- «DIOCESE. 
The firf divifion of the empire into diacefes is se pel 
afcribed to Conftantine, who diltributed the whole Rom 
iocefe of Italy, the diocefe of 
f Africa 
was a d 
ee con was only. the in ftitutor of thofe large 
diocefes, which 
ments ; the former diocefes only comprehending Gas adie: 
tion, or diftri@, or the country that had refort to one judge, 
as appears from this paflage in Strabo, and, before Strabo, 
from Cicero himfelf, (lib. tii. Epift. ad Fa mil. Ep. 9. and 
lib. xiii, Ep. 67.) who, when proconful of Cilicia, often 
mentions the diocefes that were annexed to his government : 
apua, he calls: himfelf the 
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fourteen. Thefe fourteen diocefes comprehended a hundred 
and twenty provinces; each province had a pro-conful, who 
refided in the capital, or metropolis; and each dioeefe of 
- the empire had a conful, who refided in the principal city - 
of the diftriG 
On this cul conftitution the ecclefiaftical one was after. 
At prefent there is ae farther alteration ; for diocefe 
does not now fignify an aflemblage of divers provinces, but 
is limited to a fingle province, a a metropolitan, or even 
to fingle jamie of a 
and, with regard to its ecclehialtical ftate, is divided 
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a onry into rural deaneries 5 ; and every 
deanery into parifhes. 
The bounds of diocefes are to be determined by witneffes 
d records, but more Akasa) by the adminittration of 
Ces. urpofe there are two rules in the 
non law ; in onecafe, upon a difpute between two bifhops 
on this head, the diretion is, that they proceed in the bufi- 
nefs by ancient books and writings, and alfo by witneffes, 
aucun and other fufficient proof; in the other cafe, 
where the siehiee was, by whom a church built upon the | 
confiaes of two diocefes fhould be confecrated, the rule laid 
down is, that it fhould be confecrated by the bifhop 
of that city, who, before it was founded, baptized the inha- 
bitants, and adminiftered to them other divine offices. 
- jurifdiétion of ey pike is not included in the name of dioce/e, 
according: to tk aw; and, therefore, in citations in 
any act of junfdi@ion, without permiffion. A clergyman 
dwelling in one diocefe, and beneficed in another, may, in 
different refpe@ts, be punifhed in both ; thatic, the bifhop, in 
whofe diocefe he dwells, may profecute him; but the fen- 
ence, fo far as it affe&ts his benefice, mpft be carried into 
execution by the other-bifhop. Gibfon, 133, 134. 
ul. Brito pay a diocefe to. be properly the territory 
aad extent of a a ie or Fit ago erie an when 
divers our i 
faid to contain ee eee in en e plura a church in 
the fingular. (See Cuurcu.) te word diocefe, 
by which the bifhop’s flock is now -ufually expreffed, he 
fays that he does not remember to have found it ufed in 
this fenfe by any of the ancients; but they frequently 
nominated the bifhop’s cure by the term parifh, Thus 
the fynodical epiftles of Irenzus to pope Vittor, the pices 
rics of Afia are twice called parifhes; and in Eufebius’s 
Eeclefiattical Hiftory the word is applied in feveral 
hundred Accordingly, we often me of the bifhops 
Alexandria, of us, of Cort; of 
ther c 8. i 
leges feveral confiderations, in to ae that the 
se diocefe did exceed is of a modern 
or elfe, it would have been impoffible that the members of 
it fhould have been conftantly aflembled together in one place. 
Further, the bifhop had but one altar, or communion-table, in 
his whole diocefe, at which his whole flock received the fa- 
crament from him. Befides, the other facrament of baptifm 
was generally adminitered by the bifhops alone within their 
refpective diocefes ; and, refore, it is not probable, al 
indeed, nega sarge an ee diocefes were en 
nd the bulk of fingle congregations. Moreo the 
He cia was le ani with the bifhop; confequently, 
that diocefe could not be ve 
e 
é gain, the people of a diocefe were prefent at 
church-cenfures: and no offenders were reftored again t 
le peace of the church, without the dge and con- 
n 
was hes all the people of that church met t 
lace to choofe a new bifhop.. At 2 onions of the 
clergy the whole body of the ooo were prefent. Pub- 
lic letters from one church to another were read before the 
whole diocefe : a the whole diocefe of the bifhop met 
together to manage church-affairs, From all thefe con- 
fiderations, fupported by citations from ancient writers, the 
author infers that a diocefe, in the primitive ages of 
Chriitianity, could not be larger than a fingle congregation. 
This reafoning is further confirmed by an ected into the 
real fize of thofe bifnoprics concerning w whic ny 
notice on ancient records, whence it appears that the largeit 
of = were not ‘greater than dur particular congtega- 
tions. Accordingly, Ignatius gives {uch an account of t 
baiooies of Smyrna, Ephefus, Magnefia, Philadelphia, 
and Trallium, as plainly sige that they were fo many 
fingle ap pre Upon the whole it is.concluded, 
that the greateft bifhoprics in the world, even in the 
third ce. were no inore than fo many fingle. congrega- 
tions. The four largeft diocefes, which {ubfifted in thofe 
days, were Antioch, Rome, Carthage, and Alexandria; 
‘42P- the 
