UNBENEFICED CLERGY
1. The unbeneficed clergy engaged in parochial work may be divided into
(i.) curates or ministers in charge; (ii.) assistant licensed curates;
(iii.) unlicensed assistants; and (iv.) lecturers or preachers. An
unbeneficed clergyman has no recognised legal status unless he obtains a
licence from the bishop of the diocese, for which the fee is 10s.[114]
At the time of being licensed (unless, having been ordained the same
day, he has already done so) he must make and subscribe the Declaration
of Assent prescribed by the Clerical Subscription Act, 1865; and on the
first Lord's Day on which he officiates in the parish to which he is
licensed he must publicly repeat the same declaration in the presence of
the congregation during Divine service.[115] Canon 48 requires that
before a curate or minister is permitted to serve in any place he must
be examined and admitted by the bishop, having respect to the greatness
of the cure and the meetness of the party. Nor, if he removes from one
diocese to another, is he to be admitted to serve without the testimony
of the bishop of that from which he came, as to his honesty, ability,
and conformity to the ecclesiastical laws of the Church of England. But
this Canon gave no absolute right to stipendiary curates to be admitted
to serve after examination and upon good episcopal testimony. They
might, notwithstanding, "be placed and displaced at the bishop's
discretion without any process at law." He is under no obligation to
grant a licence to a curate, and cannot be compelled to do so.[116] It
is now, however, enacted, with respect to the removal of curates, that
the bishop, after giving him sufficient opportunity of showing reason to
the contrary, may summarily revoke the licence granted to any curate and
remove him for any cause which appears good and reasonable to the
bishop. But the curate may within one month after service upon him of
the revocation appeal to the archbishop of the province, who may confirm
or annul the revocation as he thinks proper.[117]
2. Curates or ministers in charge are appointed in a variety of cases.
(_a_) If a benefice is vacant, the sequestration of it is granted by the
bishop to the churchwardens or some one or more other persons; and
subject to the direction of the bishop, if he gives any, the
sequestrators are charged with the selection of the person or persons to
serve the cure during the vacancy, and the bishop may assign to him or
them a stipend not greater in the case of each than at the rate of £200
per annum, and so that the aggregate amount assigned do not exceed the
net annual income of the benefice. The sequestrators pay the costs of
serving the cure out of the revenue of the benefice, and account for the
balance to the succeeding incumbent, upon whom on the other hand any
deficiency falls if these costs exceed the net revenue received by the
sequestrators.[118] (_b_) Where under the bankruptcy of the incumbent,
or under a judgment recovered against him, a benefice remains under
sequestration for six months, the bishop from the expiration of the six
months till the close of the sequestration is to take order for the
services in the church of the benefice, and may appoint and license for
the purpose one or more curates or additional curates to reside in and
serve the parish, subject to revocation at any time, and with such
stipends out of the revenue of the benefice as he thinks fit within
certain prescribed limits according to the population of the parish, and
not exceeding in the whole two-thirds of the annual value of the
benefice.[119] (_c_) Where an incumbent is absent from his benefice for
a period or periods exceeding altogether three months in any one
calendar year, he must leave a curate or curates licensed or approved by
the bishop to perform the ecclesiastical duties of the benefice. If he
fails to do so, or if after the death, resignation, or removal of any
such curate he does not within one month notify the fact to the bishop,
or does not within four months nominate another proper curate to the
bishop, the bishop may appoint and license a proper curate, with
directions as to residence and with a stipend according to a prescribed
scale, varying with the value of the benefice and the population of the
parish and the grounds of the non-residence of the incumbent. A curate
who is appointed to serve in a benefice on which the incumbent does not
reside during four months in the year is to be required by the bishop to
reside within the parish, or within three miles of the church of the
benefice, if no convenient residence can be procured within the parish,
except in cases of necessity approved by the bishop. If the population
of the benefice exceeds 2000, the bishop may require the incumbent to
nominate two or more curates, and, if this is not done, may himself
appoint them. A scale of curates' stipends where the incumbent is
non-resident is provided by law, varying according to the annual value
of the benefice and other circumstances, and the bishop may direct that
the curate shall reside in the parsonage house.[120] (_d_) Where a
commission appointed to inquire into the matter has reported that the
ecclesiastical duties of a benefice are inadequately performed owing to
the negligence of the incumbent, the bishop may either require the
incumbent to nominate a curate or curates with sufficient stipend to be
licensed to perform or assist in performing the duties, or may himself
appoint a curate or curates to perform all or any of the duties, subject
to an appeal to the court constituted under the Benefices Act,
1898.[121] A minister in charge has the rights and powers of an
incumbent in certain particulars, such as the choice of a churchwarden,
and, if the benefice is vacant, but not if the incumbent is bankrupt,
the appointment of the parish clerk.[122] (_e_) Where under the New
Parishes Act, 1843, what is called a Peel district is constituted, and a
minister is licensed to it by the bishop, he occupies a somewhat
ambiguous position during the interval before it becomes a separate
ecclesiastical parish upon the consecration of a church within its
area. He is in many respects in the position of a perpetual curate,
being a corporation sole, subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop and
archdeacon, and independent of the incumbent of the parish so far as his
licence extends. But he has no power to take marriages or burials, and
the inhabitants of the district retain their ecclesiastical position as
parishioners of the parish out of which the district is formed.[123]
3. Assistant unbeneficed clergy are contemplated by the canons, in which
they are styled curates; and with the licence of the bishop any
incumbent may employ one or more curates to assist him in serving the
parish. A curate frequently comes in the first instance on probation
without being licensed, and his tenure of office is then entirely
dependent on the will of the incumbent.[124] But after he is licensed it
becomes more secure; and, in the meantime, if a difficulty occurred
about the remuneration for his services, the law would give it to him
upon a _quantum meruit_. In order to obtain a licence, the curate must
present to the bishop a declaration by the incumbent undertaking to pay
to him a specified annual sum as his stipend and a declaration of his
own intention to receive the whole of that stipend; and the licence
will specify the amount of the stipend.[125] Any dispute between an
incumbent and a curate respecting the curate's stipend is to be decided
by the bishop, who may enforce payment of it by monition and
sequestration of the benefice.[126] If the benefice becomes vacant, a
curate must quit upon six weeks' notice from the new incumbent, if given
within six months from the date of admission to the benefice. But in
other cases, unless the bishop revokes his licence (see § 1 above), a
curate can only be required to quit after six months' notice given by
the incumbent with the previous written permission of the bishop, or of
the archbishop, if the bishop refuses it and the archbishop grants it
upon an appeal to him within one month after the bishop's refusal. On
the other hand, unless he obtains the express written consent of the
bishop, a curate before relinquishing a curacy to which he has been
licensed must give three months' notice of his intention to the
incumbent and the bishop, upon pain of forfeiting to the incumbent, as a
debt retainable out of his stipend or recoverable at law, such sum not
exceeding half a year's stipend as the bishop may in writing
direct.[127] Ordinarily, an incumbent who is himself resident and
performing the duties of his cure has complete discretion whether he
will employ any, and, if so, how many curates, and what duties shall
from time to time be performed by any whom he employs. But, besides the
cases of the incumbent's non-residence and negligence in the performance
of duties noticed above (§ 2 (_c_), (_d_)), the bishop has power, if a
commission issued by him reports that the duties of a benefice are
inadequately performed, to require the incumbent, although himself
engaged in performing them, to nominate an assistant curate or curates;
and, if he fails to do so within three months, the bishop may himself
appoint one or more, as the case may require, with a stipend
proportionate to the value of the benefice and the population of the
parish. The incumbent has an appeal to the archbishop, who may confirm
or amend the bishop's action.[128] Moreover, where the annual value of a
benefice exceeds £500, and either the population amounts to 3000, or
there is a second church or chapel with a hamlet containing 400 persons,
the bishop may require the incumbent to nominate an assistant curate,
and, on his failing to do so within three months, may himself appoint
one with a stipend not exceeding £150; subject to a similar appeal to
the archbishop as in the case where the duties have been inadequately
performed.[129]
4. An incumbent has an absolute discretion as to permitting or refusing
any other clergyman, not being licensed as a curate to the parish, to
officiate within his parish, with this qualification, that he has no
right to permit any clergyman to officiate in his parish who by law is
debarred from taking duty in the diocese. With regard to this, no
unbeneficed clergyman has, strictly speaking, a right to officiate
publicly in a diocese, either in church or elsewhere, without the
licence or consent of the bishop, and his doing so is an ecclesiastical
offence.[130] But if the bishop has not actually inhibited him from
officiating, a clergyman may take merely temporary duty without
obtaining the formal licence of the bishop.[131] If, without being
either beneficed or licensed to a curacy in the diocese, he frequently
takes duty therein, he should obtain a general licence from the bishop
for the purpose. Canons 50 and 52 direct incumbents and churchwardens
not to suffer any one to preach in their churches without showing his
licence to preach, and require the names of strangers who preach with
the date of their preaching and the name of the bishop by whom they were
licensed, to be entered in a book for the information of the bishop of
the diocese.
5. In some parishes provision has been made for the election or
appointment of lecturers or preachers for the sole purpose of delivering
lectures or preaching sermons. In any such parish the bishop, if he
thinks fit, with the assent of the incumbent, may require the lecturer
or preacher to perform other ministerial duties as assistant curate or
otherwise, and may vary the duties from time to time. If the duties so
prescribed are not performed, the defaulter may be removed from his
office.[132]
Footnotes
[114] (1838) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 82. For the stamp duty on licences,
and exemptions therefrom, see (1891) 54 & 55 Vict. c. 39, sch.
"Licence."
[115] 28 & 29 Vict. c. 122, ss. 1, 8; see ch. ii. § 6 (i.).
[116] Johns, vol. i. p. 95; see Ex parte Carlyon (1903) _Times_, Dec.
19; s.c. nom. R. _v._ Bp. of Liverpool (1904) _Times_, May 4.
[117] (1838) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 98; Poole _v._ Bp. of London (1859)
5 Jur. N. S. 522; (1861) 14 Moo. P. C. 262; 7 Jur. N. S. 347.
[118] (1536) 28 Hen. 8, c. 11; (1838) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, ss. 99-101;
Dakins _v._ Seaman (1842) 9 M. & W. 777; (1885) 48 & 49 Vict. c. 54, s.
10.
[119] 34 & 35 Vict. c. 45 (Sequestration Act, 1871).
[120] Canon 47; (1838) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, ss. 75, 76, 81-98, 120-122,
130; (1885) 48 & 49 Vict. c. 54, s. 9.
[121] See ch. ii. § 15; (1838) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, ss. 77, 85-87, 105;
(1885) 48 & 49 Vict. c. 54, ss. 1-3; (1898) 61 & 62 Vict. c. 48, s. 9.
[122] Hubbard _v._ Penrice (1746) 2 Str. 1245; Reg. _v._ Allen (1872) L.
R. 8 Q. B. 69; Pinder _v._ Barr (1854) 4 E. & B. 105; Lawrence _v._
Edwards (1891) 1 Ch. 144; 2 Ch. 72.
[123] 6 & 7 Vict. c. 37, ss. 11-14.
[124] Martyn _v._ Hind (1776) 2 Cowp. 437, 440.
[125] (1865) 28 & 29 Vict. c. 122, ss. 3, 6.
[126] (1838) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 83.
[127] (1838) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, ss. 95, 97. The notices require no
special formalities; Tanner _v._ Scrivener (1888) 13 P. D. 128.
[128] (1838) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 77; (1885) 48 & 49 Vict. c. 54, ss.
2-8.
[129] (1885) 48 & 49 Vict. c. 54, s. 13.
[130] Trebec _v._ Keith (1742) 2 Atk. 498; Barnes _v_. Shore (1846) 1
Rob. Eccl. 382; Freeland _v._ Neale (1848) _Ib._ 643. As to beneficed
clergy, see above, ch. ii. § 11.
[131] Gates _v._ Chambers (1824) 2 Add. 177.
[132] 7 & 8 Vict. c. 59 (Lecturers and Parish Clerks Act, 1844), ss. 1,
6.