Primicerius
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(Etymologically primus in cera, sc. in tabula cerata, the first in a list of a class of officials)
The term primicerius was applied in later Roman times to the head of any administration -- thus primicerius notariorum, primicerius protectorum etc. In ecclesiastical use the term was given to heads of the colleges of Notarii and Defensores, which occupied an important 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". Isidore of Seville treats of the obligations of the primicerius of the lower clerics in his "Epistola ad Ludefredum". 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.
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
[edit] References
- Le Blant, "Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule", I, 142, n. 45
- Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, "Glossarium"
- Gregory of Tours, "Hist. Francorum", II, xxxvii
- St. Isidore of Seville, "Epistola ad Ludefredum", P.L., LXXXIII, 896
