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Prior (Title loosely applied before)

a title loosely applied before the 13th century to any monk ranking above his fellows. Priors are now of two kinds: conventual and claustral.

A conventional prior is the head of a religious house, either independently, as among the Regular Canons, the Carthusians, and the Dominicans, or as superior of a cell or offshoot from some larger monastery. A claustral prior is appointed in houses in which the head is an abbot, to act as superior in the abbot's absence.