Previous head of religious community (5)
I believe the answer is:
prior
This might be a double definition.
'previous' is the first definition.
(I've seen this before)
'head of religious community' is the second definition.
'prior' can be an answer for 'head' (I have seen 'Religious head ' mean 'prior' so perhaps 'head' could also mean 'prior'). I'm unsure of the 'of religious community' bit.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for prior that I've seen before include "Source of poetry in 17th century" , "Existing earlier" , "Earlier, coming before another in time" , "More important" , "One giving assistance to abbot" .)