Widow conservation

Other than that, however, nothing was done to provide for priests' widows, and when the year was over, they were left to support themselves as well as they could, often as midwives or by some small business enterprise in the closest town.

[1] This proved to be insufficient, and by the early 17th century, it had become customary for a parish to elect a vicar on condition that he marry the widow of his predecessor.

There was never any formal law to require this, and if the parish protested to the authorities against a vicar who broke his promise after having been elected, their complaints were given no support by the crown.

In 1698, Frederick III of Brandenburg banned widow conservation by the Juramentum simoniae, as being a form of purchase of the vicarage office.

In Pomerania, the church synod of 1545 saw no other choice but to tolerate the practice, and in 1572, the conservation of the widow or daughter of a vicar was officially declared the duty of his successor.

After the death of a vicar, his widow was entitled to a Nådeår or Nådår (Year of Grace) to live on the vicarage while preparing support for herself and her children.

The Swedish Church Law 1686 stated that when a new parish vicar was to be elected, the candidates who expressed themselves willing to marry the widow or daughter of his predecessor should be favored.

In 1591, King John III of Sweden granted the Annerstad parish in Småland to vicar Georgius Marci, to be inherited on both the male and female line by his descendants: either by a son, or by a successor married to a daughter or a widow of his predecessor.

[4] The first retirement fund was Allmänna Änke- och Pupillkassan i Sverige from 1740, granting pensions to destitute widows of civil servants; this was not sufficient, and during the 19th-century, the Nådår was often prolonged upon application, until the more efficient retirement fund Prästerskapets Änke- och Pupillkassa exclusively for vicar's widows was established in 1874.