DEAN (ME. OF. deicii, Fr. doyen, front Lat. decanus, one set over ten persons, from Lat, deeeta, alKa, deka, Skt. flw:a, ten). The title of certain dignitaries. pa rtieularly ecclesiastical and academic. lit the ecclesiastical sense, the title was originally adapted from the Roman civil administration, in which were ofiieers called deans, mentioned in the codes of Theodosius and Justinian. It was customary at one time in the monasteries to appoint a over every tell monks, to take charge of their discipline. On the introduction of the canonical life (see ('ANoN) among the clergy attached to cathe drals, this title was applied in many places to the head of the chapter (q.v.) : but as early as the time of Saint Jerome, it was enstumary to have a similar officer attached to the immediate under the title of arellipresbyte•. In modern German cathedrals the dean is fre quently subordinate to the provost-,and has ex ecutive and partly secular functions. He is appointed usually by the bishop, but sometimes by the sovereign or the chapter. The deans of English cathedrals are appointed by the Crown, and required to reside for eight months in the year. The income of the office varies from £5000 in the ease of Christ ('lurch, Oxford. down to £500 at Chichester. The title in this sense is used in a few dioceses of the American Episcopal Church, though the functions connected with it are generally rather vaguely defined. There are also in England deans of pe collars, the in cumbents of certain churches formerly, though not now. collegiate, as of Battle. in Sussex, found ed by William the Conqueror, in memory of his conquest: of flocking. in Essex; and of Croydon, in Surrey. The deans of Westminster and Wind sor are also deans of peculiars, the Abbey and Saint (gorge's Chapel being exempt front the jurisdiction of the bishops in whose diocese they are situated. There have been also from very
an•ient times, both in England and on the Conti nent, rural deans whose duty it is to visit a cer tain number of parishes and report on their con dition to the bishop; the more important and formal part of their functions has, however. been transferred to the archdeacon. Similar officers in America are known as deans of convocations.
In the universities of Oxford and Cambridge the dean is the officer in each college who super intends its discipline, except in the case of Christ Church, Oxford. which is both cathedral and col and where the (lean is head of the college. The title is still sometimes used in America in its earlier sense as designating the presiding or senior officer of an academic faculty; and in Ger man universities each faculty elects a dean an. Dually, who presides over its meetings, repre sents it in external relations. and supervises both teachers and students.
In a special sense the word is applied to the oldest member in length of service of a body. of persons of equal rank, such as a corps, to the president of an incorporated body of lawyers. It is in the latter sense that the chief judicial officer of the Archbishop of Canterbury is called the Dean of the Court of Arches. The dean of the Sacred College is the senior ca•dinal bishop, who always occupies the see of Ostia. He presides at the meetings of the Sacred College in the absence of the Pope. Ile has the privilege of wearing the pallium in all ceremonies per taining 144 his office, of conswerating the newly elected Pope in case lie should not be alrea4ly a bishop, and in any case of presiding at the coronation ceremonies. See CARDINAL.