Editing Abbot (section)

==Monastic history==
[[File:StPakhom.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Copt]]ic [[icon]] of [[Saint Pachomius]], the founder of [[cenobitic]] [[monasticism]]]]
[[File:Benedikt von Nursia in Muensterschwazach.jpg|thumb|Carving of Saint [[Benedict of Nursia]], holding an abbot's [[crozier]] and his [[Rule of St. Benedict|Rule for Monasteries]] (Münsterschwarzach, Germany)]]
[[File:Abbatia CIST Sbernadiensis 27a (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Thomas Schoen]], abbot of Bornem Abbey]]
[[File:Erzabt Ildefons Schober OSB.JPG|thumb|upright|Benedictine Archabbot Schober in prelate's dress and [[cappa magna]]]]
An abbot (from {{langx|ang|abbod}}, ''{{lang|ang|abbad}}'', from {{langx|la|abbas}} ("father"), from {{langx|grc|ἀββᾶς}} ({{transliteration|grc|abbas}}), from ''{{langx|arc|אבא}}''/''{{lang|arc|ܐܒܐ}}'' ({{transliteration|arc|'abbā}}, "father"); compare ''{{langx|de|Abt}}''; ''{{langx|fr|abbé}}'') is the head and chief governor of a community of monks, called also in the East ''[[hegumen]]'' or ''[[archimandrite]]''.{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}} The English version for a female monastic head is [[abbess]].

===Early history===
In [[Egypt]], the first home of monasticism, the jurisdiction of the abbot, or archimandrite, was but loosely defined. Sometimes he ruled over only one community, sometimes over several, each of which had its own abbot as well. Saint [[John Cassian]] speaks of an abbot of the [[Thebaid]] who had 500 monks under him. By the [[Rule of St Benedict]], which, until the [[Cluniac reforms]], was the norm in the West, the abbot has jurisdiction over only one community. The rule, as was inevitable, was subject to frequent violations; but it was not until the foundation of the [[Abbey of Cluny|Cluniac]] Order that the idea of a supreme abbot, exercising jurisdiction over all the houses of an order, was definitely recognised.{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}}

Monks, as a rule, were laymen, nor at the outset was the abbot any exception. For the reception of the [[sacrament]]s, and for other religious offices, the abbot and his monks were commanded to attend the nearest church. This rule proved inconvenient when a monastery was situated in a desert or at a distance from a city, and necessity compelled the [[ordination]] of some monks. This innovation was not introduced without a struggle, [[ecclesiology|ecclesiastical]] dignity being regarded as inconsistent with the higher [[spirituality|spiritual]] life, but, before the close of the 5th century, at least in the East, abbots seem almost universally to have become [[deacon]]s, if not priests. The change spread more slowly in the West, where the office of abbot was commonly filled by laymen till the end of the 7th century. The ecclesiastical leadership exercised by abbots despite their frequent lay status is proved by their attendance and votes at ecclesiastical councils. Thus at the [[first Council of Constantinople]], AD 448, 23 [[archimandrite]]s or abbots sign, with 30 [[bishop]]s.{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}}

The [[second Council of Nicaea]], AD 787, recognized the right of abbots to ordain their monks to the inferior orders{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}} below the [[deacon|diaconate]], a power usually reserved to bishops.

Abbots used to be subject to [[bishop|episcopal]] jurisdiction, and continued generally so, in fact, in the West till the 11th century. The [[Code of Justinian]] (lib. i. tit. iii. de Ep. leg. xl.) expressly subordinates the abbot to episcopal oversight. The first case recorded of the partial exemption of an abbot from episcopal control is that of Faustus, abbot of Lerins, at the council of Arles, AD 456; but the exorbitant claims and exactions of bishops, to which this repugnance to episcopal control is to be traced, far more than to the arrogance of abbots, rendered it increasingly frequent, and, in the 6th century, the practice of exempting religious houses partly or altogether from episcopal control, and making them responsible to the pope alone, received an impulse from [[Pope Gregory I|Pope Gregory the Great]]. These exceptions, introduced with a good object, had grown into a widespread evil by the 12th century, virtually creating an ''imperium in imperio,'' and depriving the bishop of all authority over the chief centres of influence in his [[diocese]].{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}}

===Later Middle Ages===
{{main|Mitre#Christian clergy|l1=Mitre}}
In the 12th century, the abbots of [[Fulda monastery|Fulda]] claimed precedence of the [[archdiocese of Cologne|archbishop of Cologne]]. Abbots more and more assumed almost episcopal state, and in defiance of the prohibition of early councils and the protests of St Bernard and others, adopted the episcopal insignia of [[mitre]], ring, gloves and sandals.{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}}

It has been maintained that the right to wear mitres was sometimes granted by the popes to abbots before the 11th century, but the documents on which this claim is based are not genuine (J. Braun, ''Liturgische Gewandung'', p.&nbsp;453). The first undoubted instance is the bull by which [[Pope Alexander II|Alexander II]] in 1063 granted the use of the mitre to Egelsinus, abbot of the monastery of St Augustine at Canterbury. The mitred abbots in England were those of [[Abingdon Abbey|Abingdon]], [[St Albans Abbey|St Alban's]], [[Bardney Abbey|Bardney]], [[Battle Abbey|Battle]], [[Bury St. Edmunds Abbey|Bury St Edmunds]], [[St Augustine's Abbey|St Augustine's Canterbury]], [[Colchester Abbey|Colchester]], [[Crowland Abbey|Croyland]], [[Evesham Abbey|Evesham]], [[Glastonbury Abbey|Glastonbury]], [[Gloucester Abbey|Gloucester]], [[St Benet's Abbey|St Benet's Hulme]], [[Hyde Abbey|Hyde]], [[Malmesbury Abbey|Malmesbury]], [[Peterborough Abbey|Peterborough]], [[Ramsey Abbey|Ramsey]], [[Reading Abbey|Reading]], [[Selby Abbey|Selby]], [[Shrewsbury Abbey|Shrewsbury]], [[Tavistock Abbey|Tavistock]], [[Thorney Abbey|Thorney]], [[Westminster Abbey|Westminster]], [[Winchcombe Abbey|Winchcombe]], and [[St Mary's Abbey, York|St Mary's York]].<ref>[http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/361/361-03.htm#ecclmap Government in Church and State] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130623040707/http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/361/361-03.htm#ecclmap |date=23 June 2013 }} from ''University of Wisconsin-Madison'' retrieved 15 June 2013</ref> Of these the precedence was yielded to the abbot of Glastonbury, until in AD 1154 [[Pope Adrian IV|Adrian IV]] (Nicholas Breakspear) granted it to the abbot of St Alban's, in which monastery he had been brought up. Next after the abbot of St Alban's ranked the abbot of Westminster and then Ramsey.<ref name=CE>{{cite Catholic Encyclopedia|wstitle=Ramsey Abbey|volume=12}}</ref> Elsewhere, the mitred abbots that sat in the [[Estates of Scotland]] were of [[Arbroath Abbey|Arbroath]], [[Cambuskenneth Abbey|Cambuskenneth]], [[Coupar Angus Abbey|Coupar Angus]], [[Dunfermline Abbey|Dunfermline]], [[Holyrood Abbey|Holyrood]], [[Iona Abbey|Iona]], [[Kelso Abbey|Kelso]], [[Kilwinning Abbey|Kilwinning]], [[Kinloss Abbey|Kinloss]], [[Lindores Abbey|Lindores]], [[Paisley Abbey|Paisley]], [[Melrose Abbey|Melrose]], [[Scone Abbey|Scone]], [[St Andrews Cathedral Priory|St Andrews Priory]] and [[Sweetheart Abbey|Sweetheart]].<ref>{{citation |last= Cowan |first= Ian B. |last2= Easson |first2= David E. |title= Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man |edition= 2nd |year= 1976 |publisher= Longman |location= London and New York |isbn= 0-582-12069-1 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/medievalreligiou0000cowa }} pp. 67–97</ref> To distinguish abbots from bishops, it was ordained that their mitre should be made of less costly materials, and should not be ornamented with gold, a rule which was soon entirely disregarded, and that the crook of their [[crosier|pastoral staff]] (the crosier) should turn inwards instead of outwards, indicating that their jurisdiction was limited to their own house.{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}}

The adoption of certain episcopal insignia ([[pontificalia]]) by abbots was followed by an encroachment on episcopal functions, which had to be specially but ineffectually guarded against by the [[First Council of the Lateran|Lateran council]], AD 1123. In the East abbots, if in priests' orders and with the consent of the bishop, were, as we have seen, permitted by the [[Second Council of Nicaea|second Nicene council]], AD 787, to confer the [[tonsure]] and admit to the order of reader; but gradually abbots, in the West also, advanced higher claims, until we find them in AD 1489 permitted by [[Pope Innocent IV|Innocent IV]] to confer both the subdiaconate and diaconate.  Of course, they always and everywhere had the power of admitting their own monks and vesting them with the religious habit.{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}}

The power of the abbot was paternal but absolute, limited, however, by the [[canon law]].  One of the main goals of monasticism was the purgation of self and selfishness, and obedience was seen as a path to that perfection. It was sacred duty to execute the abbot's orders, and even to act without his orders was sometimes considered a transgression. Examples among the Egyptian monks of this submission to the commands of the superiors, exalted into a virtue by those who regarded the entire crushing of the individual will as a goal, are detailed by Cassian and others, e.g. a monk watering a dry stick, day after day, for months, or endeavoring to remove a huge rock immensely exceeding his powers.{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}}<!-- but paragraph lower down in EB1911-->

====Appointments====
When a vacancy occurred, the bishop of the diocese chose the abbot out of the monks of the [[abbey|monastery]], but the right of election was transferred by jurisdiction to the monks themselves, reserving to the bishop the confirmation of the election and the benediction of the new abbot. In [[abbey]]s exempt from the archbishop's diocesan jurisdiction, the confirmation and [[benediction]] had to be conferred by the pope in person, the house being taxed with the expenses of the new abbot's journey to [[Rome]]. It was necessary that an abbot should be at least 30 years of age, of legitimate birth, a monk of the house for at least 10 years,<ref name=EB/> unless it furnished no suitable candidate, when a liberty was allowed of electing from another monastery, well instructed himself, and able to instruct others, one also who had learned how to command by having practised obedience.{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}} In some exceptional cases an abbot was allowed to name his own successor. Cassian speaks of an abbot in Egypt doing this; and in later times we have another example in the case of St Bruno. Popes and sovereigns gradually encroached on the rights of the monks, until in Italy the pope had usurped the nomination of all abbots, and the king in France, with the exception of Cluny, Premontré and other houses, chiefs of their order. The election was for life, unless the abbot was canonically deprived by the chiefs of his order, or when he was directly subject to them, by the pope or the bishop, and also in England it was for a term of 8–12 years.<ref name=EB/>

The ceremony of the formal admission of a [[Benedictine]] abbot in medieval times is thus prescribed by the [[Consuetudinary (book)|consuetudinary]] of Abingdon.  The newly elected abbot was to put off his shoes at the door of the church, and proceed barefoot to meet the members of the house advancing in a procession.  After proceeding up the [[nave]], he was to kneel and pray at the topmost step of the entrance of the choir, into which he was to be introduced by the bishop or his [[commissary]], and placed in his stall.  The monks, then kneeling, gave him the kiss of peace on the hand, and rising, on the mouth, the abbot holding his [[staff of office]].  He then put on his shoes in the [[vestry]], and a [[chapter (religion)|chapter]] was held, and the bishop or his delegate preached a suitable [[sermon]].{{sfn|Venables|Phillips|1911}}