A subsidy collected in the diocese of Lincoln in 1526 / edited by Rev. H. Salter.

Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A subsidy collected in the diocese of Lincoln in 1526 / edited by Rev. H. Salter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    if we have had some means of judging how prevalent pluralism was, we have been left to conjecture that a large proportion of parishes must have been in the charge of curates, but this subsidy makes the matter plain; for when we find a curate as well as the incumbent in a small agricultural parish with a population of less than a hundred, the inevitable conclusion is that the incumbent was absent. We also obtain valuable information about pensions for infirm incumbents ; for instance, in the county of Oxford we find that there were thirteen pensionarii, incumbents who had resigned, probably for the most part because of blindness, and were allowed a small pension. In consequence, this subsidy supplies many more names than the Valor of 1535 ; thus under Coningsby, Horn- castle, and Tattershall (pp. 6, 8) our record gives twenty-three names, but the Valor only six. After each man’s name we find in most cases a word to describe his position, rector, vicarius, cantarista, cur at us, capellamis, or stip., which is sometimes expanded in the record into stipendio, and sometimes stipendiarius. About the first three there is no difficulty; they all held permanent posts with permanent endowments; but the other three words are used somewhat loosely. Thus (p. 4) under Enderby a man is first called capellanus and then curatus; also, on the same page, under Asgarby one is called curatus and also stipendia- rius. The truth seems to be that stipendiarius was a general term, applied to all who held no permanent charge ; some of them were engaged to serve daughter chapels, and were called capellani as well, others were in charge of the parish, and were called curati, the remainder are called simply stipendiarii. If one is called both curatus and capellamis, the explanation may be that he was curate in charge of an outlying hamlet where there was a chapel-of-ease. Local knowledge will be requisite to decide whether this is the true explanation; but for the county of Oxford it can be shown that the word