Bishop

Thomas Herring, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1747-1757

The bishop is the highest of the three clerical orders, those being the bishop, priest, and deacon. The term comes from επίσκοπος or episkopos in Greek, which means overseer.

Types under Canon Law

There are many kinds of bishop that are equal by divine law, and the divine order of the church of God, but which serve different functions in the church by canonical law. An Ordinary Bishop or Diocesan Bishop is a bishop who is the chief pastor and governor of a particular diocese or collection of churches. An Assistant Bishop, who, though he has the same office as a diocesan bishop, does not have his own diocese but instead helps or assists the diocesan bishop in their pastoral duties. A Bishop Co-Adjutor is an assistant bishop with the right of succession upon the resignation of the diocesan bishop. A Suffragan Bishop is a bishop who assists a diocesan bishop in his duties, but who does not automatically succeed a diocesan bishop. A suffragan bishop may be elected bishop or bishop coadjutor.

There are also Archbishops or Metropolitans who govern or rule over multiple dioceses which each have their own ordinary bishops. An Archbishop can rule over an Archdiocese or a Province.

History

Early Church

In the New Testament, most parties agree that the term episkopos is used interchangeably with the term presbyter. High Churchmen, and especially Anglo-Catholics, who hold to the origin of a distinct episcopal order, will argue that the power to ordain was reserved to the Apostles during their lifetime and that the ecclesiastical function of the Apostles was eventually given to the bishops uniquely. This would account for the evolution of the distinction between a presbyter and a bishop in the history of the church, from the New Testament period into the early church. By the time of St. Ignatius of Antioch (who died around 108-140 AD), the distinction seems to have been present at least in his region. Still, others will cite the Didache and the writings of St. Clement of Rome as evidence that the transition had not yet become universal across the Christian world.

By the third century, however the monoepiscopate, or the principal that one bishop should rule in one city or region, overseeing a number of local congregations in that city or region with their own parish priests, had become ubiquitous across the Christian world and dominated as the exclusive church polity among orthodox Christians until the Reformation. Despite this, some testimony exists to the existence and even validity of non-episcopal ordinations. St. Jerome of Stridon (342/345-420) explicitly argued that the distinction between the episcopate and the presbyterate was invented in the post Apostolic Age for the good order of the church and was not instituted by the Apostles. Even into the Middle Ages, a number of presbyteral ordinations were recorded (especially in monasteries) and they were sanctioned and recognized as valid.

Post-Reformation

By the English Reformation the preference for episcopal ordination was almost unanimously agreed upon. Still, the question of the validity of presbyteral ordinations lingered. A variety of views coexisted. Richard Hooker argued decisively for the impermissibility of presbyteral ordinations, especially in England, but seemed to consider that in extreme circumstances, presbyteral ordination could be valid. John Davenant, the Bishop of Salisbury, argued for a kind of conditional validity, whereby the presbyteral ordinations in the Dutch Church, where the episcopate entirely opposed the Reformation were valid, but the holy orders of the Scottish and English Presbyterians, who rejected a Protestant Episcopate and performed their own presbyteral ordinations against the public law of the church were "utterly null and void". William Laud, the eventual Archbishop of Canterbury, argued in 1604 that "there could be no true churches without diocesan episcopacy." Still, when he voiced this view it was considered controversial and he was rebuked by his teacher Thomas Holland for this view.