▪ I. convent, n.
(ˈkɒnvənt)
Forms: α. 3–7 covent, (3 kuuent), 5–6 covente, 5 couvent; β. 6– convent.
[ME. a. AF. covent, cuvent, couvent = OF. convent, mod.F. couvent = Pr. covent, Cat. couvent, Sp. and It. convento:—L. convent-um (u- stem) assembly, company, f. convenīre to come together, convene. In OF. usually spelt convent, but already in 16th c. pronounced couvent, to which the spelling was conformed in the Academy's Dict. after the first ed. In England on the contrary the latinized spelling convent was introduced c 1550, and by c 1650 superseded the M.E. form; the latter remains in Covent Garden. Cotgr. 1611 has ‘convent, a couent’; mod.F. dictionaries have couvent, a convent.]
† 1. An assemblage or gathering of persons; a number met together for some common purpose; an assembly, meeting, convention, congregation.
| α a 1300 Cursor M. 18349 (Cott.) Þan cried dauid wit steuen strang..Þan ansuerd all þat clene couent. 1382 Wyclif Ps. lxiii. 3 [lxiv. 2] Thou hast defendid me fro the couent of warieris. 1382 ― Jas. ii. 2 If ther shal entre in to ȝoure couent, or gedering to gydere, a man, etc. 1484 Caxton Curiall 9 The courte is a couente of peple that vnder fayntyse of comyn wele assemble hem to-gydre. 1565 Jewel Def. Apol. (1611) 27 As for your Councell of Trident, God wot, it was a silly Couent. 1625 Bp. R. Montagu App. Cæsar. i. 7 A classical Dictator amongst the Covent. |
| β a 1534 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. I. 47 Throughe the recours and convents of merchants. 1590 Greene Mourn. Garm. (1616) 21 The King, fearing some man-slaughter would grow vpon these amorous conuents, and that Rosamond like a second Helena would cause the ruine of Thessaly. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 352 In the convent of other witches. 1661 Bramhall Just Vind. ix. 247 We believe that Conuent of Trent to haue been..no lawfull Councel. |
† b. transf. of things.
Obs.| 1578 Banister Hist. Man i. 16 As touchyng the conuent of Veynes and Arteries, within the inner scope..of the head. |
† 2. A company;
spec. the company of the twelve apostles;
cf. 3 b.
Obs.| 1426 Audelay Poems 21 When he dyd wesche hem, And knelud lowly apon his knen to-fore his blessid covent. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 266 b, The poore vnlerned fysshers, Peter, John, Andrewe, and James, and the resydue of y⊇ holy couent. Ibid. 284 His couent the holy apostles. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. John 105 b, Neuer one of his couente or felowship hath perished excepte one. |
3. A company of men or women living together in the discipline of a religious order and under one superior; a body of monks, friars, or nuns forming one local community.
Often applied to the brethren or sisters exclusively of the superior.
| α c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 71/25 Seint Wolston..was imaked prior of þat hous..his Couent he wuste swyþe wel and to alle guodnesse hem drouȝ. c 1300 St. Brandan 267 Tho seȝe hi come a fair covent, and a croice to⁓fore hem bere. c 1386 Chaucer Prioress' T. 185 Thabbot with his couent hath sped him for to burie him ful fast. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xx. 210 Euery day, whan the covent of this Abbeye hath eten. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 1514 Saynt Audry, than abbesse, toke her holy couent And mette the sayd kynge. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, iv. ii. 19. 1636 Prynne Remonstr. agst. Shipmoney 7 The Abbot without the Covent, the Master of the Colledge without the Fellowes. a 1659 Cleveland Rust. Rampant Wks. (1687) 466 This..was the answer of the Covent. |
| β 1689 Burnet Tracts I. 36 He immediately called the Convent together. |
† b. A company of twelve (or, including the superior, thirteen) ‘religious’ persons, whether constituting a separate community or a section of a larger one.
Obs. The number is believed to refer to the company of the Apostles with their Master (see sense 2), and was apparently of later introduction into conventual organization. Thorne (14th c.) says of
St. Augustine's, Canterbury, ‘Anno Domini mcxlvi. iste Hugo reparavit antiquum numerum monachorum istius monasterii, et erant lx monachi professi præter abbatem, hoc est, quinque conventus in universo’ (
Decem Scriptores 1652, col. 1807).
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 286/304 A frere prechur of boloygne..hadde a couent of freres..his twelf freres bi-fore him comen, him-seolf was þe þretteþe. c 1386 Chaucer Sompn. T. 550 (Harl. MS.) And bring me xij freres wit ȝe why For þrettene is a couent as I gesse [so 4 texts: Ellesm. & Lansd. For twelue is a Couent as I gesse]. 1536 in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. xxxv. 274 All..houses of religion..whereof the number in any one house is or of late hath been less than a covent, that is to say, under 13 persons. |
4. An institution founded for the living together of a number of ‘religious’ persons, monks, friars, nuns, etc.
| α a 1225 Ancr. R. 12 Þus hit is i kuuent. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 207 Riȝt so be religioun it roileþ and steruiþ, Þat out of couent and cloistre coueiten to libben. 1531 Dial. on Laws Eng. ii. xxxvii. (1638) 128 Abbies and Priories, and other houses that have colledge and covent. 1665 J. Webb Stone-Heng (1725) 95 The Covent of Charity of the Canons regular at Venice. 1679 Hist. Jetzer 2 He intreated the Fathers..to Receive him into their Covent. |
| β a 1699 A. Halkett Autobiog. (1875) 5 Go immediately and putt himselfe in a Conventt. 1708 Swift Abol. Chr. Wks. 1755 II. i. 91 Convents..which are so many retreats for the speculative, the melancholy, the proud, the silent, the politick, and the morose. 1865 Morning Star 4 Aug., During the present week a second convent of nuns has been established in the suburbs of York. 1871 Morley Voltaire (1886) 196 Voltaire often compared the system of life at Berlin..to that of a convent, half military, half literary. |
‖ b. As a translation of
Germ. kloster, the name of some Lutheran ecclesiastical corporations, retaining the property and some features of the constitution of pre-Reformation convents.
| 1762 tr. Busching's Syst. Geog. VI. 343 The convent consists of a Lutheran abbot, a prior, and four conventuals. |
5. The building or set of buildings occupied by such a religious community.
| α 1528 Roy Rede me (Arb.) 82 Fryers..in coventis whereas they are, Thycke mantels of fryse they weare. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 180 Virgins who neuer past the bounds of their Couents. 1641 Milton Animadv. (1851) 217 The building of Churches, Cloysters, and Covents. |
| β 1686 J. S[ergeant] Hist. Monast. Conventions A vja, The places..were called Monasteries, Convents, or Cloisters. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 104 The white towers of a convent peeped out from among the thick mountain foliage. 1851 Longfellow Gold. Leg. 28 Out of his convent of gray stone..Walked the Monk Felix. |
6. In senses 4 and 5 the word is often popularly restricted to a convent of women, a nunnery, a convent of men being distinguished as a
monastery; but this is not warranted by historical usage.
| 1795 J. Trusler Words esteemed Synonymous II. 66 Cloister is a general term..Convent is..a religious house for nuns, and monastery for monks or friars. 1814 Stratford de Redcliffe in S. Lane-Poole Life (1888) I. 204 Tell me whether I am right in suspecting that San Lucar is a convent, and not a monastery. 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. v. 196 No woman could obtain permission to come into the monastery of the men; none of the men to come into the convent of the women. |
7. Applied to a Buddhist or other non-Christian monastic institution:
cf. monastery.
| 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 115 Their Priests..liue an hundreth or two hundreth of them together in one cloister or couent. 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 532/1 Convents for priests, as well as nunneries, exist in all countries where Buddhism has been introduced. |
† 8. An administrative division of a province.
Obs. rare—1. [
cf. med.L.
conventus ‘districtus, diœcesis episcopi’ (Du Cange).]
| 1658 Ussher Ann. vi. 594 Pontus..being added to Galatia, and divided into eleven Convents, was called by the name of Bithynia. |
9. attrib. and
Comb. (in senses 3–5), as
convent-cell,
convent-chanting,
convent-crowned,
convent-prayer,
convent-roof,
convent-seal;
convent-bred a., educated in a convent or nunnery;
† convent-loaf, ? same as
chapter-bread.
| 1886 Q. Rev. Apr. 529 *Convent-bred demoiselles. |
| 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles vi. vi., The cheerless *convent-cell. |
| 1847 Emerson Poems (1857) 55 *Convent-chanting which the child Hears. |
| 1847 Disraeli Tancred iv. xii, The *convent-crowned height. |
| 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 114 This *convent-founding, convent-ruling business. |
| 1530 Palsgr. 210/1 *Covent lofe, miche [Cotgr., Miche..a fine Manchet, or, particularly, that kind of Manchet which is otherwise tearmed, Pain de chapitre]. |
| 1842 Tennyson St. Agnes' Eve 1 Deep on the *convent-roof the snows Are sparkling to the moon. |
| Ibid. 5 The shadows of the *convent-towers. |
| 1538–9 Instruct. Hen. VIII Visit. Monast. (1886) 14 Whether the *Covent-seal of this House be surely and safely kept. |
▪ II. † convent, v. Obs. exc. Hist. (
kənˈvɛnt)
[f. L. convent- ppl. stem of convenī-re to come together, convene: cf. prevent.] 1. intr. To come together, assemble, meet;
= convene 1; to enter into a convention.
| 1544 in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) II. 402 The lords convented in the fratre of the said graie ffreers. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 48/1 Unneth the Christians could safelie conuent in their owne houses. Ibid. 144/1 Crescentius with the people and clergie conventing against the said Gregorie, set up John the 18th. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. ix. liii. (1611) 239 And each one to a divers Sect conuents. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xxv. (1611) 180 Many Beasts did often conuent together at some Riuer to drinke. a 1657 R. Loveday Lett. (1663) 50 The Trees convented to chuse them a King. |
2. trans. To cause to come together; to assemble (persons or a body);
= convene 3.
| 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 56 The king..conventyng hys nobles and Clarkes together. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. ii. 59. c 1611 Chapman Iliad ii. 8 Command him to convent His whole host arm'd before these towers. 1643 Prynne Sov. Power Parl. i. (ed. 2) 12 How the Parliament shall be summoned and convented by the Lords, Commons, and great Officers of the Realme themselves. |
3. To cause (persons) to come or appear; to call to a meeting or interview, to summon.
| 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. (1556) 157 For that cause onely [he] had often times convented him whan he repayred into that country. 1606 Holland Sueton. 5 He convented Q. Catullus before the body of the people to receive their order. 1625 Bp. R. Montagu App. Caesar. 24, I must yet convent your honesty somewhat further. a 1659 Osborn Ess. i. (1673) 553 The King..upon his arrival convented the Boy. |
b. spec. To summon
before a judge or tribunal, for trial or examination.
| 1514 Fitzherb. Just. Peas (1538) 139 b, The..partie greved may convent the partie so offendinge before his ordinarie or other judge. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. 17 The great daye of the Lorde, when all flesh shall be conuented before the tribunall seate of God. 1649 Prynne Demurrer 37 A certain English Knight decreed to convent a Jew..before the Judges. 1718 F. Hutchinson Witchcraft xv. (1720) 241 She was convented before Mr. Wotton. |
c. With the judge or tribunal understood: To summon, to cite; to summon on a charge
of.
| 1548 Act 2–3 Edw. VI, c. 13 §13 The Party..may and shall be convented and sued in the King's Ecclesiastical Court. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 295 b, The Emperour is convented of heresie. 1621 H. Elsing Debates Ho. Lords (Camden) 66 The Commons have convented Flood, examyned him, and sentenced him. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. IV. l. 275 Meantime, the owner and master of the ship were convented, and forced to promise not to land the tea. |
† 4. ? To agree or covenant to give:
cf. convention, and
covenant.
Obs.| 1587 in Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees) 145 Whereas I convented in mariage with my doughter Meryall the some of 300l., whereof my sonne-in-lawe William Wycliffe, hir husband, hath allready receved 200l. |
¶ 5. In the following taken by some to mean ‘To be convenient, fit, suit’ (
= convene 6); but sense 3 ‘To summon, call together’, is possible.
Obs.| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. v. i. 391 When that is knowne, and golden time conuents A solemne Combination shall be made Of our deere soules. |