Also 5 coadiutowre, 6–7 coadiutour, -or, coadjutour, 7 coaiutor, coajutor. [a. OF. coadjuteur (in Anglo-Fr. -our), ad. L. coadjūtor, -ōrem, f. CO- + adjūtor helper, agent-sb. f. adjuvāre to help. The French derivation gave the accentuation coa·djutor, which is used by Coleridge; but the poets generally, since 1600, appear to have coadju·tor, after Latin.
No L. *coadjuvāre, or *coadjūtāre is recorded, but in the mod. langs. words have been formed on these types, suggested by coadjutor.]
1. One who works with and helps another; a helper, assistant, fellow-helper.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. xxi. (1869), 15. Ministres and serueres to him … and coadiutowres.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 19. The coadiutours and helpers of god.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom. (1622), Pref. 5. Euery one a coadiutor to the worke of all the other.
1635. Quarles, Embl., Hieroglyph, iv. (1718), 329. Nature knows her own perfection … And she scorns a co-adjutor.
1741. Warburton, Div. Legat., II. 33. His Coadjutors, Counsellors and Instructors.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., I. 299. In this undertaking she was speedily provided with an efficient coadjutor.
2. spec. Eccl. One appointed to assist a bishop or other ecclesiastic.
A coadjutor is appointed as assistant and successor to an old and infirm bishop; and is thus distinct from a suffragan, who has charge of a definite portion of a large diocese.
1549. Latimer, Serm. bef. Edw. VI., v. (Arb.), 135. Samuell … sette hys twoo sonnes in offyce wyth hym, as hys suffraganes, and as hys Coadiutoures.
Here I myght take occasion to treate what olde and impotente Byshoppes should do.
a. 1691. T. Barlow, Rem. (1693), 161. For a Bishop to have a Co-adjutor, or (as the Statute calls him) a Suffragan to assist him.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 10, ¶ 9. The Archbishop of Saltzburg is dead, who is succeeded by Count Harrach, formerly Bishop of Vienna, and for these last Three Years Coadjutor to the said Archbishop.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 161. If a Minister … becomes Dumb or Blind after Induction … the Bishop … shall allow him a Co-adjutor.
1845. Stephen, Laws Eng., II. 669.
1863. Kirk, Chas. Bold (1868), III. IV. x. 264. Coadjutor of the diocese of Grenoble.
