What is "lords temporal"

Lord \Lord\, n. [OE. lord, laverd, loverd, AS. hl[=a]ford, for hl[=a]fweard, i. e., bread keeper; hl[=a]f bread, loaf + weardian to look after, to take care of, to ward. See Loaf, and Ward to guard, and cf. Laird, Lady.]

1. One who has power and authority; a master; a ruler; a governor; a prince; a proprietor, as of a manor.

   But now I was the lord Of this fair mansion.
   --Shak.

   Man over men He made not lord.
   --Milton.

2. A titled nobleman., whether a peer of the realm or not; a bishop, as a member of the House of Lords; by courtesy; the son of a duke or marquis, or the eldest son of an earl; in a restricted sense, a baron, as opposed to noblemen of higher rank. [Eng.]

3. A title bestowed on the persons above named; and also, for honor, on certain official persons; as, lord advocate, lord chamberlain, lord chancellor, lord chief justice, etc. [Eng.]

4. A husband. ``My lord being old also.''
   --Gen. xviii. 12.

   Thou worthy lord Of that unworthy wife that greeteth thee.
   --Shak.

5. (Feudal Law) One of whom a fee or estate is held; the male owner of feudal land; as, the lord of the soil; the lord of the manor.

6. The Supreme Being; Jehovah.

   Note: When Lord, in the Old Testament, is printed in small capitals, it is usually equivalent to Jehovah, and might, with more propriety, be so rendered.

7. (Christianity) The Savior; Jesus Christ. House of Lords, one of the constituent parts of the British Parliament, consisting of the lords spiritual and temporal. Lord high chancellor, Lord high constable, etc. See Chancellor, Constable, etc. Lord justice clerk, the second in rank of the two highest judges of the Supreme Court of Scotland. Lord justice general, or Lord president, the highest in rank of the judges of the Supreme Court of Scotland. Lord keeper, an ancient officer of the English crown, who had the custody of the king's great seal, with authority to affix it to public documents. The office is now merged in that of the chancellor. Lord lieutenant, a representative of British royalty: the lord lieutenant of Ireland being the representative of royalty there, and exercising supreme administrative authority; the lord lieutenant of a county being a deputy to manage its military concerns, and also to nominate to the chancellor the justices of the peace for that county. Lord of misrule, the master of the revels at Christmas in a nobleman's or other great house. --Eng. Cyc. Lords spiritual, the archbishops and bishops who have seats in the House of Lords. Lords temporal, the peers of England; also, sixteen representative peers of Scotland, and twenty-eight representatives of the Irish peerage. Our lord, Jesus Christ; the Savior. The Lord's Day, Sunday; the Christian Sabbath, on which the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. The Lord's Prayer, (Christianity) the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples, also called the Our Father. --Matt. vi. 9-13. The Lord's Supper.

   1. The paschal supper partaken of by Jesus the night before his crucifixion.

   2. The sacrament of the eucharist; the holy communion. The Lord's Table.

      1. The altar or table from which the sacrament is dispensed.

      2. The sacrament itself.

Temporal \Tem"po*ral\, a. [L. temporalis, fr. tempus, temporis, time, portion of time, the fitting or appointed time: cf. F. temporel. Cf. Contemporaneous, Extempore, Temper, v. t., Tempest, Temple a part of the head, Tense, n., Thing.]

1. Of or pertaining to time, that is, to the present life, or this world; secular, as distinguished from sacred or eternal.

   The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
   --2 Cor. iv. 18.

   Is this an hour for temporal affairs?
   --Shak.

2. Civil or political, as distinguished from ecclesiastical; as, temporal power; temporal courts.

   Lords temporal. See under Lord, n.

   Temporal augment. See the Note under Augment, n.

   Syn: Transient; fleeting; transitory.

n. the second estate of the realm: the nobility (especially British nobility) of the rank of duke or marquess or earl or viscount or baron [syn: second estate]

In the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Lords Temporal are secular members of the House of Lords. The term is used to differentiate these members—who are either life peers or hereditary peers, although the hereditary right to sit in the House of Lords was abolished for all but ninety-two peers in 1999—from the Lords Spiritual, who sit in the House as a consequence of being bishops in the Church of England.

Before the recent reform of the House of Lords, all peers were (potentially) members of the House of Lords, and all were Lords Temporal in this sense. The ongoing reforms limit membership in the Lords to life peers and a number of elected hereditary peers.

The Lords Temporal are all members of the Peerage. Formerly, they were all hereditary peers. The right of some hereditary peers to sit in Parliament was not automatic: after Scotland and England united into Great Britain in 1707, it was provided that all peers whose dignities had been created by English Kings could sit in Parliament, but those whose dignities had been created by Scottish Kings were to elect a limited number of "representative peers". A similar arrangement was made in respect of the Ireland when that nation merged with Great Britain in 1801, but when the Irish Free State left the United Kingdom in 1922, the election of Irish representative peers ceased. By the Peerage Act 1963, the election of Scottish representative peers also ended, and all Scottish peers were granted the right to sit in Parliament. Under the House of Lords Act 1999, only life peerages automatically entitle their holders to seats in the House of Lords. Of the hereditary peers, only 92 – the Earl Marshal, the Lord Great Chamberlain and 90 elected by other peers – retain their seats in the House.

Category:House of Lords Category:Constitution of the United Kingdom