Christianity: Details about 'Parson'
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A parson is a member of the Protestant clergy. Specifically, in the Anglican church traditions, a parson is the incumbent of a parochial benefice: a parish priest or a rector; in this sense a parson contrasts with a vicar. The title parson is also applied to clergy from other denominations.
In the Anglican traditionWilliam 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:
In IrelandIn Ulster, in the early 17th century, every parish had a vicar and a parson instead of a co-arb and an erenagh. The vicar, like the co-arb, was always in orders. He said the mass (‘serveth the cure’) and received a share of the tithes. The parson, like the erenagh, had a major portion of the tithes, maintained the church and provided hospitality. As he was not usually in clerical orders, his responsibilities were mainly temporal. However, there were differences in the divisions of the tithes between various dioceses in Tyrone. In the Diocese of Clogher, the vicar and the parson shared the tithes equally between them; in the Diocese of Derry, church income came from both tithes and the rental of church lands (‘temporalities’). The vicar and the parson each received one third of the tithes and paid an annual tribute to the bishop. In places where there was no parson, the erenagh continued to receive two thirds of the income in kind from the church lands, and delivered the balance, after defraying maintenance, to the Bishop in cash as a yearly rental. In other places, the parson, the vicar and the erenagh shared the costs of church repairs equally between them. In the Diocese of Armagh the parson received two-thirds of the tithes and the vicar one third. The archbishop and the erenagh impropriated no part thereof because they received the entire income from the termon lands. The division of responsibilities between vicar and parson seems to derive from a much earlier precedent established in the old Celtic Church of St Columcille. In the Canterbury TalesThe Parson is a character from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. He tells "The Parson's Prologue and Tale", which is the final tale that Chaucer wrote. Parson's tableA parson's table is a small, square table, made in a simple, unadorned style with four square legs. Parson's tables are designed to be easily stacked and often, easily disassembled and reassembled. They typically are made of wood or plastic, and frequently are used as patio or lawn furniture. Parson Russell TerrierThe Parson Russell Terrier, a variation of the Jack Russell Terrier, is a breed of dog. |
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