ABBOT (" father"). This name, originally given to any aged monk, was afterwarcN more strictly applied to the superior of a monastery or abbey. Since the 6th c., abbots have belonged to the clerical orders, but at first they were not necessarily priests. After the second Nicene council (787), abbots were enipowered to consecrate monks for the lower sacred orders; but they remained in subordination under their diocesan bishops until the 11th c. As abbeys became wealthy, abbots increased in power and influence; many received episcopal titles; and all were ranked as prelates of the church next to the bishops, and had the right of voting in church-councils. Even •abbesses contended for the seine honors and privileges, but without 'success. In the 8th and 9th c., abbeys began to come into the-hands of laymen, as rewards for military service. In the 10th c. many of the chief abbeys in Christendom were under lay-abbots (abates milites, or abba-eomites), while subordinate deans or priors had the spiritual oversight. • The mem: bers of the royal househOld received grants of abbeys as their maintenance, and the king kept the richest for himself. Thus, Hugo Capet of Fradce was lay-abbot of St. Denis; near Paris. Sometimes convents of nuns were granted to men, and monasteries to women of rank. These abuses were, in a great measure, reformed during the 10th c. After the reformation of the order of Benedictines, monasteries arose that were dependent upon the mother-monastery of Clugnv and without abbots; being presided over by priors or pro-abbate,s. Of the orders founded after the 11th c., only some n.amed the superiors of their convents abbots; most, from humility or other cause, used the titles of prior. major, guardian, rector. Abbesses have almost always remained under the jurisdiction of their diocesan bishop; but the abbots of independent or liberated abbeys acknowl edged no lord but the pope. In the middle ages, the so-called abbates mitrati frequently
enjoyed episcopal titles, but only a few had dioceses. Before the period of lion in Germany, several of the abbots in that country had princely titles and powers. In England there were a considerable number of mitred abbots who sat and voted in the house of lords. The election of an abbot belongs, as a rule, to the chapter or assembly of the monks, and is afterwards confirmed by the pope or by the bishop, according as the monastery is independent or under episcopal jurisdiction. But from early times, the pope iu Italy has claimed the right of conferring abbacies, and the concordat of 1516 gave that right to the king of France. Non-monastic clergy who possessed monasteries were styled secular abbots; while their vicars, who discharged the duties, as well as all abbots who belonged to the monastic order, were styled 1.egular abbots. In France, the abuse of appointing secular abbots was carried to a great extent previous to the time of the revolution.. (See Anal) Often monasteries themselves chose some powerful person as their secular abbot, with a view of " commendino' or committing their abbey to his protection (abbes commendataires). In countries which joined in the reformation, the possessions of abbeys were mostly confiscated by the crown; but in Ilanover, Bruns wick, and Wurtemberg, seVeral monasteries and convents were retained as educational establishments. In the Greek church, the superiors of convents are called hegurrieni or mandrites, and general abbots, archimandrites.