Vicar

The priest of every parish is called rector, unless the predial tithes are appropriated, and then he is styled vicar; and, when rectories are appropriated, vicars are to supply the rector's places. Jacob. The distinction of a parson and vicar is this: the parson has, for the most part, the whole right to all the ecclesiastical dues in his parish; but a vicar has generally an appropriator over him, entitled to the best part of the profits, to whom he is, in effect, perpetual curate, with a standing salary.

1 Bl. Com. 388. Vicar-general.

An officer occasionally constituted, in ancient times, when the bishop was called out of the diocese by foreign embassies or attendances in parliament or other affairs; and his commission contained in it the whole administration of the diocese, except the hearing of causes in the consistory court, which was the province of the official, otherwise called the official principal. In time the vicar-general came to be a fixed and standing officer, who should be ready, without the trouble of a special commission for every occasion, to execute the episcopal power, when the bishop himself was hindered by infirmities, avocations, or other impediments. The office of vicar-general came by degrees to be united with that of official; and the person in whom the two offices are united is called the bishop's chancellor. Mozley & W.