ADVOCATE

advocate (ad-v<<schwa>>-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<< schwa>>-kayt), vb. advocacy (ad-v<<schwa>>-k<<schwa>>-see), n.
ADVOCATI ECCLESIAE
advocati ecclesiae (ad-v<<schwa>>-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-t<<schwa>>r), 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-t<<schwa>>s). [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<<schwa>>-kay-t<<schwa>>s 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-z<<schwa>>n).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 simple
estate 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).