medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Post medieval but the first example of 'Sir' that springs to mind is in Twelfth Night.
Certainly in the ecclesiastical documents priests are referred to as 'dominus' unless they are graduates, in which case they are 'magister'
Rosemary Hayes
Sent from my iPad
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
"Sir" was indeed the usual way of addressing or refering to a priest in the Middle Ages. Many, many examples can easily be found.
Gordon Plumb
Anglican Priest (and definitely NOT Protestant!)
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Chandler <
[log in to unmask]>
To: MEDIEVAL-RELIGION <
[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sat, Sep 14, 2019 1:27 am
Subject: Re: [M-R] addressing priests
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I think the short answer is "Sir" and equivalents. Even still in Italy, religious priests are called "Padre So-and-so" and diocesan priests "Don So-and-so", the equivalent of "Sir". From memory (sorry, I'm not near books) the use of Padre/Father
began with the Capuchins (so post-16th century) and spread to other religious-order priests and only quite late, as you say, also to diocesan clergy. There's an article by David Holmes which might be of interest, though it is from a contemporary Protestant,
not a medieval Catholic, perspective; there are a couple of further bibliographical indications:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I would think that finding the manner of address would have to appear in literary sources because you'd need samples of dialogue. What I have noticed is that when a priest is referred to in third person, he's usually referred to as "the priest
So-and-so" or "Such-and-such the priest." My impression from the Byzantine sources (and I can't think of anything specific off the top of my head aside from the Desert Fathers) is that the direct address would be "Father;" for a bishop it is, "Master."
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Greetings all,
How were priests addressed in the Middle Ages? I believe the Icelandic 'sera' comes from English (sira?) but today this is associate with knights, not priests. The best I could come up with was 'the Reverend' which is a bit clumsy, but may have to work.
'Father', it was pointed out to me, is 19th century. Any suggetions?
All the best,
Meg
********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to:
[log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to:
[log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to:
[log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to:
[log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
--
Paul Chandler, O.Carm.
Holy Spirit Seminary | PO Box 18 (487 Earnshaw Road) | Banyo Qld 4014 | Australia
office: (07) 3267 4804 | mobile: 044 882 4996
[log in to unmask]
********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to:
[log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to:
[log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to:
[log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to:
[log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to:
[log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask] To leave
the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to:
[log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion