ADVOCATE

ADVOCATE

advocate (ad-v-kit), n.1. A person who assists, defends, pleads, or prosecutes for

another.public advocate. An advocate who purports to represent the public at large in matters of

public concern, such as utility rates or environmental quality.

2.Civil & Scots law. A barrister; specif., a member of the Faculty of Advocates (the Scottish

counterpart of a barrister) or of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen (a society of solicitors). A

member of the Aberdeen society is designated advocate in Aberdeen. Cf. BARRISTER. 3.Hist.Eccles. law. A person who is trained in both canon and secular law and can (1) appear in an

ecclesiastical or admiralty court on another's behalf, and (2) give legal advice. Members of the

College of Advocates (also known as Doctors' Commons) bore the title of advocate. After the

dissolution of the College in 1857, the term became indistinguishably associated with barrister.

advocate (ad-v>-kayt), vb. advocacy (ad-v-k-see), n.

ADVOCATI ECCLESIAE

advocati ecclesiae (ad-v-kay-tI e-klee-z[h]ee-ee), n. pl.[Latin church advocates]

Hist. Eccles. law. 1. Church patrons who had a right to present a clerk to a benefice. See

ADVOWSON. 2. Legal advocates retained to argue cases relating to a church.

ADVOCATOR

advocator (ad-voh-kay-tr), n.[Law Latin] Hist. 1.A person who calls on another to

warrant a title. 2. A warrantor. 3. The patron of a benefice.

ADVOCATUS

advocatus (ad-voh-kay-ts). [Latin advocate] 1.Roman law. A legal adviser; a

person who assists clients with cases before judicial tribunals. Cf. CAUSIDICUS. 2.Hist. The

patron who has an advowson. Also termed advowee; avowee. See ADVOWSON. 3.Hist. A

person called on by another to warrant a title.ADVOCATUS ECCLESIAE

advocatus ecclesiae (ad-v-kay-ts e-klee-z[h]ee-ee). [Law Latin] Hist.

Eccles. law. The patron of a benefice.

ADVOUTRY

advoutry (ad-vow-tree), n.[Law French] Hist. Adultery between two married persons. Also spelled advowtry.

ADVOWEE

advowee (ad-vow-ee). A patron who holds an advowson; ADVOCATUS(2). Also spelled

avowee.

advowee paramount. The sovereign, or highest patron.ADVOWSON

advowson (ad-vow-zn).Eccles. law. The right of presenting or nominating a

person to a vacant be-nefice in the church. The person enjoying this right is called the patron

(patronus) of the church, and was formerly termed advocatus, the advocate or defender, or in

English, the advowee. The patron presents the nominee to the bishop (or, occasionally, another

church dignitary). If there is no patron, or if the patron neglects to exercise the right within six

months, the right lapses and a title is given to the ordinary (usu. the bishop) to appoint a cleric to

the church. Cf. PRESENTATION(2); INSTITUTION(5).

A right of presentation has always been regarded as a valuable object of a sale, a species of

real property which can be transferred and dealt with generally in the same way as a fee simpleestate in lands .... Thus an advowson may be conveyed away in fee simple, fee tail, for life or

years, or the conveyance may be limited to the right of next presentation or of a specified number of future presentations. G.C. Cheshire, Modern Law of Real Property 110 (3d ed. 1933).

An advowson is the perpetual right of presentation to an ecclesiastical living. The owner of

an advowson is known as the patron. When a living becomes vacant, as when a rector or vicar dies or retires, the patron of the living has a right to nominate the clergyman who shall next hold the

living. Subject to a right of veto on certain specified grounds, the Bishop is bound to institute

(formally appoint) any duly qualified person presented. This is a relic of the days when it was

common for the lord of a manor to build and endow a church and in return have the right of

patronage. Robert E. Megarry & P.V. Baker, A Manual of the Law of Real Property 414 (4th ed.

1969).