The Reformation lessened the number of bishops, and though in some of the Protestant countries of the north of Europe the higher clergy have retained the title of bishop, yet they have lost the greater part of their former revenues and privileges, though in neither of these particulars have those of England any reason to complain. The Anglican Church has left to its bishops more authority than the rest, and this is one reason why it bears the name of Episcopal. To them belong ordination, confir mation, the consecration of churches, the licens ing of curates, and institution to benefices. They receive their appointment from the Crown. In Prussia, though the majority of the population are Protestants, the Roman Catholic bishops receive an annual allowance from the state.
Some bishops in the Roman Catholic Church are nominally in charge of dioceses in coun tries which do not acknowledge the Christian faith. The dioceses of such bishops are said to lie in pat-tibia infidehuns (in parts belonging to unbelievers), and they are chiefly those that were wrested from the Christian Church by the Mohammedans.
The appointment of bishops was one of the grievances of the American colonists; few things more exasperated them than the scheme of appointing and sending out a bishop from England. It is said that there was a project of making Dean Swift bishop of the American colonies. In 1771, at the instance of the clergy of New York and New Jersey, the plan was again urged. The clergy of Virginia generally assented, but throughout America the dissent ers and the Episcopal laity opposed. After
the Revolution the case was altered. The first Episcopal bishop, Samuel Seabury, of Connec ticut, was consecrated by Scotch non-juring bishops in 1784. The Methodists began to use the term bishop in 1787. The first Roman Catholic bishop, John Carroll, of Baltimore, was consecrated in 1790. $ee ARCHBISHOP; AP OSTOLIC SUCCESSION.
Baur, 'Christianity and the Church in the First Three Centuries' (Tubingen 1853) ; Dollinger, 'The First Age of the Church> (Eng. trans. Oxenham, London 1866) ; Hatch, 'Organization of the Early Christian Churches' 1:.:1) ; Lightfoot, 'Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians) (London 1868) ; Jungfer, Unterschiede zwischen der l'apstwahl and den Bishopwahlen nach dem gemeinen Kirchenrecht) (Borna-Leipzig 1909) • Moberly, 'Ministerial Priesthood' (Lon don 1898) • Reville, 'Les origines de I' episco (Paris 1894) • Wordsworth, 'Theophilus Anglicanus) (London 1843).
England, market town, in the county and nine miles southwest from the city of Durham, situated on an emi nence at the confluence of the Gaunless with the Wear and has much improved in recent times. Near it is Auckland Palace, the epis copal residence, which covers about five acres of a park of 800 acres; its site was selected during the reign of Edward I (1272-1307). Among its buildings are a free grammar school (founded 1605), Saint Anne Chapel, Edgar Memorial Hall, Lightfoot Church In stitute and the Temperance Hall. Iron found ing and coal mining are the chief industries. Pop. 13,834.