beadle

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A minor parish official formerly employed in an English church to usher and keep order during services.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun One who makes proclamation; a herald.
• noun A crier or messenger of a court; a servitor; one who cites persons to appear and answer.
• noun In universities, a subaltern official or servant, properly and usually termed a bedel (which see).
• noun In England, a parish officer having various subordinate duties, such as keeping order in church, punishing petty offenders, waiting on the clergyman, attending meetings of vestry or session, etc.
• noun The apparitor of a trades guild or company. Also spelled bedell and bedel, in senses 2 and 3.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A messenger or crier of a court; a servitor; one who cites or bids persons to appear and answer; -- called also an apparitor or summoner.
• noun engraving An officer in a university, who precedes public processions of officers and students.
• noun An inferior parish officer in England having a variety of duties, as the preservation of order in church service, the chastisement of petty offenders, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun a parish constable, a uniformed minor (lay) official, who ushers and keeps order
• noun Scotland, ecclesiastic an attendant to the minister
• noun a warrant officer

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a minor parish official who serves a ceremonial function
• noun United States biologist who discovered how hereditary characteristics are transmitted by genes (1903-1989)