Rector

In the Church of England, an incumbent who has charge and care of a parish and, as distinct from a vicar, receives the full amount of the tithe rent therefrom. In the Episcopal churches of Scotland and the USA, the term is used more loosely of the generality of parish priests. In the Roman Catholic Church, a rector is an ecclesiastic in charge of a congregation, an important mission, a college or religious house, especially a Jesuit seminary. In seventeenth-century literature the term is often applied to God Himself as ruler of mankind.