PRIMATE, since the 4th century of the Christian Church, the title assumed by the bishop of the capital of a province, and hence equivalent to metropolitan or exarch. The Council of Chalcedon decreed that the primacy, or "first place before all," was to be accorded to the "archbishop of Old Rome." In Africa the title belonged to the bishop of Carthage. In other parts of Christendom an attempt was made to distinguish between primates and met ropolitans as early as the 9th or 10th century, for one of the capitularies of the early French kings ordains that no metropolitan shall assume the title of primate unless he has a just claim to that honor; and in the 11th century the popes expressly reserved the title only for the leading metropolitans in different countries, and en deavored to subordinate the other metropolitans to them. The resistance to this arrangement was, however, so general and emphatic that the dignity of primate remained little more than a nominal one, entitling the holder of it merely to precedence on public occasions. In France the archbishop of Lyons was appointed primate of the Gauls by Gregory VII in 1079, and the archbishop of Rouen is also primate of Nor mandy. In the German Empire the archbishop
of Salzburg was primate. In Hungarythe arch bishop of Gran is primate; in Bohemia that of Prague; in Spain that of Toledo. In Poland the primacy belonged to the see of Gnesen. None of these bishoprics any longer retain primatial rights of jurisdiction excepting that of Gran. The office belonged of right to the papal legate, who was president of the Senate and censor of the king. He governed the state during an interregnum, had a court, guards, and a marshal of the palace, and ingeneral enjoyed the highest privileges. In the Church of Eng land both the archbishops still retain the title of primate, the archbishop of Canterbury being distinguished as the primate of all England and the archbishop of York as the primate of Eng land. In the Protestant Episcopal Church of Ireland the archbishop of Armagh is primate as formerly when the church was established.