160 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Sept. 1. 1855. 



Scotch music, which may be both instructive and 

 amusing. Though the fiddle no longer prevails in 

 that country, it is to be hoped there is still a 

 national feeling for its bygone strains ! W. J. 



ON THE CONFUSION OF IDEAS AND OF TERMS IN 

 THE WORDS " PARSON," " CLERK," " CURATE," 

 " VICAR," ETC., IN POPULAR PHRASEOLOGY, j 



It was remarked by the late Bishop Copleston, 

 that " when once a word has slid from its first 

 meaning, so as to cover other ideas besides that, it 

 is very difficult to recall it." In no case, perhaps, 

 may this remark be better illustrated than in the 

 popular use of the terms parson, clerk, curate, and 

 vicar. 



In popular phraseology we all understand 

 parson as meaning a clergyman, a person in holy 

 orders, who, by the way, is legally termed a 

 derk. 



We also understand clerk as meaning the lay 

 parish clerk, who makes the responses in church ; 

 or the stipendiary assistant in a lawyer's or a 

 mercantile office, or, in one word, a writer or 

 scribe; indeed, we term an error made by a 

 copyist " a clerical error." 



We farther understand a curate as meaning the 

 clerical stipendiary assistant of an incumbent. So 

 exclusively so, indeed, that even (as in places like 

 Cheltenham) where there are many churches 

 without any legal " cure of souls " formally at- 

 tached to them, the incumbents are yet called 

 " perpetual curates," and their stipendiary as- 

 sistants, or clerical auxiliaries, are known as 

 curates, nay, are licensed as such. 



We also understand a vicar to be an incumbent, 

 differing from a rector in nothing except the 

 name, and the manner in which certain tithes are 

 paid in. 



But let us now turn to the original import of 

 these names. The word parson (from the Latin 

 persona, as impersonating the parish in suits at 

 law) originally denoted the rector " in contradis- 

 tinction to the vicar or curate who. was under 

 him." (Mant's Prayer-Book, p. xvii.) And so 

 we read in the Communion Service of the " parson, 

 vicar, or curate," receiving the Easter dues. 



The word clerk originally denoted merely what 

 we should now call an educated person, viz. in 

 those days a person able to read, or read and write. 

 Since few besides the clergy could formerly read 

 or write, so the name — in Latin clericus — came 

 to be almost exclusively applied to them ; and the 

 result has been that the word clerk came to be, 

 and still is, the technical legal designation of a 

 clergyman. But as few lay people could read, so 

 it became needful to appoint some one layman to 

 lead the responses of the congregation in public 

 worship ; hence the term clerk came to be applied 



No. 305.] 1 



to the functionary known as the " parish clerk " 

 as well. (See Archbishop Whately's Cautions for 

 the Times, No. V. part ii. p. 88.) And in cathe- 

 drals also, a body of " lay clerks," or " singing 

 men," were also appointed. And thus in the 

 Morning and Evening Service we find mention 

 made of the " clerks," and in the Marriage Ser- 

 vice, of the " clerk." And thus we can see how, 

 by an easy transition, the term came by degrees 

 to be applied to persons of sufficient education as 

 to be qualified to act as secretaries in lawyers' and 

 mercantile offices ; and at last to generally denote 

 a stipendiary assistant. 



The word curate (from the Latin curator) pro- 

 perly denotes one who has the charge or care of. 

 In the Prayer- Book it is perpetually used to 

 denote any minister who has the cure of souls, 

 whether rector, vicar, or curate. I suppose it 

 gradually came to be limited to the stipendiary 

 assistant or deputy, in consequence of the fearful 

 amount of non-residence on the part of incum- 

 bents in years past, the curate being generally the 

 only person really having the cure or charge of 

 the parish. 



The term vicar (from the Latin vicarius) pro- 

 perly means a deputy, such as a curate now is ; 

 and probably denoted an office much the same as 

 that of curate does now. By degrees, as the rec- 

 torial tithes became impropriated, the officiating 

 minister came to be regarded as an incumbent, 

 imder the name o{ vicar, or rector's deputy. 



And now comes the question. Can nothing be 

 done towards recalling these words to something 

 like their original and proper sense ? I think 

 something could be done, whenever any new biU 

 may come before parliament respecting church 

 legislation, such as the Marquis of Blandford's 

 promised bill for next session. 



I would suggest the following changes : 



1. Let the word clergyman be substituted for 

 clerk in all legal documents wherein a clergyman 

 is described ; the last census papers required this 

 to be done in the returns, a plain practical proof 

 that the term clerk is no longer fit to describe the 

 clergy. Old Mr. J. Stanley Faber used to print 

 " cleric " instead of " clerk," when he meant a 

 clergyman. 



2. Let the term rector (a Latin word implying 

 a guide or ruler) be applied to the incumbents of 

 all the old mother churches, such as St. Pancras, 

 St. Marylebone, Cheltenham, &c., so as to define, 

 ipso facto, the old parish church, where the re- 

 gisters of baptisms, marriages, and burials, for 

 some hundreds of years past, are to be found. 



3. Let the incumbents of all the parochial dis- 

 tricts formed under modern acts of parliament 

 out of the old civil parishes, the patronage of 

 which may be vested in the rector of the mother 

 church, be termed vicars, since they are literally 

 the rectors' deputies and nominees. Everybody 



