Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland. The term is found in common use mainly during the first half of the 19th century. The legal status of perpetual curate originated as an administrative anomaly in the 16th century. Unlike ancient rectories and vicarages, perpetual curacies were supported by a cash stipend, usually maintained by an endowment fund, and had no ancient right to income from tithe or glebe.
Charles Dodgson, perpetual curate of All Saints' Church, Daresbury in Cheshire; and father of C. L. Dodgson, otherwise known as Lewis Carroll. All Saints had been created as a perpetual curacy in 1536 out of a chapel-of-ease of nearby Norton Priory.
Cheltenham Minster, St Mary's an ancient parish church appropriated with a vicarage by Cirencester Abbey and, because unbeneficed at the dissolution in 1539, then continuing with a perpetual curacy until reunited with its rectory in 1863
Haworth Parsonage built in 1774 as the parsonage house for the ancient chapelry of Haworth in the parish of Bradford, established as a perpetual curacy in 1820, at the appointment of Patrick Brontë
A benefice or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term beneficium as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by the Western Church in the Carolingian Era as a benefit bestowed by the crown or church officials. A benefice specifically from a church is called a precaria, such as a stipend, and one from a monarch or nobleman is usually called a fief. A benefice is distinct from an allod, in that an allod is property owned outright, not bestowed by a higher authority.
Raphael's The Coronation of Charlemagne (1514–15). The 800 AD coronation led to disputes over an emperor's ability to hand out benefices.
Girolamo and cardinal Marco Corner investing Marco, abbot of Carrara, with his benefice. Titian, c. 1520
Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, grandson and cardinal-nephew of Pope Paul III, held sixty-four benefices simultaneously.