THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
General Convention, the office of presiding bishop being almost purely honorary. Throughout the Anglican communion the administration of certain quasisacramental rites (confirmation, ordination, consecration of churches, etc.) is strictly reserved to the bishop, who also has a power of ordinary jurisdiction in some measure resembling that exercised by the Roman Catholic prelates. The two English archbishops, the bishops of London, Winchester, and Durham, and most of the other bishops (the number corresponding to that of the more ancient sees), as " spiritual lords," have seats in the upper house of parliament. The American Methodist Episcopal Church also has its bishops, who are elected in any number required by the General Conference. They have joint jurisdiction throughout the Church, being confined to no diocese or districts, though for practical reasons the General Conference designates episcopal residences at its quadrennial sessions. Their functions are purely executive — they preside at conferences, arrange districts for presiding elders, fix appointments of preachers, and, especially, travel throughout the Church to promote its spiritual and temporal interests. No distinction of order is recognized between them and other ministers.
Bibliography: Consult Bingham, Origines, books iv, v, ix, xvi, xvii, for the election of bishops and the exercise of discipline; P. Hergenrother, Lehrbuch des katholischen Kirchenrechts, Freiburg, 1905. On the general subject consult works cited in Church Government.
BISHOP, NATHAN: Baptist layman; b. of Xew England stock at Vernon, Oneida County, X. Y., Aug. 12, 1808; d. at Saratoga Aug. 7, 1880. He was graduated at Brown 1837, and elected tutor; was superintendent of schools in Providence 1838-51, in Boston 1S51-57 Removing to New York, he became an active member of the Sabbath Committee, manager of the American Bible Society, a member of the Christian Commission during the Civil War, and of the Indian Commission appointed by President Grant in 1869; he was also a member of the Xew York State Board of Charities, a delegate of the Evangelical Alliance to the Czar of Russia in behalf of religious liberty in the Baltic provinces in 1871, a trustee of Brown University from 1842, and one of the original board of trustees of Vassar College. For two years he served gratuitously as secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, and he was chairman of the finance committee of the American Bible Revision Committee till his death.
(P SCHAFFf) D. S. SCHAFP.
BISHOP (EPISCOPUS) IN PARTIBUS INFIDE- LIUM. See Bishop, Titular.
BISHOP, TITULAR: According to the old law of the Church, only one bishop was consecrated for a diocese; and none was consecrated at large or without a definite diocese (First Council of Xiciea, canon viii). If, therefore, occasion arose for the designation of a representative to perform episcopal functions in the place of an incapacitated bishop, it was necessary to call upon some neighboring bishop or one who happened to be in those parts (see Coadjutor). In the ninth and tenth
centuries, certain Spanish bishops who had been driven from their sees by the Saracens, and in the tenth some from Prussia and Livonia who were in a similar position, served in this capacity. The same service was rendered in the fourteenth century by the bishops of sees founded in the East during the crusades and afterward occupied by the Mohammedans. So, even after all hope of the recovery of these territories had been abandoned, bishops continued to be consecrated for these dioceses, called episcopi in partibus infidelium (" bishops in the regions of the unbelieving ") until 1882, when Leo XIII ordered the use of the designation episcopi titulares. Their functions are various. In the first place, they serve as auxiliary or coadjutor bishops in dioceses where the need exists, when the diocesan makes a request to the pope for such an assignment, naming a suitable person, and giving assurance for his support. The coadjutor of course possesses all the jura ordinis like any other bishop, but exercises them only at the direction of his superior, and he has not, ex officio, the other prerogatives of a diocesan bishop (see Bishop). Apostolic vicars, who administer missionary districts not formed into dioceses, •ve usually consecrated bishops, and so am certain Roman functionaries who are members of the great congregations, and papal nuncios and other diplomatic representatives. Titular bishops are also consecrated for certain special purposes, such as the administration of holy orders to the Uniat Greeks of Italy, and the spiritual oversight of the military and naval forces of certain countries (see Exemption). (P HiNscHiust.)
Bibliography: L. Thomassin, Vetus et nova ecclesice disciplina, part I, book i, chaps. 27-28, Lucca, 172S; A. H. Andnucci, Tractatus de episcopo titulari, Rome, 1732; J. C. Moller, Geschichte der Weihbischbfe von Osnabriick, Lingen, 1887.
BISHOPRIC, or DIOCESE: The territory over which the jurisdiction of a bishop extends. The origin of such divisions goes back to the foundation and growth of the very early Christian communities. WThen the apostles founded a church in a city, the faithful living there (Gk. paroikoi, parcpidimoi ; cf. Eph. ii, 19; I Pet. ii, 11) formed a community (paroikia) which gradually took more definite shape under the leadership of the presbyters or bishops, and gained adherents outside the town. At first these latter attended divine service in the city, until their numbers increased sufficiently to form a separate dependent community, the term paroikia being applied to the larger territory equally. In the West the name parochia retained this sense until the ninth century, when it became restricted to single parishes in the modern sense, the bishop's jurisdiction being known as divcesis (already in use to designate a civil governor's jurisdiction). The latter word in the East, following the analogy of civil divisions, was applied to the district ruled by a patriarch. In Gaul the ecclesiastical unit was constituted out of the chief town of a district and its annexed territory (conrcntus, Gk. dioikesis), which in the Prankish period corresponded to the jurisdiction of a count. In Germany the original diocese was larger, and the Gau was coterminous