Rector
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): (n.) A clergyman who has the charge and cure of a parish, and has the tithes, etc.; the clergyman of a parish where the tithes are not impropriate. See the Note under Vicar.
(2): (n.) The chief elective officer of some universities, as in France and Scotland; sometimes, the head of a college; as, the Rector of Exeter College, or of Lincoln College, at Oxford.
(3): (n.) The superior officer or chief of a convent or religious house; and among the Jesuits the superior of a house that is a seminary or college.
(4): (n.) A clergyman in charge of a parish.
(5): (n.) The head master of a public school.
(6): (n.) A ruler or governor.
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [2]
A term applied to several persons whose offices are very different, as,
1. The rector of a parish is a clergyman that has the charge and care of a parish, and possesses all the tithes, &c.
2. The same name is also given to the chief elective officer in several foreign universities, and also to the head master of large schools.
3. Rector is also used in several convents, for the superior officer who governs the house. the Jesuits gave this name to the superiors of such of their houses as were either seminaries or colleges.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
(Lat. rector, a ruler), the title of several classes of clerical and collegiate officials, some of which are referred to under their respective heads.
1. As regards clerical rectors, the title, in its most ordinary English use, is applied to the clergyman who holds complete and independent charge of a parish. This use, however, is a departure from the canonical signification of the title, which meant rather a clergyman who was appointed to govern a parish where the chief parochial jurisdiction was vested in a religious corporation or in some non-resident dignitary. The office of vicar is an outgrowth of the rectorate, on the appropriation of benefices to monasteries and other religious houses of old; and the distinction between rector and vicar, which is therefore to be noticed here, is as follows: The rector has the right to all the ecclesiastical dues in his parish, whereas the vicar has generally an appropriator or impropriator over him, who is entitled to part of the profits, and to whom he is, in effect, only perpetual curate, with an appointment of glebe and generally one third of the tithes. (See Vicar).
2. In certain of the monastic orders, the name rector is given to the heads of convents, as it is
3. Also given to the heads of universities, colleges, seminaries, and similar educational corporate institutions.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [4]
A clergyman of the Church of England, who has a right to the great and small tithes of the living; where the tithes are impropriate he is called a vicar.
