a person not yet skilled or experienced in an art or profession. In the ancient Roman militia, novicii or noviti were the young raw soldiers, distinguished by this appellation from the veterans. In the ancient orders of knighthood there were novices or clerks in arms, who went through a kind of apprenticeship ere they were admitted knights. Novice is more particularly used in monasteries for a religious person in his or her noviciate or year of probation, and who has not taken the vows. In nunneries the novices wear a white veil, the rest a black one. The custom of giving novices the religious dress was not known before the twelfth century. The Council of Trent fixed the age of profession at sixteen years.