Elizabeth Speakman O'Neill

“ The official who represented the public interests in the courts of the inquisition was known as the procurator fidei. The administrator of the affairs of a large community was sometimes called the procurator syndicus, the administrator of goods left to the poor, procurator pauperum. In monasteries the economus was, and is, sometimes described as procurator. Thus the procurator has still the administration of material affairs in every Dominican priory. Procurator di San Marco was a title of honour in the republic of Venice. ”

“ In the Anglican Church a vicar-general is employed by the archbishop of Canterbury and some other bishops to assist in such matters as ecclesiastical visitations. In the Roman Catholic Church bishops sometimes appoint lesser vicars to exercise a more limited authority over a limited district. ”

“ The assumption of the style “vicar of Christ” by the popes coincided with a tendency on the part of the Roman chancery to insist on placing the pontiff's name before that of emperors and kings and to refuse to other bishops the right to address him as “brother” (Mas Latrie, s. “Sabinien,” p. 1047) . ”

“ Only protonotaries and domestic prelates are for life; the others lose their dignity at the death of the pope who appointed them. A special class of Roman prelatures exist at Rome, endowed as a kind of ecclesiastical majority to which those members of certain families who are destined for the clerical life naturally succeed. ”

“ A more attractive side of Peckham's career is his activity as a writer. The numerous manuscripts of his works to be found in the libraries of Italy, England and France, testify to his industry as a philosopher and commentator. In philosophy he represents the Franciscan school which attacked the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas on the “Unity of Form.” He wrote in a quaint and elaborate style on scientific, scriptural and moral subjects and engaged in much controversy in defence of the Franciscan rule and practice. ”

“ Formerly, and especially in England, many churches were appropriated to monasteries or colleges of canons, whose custom it was to appoint one of their own body to perform divine service in such churches, but in the 13th century such corporations were obliged to appoint permanent paid vicars who were called perpetual vicars. Hence in England the distinction between rectors, who draw both the greater and lesser tithes, and vicars, who are attached to parishes of which the great tithes, formerly held by monasteries, are now drawn by lay rectors. ”

“ With the foundation of the order of Cluny in the 10th century there appeared the conventual prior who ruled as head of a monastery, but was subject in some degree to the archiabbas of the mother-house of Cluny. The Regular Canons later gave this title of prior to the heads of their houses, as did also the Carthusians and the Dominicans. It was in houses of these orders that the sub-prior became a regular official. Among the Dominicans the head of a province is known as the “prior provincial.” ”

“ In the Anglican Church the bishop is of common right patron of all prebends, and if a prebend is in the gift of a lay patron he must present his candidate to the bishop who institutes as to other benefices. N0 person may hold more than one prebend in the same church; therefore, if a prebendary accepts a deanery in his church his prebend becomes void by cession. A prebend is practically a sinecure, and the holder has no cure of souls as such. ”

“ About 1270 he returned to Oxford and taught there, being elected in 1275 provincial minister of the Franciscans in England, but he was soon afterwards called to Rome as lector sacri palatii, or theological lecturer in the schools of the papal palace. ”

“ The word praebenda originally signified the daily rations given to soldiers, whence it passed to indicate daily distributions of food and drink to monks, canons, &c. It became a frequent custom to grant such a prebend from the resources of a monastery to certain poor people or to the founder. ”

“ The distinguishing colour of a prelate's clothing is violet; the form, like the greater or less use of violet, depends on the rank of the prelate. Four classes may be distinguished: (1) Great prelates, e.g. cardinals, archbishops and bishops. (2) Exempt prelates (praelati nullius dioeceseos, praelati nullius) , i.e. abbots and religious superiors, who are withdrawn from the ordinary diocesan jurisdiction and themselves possess episcopal jurisdiction (jurisdictio quasi episcopalis) . (3) Roman prelates, (a) active and (b) honorary. ”

“ In the middle ages there were many less regular kinds of prebends: e.g. praebenda doctoralis, with which teaching duties were connected, praebenda lectoralis, praebenda missae, to which the duty of saying a certain number of masses was attached, praebenda mortuaria, founded for the saying of masses for the dead. ”

“ Later the name was applied especially to certain imperial officials in the provinces of the Roman Empire. With the establishment of the imperial power under Augustus, the emperor took under his direct government those of which the condition or situation rendered a large military force necessary. ”