As the archdeacon in antient times intruded upon the chorepiscopus, so in recent times he has extinguished the authority and destroyed almost the name of another officer of the church, namely, the rural dean. The archdeaconries are still subdivided into deaneries, and it is usual for the archdeacon, when he holds his visitations, to summon the clergy of each deanery to meet him at the chief town of the deanery. Formerly, over each of the deaneries a substantive officer, called a dean, presided, whose duty it was to observe and report, if he had not even power to correct and reform ; but the office has been laid aside in some dioceses, though in others it has been re established. But where it has been super seded, the duties are discharged by the archdeacon. Though the office of rural dean has been found extremely useful, no emolument whatever is attached to it.
Archdeacons must have been six full years in priests' orders (§ 27, 3 & 4 Vict. c. 27), and they are appointed by the re spective bishops ; they are inducted by being placed in a stall in the cathedral by the dean and chapter. By virtue of this locus in choro a (pare impedit lies for an archdeaconry. (Phillimore.) The duty of archdeacons now is to visit their archdea conries from time to time : to see that the churches, and especially the chancel, are kept in repair, and that everything is done conformably to the canons and consist ently with the decent performance of pub lic worship ; and to receive presentations from the churchwardens of matter of public scandal. The visitation of the archdeacon may be held yearly, but he must of necessity have his triennial visita tion. Archdeacons may hold courts within their archdeaconries, in which they may hear ecclesiastical causes and grant probates of wills and letters of adminis tration; but an appeal lies to the superior court of the bishop. (24 Hen. VIII. c. 12.) By § 3 of 3 & 4 Viet. c. 86, the archdeacon may be appointed one of the assessors of the bishop's court in hearing proceedings against a clergyman. The
judge of the archdeacon's court, when he does not preside himself, is called the Official. Sometimes the archdeacon had a peculiar jurisdiction, in which case his jurisdiction is independent of that of the bishop of the diocese, and an appeal lay to the archbishop. [PECULIAR.] But now, by 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 97, § 19, it is enacted that all archdeacons throughout England and Wales shall have and ex ercise full and equal jurisdiction within their respective archdeaconries, any usage to the contrary notwithstanding.
In the revenue attached to the office of archdeacon, we see the inconvenience which attends fixed money payments in connection with offices which are designed to have perpetual endurance. It arises chiefly from the payments by the incum bents. These payments originally bore no contemptible ratio to the whole value of the benefice, and formed a sufficient income for an active and usefial officer of the church; but now, by the great change which has taken place in the value of money, the payments arc little more than nominal, and the whole income of the archdeacons as such is very inconsider able. The office, therefore, is generally held by persons who have also benefices or other preferment in the church. There have been in recent times cases where archdeacons have held prebends of cathe drals in other dioceses than that in which their jurisdiction was situated ; and also instances in which they have had no cathedral preferment. The 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, § 124, specially exempts archdea cons from the general operation of the act, by permitting two benefices to be held with an archdeaconry. An arch deacon is said to be a corporation sole. Among the recent acts which affect arch deacons the most important are 1 & 2 Viet. e. 106; 3 & 4 Vict. c. I13; and 4 & 5 Viet. c. 39.
Catalogues of the English archdeacons may be found in a book entitled' Fasti Ecclesice Anglicism,' by John le Neve. Archdeaconries have been established in some, if not in all, of the dioceses of the new colonial bishops.