LITERATE

In, English ecclesiastical law. One who qualifies himself for holy orders by presenting himself as a person accomplished in cla ical learning, etc., not as a graduate of Oxford, Cambridge, etc. LITERATURA. "Ad Ziteraturam ponere" means to put children to school. This liberty was anciently denied to those parents who were servile tenants, without the lord's consent. The prohibition against the· education of sons a~ose from the fear that the son, being bred to letters, might enter into holy orders, and so stop or divert the services which he might otherwise do as heir to his father. Paroch. Antiq. 40L [s. 738]