PROTHONOTARY

A word that has a different signification in the Greek Church from what it has in the Latin; for in the first it is the name of one of the great officers of the Church of Constantinople, who takes place next to the patriarch, and writes all despatches he sends to the Grand Seignor; besides which he is empowered to have an inspection over the profe ors of the law, into purchases, wills, and the liberty given to slaves: but in the Roman Church they were formerly called prothonotaries who had the charge of writing the acts of the martyrs, and the circumstances of their death; a title of honour whereunto is ascribed many privileges, as legitimatizing bastards, making apostolic notaries, doctors of divinity, of the canon and civil law; they are twelve in number.