Defining ‘Lesser Parochial Clergy’

In the first half of the fourteenth century approximately 2,000 men were ordained priest in England every year. One-fifth were regulars – members of religious orders – the other four-fifths were secular clergy. Secular ordinands greatly outnumbered the 9,000–10,000 benefices available to support them, and the disparity between the number of ordained priests and the benefices available to them has long been recognised. The clerical poll taxes of the later fourteenth century provided the starting point for a number of studies drawing attention to the large numbers of the unbeneficed and their contribution to church life, but work on earlier periods is scarcer, and has mostly been regional in character.

The apparent ‘overproduction’ of secular clergy led to great inequalities in their subsequent careers. The fortunate few obtained a benefice (usually a rectory) relatively early in life, either through family influence, or the patronage of a lord – lay or ecclesiastical – mostly for administrative services. This privileged minority can be most easily detected since their institutions to benefices were recorded in bishops’ registers. Those who were best rewarded were the men most likely to be absent from their parishes.

This chapter is concerned with those who performed the pastoral work of the Church, and seeks to present a national picture of their career patterns in the half-century before the Black Death. The Church's pastoral work was done by the large body of priests within whose ranks were many gradations of material reward and security of tenure: vicars, parochial chaplains, chantry chaplains and those described only as ‘chaplains’, many of whom were no doubt casual Mass priests.

Chaplains

Theological changes in the thirteenth century led to a great demand for Masses for the souls of the dead, and a rising, richer, population could fund the enlargement of churches to house additional altars and support a larger body of priests to serve them. Economic activity also resulted in the establishment of subsidiary chapels in parishes. activity also resulted in the establishment of subsidiary chapels in parishes. The first, and perhaps the only, stage in the careers of many ordinands was to be employed in saying Masses and providing pastoral services in a parish church or outlying chapel, with the possibility of becoming in time the parochial chaplain.