Records of the period reveal that parochial rectories and vicarages were contested between various powerful families. Some of these were essentially hereditary clerical families where priests had children out of wedlock with permanent concubines, and who duly 'inherited' the parish. Clerical tithes, fees and dues were a lucrative source of income and in many cases these disputes were taken over the head of the local bishop to Rome, to which 'supplicants' travelled in person. Once there the Vatican was happy to issue papal mandates granting the parish to the supplicant on payment of a suitable fee, often granting the same parish to both contestants at different times. Such clerics were known as 'Rome Runners' and one such was John de Mory (Moore), a native of the peninsula, who died in Bologna in 1490 while on his way back from Rome. Such practices were one of the causes of the Protestant Reformation and would later be outlawed by the Catholic Counter-Reformation.
