The easiest way to begin to understand livings is to remember that a parish\nwas a both a unit of civil and ecclesiastical government AND a tax perk. Most\nEnglish parishes were ancient in origin and were created by lay and religious\npatrons for all sorts of reasons, practical and pious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beginning when Henry VIII’s government sold monastic lands in the 1530s and\ncontinuing from that date, the right to nominate a clergyman to a parish and\ncollect the ecclesiastical taxes called tithes, passed into lay hands. When the\nland was sold it was sold with its church rights. Parishes which had been in\nthe control of the Church came under secular control and by 1800 about two\nthirds of the 10,000 parishes in England were in the gift of the aristocracy\nand gentry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was known as the right of appropriation. It includes the right to\nnominate a clergyman for the parish but only gross misconduct could deprive\nthat man of his position subsequently. Thus Lady Catherine gives Mr Collins his\nliving yet once he is “installed” (wonderful word) she cannot kick\nhim out, only his bishop can do that. This is what makes Mr Collins’\nobsequiousness rather silly as Lady C has no more patronage on offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Livings were bought and sold like any other form of property right, usually,\nas John Dashwood remarks in S&S, for seven years purchase, i.e., the\nDelaford living yields \u00a3200 a year and could be sold for \u00a31400.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was also possible to put a curate in a living temporarily to keep the\nparish open for a son of the house (like Edmund Bertram) who was too young to\ntake up his father’s livings. However, Tom’s debts force Sir Thomas to sell the\nMansfield living and thus substantially reduce his younger brother\u2019s future\nincome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might find it interesting to know that there was a huge reaction against\ncareer churchmen in the years following JA’s death. In Austen-Leigh’s Memoir he\nmakes a point of highlighting the inadequacies of her clergy, even the good\nmen, and, as a clergyman himself, he must have thought he was justified in his\nposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is rather a convoluted subject to follow up but Paul Langford’s A\nPolite and Commercial People gives a good summary and there is more on what\nchanges and why in David Hempton, Religion and Political Culture in Britain and\nIreland from the Glorious Revolution to the Decline of Empire, which is a long\ntitle for a short, sharp book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The easiest way to begin to understand livings is to remember that a parish was a both a unit of civil and ecclesiastical government AND a tax perk. Most English parishes were ancient in origin and were created by lay … Continue reading