APOSTOLIC, or APOSTOLICAL, the general term applied to everything derived directly from, or bearing the character of the apostles. Either case constitutes apostolicity. The Roman Catholic Church declares itself the A. church; the papal chair the A. chair. on the ground of an unbroken series of Roman bishops, from the chief apostle, Peter. The church of England, in virtue of regular episcopal ordination from the pre-reformation church, claims to be A.; so likewise do the Protestant Episcopal churches in Scotland and the United States. Apostolic tradition (see TRADITION) claims to have been banded down from the apostles. In the same special sense, the .name of A. council belongs to /hat conclave of the apostles at Jerusalem (Acts xv.), about the year 51 or 52 A.D., occa sinned by the disputes raised at Antioch by Judaizing Christians as to the admission of uncircumcised Gentiles into the church. Certain congregations or churches, also, which were the special scenes of the labors of the apostles, bore for centuries the title of A.
churches, more espeoially those of Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome. But with the ever-increasing spiritual power of the Romish hierarchy, the name A. came to be more and more exclusively applied to Rome, and is retained by her, despite the energetic protests of the Protestant churches. Hence the term apostolic see, i.e., the see of Rome; apostolic blessing, the blessing Of the pope as the successor of St. Peter; apostolic vicar, the cardinal who represents the pope in extraordinary sissions; apos tolic chamber, a council intrusted with the care of the revenues of themee of Rome; apostolic months—Jan., March, May, July, Sept., Nov.—the months in which the pope, according to the Vienna Concordat of 1448, took possession of the vacant benefices in Germany, etc. A papal brief or letter is styled A. in the same sense.