the superior of an abbey or convent of nuns. The abbess has the same rights and authority over her nuns that the abbots regular have over their monks. The sex indeed does not allow her to perform the spiritual functions annexed to the priesthood, with which the abbot is usually invested; but there are instances of some abbesses who have a right, or rather a privilege, to commission a priest to act for them. They have even a kind of episcop al jurisdiction, as well as some abbots who are exempted from the visitation of their dioceses.

Martene, in his treatise on the rights of the church, observes, that abbesses formerly confessed nuns; but Abbeville he adds, that their excessive curiosity carried them such lengths, that there arose a necessity of checking it. However, St Basil, in his Rule, allows the abbes to be present with the priest at the confession of her nuns.