Government must compel the obedience of individuals.
--Ames.
2. Words or actions denoting submission to authority;
dutifulness. --Shak.
3. (Eccl.)
(a) A following; a body of adherents; as, the Roman
Catholic obedience, or the whole body of persons who
submit to the authority of the pope.
(b) A cell (or offshoot of a larger monastery) governed by
a prior.
(c) One of the three monastic vows. --Shipley.
(d) The written precept of a superior in a religious order
or congregation to a subject.
{Canonical obedience}. See under {Canonical}.
{Passive obedience}. See under {Passive}.
Note: Of such houses there were two sorts: one where the
prior was chosen by the inmates, and governed as
independently as an abbot in an abbey; the other where
the priory was subordinate to an abbey, and the prior
was placed or displaced at the will of the abbot.
{Alien priory}, a small religious house dependent on a large
monastery in some other country.