ABBOT

The Father or Superior of an abbey of monks, or male persons, living under peculiar religious vows. The word abbot comes, through the late Latin abbas , from the Syriac abba —father. (See Abba .) The word Father, in its various forms of Papa, Abbas, Padre, Père, ., has in all countries and all ages of Christianity been applied as a title of respect to the superior clergy and priesthood. In some parts of the East and in Ireland, this term, abbas or abb at, was frequently confounded with that of bishop, from the fact of the abbots being in the early times bishops also. Among the abbeys in England before the di olution, were some which gave the title of Mitred Abbot [ or Abbots general , or sovereign ] to the superiors of them. These mitred abbots sat and voted in the House of Lords. They held of the king in capite per baroniam , their endowments being at least an entire barony, which consisted of thirteen knights’ fees. The following are the abbeys which conferred this distinction on their abbots: St. Alban’s, Glastonbury, St. Peter’s, Westminster; St. Edmondsbury, St. Bennet’s of Holm, Bardney, Shrews bury, Croyland (or Crowland), Abingdon, Evesham, Gloucester, Ramsey, St. Mary’s, York; Tewkesbury, Reading, Battle, Winchcomb, Hide by Winchester, Cirencester, Waltham, Malmesbury, Thorney, St. Augustine’s, Canterbury; Selby, Peter borough, St. John’s, Col chester; to which was added, not long before the Reformation, Tav i stock. All mitred abbots were of the Benedictine order, except those of Waltham and Cirencester, who were August in i ans. This fact Fuller has overlooked. (See Dugdale’s Monastic on .) But it is to be observed, that there were two other lords of parliament, heads of religious houses, who were not abbots: (1.) The prior of St. John’s of Jerusalem, of the Knights Hospitallers in England. He ranked before the mitred abbots, and was considered the first baron in England. (2.) The prior of Coventry; a solitary instance in England of the presbyteral head of a cathedral being a spiritual peer. Of the abbots, the abbot of Glastonbury had the precedence, till A. D. 1154, when Pope Adrian VII., an English man, from the affection he entertained for the place of his education, a igned this precedence to the abbot of St. Alban’s. In consequence, Glastonbury ranked next after him, and Reading had the third place. According to the ancient laws of Christen dom, confirmed by general councils, all heads of monasteries, whether abbots or priors, owed canonical obedience to their diocesan. And the same law subsisted till the Reformation, wherever special exemptions had not been granted, which, however, were numerous. Cowell, as quoted by Johnson in his Dictionary, (voce Abbot ,) erroneously says that the mitred abbots were exempted from episcopal jurisdiction, but that the other sorts (i. e. the non-mitred) were subject to their diocesans. The truth is, that the former endeavoured after their own aggrandizement in every po ible way, but had no inherent right of exemption from the fact of their being lords of parliament, or being invested with the mitre. Thus it appears from Dugd. Monast. that Gloucester, Winchcomb, and Tewkesbury were subject to the visitation and jurisdiction of the bishop of Worcester, till the Reformation; Croyland, Peter borough, Bardney, and Ramsey to the bishop of Lincoln; St. Mary in York, and Selby, to the archbishop of York, and Coventry to the bishop of Lich field. The abbots, unle specially exempted, took the oath of canonical obedience to their diocesan, and after election, were confirmed by him, and received his benediction. [ Fuller, Collier, Will is’s Mitred Abbeys. ] In Ireland the abbots who were mitred, or lords of parliament, were those of St. Mary, Dublin; St. Thomas, Dublin; Mon aster even, Bal tin gla , Dunbrody, Duisk, Jerpoint, Bective, Mellifont, Tract on, Monasternenagh, Owney, and Holy cro . All these were of the Cistercian order, except the abbot of St. Thomas, who was of St. Victor. The other parliamentary lords, heads of religious houses, were the cathedral priors of Christ Church, Dublin, and of Down patrick; the priors of All hallows, Dublin; Conall, Kells, (in Kilkenny,) Louth, At ha el, Killagh, Newton, and Rathboy. All these were of the August in i an order, except the prior of Down, who was a Benedictine, the preceptor of the Knights Hospitallers at Wexford, and the prior of the Knights Hospitallers at Kilmainham. (See Monks .)