TONSURE, in Ecclesiastical History, a particular manner of shaving or clipping the hair of ecclesiastics or monks. The ancient tonsure of the clergy was nothing more than polling the head, and cutting the hair to a moderate degree, for the sake of decency and gravity: and the same observation is true with respect to the tonsure of the ancient monks. But the Romans have carried the affair of tonsure much farther; the candidate for it kneeling before the bishop, who cuts the hair in five different parts of the head, viz. before, behind, on each side, and on the crown.