Crozier - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CROZIER, or pastoral staff, one of the insignia of a bishop, and probably derived from the lituus of the Roman augurs. It is crook-headed, and borne by bishops and archbishops alike (see Pastoral Staff). The word " crozier " or " crosier " represents the O. Fr. crocier, Med. Lat. crociarius, the bearer of the episcopal crook (Med. Lat. crocea, croccia, &c., Fr. croc). The English representative of crocea was crose, later crosse, which, becoming confused with " cross " (q.v.), was replaced by " crozier staff " or crozier's staff," and then, at the beginning of the 16th century, by " crozier " (see J. T. Taylor, Archaeologia, lii., " On the Use of the Terms Crosier, Pastoral Staff and Cross ").