MANSIONARIO. — The meanings of this term varied in the past (cf. Du Cange, s. V. in Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, V, Paris 1938, pp. 227–28), as they still do today; however, in the liturgical language of the early Middle Ages, m. meant the custodian of a church, near which he lived and in which he served, more or less, as sacristan.
43 years. For four consecutive years he was elected rector of the University (1914–18).
His scholarly production is not very extensive. In addition to several short monographs and many articles (most of them concerning the history of scholastic philosophy, published in journals, particularly in the Divus Thomas of Freiburg), his masterpiece should be noted: Das Wesen des Thomismus (Freiburg 1932; 3rd ed. there 1949), in which he intends to demonstrate how the principle
In cemetery churches, the « mansionarius de confessione » had to care for the replenishment of the lamps at the martyr’s tomb. The m. were distinguished both from the « custodes, qui dicuntur cubicularii, ex clero Romano », instituted by Leo I for the honorary custody of the apostolic tombs (cf. Lib. Pont., I, p. 239, n. 14 on p. 241 and sixth-century funerary inscriptions, in A. Silvagni, Inscriptiones Christ. Urbis Romae..., new series, II, Rome 1935, nos. 5088, 5179, 5180), and from the « praepositi », who administered the revenues of the cemetery basilicas, intended especially for the lamps that were to adorn the martyrs’ tombs (cf. sixth-century inscriptions, in G. B. De Rossi, Inscriptiones Christ. Urbis Romae..., I, Rome 1861, nos. 975, 989, 1004–05, 1085; A. Silvagni, op. cit., nos. 4279, 4790; diploma of Gregory the Great of 604).
In Rome they enjoyed a certain renown and had formed themselves into a « schola ». Popes Benedict II, John V, Conon, and Gregory II left them a donation (cf. Lib. Pont., I, pp. 364, 367, 369, 410). The Ordo Romanus, I, n. 21 (ed. M. Andrieu, Les Ordines Romani du haut moyen âge, II, Leuven 1948, p. 73) mentions the « primus mansionarius » of the Lateran basilica, who was responsible for the sacred vessels intended for the pope (called by Ordo VI, n. 7: « custos dominicalis vestiarii »: ed. cit., p. 242), and the « mansionarii iuniores », who entered the « secretarium » last after the papal Mass (Ordo I, n. 126: ed. cit., p. 108; Ordo V, n. 98, ibid., p. 227). In the deaconries, the m., with the thurible, stood with the « Pater diaconiae » and the priest at the church door to await the pope there (cf. Ordo I, n. 26: ed. cit., p. 75; Ordo V, n. 3, ibid., p. 209).
The m. did not belong to the clergy, but to the category of attendants, as is shown: 1st, by the inscription of the 50ᵃ, which mentions a « Clementinus mansionarius », formerly a gravedigger (cf. O. Marucchi, in Nuovo Bullettino di Arch. Christ., 1917, p. 116; other inscriptions in A. Silvagni, op. cit., 5177–78; Gregory the Great, Dialogues, III, 24–25, also calls the m. « custos »); 2nd, by the Roman Synod of 732 (Hefele-Leclercq, III, II, p. 684); 3rd, by the biography of Stephen V in the Lib. Pont. (II, p. 196); 4th, by the Constitutions of the Lateran of Cardinal Pietro, later Gregory XI: PL, 78, 1395, etc.
The m. still exercise their functions, often identical with the ancient ones, in many churches and confraternities; the m. of the patriarchal basilicas of Rome still enjoy a certain renown.