Dictionary

hedge priest en · NOUN

Etymology

From hedge (“third-rate”) + priest. To imply such a priest "plying one's trade under a hedge." Compare hedge alehouse, hedge whore.

Meanings

1. (historical) An ignorant itinerant priest.
   • HEDGEPRIEST, an illiterate unbenificed curate, a patrico. [1785, Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:
   • The Pedant, the Bragart, the Hedge-Prieſt, the Foole, and the Boy. / Abate throw at Nouum, and the whole world againe, / Cannot picke out fiue ſuch, take each one in his vaine. c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
   • The yeomen separated the incensed priests, who continued to raise their voices, vituperating each other in bad Latin, which the Prior delivered the more fluently, and the Hermit with the greater vehemence. The Prior at length recollected himself sufficiently to be aware that he was compromising his dignity, by squabbling with such a hedge-priest as the Outlaw’s chaplain, and being joined by his attendants, rode off with considerably less pomp, and in a much more apostolical condition, so far as worldly matters were concerned, than he had exhibited before this rencounter. 1819, Walter Scott, chapter 33, in Ivanhoe: A Romance:

Forms

Relateds

hedge parson · hedge sermon