PRIESTS AND PEOPLE: Before the Reformation, there were no seminaries and only a minority of priests were university graduates. The priest would often be born and brought up in the local community, learning his priestly duties “on the job”, in a form of apprenticeship. He would thus know the parishioners well. He would be assisted in his priestly duties by those in minor orders, such as deacons, sub-deacons and “holy water clerks”. In rural areas, he would often farm the glebe, the land allocated to support the priest, or would employ someone to do so on his behalf.
PRIESTS AND PEOPLE: Before the Reformation, there were no seminaries and only a minority of priests were university graduates. The priest would often be born and brought up in the local community, learning his priestly duties “on the job”, in a form of apprenticeship. He would thus know the parishioners well.
He would be assisted in his priestly duties by those in minor orders, such as deacons, sub-deacons and “holy water clerks”. In rural areas, he would often farm the glebe, the land allocated to support the priest, or would employ someone to do so on his behalf.
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