| Until the Reformation, the spiritual peerage also included abbots and priors, and spiritual peers formed a majority of the House of Lords. |
| I saw Roshi only at meals, which, unlike most abbots, he took with the monks. |
| As elsewhere in Europe, great bishops or abbots often belonged to royal or aristocratic families. |
| Thus at the first Council of Constantinople, AD 448, 23 archimandrites or abbots sign, with 30 bishops. |
| Most of the early medieval saints were bishops, abbots, and abbesses with an impeccable social pedigree. |
| The council was attended by 500 bishops, 70 abbots and over 1,000 other clergy. |
