It is evident, from what is set out in the _Valor Ecclesiasticus_, that the vicar proper, if he found it necessary, had to provide help in the way of a curate. In this there was no distinction between a rector and a vicar; and it is obvious that, where this was required, provision for it had been made in the arrangement which had been come to in the first instance between the impropriators and the bishop; or that arrangement had subsequently been modified to enable the vicar to meet the expense of extra help. _Curates._--Next in importance among the parochial clergy come the assistant priests, known as _Curates_ (_curati_), or those entrusted with the cure of souls. They are called in canon law _vice curati_, or _capellani_, who “administer the sacraments, not in their own name, but in the name of another”--that is, in the name of the rector or perpetual vicar. They were also, as previously pointed out, in England occasionally called vicars, in the sense of taking the place of the rector, etc. Every curate by law was to receive from the rector or vicar who employed him a fixed and sufficient salary, and all manner of bargains as to payment or contracting out of obligations were prohibited. Thus in the acts of the Synod of Ely, in 1364, Bishop Simon Langham says, “We strictly prohibit any rector from making a bargain with his (assistant) priest of this kind: that besides his fixed stipend he may take offerings for anniversary Masses, etc., since such a bargain is a clear indication that the fixed stipend is too small”--and to make it up, these fees are looked for, and the parish Masses may be neglected. In fact, by the Constitution of Archbishop Courtney, in 1391, the curates were to receive none of the oblations, fees, or offerings made in a parish, for services for which they received a sufficient payment from those who employed them. According to the same Constitution, the curate was admitted to his office by the rector or vicar on any Sunday or Feast-day before the parishioners at the parochial mass. After the Gospel of the Mass the curate took an oath to respect the above conditions as to fees, etc., in the parish church or any chapel of ease in which he celebrated Mass, and declared that he would neither stir up nor take part in any quarrel or misunderstanding between the rector and his people; but that, on the contrary, he would ever strive to preserve both peace and love between them.