A vicar is a clergyman who has the charge of cure of a parish where the tithes have been appropriated. During the middle ages, when churches were appropriated to monasteries, vicars were employed to perform the duties of the rector and received the ‘vicarial’ or ‘small’ tithes for their maintenance. After the dissolution of the monasteries ‘rectorial’ tithes of impropriate rectories were commonly granted to laymen. As the minister or priest of the parish the vicar enjoys the same spiritual status and a rector and he is appointed to his benefice by the same forms of presentation, institution and induction.