Bishop
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role or office of the bishop is called episcopacy or the episcopate. Organisationally, several Christian denominations utilise ecclesiastical structures that call for the position of bishops, while other denominations have dispensed with this office, seeing it as a symbol of power. Bishops have also exercised political authority within their dioceses.
Traditionally, bishops claim apostolic succession and the historic episcopacy, a direct historical lineage dating back to the original Twelve Apostles or Saint Paul. The bishops are by doctrine understood as those who possess the full priesthood given by Jesus Christ, and therefore may ordain other clergy, including other bishops. A person ordained as a deacon, priest, and then bishop is understood to hold the fullness of the ministerial priesthood, given responsibility by Christ to govern, teach and sanctify the Body of Christ. Priests, deacons and lay ministers co-operate and assist their bishops in pastoral ministry.
Some Pentecostal and other Protestant denominations have bishops who oversee congregations, though they do not necessarily claim apostolic succession, with exception to those Pentecostals and Charismatics affiliated to churches founded by J. Delano Ellis and Paul S. Morton.
Etymology and terminology
The English word bishop derives, via Latin episcopus, Old English biscop, and Middle English bisshop, from the Greek word, meaning "overseer" or "supervisor". Greek was the language of the early Christian church, but the term did not originate in Christianity: it had been used in Greek for several centuries before the advent of Christianity.The English words priest and presbyter both derive, via Latin, from the Greek word, meaning "elder" or "senior", and not originally referring to priesthood.
In the early Christian era the two terms were not always clearly distinguished, but is used in the sense of the order or office of bishop, distinct from that of, in the writings attributed to Ignatius of Antioch in the second century.
Christian episcopal development
The earliest organization of the Church in Jerusalem was, according to most scholars, similar to that of Jewish synagogues, but it had a council or college of ordained presbyters. In Acts 11:30 and Acts 15:22, a collegiate system of government in Jerusalem is chaired by James the Just, according to tradition the first bishop of the city. In Acts 14:23, the Apostle Paul ordains presbyters in churches in Anatolia. The word presbyter was not yet distinguished from overseer, as in Acts 20:17, Titus 1:5–7 and 1 Peter 5:1. The earliest writings of the Apostolic Fathers, the Didache and the First Epistle of Clement, for example, show the church used two terms for local church offices—presbyters and deacon.File:Augustine Lateran.jpg|thumb|upright|A 6th-century image of Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius
In the First Epistle to Timothy and Epistle to Titus in the New Testament a more clearly defined episcopate can be seen. Both letters state that Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete to oversee the local church. Paul commands Titus to ordain presbyters/bishops and to exercise general oversight. John Zizioulas argues that "The task of the Bishop was from the beginning principally liturgical, consisting in the offering of the Divine Eucharist." The authorship of both those letters is questioned by many scholars in the field and the question whether they reflect a first or second century structure of church hierarchy is among the arguments used in the debate as to their authenticity.
Early sources are unclear but various groups of Christian communities may have had the bishop surrounded by a group or college functioning as leaders of the local churches. Eventually the head or "monarchic" bishop came to rule more clearly, and all local churches would eventually follow the example of the other churches and structure themselves after the model of the others with the one bishop in clearer charge, though the role of the body of presbyters remained important.
Apostolic Fathers
Around the end of the 1st century, the early church's organization became clearer in historical documents. In the works of the Apostolic Fathers, and Ignatius of Antioch in particular, the role of the episkopos, or bishop, became more important or, rather, already was very important and being clearly defined. While Ignatius of Antioch offers the earliest clear description of monarchial bishops he is an advocate of monoepiscopal structure rather than describing an accepted reality. To the bishops and house churches to which he writes, he offers strategies on how to pressure house churches who do not recognize the bishop into compliance. Other contemporary Christian writers do not describe monarchial bishops, either continuing to equate them with the presbyters or speaking of in a city.Clement of Alexandria writes about the ordination of a certain Zachæus as bishop by the imposition of Simon Peter Bar-Jonah's hands. The words bishop and ordination are used in their technical meaning by the same Clement of Alexandria. The bishops in the 2nd century are defined also as the only clergy to whom the ordination to priesthood and diaconate is entrusted: "a priest lays on hands, but does not ordain.".
At the beginning of the 3rd century, Hippolytus of Rome describes another feature of the ministry of a bishop, which is that of the "Spiritum primatus sacerdotii habere potestatem dimittere peccata": the primate of sacrificial priesthood and the power to forgive sins.
Canonical age
As the bishop's role further developed into the 4th century, the First Council of Nicaea decreed that bishops should be ordained by at least three others. Age requirements for episcopal ordination or consecration were neither universal nor fixed in early Christian churches. It was, however, universally required that a bishop be male.Lacking a definitive ecumenical age requirement for holy orders—between the early ecumenical councils of the Great and imperial Roman churches, and after schism into the Latin and Greek churches—young men had been ordained, appointed, and/or enthroned as bishops, some as young as 5.
Notable younger Latin and Greek bishops have included: Hugh Vermandois ; Luis Antonio Jaime de Borbón y Farnesio ; Guido Ascanio Sforza di Santa Fiora ; Benedict IX ; Karol Ferdynand Vasa ; Alexander Stewart ; Niccolò Caetani ; Bruno von Bayern ; Odo of Bayeux ; Alessandro Farnese ; Cesare Borgia ; Clemens August ; Ranuccio Farnese ; Alfonso Carafa ; James II of Cyprus Theophylact ; Ippolito de' Medici ; Diomede Carafa ; Stephen I ; Luis de Milà y de Borja ; Nicolas de Besse ; Clemente Grosso della Rovere ; Niccolò Gaddi ; Juan de Borja Lanzol de Romaní, el menor ; Gabriele Condulmer of Rome; Ludovico Ludovisi ; Giovanni Michiel ; Charles Borromeo ; Pietro Riario ; Mark Sittich von Hohenems Altemps ; Jošt Rožmberk ; Giuliano della Rovere ; Bonifazio Bevilacqua Aldobrandini ; Philipp Ludwig von Sinzendorf ; Pedro Luis de Borja Lanzol de Romaní ; and Gerhard II Lippe. Throughout the Church of the East, other notable younger bishops have included: Shimun XXIII Eshai ; Shimun XIX Benyamin ; Yohannan VIII Hormizd ; Sargis Yosip ; Shimun XVII Abraham ; and Yosip Khnaninsho.
During the Catholic Church's Council of Trent, the Holy See dogmatically mandated a minimum canonical age of 30 for the episcopacy. The Eastern Orthodox Church would also impose a minimum age of 30 for the priesthood. The Coptic Orthodox have adopted a minimum canonical age of at least 28 for the priesthood, including its specialized ministries leading to the chorepiscopacy. For the office of bishop, the Eastern Orthodox Church imposed a minimum canonical age of 35. Overall, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East and Protestantism have not established a universal, canonical age.
During the 20th century, the Holiness-Pentecostal Church of God in Christ elevated Clarence Leslie Morton Jr. into the episcopacy at the age of 20 in 1962. J. Delano Ellis, co-founder of the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops, was also elevated as bishop at the age of 26 in 1970.
Christian bishops and civil government
The efficient organization of the Roman Empire became the template for the organisation of the Great Church in the 4th century, particularly after Constantine's Edict of Milan. As the church moved from the shadows of privacy into the public forum it acquired land for churches, burials and clergy. In 391, Theodosius I decreed that any land that had been confiscated from the church by Roman authorities be returned.The most usual term for the geographic area of a bishop's authority and ministry, the diocese, began as part of the structure of the Roman Empire under Diocletian. As Roman authority began to fail in the western portion of the empire, the church took over much of the civil administration. This can be clearly seen in the ministry of two popes: Pope Leo I in the 5th century, and Pope Gregory I in the 6th century. Both of these men were statesmen and public administrators in addition to their role as Christian pastors, teachers and leaders. In the Eastern churches, latifundia entailed to a bishop's see were much less common, the state power did not collapse the way it did in the West, and thus the tendency of bishops acquiring civil power was much weaker than in the West. However, the role of Western bishops as civil authorities, often called prince bishops, continued throughout much of the Middle Ages.
Bishops holding political office
As well as being archchancellors of the Holy Roman Empire after the 9th century, bishops generally served as chancellors to medieval monarchs, acting as head of the justiciary and chief chaplain. The Lord Chancellor of England was almost always a bishop up until the dismissal of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey by Henry VIII. Similarly, the position of Kanclerz in the Polish kingdom was always held by a bishop until the 16th century.In modern times, the principality of Andorra is headed by Co-Princes of Andorra, one of whom is the Bishop of Urgell and the other, the sitting President of France, an arrangement that began with the Paréage of Andorra, and was ratified in the 1993 constitution of Andorra.
The office of the Papacy is inherently held by the sitting Roman Catholic Bishop of Rome. Though not originally intended to hold temporal authority, since the Middle Ages the power of the Roman papacy gradually expanded deep into the secular realm and for centuries the sitting Bishop of Rome was the most powerful governmental office in Central Italy. In modern times, the Pope of Rome is also the sovereign Prince of Vatican City, an internationally recognized micro-state located entirely within the city of Rome.
In France, prior to the Revolution, representatives of the clergy—in practice, bishops and abbots of the largest monasteries—comprised the First Estate of the Estates-General. This role was abolished after separation of church and state was implemented during the French Revolution.
In the 21st century, the more senior bishops of the Church of England continue to sit in the House of Lords of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as representatives of the established church, and are known as Lords Spiritual. The Bishop of Sodor and Man, whose diocese lies outside the United Kingdom, is an ex officio member of the Legislative Council of the Isle of Man. In the past, the Bishop of Durham had extensive vice-regal powers within his northern diocese, which was a county palatine, the County Palatine of Durham, of which he was ex officio the earl. In the 19th century, a gradual process of reform was enacted, with the majority of the bishop's historic powers vested in The Crown by 1858.
Eastern Orthodox bishops, along with all other members of the clergy, are canonically forbidden to hold political office. Occasional exceptions to this rule are tolerated when the alternative is political chaos. In the Ottoman Empire, the Patriarch of Constantinople, for example, had de facto administrative, cultural and legal jurisdiction, as well as spiritual authority, over all Eastern Orthodox Christians of the empire, as part of the Ottoman millet system. An Eastern Orthodox bishop headed the Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro from 1516 to 1852, assisted by a secular guvernadur. More recently, Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus, served as President of the Cyprus from 1960 to 1977, an extremely turbulent time period on the island.
In 2001, Peter Hollingworth, AC, OBE—then the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane—was controversially appointed Governor-General of Australia. Although Hollingworth gave up his episcopal position to accept the appointment, it still attracted considerable opposition in a country which maintains a formal separation between Church and State.