Rector

“ The Minister of Education appoints the professors of a university, from names suggested to him by the academical senate. The full professors elect a rector, or, in cases where the king is titular rector, a pro-rector, to serve for one year, and an academical senate, also for one year. The senate consists of the actual rector, the retiring rector, and a full professor of each faculty. Besides the full professors, is a class of assistant professors, and another class called privatdocent, which stands partly in the capacity of private tutor and partly as an attaché of the university. ”

“ The rector of the university, for instance, was always formally addressed as Amplitudo Vestra, that is, Your Ampleness. Considering the fact that not a few of the rectors of the old time universities, all of whom were necessarily ecclesiastics, must have had the ampleness of girth so characteristic of their order under certain circumstances, there is an appropriateness about this formal designation which perhaps appeals more to the risibilities of the modern mind than to those of medieval time. ”

“ He said, “The rector thinks he ought to be one of the trustees of the British school, as a bequest upon which it is in part founded says that the clergyman of the parish shall be one of the trustees, but they say that they will wait until the trusteeship is vacant.” The place was filled, I understood, by the former rector, who, as I have said, was described as a tiny little man; a clever, very learned man; a stanch liberal in politics, over eighty years of age. ”

“ So each rector has become an example for his successor for the most conscientious fulfillment of duty. So accrued to the office an authority which will make it possible to exercise a discreet power in fulfilling the assumed responsibilities, as well as in upholding the honors and rights of the office when sustained by the wisdom of the academic senate, by the willing cooperation of all colleagues, and by the trustful demeanor of the academic youth, who have always found in the rector the promoter and chosen solicitor of their true interests. ”

“ I was telling ye, Shorsha, when ye interrupted me, that I found the Pope, the rector, the sub-rector and the almoner seated at the table, the rector with my pack of cards in his hands, about to dale out to the Pope and the rest, not forgetting himself, for whom he intended all the trump-cards, no doubt. ”

“ Besides the above-named qualities, by ordinary law of the English Church, any one presented as a rector was bound to be a cleric; to be at least five and twenty years old; to be commendable in his life and knowledge; and if not a priest, he was at least to be fit to receive the priesthood within a year. As a rule each rectory, or benefice for a rector, had but a single rector; but there are instances where in one place, at Leverton, for example, there were two parsons appointed to one church, with two houses, with the tithes divided, and, of course, with the obligations distinct. ”

“ The new rector moved into a smart brick house on the other side of the church, and gave receptions and dinner parties, and was punctilious about making his calls. The people therefore liked him very much—so much that they raised the debt on the church and bought a chime of bells, in their enthusiasm. Every one was lighter of heart than under the ministration of the previous rector. ”

“ He was used to these nervous old maids and to the exaggerated importance that they attach to words. A rector lives in a web of petty secrets, and confidences and warnings, and the wiser he is the less he will regard them. ”

“ God has taken him home, and we meet here, every one of us, because the rector—broken though he was in these later years—because the rector, whose great and lovely smile we had loved to see, as we had loved just to touch his hand to gain strength, courage, faith and joy—because we cannot do that any more. His work is done and God gives him a safe lodging and he shall rest in peace to the last. Thank God who gave him to us, to know and to love, that we might be lifted by him to find God and Jesus through him. ”

“ In 1843 he was raised to the office of consistorial councillor, and was selected by the university to hold the office of rector, a distinction which has not since been conferred upon any theologian of the Reformed Church. ”

“ The direct share of the rector in administration is mainly confined to the normal schools and the higher primary schools. The rector is assisted by an academic council composed almost exclusively of pedagogic elements. ”

“ In the ancient universities the rector was the chosen head of the student body; in the Scottish Universities the office survives in an altered form. The rector is elected by the students, usually on political grounds, and his principal duty is to deliver an address at the beginning of his term of office. The leading politicians of the day were candidates for the honor. Occasionally as in the case of Herschel, Carlyle, Carnegie, the choice of the students is guided by other than political reasons. ”

“ Rector.—The official title of the Priest who has charge of a Parish and as such is its ruler, guide and director. The word means "one who rules." Like other organizations, the Parish must have a head, and by the canons of the Church, the Rector is head of the Parish. As such he is ex officio head of all its organizations. He is the presiding officer at all Vestry meetings, superintendent of the Sunday-school, and President of all Guilds, Brotherhoods and other parochial societies. ”

“ It is notorious that a rector in the Church of England, in the possession of a living of, let us say, a thousand a year, shall employ a curate at seventy pounds a year, that the curate shall do three-fourths or more of the work of the parish, that he shall remain in that position for twenty years, taking one-fourteenth of the wages while he does three-fourths of the work, and that nobody shall think that the rector is wrong or the curate ill-used! ”

“ At Lerida, in the earliest code of statutes (about 1300) , we find the doctors and master sworn to obey the Rector, who can fine them, though he must not expel them without the consent of the whole University. Any improper criticisms of the Rector ("verba injuriosa vel contumeliosa") by anyone, (p. 038) of whatsoever dignity, are to be punished by suspension until satisfaction is made, and so great is the glory of the office ("Rectoris officium tanta [excellentia] præfulget") that an ex-Rector is not bound to take the oath to his successor. ”

“ That the rector or head priest is trustee of the whole mission, church, people, school, presbytery, goods, and clergy. The last is the only point we need now to notice. The rector is responsible for his brother priests, for their personal, priestly, and pastoral life. He is answerable to the Bishop for them. And they are bound to recognise that responsibility. As they bear themselves to him, so some day their assistants will bear themselves in turn to them.
(2) That they ought all to live together under one roof. ”

“ But, alas, when the hour strikes for the Rector to answer to his call he is unable to become the undergraduate he used to be, and so the only door into you is closed. We, your elders, are much more interested in you than you are in us. We are not really important to you. I have utterly forgotten the address of the Rector of my time, and even who he was, but I recall vividly climbing up a statue to tie his colours round its neck and being hurled therefrom with contumely. We remember the important things. ”

“ Those on the one side of this examined the dresses of those on the other with indulgent interest, and, for the most part, through double eyeglasses; while those on the other hand either returned the compliment and made careful notes, or looked about deferentially for a glance of recognition. The man who should have bridged that gulf, who should have been equally at home with Mrs. Archdeacon and the hotel-keeper’s wife, was the rector. But as the rector had entered, the unlucky word “writ” had caught his ears, and he was in his most unpleasant humor. ”

“ If you have, you will realize how, at first gradually, and then rapidly, their position from year to year grows more distressing. What with the building loan and the organ instalment, and the fire insurance,--a cruel charge,-- and the heat and light, the rector began to realize as he added up the figures that nothing but logarithms could solve them. Then the time came when not only the rector, but all the wardens knew and the sidesmen knew that the debt was more than the church could carry; then the choir knew and the congregation knew and at last everybody knew ”

“ After five years of study, if he is a civilian, and four if he is a canonist, the Rector has raised him to the dignity of a Bachelor by permitting him to give "extra-ordinary" lectures—and after two more years spent in this capacity he is ready to proceed to the doctorate. The Rector, having been satisfied by the English representative in his Council that the "doctorand" has performed the whole duty of the Bolognese student, gives him permission to enter for the first or Private Examination, and he again takes the oath of obedience to that dignitary. ”

“ On the suppression of the monasteries the “ great tithes ” were often bestowed by the crown on laymen, who, as owning the rectorial tithes, were and are known as “ lay rectors.” It follows that, rectories being usually richer than vicarages, the style of “ rector ” is in England slightly more dignified than that of “ vicar.” In the American Protestant Episcopal Church the incumbents of churches are called rectors. ”

“ The university stands in the plasa de la inquisicion. It is a handsome building, containing several good halls, beside the public disputing room, which is fitted up with desks and benches, tribunes, galleries, &c.; a neat chapel, a small cloister, and an extensive library. The rector enjoys a good salary, and has many perquisites; one is elected by the professors every three years, and the one chosen is alternately a secular priest and a layman. ”

“ Only “regents,” that is, masters actually engaged in teaching, had any right to be present or to vote in congregations. Neither the entire university nor the separate faculties had thus, it will be seen, originally a common head, and it was not until the middle of the 14th century that the rector became the head of the collective university, by the incorporation under him, first, of the students of the canon law and of medicine (which took place about the end of the 13th century) , and, secondly, of the theologians, which took place about half a century later. ”

“ There remains the very large number of unappropriated parish churches, in which the rector or parson was directly responsible for the cure of souls. The duties of the rector were regarded in the middle ages with considerable latitude. Nothing was more usual than for a man of good family, or one whose clerkly talents made him a constant attendant on the king or the great officers of state, to obtain a number of benefices which provided him with a necessary income. ”

“ The rector, who in the first instance was head of the faculty of arts, by whom he was elected, was eventually head of the whole university. In congregations of the university matters were decided by a majority of faculties; the vote of the faculty of arts was determined by a majority of nations. The chancellor of Notre Dame, whose functions were now limited to the conferment of the licence, stood as such outside the university or gild altogether, though as a doctor of theology he was always a member of that faculty. ”

“ The superior of each house is called a Rector, and it is his duty to see after the spiritual and temporal concerns of his own community. A rector, therefore, has more home work, by virtue of his office, than any other superior. A consultor may live in any house of the province, has no special duty ex officio except to give his advice to the Provincial when asked, and may be easily spared for any external employment. This office Father Ignatius used to term as otium cum dignitate, though the otium he never enjoyed, and felt rather awkward in the dignitas. ”

“ The officers of the parish and the laymen of the congregation have done what they wished, and are content. As the convention is composed principally of laymen, the sympathy is naturally with the laymen’s side of the question. The rector is hurriedly passed over, his clerical brethren looking helplessly on.
To get a new parish the dismissed rector must “candidate”—a feature of clerical life most revolting to any man with a spark of manhood in him.
We note, in the next place, an utter want of unity in the Protestant Episcopal Church. ”

“ As men even of good principles will often be more or less swayed by the peculiar interests of the body to which they belong, the rector should be instructed, if he saw any flagrant swerving from an honest appraisement, to notify the same to his bishop, who, by application to the governor, if need were, could thereby rectify it. ”

“ The following resolutions were adopted by the Board in connection with the organisation of the proposed school:—" (1.) One of the masters shall hold the appointment of Rector or Principal, and shall have the general oversight of all the classes within the institution, and shall be responsible for the good government, efficiency, and success of the same; but each master, as far as possible shall have the charge of a distinct department of instruction. ”

“ The young abbe took the rector aside to explain to him the injurious situation in which the impenitence of his parishioner placed religion, and the duty the bishop imposed upon him.
“Monseigneur exacts my death,” replied the rector. “I have already refused the entreaties of the family to visit their unhappy son. Such a conference and the sight of his death would shatter me like glass. Every man must work as he can. The weakness of my organs, or rather, the too great excitability of my nervous organization, prevents me from exercising these functions of our ministry. ”