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Abbot

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History
1500-1750; Religious movements, traditions and organizations

   Arms of a Roman Catholic abbot
   Arms of a Roman Catholic abbot

   The word abbot, meaning father, has been used as a Christian clerical
   title in various, mainly monastic, meanings.

Origins

   The title had its origin in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria, spread
   through the eastern Mediterranean, and soon became accepted generally
   in all languages as the designation of the head of a monastery. At
   first it was employed as a respectful title for any monk, but it was
   soon restricted by canon law to certain priestly superiors. At times it
   was applied to various priests, e.g. at the court of the Frankish
   monarchy the Abbas palatinus ('of the palace') and Abbas castrensis
   ('of the camp') were chaplains to the Merovingian/ Carolingian
   sovereign's court viz. to his army. The name "abbot" came in fairly
   general use in western monastic orders whose members include priests.

Monastic history

   An abbot, is a man who has suffered so much to become, "a father",
   through the Coptic ava Syriac abba, Latin abbas (genitive form,
   abbatis), Old English abbad, ; Italian Abbate; German Abt; French abbé.
   He is the head and chief governor of a community of monks, called also
   in the East hegumenos or archimandrite. The English version for a
   female monastic head is abbess.

   In Egypt, the first home of monasticism, the jurisdiction of the abbot,
   or archimandrite, was but loosely defined. Sometimes he ruled over only
   one community, sometimes over several, each of which had its own abbot
   as well. Cassian speaks of an abbot of the Thebaid who had 500 monks
   under him. By the Rule of St Benedict, which, until the reform of
   Cluny, was the norm in the West, the abbot has jurisdiction over only
   one community. The rule, as was inevitable, was subject to frequent
   violations; but it was not until the foundation of the Cluniac Order
   that the idea of a supreme abbot, exercising jurisdiction over all the
   houses of an order, was definitely recognized.

   Monks, as a rule, were laymen, nor at the outset was the abbot any
   exception. For the reception of the sacraments, and for other religious
   offices, the abbot and his monks were commanded to attend the nearest
   church. This rule proved inconvenient when a monastery was situated in
   a desert or at a distance from a city, and necessity compelled the
   ordination of some monks. This innovation was not introduced without a
   struggle, ecclesiastical dignity being regarded as inconsistent with
   the higher spiritual life, but, before the close of the 5th century, at
   least in the East, abbots seem almost universally to have become
   deacons, if not priests. The change spread more slowly in the West,
   where the office of abbot was commonly filled by laymen till the end of
   the 7th century. The ecclesiastical leadership exercised by abbots
   despite their frequent lay status is proved by their attendance and
   votes at ecclesiastical councils. Thus at the first Council of
   Constantinople, AD 448, 23 archimandrites or abbots sign, with 30
   bishops.

   The second Council of Nicaea, AD 787, recognized the right of abbots to
   ordain their monks to the inferior orders below the diaconate, a power
   usually reserved to bishops.

   Abbots were originally subject to episcopal jurisdiction, and continued
   generally so, in fact, in the West till the 11th century. The Code of
   Justinian (lib. i. tit. iii. de Ep. leg. xl.) expressly subordinates
   the abbot to episcopal oversight. The first case recorded of the
   partial exemption of an abbot from episcopal control is that of
   Faustus, abbot of Lerins, at the council of Arles, AD 456; but the
   exorbitant claims and exactions of bishops, to which this repugnance to
   episcopal control is to be traced, far more than to the arrogance of
   abbots, rendered it increasingly frequent, and, in the 6th century, the
   practice of exempting religious houses partly or altogether from
   episcopal control, and making them responsible to the pope alone,
   received an impulse from Pope Gregory the Great. These exceptions,
   introduced with a good object, had grown into a widespread evil by the
   12th century, virtually creating an imperium in imperio, and depriving
   the bishop of all authority over the chief centres of influence in his
   diocese. In the 12th century the abbots of Fulda claimed precedence of
   the archbishop of Cologne. Abbots more and more assumed almost
   episcopal state, and in defiance of the prohibition of early councils
   and the protests of St Bernard and others, adopted the episcopal
   insignia of mitre, ring, gloves and sandals. It has been maintained
   that the right to wear mitres was sometimes granted by the popes to
   abbots before the 11th century, but the documents on which this claim
   is based are not genuine (J. Braun, Liturgische Gewandung, p. 453). The
   first undoubted instance is the bull by which Alexander II in 1063
   granted the use of the mitre to Egelsinus, abbot of the monastery of St
   Augustine at Canterbury. The mitred abbots in England were those of
   Abingdon, St Alban's, Bardney, Battle, Bury St Edmund's, St Augustine's
   Canterbury, Colchester, Croyland, Evesham, Glastonbury, Gloucester, St
   Benet's Hulme, Hyde, Malmesbury, Peterborough, Ramsey, Reading, Selby,
   Shrewsbury, Tavistock, Thorney, Westminster, Winchcombe, St Mary's
   York. Of these the precedence was originally yielded to the abbot of
   Glastonbury, until in AD 1154 Adrian IV (Nicholas Breakspear) granted
   it to the abbot of St Alban's, in which monastery he had been brought
   up. Next after the abbot of St Alban's ranked the abbot of Westminster.
   To distinguish abbots from bishops, it was ordained that their mitre
   should be made of less costly materials, and should not be ornamented
   with gold, a rule which was soon entirely disregarded, and that the
   crook of their pastoral staff should turn inwards instead of outwards,
   indicating that their jurisdiction was limited to their own house.

   The adoption of certain episcopal insignia ( pontificalia) by abbots
   was followed by an encroachment on episcopal functions, which had to be
   specially but ineffectually guarded against by the Lateran council, AD
   1123. In the East, abbots, if in priests' orders, with the consent of
   the bishop, were, as we have seen, permitted by the second Nicene
   council, AD 787, to confer the tonsure and admit to the order of
   reader; but gradually abbots, in the West also, advanced higher claims,
   until we find them in AD 1489 permitted by Innocent IV to confer both
   the subdiaconate and diaconate. Of course, they always and everywhere
   had the power of admitting their own monks and vesting them with the
   religious habit.

   When a vacancy occurred, the bishop of the diocese chose the abbot out
   of the monks of the convent, but the right of election was transferred
   by jurisdiction to the monks themselves, reserving to the bishop the
   confirmation of the election and the benediction of the new abbot. In
   abbeys exempt from the (arch)bishop's diocesan jurisdiction, the
   confirmation and benediction had to be conferred by the pope in person,
   the house being taxed with the expenses of the new abbot's journey to
   Rome. It was necessary that an abbot should be at least 25 years of
   age, of legitimate birth, a monk of the house, unless it furnished no
   suitable candidate, when a liberty was allowed of electing from another
   convent, well instructed himself, and able to instruct others, one also
   who had learned how to command by having practised obedience. In some
   exceptional cases an abbot was allowed to name his own successor.
   Cassian speaks of an abbot in Egypt doing this; and in later times we
   have another example in the case of St Bruno. Popes and sovereigns
   gradually encroached on the rights of the monks, until in Italy the
   pope had usurped the nomination of all abbots, and the king in France,
   with the exception of Cluny, Premontre and other houses, chiefs of
   their order. The election was for life, unless the abbot was
   canonically deprived by the chiefs of his order, or when he was
   directly subject to them, by the pope or the bishop.

   The ceremony of the formal admission of a Benedictine abbot in medieval
   times is thus prescribed by the consuetudinary of Abingdon. The newly
   elected abbot was to put off his shoes at the door of the church, and
   proceed barefoot to meet the members of the house advancing in a
   procession. After proceeding up the nave, he was to kneel and pray at
   the topmost step of the entrance of the choir, into which he was to be
   introduced by the bishop or his commissary, and placed in his stall.
   The monks, then kneeling, gave him the kiss of peace on the hand, and
   rising, on the mouth, the abbot holding his staff of office. He then
   put on his shoes in the vestry, and a chapter was held, and the bishop
   or his delegate preached a suitable sermon.

   The power of the abbot was paternal but absolute, limited, however, by
   the canon law. One of the main goals of monasticism was the purgation
   of self and selfishness, and obedience was seen as a path to that
   perfection. It was sacred duty to execute the abbot's orders, and even
   to act without his orders was sometimes considered a transgression.
   Examples among the Egyptian monks of this submission to the commands of
   the superiors, exalted into a virtue by those who regarded the entire
   crushing of the individual will as a goal, are detailed by Cassian and
   others, e.g. a monk watering a dry stick, day after day, for months, or
   endeavouring to remove a huge rock immensely exceeding his powers.

General information

   Before the late modern era, the abbot was treated with the utmost
   reverence by the brethren of his house. When he appeared either in
   church or chapter all present rose and bowed. His letters were received
   kneeling, as were those of the pope and the king. No monk might sit in
   his presence, or leave it without his permission, reflecting the
   hierarchical etiquette of families and society. The highest place was
   assigned to him, both in church and at table. In the East he was
   commanded to eat with the other monks. In the West the Rule of St
   Benedict appointed him a separate table, at which he might entertain
   guests and strangers. This permission opening the door to luxurious
   living, the council of Aachen, AD 817, decreed that the abbot should
   dine in the refectory, and be content with the ordinary fare of the
   monks, unless he had to entertain a guest. These ordinances proved,
   however, generally ineffectual to secure strictness of diet, and
   contemporaneous literature abounds with satirical remarks and
   complaints concerning the inordinate extravagance of the tables of the
   abbots. When the abbot condescended to dine in the refectory, his
   chaplains waited upon him with the dishes, a servant, if necessary,
   assisting them. When abbots dined in their own private hall, the Rule
   of St Benedict charged them to invite their monks to their table,
   provided there was room, on which occasions the guests were to abstain
   from quarrels, slanderous talk and idle gossiping.

   The ordinary attire of the abbot was according to rule to be the same
   as that of the monks. But by the 10th century the rule was commonly set
   aside, and we find frequent complaints of abbots dressing in silk, and
   adopting sumptuous attire. They sometimes even laid aside the monastic
   habit altogether, and assumed a secular dress. With the increase of
   wealth and power, abbots had lost much of their special religious
   character, and become great lords, chiefly distinguished from lay lords
   by celibacy. Thus we hear of abbots going out to hunt, with their men
   carrying bows and arrows; keeping horses, dogs and huntsmen; and
   special mention is made of an abbot of Leicester, c. 1360, who was the
   most skilled of all the nobility in hare hunting. In magnificence of
   equipage and retinue the abbots vied with the first nobles of the
   realm. They rode on mules with gilded bridles, rich saddles and
   housings, carrying hawks on their wrist, followed by an immense train
   of attendants. The bells of the churches were rung as they passed. They
   associated on equal terms with laymen of the highest distinction, and
   shared all their pleasures and pursuits. This rank and power was,
   however, often used most beneficially. For instance, we read of
   Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury, judicially murdered by Henry
   VIII, that his house was a kind of well-ordered court, where as many as
   300 sons of noblemen and gentlemen, who had been sent to him for
   virtuous education, had been brought up, besides others of a lesser
   rank, whom he fitted for the universities. His table, attendance and
   officers were an honour to the nation. He would entertain as many as
   500 persons of rank at one time, besides relieving the poor of the
   vicinity twice a week. He had his country houses and fisheries, and
   when he travelled to attend parliament his retinue amounted to upwards
   of 100 persons. The abbots of Cluny and Vendôme were, by virtue of
   their office, cardinals of the Roman church.

   In process of time the title abbot was extended to clerics who had no
   connection with the monastic system, as to the principal of a body of
   parochial clergy; and under the Carolingians to the chief chaplain of
   the king, Abbas Curiae, or military chaplain of the emperor, Abbas
   Castrensis. It even came to be adopted by purely secular officials.
   Thus the chief magistrate of the republic at Genoa was called Abbas
   Populi.

   Lay abbots (M. Lat. defensores, abbacomites, abbates laici, abbates
   milites, abbates saeculares or irreligiosi, abbatiarii, or sometimes
   simply abbates) were the outcome of the growth of the feudal system
   from the 8th century onwards. The practice of commendation, by
   which--to meet a contemporary emergency--the revenues of the community
   were handed over to a lay lord, in return for his protection, early
   suggested to the emperors and kings the expedient of rewarding their
   warriors with rich abbeys held in commendam.

   During the Carolingian epoch the custom grew up of granting these as
   regular heritable fiefs or benefices, and by the 10th century, before
   the great Cluniac reform, the system was firmly established. Even the
   abbey of St Denis was held in commendam by Hugh Capet. The example of
   the kings was followed by the feudal nobles, sometimes by making a
   temporary concession permanent, sometimes without any form of
   commendation whatever. In England the abuse was rife in the 8th
   century, as may be gathered from the acts of the council of Cloveshoe.
   These lay abbacies were not merely a question of overlordship, but
   implied the concentration in lay hands of all the rights, immunities
   and jurisdiction of the foundations, i.e. the more or less complete
   secularization of spiritual institutions. The lay abbot took his
   recognized rank in the feudal hierarchy, and was free to dispose of his
   fief as in the case of any other. The enfeoffment of abbeys differed in
   form and degree. Sometimes the monks were directly subject to the lay
   abbot; sometimes he appointed a substitute to perform the spiritual
   functions, known usually as dean (decanus), but also as abbot (abbas
   legitimas, monasticus, regularis). When the great reform of the 11th
   century had put an end to the direct jurisdiction of the lay abbots,
   the honorary title of abbot continued to be held by certain of the
   great feudal famines, as late as the 13th century and later, the actual
   head of the community retaining that of dean. The connection of the
   lesser lay abbots with the abbeys, especially in the south of France,
   lasted longer; and certain feudal families retained the title of abbes
   chevaliers (abbates milltes) for centuries, together with certain
   rights over the abbey lands or revenues. The abuse was not confined to
   the West. John, patriarch of Antioch, at the beginning of the 12th
   Century, informs us that in his time most monasteries had been handed
   over to laymen, bencficiarii, for life, or for part of their lives, by
   the emperors.

   Giraldus Cambrensis reported (Itinerary, ii.iv) the common customs of
   lay abbots in the late 12th-century Church of Wales:

          "for a bad custom has prevailed amongst the clergy, of
          appointing the most powerful people of a parish stewards, or,
          rather, patrons, of their churches; who, in process of time,
          from a desire of gain, have usurped the whole right,
          appropriating to their own use the possession of all the lands,
          leaving only to the clergy the altars, with their tenths and
          oblations, and assigning even these to their sons and relations
          in the church. Such defenders, or rather destroyers, of the
          church, have caused themselves to be called abbots, and presumed
          to attribute to themselves a title, as well as estates, to which
          they have no just claim."

   In conventual cathedrals, where the bishop occupied the place of the
   abbot, the functions usually devolving on the superior of the monastery
   were performed by a prior.

Modern practices

   In the Roman Catholic Church, abbots continue to be elected by the
   monks of an abbey to lead them as their religious superior. A monastery
   must have been granted the status of an abbey by the Pope, and such
   monasteries are normally raised to this level after showing a degree of
   stability -- a certain number of monks in vows, a certain number of
   years of establishment, a certain firmness to the foundation in
   economic, vocational and legal aspects. Prior to this, the monastery
   would be a mere priory, headed by a prior who acts as superior but
   without the same degree of legal authority that an abbot has.

   The abbot is a priest, chosen by the monks from among the fully
   professed monks. Once chosen, he must request blessing: the blessing of
   an abbot is celebrated by the bishop in whose diocese the monastery is
   or, with his permission, another abbot or bishop. The ceremony of such
   a blessing is similar in some aspects to the ordination of a bishop,
   with the new abbot being presented with the mitre, the ring, and the
   crosier as symbols of office and receiving the laying on of hands and
   blessing from the celebrant. Though the ceremony installs the new abbot
   into a position of legal authority, it does not confer further
   sacramental authority.

   Once he has received this blessing, the abbot not only becomes father
   of his monks in a spiritual sense, but their major superior under canon
   law, and has the additional authority to confer the ministries of
   acolyte and lector (formerly, he could confer the minor orders, which
   are not sacraments, that these ministries have replaced). The abbey is
   a species of "exempt religious" in that it is, for the most part,
   answerable to the Pope, or to the abbot primate, rather than to the
   local bishop.

   The abbot wears the same habit as his fellow monks, though by tradition
   he adds to it a pectoral cross.

   Territorial abbots follow all of the above, but in addition must
   receive a mandate of authority from the Pope over the territory around
   the monastery for which they are responsible.

Abbatial hierarchy

   In some monastic families there is a hierarchy of precedence or
   authority among abbots. In some cases, this is the result of an abbey
   being considered the "mother" of several "daughter" abbeys founded
   originally as depedent priories of the "mother." In other cases, abbeys
   have affiliated in networks known as "congregations." Some monastic
   families recognize one abbey as the motherhouse of the entire order.
     * The abbot of San Anselmo di Aventino, in Rome, is styled the "abbot
       primate," and is acknowledged the senior abbot for the Order of St.
       Benedict (O.S.B.)
     * An abbot president is the head of a congregation (federation) of
       abbeys within the Order of St. Benedict (for instance, the English
       Congregation, The American Cassinese Congregation, etc.), or of the
       Cistercians (O. Cist.)
     * An archabbot is the head of some monasteries which are the
       motherhouses of other monasteries (for instance, St. Vincent's
       Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania)

Modern abbots not as superior

   The title abbé (French; Ital. abate), as commonly used in the Catholic
   church on the European continent, is the equivalent of the English
   "Father" (parallel etymology), being loosely applied to all who have
   received the tonsure. This use of the title is said to have originated
   in the right conceded to the king of France, by the concordat between
   Pope Leo X and Francis I (1516), to appoint abbés commendataires to
   most of the abbeys in France. The expectation of obtaining these
   sinecures drew young men towards the church in considerable numbers,
   and the class of abbés so formed—abbés de cour they were sometimes
   called, and sometimes (ironically) abbés de sainte espérance, (abbés of
   holy hope; or the pun, of St. Hope)—came to hold a recognized position.
   The connection many of them had with the church was of the slenderest
   kind, consisting mainly in adopting the title of abbé, after a
   remarkably moderate course of theological study, practising celibacy
   and wearing a distinctive dress—a short dark-violet coat with narrow
   collar. Being men of presumed learning and undoubted leisure, many of
   the class found admission to the houses of the French nobility as
   tutors or advisers. Nearly every great family had its abbé. The class
   did not survive the Revolution; but the courtesy title of abbé, having
   long lost all connection in people's minds with any special
   ecclesiastical function, remained as a convenient general term
   applicable to any clergyman.

Eastern Christian

   In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, the Abbot is
   referred to as the Hegumen. The Superior of a Convent of Nuns is called
   the Hegumenia. The nearest equivalent of an Archabbot is an
   Archimandrite. Though the title "abbot" is not given in the Western
   Church to any but actual abbots of monasteries today, the title
   archimandrite is given to "monastics" (i.e., celibate) priests in the
   East, even when not attached to a monastery, as an honour for service,
   similar to the title of monsignor in the Western/Latin Rite of the
   Roman Catholic Church.

Protestant abbots

   In the German Evangelical Church the German title of Abt (abbot) is
   sometimes bestowed, like the French abbé, as an honorary distinction,
   and survives to designate the heads of some monasteries converted at
   the Reformation into collegiate foundations. Of these the most
   noteworthy is Loccum Abbey in Hanover, founded as a Cistercian house in
   1163 by Count Wilbrand of Hallermund, and reformed in 1593. The abbot
   of Loccum, who still carries a pastoral staff, takes precedence over
   all the clergy of Hanover, and was ex officio a member of the
   consistory of the kingdom. The governing body of the abbey consists of
   the abbot, prior and the "convent" of Stiftsherren (canons).

   In the Church of England, the Bishop of Norwich, by royal decree given
   by Henry VIII, also holds the honorary title of "Abbot of St. Benet."
   This title hails back to England's separation from the See of Rome,
   when King Henry, as supreme head of the newly independent church, took
   over all of the monasteries, mainly for their possessions, except for
   St. Benet, which he spared because the abbot and his monks possessed no
   wealth, and lived like simple beggars, disposing the incumbent Bishop
   of Norwich and seating the abbot in his place, thus the dual title
   still held to this day.

   Additionally, at the enthronement of the Archbishop of Canterbury,
   there is a three-fold enthronement, once in the throne the chancel as
   the diocesan bishop of Canterbury, once in the Chair of St. Augustine
   as the Primate of England, and then once in the chapter-house as
   Titular Abbot.

   There are several Benedictine Abbeys throughout the Anglican Communion.
   Most of them have mitred abbots.

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