RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Arcani Archbishop
and sacramental gift, but the elements and the ritual performance. In Theodoret's dialogue Incon- /usus (iv, 125, ed. Schultze), the orthodox shrinks from openly naming bread and cup The Im- lest " some one uninitiated be presmediateOb- ent," and vaguely calls the body and ject of the blood of the Lord a gift. The desire Disciplina. was, of course, to withhold even from the eyes of the initiated the act and the " mystic symbols "; hence the exclusion of the unbaptized from the missa fidelium and the watch at the door by the ostiaries. Baptism and the Lord's Supper were the real object of the disciplina. To keep people in actual ignorance was, of course, impossible, but the silence observed produced the impression of a mystery. The Lord's Prayer at the Supper held the same position as the confession in baptism; the character of secret objects was given to both (cf. Sozomen, Hist, eccl., i. 20; Ambrose, De Cain et Abel, I. ix. 37). The opposite to the confession of the neophyte was the renunciation, which was also kept secret. Everything which preceded and followed baptism necessarily partook of the secrecy. The eucharist as the climax of the whole mystagogy is the mystery par excellence. Dogmas were mysteries (Basil, De spir. sane, xxvii. 66) only in so far as the Church generally claimed - to possess wonderful mysteries, especially the dogma of the Trinity on account of its relation to the baptismal symbol; but no secrecy of the dogma was intended. With the disappearance of the catechumenate the arcani disciplina ceased, although in the Greek liturgy the formula for dismissing the catechumens remained; but the cult of the Greek Church now actually assumed the character of a mystico-allegorical drama, a mystery of the heathen kind, though of a higher type. N. Bonwetsch.
Bibliography: I. Casaubon, De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis, Geneva, 1654; G. T. Meier, De recondita veteris eccletias (heologia, Helmstedt, 1670; E. von Schelstrate, Anhquitas illustrate, circa concilia generalia et provincialia and Commentatio de s. Antiocheno concilio, Antwerp, 1678, 1681; W. E. Tentzel, Exercitationes selectae, ii., Leipsic, 1692, contains Tentzel's Difsertatio de disciplina arcani, 1683; Schelstrate's Dissertatio apologetica de disciplina arcani contra disputationem E. Tentzelii, 1685; and Tentzel's reply, Animadversiones; G. C. L. T. Frommann, De disciplina arcani, Jena, 1833; R. Rothe, De disciplina; arcani origine, Heidelberg, 1841; K. A. Credner, in the Jenaer allgemeine Litteraturzeitung , 653 sqq., 1844; T. Harnack, Der christliche Gemeindegottesdienst im apostohschen und altkatholischen Zeitalter, pp. 1-66, Erlangen, 1854; G. von Zezschwitz, System der Katechetik, i. 154-209, Leipsic, 1863; N. Bonwetsch, Wesen, Entstehung, und Fortgang der Arkan-disciplin, in ZHT, xliii. (1873) 203- 299; T. Zahn, Glaubensregel and Taufbekenntnis in der (UtenKirche, in ZKW, i. (1880) 315 sqq.; E. Bratke, Die btellung des Clemens Alexandrinus zum antiken Mysterienwesen in TSK, lx. (1887) 647-708; E. Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, chap x., London, 1890; H. Holtzmann, Die Katechese aer alien Kxrche, in Theologische Abhandlungen Weizsacker gewidmet, pp. 66-76, Freiburg, 1892; G. Anrich, Das antike Mysterienwesen in seinem Einfluss auf das Christentum, uottingen, 1894; G. Wobbermin, Religionsgeschichtliche d i j ZUT Fmae deT Beeinflussung des Urchristentums aurch das antike Mysterienwesen, Berlin, 1896; P. Batif- «ol, Etudes d'histoire et de theologie positive, Paris, 1902; «• travel, Die Arkandisciplin, part i„ Munster, 1902.
ARCHBISHOP : A bishop in the Roman Catholic and some parts of the Anglican Church, who has not only the charge of bis own diocese like any
other bishop, but also certain rights of oversight and precedence over several other bishops whose dioceses are included in his province. In the third century, by analogy with the political divisions of the Empire (see Eparchy), there grew up an organization of several bishoprics under the leadership of a metropolitan, the bishop of the provincial capital; it was his place to conduct episcopal elections, to confirm the choice and to consecrate the one chosen, and to convoke the bishops of his province in an annual synod. In concert with them, he regulated the affairs of the province, and the synod formed a court of appeal from the decisions of individual bishops, as well as one of first instance for charges brought against them. In the following centuries the metropolitan system was adopted by the Christian countries of the West as well. In the Merovingian period, however, the joint power claimed by the princes in filling episcopal sees and the importance attained by national councils robbed the position of the metropolitans of much of its independence; nor were they able to recover it in the Carolingian era, between the domination assumed by Charlemagne and the papal claims to an immediate decision in weighty matters, for which the pseudo-Isidorian decretals had furnished a basis. The rights of a metropolitan were accordingly limited in the thirteenth century legal compilations of the Corpus Juris Canonici to the following particulars: (1) The confirmation of episcopal elections and consecration of bishops in his province; (2) calling and presiding over provincial councils; (3) general oversight of his suffragans, visitation of their dioceses, and imposition of censures and penalties on them, though not of deposition; (4) hearing of appeals from episcopal courts; and (5) the so-called Jus devolutionis (q.v.). The first of these he lost in the fifteenth century, when confirmation and consecration of bishops were reserved to the pope. The Council of Trent confirmed the second, but limited the third by requiring the assent of the provincial council. At the same time, however, he was charged with the erection, maintenance, and direction of seminaries in the dioceses of his suffragans, and with the enforcement of their obligation of residence. An archbishop has the title of " Most Reverend," and ranks immediately after patriarchs. He wears the pallium (q.v.) as a special symbol of his jurisdiction, and a particular kind of cross (crux erecta or gestatoria) is carried before him within his own province. The title apxi^ianowor is frequently applied in the fourth century to the metropolitan of Alexandria, but after the development of the great patriarchates it came to denote other bishops of large cities who were undistinguishable in rank from metropolitans; and the titles have been practioally synonymous in the West — though there are a few Roman Catholic archbishops (such as those of Amalfi, Lucca, and Udine) who are not metropolitans, and in the case of titular archbishops (see Bishop, Titular) it follows from the nature of their office that there is no metropolitan jurisdiction. In the Anglican communion, the title of archbishop was for a long time confined to the metropolitans of England and Ireland, owing
Archdall Archeology