CURATE

In ecclesiastical law. Properly, an incumbent who has the cure of souls, but now generally restricted to signify the spiritual assistant of a rector or vicar in his cure. An officiating temporary minister in the English church, who represents the proper incumbent; being regularly employed either to serve in his absence or as his assistant as the case may be. 1 Bl. Comm. 393; 3 Steph. Comm. 88; Brande. Perpetual curacy. The office of a curate in a parish where there is no spiritual rector or vicar, but where a clerk (curate) is appointed to officiate there by the impropriator. 2 Bum. Ecc. Law, 55. The church or benefice filled by a curate under these circumstances is also so called.