RELIGIOUS MEANINGS

1. Ad Vowson: The right to appoint a priest to a parish church. Ad Vowsons could be held by laymen and were treated as real
property which could be inherited, sold or even divided between a co-heiress (One on appointing, one on occasion, another
on the next and so on) 2) The right of presentation to a church or benefice. 3) Patronage of a church living, the legal right to
present a candidate for installation in a vacant ecclesiastical office.
2. Alien Priory: A monastic house or estate dependent upon or subordinate to a continental (usually Norman) monastery.
3. Anathema: A condemnation of heretics, similar in effect to major excommunication. It inflicts the penalty of complete
expulsion from any and all church society.
4. Anchoret: A hermit or recluse.
5. Annates: First year income paid to the papacy by the incumbent of a benefice to which he had been papally approved.
6. Apostate: The term used to describe one who leaves a religious order after making solemn profession. It is considered to be
a serious crime in the eyes of the church. It is not only a breach of faith with god but also with the founders and benefactors
of their religious house.
7. Apostolic Life: The way of life of the Apostles, emphasizing their poverty and preaching. An extension of a powerful
religious ideal, particularly in the 12 & 13th centuries.
8. Apostolic Succession: A doctrine that the authority of Jesus has passed down in an unbroken line to the Apostles and to their
successors, the bishops.
9. Apparitor: An official of the ecclesiastical courts, who summoned people to appear before them.
10. Appropriation: The conversion of the right of presentation to a rectory into the possession of that rectory, usually a religious
house or collegiate.
11. Arch Deacon: A high church official, serving more or less as the executive secretary to a bishop.
12. Asylum, Right of: The right for a bishop to protect a fugitive from justice or to intercede on his behalf. Once asylum is
granted the fugitive can not be removed until after a months time. Fugitives who find asylum must pledge an oath of
adjuration never to return to the realm. After a months time they are free to find passage to the borders of the realm by the
fastest way, unharmed. If found within the borders after a months time they may be hunted down as before with no rights of
asylum to be granted ever again. Also known as the right of Sanctuary.
13. Barber-Surgeon: A monastic that shaves faces, heads and performs light surgery.
14. Benefice: A grant of land to a member (bishop or monastery) for limited or hereditary use in exchange for services. A
benefice is a church office that returns revenue. 2) An endowed church office. 3) An ecclesiastical office, such as a parish
church or prebend, to which specific duties and revenues are assigned. 4) Ecclesiastical appointment with Cure of Souls
usually held by a rector or vicar of a parish church. 5) Normally referring to the income, endowments and rights (or the
living) of a parish church, but generally used of any church income.
15. Benificium: Feudal land given in return for service.
16. Benefit of Clergy: A privilege enjoyed by most members of the clergy including tonsured clerks. It placed them beyond the
jurisdiction of secular courts. 2) The legal privilege of those who could prove they were clergy to be tried and sentenced for
felonies in the church courts and punished by the church.
17. Bishop: Church officer consecrated to the highest of holy orders and usually a head of a diocese with spiritual authority over
the other clergy and Laity in that diocese. They were believed to be successor to the apostles. Derived from the Greek
Episcopus meaning overseer.
18. Bull: An authoritative papal letter, sealed with the lead seal or bulla of the pope.
19. Canon: A church law or decree incorporated into the body of church law.
20. Canon Law: A body of rules governing the faith, morals and organization of the church. 2) Body of rules administered by
the courts of the church.
21. Canon Lawyer: A student of or graduate in Canon law. Often a practitioner in the church.
22. Canon: (new testament) A list of books accepted by the church as scripture, accepting a list of 27 items in the new testament
which was worked out in the 2nd and 4th centuries.
23. Canon, Regular: A clerk who was not a monk but who lived in a community governed by a rule and belonged to one of the
religious orders of canon regulars.
24. Canon, Secular: A clergyman who belonged to a cathedral chapter or collegiate church. Those who observed a written rule,
often the rule of St. Augustine, were called secular. 2) A prebendary of a cathedral or collegiate church.
25. Cartulary: The record of a land owners (usually monastic) possessions in book form.
26. Cathedral Church: The church of the diocese where a bishop has his throne or Cathedra and where he presides.
Simplified to cathedral.
27. Celibacy: The state of being unmarried, required of western clergy in the major orders.(bishops, priests, deacons, etc)
28. Cellarer: The official of a monastery responsible for food supplies.
29. Chantry: Endowments of masses or of chaplains to say masses for the souls of deceased testers and their nominees.
30. Chaplain: A priest or monk in charge of the chapel and the secretarial department of the castle.

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31. Chapel of Ease: A subsidiary chapel of a mother church founded to ease the difficulties of parishioners in worshipping,
especially where the parish was very large.
32. Chapter: The governing body of an ecclesiastical corporation, whether monastic community or a cathedral clergy.
33. Charity: An institution, often endowed by will or supported by subscriptions through a guild, to pay for the saying of masses
for the souls of the founders.
34. Chartophylax: The keeper of the archives and/or general secretary of a bishop in an Orthodox Church.
35. Choir: Part of the cruciform church east of the crossing.
36. Christendom: The collective name for those territories inhabited primarily by Christians.
37. Church Courts: The system of courts set by the church to enforce Canon Law. Generally Deacons trained in the law served
as the judges, advocates pled the cases and proctors prepared them. Summonss served, in essence, as process servers.
Church courts had jurisdiction over most family matters, wills, sexual offenses, marriage and divorce, bastardy, testate and
intestate succession to personal property, defamation, battery of a cleric and breach of faith. In case of conflict, the Kings
Law prevailed.
38. Circumspecte Agatis: The 1st word of a writ, later regarded as a statute, which defined some boundaries between
ecclesiastical and secular jurisdiction.
39. Clergy: Term used to include all members of religious orders. The clergy are generally exempt from the jurisdiction of civil
courts as well as from military service. 2) A collective term for men having any of the holy orders of the Christian church as
distinguished from the unordained members of the church, who were called the Laity.
40. Cluny: A monastery in Burgundy founded in 909, famous for its liturgy. During the 11th century the Cluny became head of
the first monastic order with hundreds of monasteries all over Europe.
41. Collate: The Episcopal act of appointing to a benefice where a bishop was, or was acting as, the patron. AKA: collation.
42. College: An ecclesiastical corporation having its own legal identity, not applicable to monastic houses, but it does embrace
academics, which were then ecclesiastical communities.
43. Confession: The public or private acknowledgement of sinfulness regarding as necessary to obtain divine forgiveness.
44. Conciliarism: The doctrine that the supreme authority in the church is vested in a general or ecumenical council.
Conciliarism was extremely influential during and after the "Great Schism (1378-1414) especially at the Councils of
Constance (1414-1418) and the council of Basel (1431-1439).
45. Conge d Elire: The royal license permitting a cathedral chapter to elect a bishop. Monastic houses that claimed the king as
their patron or held their land directly from him in return for a now national feudal service were also obliged to seek this
license before they elected their superior.
46. Consultation: A writ, which squashed prohibitions and allowed the church court to resume a case.
47. Contumacy: Defiance of, or failure (when summoned) to appear in an ecclesiastical court.
48. Conversus: A person who entered a monastery as an adult, in contrast to an obliate who entered as a child. 2) A lay brother
in a monastery.
49. Convocation: Synod of clergy of province.
50. Corrody: A lifetime payment of food and clothing by a religious house to an individual and sometimes to his wife and
children as well. 2) An old age pension, usually purchasable from a monastery, consisting of lodging, food, and incidentals.
3) In effect, board and lodging sold or granted by a religious house to laymen and women.
51. Councils: Ecclesiastical meetings of several sorts including :
52. A meeting of Bishops with their Archbishop or metropolitan. This is called a provincial council.
53. A meeting if a bishop and his diocesan clergy called a diocesan synod.
54. A meeting of all bishops under the emperor or the pope called the Ecumenical council.
55. Courts Christian: The church courts of all kinds.
56. Creed: A brief formal statement of belief. The most famous were the Apostles creed, the Athanasian Creed and the Nicene
Creed.
57. Crosses: Church lands with in a liberty, exempt from the jurisdiction of the lord of the liberty and administered by a royal
sheriff.
58. Curate: A priest who exercised the 'Cure of Souls' in a parish, or who held an office, which was attached, in a cathedral. In
parishes the curate could thus be the Rector or Vicar or the senior chaplain acting for them in their absence.
59. Cure of Souls: The responsibility for the care of souls of others.
60. Darrein Presentment: The action of 'Last Presentment' to discover the most recent patron of the church.
61. Deacon: A clergyman holding the holy order just below the priesthood.
62. Dean: Head of a collegiate or secular cathedral chapter. Rural deans were diocesan officers usually appointed from the local
clergy.
63. Decretal: A papal letter or an excerpt from one, which rules on a point of common law. 2) A judicial decision made by or on
behalf of the pope with reference to a particular case, but often collected afterwards to provide or illuminate legal principals.
64. Decretum: A major collection of canon law texts arranged topically by the Gratian in the 1140's. Used in the church courts
and law schools from the 12th century onward. The formal title of the book was the Concordance of Disconcordant Canons'.
65. De Excommunicato Capiendo: Royal writ for the capture, arrest and imprisonment of an excommunicate who after 40 days
was still unreconciled and whose name had been sent to the chancery by the bishop.
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66. Diocese: A district subject to the jurisdiction of a bishop or Archbishop. The name is derived from administrative districts
created by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. 2) Ecclesiastical division of territory under supervision of a bishop. There were
more than 500 dioceses in the western church by the 14th century.
67. Dispensation: A papally granted license to do what is not permitted by common law, or at least by the human laws of the
church. It could not alter what is considered to be divine law e.g. The Ten Commandments.
68. Divine Office: The religious services sung or recited by priests and other clergy at canonical hours. I.e. seven fixed times
during the day and one time at night.
69. Dorter: A monastic dormitory.
70. Double Monastery: A combined monastery for men and women but sexually separated. Ruled by either an Abbott or an
Abbess.
71. Eucharist: The sacraments of the lords supper, the mass or the consecrated bread and wine, derived from the Greek word
meaning to give thanks.
72. Evangelical: Adjective meaning 'Pertaining to the Gospels'. Derived from the Greek 'Evangelion' or "good news". This was
an early Christian description of their mass and a term for the book of gospels in which that message was recorded.
73. Excommunication: The exclusion from the membership of the church or from the communion with faithful Christians.
Those judged 'Tolerati' may still mingle with the faithful but those marked as 'Vitandi' could not and were exiled. 2) The
formal expulsion or suspension of a person from the communion of the church. 3) The exclusion from the communion of the
church as a method of enforcing judgements of the church courts. 4) A sentence (in various forms and different degrees),
pronounced in a court or by a bishop, which excluded the offenders to whom it applied from the sacraments and church
services, or in cases of greater excommunication from law and society, until absolution was granted.
74. Ex Officio Proceedings: In effect, prosecution in the church courts by the authorities for some offence against the church
discipline. Contrast instance causes.
75. Faculty: Authority to carry out works in and around a church.
76. Familia: Members of a household of a Prelate.
77. Family Monastery: An irregular Saxon monastery set up by noble families for their own purposes and not following the
strict Benedictine rules.
78. Farmery: The monastic infirmary.
79. Fee: A fee was an estate sublet to a bishop or an Abbott.
80. Fidei Laesio: Literally 'Breach of Faith', used to categorize actions in the church courts for breach of contract.
81. Filioque: "And the Sun". An addition to the Nicene Creed by which the Holy Spirit descends from the Father and to the Son.
Arising in Spain in the 6th century. It had by the 9th become regular usage in the western (Catholic) church. After the 1054
schism it became the major theological point of difference between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.
82. First Tonsure: The stage in the progression through clerical orders, giving clerical status with out requiring the abandonment
of lay life, including marriage.
83. Franchise: A privilege or exceptional right (typically rights of jurisdiction).
84. Frankalmoin: Ecclesiastical tenure by which a monastery or other ecclesiastical corporations hold property under the
obligation of saying prayers for the souls of the donor and his family. 2) Tenure of lands or tenements granted to those who
had devoted themselves to the service of god for pure and perpetual alms. The service rendered by the grantee was the service
of prayer, particularly for the souls of the granter and his kin. AKA : Free alms
85. Frater: Monastic refectory.
86. Friars: Term for members of the Mendicant (begging) orders founded in the 13th century. Derived from the Latin Frator
meaning "brother".
87. Glebe: Land endowment of a parish church. 2) Land assigned to support the parish church.
88. Gost: The second highest title in the Bosnian church often held by clerics who headed the Bosnian churches or religious
houses.
89. Gravaming: The official collective complaints by the clergy about infringements of the church laities and those rights.
90. Hall Church: A church in which the Nave and Aisles are roughly the same height. I.e. having no Triforium or Clerestory.
91. Heresy: Any religious doctrine inconsistent with or inimical to the Orthodox beliefs of the church.
92. Heretic: A person who obstinately holds to a view that is contrary to one or more of the fundamental beliefs of the church. It
isn't a mere error, but obstinate holding onto the error when instructed to do so by a properly constituted authority.
93. Hermit: Any person(s) who leaves society for religious motives; a solitary religious life often contrasted to monks who lived
in a community of some sort. The word is derived from the Greek Eremos meaning 'desert' which was a favorite place for
withdrawal of the East Mediterranean hermits.
94. Holy Orders: (Major Orders) Subdeacon, Deacon and Priest all to whom marriage was strictly forbidden.
95. Howden: A college of Secular priests.
96. Icon: A sacred image or picture of a god or saint venerated with particular fervor in the certain tradition of that religion.
97. Iconoclasm: The destruction of sacred icons. It was a policy of some Byzantine emperors between 725 and 842 AD. The
Christian churches of the medieval east and west eventually repudiated it.
98. Immunitas: Freedom from public duties or taxation. A Latin word sometimes used to describe the precinct of a religious
house so exempt.
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99. Incumbent: The rightful holder of a benefice.
100. Indulgence: A grant of remission of penance for sins, usually emanating from the pope, but also in a lesser scale of
remission from bishops. It is always in return for some specifically required act and on the assumption of full contrition by
the recipient.
101. In Partibus Infidelium: Literally 'in the regions of the faithless'. It is used to designate Episcopal see's to which a succession
of bishops was maintained by the western church, but for which the actual territories were no longer actually in Latin
Christian hands. Titles of this sort were often given to suffragen bishops.
102. Instant Causes: Causes in which one person sues another in the church courts.
103. Interdict: The ecclesiastical banning in an area of all sacraments except for baptism and extreme unction. In general it does
not ban high feast days. Used to force any person(s), institutions, communities or secular lords to a view dictated by the
church or pope.
104. Islam: The religion founded by the Arab prophet Mohammed (570-632). Arabic word meaning 'submission to the will of
god'.
105. Judge Delegate: Appointed from the local clergy, usually prelates or dignitaries, to judge locally on behalf of the pope, an
appeal or case brought before the Papal court.
106. Laity: The unordained peoples of the church, as distinct from the clergy. Derived from the Greek word 'Laos' meaning 'the
people'.
107. Laura/Lavra: By the late Middle Ages, a major monastery.
108. Legate: A papal representative with two distinct categories:
109. Legatus Natus: Literally Born Legate, a status accorded to the Archbishops of certain provinces. An Ex Officio to
reinforce their supremacy within their provinces.
110. Legatus a Latere: Legate from the side, directly commissioned from the Pope and always a Cardinal and with powers
which gave him quasi-papal status within the area of his legation.
111. 2) A representative or ambassador, usually a cardinal, sent by the Pope to represent him in a particular territory or for a
particular purpose. 3) Normally refers to the Legate a Lature, whom was a papal plenipotentiary sent to reform the local
church and overruling Archiepiscopal authority.
112. Liturgy: The formal prayers and rituals in the church including such things as the mass, the divine office and the anointing of
kings.
113. Living: The ecclesiastical benefice of a Rector or Vicar.
114. Mendicants: Beggars, the term referred to members of a religious order who were forbidden to own personal or community
property and were required to live on charity. They sometimes sought their income by begging. Mendicant is another term for
Friars as the Franciscans, Dominicans and Carmelites were. 2) The order of friars especially but not only the Franciscans,
who lived by begging and not open to any land endowments like the traditional monastic orders. They emphasized preaching
and as a consequence were instrumental in the establishment of the university. Often called Black Friars from the color of
their habits.
115. Dominicans: Founded by St. Dominic, these emphasized the pursuit of learning and intellectual activity for combating heresy
and were equally important to the development in the university. Commonly called Grey Friars from the color of their habits.
116. Austin Friars: Originally eremetical they emphasized urban preaching.
117. Carmelites: Originally eremetical, in Palestine, they were another urban mendicant order, but allowed more time for study
and meditation than other orders. They were called white friars from the color of their habits.
118. Metropolitan: An Archbishop having the jurisdiction over a province containing several dioceses. 2) A major bishop,
standing over a major diocese, ranking below the patriarch and above the Archbishop.
119. Minor Orders: The first tonsure and 4 grades of clerkship below sub deacon. Committing recipients neither to a clerical
career nor to celibacy.
120. Monastery: A place where monks and nuns live for a religious life. Th physical components consisted of :
121. Chapter House: The place where the daily meeting of the community took place.
122. Church: The most important building in the monastic complex where much of the day was spent in prayer and worship.
123. Cloister: The arched walkways built around the grassy land where the monks spent much time, especially in warmer times.
On all four sides the central area was surrounded by a low wall with arcades and a roof which thus provided covered passage
ways all around.
124. Dormitory: The barracks style sleeping quarters of the monks on the second floor of a building, generally on the east range of
the cloister (novices usually had separate quarters). Below this was usually located the monks day room.
125. Infirmary: A place of recuperation for the sick or injured and a retirement for elderly monks.
126. Lavatorium: Trough of running water where the monks washed their hands before meals.
127. Library: Adjacent to the church, the books were usually kept here (including the liturgical books used for the liturgy). At first
kept in chests, then in cabinets and eventually chained on shelves with sloping desks.
128. Refectory: Building where the monks ate their meals in common and in silence, while listening to a reading.
129. Reredorter: The building containing the monastic latrines, usually located over a ditch or a stream.
130. Scriptorium: Sometimes a special building, sometimes just a place located on the south wall of the cloister. This was the
place monks used to copy books and documents.
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131. Warming Room: Particularly common in northern countries, a place next to the fireplaces of the kitchen for the monks to
gather and warm up.
132. Monk: Generally, a man who joined a religious house called a monastery where he took vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience. The commonest form of a monk was a man living under the provisions of a certain Saint that the monastery
upholds. I.e. St. Benedict.
133. Mortmain: Literally Dead Hand. Applied to property held by an ecclesiastical corporation.
134. Mortuary: A payment due on the death of the parish church or from incumbents to the bishop, in acknowledgement of
spiritual subjection. Usually either a beast or a robe, but precise demands and liabilities varied. 2) Death duty paid by the
villein to the parish church, usually the 2nd best beast or chattel. 3) Customary gift (usually 2nd best animal) paid to the parish
priest from the state of a deceased parishioner.
135. Ne Admittas: Writ prohibiting a bishop from admitting a candidate to a benefice, which was subject to litigation in the king
court.
136. Nomo Canon: A legal compilation combing secular and church law for the use of the church courts. The secular items
tended to focus on matters coming before church courts like marriage, inheritance etc. Long used in Byzantium.
137. Novice/Novitiate: Member of a religious house that had not yet taken final vows. 2) The period spent as a novice.
138. Nun: Woman dedicated to the religious life, usually a member of a religious order.
139. Nunnery: A monastery for women, AKA convent.
140. Obedientiary: A monk, canon or nun who has been assigned to a particular administrative responsibility in the
running of the monastery.
141. Almoner: Distributed alms to the sick and poor.
142. Cellarer: Had charged of al the property, rents, and revenues of the house, supervised the servants and any lay brethren and
bought all the supplies.
143. Chamberlain: Provided the clothes, shoes and bedding for the monks and lay brethren.
144. Infirmarian: Oversaw the welfare of the sick and elderly in the infirmary.
145. Kitchener: Oversaw the preparations of the meals.
146. Novice Master: Prepared postulants and novices for taking their vows.
147. Precentor: Responsible for the correct number of books in the liturgy.
148. Sacrist: Responsible for the security and cleanliness of the monastic church and for the provision of vessels for the altar.
149. Succentor: Responsible for music and chant in the monastic church and for the monastic library.
150. Oblate: A child who was offered to a monastery by his or her parents. The practice was already recognized in the 6th century
rule of St. Benedict and was legislated out of existence in the late 12 th century by the popes. Often contrasted to Conversus
which was one who entered monastic life as an adult.
151. Official: The deputy of the Archdeacon or Bishop, presiding over their courts.
152. Official Principal: The bishops deputy who presides over the bishops consistory courts.
153. Opus Dei: Literally the work of God, the performance of the liturgy, the daily round services in the monastic church.
154. Ordeal: A method or trial in which the accused was given a physical test (usually painful and dangerous) which could be met
successfully only if the accused was innocent in the eyes of God. At the 14 th Lateran Council of 1215 clerics were
forbidden to take part in such trials, which in turn spurned the creation of the jury system in England and the Tribunal system
of Roman law on the Continent.
155. Orders: Minor&Major: The grades or steps of the ministry. The so-called minor orders were acolyte, lector, exorcist and
doorkeeper. The major order included priest, deacon, sub deacon and bishop. 2) Referring to the grades of clerkship (holy or
minor orders) or to the different associations of religious orders.
156. Ordinary: A bishop or other Prelates who exorcise the jurisdiction of a bishop over a diocese or an enclave within a diocese.
157. Ordination: The ceremony by which clergy are promoted through the various grades or orders of clerkship. Also refers to
the legal instruments by which a Vicarage is endowed and permanently established.
158. Parish: Generally a subdivision of a diocese, administered by a resident priest who might have other clergy as his assistants.
It was the basic unit of ordinary church life in Western Europe.
159. Parson: The rector of a church.
160. Parsonage: The house occupied by the rector (rectory) or vicar (vicarage).
161. Patriarch: A major bishop who was the independent head of a major diocese. In early church (mid 5th) 5 were recognized
patriarchs, these were Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. After they became autocephalous the
Bulgarian and Serbian churches sought and at times unilaterally assumed this title for the heads of their churches. Through
pressure they never received recognition for their patriarchal titles from the Patriarchs of Constantinople.
162. Patron: The founder of a church, or the founders descendants or successor, in whom was vested with the right to present to
a parish living. Or in the case of a religious house, various rights including that of consenting to the election of the head of
the house.
163. Peace of God: A movement that arose in Southern France in the 10th and 11th centuries to place limits on fighting. It placed
certain classes of people-non combatants, women, clergy, children and the poor, under the protection of the church and
threatened those who used violence against this group with excommunication.

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164. Peculiar: In the law of the church, a jurisdiction proper to itself. Exempt from and not subject to the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of the diocese.
165. Penitentiary: The official of the Papal court responsible for overseeing the processing of the majority of dispensations.
166. Pilgrimage: A journey to a holy place for the purpose of worship or thanksgiving or doing penance. There were many local,
regional and universal sites that drew pilgrims in the middle Ages, among the greatest pilgrimage destinations were places
connected to the life of Jesus.
167. Pittance: Small dishes of food and drink allowed to members of a religious community on special occasions, for example, on
the anniversary of a patron.
168. Pittancer: An officer of a religious house who had the duty of distributing charitable gifts or allowances of food.
169. Plenarty: The question of whether or not a benifice was filled.
170. Plenitude of Power: The Plenitude Potestatis or the Papal claim to sovereignty over the clergy and church property.
171. Pluralism: The holdings by one person of more than one church offices or benefice at the same time. It was a favorite way
for secular and church official to support their bureaucrats in the later middle Ages. It was also in widespread abuse. 2)
Practice of holding more than one benefice at a time, often leading to absenteeism. 3) Holding of 2 or more benefices
simultaneously either within the limits approved by church law or with out them. And sometime punishable.
172. Pope: Derived from Papa (father), originally a term for any bishop. In the East it came to be restricted to the bishop of Rome
who was the successor of St. Peter. In the West it was regarded to be the chief bishop of the church. The word Pope became a
prominent figure in the governance of the church, in Orthodox churches that position of dominance was rejected.
173. Postulant: One seeking admission into a religious community.
174. Praemunientes: A clause in parliamentary writ of Summons to Bishops requiring them to summon the parliament
representatives of the lower clergy.
175. Prebend: A cathedral benefice set aside for the support one of the members of the chapter. 2) A benifice in a cathedral
designed to support one of the members of the chapter with the income supplied by the manor belonging to the cathedral. 3)
The endowment and income of a cathedral or collegiate canonry, could be estates or parish churches and their estates or even
a fixed cashed sum. Hence often a synonym for canonry and a canon was often referred to as a prebendary.
176. Prebendary: The holder of a prebend, therefore usually a secular canon.
177. Prelate: Archbishop, Bishop or head of a religious house.
178. Presentee: A candidate nominated by the patron for appointment to a benefice.
179. Priest/Presbyter: A man who held the 2nd highest of holy orders, after that of Bishop and above Deacon. Term derived from
the Greek Presbuterus meaning Elder.
180. Prior/Prioress: In Benedictine monasteries, the 2nd in command after the abbot. Also a term for the head of a religious house
that did not have legal status of a monastery.
181. Priory: Any religious house administered by a prior or prioress. If the Prior was subject to a resident abbot, the house was
called an Abbey or Monastery. The title prioress was held for certain religious houses for women.
182. Private Church: A church or monastery owned by a landlord. Most rural churches were founded by the owner of the land on
which they stood and remained under the control of his family. Sometimes called a Proprietary church. Legal representatives
of individuals or corporate bodies, effectively the equivalent of the attorney.
183. Rector: The incumbent of a parish in receipt of all its income, responsible for the pastoral care of parishioners.
184. Regular Canons: Communities of Secular clergy living under monastic rule.
185. Regular Clergy: Monks or Nuns, whether Benedictines Carthusians, Cistercians, etc so called because they followed a rule
(Latin, Regula).
186. Relic: An object venerated by believers because was it associated with a saints which could have been something he/she
owned, such as a piece of clothing or a book, but was almost always a part of the saints body.
187. Reliquary: A chest, box or shrine often elaborately decorated. This was where saints relics were kept and were often focal
points of pilgrimages.
188. Reservations: The papal act or ear marking specific benefices for future provisions.
189. Rota: The main tribunal of the papacy.
190. Royal Free Chapel: Among peculiar jurisdiction, deaneries not subject to Episcopal jurisdictional authority in which the
authority of the crown (until was otherwise) was paramount.
191. Sacraments: The 7 sacred acts that were deemed in medieval theology to confer grace. Most esteemed was the celebration of
mass, sometimes simply referred to as the sacrament.
192. Sanctuary, Right of: Churches or areas of their jurisdiction that were recognized as offering fugitives from kings justice. A
refuge of 40 days and nights after which they had to leave safe from any retribution and abjure the realm as outlaws.
193. Sainteur: Dependent of a religious foundation of too high status to perform manual labor.
194. Schism: A formal split in the church over a disagreement about matter of practice distinct from heresy because the split is not
over belief. The schism of 1054 marked the formal break between Roman Catholicism and the Greek Orthodox Church. The
great schism of 1378-1414 split the west church between those loyal to the pope and those loyal to the pope in Avignon.
Derived from the Greek Schisma for split or tear.
195. Secular Canons: communities of clergy, for example those serving a cathedral chapter, who do not live under a monastic
rule, and may not be allowed to hold private property.
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196. Secular Clergy: Clergy who were not separated from the world by written rule or by life in a monastic community. It
included Bishops and priests who worked with the Laity. Often contrasted to the regular clergy who lived under a set of rules.
2) Any cleric, who wasnt regular clergy, but lived under no rule and outside of religious communities. Derived from the
Greek Saeculum meaning world. In the world or insaeculo was a term applied to all parish priests and most collegiate clergy
and cannons of the secular cathedrals.
197. Sede Vacante: A vacant See or Bishopric.
198. See: The seat of a Bishop, his bishopric.
199. Services: A fixed sum due to the papacy from the prelate who had been provided to his see or abbacy.
200. Signification: Letter from the bishop informing the chancery of the king that a person(s) had been an unreconciled
excommunicate for more than 40 days and requesting that the crown issue the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo for his
arrest and imprisonment.
201. Simony: The buying and selling of spiritual objects, particularly the buying or selling of sacred things such as church offices
and benefices. 2) The buying or selling of sacred objects such as sacraments and ecclesiastical positions. Derived from Simon
the Magician who tried to by spiritual power from St. Peter.
202. Spirtualia: Church property such as churches, Glebe (church land), tithes, burial dues, etc from which income is derived.
203. Sub Deacon: A member of one of the major orders, ranking below Deacon. Essentially an assistant to the latter.
204. Suffragen Bishop: This usually refers to the deputy who fulfilled the diocesan bishops spiritual functions (ordinations,
consecrations conformations etc.). Also used to designate the diocesan bishop of a province who were subject to the
Archbishop.
205. Synod: An ecclesiastical meeting. Derived from the Greek Synodus = a coming together. 2) Ecclesiastical council.
206. Synodik: The text presenting the decisions of a synod.
207. Temporalities: Non spiritual holdings of the church such as lands, markets and liberties. 2) Secular possessions of
ecclesiasticals. 3) The income or rights arising from the possession of estates or the exorcise of jurisdiction over, or in virtue
of them.
208. Tithe: One tenth of a persons income given in support to the local parish church.
209. Tonsure: The rite of shaving the crown of the head of the person(s) joining a monastic order or secular clergy symbolizes
admission into a clerical state. 2) A clipping of hair or shaving of the top of the head. Tonsure was the ceremony dedicated a
person to gods service, it was the first step of entry into the clergy.
210. Translation: To move a bishop from one diocese to another. 2) To move a saints relic from one place to another, often from
the original place of burial to a reliquary.
211. Truce of God: A movement that began in the 11th century which sought to forbid fighting on Sundays and the chief religious
seasons and feasts.
212. Tipikon: Literally a rule used for the foundation charter of a monastery. It laid down the rules by which the monastery
would be run.
213. Usury: The interest charged on loan. Forbidden by Canon Law (based on biblical injunction) to all Christians (thus Jews and
other were exempt). It usually was gotten around by giving the lender actual possession of the property and its income during
the life of the loan, thus the income served as the interest.
214. Vicar: In its basic meaning a person who substitutes for another, in many medieval parishes the resident priest was not the
legal holder of the parish. The legal holder was a non-resident person. For a monastery a resident priest became the vicar for
that legal holder, who carried out the latters duties in return for a position of parochial income. 2) Substitute for a rector and
holder of a vicarage.
215. Vicarage: Portion of an appropriated rectory set-aside to support the vicar.
216. Vicar, General: The chief administrative deputy for the bishop usually when the latter was absent from his diocese.
217. Vows: Formal voluntary promises to god. Any adult could make a vow and it was common practice in medieval religion.
Vows were usually associated with those who entered religious houses.