The Status of the Elizabethan Parochial Clergy

Abstract

The continuity of English ecclesiastical history is so strong that one is always faced with the problem of when to begin. Paradoxically enough, so far as the diocese of York is concerned, 1499 seems to be a good choice to begin any examination of the Elizabethan clergy. In that year one of the last appropriations of a benefice by a monastic house took place. After this only three more similar appropriations are recorded. This concluded a process which had lasted more than two centuries and was to influence the status of the parish clergy in local society until Queen Anne’s Bounty and after. In 1710 the commissioners found that 5,597 benefices out of a total of nearly 10,000 livings in England and Wales were not worth more than £ 50 a year. A further examination revealed that of these 5,597 livings 2,122 had a yearly value of less than £30, and a further 1,200 were valued at less than £ 20 a year.

Prosopografia

“…O lolardismo vigeu entre os séculos XIV e XVI e, rejeitando a autoridade do Vaticano, pregava maior fidelidade à letra da Bíblia (N. T.). mica do clero paroquial elizabetano inicial (BROOKS, 1948;BARRETT, 1949;HOSKINS, 1950;TYLER, 1957). Do lado da Igreja Estabelecida 27 estamos começando a ter um quadro mais adequado do crescimento do puritanismo por meio de um conhecimento maior sobre quem os puritanos eram, embora muito trabalho ainda permaneça para ser feito sobre os mercadores, cavalheiros, mestres-escola, clero e nobres puritanos 28 .…”