ARCHBISHOP. 



AK< IIDKAi 'ON 



Wrt 



archbishop of Canterbury U the chief medium of communication 

 between the clergy and the king, and U consulted by the king'* 

 minuter* in all aflairs touching tie ecclesiastical part of the consti- 

 tution ; and he generally deliver* in per liament what, when unanimous, 

 are the aentimenU of the bench. The two archbishop* have precedence 

 uf all temporal peer*, except those of the blood-royal ; and except that 

 the lord chancellor hju place between the two archbishop*. Before 

 the Reformation, the archbishop of Canterbury occupied a very 

 elevated lUtioo with reference to the whole church, having at 

 general council* the precedence of all archbishops, and being regarded 

 aooiewhat in the light of a patriarch, presiding, an he was supposed 

 to do, over the several kingdom* of England, Wales, Scotlanil, nnd 

 Ireland. 



The province of the archbishop of York consists of the six northern 

 counties, with Cheshire and Nottinghamshire ; to these were added, by 

 Act of Parliament in the time of Henry VIII., the Isle of Han : in 

 thi* province he ha* aiz suffragans, the bishop of Sodor ami Man, the 

 biahop of Durham, the only see in hi* province of Saxon foundation, 

 and the biahop* of Carlisle, Chester, Ripon, and Manchester. Of these, 

 the bishopric of Carlisle was founded by king Henry I. in the latter 

 part of his reign, and the bishopric of -Chester by king Henry VIII.; 

 so thinly scattered was the seed of Christianity over the northern 

 part* of the kingdom in the Saxon time*. The rest of the kingdom 

 form* the province of the archbishop of Canterbury, in which there 

 are twelve bishoprics of Saxon foundation ; the bishopric i-i Kly, 

 founded by Henry I. ; the bishoprics of Bristol, Gloucester, Oxford, 

 and Peterborough, founded by Henry VIIL; aud the four Welsh 

 bishoprics, of which St. David's and Llandaif exhibit a catalogue of 

 bishop* running back far beyond the times of St. Augustine. The 

 twelve English bishoprics of Saxon foundation are London, Winchester, 

 Rochester, Chichester, Salisbury, Exeter, Bath and Wells, Worcester, 

 Hereford, Lichneld and Coventry, Lincoln, and Norwich. The dioceses 

 of the two English archbishops, or the districts in which they have 

 ordinary episcopal functions to perform, are, for Canterbury, the greater 

 part of the county of Kent, a portion of that county forming the 

 dioceae of Rochester, a number of parishes distinct from each other, 

 and called Peculiars, in the county of Sussex, with small districts in 

 other dioceses, particularly London, which belonging in some form to 

 the archbishop, acknowledge no inferior episcopal authority. The 

 dioceae of the archbishop of York consists of a great portion of the 

 county of York, aud the whole county of Nottingham, with some 

 detached districts. 



Lives of all the archbishops and bishops of England and Wales are 

 to be found in an old book entitled ' De Pnesulibus Angliac Cominen- 

 tarius.' It is a work of great research and distinguished merit. The 

 author was Francis Godwin, or Goodwin, bishop of Llandaff, and it 

 was first published in 1616. A new edition of it, or rather the matter 

 of which it consists, translated and recast, with a continuation to the 

 present time, would form a useful addition to our literature. There 

 is also an 8vo. volume, published in 1720, by John le Neve, containing 

 live* of all the Protestant archbishops, but written in a dry and 

 uninteresting manner. Of particular lives there are many, by Strype 

 and others ; many of the persons who have held this high dignity 

 having been distinguished by eminent penonal qualities, as well as by 

 the exalted station they have occupied. 



St. Andrew's is to Scotland what Canterbury is to England : and 

 while the episcopal form and order of the church existed in that 

 country, it was the seat of the archbishop, though till 147", win M the 

 pope granted him the title, he wan known only as the Episcopus 

 Maximus Scotia:. In 1491, the bishop of Glasgow obtained th.- title 

 of archbishop, and had three bishops placed as suffragans under him. 



In Ireland there are two archbishoprics, Armagh and Dublin: t... 

 Tiiam and Cashel, having been, by th.- A. -t :; k I Will. IV. c. 37, 

 reduced to bishopric*. Armagh, of which the archbiHhop is styled 

 Primate of all Ireland, has five suffragan bishops, Meatb, Tuain. Derry, 

 Down, and Kiltnore; the archbishop of Dublin is styled I'm 

 Ireland, and ha* also five suffragan bishop*, Ossory, Canhel, Cork, 

 Killaloe, and Limerick. Catalogues of the archbishops of Ireland and 

 Scotland may be found in that useful book for ready reference the 

 Political Register, 1 by Robert BoaUon, Esq. 



To enumerate all the prelate* throughout Christendom, to whom 

 the rank and office of archbishop are attributed, would extend thi.x 

 article to an unreasonable length. The principle exists in all Catholic 

 countries, that there shall be certain bishop* who have a superiority 

 over the rest, forming the persons next in dignity to the great pastor 

 paatorutn of the church, the pope. The extent of the pr.ninc, - 

 belonging to each varies, for thunc ecclesiastical distributions of king- 

 doms were not made with foresight, and on a regular plan, but follow.-.! 

 the accident* which attended the early fortune* of the Christian 

 doctrine. In Germany, some of the archbisho|M attained no small 

 portion of political independence and power. Three of them, namely, 

 those of Treves, Cologne, and Menu, were electors of the empire. In 

 France, under the old regime, there were eighteen archbishoprics, all of 

 which, except Cambray, claimed to have been founded in the 2nd, 3rd, 

 and 4th centuries ; the foundation of the archbishopric of Cambray wan 

 referred to the Oth ci-ntm\ Th. French have a very large and 

 splendid work, entitled ' Gallia Christiana,' containing on ample history 

 of each province, and of the several subordinate sew comprehended in 



it, and also of the abbeys and other religious foundations, with lives of 

 all the prelates drawn up with the most critical exactness. 



The word tu/raya, used in this article, may require some expla- 

 nation. A suffragan, in the more ordinary sense of the term, is a kind 

 of titular bishop, a person appointed to assist the bishop in the discharge 

 of episcopal duties ; and among the reforms meditated at the close of 

 the reign of King Henry VIII., was the introduction of a considerable 

 number of suffragan bishops of this class, and some penona wen 

 actually consecrated. But every bishop within his province is some- 

 times spoken of as a suffragan of the archbishop. being originally, in 

 fact, little more. Questions have been raised respecting th 

 the word suffragan, which is by some supposed to be connected with 

 tufrafftt or votes, as if the bishops were the voters in ecclesiastical 

 assemblies; but more probably, if connected with suffrages at all, tin- 

 term has a reference to their claiming to vote in the election of the 

 archbishop. A great question respecting the right of election of an 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, between the suffragans of his province and 

 the canons of Canterbury, arose in the time of King John, and is a 

 principal occurrence in the contest whii-h he waged with the pope ami 

 the church. 



ARCHDEACON. In contemplating the character and office of th.- 

 bishop in the early ages of the church, we are not to regard him as a 

 solitary person acting alone and without advice. He hod a species of 

 clerical council around him, persons who lived a kind of collegiate life 

 in buildings attached to the great cathedral church, each of whom. . .1 

 at least several of whom, possessed distinct offices, such as those of 

 chancellor, treasurer, precentor, aud the like. These persons are now 

 often called canon* ; but the most general name by which they are to 

 be known, a* the institution existed in remote times, is that of deacon, 

 a term of which dean is a contraction. Deacon appears to come from 

 the Greek term SIOKOTOS, the name of that officer in the chur.-h <>i 

 whose appointment we have an account in .U t-. vi. 3 G. To on.- .,t 

 these deacons precedence was given, and no doubt some species of 

 superintendence or control, and to him the title of arcln/nn-'ii was 

 assigned. 



In the name there is no indication of any peculiar employment. 

 What now belongs to the archdeacon was anciently performed by tin- 

 officer in tin- bishop's court called the chorepiscopus. The choivpi.s- 

 copuB (\apfwlffnoTros) was the bishop's deputy or vicar in small towns 

 ami country places, in which he discharged the minor epi 

 functions. He might be of episcopal rank or not (Ducange, 'Glos- 

 s.irium '). The chorcpiscopus. is mentioned in a Constitution of 

 Justinian. (' Cod.' i. tit. 3, s. 41 (42).) The manner in which the 

 archdeacon usurped upon this obsolete oflicer an. I attracted to him-, it 

 the functions which belonged to him, is supposed to have been this : 

 being near the bishop and much, trusted by him, the archdeacon was 

 often employed by the bishop to visit distant parts of the dioceae, 

 especially when the biahop required particular ami authentic informa- 

 tion, and to report to the bishop the actual .-late of things. Hence 

 <leae. >ns were spoken of by very early Christian writers an lieing the 

 liiiJn-/i'* ri/r ; and from this power of ins| xvtioii and report the transition 

 was easy to the delegati. .11, to one of the deacons, of a portion of epis- 

 copal authority, and empowering him to proceed to reform and redress, 

 as well as to observe and report. 



If this is a just account of the origin of the archdeacon's power, it is 

 manifest that originally the power would be extended over the whole 

 of a diocese; but at present it is confined within certain linn- 

 England, according to the ' Valor Ecclcaiatiticus ' of King Henry VI 11., 

 there are 64 archdeaconries, or districts through which th.- vi-it-.ii.il 

 and corrective power of an archdeacon extent!*. (iodolphin and 

 Blockstone state that there were 60 archdeaconries : the number has 

 since been increased, and there are now above 60 in England nnd 

 Wale*. Seven new archdeaconries were erected by 6 & 7 Will. IV. 

 c. 97. These are the archdeaconries of Bristol, Maidstone, .Monm.mtli, 

 Westmoreland, Manchester, Lancaster, and Craven; and aichi.li.icoii.il 

 power was given by the same act to the dean of Rochester, in that 

 |virt of Kent which U in the diocese of Rochester. 



Tlii- distribution of the dioceses into archdeaconries cannot be 

 assigned to any certain period, but the common opinion is, that it was 

 made some time after the Conquest It is said that .Stephen Langton, 

 archbishopof Canterbury, was the first Engli*h bishop who established 

 an archdeacon in hi* diocese, about ,\.n. In;.",. The office of archdeacon 

 is mentioned in a charter of William tin- Con.|iieror. (1'hilliraore.) 

 The bishops had baronies, and were tied by the Constitute 

 Clarendon to a strict attendance n|>on the king in his ^rent council. 

 an. I they were consequently obliged to delegate their episcopal power*. 

 Each archidiaconal district was assigned to its own archdeacon, with 

 the same precision as other ami larger district* are assigned to the 

 bishops and archbisho|M ; and the archdeacons were entitled to c. i tain 

 annual payment*, under the name of procurations, from the b. 

 within their archdeaconries. The act already citl (G A 7 Will. IV. 

 c. 97) directed a new arrangement of all existing deaneries and ai, h 

 deaconries, so that every parish and extra-parochial place shall be within 

 a rural deanery, and every deanery within an archdeaconry, an. I that 

 no archdeaconry extend out of the diocese. 



As the archdeacon in ancient timed intrn.lc.l upon the chorepixcopus, 

 so in recent times be has extinguished the authority an.l .1. -imyc.l almost 

 the name of another officer of the church, namely, the rural dean. 



