Tonsure

Tonsure
Tonsure
A sacred rite instituted by the Church by which a baptized and confirmed Christian is received into the clerical order

Catholic Encyclopedia. . 2006.

Tonsure
    Tonsure
     Catholic_Encyclopedia Tonsure
    (Lat. tondere, "to shear")
    A sacred rite instituted by the Church by which a baptized and confirmed Christian is received into the clerical order by the shearing of his hair and the investment with the surplice. The person thus tonsured becomes a partaker of the common privileges and obligations of the clerical state and is prepared for the reception of orders. The tonsure itself is not an ordination properly so called, nor a true order. It is rather a simple ascription of a person to the Divine service in such things as are common to all clerics. Historically the tonsure was not in use in the primitive Church during the age of persecution. Even later, St. Jerome (in Ezech., xliv) disapproves of clerics shaving their heads. Indeed, among the Greeks and Romans such a custom was a badge of slavery. On this very account, the shaving of the head was adopted by the monks. Towards the end of the fifth, or beginning of the sixth, century, the custom passed over to the secular clergy.
    As a sacred rite, the tonsure was originally joined to the first ordination received, as in the Greek Church it still is to the order of lector. In the Latin Church it began as a separate ceremony about the end of the seventh century, when parents offered their young sons to the service of God. Tonsure is to be given by a candidate's ordinary, though mitred abbots can bestow it on their own subjects. No special age for its reception is prescribed, but the recipient must have learnt the rudiments of the Faith and be able to read and write. The ceremony may be performed at any time or place. As to the monastic tonsure, some writers have distinguished three kinds:
    (1) the Roman, or that of St. Peter, when all the head is shaved except a circle, of hair;
    (2) the Eastern, or St. Paul's, when the entire head is denuded of hair;
    (3) the Celtic, or St. John's, when only a crescent of hair is shaved from the front of the head. In Britain, the Saxon opponents of the Celtic tonsure called it the tonsure of Simon Magus. According to canon law, all clerics are bound to wear the tonsure under certain penalties. But on this subject, Taunton (loc.cit.inf.) says: "In English-speaking countries, from a custom arising in the days of persecution and having a prescription of over three centuries, the shaving of the head, the priestly crown, seems, with the tacit consent of the Holy See, to have passed out of use. No provincial or national council has ordered it, even when treating of clerical dress; and the Holy See has not inserted the law when correcting the decrees of those councils."
    TAUNTON, The Law of ihe Church (London, 1906), s.v.; GASPARRI, De sacra ordinatione, I (Paris, 1893); WERNZ, Jus Decretalium, II (Rome, 1899).
    WILLIAM H.W. FANNING
    Transcribed by John Fobian In memory of Donald Thomas

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII. — New York: Robert Appleton Company. . 1910.


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  • tonsuré — tonsuré, ée (ton su ré, rée) part. passé de tonsurer. •   Je demande un petit bénéfice au roi pour un fils de Mme de Montchevreuil qui a quinze ans, qui est tonsuré, MAINTENON Lett. à l abbé Gobelin, 1676, t. II, p. 57, dans POUGENS..… …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • tonsure — (n.) late 14c., shaving of the head or part of it as a religious rite, from Anglo Fr. tonsure (mid 14c.), from O.Fr. tonsure (14c.), from L. tonsura a shearing, clipping, from tonsus, pp. of tondere to shear, shave, from PIE *tend , from root… …   Etymology dictionary

  • tonsuré — Tonsuré. part. passif. Clerc tonsuré …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • tonsure — ► NOUN ▪ a part of a monk s or priest s head left bare on top by shaving off the hair. ► VERB ▪ give a tonsure to. ORIGIN Latin tonsura, from tondere shear, clip …   English terms dictionary

  • Tonsure — Ton sure, n. [F., fr. L. tonsura a shearing, clipping, from tondere, tonsum, to shear, shave; cf. Gr. ? to gnaw; perhaps akin to Gr. ? to cut, and E. tome.] 1. The act of clipping the hair, or of shaving the crown of the head; also, the state of… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • tonsure — [tän′shər] n. [ME < MFr < L tonsura < tonsus: see TONSORIAL] 1. a clipping off or shaving off of part or all of the hair of the head, done esp. formerly as a signal of entrance into the clerical or monastic state 2. the head area so… …   English World dictionary

  • Tonsure — Roman tonsure Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members. Tonsure, usually qualified by the name of the… …   Wikipedia

  • tonsure — /ton sheuhr/, n., v., tonsured, tonsuring. n. 1. the act of cutting the hair or shaving the head. 2. the shaving of the head or of some part of it as a religious practice or rite, esp. in preparation for entering the priesthood or a monastic… …   Universalium

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