Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/769

Rh ARCHES

695

AROHINTO

alleged proceedings at Nismes" (2d ed., London, 1816). His portrait was engraved by Turner after a painting by James Ramsay in 182G. GiLLow, Jiibliog. Diet. English CaOiolica.

Thomas Walsh.

Arches, Thk Counr op, so called from the fact that it was anciently held in the Uhurcli of St. Mary le Bow (Sancta Maria do Arcubus), in Cheapsi<lc, wius the cliiof and most ancient court anil consistory of tlio jurisdiction of the Archbisliop of Canterbury. Originally the judge of this court, the official Prin- cipal of the .Xrche-s, tool^ cognizance of cauiies through- out the ecclesiastical province, and by his patent was investeil with the right of hearing appeals from the Dean of the Arches. This latter exercised juris- diction over a "peculiar", consisting of thirteen Earishes including St. Mary le Bow, within the diocese, ut exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. Eventually the oflice of Dean and that of Principal of the Arches became merged; and by the Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874 a judge of the provincial courts of Canterbury and York was provided, and "all proceedings hereafter taken bcfdic the judge in matters arising within the province of Cantcrbuiy shall be deemed to he taken in the Arches Court of Canterburj-." [From the Court of Arches an appeal originally lay to the Pope. After the Reformation it was transferred to the King in Chancery (25 Hen. VIII, c. 19); and later (2 & 3 Will. IV, c. 92; 3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 41) to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.] Suits are con- ducted by means of citation, production of libel (accusation), answer to libel, arguments of advo- cates, and the judge's decree. This court exercises appellate jurisdiction from each of the diocesan courts within the province of Canterbury. It may also take original cognizance of causes by letters of Request from such c.iurts. It latterly sat in the hall belonging to the College of Civilians (Doctors' Commons) until the ecclesiastical courts were thrown open to the bar and to solicitors generally, and all probate and divorce business taken away (1857), since when it sits at Lambeth or Westminster.

Phii.i.imork, Ecdeaiaatical Law of the Church of Knaland: Renton, Encyclopedia of the Laxca of England; Report of Ecclraiastical Courts Commissioners^ 1883.

Francis Aveling.

Archiereus (Greek, apxteptis; Russian, arkhierei), a (ircck word for bishop, when consiilered as the culmination of the [iriestliood. It is verj' much used in the liturgical books of the Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches for tho.se services which correspond to the pontifical services of the Roman Rite. This word must not be confounded with proloiereus (archpriest), the highest ecclesiastical rank to which a married priest may attain in the Greek Church.

Ci-UGNET, I>ict. dea noma liturfjiquea (Paris, 1895) 21.

.A.NDREW J. ShIPMAN.

Archimandrite (Gr. ipx<^< 1 command, and pLivipa, a sheepfokl), in the Greek Rite the superior of a monasten,', or of .several monasteries. The term seems to have originated during the fourth century in the far E;ust (Mesopotamia, Persia), and to have spread thence to I'^gj'pt and Asia Minor. In the fifth and succeeding centuries it occurs frequently in the writings of the Greek Fathers, also in the acts of councils, and was even adopted quite extensively in the West where it did not disappear from occasional u.sage until the ninth century. Originally the archi- mandrite seems to have been only the superior or abbot of his own monastery; gradually, liowever, he came to exercise authority over a number of monasteries, and by the eleventh century the archi- mandrites of .such monastic centres as Mount Athos, and Mount Olympus in liithynia. were the equivalent of our Western abbots-general. At present there

are in the Greek Church two kinds of archimandrites, the original monastic officers exercising jurisdiction in their respective monasteries, and honorary archi- mamlrites and welU'ducated priests attached to the chanceries of the great patriarchates (e. g. Constan- tinonle), or at the head of certain branches of tem- poral a<lminisl ra- tion; in a woni, not unlike the Roman prelates or the principal of- ficers of a Western diocese. It is from the ranks of these quasi-monastic

Criests that the ishops are often selected, when not taken directly from the monas- teries. The archi- mandrite is ap- pointed by ec- clesiastical a u - thority (patriarch, metropolitan, bi.shop), also, in Russia, by the Holy Synod, and in some monas- teries by election. He has the right a,.„„„,,.„„„, „. okku .... I)u.,s to wear a pectoral

cro.ss, the epigonalion in the celebration of Mass, and to sign a cross before his name after the manner of bishops. The monastic archimandrites have also the right to the pastoral stafT, and to a peculiar man- tle having four squares of embroidered cloth called "the tables of the law". Their rights and privileges ditTer .somewhat by law or custom in different parts of the Greek Church. The u.sual distinction, common to all, is a black veil tied about the peculiar iie.ad-gear of the Greek ecclesiastic and falling on the back. Archimandrites enjoy the right of (irccedency among other priests; among themselves this right is regu- lated by the dignity of their origin; thus an archiman- drite of Constantinople outranks those of inferior episcopal appointment. There is a formal rite for the appointment and creation of these officers, per- fonned with more solemnity in the instalment of monastic archimandrites. The office is found not only in all Greek Churches subject to Constantinople, but also in the Rus.sian, Bulgarian, and other so- called autocephalous Churches, that once owed allegiance to that patriarchal see; it exists also among the Catholic (Mclchite or Uniat) Greeks. It is not known among the -Vrmenians, Chaldeans, Syrians, Maronites, Copts, or Abyssinians. An im- portant sur\nval of it m the West is seen in Sicily, where, after the time of Roger II (ll.'i0-54), the archimandrite of the great Basilian Abbey of San Salvatore in Messina enjoyed extensive, even quasi- epi.scopal, jurisiliction, eventually, however, be- coming a secular or commendatory abbot (Ferraris, Bil)l. prompta, ,s. v.). This Basilian monastery was suppressed by the Italian government.

Parcoirf. in Diet, d'arch. chrit.. I, 27.30-Gl; Sll-nERNACi.. Verfaaaung und uc{jmwartiffer Beatand admllicher Kirchen dea Orients (llati.>iboii, 1904), -JO, 138. and paaaim: Praiotlat-naua Enci/clopedia, (.St. Petersburg, 1900) I, 43; Vannutelli, 1^ Colonic llalo-Greche (Rome, 1890) 114: IljERRlNa, 0/7i<-f» of the Oruntal Church (New York, 1884) 12.3-125; Mari.n. Us Moines de Constantinople (Paris, 1897). 85-90.

Andrew J. Shipman.

Archinto, Fii.ippo, an Italian theologian and di- plomatist, b. 1500 at Milan of the distinguished family