botany. See Pastinaca.

Parson and Vicar. A parson, persona ecclesiae, is one that hath full possession of all the rights of a parochial church. He is called parson, persona, because by his person the church, which is an invisible body, is represented; and he is in himself a body corporate, in order to protect and defend the rights of the church (which he personates) by a perpetual succession. He is sometimes called the rector or governor of the church: but the appellation of parson (however it may be depreciated by familiar, clownish, and indiscriminate use) is the most legal, most beneficial, and most honourable title that a parish-priest can enjoy; because such a one (Sir Edward Coke observes) and he only, is said vicem seu personam ecclesiae gerere. A parson has, during his life, the freehold in himself of the parsonage-house, the glebe, the tithes, and other dues. But these are sometimes appropriated; that is to say, the benefice is perpetually annexed to some spiritual corporation, either sole or aggregate, being the patron of the living; whom the law esteems equally capable of providing for the service of the church as any single private clergyman. See article Apportionment.

The appropriating corporations, or religious houses, were wont to depute one of their own body to perform divine service, and administer the sacraments, in those parishes of which the society was thus the parson. This officiating minister was in reality no more than a curate, deputy, or vicegerent of the appropriator, and therefore called vicarius, or "vicar." His stipend was at the discretion of the appropriator, who was, however, bound of common right to find somebody, qui illi de temporalibus, episcopo de spiritualibus, debet respondere. But this was done in so scandalous a manner, and the parishes suffered so much by the neglect of the appropriators, that the legislature was forced to interpose: and accordingly it is enacted, by statute 15 Ric. II. c. 6, that in all appropriations of churches... churches the diocesan bishop shall ordain (in proportion to the value of the church) a competent sum to be distributed among the poor parishioners annually; and that the vicarage shall be sufficiently endowed. It seems the parish were frequently sufferers, not only by the want of divine service, but also by withholding those alms for which, among other purposes, the payment of tithes was originally imposed: and therefore in this act a pension is directed to be distributed among the poor parishioners, as well as a sufficient stipend to the vicar. But he, being liable to be removed at the pleasure of the appropriator, was not likely to insist too rigidly on the legal sufficiency of the stipend; and therefore, by statute 4 Hen. IV. c. 12, it is ordained, that the vicar shall be a secular person, not a member of any religious house; that he shall be vicar perpetual, not removable at the caprice of the monastery; and that he shall be canonically instituted and inducted, and be sufficiently endowed, at the discretion of the ordinary; for these three express purposes, to do divine service, to inform the people, and to keep hospitality. The endowments, in consequence of these statutes, have usually been by a portion of the glebe or land belonging to the parsonage, and a particular share of the tithes, which the appropriators found it most troublesome to collect, and which are therefore generally called privy, or small tithes; the greater, or predial tithes, being still reserved to their own use. But one and the same rule was not observed in the endowment of all vicarages. Hence some are more liberally, and some more scantily, endowed; and hence the tithes of many things, as wood in particular, are in some parishes rectorial, and in some vicarial tithes.

The distinction therefore of a parson and vicar is this: The parson has for the most part the whole right to all the ecclesiastical dues in his parish; but a vicar has generally an appropriator over him, entitled to the best part of the profits, to whom he is in effect perpetual curate, with a standing salary. Though in some places the vicarage has been considerably augmented by a large share of the great tithes; which augmentations were greatly assisted by the statute 27 Car. II. c. 8, enacted in favour of poor vicars and curates, which rendered such temporary augmentations (when made by the appropriators) perpetual.

The method of becoming a parson or vicar is much the same. To both there are four requisites necessary; holy orders, presentation, institution, and induction. The method of conferring the holy orders of deacon and priest, according to the liturgy and canons, is foreign to the present purpose; any farther than as they are necessary requisites to make a complete parson or vicar. By common law, a deacon, of any age, might be instituted and inducted to a parsonage or vicarage; but it was ordained, by statute 13 Eliz. c. 12, that no person under twenty-three years of age, and in deacon's orders, should be presented to any benefice with cure; and if he were not ordained priest within one year after his induction, he should be ipso facto deprived: and now, by statute 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 4, no person is capable to be admitted to any benefice, unless he hath been first ordained a priest; and then he is, in the language of the law, a clerk in orders. But if he obtains orders, or a licence to preach, by money or corrupt practices, (which seems to be the true, though not the common, notion of simony), the person giving such orders forfeits 40l. and the person receiving, 10l. and is incapable of any ecclesiastical preferment for seven years after.

Any clerk may be presented to a parsonage or vicarage; that is, the patron, to whom the advowson of the church belongs, may offer his clerk to the bishop of the diocese to be instituted. But when he is presented, the bishop may refuse him upon many accounts. As, 1. If the patron is excommunicated, and remains in contempt 40 days; or, 2. If the clerk be unfit: which unfitness is of several kinds. First, with regard to his person; as if he be a bastard, an outlaw, an excommunicate, an alien, under age, or the like. Next, with regard to his faith or morals; as for any particular heresy, or vice that is malum in se; but if the bishop alleges only in general's, as that he is schismaticus incesteratus, or objects a fault that is malum prohibitum merely, as haunting taverns, playing at unlawful games, or the like, it is not good cause of refusal. Or, lastly, the clerk may be unfit to discharge the pastoral office for want of learning. In any of which cases, the bishop may refuse the clerk. In case the refusal is for heresy, schism, inability of learning, or other matter of ecclesiastical cognizance, there the bishop must give notice to the patron of such his cause of refusal, who being usually a layman, is not supposed to have knowledge of it; else he cannot present by lapse; but if the cause be temporal, there he is not bound to give notice.

If an action at law be brought by the patron against the bishop for refusing his clerk, the bishop must assign the cause. If the cause be of a temporal nature, and the fact admitted, (as, for instance, outlawry), the judges of the king's courts must determine its validity, or whether it be sufficient cause of refusal: but if the fact be denied, it must be determined by a jury. If the cause be of a spiritual nature, (as heresy, particularly alleged), the fact, if denied, shall also be determined by a jury: and if the fact be admitted or found, the court, upon consultation and advice of learned divines, shall decide its sufficiency. If the cause be want of learning, the bishop need not specify in what points the clerk is deficient, but only allege that he is deficient; for the statute 9 Edw. II. li. i. c. 13, is express, that the examination of the fitness of a person presented to a benefice belongs to the ecclesiastical judge. But because it would be nugatory in this case to demand the reason of refusal from the ordinary, if the patron were bound to abide by his determination, who has already pronounced his clerk unfit; therefore if the bishop returns the clerk to be minus sufficiens in literatura, the court shall write to the metropolitan to re-examine him, and certify his qualifications; which certificate of the archbishop is final.

If the bishop hath no objections, but admits the patron's presentation, the clerk so admitted is next to be instituted by him; which is a kind of investiture of the spiritual part of the benefice; for by institution, the care of the souls of the parish is committed to the charge of the clerk. When a vicar is instituted, he (besides the usual forms) takes, if required by the bishop, an oath of perpetual residence; for the maxim of law is, that vicarius non habet vicariatum: and as the non-residence of the appropriators was the cause of the perpet- tual establishment of vicarages, the law judges it very improper for them to defeat the end of their constitution, and by absence to create the very mischief which they were appointed to remedy; especially as, if any profits are to arise from putting in a curate and living at a distance from the parish, the appropriator, who is the real parson, has undoubtedly the elder title to them. When the ordinary is also the patron, and confers the living, the presentation and institution are one and the same act, and are called a collation to a benefice. By institution or collation the church is full, so that there can be no fresh prestation till another vacancy, at least in the case of a common patron; but the church is not full against the king till induction: nay, even if a clerk is instituted upon the king's presentation, the crown may revoke it before induction, and present another clerk. Upon institution also the clerk may enter on the parsonage-house and glebe, and take the tithes; but he cannot grant or let them, or bring an action for them, till induction. See INDUCTION.

For the rights of a parson or vicar, in his tithes and ecclesiastical dues, see TITHES. As to his duties, they are so numerous, that it is impracticable to recite them here with any tolerable conciseness or accuracy; but the reader who has occasion may consult Bp Gibson's Codex, and Burn's Ecclesiastical Law. We shall therefore only just mention the article of residence, upon the supposition of which the law doth style every parochial minister an incumbent. By statute 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13. persons willingly absenting themselves from their benefices, for one month together, or two months in the year, incur a penalty of £1. to the king, and £1. to any person that will sue for the same; except chaplains to the king, or others therein mentioned, during their attendance in the household of such as retain them: and also except all heads of houses, magistrates, and professors in the universities, and all students under forty years of age residing there, bona fide, for study. Legal residence is not only in the parish, but also in the parsonage-house; for it hath been resolved, that the statute intended residence, not only for serving the cure and for hospitality, but also for maintaining the house, that the successor also may keep hospitality there.

We have seen that there is but one way whereby one may become a parson or vicar: there are many ways by which one may cease to be so. 1. By death. 2. By cession, in taking another benefice; for by statute 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13. if any one having a benefice of £1. per annum, or upwards, in the king's books, (according to the present valuation), accepts any other, the first shall be adjudged void, unless he obtains a dispensation; which no one is entitled to have but the chaplains of the king and others therein mentioned, the brethren and sons of lords and knights, and doctors and bachelors of divinity and law, admitted by the universities of this realm. And a vacancy thus made for want of a dispensation, is called occlusion. 3. By consecration; for, as was mentioned before, when a clerk is promoted to a bishopric, all his other preferments are void the instant that he is consecrated. But there is a method, by the favour of the crown, of holding such livings in commendam. Commenda, or ecclesia commendata, is a living commended by the crown to the care of a clerk, to hold till a proper pastor is Parsonage, provided for it. This may be temporary for one, two, or three years, or perpetual, being a kind of dispensation to avoid the vacancy of the living, and is called a commenda retinere. There is also a commenda recipere, which is to take a benefice de novo in the bishop's own gift, or the gift of some other patron consenting to the same; and this is the same to him as institution and induction are to another clerk. 4. By resignation. But this is of no avail till accepted by the ordinary, into whose hands the resignation must be made. 5. By deprivation, either by canonical censures, or in pursuance of divers penal statutes, which declare the benefice void, for some nonfeasance or neglect, or else some malefeasance or crime: as for simony; for maintaining any doctrine in derogation of the king's supremacy, or of the thirty-nine articles, or of the book of common-prayer; for neglecting after institution to read the liturgy and articles in the church, or make the declarations against popery, or take the abjuration-oath; for using any other form of prayer than the liturgy of the church of England; or for absenting himself 60 days in one year from a benefice belonging to a papish patron, to which the clerk was presented by either of the universities: in all which, and similar cases, the benefice is ipso facto void, without any formal sentence of deprivation.