PATINA, a word used by archzeologists to express the polished rust by which ancient remains of copper, bronze, or brats are covered when laying in particular soils. This rust tends to the preservation of the object, and enhances its value, and appears to have been prized by the Greeks and Romans. The variety of tints of red, green, blue, brown, purple, olive. and yellow is owing to the combustion of oxygen, carbonic acid, and other gases with the alloys of which the metal is composed. [Numismartes.] PATItIARCII (warpufprir, the bead of a family), a title given to the heads of families in the early history of the human race, and more particularly to the ancestors of the people of Israel down to the time of Moses, and especially applied to the twelve sons of Jacob, as the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel.
There is a book in existence entitled The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Sons of Jacob,' containing what profess to be the dying admonitions of the patriarchs to their children, and their predictions of the future fortunes of their descendants. This work has been published in Creek by Grebe, from manuscripts in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge (' Spicileg. Patr.; tom. 1.), and again by Fabricate (` Cod. Pseudeplgr. Vet. Test.; 1713); it was translated into Latin by GrogOts, bishop of Lincoln (8vo, lIaganoe,1532), into French by Francis Mace, and into English by Whiston, in A Collection of Records belonging to the Old and New Testament,' London, 1727-8. Whiston has a dissertation to prove the authenticity of the work, but his arguments are neither worth repeating nor refuting. It is un doubtedly spurious. There is no evidence to prove that it ever existed in Hebrew, and the earliest reference to it by any ancient writer is one by Origen, who expressly asserts that it formed no part of the canon. Lardner has a very good notice of the work. (` Credi bility,' pt. ii., ch. xxix., s. 3.) The author of this book was probably a converted Jew, though not, as Cave supposed, a Judaising Christian. It eeems to have been
written about the end of the 2nd century.
Patriarch, in Church history, was also the ecclesiastical chief of a diocese, which included several provinces. It is not known at what time this title was introduced into the Church, but before the, 4th century the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, had obtained a of pre-eminence over the other bishops. In the time of Con the Great the bishop of Constantinople was made to rank with the three just mentioned ; and either then or not long after the title of patriarch was given to these four prelates. The number of these dignitaries was increased in the 5th century. The patriarch of Constan tinople reduced under his jurisdiction those of Antioch and Alexandria, and obtained the title of " Universal Patriarch." The bishop of Rome was called " Prince of the Patriarchs." The struggle between the patri archs of Rome and Constantinople for supremacy was the chief cause of the separation between the Eastern and Western Churches.
The powers of the patriarchs are thus described by Mosheim :— "They alone consecrated the bishops who lived in the provinces that belonged to their jurisdiction. They assembled yearly in council the clergy of their respective districts, in order to regulate the affairs of the Church. The cognisance of all important causes, and the deter mination of the more weighty controversies, were referred to the patriarch of the province where they arose. They also pronounced a decisive judgment in those cases where accusations were brought against bishops. And lastly, they appointed vicars, or deputies, clothed with their authority, for the preservation of order and tran quillity in the remoter provinces." (Mosheim, 'Ece. Hist.' Cent. v., pt. ii., chap. 2.) There were, however, provinces of the empire which were exempt from their jurisdiction.
The Greek Church is at present governed by four patriarchs, namely, those of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria.