society > law > legal right > right of possession or ownership > tenure of property > one who has tenure > [noun] > one who holds from a bishop (2)
Formerly in France, one who held lands from a bishop as his representative and defender in temporal matters.
(a) a farmer who leases a manor (manor, n. 3a) from a bishop (now historical); †(b) a farmer holding land directly from the king (obsolete).