Caer Leon; and others, on grounds equally uncertain, that bishops, under the denomination of archbishops, were settled in those early times at London and York. This account of the mode in which Christianity was diffused through many parts of Europe may be perfectly true; but though a specious explanation of the word metropolitan, it is not a true explanation. Under the later empire the name Metropolis was applied to various cities of Asia and conferred on them as a title of rank. The emperors Theodosius and Valentinian conferred on Berytus in Phoenicia the name and rank of a metropolis "for many and sufficient reasons." (Cod. xi. tit. 22 (21). Accordingly the bishop of a metropolis was called metropolitan (unrрoroλirns), and the bishop of a city which was under a metropolis was simply called bishop. All the bishops, both metropolitan and others, were subject to the archbishop and patriarch of Constantinople, who received his instructions in ecclesiastical matters from the emperor. (Cod. i. tit. 3, s. 42, 43). Canterbury over the southern. It seems to have been the peculiar diligence and dignity of Paulinus which procured for him the title of archbishop, and gave him a province, instead of a diocese only, as was the case with the other members of the Augustinian mission. This was done by special act, under the authority, it is said, of Justus, an early successor of Augustine. But the precedence of the real English metropolitan is acknowledged in two circumstances: in the style, the one being a primate of England, and the other the primate of all England; and in the rank, precedence being always given to the archbishop of Canterbury, and the lord chancellor of England being interposed in processions between the two archbishops. In former times the archbishops of Canterbury were invested by the pope with a legatine authority throughout both provinces. The archbishop can still grant faculties and dispensations in the two provinces. He can confer degrees of all kinds, and can grant special licences to marry at any place and at any time. He licenses notaries. Burn states that previous to the creation of an The precise amount of superintendence archbishopric in Ireland in 1152, the and control preserved by the archbishops archbishop of Canterbury had primacy over the bishops in their respective proover that country, and Canterbury was vinces, does not seem to be very accudeclared, in the time of the two first Nor-rately defined. Yet if any bishop introman kings, the metropolitan church of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the isles adjacent. The archbishop was sometimes styled a patriarch and orbis Britannici pontifex. At general councils abroad he had precedency of all other archbishops. There is evidence sufficient to show that Christianity had made its way long before the time of Gregory among the Roman inhabitants of Britain and the Romanized Britons; and it is not contended that either Scotland or Ireland owed its Christianity to that mission. Wales has no archbishop; whence it seems to be a legitimate inference that the Welsh church is only a fragment of a greater church in which the whole of England and Wales was comprehended, the church, as to what is now called England, being destroyed by the Saxons, who were pagans. Yet some have contended that there was an archbishop at duces irregularities into his diocese, or is guilty of scandalous immoralities, the archbishop of the province may, as it seems, inquire, call to account, and punish. He may, it is said, deprive. In 1822 the archbishop of Armagh deposed the bishop of Clogher from his bishopric. In disputes between a diocesan and his clergy an appeal lies to the archbishop of the province in all cases except disputes respecting curates' stipends. (1 & 2 Vict. c. 106.) Rolle, a good authority, says that the archbishop may appoint a coadjutor to one of his suffragans who is infirm or incapable. The right is now confirmed by 6 & 7 Vict. c. 62, intituled An archbishop has a right to name one of his clerks or chaplains to be provided for by every bishop whom he consecrates. The present practice is for the bishop whom he consecrates, to make over by deed to the archbishop, his executors and assigns, the next presentation of such benefice or dignity which is at the bishop's disposal within his see, as the archbishop may choose. This deed only binds the bishop who grants, and, therefore, if a bishop dies before the option is vacant, the archbishop must make a new option when he consecrates a new bishop. If the archbishop dies before the benefice or dignity is vacant, the next presentation goes to his executors or assigns according to the terms of the grant. The archbishop also nominates to the benefices or dignities which are at the disposal of the bishops in his province, if not filled up within six months from the time of the avoidance. During the vacancy of a see, he is the guardian of the spiritualities. Certain of the bishops are nominally officers in the Cathedral of Canterbury, or in the household of the archbishop. "The bishop of London is his provincial dean, the bishop of Winchester his chancellor, the bishop of Lincoln anciently was his vice-chancellor, the bishop of Salisbury his precentor, the bishop of Worcester his chaplain, and the bishop of Rochester (when time was) carried the cross before him." (Burn.) The archbishop has also certain honorary distinctions; he has in his style the phrase "by Divine providence," but the bishop's style runs "by Divine permission;" and while the bishop is only installed, the archbishop is said to be enthroned. The title of “Grace” and “Most Reverend Father in God" is used in speaking and writing to archbishops, and bishops have the title of "Lord" and "Right Reverend Father in God." The archbishops may nominate eight clerks each to be their chaplains, and bishops six. The archbishop of Canterbury claims the right of placing the crown upon the head of the king at his coronation; and the archbishop of York claims to perform the same office for the queen consort, and he is her perpetual chaplain. The archbishop of Canterbury is the chief medium of communication between the clergy and the king, and is consulted by the king's ministers in all affairs touching the ecclesiastical part of the constitution; and he generally delivers in parliament what, when unanimous, are the sentiments of the bench of bishops. The two archbishops have precedence of all temporal peers, except those of the blood-royal; and except that the lord chancellor has place between the two archbishops. The province of the archbishop of York consists of the six northern counties, with Cheshire and Nottinghamshire; to these were added, by act of parliament in the time of Henry VIII., the Isle of Man : in this province he has five suffragans, the bishop of Sodor and Man, the bishop of Durham, the only see in his province of Saxon foundation, the bishops of Carlisle, Chester, and Ripon. Of these, the bishopric of Carlisle was founded by King Henry I. in the latter part of his reign, and the bishopric of Chester by King Henry VIII.; so thinly scattered was the seed of Christianity over the northern parts of the kingdom in the Saxon times. To the above have been added the bishopric of Ripon, created by act of parliament (6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 77) in 1836, and the bishopric of Manchester, also created by the same act; but a bishop will not be appointed for Manchester until a vacancy occurs in either the see of St. Asaph or Bangor. The rest of England and Wales forms the province of the archbishop of Canterbury, in which there are twelve bishoprics of Saxon foundation; and the bishopric of Ely, founded by Henry I.; the bishoprics of Bristol, Gloucester, Oxford, and Peterborough, founded by Henry VIII.; and the four Welsh bishoprics, of which St. David's and Llandaff exhibit a catalogue of bishops running back far beyond the times of St. Augustine. The Welsh bishoprics will be reduced to three by the union of St. Asaph and Bangor whenever a vacancy occurs in either. The twelve English bishoprics of Saxon foundation are London, Winchester, Rochester, Chichester, Salisbury, Exeter, Bath and Wells, Worcester, Hereford, Lichfield and Coventry, Lincoln, and Norwich. The dioceses of the two English archbishops, or the districts in which they have ordinary episcopal functions to perform, were remodelled by 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 77. The diocese of Canterbury comprises the greater part of the county of Kent, except the city and deanery of Rochester and some parishes transferred by the above act, a number of parishes distinct from each other, and called Peculiars, in the county of Sussex, with small districts in other dioceses, particularly London, which, belonging in some form to the archbishop, acknowledge no inferior episcopal authority. The diocese of the archbishop of York consists of the county of York, except that portion of it included in the new diocese of Ripon, the whole county of Nottingham, with some detached districts. Exact knowledge of the diocesan division of the country is of general importance as a guide to the depositaries of wills of parties deceased. But all wills which dispose of property in the public funds must be proved in the Prerogative Court of the archbishop of Canterbury; and in cases of intestacy, letters of administration must be obtained in the same court; for the Bank of England acknowledges no other probates or letters of administration. Lives of all the archbishops and bishops of England and Wales are to be found in an old book entitled De Præsulibus Angliæ Commentarius. It is a work of great research and distinguished merit. The author was Francis Godwin, or Goodwin, bishop of Llandaff, and it was first published in 1616. A new edition of it, or rather the matter of which it consists, translated and recast, with a continuation to the present time, would form a useful addition to our literature. There is also an octavo volume, published in 1720, by John le Neve, containing live of all the Protestant archbishops, but written in a dry and uninteresting manner. Of particular lives there are many, by Strype and others; many of the persons who have held this high dignity having been distinguished by eminent personal qualities, as well as by the exalted station they have occupied. St. Andrew's is to Scotland what Canterbury is to England; and while the episcopal form and order of the church existed in that country, it was the seat of the archbishop, though till 1470, when the pope granted him the title of archbishop, he was known only as the Episcopus Maximus Scotia. In 1491 the bishop of Glasgow obtained the title of archbishop, and had three bishops placed as suffragans under him. Until about 1466 the archbishop of York claimed metropolitan jurisdiction over the bishops in Scotland. In Ireland there are two archbishoprics, Armagh and Dublin. The archbishoprics of Tuam and Cashel were reduced to bishoprics by the act 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 37. Catalogues of the archbishops of Ireland and Scotland may be found in that useful book for ready reference the Political Register, by Robert Beatson, Esq., of which there are two editions. To enumerate all the prelates throughout Christendom to whom the rank and office of archbishop belong would extend this article to an unreasonable length. The principle exists in all Catholic countries, that there shall be certain bishops who have a superiority over the rest, forming the persons next in dignity to the great pastor pastorum of the church, the pope. The extent of the provinces belonging to each varies, for these ecclesiastical distributions of kingdoms were not made with foresight, and on a regular plan, but followed the accidents which attended the early fortunes of the Christian doctrine. In Germany, some of the archbishops attained no small portion of political independence and power. Three of them, viz. those of Treves, Cologne, and Mainz, were electors of the empire. In France, under the old regime, there were eighteen archbishoprics, all of which, except Cambray, are said to have been founded in the second, third, and fourth centuries; the foundation of the archbishopric of Cambray was referred to the sixth century. The number of bishops in France was one hundred and four. The French have a very large and splendid work, entitled Gallia Christiana, containing an ample history of each province, and of the several subordinate sees comprehended in it, and also of the abbeys and other religious foundations, | licence necessary, enabled them to resort with lives of all the prelates drawn up with the most critical exactness. Since the Revolution forty-nine dioceses in France have been suppressed, and only three new ones have been created. The French hierarchy consists at present of fourteen archbishops and sixty-six bishops. According to the Metropolitan Catholic Almanac' for 1844, published in the United States, the number of Roman Catholic archbishops in Europe is 108, and of bishops 469, and there are 154 bishops in other parts of the world, making a total of 731 bishops. In the British colonies the first bishopric created was that of Nova Scotia, in 1787, and the number of bishops in the colonies has been increased by a number of recent creations of sees to fifteen. [BISHOPRIC.] In 1841 a bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland was appointed for Jerusalem. The king of Prussia was the first to suggest the appointment to Queen Victoria, and the right of appointment will be alternately enjoyed by the crowns of Prussia and England; but the archbishop of Canterbury has a veto on the Prussian appointment. The bishop of Jerusalem is for the present a suffragan of the archbishop of Canterbury's; but he cannot exercise any of his functions in the dominions of Great Britain, nor can the persons ordained by him. The act 5 Vict. c. 6, was passed to enable the archbishops of Canterbury and York, and such bishops as they might select, to consecrate a foreign bishop. On the separation of the North American colonies from the mother-country, a difficulty was felt by those persons who were desirous of observing the forms of the Anglican Church, as persons ordained by the bishops of England are required to take the oath of allegiance, &c. An act was therefore passed (24 Geo. III. c. 35) which relieved them from the necessity of taking such oaths, with the proviso that they could not legally officiate in any part of the British dominions. The American bishops, from the same obstacle, were for some time consecrated by Scotch bishops; but the act 26 Geo. III. c. 84, which dispensed with the oath of allegiance, and rendered only the king's to the bishops of the Church of England. At the present time there are twentyfour bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. The Episcopal church of the United States of North America is said to be a complete picture of the Church of England republicanized. The superior powers of church government are vested in a General or National Convention which meets triennially. The Convention consists of two houses. The bishops sit as a body in their own right and form a sepa rate House. The lower House is composed of lay and clerical delegates. Each diocese is represented by four laymen and four of the clergy, who are elected by local Diocesan Conventions. The lay members of the Diocesan Conventions are elected by their respective congregations or vestries. The General Convention, amongst other things, has the power of revising old or making new canons. It hears and determines charges against bishops; receives and examines testimonials from Diocesan Conventions recommending new bishops, and decides upon their appointment; without the certificate of the General Convention a bishop cannot be consecrated. The sittings of a General Convention usually last about three weeks. At the Convention which assembled at Philadelphia in Oct. 1844, eleven committees were appointed for the transaction of business; there was one committee on matters relating to the admission of new dioceses; and another on the consecration of bishops. At this Convention a canon was passed for regulating the consecration of foreign bishops: such bishops cannot exercise their functions in the United States. At the same Convention" sentence of suspension" was passed on a bishop by the House of Bishops. They adjudged him to be "suspended from all public exercise of the office and functions of the sacred ministry, and in particular from all exercise whatsoever of the office and work of a bishop of the church of God." The resignation of a bishop must in the first instance be accepted by a majority of two-thirds of the lay and clerical deputies of the Convention of his diocese; and it then requires to be ratified by a majority of both Houses at a General Convertion. The title assumed by a bishop in the United States is "Right Reverend." The bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States have no particular province or district. Their time is chiefly spent in attending the different annual conferences of the church. The Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States is composed of one archbishop, fifteen bishops, and five coadjutors. The first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States was consecrated in 1790. Bishops in partibus.—This is an ellip- | tical phrase, and is to be supplied with the word Infidelium. These are bishops who have no actual see, but who are consecrated as if they had, under the fiction that they are bishops in succession to those who were the actual bishops in cities where Christianity once flourished. Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and the northern coast of Africa, present many of these extinct sees, some of them the most ancient and most interesting in the history of Christianity. When a Christian missionary is to be sent forth in the character of a bishop into a country imperfectly Christianized, and where the converts are not brought into any regular church order, the pope does not consecrate the missionary as the bishop of that country in which his services are required, but as the bishop of one of the extinct sees, who is supposed to have left his diocese and to be travelling in those parts. So, when England had broken off from the Roman Catholic Church, and yet continued its own unbroken series of bishops in the recognised English sees, it was, for Roman Catholic ecclesiastical affairs, divided into 'districts,' over each of which a bishop has been placed, who is a bishop in partibus. When, in the time of King Charles I., Dr. Richard Smith was sent by the pope into England in the character of bishop, he came as bishop of Chalcedon. The London District is superintended by a bishop who is styled the Bishop of Olena; the Eastern District by the Bishop of Ariopolis; the Western District by the Bishop of Pella; the Central District by the Bishop of Cambysopolis; the Lancashire District by the Bishop of Tloa; the | District of York by the Bishop of Trachis; the Northern District by the Bishop of Abydos; and the Welsh District is under a vicar-apostolic, the Bishop of Apollonia. Scotland is divided in a similar manner. Each District in Great Britain is subdivided into Rural Deaneries. In the Charitable Donations (Ireland) Act (7 & 8 Vict. c. 97) the Roman Catholic prelates are designated for the first time since the Reformation by their episcopal titles. They had been referred to in the bill, when first brought in, as “any person in the said church [of Rome] of any higher rank or order," &c.; and, on the proposition of the government, this was altered to "any archbishop or bishop, or other person in holy orders, of the Church of Rome." In December, 1844, a royal commission was issued constituting the Board of Charitable Bequests in Ireland, and the two Roman Catholic archbishops and bishop who are appointed members of the Board are styled "Most Reverend " and "Right Reverend," and are given precedency according to their episcopal rank. The English bishops who have been sent to Nova Scotia, to Quebec, and to the East and West Indies, have been named from the countries placed under their spiritual superintendency, or from the city which contains their residence and the cathedral church. Suffragan bishops.-In England, every bishop is, in certain views of his character and position, regarded as a suffragan of the archbishop in whose province he is. But suffragan bishops are rather to be understood as bishops in partibus who were admitted by the English bishops before the Reformation to assist them in the performance of the duties of their office. When a bishop filled some high office of state, the assistance of a suffragan was almost essential, and was probably usually conceded by the pope, to whom such matters belonged, when asked for. A catalogue of persons who have been suffragan bishops in England was made by Wharton, a great ecclesiastical antiquary, and is printed in an appendix to a Dissertation on Bishops in partibus, published in 1784 by another distinguished church-antiquary, Dr. Samuel Pegge. |