ABBESS (

See also:

• LAT

Lat. abbatissa, fem.

See also:

• FORM (Lat. forma)

form of abbas,

See also:

• ABBOT (from the Hebrew ab, a father, through the Syriac abba, Lat. abbas, gen. abbatis, O.E. abbad, fr. late Lat. form abbad-em changed in 13th century under influence of the Lat. form to abbat, used alternatively till the end of the 17th century; Ger. Ab
• ABBOT, EZRA (1819-1884)
• ABBOT, GEORGE (1603-1648)
• ABBOT, ROBERT (1588?–1662?)
• ABBOT, WILLIAM (1798-1843)

abbot)  , the female superior of an abbey or convent of nuns . The mode of election, position, rights and authority of an abbess correspond generally with those of an abbot (q.v.) . The office is elective, the choice being by the secret votes of the sisters from their own body . The abbess is solemnly admitted to her office by episcopal benediction, together with the conIrring of a staff and pectoral cross, and holds for life, though liable to be deprived for misconduct . The council of Trent fixed the qualifying age at forty, with eight years of profession . Abbesses have a right to demand absolute obedience of their nuns, over whom they exercise discipline, extending even to the power of expulsion, subject, however, to the bishop . As a female an abbess is incapable of performing the spiritual functions of the priesthood belonging to an abbot . She can-not ordain, confer the veil, nor excommunicate . In England abbesses attended ecclesiastical councils, e.g. that of Becanfield in 694, where they signed before the presbyters . By Celtic usage abbesses presided over joint-houses of monks and nuns . This custom accompanied Celtic monastic missions to France and Spain, and even to Rome itself . At a later period, A.D .

1115,

Robert, the founder of Fontevraud, committed the government of the whole order, men as well as women, to a female superior . In the German Evangelical church the title of abbess (Aebtissin) has in some cases—e.g . Itzehoe—survived to designate the heads of abbeys which since the Reformation have continued as Stifle, i.e. collegiate foundations, which provide a home and an income for unmarried ladies, generally of noble birth, called canonesses (Kanonissinen) or more usually Stiftsdamen . This office of abbess is of considerable social dignity, and is sometimes filled by princesses of the reigning houses .