In ancient Rome, an apparitor[1] (also spelled apparator in English, or shortened to paritor[2]) was a civil servant whose salary was paid from the public treasury.
Apparitors (sometimes called summoners) continued to serve as officers in ecclesiastical courts.
They were designated to serve the summons, to arrest a person accused,[7] and in ecclesiastico-civil procedure, to take possession, physically or formally, of property in dispute, in order to secure the execution of the judge's sentence.
His guarantee of his delivery of the summons provided evidence of a party's knowledge of his obligation to appear, either to stand trial, to give testimony, or to do whatever else might be legally enjoined by the judge; the apparitor's statement becomes the basis of a charge of contumacy against anyone refusing to obey a summons.
Offenses dealt with by such courts included "sins of immorality, witchcraft, usury, simony, neglect of the sacraments, and withholding tithes or offering".