Bishop

BISHOP. - He is the successor of the Apostles in the ordinary government of individual Churches (v. DIOCESE) under the authority of the Roman Pontiff (CIC, can. 329 § 1).

Bishop (ἐπίσκοπος, from ἐπίσκοπος = to look over, to watch) is equivalent to inspector, superintendent, guardian, observer, and in this sense it is used in common language; in the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C. the public officials of the island of Rhodes were called bishops (cf. F. Prat, Evēques, in DThC, V, coll. 1658-59). In the Septuagint translation this name designates governors (Iude, 9, 28), prefects (II Esdr. 11, 9), magistrates (Is. 60, 17), royal ambassadors (II Mach. 1, 46), and God himself (Iob. 20, 20; Sap. 1, 6). In the New Testament the word ἐπίσκοπος is used only five times, four of which designate the superiors of the Christian community (Act. 20, 28; Phil. 1, 1; I Tim. 3, 4; Tit. 1, 7), and one signifies Jesus Christ (I Pt. 2, 25: «episcopus animarum nostrarum»). In patristic literature it became common usage from the beginning of the 2nd century, to designate the head of individual Christian communities.

I. DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE MONARCHICAL EPISCOPATE

It is historically established that from the beginning of the 2nd century onward the monarchical episcopate prevails everywhere, as a constitutional norm founded on the will of God (jure divino).

1) Monarchical episcopate. - St. Ignatius of Antioch (d. 107) attests that all the Churches to which he wrote his letters were endowed with a single bishop, as a recognized and venerated head, whose name he also records: Onesimus in the Church of Ephesus (Eph. 1, 2), Damas in the Church of Magnesia (Magn. 2, 1), Polybius in the church of Tralles (Trall. 1, 1), Polycarp in the Church of Smyrna (Ad Polyc., prologue); the bishop of Philadelphia is mentioned (Philadel. 11, "quem episcopum cognovi"), though his name is passed over in silence; Ignatius himself presents himself as the sole bishop of Antioch (Rom. 2, 2, 9, 1), and indeed holds that in every part of the world, wherever a Church has been founded, there is a bishop (Eph. 3, 2; v. ORDINE E ORDINAZIONE). Toward the middle of the 2nd century catalogues of bishops were drawn up, which indicate the succession of a single head for each Church. According to the testimony of Hegesippus, reported by Eusebius (Hist. eccl., IV, 22, 1-3: PG 20, 378-79), the Churches of Corinth, of Rome and all the others whose succession of bishops he generically records were monarchical (est in singulis autem episcoporum successionibus et per singulas urbes eadem manent, ibid.). At the same time St. Irenaeus drew up the catalogue of the bishops of Rome (Adv. haeres., III, 3, 3: PG 7, 849 ff.); and he attests the monarchical succession of the bishops of the Church of Smyrna (ibid., III, 3, 4: PG 7, 851) and of all the other Churches of the world (ibid., III, 3, 1: PG 7, 848). Shortly afterward, from the well-known controversy over the celebration of Easter, clear testimonies emerge of the monarchical constitution of all the Churches that took part in the debate (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., V, 23: PG 20, 491-94): Caesarea in Palestine (Theophilus), Jerusalem (Narcissus), Pontus (Palmas), Lyons (Irenaeus), Corinth (Bacchylus), Rome (Victor). In the letter to Pope Victor, Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, recalls various bishops of Asia Minor (each set over a Church): Thraseas of Eumenia, Polycarp of Smyrna, Sagaris of Laodicea, Melito of Sardis, and adds that an "ingens numerus episcoporum," among those living in his time, stood for the Quartodeciman practice of celebrating Easter (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., V, 24: PG 20, 485-86).

That the episcopate is by an indispensable norm monarchical is a universal conviction, which surfaces from the documents. St. Ignatius, writing to the Romans (ch. 9), affirms that the Church of Antioch is without a pastor; he would not have asserted this if he had held that a Church could be governed in collegial form by the presbyters. The same holy martyr exhorts the faithful to make use of a single Eucharist, not only for the reason that one is the Flesh of Jesus and one is his Blood, but also because there is only one bishop for each Church (Philadelph., 4, 1). The same conviction appears in explicit testimonies of St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haeres., III, 14, 2: PL 7, 914), of St. Cornelius Pope (Ep., 49, 2; Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VI, 43, 11: PG 20, 617: ergo ille Evangelii vindex ignorabat unum episcopum esse oportere in Ecclesia catholica) and above all of St. Cyprian (De Unitate Ecclesiae, ch. 8).

b) The episcopate is monarchical by the will of God. — St. Ignatius affirms this with particular insistence, in various forms: he demands absolute obedience to bishops (Eph., 2, 2; Trall., 13, 2; Philadelph., 3, 2; Smyrn., 8, 1); for the reason that such is the will of God (Eph., 5, 3; 6, 1; Trall., 2, 1; Smyrn., 9, 1). Accordingly he warns that nothing can be done in the Church without the bishop (Philadelph., 7, 1: "sine episcopo nihil faciatis"; cf. Magn., 4, 1, 6, 1; Trall., 2, 2; 7, 2; Smyrn., 8, 1; Polyc., 4, 1). The same concept is developed by Hegesippus (in Eusebius, Hist. eccl., IV, 11: PG 20, 350), by St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haeres., III, 3, 1; IV, 26, 2: PG 7, 848 and 1055), by Tertullian (De praescriptione haereticorum, 32: PL 2, 52-53), above all by St. Cyprian (Ep., 6, 7 to Florentius Puppianus) and by the whole Western and Eastern tradition of the following centuries.

On the constitution of the Church in the first century, while the Apostles were still living, an age-old controversy prevails, determined by the synonymy of the terms προεβύτεροι and ἐκλογοῦσι (Act. 20, 17 and 28) and by the fact that the episcopal monarchy does not appear clearly established. Whatever solution one may wish to accept, it remains incontestable, on the basis of what has been said (v. ORDINE, II), that the Apostles before dying gave precise norms on the monarchical regime of the Church and established that everywhere there should be heirs and successors of their apostolate.

II. POWERS AND DIGNITIES OF THE BISHOP

Bishops, as successors of the Apostles in the ordinary government of the Church, have inherited the three powers conferred by Christ on the apostolic college at the moment of his ascension: "Go and teach all nations, baptizing them... and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt. 28, 28), that is, the power to teach (magisterium), to sanctify (ministerium) and to govern (imperium). Bishops are "veri doctores seu magistri" (can. 1326), who prolong through time the divine-apostolic teaching: "He who hears you hears me" (Lk. 10, 16).

To the power of sanctifying of bishops refer the words of the Roman Pontifical: "Episcopum oportet iudicare, consecrare, ordinare, offerre, baptizare et confirmare". The iudicare concerns principally the penitential order of the ancient Church, in which the beginning (confession), the course (satisfaction) and the conclusion (absolution) of the penance of the faithful were reserved to the bishop, who then, with the increase of pastoral occupations, had himself assisted by presbyteri paenitentiarii (v. PENITENZA).

The consecrare is related to the consecrations of the baptismal font, of the holy oils, of churches, which, in principle, were and are reserved to bishops, even if after the establishment of parishes they were in part granted to simple priests.

The ordinare is the incommunicable function of the bishop (v. ORDINE, III), that by which he is essentially distinguished from the priest. The offerre, that is, the celebration of the Eucharist, belonged initially to the bishop (cf. St. Justin, I Apol., 65). The baptizare et confirmare were predominantly episcopal functions, above all the confirmare, of which the bishop has remained the ordinary minister. As for Baptism, although from the beginning even deacons (Acts 8, 36-38) exercised these functions, it was nevertheless the proper and ordinary office of the bishop (cf. St. Ignatius, Smyrn., 8, 2), that is, of the summus sacerdos (Tertullian, De Baptismo, 17, who also mentions priests and deacons as subordinate ministers).

The power of jurisdiction (the sacred principate or imperium, to which every form of magisterium exercised in the Church by other members of the clergy is subject) is the most conspicuous power of bishops, "Spiritus Sanctus posuit episcopos regere Ecclesiam Dei" (Acts 20, 28: the text, even if in its historical setting it does not refer exclusively to bishops, has nevertheless been reserved to them by tradition); this power is today regulated by precise norms of Canon Law.

By reason of the complex of these spiritual powers the figure of the bishop appeared from the very beginning of Christianity clothed with particular dignity and worthy of special reverence. For St. Ignatius of Antioch the bishop is the "image of the Father" (Trall., 3, 1), since he recalls the presence "of the bishop invisible, the Father of Jesus Christ" (Magn., 3, 1). In the Didascalia of the Apostles, II, 26, 4-8 the bishop is praised as "the prince of priests, the minister of the Word, the mediator, the teacher, the father before God, he who regenerates through Baptism, the head and the guide... he who holds the place of God." According to the unknown author of the Adversus aleatores (PL 4, 827) the bishop has received from God "apostolatus ducatum," "vicariam Domini sedem," "originem authentici apostolatus" which "in superiore suo portat." In the judgment of St. Hilary of Poitiers (Contra Constantium, 11: PL 10, 589) the bishop is Christ himself. According to St. Thomas (IV Sent., d. 24, q. 2, a. 1, qc. 1) the bishop is the "sponsus Ecclesiae" (cf. G. M. Monsabré, Exposizione del dogma cattolico: L'Ordine, XIV, Italian trans., Turin 1929, pp. 148-185).

III. ERRORS AND DEFINITIONS

Aerius ([v.] 4th century) was the first to deny any difference between the bishop and the priest: «Est enim, amborum unus ordo, par et idem honor et dignitas» (St. Epiphanius, Haeres., 75, 3: PG 42, 509). This error was repeated by Marsilius of Padua (Denz-U, 498), by Wycliffe and Hus (ibid., 675) and aggravated by Luther and Calvin (Institutio religionis christianae, IV, 4, 2): indeed the latter denied the episcopal and hierarchical constitution of the Church (cf. H. Dieckmann, De Ecclesia, I, Freiburg im Br. 1928, pp. 472-80). Modern liberal and rationalist Protestants hold that the episcopate is an institution of purely human origin, arisen from the influence of various historical circumstances. On the various theories of Baur, Rothe, Hatch, Harnack, Sohm, Sabatier, cf. F. Prat, Evêques. Origine de l'épiscopat, in DThC, V, coll. 1694-99. Notable for its apparent ease is the theory of Renan, according to whom the ecclesiastical hierarchy would be the effect of a triple abdication: of the primitive Christian community in favor of the presbyters, of the presbyters in favor of the bishops, of these in favor of the Pope (Les Evangiles, Paris 1877, p. 332).

The Church on various occasions has manifested its thought concerning the origin and the powers of bishops. The Council of Trent (sess. XXIII, cap. 4): «Sacrosancta Synodus declarat... episcopos, qui in Apostolorum locum successerunt, ad hunc hierarchicum ordinem praecipue pertinere» (Denz-U, 960). The same concept is repeated by the Vatican Council (sess. IV, cap. 3: ibid., 1828). The decree Lamentabili (3 July 1907) condemns the modernist theory of an episcopate constituted for purely practical reasons, independently of its mission to continue the work of the Apostles (ibid., 2050). The anti-modernist oath explicitly asserts that bishops are successors of the Apostles (ibid., 2147) while the CIC affirms their divine institution (can. 329 § 1).

Antonio Piolanti

IV. CANON LAW

Being invested with the titles of archbishop or metropolitan (v.), primate, or patriarch (v.) adds nothing to the bishop in the hierarchy of order (v.); even the Roman Pontiff (v. POPE) is not his superior except in the hierarchy of jurisdiction. As a rule he exercises ordinary jurisdiction over a determined territory: a diocese (v.) or eparchy, or over a determined population (v. ECCLESIASTICAL CIRCUMSCRIPTIONS); whereas the jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome, besides extending over his own diocese, extends over the whole Church.

1. Election

Bishops were designated at first by the Apostles from among persons whom they had directly tested or who had been presented to them as capable; later they were chosen from within the individual communities or were called by the communities themselves thanks to the good name they had acquired elsewhere. The nearest bishop, or the bishop of the city that was the head of the province, after examining the legitimacy of the choice and the capacity of the elect, conferred consecration upon him, for the most part with the assistance of other bishops. When a little later in the East ecclesiastical provinces were regularly constituted, the election took place in the presence of the metropolitan, who was the judge of the qualities and especially of the orthodoxy of the elect, and who conferred consecration upon him; the intervention of the people was thus reduced to an external testimony of approval. In the case of the metropolitan, it was the comprovincial bishops who were responsible for the election of their superior and who gave notice of it to the other metropolitans of the region as a sign of mutual communion. Such an ordinary course of events was, however, often disturbed from the 4th century onward by the intervention of the emperors of Constantinople in imposing the election of personages of their preference, especially in the patriarchal sees. In the West, where metropolitan authority established itself somewhat later, popular intervention retained greater importance until it was practically cut short by the intervention of the sovereigns of the new barbarian dynasties. There always remained alive in the West, however, the canonical principle that the bishop should be elected with the concurrence of the clergy and the people (as the abbot of his community), under the legitimate assistance of the ecclesiastical superior; and it remained firm even when, with feudalism (v.) and the consequent investiture, ecclesiastical relations seemed almost absorbed into public ones, so that sovereigns aspired to convert into a right what in fact was an undue intrusion. Hence the struggle over investitures (v.), concluded with the Concordat of Worms (1122), which re-established in its essential lines the genuine ecclesiastical tradition. In practice, however, according to the law of the Decretals, the election of bishops was in fact and almost everywhere assigned to the cathedral Chapters, with which concurred, according to particular customs, also the approval of the rest of the clergy and of the major lay dependents (v. CANONICAL PROVISION). The Pope had direct control over the sees of peninsular and insular Italy, over which until the 10th century he was the only metropolitan; to his judgment, as to a supreme tribunal and therefore in extraordinary cases, were referred contentious causes concerning the election and deposition of the bishops of other countries, and he himself then made the relative appointments when he deemed it necessary. During the 13th century he began to reserve to himself as a rule the appointment of bishops when determined circumstances concurred; until in the 14th century appointments to all episcopal sees were subject to his reservation. This did not fail to arouse discontent in the various countries, and after the great schism, while in Italy and in some other country the appointments of bishops remained reserved to the Pope, in others there was a return to the law of the Decretals; not without again offering sovereigns the occasion to interfere in appointments for their domains, especially in cases of disputes or of dynastic interests. Particularly in France, reconstituted into national unity, such interference made itself felt more strongly, and with the Concordat of 1516 the sovereign obtained the privilege of appointing bishops, to whom the Pope conferred canonical institution and granted the bulls. This privilege then passed into the Concordat of 1801 and served as a model for the other concordats of that age. The right of patronage that canonical legislation was to recognize in those who founded or endowed ecclesiastical benefices (parishes, canonries, monasteries, simple benefices) was applied in favor of sovereigns who erected new episcopal sees; this happened particularly for Spain with regard to the new sees that were erected under its patronage in the West Indies, and for Portugal with regard to those erected in the East Indies, and it lasted for Spain until the beginning of the 19th century and for Portugal somewhat later; also elsewhere (as in the Kingdom of Naples and in Sicily) appointment to certain sees was claimed for such a reason. Nowadays, except in certain sees of Germany, where appointment is made by the Chapters with many restrictions imposed by the civil authority, bishops are appointed as a rule by the Holy See following prior consultations, which differ according to different places. According to the most recent concordats, the Holy See notifies the names of the designates to the civil authority, so that it may disclose legitimate objections should the appointment prove inopportune. The (informative) process for each individual election is prepared by the Sacred Consistorial Congregation, the appointment itself is made by bull, and published in consistory.

2. Authority

By divine disposition ecclesiastical jurisdiction is regularly exercised over the faithful through the episcopal body, which derives it as the proximate and immediate cause from the Roman Pontiff as head on earth of the whole Church (v. CHURCH; PRIMACY OF ST. PETER, IV). To him indeed belongs the task of determining the scope of the authority of bishops and of determining their mutual relations, of assigning the territory and the persons over whom such authority is to be exercised, of giving canonical institution and of withdrawing it when this should prove necessary for the spiritual good of individual places.

The bishop is elected for a determined city; however, at least in the early Middle Ages, also for an entire region, when it was not yet evangelized and there was no urban or rural center of any importance where the cathedral see could be established; thus in the 7th-9th centuries, in the vast regions beyond the Alps, there were peregrinating, itinerant bishops, true missionary bishops who exercised their ministry more or less under the dependence of a residential bishop over a territory with very ill-defined boundaries; many of them were of Irish nationality (Scots) and prepared the foundation of new episcopal sees.

Later, particularly after the 12th century, when entire regions fell or fell again under the Muslims, they continued to appoint bishops for those Latin sees who could not govern them or reside there, but adapted themselves to assist in the government or in the exercise of episcopal functions (vicarii in pontificalibus) the bishops of the great dioceses of the West and even to replace them when they did not reside; they were also called titular bishops or in partibus infidelium; from the 16th century ancient bishoprics long since suppressed (e.g., in Africa) or even occupied by schismatic or heretical bishops were also assigned as a title to such bishops, and all this to avoid the abuse that was gaining ground of creating bishops in ecclesia Dei, that is, without any determined title.

Even the designation of suffragans, which according to law belonged to bishops subject to a metropolitan, was usurped by such bishops, who today instead are called auxiliaries. Coadjutors, on the other hand, are even today those titular bishops who have a share in the government of the diocese and are assigned by the Holy See with or without the right of succession.

According to the most recent norms, election to the episcopate requires legitimacy of birth, the state of celibacy, the age of at least thirty years, at least five years of priesthood, purity of morals, aptitude for government, zeal, a doctorate or at least a licentiate in theology or canon law, or else true and recognized expertise in the sacred disciplines (CIC, can. 331). The consecration of a bishop is reserved to the Pope (can. 953) and no bishop may perform it without an apostolic mandate. The elect is bound to receive it within three months of the appointment and within four to take possession of his own diocese. It is conferred during the solemn Mass on Sundays and feasts of the Apostles and, as a rule, with the assistance of two other bishops. The taking of possession, with which the exercise of jurisdiction over the diocese begins, does not involve any liturgical rite. The new bishop performs it personally or through a procurator, presenting to the Chapter in the cathedral church the bull of appointment and at once sits on the episcopal seat, receiving the homage of the members of the Chapter and of the cathedral clergy. When the elect was consecrated in his episcopal see he at once took possession of his office; today he could take possession even before his consecration, provided he has made the profession of faith and the oath of subjection to the Pontiff.

In the exercise of the power of order the bishop is bound to follow the liturgical prescriptions of his own rite. He may confer sacred Order only on his own subjects and with the precautions imposed, and likewise Confirmation; nor may he exercise episcopal functions outside his own diocese unless he is requested to do so by one who has the authority.

The bishop exercises his task with ordinary jurisdiction (v.) in the internal and external forum and sometimes also as a delegate of the Apostolic See; he is bound to observe the ecclesiastical laws and can do throughout the diocese what the parish priest does in his parish. He can for a just cause grant dispensation from the observance of general laws in the cases in which this is granted to him by the laws themselves, and conversely he cannot forbid what the laws themselves permit. By virtue of this ordinary authority he exercises the power: a) legislative, promulgating laws, without depending on others except in those cases in which the canons impose on him prior consultation or even the consent of the cathedral Chapter and for which he convenes the diocesan synod (v.) according to the canonical norms; b) judicial, holding a court of first instance over the disputes of his subjects and in matrimonial cases and also in second instance if he is a metropolitan, with power to issue sentence; c) coercive against the disobedient, both of the clergy and of the people, inflicting penalties including temporal ones, censures and other punishments. As teacher in his Church the bishop preaches and regulates the preaching of his clergy, directs religious instruction especially of the young, supervises the press, particularly in matters of faith and morals, and reserves to his direct approval whatever is sent to the press by his clergy. He is responsible for the administration of ecclesiastical property, decides on the foundation of ecclesiastical offices and pious institutions, supervises their functioning and above all directs the government of the Seminary. Everything that contributes to the religious and moral progress of the clergy and the people forms the object of his pastoral cares. In order to be able to fulfill these duties, canon law obliges him to make an active residence (v.) in the diocese and in particular in the episcopal city, to carry out at the appropriate time the pastoral visitation of the diocese itself, in the prescribed forms. Of the state of the diocese he makes a written report to the Holy See, particularly on the occasion of the periodic visit ad limina Apostolorum (for the bishops of Europe every five years), that is, of the basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul and to the Pope in Rome. For the government of the diocese and the dispatch of business the bishop establishes the diocesan curia (v.) and is also granted the right to exact moderate tributes (v. CATTEDRATICO) and taxes; he receives the revenues of the mensa for his own support and that of his household. He also has honorary rights, such as that of the portable altar, of the throne with baldachin, of precedence over other prelates, bishops and archbishops in the diocese (except his own metropolitan and the legates of the Holy See); he grants indulgences up to one hundred days.

Pio Paschini.

V. ARCHAEOLOGY

Christian epigraphy offers a series of sepulchral inscriptions of bishops with the indication of their rank. Among the Greek inscriptions are remembered those of the bishops of Rome in which one reads ΒΙΠΚ(ακος), as, for example, in the epitaphs of Pontian (230-35), Eutychian (275-83), Gaius (283-96), or only ΕΙΠ(ακοπος) as in that of Fabian (256-50); the full form is found in the sepulchral inscription of M. Julius Eugenius of Laodicea, ἐπίσκοπος, of the first half of the 4th century (P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Marco Giulio Eugenio di Laodicea di Licaonia nel sec. IV, in Note agiografiche, 3 [Studi e testi, 22], Rome 1909, pp. 59-73). In Latin the oldest epigraph is that of St. Cornelius (251-53), in which the abbreviation EP(iscopus) is found.

Damasus also uses antistes, and adds to it sedis apostolicae or Christi (A. Ferrua, Epigrammata Damasiana, Vatican City 1942, n. 4); thus Damasus himself is called in an epigraph placed in S. Anastasia (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. christ., II, 1, Rome 1888, pp. 24-25); antistes Domini is said of John I (523-26); antistes of John II (533-35); sacrosanctae legis antistes is said of Hilary of Aeles (CIL, XII, 949); antistes are also said of Novatus of Setif (CIL, VIII, 8634) and Peter of Sulci (CIL, X, 7533). Antistes Dei is said of a bishop of Caesarea, present-day Cherchel (CIL, VIII, 2097). Pope (v.) is said of Marcellinus in the inscription of the deacon Severus, of Liberius in the epigraphs of Euplia (G. B. De Rossi, Roma sott., III, Rome 1877, p. 361 and pl. 29, n. 48) and of Legitima (CIL, XI, 4975), and in the carmen attributed to Liberius; and Damasus is also called pope by Furius Dionysius Philocalus (A. Ferrua, op. cit., n. 46). To the bishop Scutarius is wished papa vive Deo (E. Le Blant, Inscr. christ. de la Gaule, Paris 1856, n. 572).

Damasus uses pastor for Sixtus II, who by his sacrifice numerum gregis ipse tuetur (A. Ferrua, op. cit., p. 124). Pastor is found again in the inscriptions of Boniface II and of Gregory the Great; bonus pastor is said of Andrew, bishop of Formia (CIL, X, 6218). "Shepherd" are called the bishops Achilles of Spoleto, John of Ravenna (CIL, XI, 301); Celsus of Vercelli is called custos gregis ovium Christi (CIL, V, 6725). Boniface II is invoked as sancte pater (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. chr., I, Rome 1861, n. 1029). Very frequent is pontifex; at Sulci, it is said of Antonius: Pontificis ΧΠ (CIL, X, 7533). Celestine I is called praesul apostolicae sedis (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. christ., II, 1, p. 62, 1); Simplicius is also called praesul (id., loc. cit., p. 55, 12). And again praesul is found written of Gennarus in Carnia, d. in 490 (CIL, V, 1858), of Cassius of Narni d. in 536 (CIL, XI, 4164); of Sabinus of Atripalda (CIL, X, 1194). Damasus uses as a synonym rector (A. Ferrua, op. cit., nn. 15, 17-18, 25, 40, 42, 44) and also often uses sacerdos (A. Ferrua, op. cit., nn. 16, 57, 66-68), a title that is given to Liberius (summus sacerdos) in the carmen attributed to him, where the expression divinae legis magistrum is also found (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. chr., II, 1, Rome 1888, p. 83, 26); to Siricius (ibid., p. 102, 30), to John I. + Signifer is said of Ursus, the bishop of Ficulea contemporary with Innocent I.

In the aforementioned inscription of Eugenius of Laodicea are remembered his 25 years of episcopate: εἴκοσι πέντε ὅλοις ἔτασιν τὴν ἐπισκοπήν.

At Turin is found episcopavit (CIL, V, 7136); sedit for Agnellus of Ravenna, for Aurelian of Nola (CIL, X, 1366), for Misenus of Pozzuoli (CIL, X, 3229), for Victor of Capua (CIL, X, 4502), for the bishop Adeodatus buried in 569 in S. Alessandro; sedit episcopatum for Valens of Verona (CIL, V, 3896); of the bishop Arcadius d. at Chiusi it is said pontificatum tenens (in Notizie degli Scavi, 1888, p. 487); vivit in episcopatu: Boethius of Carpentras (CIL, XII, 1213); Palladius of Tebessa (CIL, VIII, 2009); Rutilius of Mactar (CIL, VIII, 1894); Gallus of Aosta, d. 5 Oct. 546 (CIL, V, 6858); mansit in episcopatu: Silvester of Besançon (CIL, XIII, 5407); duravit in episcopatu: Silvester of Rusguniae (in Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des Inscr. et belles lettres, 1900, p. 51); implevit in episcopatu: Reparatus of Tanarumis near Tipasa (CIL, VIII, 9286).

There is then: vivit in sacerdotio for Spes of Spoleto (CIL, XI, 4967); fecit in sacerdotio for Reparatus of Orleansville (CIL, VIII, 9709); of Nemesianus of Ala Miliaria it is said that sacerdotium Domini administravit (CIL, VIII, 21570). Of Boniface of Caralis one reads that sedit cathedra (CIL, X, 7753). Among the oldest representations of bishops are remembered the mosaic portrait (5th century) of St. Ambrose ([v.]; cf. A. Ratti, Il più antico ritratto di s. Ambrogio, in Ambrosiana, Milan 1897, p. 20); of the 6th century, Sts. Sixtus II, Cornelius, Cyprian and Optatus near the tomb of St. Cornelius in Callistus (Wilpert, Pitture, v. index) and St. Maximian at Ravenna; in the 8th century in the paintings of S. Maria Antiqua. In Christian art the bishop is dressed in a full-length tunic, paenula and pallium, and carries the book of the lex christiana. The series of portraits of bishops was in use in ancient churches as at Naples, at Rome in S. Pietro, in S. Paolo; later also at the Lateran, but not before Nicholas III (1277-80).