ABBOT. 



ABBREVIATIONS. 



thin account ; and it i* probable that the revenue* of ninny of them, at 

 the period of the dissolution, had been considerably diminished by the 

 precaution! which the abbots were led to take in anticipation of that 

 erent Camden date* the whole number of the religious houaea that 

 were suppressed at 645. In the earlier times of the French monarchy, 

 the term abbey waa applied to a duchy or earldom, aa well aa to a 

 religious establishment ; and the duke* and count* called themselves 

 abbota, although remaining in all respects aecular person*. They took 

 thil title in consequence of the poaaeaaiona of certain abbey* having 

 been conferred upon them by the crown. 



ABBOT, the title of the auperior of certain eatebliahmenta of 

 religioua penooa of the male sex, thence called Abbey*. The word 

 Abfnt, or Abbat. as it hai been sometime* written, cornea from Abbatit, 

 the genitive of Abbot, which ia the Greek and Latin form of the Syriac 

 Abba, of which the original ia the Hebrew Ab, father. It ia, therefore, 

 merely an epithet of reaped and reverence, and appears to have been 

 at firat applied to any member of the clerical order, just aa the French 

 Pere and the English Father, having the name signification, still are in 

 the Catholic Church. In the earliest age of monastic institutions, how- 

 ever, the monks were not even priests; they were merely religious 

 peiaoaa who retired from the world to live in common, and the abbot 

 was that one of their number whom they chose to preside over the 

 association. In regard to general ecclesiastical discipline, all these 

 communities were at thia time subject to the bishop of the diocese, 

 and even to the pastor of the parochial district within the bounds 

 of which they were established. At length it began to be usual for 

 the Abbot, or, aa he waa called in the Greek Church, the Archimandrite, 

 or Hegumenoa (that ia, the chief monk, or leader), to be in orders ; 

 and since the 6th century monks generally have been priests. In point 

 of dignity an abbot is next to a bishop ; but there have been many 

 abbots in different countries who have claimed almost an equality in 

 rank with the episcopal order. A minute account of the different 

 descriptions of abbots may be found in Du Gauge's ' Glossary,' and in 

 Carpentier's Supplement to that work. In England, according to Coke, 

 there uaed to be twenty-six abbots (Fuller says twenty-seven), and two 

 priors who were Lords of Parliament. These, sometimes designated 

 Sovereign*, or General Abbots, wore a mitre, not exactly the same as 

 that of the bishops, carried the crozier in their right hand, while the 

 bishops carried theirs in their left, and assumed the episcopal style of 

 Lord. Some croziered abbots, again, were not mitred, and others who 

 were mitred were not croziered. Abbot* who presided over establish- 

 ment* that had sent out several branches were styled Cardinal-Abbots. 

 There were likewise, in Germany, Prince,- Abbots, as well as Prince- 

 Bishops. In early time* we read of Field- Abbots (in Latin, Abbotts 

 Milita) and Abbot-Count* (Abba-Comita, or Abbi-Comites). These were 

 secular persons, upon whom the sovereign had bestowed certain abbeys, 

 for which they were obliged to render military service as for common 

 fief*. A remnant of this practice appears to have subsisted in our own 

 country long after it had been discontinued on the Continent. Thus, 

 in Scotland, James Stuart, the natural son of James V., more cele- 

 brated a* the Regent Hurray, was, at the time of the Reformation, 

 Prior of St Andrew's, although a secular person. The secularisation of 

 ome of the German ecclesiastic dignities has since occasioned some- 

 thing like a renewal of the ancient usage. We have in the present 

 century seen a prince of the House of Brunswick (the late Duke of 

 York) at the same time Commander-in-Chief of the British army and 

 Biahop of Osnaburg. 



The effort! of the abbot* to throw off the authority of their diocesan* 

 long disturbed the Church, and called forth severe denunciations from 

 several of the early council*. Some abbeys, however, obtained special 

 charters recognising their independence ; a boon which, although 

 acquired at first with the consent of the bishop, was usually defended 

 against his successors with the moat jealous punctiliousness. Many of 

 the abbota Jived in the enjoyment of great power and state. In ancient 

 times they posaeaaed nearly absolute authority in their monasteries. 

 The external pomp and splendour with which an abbot was in many 

 cms* surrounded, corresponded to the extensive authority which he 

 enjoyed within his abbey, and throughout it* domains. St. Bernard is 

 thought to refer to the celebrated Luger, abbot of St. Denis, in the 

 beginning of the 12th century, when he speak*, in one of his writings, 

 of having seen an abbot at the head of more than 600 horsemen, who 

 served him aa a cortege. Even in the unreformed parts of the Conti- 

 nent, however, and long before the French Revolution, the powers of 

 the beads of monasteries, aa well as those of other ecclesiastical per- 

 sona, had been reduced to comparatively narrow limits; and the 

 aovereignty both of abbota and bishops had been subjected in all 

 material pointa to the authority of the civil magistrate. 



The title of Abbot ha* alto been borne by the civil authorities in 

 aome places, especially among the Genoese, one of whose chief magis- 

 trate*: used to be called the Abbot of the People. Nor must we forget 

 another application of the term which waa once famous in our own and 

 other countries. In many of the French towns there used, of old, to 

 be annually elected from among the burgeaaea, by the magistrates, an 

 AbW de Liesae (in Latin AUtai Lalitia), that is, an Abbot of Joy, who 

 acted for the year a* a sort of master of the revels, presiding over and 

 directing all their public shows. Among the retainer* of some gnat 

 families in England waa aa officer of a similar description, styled the 

 AMt of Misrule ; and in Scotland the Abbot of Unreason was, before 



the Reformation, a peraonage who acted a principal part in tin- 

 aiona of the populace, and one of those whom the zeal of the reforming 

 divines was most eager in proscribing. 



ABBREVIATION, a mathematical term, given to the process by 

 which a fraction i* reduced to lower term*. Thus, the division of the 

 numerator and denominator of JJ by 8, which reduce* it to 1, abbreviates 

 the fraction. 



ABBREVIATION, in music, is a kind of stenography, or short- 

 h .ui.l. which much diminishes the labour of the composer and copyist. 

 It frequently happens, not only that the same note is reiterated, but 

 that the same passage is repeated ; and the necessity of writing at length 

 such repetitions is avoided by the use of certain well-contrived and 

 simple abbreviations. Those moat commonly employed are : I. One 

 dash or more, through the stem of a minim or crochet, or under a 

 semibreve, by which such note is converted into as many quavers, 

 semiquavers, Ac., as it is equal to in time. Ex. 



E 



L 



are to be played thus, 



II. Two alternate notes, frequently repeated, are commonly abridged 

 in the following manner, 



III. The groups of notes called arpeggios are thus contracted, the 

 dash alone denoting repetition ; 



fr=gfl 



=7 



IV. The word limili (the same) signifies that the group of notes i* 

 to be repeated. Bit (twice) written over a bar, or a passage, denotes 

 repetition. 



ABBREVIATIONS, the shortening of a word or phrase, made either 

 by omitting some letters or words, or by substituting some arbitrary 

 mark. 



Abbreviations are of two kind*; first, those which are used in 

 familiar speech, by which two words are made one, as can't for can not, 

 won't for will not, &c., and those which are employed in writing only ; 

 our business is with the latter. 



Before the invention of printing, every expedient to abridge the 

 enormous labour of copying would be naturally adopted, ami the prin 

 ciple, once introduced, was followed where the necessity which led to 

 its first employment no longer existed. Latin inscriptions are not 

 unfrequently quite unintelligible to the best scholar who has not given 

 the subject his particular attention, and many are ambiguous even to 

 the most skilful. The most usual Latin abbreviation is the initial 

 letter instead of the whole word ; whether a name, a* M. for Marcus, 

 P. for Publius ; or a relation, a* F. for filius, a son ; or an officer, as C. 

 for consul, Qu. for quaestor, Ac. 



The Rabbins carried this practice to a great extent; and although, in 

 copying the Bible, they carefully abstained from abbreviations, their 

 other writings are filled with them. They even carried their abbre- 

 viations into their common tongue, and when they had contracted a 

 name or sentence, by taking the initials only, they made words of the 

 unconnected letters by the interposition of vowels. Thug, for U.iM.j 

 Levi ben Gerson, they took the first letters, R.L.B.G. ; and, by the 

 interposition of vowel*, made the word Ralbag. 



In the middle ages the practice of abbreviating increased ; and even 

 in printing, where the employment of contractions was much lea* 

 necessary, the old mode was by no mean* abandoned. Many writings 

 became unintelligible; and in matter* of law and government the 

 difficulties thus created demanded the interposition of Government. 

 An Act of Parliament was passed in the fourth year of George II., by 

 which the use of abbreviation* was altogether forbidden in legal 

 documents ; and although this was so far modified by another act, 

 within a year or two, allowing the use of those of common occurrence, 

 the old practice was never completely revived. A few only are still 

 employed, chiefly in titles, coinn, and commercial transactions; thu 

 moat important of which follow : 



TITLE*. 



A.A. Awoclate of Art*. A.M. Muter of Art*. 



A.B. Bachelor ot Aru. Abp. ArchbUhop. 



A.K.R.A. AMOcUtcd Engraver of the A.K.A. Awociitcof the Bx>y*l Academy. 

 Koyal Academy. Bp, Blnhop. 



