Primicerius
Primicerius
(Etymologically primus in cera, sc. in tabula cerata, the first in a list of a class of officials)
A term applied in later Roman times to the head of any administration—thus “primicerius notariorum”, “primicerius protectorum” etc. (cf. Forcellini, “Totius latinitatis Lexicon”, s.v.). In ecclesiastical use the term was given to heads of the colleges of Notarii and Defensores, which occupied so important a place in the administration of the Roman Church in later antiquity and in the early Middle Ages. When young clerics were assembled in schools for training in the ecclesiastical service in the different districts of the Western Church (from the fifth or sixth century), the directors of these schools were also commonly given this title. Thus, an inscription of the year 551 from Lyons mentions a “Stephanus primicerius scolae lectorum servientium in ecclesia Lugdunensi” (Le Blant, “Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule”, I, 142, n. 45; cf. similar notices in Ducange, “Glossarium”, s.v.; Gregory of Tours, “Hist. Francorum”, II, xxxvii). St. Isidore of Seville treats of the obligations of the primicerius of the lower clerics in his “Epistola ad Ludefredum” (P.L., LXXXIII, 896). From this position the primicerius also derived certain powers in the direction of liturgical functions. In the regulation of the common life of the clergy in collegiate and cathedral churches, according to the Rule of Chrodegang and the statutes of Amalarius of Metz, the primicerius appears as the first capitular after the archdeacon and archpresbyter, controlling the lower clerics and directing the liturgical functions and chant. The primicerius thus became a special dignitary of many chapters by a gradual development from the position of the old primicerius of the scola cantorum or lectorum.
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THOMASSINUS, Vetus et nova Ecclesiae disciplina, I (Lyons, 1700); GALLETTI, Del Primicerio di Santa Sede Apost. (Rome, 1776); PHILLIPS, Kirchenrecht, VI (Ratisbon, 1864), 343; KELLER, Die sieben rom. Pfalzrichter (Stuttgart, 1904).
J.P. KIRSCH Transcribed by Herman F. Holbrook Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus per Iesum Christum.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Primicerius
i.e. the chief of his order (from Lat. primus, first, and cera, wax), one whose name was first inscribed on the tablet of the church, which was covered with wax. The word does not always signify priority of power or jurisdiction; sometimes only priority of time, or precedency of honor or dignity in respect of place. Augustine calls Stephen primicerius martyirum. Bernard calls many primiceria virginitatis. The word is frequently met with in mediaeval Latin, and designates an officer in monasteries. In the Liber Ronmani Ordinis the duties of the office are thus described: Primicerius sciat se esse sub archidiacono, etc.: The primicerius must understand that he is subordinate to the archdeacon; and to his office it specially belongs to preside over the deacons during the time that they are communicating instruction; to maintain proper discipline, as one who must render account to God; to furnish the deacons with subjects on which they must discourse, etc. Du Cange gives various meanings of the term, dependent on the word with which it happens to be connected; as prinicesrius subdiaconorumn, notariorum, lectorum, etc. But in a more restricted sense, primicerius designates the holder of a chapter dignity, andis employed with this specific meaning in Chrodegang’s rule, and in the statutes of Amalarius, confirmed by the Synod of Aix-la-Chapelle in 817, where the primicerius appears at the head of the capitulary register, immediately after the archdeacon and archpresbyter. The functions of the primicerius were specially to instruct the deacons, subdeacons, and minorists in the choral song (hence his name of Praecentor; De consuet. 1, 4), in the liturgy, and in the functions of the Church; to inform the canons of the order of the office in the choir; to explain to the younger ones the management of the Breviary, etc. There is a very circumstantial enumeration of the duties of the primicerius in the Epistola Isidori Spal. ad Landefredum Cordub., De omnibus eccl. gradibus (comp. c. 1, 13. Dist. 25 and the fragment of the Ordo Ronanus in c. un. 10: De off. primicerii, 1, 25). When the archdeacons, in the progressive extension of their importance, obtained the lower jurisdiction over the priests and archpriests, the primicerius obtained also the full disciplinary power over the minorists. His situation in the chapter was therefore one of importance; it is sometimes called a dignity (De consuet. 1, 4), sometimes a personale (De constit. 1, 2), sometimes it is put simply among the offices (officia nudu). There was, in general, no unliform distribution of ranks in the different chapters. When the institution of the Minorites was suppressed, the office of the primicerius was also extinguished.