Oct. 27. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



331 



beneficed, from contributing anything to the expenses of 

 the proctors of the clergj' sent up to parliament. That 

 the clerks also of parliament were anciently clergymen, 

 the name itself shows ; and, in the year 1515, the clerk 

 of the parliament was Prolocutor of the Lower House of 

 Convocation." — Hody's History of Councils, pp. 153, 154. 



We see then how the law got possession of the 

 word clerk. Again, the privileges and communi- 

 ties of the clergy, and those statutes resulting 

 from their recognition, which defined and allowed 

 what was called " benefit of clergy," gave the word 

 its second signification. "Legit ut clericus" at 

 first bore witness to the superior education of the 

 clergy ; but soon all who could read and write 

 came to be regarded and known as clerici, or 

 having a clerical education. The parish cle7'k is 

 originally not a lay office, but is a sort of relic of 

 the minor orders of the Church of Rome. The 

 word cle7-k is, therefore, essentially a clerical term, 

 and has passed over from the clergy to the laity ; 

 and is not, as Mr. C. H. Davis seems to imply, a 

 lay appellation which has been assumed by the 

 clergy. The term " lay clerk," would be an ety- 

 mological absurdity. 



I come now to the much abused word curate. 

 A curate, properly speaking, is a clerk having a 

 cure of souls ; and the Latin word for curate is 

 not curator, but curatus — a low Latin past passive 

 participle, implying one who has been put into a 

 cure. All parishes, I imagine, theoretically were 

 rectories ; but when the parson or rector was non- 

 resident, or was a monastery or corporation of any 

 kind, a curate was put into the cure of the parish, 

 removable only by the bishop, who received for 

 his maintenance the small tithes ; and who, from 

 holding another's post, and discharging another's 

 duties, was called the vicarius, or perpetual vicar. 

 The old maxim of ecclesiastical law was " vicarius 

 non habet vicarium," a vicar could not appoint a 

 substitute, and therefore could not be a pluralist. 

 This was not adhered to. After the spoliation of 

 church property, in the reign of Henry VIII., 

 those who had obtained possession of the tithes of 

 a parish were obliged to assign a maintenance for 

 the priests who had the cure of souls ; and hence 

 arose the title of " Perpetual Curate," which I do 

 not remember to have seen in any anti-reforma- 

 tional document. The perpetual curates at first 

 were hardly considered as beneficed clergy ; they 

 did not vote for proctors for convocation, and 

 only by slow degrees worked themselves up to an 

 equality with the old vicars and rectors. The 

 assistant curate is really the curate's assistant, and 

 is the successor of the ancient auxiliary chaplain, 

 who was paid according to the duty required of 

 him. The curates, who are now a very numer- 

 ous body, are in an anomalous position both as 

 priests and churchmen ; and have superseded, 

 practically, the Order of Deacons for ecclesiastical 

 purposes. 



No, 313.1 



The archdeacon was not generally in priest's 

 orders until the eleventh century. 



I have already taken up too much of the space 

 of " N. & Q." to discuss Mr. Davis's remaining 

 suggestions on a new clerical nomenclature. That 

 topic I will therefore postpone. 



William Fbaseb, B.C.L. 



Alton, StaflFordshire. 



" HARBINGERS OP SPRING." 



(Vol. xii., p. 254.) 



Your correspondent has suggested that some 

 record should be made of the unusual mortality 

 observed among the swallow tribe,, during their 

 last visit to this country. May I be allowed to 

 call his attention to an article in the Magazine of 

 Natural Philosophy, Part I., in which appears a 

 curious and interesting notice of the fate of these 

 birds? The article referred to is from the pen 

 of the editor, confirming his observation to an 

 extent which would seem to warrant the supposi- 

 tion of a more general mortality ; the fate of these 

 birds depending mainly on the supply of insects, 

 their staple food : 



" There has seldom been recorded (writes the editor) a 

 more singular circumstance than the mortality among 

 the swallow tribe, which occurred on the 30th and 31st of 

 May, in the present year. The unusually cold weather, 

 for this advanced season, appears to have operated in 

 producing the destruction of the greater number of this 

 useful tribe of migratory birds. The severity of the 

 weather causing a scarcity of insects, the ordinary food of 

 the swallow, and rendering the birds too weak to enable 

 them to search for food. On the 30th of May, the swal- 

 lows became so tame, that they flew about the legs of 

 persons, and could be caught without difficulty ; and on 

 the following morning most of them lay dead upon the 

 ground, or in their own nests. 



" In this neighbourhood (near Nottingham), the greatest 

 mortality was occasioned amongst the house swallow (^Hi- 

 rundo rustica), yet solely because this bird predominates. 



" Near the Ked Hill Tunnel, at Thrumpton, there are 

 a great number of sand martins {Hirundo riparia), and 

 there, in a saw-pit on the banks of the river Soar, hun- 

 dreds congregated and died. 



" At Borrowash, near the Derwent river, there are very 

 many white martins {Hirundo urbica). They also con- 

 gregated and died, lying ten or twelve deep on the win- 

 dow-sills. Several persons opened their windows, and 

 the birds were very willing to take shelter in the rooms, 

 exhibiting no disposition to depart. Many were kept 

 alive in the different houses by being fed with the Aphis 

 of the rose tree, the only procurable insect. 



" At Bullwell, Wollaton, Long Eaton, Sawley, and 

 many other places, the same fearful mortality occurred. 

 Farmers opened their barn-doors to admit the birds. To 

 show the extent of the deaths, it may be mentioned, that 

 at one place, where previously there were fifty nests oc- 

 cupied, only six pair survived to take possession of them. 



" The manner in which they congregated, was a curious 

 feature in the occurrence. A swallow would fly round a 

 heap of dead or dying companions, and then suddenly 

 dart down, and bury itself amongst them." 



F. Phillott. 



