Parish priests and their people in the middle ages in England . itual life of the parish languished. At the great national synod of Westminster,held by Anselm in 1102, which was attended by someof the lay nobles, an at-tempt was made to miti-gate the evil. It wasdecreed (canon 21) thatmonks should not possessthemselves of parishchurches without thesanction of the bishop,and that they should nottake so much of theprofits of appropriateparishes as to impoverishthe priests officiatingtherein. But the evilcontinued and increased until the Court of Rometook up the question and lent its authority to
Parish priests and their people in the middle ages in England . itual life of the parish languished. At the great national synod of Westminster,held by Anselm in 1102, which was attended by someof the lay nobles, an at-tempt was made to miti-gate the evil. It wasdecreed (canon 21) thatmonks should not possessthemselves of parishchurches without thesanction of the bishop,and that they should nottake so much of theprofits of appropriateparishes as to impoverishthe priests officiatingtherein. But the evilcontinued and increased until the Court of Rometook up the question and lent its authority to themovement. A decree of the Lateran Council in 1179forbade the religious to receive tithes from the laitywithout the consent of the bishops, and empoweredthe bishops to make proper provision for the spiritualwork of the appropriate parishes. The Englishbishops, strengthened by the Papal authority, setthemselves to provide a remedy. This took the formof the foundation of Perpetual Vicarages in the appro-priated parishes. The bishop required that the convent,. Abbot presenting clerk forirdination. (Harl. MS., 1527.) THE FOUNDATION OF VICARAGES. 99 instead of serving the parochial cure by one of thebrethren, or by a clerk living in the monastery, or bya chaplain resident in the parish on such a stipend asthe convent chose to give, and removable at pleasure,should nominate a competent parish priest, to thesatisfaction of the bishop, who was to institute him asperpetual vicar. His title of Vicarius implied thathe was the representative of the rector ; his tenure waspermanent and independent; he was answerable tothe bishop, and to him only, for the proper fulfilmentof his duties ; and the bishop required that out of therevenues of the parish a house and such a portionshould be assigned for a perpetual endowment aswould enable the vicar of the parish to maintain hisposition in decent comfort.* The pecuniary arrangement usually made was thatthe small tithes— the tithes of ever
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