The Eomish Episcopacy, as a whole, is diocesan. See Diocese. The clergy of the diocese are subject to the bishop, but his authority does not extend beyond the diocese. There are, besides the diocesan bishops, bishops vacantes, bishops in pa?'tihus, bishops suffragan, etc., for which distinctions, see Bishops. "The di- vision of the Church into dioceses may be viewed as a natural consequence of the institution of the office of bisho]is. The authority to exercise jurisdiction, when committed to several hands, requires that some boun- daries be defined within which each party may employ his iiowers, otherwise disorder and confusion would en- sue, and the Church, instead of being benefited by the appointment of governors, might be exposed to the
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double calamity of an overplus of tliem in one district, and :x total deficiency of them in another. Hence we find, so earl}' as the New-Testament history, some plain indications of the rise of the diocesan system in the cases respectively of James, bishop of Jerusalem ; Timothy, bishop of Ephesus ; Titus, of Crete, to whom may be added the angels or bishops of the seven churches in Asia. These were placed in cities, and had jurisdiction over the churches and inferior clergy- in those cities, and probablj^ in tlie country adjacent. The first dioceses were formed by planting a bishop in a citv or considerable village, where he officiated stated- ly, and took the spiritual charge, not only of the cit}' itself, but the suburbs, or region lying round about it, within the verge of its [civil] jurisdiction, which seems to be the plain reason of that great and visible differ- ence which we find in the extent of dioceses, some be- ing very large, others verj"^ stnall, according as the civil government of each city happened to have a larger or lesser jurisdiction" (Hook). See Bingham, Origi. Ecd. blv. ix, ch. ii. The bishops are named from the principal citj^ of the diocese, as Rome, Lyons, etc. There were bishops, not diocesan, in Ireland, until the 12th century (see Christian Remembrancer, Jan. 1855, p. 215). While the Ilomish bishops ai-e independent of each other, they are all subordinate to the pope, and must make regular returns to him of the state of their dioceses. See Bishops.
in. (1.) The Church nf England and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States hold that there are three orders of ministers in the Church, bishops, priests, and deacons, and that bishops are tlie success- ors of the apostles, and superior to priests and deacons. The High-Church theory maintains the divine ri<jht of Episcopacy, and its absolute necessity to the existence of the Church ; the Low-Church party deny that there is any positive command upon the subject in Scrip- ture, or that there is anything in the standards of the Church of England which makes episcopacy to be of the essence of a church. The Higli-Churchmen maintain, and the Low-Churchmen reject the theor}'^ of the "exclusive validity of episcopal orders." See Suc- CESsiox. In the prei'ace to the ordinal of the Church of England, and of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, it is declared as "evident unto all men diligentlv reading holy Scripture and ancient au- thors, that from the apostles' time there have been these orders of ministers in Christ's Church, bishops, priests, and deacons." The doctrine of those churches in general is, " That there is in the Church a superior order of office-bearers, the successors of the apostles, who possess in their own persons the right of ordina- tion and jurisdiction, and who are called tTrir^KOTro', as being the overseers not onlj' of the people, but also of the clergy ; and ::n inferior order of ministers, called presbyters, the literal translation of the word Trpfrr/Sii- Tcpoi, which is rendered in our English Bibles elders, persons who receive from the ordination of the bishop power to preach and to administer the sacraments, who are set over the people, but are themselves under the government of the bishop, and have no right to convey to others the sacred office which he gives them au- thority to exercise under him." According to a phrase used bj' Charles I, who was bj' no means an unlearned defender of that form of government to which he was a martyr, the presbyters are episcojn gregis [bishops of the flock], but the bishops are episcopi gi-cgis et pas- toruni [bishops of the flock and of the pastors.] " The liberal writers, however, in the Church of England do not contend that this form of government is made so binding in the Church as not to be departed from and varied according to circumstances. It cannot be proved, says Dr. Paley, that any form of church government was laid down in the Christian as it had been in the Jewish Scriptures, with a view of fixing a constitution for succeeding ages. The truth seems to have been, that such oflaces were at first erected in the Christian