Lords Spiritual
- noun
- UK
:
Lores Espirituales
- Plans to reform the house, however, have been abandoned for this current Parliament, and so all 26 Lords Spiritual remain in their reserved seats.
Examples
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In feudal times, society was viewed as being made up of three estates, a "trinity," functioning under the king's beneficence: the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Peasants.
Academic text (1996) -
The 26 Lords Spiritual play an important role in representing the Church of England in the House of Lords.
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Lords Spiritual, who are the 26 most senior Archbishops and Bishops in the Church, are reserved seats in Parliament in the House of Lords.
Blog text (20) -
During debates, members often listen to the perspectives of the Lords Spiritual on moral and ethical issues.
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The influence of the Lords Spiritual in Parliament has been a point of discussion among political analysts.
Surface Forms
Morphology
A learner who knows 'lord' and 'spiritual' can derive the basic idea of 'religious or spiritual lords', so the general sense is partly transparent. However, the fixed institutional meaning — that this specifically refers to Church of England bishops with seats in the House of Lords — is specialized and not predictable from the constituents alone, requiring cultural/encyclopedic knowledge.
Etymology
Lords Spiritual comes from the image of church leaders sitting in the House of Lords. The word lords points to members of that house and spiritual points to church leaders, so the phrase means the bishops who sit in the House of Lords as 'religious representatives'.
