Chop-church
A chop-church, or church-chopper, was a parson who made a practice of exchanging ecclesiastical benefices and other terrenal favors.[clarification needed] The term is used in an ancient statute as a lawful trade, or occupation.
An example, where the spelling is 'chopchyrche', occurs as the occupation of John Charles of Bishop's Milford, Wiltshire, as a defendant in a plea of debt, for 40/- (forty shillings) brought by John Wyot, merchant of Salisbury.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1st ed.). James and John Knapton, et al. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
Notes
- ^ National Archives; Plea Rolls of the Common Pleas, dated 1440; CP40 / 0717; http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no717/aCP40no717fronts/IMG_0497.htm (entry number 3)
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