Presbyter
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
An elder, priest, or dignitary in some denominations of the church. It is a legal dignity in the Established Church of Scotland.
Presbyterium
That part of the church where divine offices are performed; formerly applied to the choir or chancel, because it was the place appropriated to the bishop, priest, and other clergy, while the laity were confined to the body of the church. Jacob. Presbytery. In the Established Church of Scotland, a presbytery for a given district (which district is technically called "the bounds of the presbytery") is composed of the parochial ministers, together with one lay elder selected from the kirksession of each parish within the district, along with the professors of divinity (being ministers) of any university within such district. The number of parishes of which different presbyteries consist is arbitrary, and varies greatly in different instances. Each presbytery holds its meetings at stated times, which are presided over by its moderator. Presbyteries are invested with a certain secular, as well as with a spiritual, jurisdiction. Thej' are entitled to bring actions to recover property destined for the sustentation of the ministers, or otherwise claimed on behalf of the church, and to enforce upon the heritors the statutory burden of providing manses and glebes for the parish ministers, and maintaining the same in repair. Dune. Parochial Ecd. Law.