Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/754

 EXAMINERS

676

EXARCH

from this examination, except in case of tonsure, when he may allow candidates to be examined privately by one examiner. All, whether affihated to the Diocese of Rome or not, must undergo this examination. Those who have been in Rome four months or more, and who intend to return to the Eternal City, must, under pain of suspension, be examined in the vicariate before receiving orders (not tonsure) elsewhere. An exception is made in regard to the canons of the ba- silica of St. Peter, who are examined and promoted to orders by their cardinal archpriest. They must, how- ever, have testimonial letters from the cardinal vicar. Even prelates of the Roman Curia must present them- selves at the vicariate, but out of respect for their dig- nity they occupy seats among the examiners and ex- amine one another.

As regards confessors they are not approved in Rome till they have passed a satisfactory examination before the Apostohc examiners. Although the car- dinal vicar may dispense in this matter, the exercise of this prerogative is exceedingly rare. Generally, after a first and second test faculties to hear confessions are granted only for a limited time, while a third success- ful examination meets with unlimited approbation.

Humphrey. Urbs ,1 Orbis (London. 1S99), lSS-192; Gas- PARRI, De Sacrd Ordinatione (Paris, 1S94), nn. 750 sq.

Andrew B. Meeh.^^n.

Examiners, Synodal, so called because chosen in a diocesan synod. The Council of Trent prescribes at least sis synodal examiners. The number twenty has been fixed upon by the Congregation of the Council as an ample sufficiency. The cliief purpose of synodal examiners is to conduct competitive examinations or concursus, though they may be designated to hold other examinations. Suitable candidates for this office are proposed singly, not all together, each year in the diocesan synotl, by the bishop or his vicar-gen- eral; they must be satisfactory to the synod and meet the approval of a majority of those present, the voting being secret or public as the bishop may determine. They should have the academic degree at least of licen- tiate in theology or canon law, but where clerics with such degrees are not available, others qualified, either of the diocesan or religious clergy, are eligible. Sjm- odal examiners, once appointed, hold office till the ensuing synod, though several years have elapsed. Those chosen take an oath — in the sjTiod, if present, otherwise privately in the presence of the bishop or vicar-general — to fulfil their duties conscientiously, without prejudice, favouritism, or other unwortiiy motive. Neglect on the part of only one to take this oath renders null and void the concursus in which he takes part. They are admonished, moreover, not to accept presents in the discharge of their office, fail- ing in which they become guilty of simony and are punishable accordingly. Neither the diocesan synod nor the bishop personally may establish a salary, however insignificant, for the fulfilment of their office.

If, within a year after their appointment in synod, the number of examiners, through death, resignation, or other cause, fall below six, the bishop may, with the consent of the cathedral chapter, fill up the number; if the number six decrease after the expiration of a year, permission of the Sacred Congregation of the Council is also requisite. Examiners thus chosen out of synod are termed pro-synodal. There is no positive legislation regarding the removal from office of exam- iners, synodal or pro-synodal. In some countries, where ecclesiastical benefices do not exist, the regula- tions of the Council of Trent anent synodal examiners are not observed, kindred duties as far as necessary being performed by el. rirs who are styled " examiners of the clergy " or somct hing similar. The Third Plen- ary Council of Baltimore prescribes for the United States that these examiners, at least six in number if possible, be selected in synod. It is only with permis-

sion of the Holy See and after consultation with the diocesan consultors that a bishop may choose them out of synod. In case of vacancy the bishop, with the ad- vice of said consultors, may supply the deficiency. These examiners are required to take the oath as above and likewise to swear not to accept gifts on the occa- sion of examinations. Whether these examiners, thus appointed out of synod, hold office till death or only till the convening of the ne.xt synod is not determined. In many dioceses these same examiners conduct the ex- aminations for the junior clergy, confessors, canilidates for orders, and the like. (Cf. Council of Trent, Sess. XXIV, c. xviii, De ref. ; also Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, nos. 24 sqq.)

Andrew B. Meehan.

Exarch (Gr. 'EJapxos), a title used in various .senses both civilly and ecclesiastically. In the civil administration of the Roman Empire the exarch was the governor or viceroy of any large and important province. The best-known case is that of the Exarch of Italy, who, after the defeat of the Goths, ruled from Ravenna (552-751) in the name of the emperor at Constantinople. In ecclesiastical language an exarch was, at first, a metropolitan whose jm-isdiction ex- tended beyond his owm (metropolitical) province, over other metropolitans. Thus, as late as the time of the Council of Chalcedon (451), the patriarchs are still called e.xarchs (can. ix). When the name "patri- arch " became the official one for the Bi.shops of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch (and later of Constantinople and Jerusalem), the other title was left as the proper style of the metropolitans who ruled over the three remain- ing (political) dioceses of Diocletian's division of the Eastern Prefecture, namely the Exarchs of Asia (at Ephesus), of Cappadocia and Pontus (at CVsarea), and of Thrace (at Heraclea). The advance of Con- stantinople put an end to these exarchates, which fell back to the state of ordinary metropolitan sees (For- tescue, Orth. Eastern Church, 21-25). But the title of exarch was still occasionally used for any metropoli- tan (so at Sardica in 343, can. vi). Since the use of all these titles became gradually fixed with definite technical meanings, that of exarch has disappeared in the West, being replaced by the names "Apostolic vicar" and then "primate". A few cases, such as that of the Archbishop of Lyons, whom the Emperor Frederick I named Exarch of Burgundy in 1157, are rare exceptions. In Eastern Christendom an exarch is a bishop who holds a place between that of patriarch and that of ordinary metropolitan. The principle is that, since no addition may be made to the sacred nmnber of five patriarchs, any bishop who is independ- ent of any one of these five should be called an exarch. Thus, since the Chiu-ch of Cyprus was declared auto- cephalous (at Ephesus in 431), its primate receives the title of Exarch of Cyprus. The short-lived medieval Churches of Ipek (tor Servia), Achrida (for Bulgaria), Tirnova (for Rumania), were governed by exarchs, thovigh these prelates occasionally usurped the title of patriarch (Fortescue, Orth. Eastern Church, .305 sq., 317 sq., 32S sq.). On the same principle the Arch- bishop of Mount Sinai is an e.xarch, though in this case, as in that (if Cyprus, modern Orthodox usage generally prefers the (to them) unusual title, "archbishop" CApx'f'iirKoTros). When the Bulgarians constituted their national (^hurch (1870), not quite daring to call its head a patriarch, they made him an exarch. The Bulgarian exarch, who resides at Constantinople, is the most famous of all persons who liear the title now. Because of it his adherents throughovit Macedonia are called exarchists (as opposed to the Greek patriarch- ists). It was an inaccurate use of this title when Peter the Great, after abolishing the Patriarchate of Moscow (1702), for twenty years before he founded the Ru.fsian Holy Directing Synod, appointed a vice- gerent with the title of exarch as president of a tem-