verb
definition
To shave the crown of the head as a sign of humility and religious vocation.
Examples of tonsured in a Sentence
As of old, he must be at least tonsured and without a wife living.
On his return to Spain, Moratin was tonsured and presented to a sinecure benefice in the diocese of Burgos, and in 1786 his first play, ET Viejo y la nina, was produced at the Teatro del Principe.
For lawful ordination in the Roman Church, a man must be confirmed, tonsured, in possession of all orders lower than that which he proposes to receive, of legitimate birth, not a slave or notably mutilated, of good life and competent knowledge.
It was with the aid of these youthful enthusiasts that Savonarola arranged the religious carnival of 1496, when the citizens gave their costliest possessions in alms to the poor, and tonsured monks, crowned with flowers, sang lauds and performed wild dances for the glory of God.
It is proper to all clerics, even to those who have only received the tonsure, the bishop himself vesting with it those who have been newly tonsured by him.
An indistinct allusion of his own has been taken to mean that he was tonsured in childhood at seven or nine years old; and tradition says that he was sent to the convent of Seuilly.
From the 7th century, however, children were tonsured without ordination, and later on adults anxious to escape secular jurisdiction were often tonsured without ordination.
Of the twenty-three kings between Theudis and Roderic five were certainly murdered, one was deposed, and three were tonsured by tricks or open force.
Wamba (672680) is credited with an attempt to reform the state, but he was tonsured while unconscious from illness or poison, and disappeared into a religious house.