|
Search over 100 encyclopedias and dictionaries: |
Research categories | Follow us on Twitter |
Research categories
View all topics in the newsView all reference sources at Encyclopedia.com |
|||
coarb
coarb (O.Ir. comarbae, ‘heir’, ‘successor’), a distinctive office of the later medieval church among the Gaelic Irish. In this period coarb appears interchangeable with erenach, denoting the episcopally nominated lay guardian of a parish church and headman of the family in hereditary occupation of church lands. The coarb, however, often had charge of a church which had held comparatively high rank in pre‐Norman Ireland, or one still possessed of relatively extensive termon lands. Comarbae, often coupled with a saint's name (e.g. Comarbae Pátraic, successor of Patrick, i.e. head of Armagh) in the annals from the 10th century, denoted the administrator of a (usually eminent) church who was not necessarily either in major orders or a monastic abbot. However, he and his church derived their legal status from the clerical grade (priestly or episcopal) associated with that church. The vernacular title and its Latin equivalent heres in law and hagiography of the 7th and 8th centuries seem, like erenach, to bespeak not secularized degeneration but recognition from the outset of the temporal dimension of ecclesiastical authority, which might be envisaged as an inheritance (orbae, whence comarbae). The pope was sometimes referred to as Comarbae Petair (Peter's heir).
Colmán Etchingham |
|
|
Cite this article
"coarb." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "coarb." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-coarb.html "coarb." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-coarb.html |
|
coarb
coarb. In Ireland, the ‘heir’ or successor of a saint who founded a church.
|
|
|
Cite this article
E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "coarb." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "coarb." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-coarb.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "coarb." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-coarb.html |
|
Search over 100 encyclopedias and dictionaries:
HighBeam™ Research, Inc. © Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
The Encyclopedia.com advertising network includes:
