Vicar
VICAR
A priest of a parish, the predial tythes whereof are impropriate or appropriated; that is, belong either to a chapter, religious house, &c. or to a layman, who receives them, and only allows the vicar the small tythes, or a convenient salary.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
Vicar
(Lat. vicarius, from vice, “instead of”)
In canon law, the representative of a person clothed with ordinary ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The office of vicar was in use among the ancient Romans, that being the title of officials subordinate to the praetorian prefects. In the ecclesiastical forum, from very early times, we read of vicars of the Apostolic See, such as the archbishops of Thessalonica. Bishops also had their vicars, such as the archdeacons and archpriests, and likewise the rural priest, who, in the first ages, had the cure of souls outside of episcopal cities. In course of time, all of these officials became part of the ordinary magistracy of the Church. These vicars are treated in the Decretum of Gratian and in the Decretals of Gregory IX, but vicars-general of bishops first appear in the sixth book of Decretals and in the Clementines of the “Corpus juris canonici”. After the institution of vicars-general, the office of archdeacon ceased almost entirely when the Council of Trent had limited the powers of such officials. That council (Sess. XXV, c. xvi, “De ref.”) completely abrogated other vicarships that were incompatible with clerical discipline. A vicar differs from a vicegeregent, who is constituted by a prelate in place of a vicar. The vicar himself without special faculties cannot substitute another vicar with equal powers in his own place. The jurisdiction of vicars is generally ordinary, but sometimes only delegated. The former archdeacons and archpriests and the present vicars capitular and some others have ordinary power in consequence of their office, but by the present discipline vicars Apostolic and vicars forane have only delegated power conferred by special commission. Vicarial jurisdiction in general can not be called merely mandatory (which is ultimately delegated power), for many vicars have a tribunal distinct from that of the prelate represented by them. As to their powers: vicars are constituted either in divinis, as parochial vicars and auxiliary bishops, or created vicars in jurisdiction, as vicars capitular and vicars general, to exercise power in the external forum, either voluntary or contentious. Some writers also distinguish vicars a lege, or those whose powers are perpetual and prescribed in law, and vicars ab homine, who depend entirely on delegated powers and are removable at will. Neither bishops nor inferior prelates can constitute vicars except in cases permitted by canon law. The powers of vicars are not affected by the mode of appointment, that is whether they are freely nominated or elected. When vicars have ordinary jurisdiction, their rights and duties in general are the same as those of other ordinary prelates, but their particular obligations must be learnt from the office they hold. The same is to be said of the cessation of their powers, which are terminated by resignation, etc., with the addition, however, of some special regulations for particular vicarships, as that of vicar-general.
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WERNZ, Jus decretalium, II (1899); AICHNER, Compendium juris ecclesiastici (Brixen, 1895).
WILLIAM H.W. FANNING Transcribed by Michael T. Barrett Dedicated to all who serve the Church as vicars
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Vicar
is one who supplies the place of another; Anciently, when a church was appropriated to any of the religious houses, the monks supplied the cure by one of their own brotherhood, and received the .revenues of the Church to their own use. Afterwards, in almost all appropriate churches, it became customary that they should be supplied by a secular clerk, and not a member of their own house, from which fact and duty he received the name of vicarius; and for the maintenance of this vicar about a third part of the tithes was set apart, the rest of the tithes being reserved to the use of those houses. The tithes set apart; for the maintenance of the vicar were called lesser or vicarial tithes, and the others were called great or rectorial tithes. After the religious houses were dissolved, the king became possessed of that share which belonged to the monasteries, who granted them to divers persons, now termed lay impropriators, to whom ordinarily belong the whole of the great tithes. In the Anglican Church the vicar is a clergyman who is the incumbent of a parish under a rector, the former receiving the great tithes, and the latter the lesser tithes. The vicar is superior in rank to the curate, but in France the opposite usage obtains.