m. [Engl. provost; Germ. probst;—all from the eccl. Lat. praepositus]:—a provost; in the later Roman Catholic times the provost was a kind of church-steward, a ‘biskups ármaðr,’ and the diocese was divided into provostships, answering to the secular sýsla and sýslu-maðr; the provost might therefore be a layman; eptir ráði biskups eðr prófasts, Vm. 117, Dipl. v. 18, Fms. ix. 452, Bs. i. 841; this division of the provostship appears in Icel. at the beginning of the 14th century, cp. esp. Laur. S. and the Annals.

2. in Norway the provost or dean of a collegiate church; prófastr í Túnsbergi, Fms. ix. 284; Ketill p. er varðveitti Máríu-kirkju, Hkr. iii. 349.

II. after the Reformation the office underwent some change, and the prófastdæmi (Germ. probstie) became the eccl. division throughout the whole of the land; each provostship consists of several parishes, and one of the parish priests is called prófastr, answering closely to the Engl. archdeacon; he is nominated by the bishop, and is the head and overseer of his fellow-priests in the district, has to visit the churches, look after the instruction of the young, etc., and is a kind of bishop’s vicar, is unpaid, and holds his office for life.