CELLARER, or CELLER, (Cellarius or Cella-
rius), 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 Ro-
man law, where cellarius denotes an examiner of ac-
counts and expences. Ulpian defines it thus: "Celle-
rarius, id est, ideo præpositus ut rationes salve sint."
The cellarius was one of the four obedientiarum, or
great officers of monasteries: under his ordering was
the pistrinum or bakehouse, and the bracium, 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 cel-
larus 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
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 throughout 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 burser, and in others currier.