Perpetual Cure

Perpetual Cure a form of ecclesiastical benefice which grew out of the abuse of lay impropriation (q.v.), the impropriator appointing a clergyman to discharge the spiritual functions of which he himself was not capable. The substituted clergyman, in ordinary cases, is appointed by the bishop, and called a vicar; the impropriator appoints the clergyman who is called a perpetual curate. The perpetual curate enters on his office without induction or institution, and requires only the bishop's license. Perpetual cures are also created by the erection and endowment of a chapel subject to the -principal church of a parish. Such cures, however, are not benefices unless endowed out of the fund called Queen Anne's Bounty. Churches so endowed are, by 2 and 3 Vict. c. 49, recognized as benefices. The district churches which have been erected under several recent acts are made perpetual cures, and their incumbents are corporations.