Parson

In the pre-Reformation church, a parson is the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a parish church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organization. The term is similar to rector and is in contrast to a vicar, a cleric whose revenue is usually, at least partially, appropriated by a larger organization. Today the term is normally used for some parish clergy of non-Roman Catholic churches, in particular in the Anglican tradition in which a parson is the incumbent of a parochial benefice: a parish priest or a rector; in this sense a parson can be compared with a vicar. The title parson can be applied to clergy from certain other Protestant denominations. A parson is often housed in a church-owned home known as a parsonage.

William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England says that a parson is a parish priest with the fullest legal rights to the parish properties:

Legally, parish priests are separately given spiritual and temporal jurisdiction (they are instituted and inducted). The spiritual responsibility is termed the cure of souls, and one holding such a cure is a curate, which was also given to parish assistants, or assistant curates. The title parson, however, refers to the temporal jurisdiction over the churches and glebe. Depending on how the tithes were apportioned, a parson may be a rector or a vicar. A parish priest who received no tithes was legally a perpetual curate (to distinguish him from assistant curates).

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