Apparitor
apparitor
(Latin: public servant)
An officer of the former ecclesiastical courts, who acted as constable and sheriff. The Convocation of the Anglican Church still employs an official thus named.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Apparitor
The official name given to an officer in ecclesiastical courts designated to serve the summons, to arrest a person accused, and, in ecclesiastico-civil procedure, to take possession, physically or formally, of the property in dispute, in order to secure the execution of the judge’s sentence, in countries where the ecclesiastical forum, in its substantial integrity, is recognized. He thus acts as constable and sheriff. His guarantee of his delivery of the summons is evidence of the knowledge of the summoned of his obligation to appear, either to stand trial, to give testimony, or to do whatever else may be legally enjoined by the judge; his statement becomes the basis of a charge of contumacy against anyone refusing to obey summons.
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R.L. BURTSELL Transcribed by Tomas Hancil
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Apparitor
an officer who summons others to appear. Among the Romans this was a general term to comprehend all attendants of judges and magistrates appointed to receive and issue their orders (Smith’s Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v.). Similar is the duty of an ecclesiastical apparitor, who serves the process of a spiritual court: summons the clergy to attend visitations, calls over their names on such occasions, and assists the bishop or archdeacon in the business belonging to their respective courts. They seem to have originated in England from the synod of London, 1237. By Song of Solomon 8 of the Council of London, 1342, under Archbishop Stratford, it was ordered that each bishop should have only one riding apparitor, and each archdeacon one foot apparitor only.