Robert I, Prior of St Andrews
Robert I or Robert of Nostell was a 12th-century Anglo-Norman Augustinian churchman, the first prior of St Andrews. Robert came to the Kingdom of Scotland from Nostell Priory as head of a group of Nostell canons establishing St Andrews Cathedral Priory, he had been invited by Robert, Bishop of St Andrews, himself an ex-member of Nostell. Robert was established at St Andrews in 1140, but by 14 May 1144. Robert had come directly from Nostell, not via Scone Abbey. Walter Bower, writing in the 15th century, said that Robert died in 1162 and had charge of the priory for twenty-two years. According to the earlier and more reliable Melrose Chronicle, Robert died in 1160
St Andrews
St Andrews is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, 10 miles southeast of Dundee and 30 miles northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews has a recorded population of 16,800 in 2011, making it Fife's fourth largest settlement and 45th most populous settlement in Scotland; the town is home to the University of St Andrews, the third oldest university in the English-speaking world and the oldest in Scotland. According to some rankings, it is ranked as the third best university in the United Kingdom, behind Oxbridge; the University is an integral part of the burgh and during term time students make up one third of the town's population. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle. There has been an important church in St Andrews since at least the 747 AD when it was mentioned in the Annals of Tigernach, a bishopric since at least the 11th century; the settlement grew to the west of St Andrews cathedral with the southern side of the Scores to the north and the Kinness burn to the south. The burgh soon became the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland, a position, held until the Scottish Reformation.
The famous cathedral, the largest in Scotland, now lies in ruins. St Andrews is known worldwide as the "home of golf"; this is in part because The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, founded in 1754, which until 2004 exercised legislative authority over the game worldwide. It is because the famous St Andrews Links are the most frequent venue for The Open Championship, the oldest of golf's four major championships. Visitors travel to St Andrews in great numbers for several courses ranked amongst the finest in the world, as well as for the sandy beaches; the Martyrs Memorial, erected to the honour of Patrick Hamilton, George Wishart, other martyrs of the Reformation epoch, stands at the west end of the Scores on a cliff overlooking the sea. The civil parish has a population of 18,421; the town contains numerous museums, a botanic garden and an aquarium. The earliest recorded name of the area is Cennrígmonaid; this is Old Gaelic and composed of the elements ríg and monaid. This was Scoticised to Kilrymont.
The modern Gaelic spelling is Cill Rìmhinn. The name St Andrews derives from the town's claim to be the resting place of bones of the apostle Andrew. According to legend, St Regulus brought the relics to Kilrymont, where a shrine was established for their safekeeping and veneration while Kilrymont was renamed in honour of the saint; this is the origin of a third name for the town Kilrule. The first inhabitants who settled on the estuary fringes of the rivers Tay and Eden during the mesolithic came from the plains in Northern Europe between 10,000 and 5,000 BCE; this was followed by the nomadic people who settled around the modern town around 4,500 BCE as farmers clearing the area of woodland and building monuments. In the mid-eighth century a monastery was established by the Pictish king Oengus I, traditionally associated with the relics of Saint Andrew, a number of bones supposed to be the saints's arm, three fingers and a tooth believed to have been brought to the town by St Regulus. In AD 877, king Causantín mac Cináeda built a new church for the Culdees at St Andrews and the same year was captured and executed after defending against Viking raiders.
In AD 906, the town became the seat of the bishop of Alba, with the boundaries of the see being extended to include land between the River Forth and River Tweed. In 940 Constantine III took the position of abbot of the monastery of St Andrews; the establishment of the present town began around 1140 by Bishop Robert on an L-shaped vill on the site of the ruined St Andrews Castle. According to a charter of 1170, the new burgh was built to the west of the Cathedral precinct, along Castle Street and as far as what is now known as North Street; this means that the lay-out may have led to the creation of two new streets from the foundations of the new St Andrews Cathedral filling the area inside a two-sided triangle at its apex. The northern boundary of the burgh was the southern side of the Scores with the southern by the Kinness Burn and the western by the West Port; the burgh of St Andrews was first represented at the great council at Scone Palace in 1357. St Andrews, in particular the large cathedral built in 1160, was the most important centre of pilgrimage in medieval Scotland and one of the most important in Europe.
Pilgrims from all over Scotland came in large numbers hoping to be blessed, in many cases to be cured, at the shrine of Saint Andrew. The presence of the pilgrims brought about increased development. Recognised as the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland, the town now had vast economic and political influence within Europe as a cosmopolitan town. In 1559, the town fell into decay after the violent Scottish Reformation and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms losing the status of ecclesiastical capital of Scotland; the University of St Andrews was considering relocating to Perth around 1697 and 1698. Under the authorisation of the bishop of St Andrews, the town was made a burgh of barony in 1614. Royal Burgh was granted as a charter by King James VI in 1620. In the 18th century, the town was still in decline, but despite this the town was becoming known for having links'well known to golfers'. By the 19th century, the town began to expand beyond the original medieval boundaries with streets of new houses and town vi
St Andrews Cathedral
The Cathedral of St Andrew is a ruined Roman Catholic cathedral in St Andrews, Scotland. It was built in 1158 and became the centre of the Medieval Catholic Church in Scotland as the seat of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and the Bishops and Archbishops of St Andrews, it fell into disuse and ruin after Catholic mass was outlawed during the 16th-century Scottish Reformation. It is a monument in the custody of Historic Environment Scotland; the ruins indicate that the building was 119 m long, is the largest church to have been built in Scotland. The cathedral was founded to supply more accommodation than the older church of St. Regulus afforded; this older church, located on what became the cathedral grounds, had been built in the Romanesque style. Today, there remains the square tower, 33 metres high, the quire, of diminutive proportions. On a plan of the town from about 1531, a chancel appears, seals affixed to the city and college charters bear representations of other buildings attached. To the east is an older religious site, the Church of St Mary on the Rock, the Culdee house that became a Collegiate Church.
Work continued for over a century. The west end was blown down in a storm and rebuilt between 1272 and 1279; the Cathedral was completed in 1318 and featured a central tower and six turrets. On the 5th of July it was consecrated in the presence of King Robert I, according to legend rode up the aisle on his horse. A fire destroyed the building in 1378; the cathedral was served by a community of Augustinian Canons, the St Andrews Cathedral Priory, which were successors to the Culdees of the Celtic church. Greyfriar and Blackfriar friars had properties in the town by the late 15th century and as late as 1518. In June 1559 during the reformation, a Protestant mob incited by the preaching of John Knox ransacked the Cathedral, the interior of the building was destroyed; the Cathedral fell into decline following the attack and became a source of building material for the town. By 1561 it had been left to fall into ruin. At about the end of the sixteenth century the central tower gave way, carrying with it the north wall.
Afterwards large portions of the ruins were taken away for building purposes, nothing was done to preserve them until 1826. Since it has been tended with scrupulous care, an interesting feature being the cutting out of the ground-plan in the turf; the principal portions extant Norman and Early Scottish, are the east and west gables, the greater part of the south wall of the nave and the west wall of the south transept. At the end of the seventeenth century some of the priory buildings remained entire and considerable remains of others existed, but nearly all traces have now disappeared except portions of the priory wall and the archways, known as The Pends. St Rule's tower is located in the Cathedral grounds but predates it, having served as the church of the priory up to the early 12th century; the building was retained to allow worship to continue uninterrupted during the building of its much larger successor. The tower and adjoining choir were part of the church built in the 11th century to house the relics of St Andrew.
The nave, with twin western turrets, the apse of the church no longer stand. The church's original appearance is illustrated in stylised form on some of the early seals of the Cathedral Priory. Legend credits St Rule with bringing relics of St Andrew to the area from their original location at Patras in Greece. Today the tower commands an admirable view of the town, harbour and surrounding countryside. Beautifully built in grey sandstone ashlar, immensely tall, it is a land- and sea-mark seen from many miles away, its prominence doubtless meant to guide pilgrims to the place of the Apostle's relics. In the Middle Ages a spire atop the tower made it more prominent; the tower was ascended using ladders between wooden floors, but a stone spiral staircase was inserted in the 18th century. Roger de Beaumont William Wishart William de Lamberton William Fraser William de Landallis James Kennedy Andrew Forman Very Rev John Adamson DD John Anderson, Principal of St Leonards College Rev Alexander Anderson son of above Rev Prof George Buist DD Robert Chambers Rev Prof George Cook DD FRSE Rev Prof John Cook DD FRSE Rev Prof William Crawford DD father of Thomas Jackson Crawford Sir Robert Anstruther Dalyell Prof James Donaldson Adam Ferguson Andrew Forman Rev Prof James Gillespie Rev Prof Thomas Gillespie, Professor of Humanity Robert Haldane Thomas Halyburton Matthew Forster Heddle George Hill Prof Henry David Hill Rev Prof James Hunter Prof Thomas Jackson FRSE David Miller Kay, military hero and missionary Prof Peter Redford Scott Lang, mathematician Rev Prof John McGill LLD, translator of the Old Testament Norman MacLeod Young Tom Morris Old Tom Morris William Henry Murray Rev Francis Nicoll DD Principal of St Salvator's College, St Andrews Hugh Lyon Playfair Rev James Playfair
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the Province of York, which covers the northern regions of England as well as the Isle of Man; the Archbishop of York is an ex officio member of the House of Lords and is styled Primate of England. The archbishop's throne is in York Minster in central York and the official residence is Bishopthorpe Palace in the village of Bishopthorpe outside York; the incumbent, from 5 October 2005, is John Sentamu who signs as +Sentamu Ebor:. Six of the early bishops of York and one archbishop were canonised by the Roman Catholic Church, five more recent archbishops achieved the supreme Archbishopric of Canterbury. There was a bishop in Eboracum from early times. Bishops of York are known to have been present at the councils of Nicaea. However, this early Christian community was destroyed by the pagan Anglo-Saxons and there is no direct succession from these bishops to the post-Augustinian ones.
The diocese was refounded by Paulinus in the 7th century. Notable among these early bishops is Wilfrid; these early bishops of York acted as diocesan rather than archdiocesan prelates until the time of Ecgbert of York, who received the pallium from Pope Gregory III in 735 and established metropolitan rights in the north. Until the Danish invasion the archbishops of Canterbury exercised authority, it was not until the Norman Conquest that the archbishops of York asserted their complete independence. At the time of the Norman invasion York had jurisdiction over Worcester and Lincoln, as well as the dioceses in the Northern Isles and Scotland, but the first three sees just mentioned were taken from York in 1072. In 1154 the suffragan sees of the Isle of Man and Orkney were transferred to the Norwegian archbishop of Nidaros, in 1188 all the Scottish dioceses except Whithorn were released from subjection to York, so that only the dioceses of Whithorn and Carlisle remained to the archbishops as suffragan sees.
Of these, Durham was independent, for the palatine bishops of that see were little short of sovereigns in their own jurisdiction. Sodor and Man were returned to York during the 14th century, to compensate for the loss of Whithorn to the Scottish Church. Several of the archbishops of York held the ministerial office of Lord Chancellor of England and played some parts in affairs of state; as Peter Heylyn wrote: "This see has yielded to the Church eight saints, to the Church of Rome three cardinals, to the realm of England twelve Lord Chancellors and two Lord Treasurers, to the north of England two Lord Presidents." The bishopric's role was complicated by continued conflict over primacy with the see of Canterbury. At the time of the English Reformation, York possessed three suffragan sees, Durham and Sodor and Man, to which during the brief space of Queen Mary I's reign may be added the Diocese of Chester, founded by Henry VIII, but subsequently recognised by the Pope; until the mid 1530s the bishops and archbishops were in communion with the pope in Rome.
This is no longer the case, as the Archbishop of York, together with the rest of the Church of England, is a member of the Anglican Communion. Walter de Grey purchased York Place as his London residence, which after the fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, was renamed the Palace of Whitehall; the Archbishop of York is the metropolitan bishop of the Province of York and is the junior of the two archbishops of the Church of England after the Archbishop of Canterbury. Since 5 October 2005, the incumbent is the Most Reverend John Sentamu, an ex officio member of the House of Lords; the Province of York includes 10 Anglican dioceses in Northern England: Blackburn, Chester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and York, as well as 2 other dioceses: Southwell and Nottingham in the Midlands and Sodor and Man covering the Isle of Man. Accord of Winchester Story, Joanna. "Bede and the Letters of Pope Honorius I on the Genesis of the Archbishopric of York". English Historical Review. Cxxvii: 783–818. Doi:10.1093/ehr/ces142.
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Scotland
Scotland is a country, part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides; the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, thus forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain; the union created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland enacted a political union to create a United Kingdom.
The majority of Ireland subsequently seceded from the UK in 1922. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles and other royal symbols of statehood specific to the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland; the legal system within Scotland has remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The continued existence of legal, educational and other institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 union with England; the Scottish Parliament, a unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, was established in 1999 and has authority over those areas of domestic policy which have been devolved by the United Kingdom Parliament. The head of the Scottish Government, the executive of the devolved legislature, is the First Minister of Scotland. Scotland is represented in the UK House of Commons by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs.
Scotland is a member of the British–Irish Council, sends five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland is divided into councils. Glasgow City is the largest subdivision in Scotland in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. "Scotland" comes from the Latin name for the Gaels. From the ninth century, the meaning of Scotia shifted to designate Gaelic Scotland and by the eleventh century the name was being used to refer to the core territory of the Kingdom of Alba in what is now east-central Scotland; the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass most of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages, as the Kingdom of Alba expanded and came to encompass various peoples of diverse origins. Repeated glaciations, which covered the entire land mass of modern Scotland, destroyed any traces of human habitation that may have existed before the Mesolithic period, it is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, as the ice sheet retreated after the last glaciation.
At the time, Scotland was covered in forests, had more bog-land, the main form of transport was by water. These settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, the first villages around 6,000 years ago; the well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period. Neolithic habitation and ritual sites are common and well preserved in the Northern Isles and Western Isles, where a lack of trees led to most structures being built of local stone. Evidence of sophisticated pre-Christian belief systems is demonstrated by sites such as the Callanish Stones on Lewis and the Maes Howe on Orkney, which were built in the third millennium BCE; the first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Greek sailor Pytheas, who called the northern tip of Britain "Orcas", the source of the name of the Orkney islands. During the first millennium BCE, the society changed to a chiefdom model, as consolidation of settlement led to the concentration of wealth and underground stores of surplus food.
The first Roman incursion into Scotland occurred in 79 AD. After the Roman victory, Roman forts were set along the Gask Ridge close to the Highland line, but by three years after the battle, the Roman armies had withdrawn to the Southern Uplands; the Romans erected Hadrian's Wall in northern England and the Limes Britannicus became the northern border of the Roman Empire. The Roman influence on the southern part of the country was considerable, they introduced Christianity to Scotland. Beginning in the sixth century, the area, now Scotland was divided into three areas: Pictland, a patchwork of small lordships in central Scotland; these societies were based on the family unit and had sharp divisions in wealth, although the vast majority were poor and worked full-time in subsistence agriculture. The Picts kept slaves through the ninth century. Gaelic influence over Pictland and Northumbria was facilitated by the large number of Gaelic-speaking clerics working as missionaries. Operating in the sixth ce
Picts
The Picts were a confederation of peoples who lived in what is today eastern and northern Scotland during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval periods. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from the geographical distribution of Brittonic place name elements and Pictish stones; the name Picts appears in written records from Late Antiquity to the 10th century, when they are thought to have merged with the Gaels. They lived to the north of the rivers Forth and Clyde, spoke the Pictish language, related to the Celtic Brittonic language spoken by the Britons who lived to the south of them. Picts are assumed to have been the descendants of the Caledonii and other tribes that were mentioned by Roman historians or on the world map of Ptolemy. Pictland called Pictavia by some sources merged with the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata to form the Kingdom of Alba. Alba expanded, absorbing the Brittonic kingdom of Strathclyde and Northumbrian Lothian, by the 11th century the Pictish identity had been subsumed into the "Scots" amalgamation of peoples.
Pictish society was typical of many Iron Age societies in northern Europe, having "wide connections and parallels" with neighbouring groups. Archaeology gives some impression of the society of the Picts. While little in the way of Pictish writing has survived, Pictish history since the late 6th century is known from a variety of sources, including Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, saints' lives such as that of Columba by Adomnán, various Irish annals; the term Pict is thought to have originated as a generic exonym used by the Romans in relation to people living north of the Forth–Clyde isthmus. The Latin word Picti first occurs in a panegyric written by Eumenius in AD 297 and is taken to mean "painted or tattooed people". Pict is Peohta in Old English, Pecht in Scots and Peithwyr in Welsh; some think. In writings from Ireland, the name Cruthin, Cruthni, Cruithni or Cruithini was used to refer both to the Picts and to another group of people who lived alongside the Ulaid in eastern Ulster.
It is accepted that this is derived from *Qritani, the Goidelic/Q-Celtic version of the Britonnic/P-Celtic *Pritani. From this came Britanni, the Roman name for those now called the Britons. What the Picts called themselves is unknown, it has been proposed that they called themselves Albidosi, a name found in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba during the reign of Máel Coluim mac Domnaill, but this idea has been disputed. A unified "Pictish" identity may have consolidated with the Verturian hegemony established following the Battle of Dun Nechtain in 685 AD. A Pictish confederation was formed in Late Antiquity from a number of tribes—how and why is not known; some scholars have speculated that it was in response to the growth of the Roman Empire. The Chronicon Pictum, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the early histographers such as Isidore of Seville, Bede, Geoffrey of Monmouth, etc. all present the Picts as conquerors of Alba from Scythia. However, little credence is now given to that view. Pictland had been described by Roman writers and geographers as the home of the Caledonii.
These Romans used other names to refer to tribes living in that area, including Verturiones and Venicones. But they may have heard these other names only second- or third-hand, from speakers of Brittonic or Gaulish languages, who may have used different names for the same group or groups. Pictish recorded history begins in the Dark Ages. At that time, the Gaels of Dál Riata controlled what is now Argyll, as part of a kingdom straddling the sea between Britain and Ireland; the Angles of Bernicia, which merged with Deira to form Northumbria, overwhelmed the adjacent British kingdoms, for much of the 7th century Northumbria was the most powerful kingdom in Britain. The Picts were tributary to Northumbria until the reign of Bridei mac Beli, when, in 685, the Anglians suffered a defeat at the Battle of Dun Nechtain that halted their northward expansion; the Northumbrians continued to dominate southern Scotland for the remainder of the Pictish period. Dál Riata was subject to the Pictish king Óengus mac Fergusa during his reign, though it had its own kings beginning in the 760s, does not appear to have recovered its political independence from the Picts.
A Pictish king, Caustantín mac Fergusa, placed his son Domnall on the throne of Dál Riata. Pictish attempts to achieve a similar dominance over the Britons of Alt Clut were not successful; the Viking Age brought great changes in Britain and Ireland, no less in Scotland than elsewhere, with the Vikings conquering and settling the islands and various mainland areas, including Caithness and Galloway. In the middle of the 9th century Ketil Flatnose is said to have founded the Kingdom of the Isles, governing many of these territories, by the end of that century the Vikings had destroyed the Kingdom of Northumbria weakened the Kingdom of Strathclyde, founded the Kingdom of York. In a major battle in 839, the Vikings killed the King of Fortriu, Eógan mac Óengusa, the King of Dál Riata Áed mac Boanta, many others. In the aftermath, in the 840s, Cínaed mac Ailpín became king of the Picts. During the reign of Cínaed's grandson, Caustantín mac Áeda, outsiders began to refer to the region as the Kingdom of Alba rather than the Kingdom of the Picts, but it is not known whether this was because a new kingdom was established or Alba was a closer
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedicate his life to serving all other living beings, or to be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live his or her life in prayer and contemplation; the concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions and in philosophy. In the Greek language the term can apply to women, but in modern English it is in use for men; the word nun is used for female monastics. Although the term monachos is of Christian origin, in the English language monk tends to be used loosely for both male and female ascetics from other religious or philosophical backgrounds. However, being generic, it is not interchangeable with terms that denote particular kinds of monk, such as cenobite, anchorite, hesychast, or solitary. In Eastern Orthodoxy monasticism holds a special and important place: "Angels are a light for monks, monks are a light for laymen".
Orthodox monastics separate themselves from the world in order to pray unceasingly for the world. They do not, in general, have as their primary purpose the running of social services, but instead are concerned with attaining theosis, or union with God. However, care for the poor and needy has always been an obligation of monasticism, so not all monasteries are "cloistered"; the level of contact though will vary from community to community. Hermits, on the other hand, have little or no contact with the outside world. Orthodox monasticism does not have religious orders as are found in the West, nor do they have Rules in the same sense as the Rule of St. Benedict. Rather, Eastern monastics study and draw inspiration from the writings of the Desert Fathers as well as other Church Fathers. Hesychasm is of primary importance in the ascetical theology of the Orthodox Church. Most communities are self-supporting, the monastic’s daily life is divided into three parts: communal worship in the catholicon.
Meals are taken in common in a sizable dining hall known as a trapeza, at elongated refectory tables. Food is simple and is eaten in silence while one of the brethren reads aloud from the spiritual writings of the Holy Fathers; the monastic lifestyle takes a great deal of serious commitment. Within the cenobitic community, all monks conform to a common way of living based on the traditions of that particular monastery. In struggling to attain this conformity, the monastic comes to realize his own shortcomings and is guided by his spiritual father in how to deal with them. For this same reason, bishops are always chosen from the ranks of monks. Eastern monasticism is found in three distinct forms: anchoritic and the "middle way" between the two, known as the skete. One enters a cenobitic community first, only after testing and spiritual growth would one go on to the skete or, for the most advanced, become a solitary anchorite. However, one is not expected to join a skete or become a solitary. In general, Orthodox monastics have little or no contact with the outside world, including their own families.
The purpose of the monastic life is union with God, the means is through leaving the world. After tonsure, Orthodox monks and nuns are never permitted to cut their hair; the hair of the head and the beard remain uncut as a symbol of the vows they have taken, reminiscent of the Nazarites from the Old Testament. The tonsure of monks is the token of a consecrated life, symbolizes the cutting off of their self-will; the process of becoming a monk is intentionally slow, as the vows taken are considered to entail a lifelong commitment to God, are not to be entered into lightly. In Orthodox monasticism after completing the novitiate, there are three ranks of monasticism. There is only one monastic habit in the Eastern Church, it is the same for both monks and nuns; each successive grade is given a portion of the habit, the full habit being worn only by those in the highest grade, known for that reason as the "Great Schema", or "Great Habit". The various profession rites are performed by the Abbot, but if the abbot has not been ordained a priest, or if the monastic community is a convent, a hieromonk will perform the service.
The abbot or hieromonk who performs a tonsure must be of at least the rank he is tonsuring into. In other words, only a hieromonk, tonsured into the Great Schema may himself tonsure a Schemamonk. A bishop, may tonsure into any rank, regardless of his own. Novice, lit. "one under obedience"—Those wishing to join a monastery begin their lives as novices. After coming to the monastery and living as a guest for not less than three days, the revered abbot or abbess may bless the candidate to become a novice. There is no formal ceremony for the clothing of a novice, he or she simply
