Mitred Abbot.
The commendatory abbots (abbates commendatarU; Fr. abbes commendataires), in France and England, were secular ecclesiastics, to whom abbeys were given in commendam, who enjoyed a portion of the revenues, together with certain honors, but-without jurisdiction
ABBOT
ABBREVIATION
over the inmates of the abbeys. This became latter- ly so common that most abbeys were thus held perpet- ually in cominendam. In England many abbots, among other privileges, had the right of sitting in the House of Lords. According to Fuller (Ch. Hist. b. vi, p. 292, ed. 1655), there were sixty-four abbots and thirty-six priors, besides the Master of the Temple summoned to Parliament, which he terms "a jolly number." Ed- ward III reduced them to twenty-six. In Germany, ten prince-abbots (of Fulda, Corvey, etc.) were mem- bers of the German Diet till 1803. See Bingham, Orig. Eccles. b. vii, ch. iii; Cone. Trident. Sess. xxv, and, for full details, Martene, De Ant. Monach. Bit. lib. v. The forms for the benediction of abbots (i. q. inauguration) are given in Boissonnet, Diet, des Cere- monies, i. 22 sq.
2. The title of Abbot is still used in some Protestant countries. - In Germany it is sometimes conferred upon divines, especially if they enjoy the revenues of former abbeys. Thus the late Professor Liicke of Gottingen was an abbot.
Abbot, Abiel, D.D., a Unitarian minister, born in Wilton, N. H., Dec. 14, 17G5. He graduated at Harvard, 1787, was assistant in the Phillips Andover Academy from 1787 to 1789, and became pastor of Cov- entry, Conn., 1795. Having been brought up a Trini- tarian Calvinist, Mr. Abbot became, 1792, a decided anti-Trinitarian, and, in 1811, was deposed by the Con- sociation of Tolland County from the ministry on ac- count of heretical doctrines. From Sept. 1811 to 1819, he had charge of Dummer Academy, and from 1827 to 1839 he was pastor of Peterborough, N. II. He re- ceived the degree of D.D. from Harvard in 1838, and died Dec. 31,1859. He published in 1811 a "State- ment of the Proceedings in his Church at Coventry which terminated in his Removed,'''' and some occasion- al pamphlets. — Sprague, Unitarian Pulpit, p. 229 sq.
Abbot, Abiel, D.D., a Unitarian minister, born at Andover, Mass., Aug. 17, 1770. He graduated at Harvard, 1792, and was pastor at Haverhill from 1794 to 1803, and at Beverley from 1803 until 1826. His health failing, he spent the winter of 1827-8 in Charles- ton, S. C, and in Cuba, but died just as the ship reached quarantine at New York, June 7, 1828. He was a man of taste and culture, and an eloquent preacher. His Letters from Cuba were published after his death (Boston, 1829, 8vo); and also a volume of Sermons, with a Memoir by Everett (Boston, 1831, 12mo). — Sprague, Unitarian Pulpit, p. 309 sq.
Abbot, George, D.D., Archbishop of Canterbury, brother of Robert (inf.), one of the translators of the English Bible, and a man of great ability and learning, •was born at Guildford, October 29, 1562, and entered at Baliol College, Oxford, in 1578 ; subsequently was made Master of University College, and, in 1599, Dean of Winchester. At the university he was first brought into contact with Abp. Laud, whose ecclesiastical schemes he opposed through life. In 1601, Dr. Abbot was the second of eight learned divines at Oxford, chosen by King James, to whom the care of trans- lating all (but the Epistles of) the New Testament was committed. In 1608, he assisted in a design to unite the churches of England and Scotland ; in which bis prudence and moderation raised him high in the favor of the king, who bestowed upon him successively the bishoprics of Lichfield (1609) and of London (1010). In 1611 his majesty elevated him to the See of Can- terbury. As archbishop, he had the courage to dis- please the king by opposing the Book of Sports, the divorce of the Countess of Essex, and the Spanish match. In 1627, he ventured the displeasure of Charles I, by refusing to license a sermon, which Dr. Sibthorpe had preached, to justify one of Charles's un- constitutional proceedings. For this act he was sus- pended from his functions, but was soon, though no; willingly, restored to them. A cause of deep sorrow
to him, in his latter days, was his having accidentally, while aiming at a deer, shot one of Lord Zouch's keep- ers, lie died in 1633. He was a Calvinist in theol- ogy, and, unfortunately, very intolerant toward Ar- minians and Arminianism. His Life, with that of his brother Thomas, was published at Guildford (1797. 8vo). His chief works are: Six L,ectures on Divinity (Oxford, 1598, 4to) ; Exposition of the Projilat Jon li (1600, 4to, new ed. Lond. 1845, 2 vols, with Life); A brief Description of the. World (Lond. 1617, 4to, et al.); Taatise of the perpetual Visibility and Succession of the trite Church (1624, 4to); Judgment of the Archbishop concerning Bowing at the Name of Jesus (Hamburg, 1632, 8vo). — Middleton, Evang. Biog. ; Collier, Eccl. Hist. vol. ii ; Neal, Hist, of Puriteins, i, 556 ; Mosheim, Ch. Hist, iii, 409.
Abbot, Robert, D.D., Bishop of Salisbury, was born at Guildford, in Surrey, in 1560, took the degrees of M.A. in 1582, and that of D.D. in 1597. He won the good opinion of James I by a work in confutation of Bellarmine and Suarez, in defence of the royal au- thority, and was soon after made Master of Baliol Col- lege, and Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford. As Vice-chancellor of the University, he favored the Cat vinistic theology, and opposed Laud to the utmost. In 1015 he was appointed by his brother (then Archbishop of Canterbury) to the bishopric of Salisbury, which, however, he enjoyed but a short time, and died on the 2d of March, 1617. His works are: 1. Mirror of Po- pish Subtilties (Lond. 1594, 4to) ; 2. Antichristi Demon- stratio, contra Fabulas Pontificias, etc. (1603, 4to) ; 3. Defence of the Reformed Catholic of W. Perkins against Dr. W. Bishop (1600, 1009, 4to); 4. The Old Way, a Sermon (1610, 4to) ; 5. The true Ancient Roman Catho- lic (1011, 4to) ; 6. Antilogia (against the Apology of the Jesuit Endemon, for Henry Garnett, 1613, <lto);