vicar who used to be in the communards
Reverend Richard Coles
title: Vicar of Christ text: Councils, where the Emperor often played a key role, already since the time of Constantine the Great) the Emperor constantly had tremendous influence on the church, which was increasingly charged with tasks in the service of the crown, such as supervising temporal authorities. Vicar of Christ Vicar of Christ (from Latin "Vicarius Christi") is a term used in different ways and with different theological connotations throughout history. The original notion of a vicar is as an "earthly representative of Christ", but it's also used in the sense of "person acting as parish priest in place of a real person." The title: Vicar text: papacy first used this title in the 6th century; earlier they used the title "vicar of Saint Peter" or "vicarius principis apostolorum", the "vicar of the chief of the apostles". The Catholic Church recognizes all bishops as being vicars of Christ. In Catholic canon law, "a vicar is the representative of any ecclesiastic" entity. The Romans had used the term to describe officials subordinate to the praetorian prefects. In the early Christian churches, bishops likewise had their vicars, such as the archdeacons and archpriests, and also the rural priest, the curate who had the "cure" or "care" of all the title: Vicar of Christ text: The third use of the term Vicar of Christ appears in the 5th century, in a synod of bishops to refer to Pope Gelasius I. The theological connotations of the title got a pastoral sense, evoking the words of Christ to the Apostle Peter, regarded by the first Catholic Pope in "John 21:16-17", ""Feed my lambs... Feed my sheep"", so Christ made Peter his vicar and pastor with the responsibility to feed his flock (i.e. the Church) in his own place. However, the use of the title to refer to the popes in the early Church was unstable, and several title: Vicar text: type of parish priest. Historically, parish priests in the Church of England were divided into vicars, "rectors", and "perpetual curates". The parish clergy and church were supported by tithes—like a local tax (traditionally, as the etymology of "tithe" suggests, of ten percent) levied on the personal as well as agricultural output of the parish. Roughly speaking, the distinction was that a rector directly received both the greater and lesser tithes of his parish while a vicar received only the lesser tithes (the greater tithes going to the lay holder, or "impropriator", of the living); a perpetual curate with a small title: Vicar of Christ text: Vicar of Christ Vicar of Christ (from Latin "Vicarius Christi") is a term used in different ways and with different theological connotations throughout history. The original notion of a vicar is as an "earthly representative of Christ", but it's also used in the sense of "person acting as parish priest in place of a real person." The title is now used in Catholicism to refer to the bishops and more specifically to the Bishop of Rome (the pope). During the history of Christianity, the title of Vicar of Christ was used in different ways, with implications for theological, pastoral or