BISHOP, a prelate, or person conse crated for the spiritual government of a diocese.
Whether the distinction of bishops from mere priests or presbyters was settled in the apostolical age, or introduced since, is much controverted. It is certain, that in the New Testament the names of bi shops and priests are used indiscriminate ly ; but tradition, the fathers, and the apostolical constitutions, make a distinc tion. From this last consideration bishops are conceived as the highest ecclesiastical dignities, the chief officers in the hierar chy, or economy of church-government, as the fathers and pastors of the faithful, the successors of the apostles, and, as such, the superiors of the church of Christ.
Upon the vacancy of a bishop's see in England, the king grants his conge d'elire to the dean and chapter, to elect the per son, whom, by his letters missive, he bath appointed ; and if they do not stake the election in twenty days, they are to incur a premunire. The dean and chapter hav ing made their election accordingly, the archbishop, by the king's direction, con firms the bishop, and afterwards conse crates him by imposition of hands, accord ing to the firm laid down-in the Common Prayer Book. Hence we see that a bi shop differs from an archbishop in this, that an archbishop with bishops conse crates a bishop, as a bishop with priests consecrates a priest ; other distinctions are, that an archbishop visits a province, as a bishop a diocese ; that an archbishop convocates a provincial synod, as a bishop a diocesan one ; and that the archbishop has canonical authority over all the bi shops of his province, as a bishop has over the priests of his diocese.
The jurisdiction of a bishop of the church of England consists in collating be nefices, granting institutions, command ing inductions, taking care of the profits of vacant benefices for the use of the successors, consecrating churches and chapels, ordaining priests and dear.ons, confirming after baptism, granting ad ministrations, and taking pro.baCCS of wills; these parts of his function depend upon the ecclesiastical law. By the common law, he is to certify to the judges concern ing legitimate and illegitimate births and marriages ; and to his jurisdiction, by the statute law, belongs the licensing of phy sicians, surgeons, and school masters, and the uniting of small parishes, which last privilege is now peculiar to the Bi shop All bishops of England are peers of the realm, except the Bishop of Man, and as such sit and vote in the House of Lords ; they are barons in a three-fold manner, viz. feudal, in regard to the tern poralities annexed to their bishoprics ; by writ, as being summoned by writ to parliament ; and lastly, by patent and creation ; accordingly, they have the pre cedence of all other barons, vote as ba rons and bishops, and claim all the privi leges enjoyed by the temporal Icrds, ex cepting that they cannot be tried by their peers, because, in cases of blood, they themselves cannot pass upon the trial, for they are prohibited by the canons of the church to he judges of life and death..