j The Episcopal Church of Scotland has at present no I archbishop, but the presiding bishop has the title of i primus, or metropolitan. In the English colonies, the I bishops of Calcutta, Sydney, New Zealand, Montreal, j Capetown, each of whom presides over an ecclesiastical province (a number of dioceses), have the title Metro- I poi-itan. See Metropolitan. | The election of an archbishop does not differ from ■ that of a bishop [see Bishop] ; but when he is invest- ed, with his office he is said to be "enthroned," where- as a bishop is "consecrated." He also writes himself | "by divine providence," a bishop being "by divine permission ;" and has the title of "Grace" and " Most Reverend Father in God," while a bishop is styled "Lord" and " Right Reverend Father in God." The archbishop is entitled to present to all ecclesiastical ; livings in the disposal of diocesan bishops if not filled up within six months ; and every bishop, whether cre- ated or translated, is bound to make, a legal convey- ance to the archbishop of the next avoidance of one such dignity or benefice belonging to his see as the archbishop shall choose. This is called the arehbish- , op's option. See Bishop; Episcopacy. See Bing- I ham, Oriff. Eccles. bk. ii, ch. 17 ; Coleman, Ancient ! Christianity, ch.viii, § 4.
V. In the Protestant churches of Germany the title archbishop is not customary, yet it was conferred, on April 19, 1829, by order of the king of Prussia, on the superintendent general of the province of Prussia, Bo- rowski, with the declaration, "Why should not the highest dignitaries of our evangelical church have the same claim to this dignity as the clergymen of several other evangelical countries, in which it has been pre- | served without interruption?" See Nicolovius, Die bischofl. Wurde in Preussens evangel. Kirche (Koenigs- berg,*1834).
On the Roman Catholic archbishops, see Helfert, Von den Rechten vnd Pflichten der Bishofe (Prague, 1832); and M\st. Dogmat. histor. Abhandlung uber die j rechtliehe Stelliing der Erzbischife (Freiburg, 1847). A list of all archbishoprics, with their suffragans, through- ! out the world, will be given in an Appendix. — Hook, I Church Diet. s. v. ; Chambers's Encyclopedia, s. v. ! Archdall, Mervyn, a learned clergyman and an- | tiquary of the Protestant Church of Ireland, was born 1 at Dublin in 1723, filled several ecclesiastical posts, and finally became rector of Slane, in the county of Meath. He died in 1791. After forty years of in- j tense application to the monastic records of Ireland, j he published, in 1786, Monasticon Hibemicum : a His- tory of the Abbeys. Priories, an I Religions liaises of Ire- land— Gentleman's Magazine, xi, 780 ; Allibone, Dic- tionary of Authors, i, 67.
Archdeacon (chief of the deacons), an ecclesias- tical officer whose duty originally consisted chiefly iu superintending the temporal affairs of the church. I 1. The office was one of great honor in the early
ARCHDEACON
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church ; but how it grew into such importance is mat- ter of dispute. ' ' The antiquity of this office is held to be so high by many Roman Catholic writers that they derive its origin from the appointment of the seven deacons, and suppose that St. Stephen was the first archdeacon ; but there is no authority to warrant this conclusion. Mention is also made of Laurentius, arch- deacon of Rome, who suffered A.D. 2G0 ; but, although he was called archdeacon (according to Prudentius), he -was no more than the principal man of the seven deacons who stood at the altar. ' Hie primus e sep- tem viris qui stant ad aram proximi' (Prudent. Hymn, de St. Steph.). Jerome says ' that the archdeacon was chosen out of the deacons, and was the principal deacon in every church, just as the archpresbyter was the principal presbyter.' But even in Jerome's time the office of archdeacon had certainly grown to great im- portance" (Hook, s. v.). It was usual for one of the deacons to stand by the bishop at the altar, while the other deacons discharged their duty in the assembly. This deacon was called primus, primicerius dlaconum, the first or chief deacon ; and he was usually the bishop's man of business. Jerome speaks of the archdeacon as necessary to ecclesiastical order in his epistle ad Rus- ticum; and Optatus, bishop of Milevi, says that it was the rebuke of the archdeacon Cecilianns to Lucilla which caused eventually the Donatist schism. It is probable that, at first, the deacon senior both in years and office was elevated to the rank of archdeacon ; but as the office increased in importance, it became necessary to elect the most able and proper person to discharge the duties. Athanasius was made archdea- con while he was }ret a young man. This mode of election to office did not, however, prevail universally; for in some places the choice rested solely with the bishop; and when the relation of bishop and archdea- con became very intimate, and the latter was of special importance to his superior in the discharge of his epis- copal functions, it was natural that the bishop should have considerable influence in his appointment. The powers of the archdeacons were extensive and influen- tial. They had charge of the instruction and educa- tion of the younger clerks, were overseers over the deacons, superintended the support of the poor, and assisted the bishops in matters of administration and jurisdiction. Without bis certificate no one was ad- mitted to the orders, and frequently he represented the bishop at synods. Still greater became his pow- ers in the sixth century, when he even received pu- nitive power over the priests, and a rank above all the priests, even the archpriest. This is clearly stated by Isidor of Sevilla, who, in his Epistola ad Evagrium, plainly says : The archpriest must know that he is subordinate to the archdeacon, and must obey his or- ders, as well as those of his bishop (archipresbyter vero se esse sub archidiacono, ejus prceseptis sicut episcopi sui 8i iat obedere). Until the eighth century every diocese had only one archdeacon, but in 774, Bishop Heddo, of Strasburg, divided his diocese into seven archdiacon- ates (arcliiiliiiciiiifi/ns rut-alls'), and most of the other bishops imitated this institution, with the exception of 1 1 ah . vi here the smallness of the diocese seemed to make a division of the dioceses superfluous. The "rural archdeacons," to whom the deans (archlpres- byteri rurales) were subordinate, were mostly priests, while the archdeacon of the cathedral church (arehi- diaconus magrms) was usually only a deacon. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the powers of the archdeacons reached their climax. They received a jurisdiction of their own (jurisdictio propria), suspend- ed and excommunicated priests, held synods, and in many ways tried to enlarge their rights at the expense of the bishops. As the position bad now become a very lucrative one, many members of noble, prince- ly, and even royal families intruded themselves into it, even without having received the ordination of deacons. In many instances their powers even be-