本句中,“armed with a torch”作句中定语从句的省略形式,修饰“the vicar”,本句的完整形式可写成“The vicar who was armed with a torch went up into the clock tower to see what was going on.”
其中“be armed with sth”表示“拿着/带着...”；而went则为本句中的谓语动词,用过去式表示此动作发生在过去,因此本句中含有“armed”和“went”.