Editing Commendatory abbot (section)

==Authority==
If the monastery is occupied by a religious community where there is a separate ''mensa abbatialis'', i.e. where the abbot and the convent have each a separate income, the commendatory abbot, who must then be an ecclesiastic, has jurisdiction ''in foro externo'' over the members of the community and enjoys all the rights and privileges of an actual abbot.

Under the title of Claustral Prior a regular superior was appointed to supervise the internal discipline of the house.<ref name=Butler/> If there is no separate ''mensa abbatialis'', the power of the commendatory abbot extends only over the temporal affairs of the monastery. In case of vacant monasteries the commendatory abbot generally has all the rights and privileges of an actual abbot.