CELLARER, or CELLERER, (Cellarius or Cellarius), an officer in monasteries, to whom belong the care and procurement of provisions for the convent. The denomination is said to be borrowed from the Roman law, where cellarius denotes an examiner of accounts and expenses. Ulpian defines it thus: 'Cellerarius, id est, ideo præpositus ut rationes salvæ sint.'
The cellarius was one of the four obedientiarum, or great officers of monasteries: under his ordering was the psitrum or bakehouse, and the bratium, or brew-house. In the richer houses there were particular lands set apart for the maintenance of his office, called in ancient writings ad cibum monachorum. The cellarius was a great man in the convent. His whole office in ancient times had a respect to that origin: he was to see his lord's corn got in, and laid up in granaries; and his appointment consisted in a certain proportion thereof, usually fixed at a thirteenth part of the whole together with a furred gown. The office of cellarer then only differed in name from those of bailiff and minstrel; excepting that the cellarer had the receipt of his lord's rents through the whole extent of his jurisdiction.
CELLARER was also an officer in chapters, to whom belonged the care of the temporals, and particularly the distributing of bread, wine, and money to canons, on account of their attendance in the choir. In some places he was called cellarer, in others barfer, and in others currier.