Obs. A dealer or trafficker in ecclesiastical benefices; one of ‘those secular priests who drove a trade, or made an advantage by exchanging of their benefices’ (Kennett); also called church-chopper.
1391. in Spelman, Concilia, II. 641. Litera missa omnibus Episcopis suffraganeis Domini contra Choppe-Churches.
a. 1500. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 594. Manglisa, a choppechurche.
1581. Lambarde, Eiren., IV. v. (1588), 488. Chopchurch, Merchaunt, Grocer … Spinster, &c. bee good Additions of misterie. But Citizen is not, because it is no misterie, arte or degree.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq. (1818), II. 201. Those Chop-churches, against whom some late constitutions had been made in this diocese.
