For the execution of many of the duties belonging to their high function they have officers, as chancellors, judges, and officials, who hold courts in the bishop's name.
The election of bishops is supposed by those who regard the order as not dis tinguished originally from the common presbyter, to have been in the people who constituted the Christian church in the city to which they were called ; after wards, when the number of Christians was greatly increased, and there were numerous assistant presbyters, in the pres byters and some of the laity conjointly. 1-hit after a time the presbyters only seem to have possessed the right, and the bishop was elected by them assembled in chapter. The nomination of such an important officer was, however, an ob ject of great importance to the temporal princes, and they so far interfered that at length they virtually obtained the nomi nation. In England there is still the shadow of an election by the chapters in the cathedrals. When a bishop dies, the event is certified to the king by the chapter. The king writes to the chapter that they proceed to elect a successor. This letter is called the conge" &dire. The king, however, transmits to them at the same time the name of some person whom he expects them to elect. If within a short time they do not proceed to the election, the king may nominate by his own authority ; if they elect any other than the person named in the king's writ, they incur the severe penalties of a prte munire, which includes forfeiture of outlawry, and other evils. The bishop thus elected is confirmed in his new office under a royal commissirn, when he takes the oaths of allegiance, su premacy, canonical obedience, and against simony. He is next installed, and finally consecrated, which is performed by the archbishop or some other bishop named in a commission for the purpose, as sisted by two other bishops. No person can be elected a bishop who is under thirty years of age.
The inequalities which prevailed in the endowments for bishops in England, have lately been in a great measure removed. Their churches, which are called cathedrals (from cathedra, a seat of dignity), are noble and splendid edi fices, the unimpeachable witnesses re maining among us of the wealth, the splendour, and the architectural skill of the ecclesiastics of England in the middle ages. The cathedral of the Bishop of London is the only modern edifice. The bishop's residence is styled a palace. By 2 & 3 Viet. c. 18, bishops are em powered to raise money on their sees for the purpose of building houses of resi dence. The act 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 77, made provision prospectively for the erec tion of a residence for the new bishops of Ripon and Manchester.
In this country, and generally through out Europe, an Archbishop has his own diocese, in which he exercises ordinary episcopal functions like any other bishop in his diocese, yet he has a distinct cha racter, having a superiority and a cer tain jurisdiction over the bishops in his province, who are sometimes called his suffragans, together with some peculiar privileges. This superiority is indicated in the name. The word or syllable arch is the Greek element apx (which occurs in apxh, dpxOs, eipxwv, &c.), and denotes precedence or authority. It is used ex tensively throughout ecclesiastical nomen clature, as may be seen in Du Cange's Glossary, where there are the names of many ecclesiastical officers into whose designations this word enters, who were either never introduced into the English church, or have long ceased to exist. The word arch also occurs in some civil titles of rank, as arch-duke. Why this word was used peculiarly in ecclesiastical affairs rather than any other term de• noting superiority, is probably to be ex plained by the fitct that the term clpxtvetSs, for chief-priest, occurs in the Greek text of the Scriptures. Patriarch is a com pound of the same class, denoting the chief-father ; and is used in ecclesiastical nomenclature to denote a bishop who has authority not only over other bishops, but over the whole collected bishops of divers kingdoms or states ; it is analogous in signification to the word pope (papa), a bishop who has this extended super intendence. There is an official letter of the Emperor Justinian which is addressed to "John, Archbishop of Rome, and Patriarch ;' and several of Justinian's ecclesiastical constitutions are addressed to " Epiphanius, Archbishop of Constan tinople, and Patriarch." Whatever might be the precise functions of the episcoptis (iwtosorros, bishop), the term itself occurs in the writings of St. Paul, Phil. i. 1, 1 Tim. iii. 2, and else where ; but the word itpxisrritrKowos, or archbishop, does not occur till about or after the fourth century. Cyrillus Ar chiepiscopus Hierosolymitanorum, and Celestinus Archiepiscopus Romanorum, occur under these designations in the pro ceedings of the council held at Ephesus, A.D. 431. Other terms by which an arch
bishop is sometimes designated are pri mate and metropolitan. The first of these is formed from the Latin word primus, " the first," and denotes simple precedency, the first among the bishops. The latter is a Latin word (metropolitanus) formed from the Greek, which rendered literally into English would be the man of the me tropolis or that is, the bishop who resides in that city which contains the mother-church of all the other churches within the province or district in which he is the metropolitan. The Greek word is metropolites (mrrporoAbrns.) The meaning of the term metropolitan is supposed to point out the origin of the distinction between bishop and arch bishop, or, in other words, the origin of the superiority of th archbishop over the bishops in hii Jvince, when it is not to be attr: ate, 3 mere personal as sumption. on to be regarded only as an unmeaning title. The way' in which Christianity became extended over Eu rope was this :—An establishment was gained by some zealous preacher in some one city ; there he built a church, per formed in it the rites of Christianity, and lived surrounded by a company of clerks engaged in the same design and moving according to his directions. From this central point, these persons were sent from time to time into the country around for the purpose of promoting the recep tion of Christianity, and thus other churches became founded, offspring or children, to use a very natural figure, of the church from whence the missionaries were sent forth. When one of these sub ordinate missionaries had gained an establishment in one of the more con siderable cities, remote from the city in which the original church was seated, there was a convenience in conferring upon him the functions of a bishop ; and the leading design, the extension of Chris tianity, was more effectually answered than by reserving all the episcopal powers in the hands of the person vi ho presided in the mother-church. Thus other centres became fixed; other bishop rics established; and as the prelate who presided in the first of these churches was still one to whom precedence at least was due, and who still retained in his hands some superintendence over the newer bishops, archbishop became a suit able designation. Thus in England, when there was that new beginning of Christianity in the time of Pope Gregory, Augustine, the chief person of the mis sion, gained an early establishment at Canterbury, the capital of the kingdom of Kent, through the favour of King Ethelbert. There, in this second con version, as it may be called, the first Christian church was established, and from thence the persons were sent out, who at length Christianized the whole of the southern part of England. Paulinus, in like manner, a few years later, gained a similar establishment in the kingdom of Northumbria, through the zeal of King Edwin, who received Christianity, and built him a church at York, one of his royal cities, which may be regarded as the chief city of Edwin's kingdom. From York Christianity was diffused over the northern parts of England, as from 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 acknow ledged 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 arch can still grant faculties and dis pensations 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 archbishopric in Ireland in 1152, the archbishop of Canterbury had primacy over that country, and Canterbury was declared, in the time of the two first Nor man kings, the metropolitan church of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the isles adjacent. The archbishop was some times styled a patriarch and orbis Bri tannici pontifer. At general councils abroad he had precedency of all other archbishops.