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The word rector ("ruler," from the Latin regere) has a number of different meanings, but all of them indicate someone who is in charge of something.

The word "rector" also appears in many modern languages, such as as Dutch and Spanish. In Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish and Polish, the spelling is Rektor; in Italian, Rettore, in Portuguese, Reitor and in Finnish Rehtori.

The term and office of a rector are called rectorate.

Rector is also a surname in English speaking countries.

Academic rectors

The Rector is the highest academic official of many universities and certain other institutions of higher, sometimes even secondary, education.

The title is used widely in universities across Europe, including Italy, Germany, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Benelux, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Scotland. It is also very common in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brasil, Mexico and Peru. At some universities it is phrased in a loftier manner, as Rector Magnificus or Lord Rector.

A notable exception to this terminology was England, where universities were traditionally headed by a "Chancellor", and this designation followed in the Commonwealth, USA and other countries under Anglo-Saxon influence.

Scotland

In Scotland, the position of Rector exists in the four ancient universities, which are the Universities of St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Dundee, technically an 'ancient university' owing to its separation from the University of St Andrews, also follows this tradition.

The post (officially Lord Rector, but by normal use Rector alone) was made an integral part of these universities by the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889. Whilst the chief executive of these universities is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor, the Rector chairs meetings of the University Court, the governing body of the university, and is elected at regular intervals by their matriculated student bodies. This role is considered by many students to be integral to their ability to shape the universities' agendas. To some extent the office has evolved into more of a figurehead role, but given recent threats to the status of the Rector as the chair of the Court, and the value placed upon this role, there has been a resurgence of interest in recent years in the idea of electing more respected, experienced figures. This is because students have come to realise the importance of electing people who are competent and could be taken seriously, and that not treating the position with respect would make it far easier to argue for the status of the Rector as chair of the Court to be discontinued. Nonetheless, a significant number of celebrities have often been elected as Rectors, such as Lorraine Kelly at Dundee, Clarissa Dickson-Wright at Aberdeen, and John Cleese and Frank Muir at St. Andrews.

Gordon Brown, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, was Rector of Edinburgh University while a student there, but since then most universities have amended their procedures to forbid currently matriculated students from standing for election.

The head teacher of a Scottish secondary school is in many cases known as its Rector.

England

At Oxford and Cambridge, English universities headed by chancellors, most colleges are headed by a master. At a few colleges, this role is instead played by a president or a warden; and at two of the Oxford colleges - Lincoln College and Exeter College - the head is called a rector.

At University of London, the head of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine is called a Rector as well.

The European continent

The head of Dutch and German universities is called rector magnificus, as in some Belgian universities (notably the oldest and largest, KULeuven).

In some countries, including Germany, the position of head teacher in a secondary school is also designated as Rector, however, the position of head teacher in a German Gymnasium school is called Studiendirektor or Oberstudiendirektor. In the Netherlands (aside from Dutch-speaking Flanders), Rector or often Conrector (literally co-Rector; not necessarily collegial, sometimes assistant head) is used commonly, as in some Maltese and Dutch secondary schools.

The United States

Most US colleges use the titles 'president' for the chief executive of the college and 'chairman of the board of trustees' for the head of the body that legally "owns" the college. The terms "president" and term "chancellor" are used for the chief executive of universities and university systems, depending on the school's own statutes (some university systems run by state governments have both presidents of constituent colleges and a chancellor of the overall system). However there are several notable exceptions: the University of Virginia employs the term "rector"; Virginia Commonwealth University located in Richmond, Virginia and the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia use of the term "Rector" to designate the head of the Board of Visitors; however, William and Mary also has a "Chancellor" who acts in a ceremonial capacity.

Several Catholic colleges and universities, particularly those run by religious orders of priests (for instance, the Jesuits) formerly employed the term "rector" to refer to the school's chief officer. In many cases, he was also the head of the community of priests assigned to the school, and so the two posts -- head of the university and local superior of the priests -- were merged in his person (See Ecclesiastical rectors below). This practice is no longer followed as the details of the governance of most of these schools has changed.

Canada

Queen's University is the only English-speaking post-secondary school in Canada to use the term "rector." In Queen's case the term applies to a member of the student body elected to work as an equal beside the Chancellor and Principal.

The term "recteur" is used in French Canadian universities (e.g., Université de Montréal) to designate the head of the institution.

India

The heads of certain Indian Boarding schools are called Rectors.

Ecclesiastical rectors

In ancient times bishops as rulers of cities and provinces, especially in the Papal States, were called rectors; also administrators of the patrimony of the Church (e.g. rector Siciliæ).
Rector is used by pope Gregory the Great in the "Regula Pastoralis" as equivalent to pastor.

Catholic Church

In the Catholic Church, a rector is a person who holds the office of presiding over an ecclesiastical institution. This institution might be a particular building—like a church or shrine—or it could also be an organization, such as a parish, a mission or quasi-parish, a seminary or house of studies, a university, a hospital, or a community of clerics or religious.

The Canon law of the Catholic Church explicitly mentions as special cases three offices of rectors: rectors of seminaries (c. 239 & c. 833 #6); rectors of churches that do not belong to a parish, a chapter of canons, or a religious order (c. 556–553); and rectors of Catholic universities (c. 443 §3 #3 & c. 833 #7). However, these are not the only officials that function as a rector.

Since the term rector refers to the function of the particular office, a number of officials are not called rector but nevertheless are rectors. The diocesan bishop, for instance, is himself a rector, since he presides over both an ecclesiastical organization (the diocese) and an ecclesiastical building (his cathedral). In many dioceses, the bishop delegates the day-to-day operation of the cathedral to a priest, who is often called a rector but whose specific title is plebanus or "people's pastor", especially if the cathedral is also a parish. As further example, the pastor of a parish (parochus in Latin) is rector over both his parish and the parish church. Finally, a president of a Catholic university is rector over the university and, if a priest, often the rector of any church that the university may operate (c. 557 §3).

In some religious congregations of priests, rector is the title of the local superior of a house or community of the order (for instance, a community of several dozen Jesuit priests might include the pastor and priests assigned to a parish church next door, the faculty of a Jesuit high school across the street, and the priests in an administrative office down the block, but the community as a local installation of Jesuit priests is headed by a rector).

Rector general is the title given to the superior general of certain religious orders, e.g. the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God.

There are some other uses of this title, for instance for residence hall directors at the University of Notre Dame which were once (and to some extent still are) run in a seminary-like fashion. This title is used similarly at the University of Portland, another institution of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

The pope has been called rector of the world, in the (now discontinued) conferring of the papal tiara as part of his formal installation after election.

A now obsolete use of the term occurred in the United States prior to the formulation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law. Canon Law grants a type of tenure to pastors (parochus) of parishes, giving them certain rights against arbitrary removal by the bishop of their diocese. In order to preserve their felxibility and authority in assigning priests to parishes, bishops in the United States until that time did not actually appoint priests as pastors, but as "permanent rectors" of their parishes: the "permanent" gave the priest a degree of confidence in the security in his assignment, but the "rector" rather than "pastor" preserved the bishop's absolute authority to reassign clergy. Hence, many older parishes list among their early leaders priests with the postnominal letters "P.R." (as in, a plaque listing all of the pastors of a parish, with "Rev. John Smith, P.R."). This practice was discontinued and today priests are normally assigned as pastors of parishes, and bishops in practice (though there are still questions about the canonical legality of this) reassign them at will.

Orthodox Church in America

The priest in charge of a parish is called the Rector. *http://www.oca.org/DIRlisting.asp?SID=9&KEY=OCA-WA-NYCSMM

Anglican churches

In the Anglican Churches, a rector is one type of parish priest. For historical reasons, some parish priests in the Church of England are called by this term while others are called vicars. Roughly speaking, the distinction was that the rector directly received the tithes of his parish, while a vicar was paid instead a salary (sometimes by the diocese).

The term has been re-used to designate the priest in charge of a team ministry (See also curate.)

In the Church of Ireland, Scottish Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada, most parish priests are called rectors, not vicars. In the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, "rector" is usually used for the priest in charge of a self-sustaining parish while the priest who heads a mission—a congregation supported by the diocese—is generally called a vicar.

In schools affiliated with the Episcopal Church the title "rector" is sometimes used at secondary schools and boarding schools, where the headmaster is often a priest.

Rectorates in politics and administration

*Rector provinciae was the Latin generic term for the governor of a Roman province, known since Suetonius, and specifically a legal term (as used in the Codices of the Emperors Theodosius and Justinianus) since Emperor Diocletian's Tetrarchy (when they came under the administrative authority of the Vicarius of a diocese and these under a Pretorian prefect), regardless of the specific titles (of different rank, such as Consularis, Corrector provinciae, Proconsul, Praeses)
*For the use of the style duke and rector of Burgundy by the Zähringer dynasty claimants to viceregal powers as Regent in the Arelat kingdom of Burgundy within the Holy Roman Empire, see King of Burgundy#Rectorate of Burgundy
*The Comtat Venaissin in southern France was administered by a Rector since it became a papal possession till 1790 (on 24 May its States General -representative assembly- proclaims a constitution, but remains loyal to the pope).
*Similar gubernatorial use or as Chief magistrate in city states in the Adriatic, also in the Italian form Rettore, includes:
**The Republic of Ragusa, which was governed by a Rettore
**Primo Rettore, 8 September 1920 - 29 December 1920 Gabriele D'Annunzio (b. 1863 - d. 1938) (formerly Italian Commander) in Fiume
*In a few 'Crown lands' of the Austrian Empire, one seat in the Landtag (regional legislature of semi-feudal type) was reserved for the Rector of the capital's university, notably: Graz in Steiermark (Styria), Innsbruck in Tirol, Wien (Vienna) in Nieder-Österreich (Lower Austria); in Bohemia, two Rectors seated in the equivalent Landesvertretung

Compound titles

To a rector who has resigned is often given the title rector emeritus. One who supplies the place usually occupied by a rector is styled pro-rector (in parishes, administrator).

Deputies of rectors in institutions are known as vice-rectors (in parishes, as curates, assistant, or associate, rectors, etc.). In some universities the title vice-rector has, like vice-chancellor in many Anglo-Saxon cases, been used for the de facto head when the essentialy honorary title of rector is reserved for a high externa dignitary- until 1920, there was such a vice-recteur at the Parisian Sorbonne as the French Minister of Education was its nominal Recteur

Sources and references

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*Pauly-Wissowa (in German, on Antiquity)
*Austria-Hungary Empire in German (use English and French translations with due caution)

Category:Anglicanism
Category:Anglican ecclesiastical offices
Category:Catholic Priesthood
Category:Ecclesiastical titles

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Category:Canon law (Catholic Church)