DEAN. — A title borrowed from the last division of the Roman legion (decanus was the name given to the commander of 10 soldiers) and then from the monastic rules, especially from the Rule of St. Benedict (ch. 21); from the middle of the 9th century it was given in many Chapters to a dignity, often the same as the archpriest (decanus capituli). It is also the name that was attributed to the one placed over a grouping of rural parishes, today called vicar forane, a kind of intermediate organ between the parish priests and the bishop, and from the end of the 9th century between the parish priests and the archdeacon (decanus i. e. archipresbyter parochiarum).
To the first was entrusted the care of the Chapter for internal affairs and for divine service; to the second belonged a certain jurisdiction over the clergy and the churches of his own territory (v. ARCIPRETE; CAPITOLO; VICARIO FORANEO).
In Chapters the d. or the archpriest in the 11th-12th centuries existed in almost all dioceses; he was elevated to the priesthood for the care of souls that was entrusted to him (c. 7, § 2, X, de elect. I, 6; c. 1 ff. D. 60), but ex iure communi he was subject to the archdeacon (c. 7, §§ 2, 3, X, de off. arch., I, 23; c. 1, X, de off. archipresb. I 24). At times the d. was the same as the archpriest; in some Chapters it was a distinct dignity and in others it even became the first dignity, while in still others it was the name given to the most senior of the canons, without forming a true and proper dignity. This situation has been preserved also in current law, where in unoquoque capitulo secundum sua cuiusque statuta there may be different cases: in Spain, for example, the d. is the first dignity, in Bavaria the second; in many Chapters it does not exist as a separate dignity, but is the most senior by appointment of the canons.
In parish districts the institution of the d., which had become common in the 11th-12th centuries, underwent various developments. At present the vicar forane is called d. (sometimes rural d.) when his district ex iure particulari has preserved the name of decanatus (cf. can. 217, § 1).
Furthermore in the CIC d., in a generic sense, is the one who among the members of the same grade of the hierarchy of jurisdiction, in any college or moral body, is the first promotus ad gradum, and, at equal grade, senior ordinatione, and finally, at equal date of ordination, senior aetate.
To such a one, as d., no power of jurisdiction belongs per se (cann. 237 § 1, 1598 § 1), except when ex iuris praescripto he succeeds another in power (cann. 309 § 4, 432 § 1, 434 § 3) or has particular tasks entrusted to him (cf. can. 429 § 5): but only the right of precedence belongs to him (can. 106, n. 3), to which often, in the absence of other authorities, is added the right to preside (can. 284, n. 2) or to convoke the college, determining, if necessary, the place of assembly (cann. 284, 289 § 1, 397 n. 4).
Two colleges, moreover, have in the CIC a true and proper office of d. with particular obligations and privileges: the college of cardinals (v. CARDINALE and CIC, cann. 237, 239 § 2; const. Vacante Sede Apost., c. II, n. 8, III, nn. 50, 51, 52, 54, VII 100, 106), where the d. is the one among the cardinal bishops of most ancient creation to whom as such belongs the title of bishop of Ostia; and the college of the Auditors of the Sacred Roman Rota (v. ROTA), in which the d. is the most ancient in munere auditoris (can. 1598 § 1). In the one and the other college the d. becomes such ipso iure by seniority and is primus inter pares.
In the pontifical chapel and household (v.), moreover, besides the d. of the hall, there are frequent colleges presided over by a d. (the college of the protonotaries of number participating, of the prelate clerics of the Rev. Apostolic Camera, of the voting prelates of the Apostolic Signatura, of the advocates of the Sacred Consistory, of the procurators of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces, of the clerics of the pontifical chapel, of the master ostiaries of Virgo Rubea, of the mace-bearers and of the apostolic couriers).
In ecclesiastical universities too there exists the office of d., who is one of the academic authorities, president of a faculty (const. Apost. Deus scientiarum Dominus of Pius XI, tit. II, artt. 15, 17), whose attributions are determined by the Ordinationes of the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities of Studies of 12 June 1931 (art. 7). Unlike the other colleges or moral bodies, here the deanship is generally an elective office with a certain power of jurisdiction.