Apparitor

Apparitor an officer who summons others to appear. Among the Romans this was a general term to comprehend all attendants of judges and magistrates appointed to receive and issue their orders (Smith's Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v.). Similar is the duty of an ecclesiastical apparitor, who serves the process of a spiritual court: summons the clergy to attend visitations, calls over their names on such occasions, and assists the bishop or archdeacon in the business belonging to their respective courts. They seem to have originated in England from the synod of London, 1237. By can. 8 of the Council of London, 1342, under Archbishop Stratford, it was ordered that each bishop should have only one riding apparitor, and each archdeacon one foot apparitor only.