many as 300 sons of noblemen and gentlemen, who had been sent
to him for virtuous education, had been brought up, besides
others of a meaner rank, whom he fitted for the universities.
His table, attendance and officers were an honour to the
nation. He would entertain as many as 500 persons of rank at
one time, besides relieving the poor of the vicinity twice a
week. He had his country houses and fisheries, and when
he travelled to attend parliament his retinue amounted to
upwards of 100 persons. The abbots of Cluny and Vendome
were, by virtue of their office, cardinals of the Roman church.
In process of time the title abbot was improperly transferred
to clerics who had no connexion with the monastic system,
as to the principal of a body of parochial clergy; and
under the Carolingians to the chief chaplain of the king,
Abbas Curiae, or military chaplain of the emperor, Abbas
Castrensis. It even came to be adopted by purely secular
officials. Thus the chief magistrate of the republic at Genoa
was called Abbas Populi. Du Cange, in his glossary, also gives
us Abbas Campanilis, Clocherii, Palatii, Scholaris, &c.
Lay abbots (M. Lat. defensores, abbacomites, abbates laici,
abbates milites, abbates saeculares or irreligiosi,
abbatiarii, or sometimes simply abbates) were the outcome
of the growth of the feudal system from the 8th century
onwards. The practice of commendation, by which---to meet
a contemporary emergency--the revenues of the community were
handed over to a lay lord, in return for his protection,
early suggested to the emperors and kings the expedient of
rewarding their warriors with rich abbeys held in commendam.
During the Carolingian epoch the custom grew up of granting
these as regular heritable fiefs or benefices, and by the 10th
century, before the great Cluniac reform, the system was firmly
established. Even the abbey of St Denis was held in commendam
by Hugh Capet. The example of the kings was followed by the
feudal nobles, sometimes by making a temporary concession
permanent, sometimes without any form of commendation
whatever. In England the abuse was rife in the 8th
century, as may be gathered from the acts of the council of
Cloveshoe. These lay abbacies were not merely a question of
overlordship, but implied the concentration in lay hands
of all the rights, immunities and jurisdiction of the
foundations, i.e. the more or less complete secularization of
1 Walworth, the fourth abbot of St Alban's, c. 930, is
charged by Matthew Paris with adopting the attire of a sportsman.
spiritual institutions. The lay abbot took his recognized
rank in the feudal hierarchy, and was free to dispose of
his fief as in the case of any other. The enfeoffment of
abbeys differed in form and degree. Sometimes the monks were
directly subject to the lay abbot; sometimes he appointed a
substitute to perform the spirtual functions, known usually
as dean (decanus), but also as abbot (abbas legitimas,
monasticus, regularis). When the great reform of the 11th
century had put an end to the direct jurisdiction of the lay
abbots, the honorary title of abbot continued to be held by
certain of the great feudal famines, as late as the 13th century
and later, the actual head of the community retaining that of
dean. The connexion of the lesser lay abbots with the
abbeys, especially in the south of France, lasted longer;
and certain feudal families retained the title of abbes
chevaliers (abbates milltes) for centuries, together with
certain rights over the abbey lands or revenues. The abuse was
not confined to the West. John, patriarch of Antioch, at the
beginning of the 12th Century, informs us that in his time most
monasteries had been handed over to laymen, bencficiarii,
for life, or for part of their lives, by the emperors.
In conventual cathedrals, where the bishop occupied the
place of the abbot, the functions usually devolving on
the superior of the monastery were performed by a prior.
The title abbe (Ital. abbate), as commonly used in the
Catholic church on the European continent, is the equivalent
of the English ``Father,'' being loosely applied to all who
have received the tonsure. This use of the title is said to
have originated in the right conceded to the king of France,
by the concordat between Pope Leo X. and Francis I. (1516),
to appoint abbes commendataires to most of the abbeys in
France. The expectation of obtaining these sinecures drew
young men towards the church in considerable numbers, and
the class of abbes so formed ---abbes de cour they were
sometimes called, and sometimes (ironically) abbes de sainte
esperance, abbes of St Hope---came to hold a recognized
position. The connexion many of them had with the church
was of the slenderest kind, consisting mainly in adopting
the name of abbe, after a remarkably moderate course of
theological study, practising celibacy and wearing a distinctive
dress--a short dark-violet coat with narrow collar. Being
men of presumed learning and undoubted leisure, many of the
class found admission to the houses of the French nobility
as tutors or advisers. Nearly every great family had its
abbe. The class did not survive the Revolution; but the
courtesy title of abbe, having long lost all connexion in
people's minds with any special ecclesiastical function, remained
as a convenient general term applicable to any clergyman.
In the German Evangelical church the title of abbot (Abt) is
sometimes bestowed, like abbe, as an honorary distinction,
and sometimes survives to designate the heads of monasteries
converted at the Reformation into collegiate foundations. Of
these the most noteworthy is the abbey of Lokkum in Hanover,
founded as a Cistercian house in 1163 by Count Wilbrand of
Hallermund, and reformed in 1593. The abbot of Lokkum, who
still carries a pastoral staff, takes precedence of all the
clergy of Hanover, and is ex officio a member of the consistory
of the kingdom. The governing body of the abbey consists of
abbot, prior and the ``convent'' of canons (Stiftsherren).
See Joseph Bingham, Origines ecclesiasticae (1840); Du
Cange, Glossarium med. et inf. Lat. (ed. 1883); J. Craigie
Robertson, Hist. of the Christian Church (1858-1873); Edmond
Martene, De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus (Venice, 1783); C.
F. R. de Montalembert, Les moines d'occident depuis S. Benoit
jusqu'a S. Bernard (1860--1877); Achille Luchaire, Manuel
des institutions francaises (Par. 1892). (E.V.; W.A.P.)
1 The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of
the Monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury. By the Rev. Robert
Willis. Printed for the Kent Archaeological Society, 1869.
ABBOTSFORD, formerly the residence of Sir Walter Scott,
situated on the S. bank of the Tweed, about 3 m. W. of Melrose,
Roxburghshire, Scotland, and nearly 1 m. from Abbotsford Ferry
station on the North British railway, connecting Selkirk and
Galashiels. The nucleus of the estate was a small farm of 100
acres, called Cartleyhole, nicknamed Clarty (i.e. muddy)
Hole, and bought by Scott on the lapse of his lease (1811)
of the neighbouring house of Ashestiel. It was added to
from time to time, the last and principal acquisition being
that of Toftfield (afterwards named Huntlyburn), purchased in
1817. The new house was then begun and completed in 1824.
The general ground-plan is a parallelogram, with irregular
outlines, one side overlooking the Tweed; and the style is
mainly the Scottish Baronial. Into various parts of the fabric
were built relics and curiosities from historical structures,
such as the doorway of the old Tolbooth in Edinburgh. Scott
had only enjoyed his residence one year when (1825) he met
with that reverse of fortune which involved the estate in
debt. In 1830 the library and museum were presented to him
as a free gift by the creditors. The property was wholly
disencumbered in 1847 by Robert Cadell, the publisher, who
cancelled the bond upon it in exchange for the family's share
in the copyright of Sir Walter's works. Scott's only son Walter
did not live to enjoy the property, having died on his way
from India in 1847. Among subsequent possessors were Scott's
son-in-law, J. G. Lockhart, J. R. Hope Scott, Q.C., and his
daughter (Scott's great-granddaughter), the Hon. Mrs Maxwell
Scott. Abbotsford gave its name to the ``Abbotsford Club,''
a successor of the Bannatyne and Maitland clubs, founded
by W. B. D. D. Turnbull in 1834 in Scott's honour, for
printing and publishing historical works connected with his
writings. Its publications extended from 1835 to 1864.
See Lockhart, Life of Scott; Washington Irving, Abbotsford
and Newstead Abbey; W. S. Crockett, The Scott Country.
ABBOTT, EDWIN ARROTT (1838- ), English schoolmaster and
theologian, was born on the 20th of December 1838. He
was educated at the City of London school and at St John's
College, Cambridge, where he took the highest honours in the
classical, mathematical and theological triposes, and became
fellow of his college. In 1862 he took orders. After holding
masterships at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and at
Clifton College, he succeeded G. F. Mortimer as headmaster
of the City of London school in 1865 at the early age of
twenty-six. He was Hulsean lecturer in 1876. He retired
in 1889, and devoted himself to literary and theological
pursuits. Dr Abbott's liberal inclinations in theology
were prominent both in his educational views and in his
books. His Shakespearian Grammar (1870) is a permanent
contribution to English philology. In 1885 he published a
life of Francis Bacon. His theological writings include three
anonymously published religious romances--Philochristus
(1878), Onesimus (1882), Sitanus (1906). More weighty
contributions are the anonymous theological discussion The
Kernel and the Husk (1886), Philomythus (1891), his book
on Cardinal Newman as an Anglican (1892), and his article
``The Gospels'' in the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, embodying a critical view which caused considerable
stir in the English theological world; he also wrote St
Thomas of Canterbury, his Death and Miracles (1898),
Johannine Vocabulary (1905), Johannine Grammar (1906).
His brother, Evelyn Abbott (1843-1901), was a well-known tutor of
Balliol, Oxford, and author of a scholarly History of Greece.
ABBOTT, EMMA (1849-1891), American singer, was born at
Chicago and studied in Milan and Paris. She had a fine soprano
voice, and appeared first in opera in London under Colonel
Mapleson's direction at Covent Garden, also singing at important
concerts. She organized an opera company known by her name,
and toured extensively in the United States, where she had
a great reputation. In 1873 she married E. J. Wethereil.
She died at Salt Lake City on the 5th of January 1891.
ABBOTT, JACOB (1803-1879), American writer of books for the
young, was born at Hallowell, Maine, on the 14th of November
1803. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1820; studied at
Andover Theological Seminary in 1821, 1822, and 1824; was
tutor in 1824-1825, and from 1825 to 1829 was professor of
mathematics and natural philosophy in Amherst College; was
licensed to preach by the Hampshire Association in 1826;
founded the Mount Vernon School for young ladies in Boston in
1829, and was principal of it in 1829--1833; was pastor of
Eliot Congregational Church (which he founded), at Roxbury,
Mass., in 1834-1835; and was, with his brothers, a founder,
and in 1843--1851 a principal of Abbott's Institute, and in
1845--1848 of the Mount Vernon School for boys, in New York
