a Christian minister, especially in Scotland or in Presbyterian usage. In Scots ecclesiastical law, manse became the standard word for the parish minister's residence, distinguishing it from Anglican terms such as vicarage or rectory.

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the ecclesiastical use of the term in English to the 16th century, at which point it referred both to a dwelling and, in church contexts, to a unit of agricultural land. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica similarly described