Poverty in the southern province: a survey of parish clergy incomes in the dioceses of Winchester, Salisbury and Chichester, 1535–1705*

Abstract Parish clergy incomes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries lie at the heart of this enquiry. Their incomes would determine recruitment, retention and quality, on which delivery of the church’s mission ultimately relied. The enquiry concentrates on three dioceses – Winchester, Salisbury and Chichester – and investigates surviving surveys from the Valor Ecclesiasticus to the Notitia Parochialis, extracting the figures and assessing their validity. Findings are compared with the incomes of ‘the hierarchy’ and set in the contexts of inflation and social standing. Abortive attempts at reform show, finally, why Queen Anne’s Bounty was so urgently needed.