Stipendiary curate

A clergyman employed and paid a stipend to assist the incumbent of a parish in carrying out pastoral and liturgical duties. Stipendiary curates became particularly important in the nineteenth century, when population growth and the expansion of urban parishes increased the demand for additional clergy. Unlike an incumbent, a curate did not hold the benefice itself. The term remains in use in the Church of England for a paid assistant priest, especially during the early stages of ministry.