Abbé

Abbé, originally the French name for an abbot, but often used in the general sense of a priest or clergyman. By a concordat between Pope Leo X. and Francis I. (1516), the French king had the right to nominate upwards of 200 Abbés commendataires, who, without having any duty to perform, drew a third of the revenues of their monasteries. They were not necessarily clergy, but were expected, unless exempted by a dispensation, to take orders. The hope of obtaining one of those sinecures led multitudes of young men, many of them of noble birth, to enter the clerical career, which, however, seldom went further than taking the inferior orders. They formed a considerable and influential class in society; and an abbé, distinguished by a short violet-coloured robe, was often found as chaplain or tutor in noble households, or engaged in literary work. This class of nominal clergy disappeared at the Revolution. But the word abbé is still applied in a vague and courteous sense to any ecclesiastical whatever.