Glossary

Advowson. The right to nominate or present a candidate for a vacant ecclesiastical benefice. Also called the right of patronage.

Benefice. A church office endowed with income, typically from land or tithes, granted to a clergyman in return for the performance of spiritual duties.

Canon. (1) A decree or rule enacted by a church council or other ecclesiastical authority. Collections of canons form the basis of canon law. (2) A member of a cathedral or collegiate chapter, bound to the observance of a common rule (regula) and supported by a prebend from the church’s revenues.

Collegiate church. A church served by a chapter of canons but not the seat of a bishop, distinguishing it from a cathedral. Like cathedrals, collegiate churches maintained a common life and distributed prebends to their members.

Endowment. A permanent fund or gift of property, typically land or investment income, established for the ongoing financial support of a church, parish, or ecclesiastical office.

Feoffee. A person to whom a freehold estate in land is conveyed by a feoffment. In ecclesiastical contexts, feoffees were often laymen entrusted with holding church property on behalf of a parish or religious institution.

Glossa Ordinaria. The standard medieval commentary on the Bible, compiled in twelfth-century France. It surrounds the scriptural text with annotations drawn from the church fathers and earlier medieval writers. Printed in the margins and between the lines of the biblical text, it was the most widely used biblical commentary of the Middle Ages, cited constantly by Aquinas, Bonaventure, and the other schoolmen. The edition in Migne’s Patrologia Latina (vols. 113–114) is the most accessible, though it represents a later manuscript tradition formerly misattributed to Walafrid Strabo.

Prebend. The portion of a cathedral’s or collegiate church’s revenues allocated to a member of its chapter as a stipend.

Preferment. The appointment or promotion of a clergyman to an ecclesiastical office or dignity, especially one carrying income or authority.

Prelate. A bishop or other high ecclesiastical dignitary.

Presentation. The formal act of nominating a clergyman to the bishop for institution to a vacant benefice. The holder of an advowson exercises this right.

Right of patronage. See advowson.