The office existed in other parts of Christendom.
2. Dean in a Cathedral Church. The canons who formed the bishop's council were presided over by a dean ; this has been the case from the remotest times. [CANON.] Decanus et Capitulum is the form in which all the acts of such com munities run.
Anciently the deans were elected by the chapters; but here, as in other points, the royal power has encroached on the privileges of the church. Now the form is for the crown to issue a conge d'elire, naming the person whom the chapter is to choose, in the bishoprics of ancient foundation ; but in the bishoprics founded by Henry the Eighth, the king names the dean by his letters patent merely. In the former case the bishop is called in to con firm the election, and he issues his man date for the installation of the person elected. In the bishoprics of St. David's and Llandaff the office of bishop and dean is united in the same person.
3. Deans in PeasItars.—There are in England certain ecclesiastical promotions, in which the person holding them is called by the name of dean, and they seem to have all had anciently, as some of them have now, capitular bodies con nected with them, and in all there is something peculiar in reference to their spiritual superiors, and in the jurisdiction exercised by them. The principal of
them are—the dean of Westminster ; the dean of the chapel of St. George, of Windsor; the dean of Christ Church, Ox ford ; the dean of the Arches ; the dean of the King's Chapel ; the dean of Battel ; the dean of Backing; the dean of Mid dleham, &c. If the history of these foundations were traced to their origin, it would be seen that they were eccle siastical establishments, mostly of royal foundation, possessing peculiar privileges and a peculiar jurisdiction, which escaped dissolution when the framework of the ecclesiastical institutions of England un derwent some alteration at the time of the Reformation. There are also Hono rary Deans, as the dean of the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace. The Bishop of London is dean of the province of Can terbury, and the Archbishop of Canter bury sends to him his mandate for sum moning the bishops of his province in Convocation.