Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/126

 118 DINWIDDIE were 993 horses, 1,626 milch cows, 1,861 other cattle, and 5,127 swine ; 6 flour mills, 3 saw mills, 1 distillery, 17 manufactories of tobacco, 2 of agricultural implements, 8 of carriages and wagons, 4 of cotton goods, 1 of fertilizers, 2 of iron castings, 3 of machinery, and 1 of paper. The largest town is Petersburg. Capi- tal, Dinwiddie Court House. DINWIDDIE, Robert, lieutenant governor of Virginia, born in Scotland about 1690, died at Clifton, England, Aug. 1, 1770. While acting as clerk to a collector of the customs in the British West Indies, he was instrumental in de- tecting frauds practised by his principal, and as a reward was soon after appointed lieuten- ant governor of Virginia. He arrived in the colony in 1752, and remained until January, 1758, when he returned to England. Although totally ignorant of military affairs, he discern- ed the capacity of Washington, whom in 1753 he appointed adjutant general of one of the four military districts of Virginia, and sent as a commissioner to expostulate with the French commander on the Ohio for his aggressions upon British territory. At the outbreak of hostilities with the French and Indians, he called upon the governors of the other prov- inces to make common cause against them, and convened the house of burgesses of Vir- ginia. Entertaining peculiar notions of the royal prerogative and of his own importance, he was highly incensed at the tardiness of the latter body in voting money for the public de- fence, and at their refusal to put it under his absolute disposal. In 1754 he suggested to the British board of trade the propriety of taxing the colonies for the purpose of raising funds to carry on the war, and in the succeeding year he was one of the five colonial governors who memorialized the ministry to the same effect. After the defeat of Braddock he continued to busy himself with the military operations on the frontiers, displaying great incapacity, and wearying Washington, then in command of the colonial troops, by frequent exhibitions of ill temper, folly, or caprice. He enjoyed little popularity, and his arrogance brought him into collision with the legislature, while his avarice led him to exact illegal or obsolete fees. At the time of his departure he was charged with having appropriated to his own use 20,000 of public money, which he never satisfactorily accounted for. DIOCESE (Gr. dtot/c^f, administration), in ancient times, an administrative division of the Eoman empire, forming a subdivision of one of the four prefectures, and comprising several provinces; in modern language, the territory governed by a bishop. As early as the time of Cicero we find mention of the dioceses, or districts, of Asia Minor. Subsequent to the reorganizations of the empire under Diocletian and Constantino the Great, the dioceses were the East, Egypt, Asia, Pontus, Thrace, Mace- donia. Dacia, Ulyria, Italy, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and Britain. The East was governed by a count, DIOCLETIAN Egypt by a prefect, some by proconsuls, and others by vicars. Each province was subdivided into cities (civitates), subject to a supreme ma- gistrate residing in the chief city or metropolis. When the gospel began to be preached, each city among the Greeks and Latins was governed by magistrates chosen from among the citizens, and sometimes designated as povty, senate, sometimes as ordo or curia. Over this govern- ing body presided a superior magistrate called dictator or defensor of the city. His authori- ty, and that of his brother magistrates, ex- tended over the adjacent territory, made up generally of a number of towns and villages. The first administration of the church was moulded on this civil division. In each civitas, or city, with its suburban territory, there was established a corresponding ecclesiastical ma- gistracy, namely, a presiding officer (episcopus, bishop), with a senate of priests (presbyterium) and his spiritual jurisdiction extended as far as the civil jurisdiction of the city, its circle be- ing called at first Trapoi/cta, parish, but from the beginning of the 4th century diocese. As each city of the empire had in the towns (oppida) of its jurisdiction magistrates subordinate to those of the city itself; so the church in each city came to have ministers subordinate to tl bishop in these towns; hence the origin parishes and parish priests. In like mannt the capital city of each province came to hav< its ecclesiastical metropolitan, who had juris diction and superintendence in things spirit over the bishops of the province. And some respects corresponding with the office vicar or prcefectus pratorio in each civil die cese of the empire, there arose the dignity of patriarch or exarch in the church, whose pre- eminence extended over a number of ecclesi- astical provinces. At present, in the Eoman Catholic and Greek churches, the word dio- cese means "the territory attached to each see," whether patriarchal, primatial, metro- politan, or episcopal. Thus, the pope is bishop of the diocese of Rome ; the patriarch of Lis- bon, of the city of that name and its ecclesi- astical territory, forming the diocese of Lisbon ; the archbishop of New York, of the city of New York and that portion of the state form- ing together the archdiocese. In the Protes- tant Episcopal churches, a diocese is the dis- trict ruled by a bishop. In the Evangelical church of Germany, a diocese is a combination of parishes under the care of a superintendent. DIOCLETIAN (DiocLETiANUs VALERIUS), & Eoman emperor, born near Salona in Dalma- tia, A. D. 245, died in that town in 313. From his mother, who was called Doclea or Dioclea, from the village in which she lived, he derived the name Docles or Diocles, which he changed on assuming imperial authority to Diocletia- nus, taking at the same time the patrician name of Valerius. His parents were of the humblest class; but his abilities secured his rapid promotion in the army, which he en- tered at an early age, and his personal pop-