The constitution of the Roman Catholic church has been in great part explained in. the article HIERARCHY. It may be necessary to add that, under the generic name Roman Catholics are comprised all those Christians who acknowledge the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, even though they be •not of the Roman or Latin rite (q.v.). Not a. few individuals and churches of other rites are included under this designation, Greeks, Slavonians, Ruthenians, Syrians (including Marouites), Copts, and Armenians; and these communities are permitted to retain their own national liturgy and language, and for the most part their established discipline and usages. The mostremarkable examples. of the diversity of discipline thus introduced under the common rule of the Roman pon tiff are the retention in the east of the use of the cup for the laity, and the permission of the marriage of the clergy.
As regards its organization for the purposes of ecclesiastical government, the normal territorial distribution of the Roman Catholic church of the several rites in the various. countries where it exists is into provinces, which are subject to archbishops, and are sub divided into bishoprics, each governed by its own bishop. The total number of arch
bishops of the several rites in communion with Rome in 1875 was 177, or whom 12 bore the title of patriarch. The number of bishops was 712. But in certain parts of the world, where the population and government are Protestant or unbelieving, the spiritual affairs of the Catholic. church are directed, not by bishops with local titles, but by bishops in partibus injidenura (q.v.), who are styled vicars of the pope, or vicars-apostolic. The full number of archbishops and bishops in 1875, including those retired and those with sees in partzbuP infidelium, was 1103.
The statistics of file Roman Catholic church, as contained in the Orbe Cattolie°, pub lished at Rome, gist" us the total number of Catholics of all nations as 185,000,000. This. number nearly corresponds with the total of Roman Catholics as given in the article oa religion (q.v.). In order to avoid unnecessary repetition, we refer to that article for the details of the distribution of Roman Catholics in the several countries; and for the number' of those subjects of the pope who follow a rite different from that of Rome, see GREEK CHURCH, RUSSIAN CHURCH, SYRIA, MARONITES.