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What's the difference between I'm studying for a Social
Studies test. We learned both
the term abbot and bishop. I
am not sure what the
difference is or if they're
the same. Any answer helps!
Thanks =]
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A bishop runs a See, or geographical division of the church. An abbot is a monastic, who runs a monastery. |
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As was said a Bishop is in charge of a See (or a diocese). Diocese was a unit of organization in the Roman Empire, sort of like a County. When the early church grew up, each church selected someone to run that individual church, then they found they needed a level of organization above that, so the individual churches could work together. Since everybody already knew what the boundaries of each diocese was, they decided to use those boundaries, and the Bishops were put in charge of all the churches in a Diocese. (Above the Bishops are Archbishops, and above the Archbishops is the Pope. ) An Abbot runs a monastery. A Monastery is a community of Monks (though sometimes a group of Nuns will live in a Monastery, though the more proper word for that would be an Abbey). The Monks live together and take vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience. Monasteries normally include a farm of some kind so the Monks can raise their own food, but the Monks spend most of their time in prayer, doing religious studies (in the middle ages monasteries were pretty much the only libraries) or teaching (they often had schools attached) or caring for the sick (in the Middle Ages Monisteries did most of the "social services" work, in terms of caring for the sick, doing hospice care, or providing long term care to people who were mentally or physically challenged.) This may sound wierd, but most Monks weren't (and aren't) under the controll of the local Bishop. Monks follow their own rules, and the Church allows them to be largely self governing. Depending on which set of rules they follow (be it the ones written by St. Benedict, or St. Franics or St. Dominic) they are either the Benedictines, the Franciscians, or the Dominicans. Each group of Monks had a specialty. Dominicans tended to do teaching and preaching, (they were big in the foundation of the first Univesities). Francisicans tended to go in for Hospital and community service work. In the Middle Ages some Monasteries could be very very large, as people would die and leave some, or all, of their lands to the Monistary, so the income could be used to help the poor, and the Monks would pray for their souls. A few generations of this, and the lands began to pile up. Monasteries became major landholders, and they rarely, if ever, sold their land. I think something like 1/3 of England was owned by the Church in one form or another by the time of Henry VIII. That is one of the reasons Henry VIII had them shut down in England, he seized their land and distributed it to his supporters so as to gain more political support. |
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