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See also:RECTOR (See also:Lat. for " ruler," " See also:guide," &c., from regere, " See also:rule ")
, a See also:title given to the bearers of certain ecclesiastical and academical offices
.
In the See also:Roman See also:empire, after See also:Constantine, the title See also:rector was See also:borne by See also:governors of provinces subordinate to the prefects or exarchs
.
In the See also:middle ages it was given to certain See also:secular officials, e.g. the podestas of some See also:Italian towns, but more especially to the heads of the See also:universities, the representatives and rulers of the universitas magistrorum et scholarium, elected usually for a very See also:short See also:time
.
After the humanistic See also:movement of the See also:Renaissance the See also:style rector was also given to the See also:chief masters of See also:schools containing several classes, and in some parts of See also:Germany (e.g
.
See also:Saxony, See also:Wurttemberg) it is still thus used instead of the more See also:modern title of Director
.
Rector is also still the title of the heads of the Scottish universities (See also:Lord Rector), who are elected for three years, and of the See also:German universities (Rector Magnificus), in which the See also:office is held for a See also:year by a representative of each See also:faculty in turn
.
In those German universities where the rectorship is held by the See also:sovereign (Rector Magnificentissimus), the acting See also:head is known as Prorector
.
" Rector " is also the title of the heads of See also:Exeter and See also:Lincoln Colleges, See also:Oxford
.
The heads of all Jesuit colleges are " rectors."
As an ecclesiastical title rector was once loosely used for rulers of the See also: In the middle ages a large number of rectories were held by religious houses, which See also:drew the bulk of the See also:tithes and appointed vicars to do the See also:work . Hence the modern distinction in England between rectors and vicars . A rector is See also:incumbent of a See also:benefice never held under a monastery, and he receives all the tithes; a See also:vicar (i.e. of an See also:ancient benefice) draws only such tithes as were See also:left to the benefice by the religious See also:house which held it . On the suppression of the monasteries the " See also:great tithes " were often bestowed by the See also:crown on laymen, who, as owning the rectorial tithes, were and are known as " See also:lay rectors." It follows that, rectories being usually richer than vicarages, the style of " rector " is in England slightly more dignified than that of " vicar." In the See also:American See also:Protestant Episcopal Church the incumbents of churches are called rectors . |
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