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> I'm reading about monastic houses at the moment and wondering about the > shades of meaning distinguishing the various designations for those > houses. Specifically, what differentiates: > > abbey, priory, convent, and monastery? Believe it or not, I thought I > knew, but the more I read the more confused I get. Dear Eric, It is my understanding that "monastery" and "convent" are very general terms for a community of monks or nuns, or for that matter, even regular canons. Usually, "convent" implies a house of nuns, but not necessarily. On the other hand, "abbey" and "priory" are rather more technical terms, but that does not stop many people from using them, particularly "abbey", in a rough-and-tumble general manner. An "abbey" is a monastic house ruled by an abbot or abbess; it is generally fairly self-contained institution, although usually under the authority of its diocesan bishop (there were papal imunities granted to episcopal control). A "priory", however, is not an independent community; it is ruled by a prior (or prioress?), who in an abbey is second in command to the abbot. A priory is, thus, dependent on an abbey, whose abbot is the superior of the prior in charge of the priory. The abbot of Cluny, for example, was the superior of all of the hundreds of priors in the Cluniac "daughter" houses. The real problem is that many people use these terms without any real understanding of their distinctions, and so one must decide in each case what meaning is being attached to them. And the situation is far from simple. Monastic establishments existed in a remarkably large variety of institutional forms. Cheers, Jim Bugslag %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%