Definition
A vicar is a person who acts in the place of another — a substitute, deputy, or representative authorized to perform another's functions. In English ecclesiastical law, the term carries a more specific and technical meaning: the incumbent of an appropriated or impropriated ecclesiastical benefice, as distinct from a rector, who holds an impropriated benefice. The ecclesiastical meaning dominated legal usage for centuries and still governs interpretation of historical church-related documents and property instruments.
1. General (secular) sense: Any person authorized to act on behalf of another, functionally equivalent to a deputy or substitute. This usage appears occasionally in older legal instruments and occasionally in civil-law influenced texts.
2. Ecclesiastical sense (primary legal usage): The clergyman appointed to serve a parish whose tithes and revenues have been appropriated by a religious house, lay impropriator, or other body. Because the appropriating body absorbed the "great tithes," the vicar was typically endowed with only the "small tithes" and a fixed stipend or glebe. This arrangement — rooted in medieval appropriation practice — distinguishes the vicar sharply from a rector, who retains the full parochial endowment.
VICAR GENERAL (subtype): An ecclesiastical officer who assists the archbishop in the discharge of his office. Used in both Anglican and Roman Catholic administrative structures, though with differing authority profiles in each.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): In the Church of England, the priest of a parish, receiving a salary or stipend but not tithes. In the Roman Catholic and some other churches, a cleric acting as local representative of a higher-ranking member of the clergy. More broadly, a person acting on behalf of, or representing, another person.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One deputed or authorized to perform the functions of another; a substitute in office; a deputy. The incumbent of an appropriated benefice.
The ordinary modern usage — especially in American English — treats "vicar" loosely as a synonym for any parish priest or minister, without regard to the technical appropriation distinction. Legal and historical sources, particularly those touching English ecclesiastical property, land tenure, and tithe obligations, use the term with precision: a vicar is specifically not a rector, and the difference carries real legal consequences for endowment, tithe entitlement, and patronage rights. Researchers who encounter "vicar" in conveyances, terriers, or glebe records must not read the term as simply meaning "parish clergyman."
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Common Confusion
VICAR vs. RECTOR: The most persistent confusion in historical ecclesiastical records. A rector holds the parsonage and is entitled to all tithes of the parish. A vicar serves in a parish where those revenues have been appropriated elsewhere and receives only what the appropriating body has endowed for that purpose — typically small tithes, a stipend, or glebe land. The distinction matters in any dispute over tithe liability, church property, or right of presentation.
VICAR vs. CURATE: A curate is not the incumbent of a benefice but an assistant, often temporary, who serves at the pleasure of the incumbent. Rapalje & Lawrence note that a vicar is effectively "a perpetual curate with a standing salary," but the two offices differ in legal standing: the vicar holds a benefice; the curate does not.
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Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Vicar General: An ecclesiastical deputy assisting an archbishop or bishop; recognized in both English canon law and Roman Catholic canon law, though with differing scope and authority.
Perpetual Vicar: The incumbent of a parish served under a deed of appropriation or similar instrument, holding a permanent title rather than a temporary appointment. Distinguished from a curate on grounds of tenure and legal status.
Vicar Apostolic: In Roman Catholic usage, a bishop appointed to govern a territory not yet established as a regular diocese. Does not appear prominently in English common-law sources but may be encountered in American and British documents relating to Catholic ecclesiastical organization.
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Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in English ecclesiastical law, church property disputes, tithe litigation, or land records touching parochial endowments must treat "vicar" as a term of art, not a generic clerical title. Three research hazards are worth flagging:
First, the rector/vicar distinction drives tithe entitlement questions. Any corpus search involving tithes, moduses, or commutation proceedings under the Tithe Commutation Act 1836 must identify whether the incumbent is a vicar or rector — the answer determines who holds the relevant legal claim.
Second, patronage and advowson records depend on the same distinction. The right of presentation to a vicarage and the right of presentation to a rectory are legally separate interests. A deed or grant conveying one does not convey the other.
Third, the general (secular) sense — vicar as any substitute or deputy — appears in civil law contexts and older agency discussions. Burrill's derivation from the Latin vicarius signals that this broader meaning surfaces in texts influenced by Roman or canon law. Researchers should not automatically assume the English ecclesiastical sense applies whenever the word appears.
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry is unusually detailed on the mechanics of appropriation and should be consulted alongside Black's for any dispute touching English parish endowments before the mid-nineteenth century reforms.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge on two meanings — the general "substitute" sense and the ecclesiastical "appropriated benefice" sense — but weight them differently. Black's (both editions) and Burrill lead with the general meaning before moving to the ecclesiastical. Bouvier reduces the entire entry to one line and redirects to PARISH PRIEST, which is thin even for Bouvier. Burrill is the most useful historically, deriving the term from vicarius and sketching the parson/vicar distinction, though it cuts off the key sentence mid-analysis in the available excerpt.
Rapalje & Lawrence provides the most substantive treatment, clarifying that a vicar is "in effect, a perpetual curate with a standing salary" and cross-referencing appropriation, impropriation, rector, curate, and tithes — the full constellation of related concepts. Researchers who need to understand vicar in context should use Rapalje & Lawrence as the primary historical reference and supplement with the full Burrill entry.
None of the dictionaries adequately address the post-1836 landscape, when tithe commutation substantially altered the practical significance of the rector/vicar distinction. Black's 2nd edition cites Pinder v. Barr for general support, which is a real English case touching ecclesiastical office.
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Jurisdictional Note
The ecclesiastical meanings of vicar are specific to English law and those jurisdictions that received Anglican ecclesiastical structures, including some Commonwealth countries. In the United States, where there is no established church and no system of tithe appropriation, "vicar" in a legal instrument almost always carries either the general "deputy" sense or refers to internal Roman Catholic or Episcopal Church governance — neither of which engages the English common-law appropriation framework. American researchers encountering the term in domestic church property disputes should consult the relevant denomination's governing documents rather than English ecclesiastical authorities.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Ecclesiastical Law; Appropriation and Impropriation; Tithes; Advowson and Patronage
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