378 
PAT 
Uffier, Pagi, De Marca, and Morinus, attribute the ef- 
tabiifliment of the grand patriarchates to the apoftles. 
They fuppofe that the apoftles, according to the defcrip- 
tion of the world then given by geographers, pitched on 
the three principal cities in the three parts of the known 
•world; viz. Rome, in Europe; Antioch, in Afia; and 
Alexandria, in Africa: and thus formed a trinity of pa¬ 
triarchs. 
Others, far from attributing this inftitution to the 
apoftles, maintain that the name patriarch was unknown 
at the time of the council of Nice; and that, for a long 
time afterwards, patriarchs and primates were confounded 
together, as being all equally chiefs of diocefes, and 
equally fuperior to metropolitans, who were only chiefs 
of provinces. Hence it is that Socrates gives the title 
patriarch to all the chiefs of diocefes, and reckons ten of 
them. In effeft, it does not appear, that the dignity of 
patriarch was appropriated to the five grand fees of Rome, 
Conftantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerufalem, till 
after the council of Chalcedon, in 451. For, when the 
council of Nice regulated the limits and prerogatives of 
the three patriarchs of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, 
it did not give them the title of patriarchs, though it al¬ 
lowed them the pre-eminence and privileges thereof. 
Thus, when the council of Conftantinople adjudged the 
fecond place to the biffiop of Conftantinople, who, till 
then, was only a fuft'ragan of Heraclea, it faid nothing of 
the patriarchate. Nor is the term patriarch found in the 
decree of the council of Chalcedon, whereby the fifth 
place is afligned to the bifliop of Jerufalem; nor did thefe 
five patriarchs govern all the churches. There wereftill 
many independent chiefs of diocefes, who, far from own¬ 
ing the jurifdi&ion of the grand patriarchs, called them- 
felves patriarchs : fuch as that of Aquileia ; nor was Car¬ 
thage ever fubjedft to the patriarch of Alexandria. 
Mofheim fuppofes, that thofe prelates who enjoyed a cer¬ 
tain degree of pre-eminence over the reft of the epifco- 
pal order, were diftinguilhed by the Jewilh title of patri¬ 
archs in the fourth century. Eccl. Hift. vol. i. 
The authority of the patriarchs grew by infenfible de¬ 
grees, till at length we find, that, about the clofe of the 
fifth century, all affairs of moment, within the compafs 
of their patriarchate, came before them; either at firft 
hand, or by appeals from the metropolitans. They con- 
fecrated bifliops; aflembled yearly in council the clergy of 
their refpe&ive diftritts ; pronounced a decifive judg¬ 
ment in thofe cafes where accufations were brought 
agair.ft biftiops; and appointed vicars or deputies, 
clothed with their authority, for the prefervation of or¬ 
der and tranquillity in the remoter provinces. Nothing, 
in ftiort, was done without confulting them ; and their 
decrees w'ere executed with the fame regularity and re- 
fpe£l as thofe of the princes. It mull, however, be ob- 
ferved, that the authority of the patriarchs was not ac¬ 
knowledged through all the provinces without exception. 
Several diftrifls, both in the eaftern and weftern empires, 
were exempted from their jurifdidtion. 
Patriarch is alfo applied to the chief of feveral 
churches in the Eaft, who live out of communion with 
the Roman church; fuch are the patriarch of the Arme¬ 
nians, refiding in the monaftery of St. Gregory ; the pa¬ 
triarch of the Abyflinians, called Aliena ; the patriarchs 
of the Cophti, the Jacobites, &c. See Greek Church, 
Vol. viii. p. 969. 
PATRIAR'CHAL, or Patriarchical, adj. Belong¬ 
ing to patriarchs ; fuch as was poffefled or enjoyed by 
patriarchs.—Nimrod enjoyed his patriarchal power; but 
he againlt right enlarged his empire, by feizing violently 
on the rights of other lords. Locke. — By difeovering the 
vanity of our author’s whimfical patriarchical kingdom, I 
am led to a certain conclufion. A. Sidney. 
Such drowfy fedentary fouls have they, 
Who would to patriarchal years live on. 
Fix’d to hereditary clay, 
And know no climate but their own. Norris. 
PAT 
Belonging to hierarchical patriarchs.—Archbifhops or 
metropolitans in France, are immediately fubjedt to the 
pope’s jurifdidfion; and, in other places, they are im¬ 
mediately fubjedt to the patriarchal fees. Ayliffe. 
Patriarchal Cross, in heraldry, is that where the 
ffiaft is twice crofted; the lower arms or traverfes being 
longer, and the upper fliorter. Such a crofs is faid to be¬ 
long to patriarchs, as the triple crofs does to the pope. 
PATRIARCHATE, or Patriarchship, /. A bilh- 
oprick fuperior to archbifliopricks.—The queftions are 
as ancient as the differences between Rome and any 
other of the old patriarchats. Selden.— Prelacies may be 
termed the greater benefices; as that of the pontificiate, 
a patriarch/hip and archbifhoprick. Ayliffe. 
PATRIARCHY, J'. Jurifdidfion of a patriarch; pa¬ 
triarchate.—Calabria pertained to the patriarch of Con¬ 
ftantinople, as appeareth in the novel of Leo Sophus, 
touching the precedence of metropolitans belonging to 
that patriarchy. Brereivood. 
PATRI'CA, a town of the popedom, in the Cam- 
pagna di Roma : thirteen miles fouth of Rome. 
PATRI'CIAN, adj. [palricien, Fr. patricius, Lat.] Se¬ 
natorial; noble; not plebeian: 
The infulting tyrant prancing o’er the field, 
His horfe’s hoofs wet with patrician blood. Addifon. 
PATRI'CIAN, J'. A nobleman.— Your daughters are 
all married to weal thy patricians. Swift. 
Nobl e patricians, patrons of my right, 
Defend thejuftice of my caufe with arms. Sluikefpeare. 
Patrician was a title given, among the ancient Ro¬ 
mans, to the defcendants of the hundred, or, as fome 
will have it, of the tw'o hundred, firft fenators chofen by 
Romulus ; and by him called patres, “ fathers.” Ro¬ 
mulus eftablifiied this order after the example of the 
Athenians ; who were divided into two claffes, viz. the 
EvwaTgi£«;, patricios, and J^oTfxov?, populares. Patri¬ 
cians, therefore, were originally the nobility, in opposi¬ 
tion to the plebeians. They w’ere the only perfons whom 
Romulus allowed to afpire to the magiftracy; and they 
exercifed all the fundtions of the priefthood till the year of 
Rome 495. 
At length, the cognizance and chara&er of thefe an¬ 
cient families being almoft loft and extinguilhed by a 
longcourfe of years, and frequent changes in the empire, 
a new kind of patricians was afterwards fet on foot, who 
had no pretenfions from birth, but whofe title depended 
entirely on the emperor’s favour. This new patriciate, 
Zozimus tells us, was eredled by Conftantine, who con¬ 
ferred the quality on his counlellors, not becaufe they 
were defeended from the ancient fathers of the fenate, 
but becaufe they were the fathers of the republic, or of 
the empire. This dignity in time became the higheft of 
the empire. Juftinian calls it fummam dignitatem. In 
effedf, the patricians feem to have had the precedence of 
the confulares, and to have taken place before them in the 
fenate; though F. Faber afferts the contrary. What 
confounds the queftion is, that the two dignities often 
met in the fame perfon; becaufe the patriciate was only 
conferred on thofe who had gone through the firft offices 
of the empire, or had been confuls. Pope Adrian made 
Charlemagne take the title of patrician before heaffumed 
the quality of emperor; and other popes have given the 
title to other kings and princes by reafon of its emi¬ 
nence. 
Patrician Deities, in mythology, were Janus, Sa¬ 
turn, the Genius, Pluto, Bacchus, the Sun, the Moon, 
and the Earth. 
PATRI'CIANS, in ecclefiaftical writers, an ancient 
fedl of heretics, who difturbed the peace of the church 
in the beginning of the third century; thus called from 
their founder Patricias, preceptor of a Marcionite called 
Symmachus. His diftinguifhing tenet was, that the fub- 
fiance of the flefti is not the work of God, but that of the 
devil: on which account his adherents bore an impla¬ 
cable 
