The Collaborative International Dictionary
Claustral prior
Prior \Pri"or\, n. [OE. priour, OF. priour, prior, priur, F. prieur, from L. prior former, superior. See Prior, a.]
(Eccl.) The superior of a priory, and next below an abbot in dignity.
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a chief magistrate, as in the republic of Florence in the middle ages.
--[RHUD]Conventical prior, or Conventual prior, a prior who is at the head of his own house. See the Note under Priory.
Claustral prior, an official next in rank to the abbot in a monastery; prior of the cloisters.
Usage examples of "claustral prior".
To do this, he had to admit to the monastery's system of informers, a system maintained with a grim determination by the Claustral Prior, even in the face of the liberal monastic verities of St.