Chop-church

{{Short description|Trader in religious offices}}

{{notability|date=July 2021}}

{{dictdef|date=May 2023}}

A chop-church, or church-chopper, was a parson who made a practice of exchanging ecclesiastical benefices.{{Cite journal|last=Lawler|first=Traugott|date=2008-10-01|title=The Secular Clergy in Piers Plowman|url=https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.YLS.2.302645|journal=The Yearbook of Langland Studies|volume=16|pages=85–129|language=en|doi=10.1484/J.YLS.2.302645}}{{Cite book|last=Moore|first=Thomas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=keQCAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22Chop-church%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA107|title=Dictionary of the English Church, Ancient and Modern|date=1881|publisher=Wells Gardner, Darton|pages=107|language=en}} 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.{{r|NA}}