCH | THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND (THE HOLY MEN) | ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY OF YORK | An Archbishop has a see. | BISHOPS A bishop has a cathedra | (literally a bishop's seat) | this is housed in a cathedral. | A bishop has a diocese | SUFRAGAN BISHOPS Have no cathedral | Responsible for part of | a Bishop's diocese | ________________(PRIESTS)_______ | | | RECTOR | VICAR Has a historical living | Same eclesiastical Appointed by the Patron. | status as a Rector. Can't be sacked easily. | Can be easily sacked. Can be an honorary Dean. | (See note below) (see note below) | | | ____________________| | | CURATE | (in old days) | Wasn't high born. | Had a parish where the | living was not good | enough for a Vicar/Rector. | (See note below) | | DEACON Trainee Priest (Literally a helper/assistant/servant) GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH DEAN - (can be a priest) | Responsible for the Cathedral | fabric and the day to day | running and finances. | CHAPTER (group of men) contains | | ARCHDEACONS (are priests) CANONS RURAL DEAN usually a priest Responsible for a Deanery (the fabric thereof) A deanery is a group of parishes.
My 1756 dictionary says:
Rector: The parson of a parish church.
Rectory: a Parish Church, Parsonage or spiritual living with all its rights, glebes, tithes etc.
Vicar: The parson of a parish where the tithes are impropriated.
Vicarage (endowed): is one which has a sufficient revenue for the maintenance of the Vicar, when the Benefice is impropriated.
Impropriate: to employ the revenues of a church living for his own use.
("his own use" means the use of a chapter, religious house or layman. The Vicar receives only a smaller tithes or a salary.)
My 1850 dictionary says:
Rector: A clergyman who has the charge and cure of a parish, and has the parsonage and tithes; or the parson of a parish where the tithes are not impropriate: in the contrary case, the parson is a Vicar.
Curate: A clergyman in the Church of England who is employed to perform divine service in the place of the incumbent, parson or vicar. He must be licensed by fixed estate in the curacy, he may be removed at pleasure. But some curates are perpetual.
Further information on Parsons and Vicars (relating
particularly to Northern Ireland) from Malcolm McClure in 2005:
He says: I reached your web-page after finding definitions of Vicar and Parson in the Concise Oxford unsatisfactory.
The distinction has some historical interest, as it derives from medieval practice that may have its origins in the old Celtic Church of Columbcille of Iona.
In Ulster, towards the end of the 16th century, every church had a vicar and a parson instead of a co-arb and an erenagh. The vicar, like the co-arb, was always in orders. He said the mass (serveth the cure) and received a share of the tithes. The parson, like the erenagh, had a major portion of the tithes, maintained the church and provided hospitality. As he was not usually in clerical orders, his responsibilities were mainly temporal. However, there were differences in the divisions of the tithes between the various dioceses in Tyrone. In the Diocese of Clogher, the vicar and the parson shared the tithes equally between them; in the Diocese of Derry, church income came from both tithes and the rental of church lands (temporalities). The vicar and the parson each received one third of the tithes and paid an annual tribute to the bishop. In places where there was no parson, the erenagh continued to receive two thirds of the income in kind from the church lands, and delivered the balance, after defraying maintenance, to the Bishop in cash as a yearly rental. In other places, the parson, the vicar and the erenagh shared the costs of church repairs equally between them. In the Diocese of Armagh the parson received two-thirds of the tithes and the vicar one third. The archbishop and the erenagh impropriated no part thereof, presumably because they received the entire income from the termon lands.
I hope this makes the distinction a bit clearer.
Some further information from John Orchard (2009) which caused me to modify the above diagram:
A cathedral does not have a bishop, a bishop has a cathedra, literally meaning the bishop's seat. And this is housed in a large church called a cathedral. The cathedral itself is not the responsibility of nor belonging to a bishop. The cathedral is run and controlled, and therefore might be said to belong to, the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral.
A bishop does have a diocese, although generally this is known as a see for an Archbishop. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York were not part of a straightforward lineal chain of responsibility although I can understand why someone might think so. The two provinces of the Church of England are separate and to a large extent the Archbishop of Canterbury has never had jurisdiction in the Province of York, or vice versa. The 'ranking' was that established from the Augustinian mission, when the Pope commissioned Augustine to establish a see in what was regarded as the most important town in the newly developing post-Roman Anglo-Saxon states; London was known to Rome and the pope had envisaged Augustine becoming Bishop of London - in the end politics made Augustine choose to site his 'cathedra' in Canterbury.
The Bishop of London remains one of the more important bishoprics, still providing the incumbent with one of the permanent bishop's seats in the house of Lords. York by contrast was a political thing brought about after the synod of Whitby, and others, and acknowledged the political split in what was becoming England, with York province taking most of the area of influence of the old Kingdoms of Northumbria and Lindsey in what had become Danelaw.
As suggested by Ron Long, the following is included as an example to show the career path of "Hutton"
Dr. Matthew Hutton, archbishop of Canterbury:
chaplain to the Duke of Somerset
ordained deacon (at a proper age)
elected Fellow of Christ's College
became rector of Spofforth
was made Prebendary of York
appointed one of the chaplains to George II.
obtained a Canonry of Windsor
exchanged for Prebend of Westminster
resigned to become Bishop of Bangor
was translated to the archbishopric of York
then to Canterbury lies buried at Lambeth, near the communion Table.
The following are modified extracts from the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian church.
Where historical references of the period of interest are included in the article, I have reproduced them for you but in most cases, these are historical offices and have not substantially changed over the last century or two.
This is not likely to be the pattern for the future! Change is underway. For further reading on the forthcoming changes, see "Working as one body", Church House Publishing (Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BN; price 5 pounds 95p.)
Many of the words have subtly different connotations in other Christian denominations than the Church of England.
It occurred to me (and I was later asked) that I had come across the title "Father" in the Church of England and I had no idea in which sense it was used. Being asked about this spurred me into asking (Revd) Roger Quick about this, and this is the answer I received from him:
I hope this will do as an answer to your question: the paragraphs below are probably in diminishing order of significance....
Any Anglican priest, from the lowliest curate to the Archbishop of Canterbury, may be addressed as "Father", but this is usual only amongst those who uphold the Catholic tradition, sometimes called Anglo-Catholic or High Church.
From the 1970s onwards, as the use of first names became more the norm throughout society generally, it became common to address priests of this tradition as Fr John, rather than Fr Smith.
Anglican clergy of the Evangelical - Low Church - tradition, prefer not to be called Father. It is really down to local custom and individual preference. As a very rough guide, a priest wearing a shirt coloured anything other than black will prefer to be called John or Mr Smith!
All letters should be addressed to The Reverend John Smith, and begin "Dear Mr Smith" unless you know he prefers "Dear Fr Smith".
No priest worthy of the calling is going to get upset about it! Most would get their best laugh of the day if you began: "Most Exalted, Eminent & Reverend Sir," and would write back saying "Just call me Jack".
Historically only Bishops and members of some religious communities were addressed as Father, but it became common for RC priests in Ireland to be called Father, from whence the custom spread to the RC Church in England only as late as the 1880s, and gradually gained favour amongst High Anglicans as well.
In some churches, again of the broadly Catholic tradition, deacons are known as either Brother Smith or Brother John; in America however, where the permanent diaconate is more common, they are usually known and addressed as Deacon Smith.
Only priests in a Monastic Order (RC or Anglican) are properly addressed on an envelope as The Reverend Father Smith.
In conversation, most bishops will cope with being called Father.
(Revd) Roger Quick, generally addressed as Hey You!
A Glossary of old words
and unusual words used within the Genuki Yorkshire pages.
Land area definitions (Administrative and Ecclesiastical)
Tana Willis Johnson's What
is a wapentake
Tana and Brian Pears's The divisions and sub-divisions of England and its counties
of the North Riding (1890)
A description of the East Riding (1892)
A History of Yorkshire (1892)