ONDINA . This term commonly signifies the bishop of the diocese, who is in general, and of common right, the ordinary judge in ecclesiastical causes arising within his jurisdiction. (Lindwoode's Provinciale, lib. i., tit. 3.) The term is also applied to the commis sary or official of the bishop, and to other persons having, by custom or peculiar privilege, judicial power annexed to their offices or dignities. Thus an archdeacon is an ordinary. A bishop therefore is always an ordinary, but every ordinary is not a bishop.
The term is derived from the Canonists, and is in common use in several Euro pean countries. Since the Lateran Coun cil, when the apostolic see assumed the power of presenting to benefices, the pope has sometimes been called by canonical writers "ordinarius ordinariorum." In England the probate of wills, the granting of letters of administration, the admission, institution, and induction of parsons, and several other authorities of a judicial na ture, are vested in the ordinary. The
judex ordinarius of the canon and of the later Roman law is a judge who has ju dicial cognizance in his own proper right, as such judge, of all causes arising within the territorial limits of his jurisdiction. He is opposed to the judex delegatus, or extraordinarius, whose jurisdiction ex tends only to such causes as are specifi cally delegated to him by some superior authority. (Ayliffe's Parergon, p. 309 ; Justin., Novell. 20, c. 3, and 112, C. 31.) With reference to this distinction, it be came usual to apply the term "ordinary" to bishops, who, when acting in their ju dicial character in ecclesiastical causes, have strictly an ordinary jurisdiction ; and we find it used in this sense by Brac ton and the ear-nest writers upon English law.