In ecclesiastical law. The holy orders of priest, deacon, and subdeacon, any of which qualified for presentation and admission to an ecclesiastical dignity or cure were called “ordines majores,;’ and the inferior orders of chanters, psalmists, ostiary, reader, exorcist, and acolyte were called ‘“ordines minores.” Persons ordained to the ordines minores had their prima toneura, different from the tonsura clericalis. Cowell.