In the Church of England, the parish priest receiving full tithe rents; in other Anglican churches, generally a parish priest. In Roman Catholicism, the term denotes the priest in charge of a religious house, college, or school. In some countries (eg Scotland), it refers to the senior officer of a university, elected by students.
The word "rector" also appears in many modern languages, such as as Dutch and Spanish.
The term and office of a rector are called rectorate.
Academic rectors
The Rector is the highest academic official of many universities and certain other institutions of higher, sometimes even secondary, education.
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 follows suit in this practice, with the ancient universities being headed by a Chancellor, with the Lord Rector as an elected representative of students heading the university court.
Scotland
In Scotland, the position of Rector exists in the four ancient universities, which are the Universities of St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Whilst the chief executive of these universities is the Principal, 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.
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. 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, and the Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University also takes upon the role of Rector.
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;
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. Virginia Commonwealth University located in Richmond, Virginia the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia use of the term "Rector" to designate the head of the Board of Visitors;
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.
Canada
Queen's University is the only English-speaking post-secondary school in Canada to use the term "rector."
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;
Catholic Church
In the Catholic Church, a rector is a person who holds the office of presiding over an ecclesiastical institution.
The Canon law of the Catholic Church explicitly mentions as special cases three offices of rectors: rectors of seminaries (c. rectors of churches that do not belong to a parish, a chapter of canons, or a religious order (c.
Since the term rector refers to the function of the particular office, a number of officials are not called rector but nevertheless are rectors. 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.
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). In order to preserve their flexibility 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.
Orthodox Church in America
The priest in charge of a parish is called the Rector. *
Anglican churches
In the Anglican Churches, a rector is one type of parish priest. The rector was then responsible for the repair of the chancel of his church - the part dedicated to the sacred offices, while the rest of the building was the responsibility of the parish. This rectorial responsibility persists, in perpetuity, with the occupiers of the original rectorial land where it has been sold.
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, Praeses and Proconsul) 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 Contemporary charters in Latin used a number of additional styles for the Danish king Cnut (Canute the Great, with Norway as his third realm; Similar gubernatorial use or as Chief magistrate in city states in the Adriatic, also in the Italian form Rettore, includes: The Republic of Ragusa (presently Dubrovnik, in Croatian Dalmatia), was governed by a Rettore repeatedly: 1190 - 1194 between the sovereignty of the Norman Kingdom of "Sicily" (Naples) and Venetian sovereignty, annually elected, alongside the title Comes 1370 - 1808, alongside the title Duke or its Slavonic equivalent Knez, during periods of sovereignty of the Hungarian crown till 1458, then the Ottoman Sultan (formally 1526 - 1718), since 1684 under the joint 'protection' of Habsburg Austria's and the Ottoman Empire, then from 1798 under Austrian - and from 1806 under French occupation till incorporation in Napoleonic Illyria once more Rector 18 - 29 January 1814 Simone, conte de Giorgi, the last previous incumbent, during the short-lived restoration of the republic Primo Rettore, 8 September 1920 - 29 December 1920 Gabriele D'Annunzio (b. in Bohemia, two Rectors seated in the equivalent LandesvertretungCompound titles
To a rector who has resigned is often given the title rector emeritus.
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 essentially 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
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