A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the rector of a non-appropriate church. In this way perpetual f^^J^'^^ 

 came into existence. The bishop's right to institute such vica'-s enab e 

 him further to insist on a permanent endowment of the cure by the app 

 priator, the amount of which was fixed by the diocesan and could be a tere 

 by him if need arose. A few perpetual vicarages were created m he closi g 

 years of the twelfth century, but their estabhshment on a large ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ 

 [o the first half of the thirteenth. In one smaU group of ^PProP^^;^^ 

 churches no vicarages were created. Lancaster, Penwortham, Cockerham, 

 Cartme Lytham, fnd Ulverston, which had early become conventua or 

 quasi-conventual, continued to be served by members of the appropriating 

 house or by clergy whom it instituted and removed at its pleasure without 

 reference to the ordinary and whose stipends it fixed.^« To these latter the 

 designation ' curate ' was ultimately confined, and with the exception of 

 Lancaster, in which a vicarage was ordained after the suppression of the 

 alien priory in the fifteenth century, the benefices in question became 

 perpetual curacies after the Reformation." These precedents were not 

 followed when the abbey of Stanlaw was removed to Whalley in 1296: 

 a vicarage was ordained, the church remaining purely parochial. But, on 

 the ground that the residence of secular clerks within the monastic precincts 

 led to disturbances, the abbey induced the bishop of Lichfield to institute 

 members of its own body as vicars, and finally procured a licence for this 

 usage from Pope Innocent VI in 1358.'" The priory of Burscough too 

 obtained episcopal licence to present canons of the house to their appropriate 

 and adjacent church of Ormskirk ' in relief of their burdens.' " The earliest 

 recorded case of the ordination of a vicarage in Lancashire has a somewhat 

 transitional character. In sanctioning the appropriation of the church of 

 St. Michaels-on-Wyre to the monks of Wyresdale between 11 93 and i 196 

 the archdeacon of Richmond stipulated for the appointment of a definite 

 [certus) vicar ' with a portion sufficient for his food and clothing.' Where- 

 upon the monks entered into a formal agreement with a certain chaplain 

 that he should be their chaplain for life in the church of St. Michael, 

 or should find at his own charges another competent chaplain who should 

 first do fealty to the abbot and monks. For this service [propter hoc servicium) 

 they granted him land near the church and half a mark of silver yearly 

 for his vicarage (vicaria) and for his faithful service." The removal of the 

 abbey to Ireland put an end to this arrangement, but fourteen or fifteen 

 vicarages had been created in Lancashire before 1300. 



The minimum annual income of a vicar was fixed by the council of 

 Oxford in 1222 at 5 marks," and this was the amount assigned to the vicar 

 of Rochdale, which was appropriated in that year to Stanlaw Abbey.** 

 Found to be too low it was augmented in 1 277 to 1 8 marks." The others 



" Makower, op. cit. 330. The case of Lytham shows that even where the prior of a cell was admitted 

 h> the ordinary, he could be removed at any time by the convent. The priors of Penwortham were never 

 e\ en admitted by the bishops of Lichfield. 



" Ibid. 332. 



» Cal Pap. Let. iii, 595. In the fifteenth century monb of Whalley were not infrequently vicars of 

 their churches at Blackburn and Rochdale. Under Hen. IV an attempt was made to stop this practice 

 which had become very general, by statute. ' 



*' Reg. Burse, fol. 106b (1285) ; Due. Lane. Anct. Deeds, L. 275 (1339). 



^' Lanes. Pipe R. 336-9- " Wilkins, Concida, i, eg? 



" ff'Aa/ay Ccuckrr, 1-9. » Ibid. 85. 



14 



