Forms: 5 benett, benott, 5–6 benette, 4– benet. [a. OF. beneit (mod.F. bénit):—L. benedict-us blessed: see BENEDICT.] The third of the four lesser orders in the Roman Catholic Church, one of whose functions was the exorcizing of evil spirits.
c. 1383. Wyclif, Sel. Wks. (1871), III. 285. Of … crowning of benetis renneþ þe same extorsion.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., IV. (1520), 38/2. He ordeyned that he that was worthy sholde ascende gree by gree to his ordre, fyrst benet, than colet, subdeacon, deacon, and than preest.
1509. Ortus Voc., in Promp. Parv., 30. Exorcista, id est adjurator vel increpator, a benette or a conjurer.
1553–87. Foxe, A. & M., III. 125. The lowest Vesture, which they had only in taking Benet and Collet.
1846. C. Maitland, Ch. Catacombs, 193–4. It is related of Huss the Martyr, that before his execution he was degraded from all his orders … and the offices of exorcist, sexton, and bene’t.
