3. Assistant unbeneficed clergy are contemplated by the canons, in which they are styled curates; and with the licence of the bishop any incumbent may employ one or more curates to assist him in serving the parish. A curate frequently comes in the first instance on probation without being licensed, and his tenure of office is then entirely dependent on the will of the incumbent.[124] But after he is licensed it becomes more secure; and, in the meantime, if a difficulty occurred about the remuneration for his services, the law would give it to him upon a _quantum meruit_. In order to obtain a licence, the curate must present to the bishop a declaration by the incumbent undertaking to pay to him a specified annual sum as his stipend and a declaration of his own intention to receive the whole of that stipend; and the licence will specify the amount of the stipend.[125] Any dispute between an incumbent and a curate respecting the curate's stipend is to be decided by the bishop, who may enforce payment of it by monition and sequestration of the benefice.[126] If the benefice becomes vacant, a curate must quit upon six weeks' notice from the new incumbent, if given within six months from the date of admission to the benefice. But in other cases, unless the bishop revokes his licence (see § 1 above), a curate can only be required to quit after six months' notice given by the incumbent with the previous written permission of the bishop, or of the archbishop, if the bishop refuses it and the archbishop grants it upon an appeal to him within one month after the bishop's refusal. On the other hand, unless he obtains the express written consent of the bishop, a curate before relinquishing a curacy to which he has been licensed must give three months' notice of his intention to the incumbent and the bishop, upon pain of forfeiting to the incumbent, as a debt retainable out of his stipend or recoverable at law, such sum not exceeding half a year's stipend as the bishop may in writing direct.[127] Ordinarily, an incumbent who is himself resident and performing the duties of his cure has complete discretion whether he will employ any, and, if so, how many curates, and what duties shall from time to time be performed by any whom he employs. But, besides the cases of the incumbent's non-residence and negligence in the performance of duties noticed above (§ 2 (_c_), (_d_)), the bishop has power, if a commission issued by him reports that the duties of a benefice are inadequately performed, to require the incumbent, although himself engaged in performing them, to nominate an assistant curate or curates; and, if he fails to do so within three months, the bishop may himself appoint one or more, as the case may require, with a stipend proportionate to the value of the benefice and the population of the parish. The incumbent has an appeal to the archbishop, who may confirm or amend the bishop's action.[128] Moreover, where the annual value of a