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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Metropolitan</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10244c.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="In ecclesiastical language, refers to whatever relates to the metropolis, the principal city, or see, of an ecclesiastical province"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="10244c.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/m.htm">M</a> > Metropolitan</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Metropolitan</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p><em>Metropolitan</em>, in <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> language, refers to whatever relates to the metropolis, the principal city, or see, of an <a href="../cathen/12514a.htm">ecclesiastical province</a>; thus we speak of a metropolitan church, a metropolitan chapter, a metropolitan official, etc. The word <em>metropolitan</em>, used without any qualificative, means the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of the metropolitan see, now usually styled <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm"><em>archbishop</em></a>. The term metropolite (<em>Metropolites</em>, Metropolita) is also employed, especially in the <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Eastern Churches</a> (see <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">ARCHBISHOP</a>). The entire body of <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> and <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> which canon law attributes to the metropolitan, or <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishop</a> as such, i.e., not for his own diocese, but for those suffragan to him and forming his <a href="../cathen/12514a.htm">ecclesiastical province</a>, is called the <em>metropoliticum</em>.</p> <p>The effective authority of metropolitans over their provinces has gradually diminished in the course of centuries, and they do not now exercise even so much as was accorded them by the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a>; every <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> being more strongly and more directly bound to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> is so much the less bound to his province and its metropolitan. The <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the latter over his suffragan <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a> is in a sense ordinary, being established by law; but it is mediate and restricted to the objects provided for by the canons. Since the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> of the metropolitan have been reduced to the following:</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>He convokes and presides at the provincial council, at which all his suffragans must appear, saving legitimate excuse, and which must be held every three years (Conc. Trid., Sess. XXIV, c. ii, De ref.). The same holds for other provincial meetings of <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>.</li><li>He retains, in theory, the right of <a href="../cathen/15479a.htm">canonical visitation</a> of his suffragan <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a>, but on two conditions which make the right practically inoperative: he must first finish the visitation of his own diocese, and the visitation must be authorized by the provincial council. In the course of this visitation, the metropolitan, like the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, has the right of "procuration", i.e., he and his retinue must be received and entertained at the expense of the churches visited. Moreover, he can absolve "in foro conscientiae" (ibid., iii).</li><li>He is charged with special vigilance over his suffragans in the matter of residence; he must denounce to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> those who have been twice absent for six months each time, without due cause or permission (Conc. Trid. Sess., vi, c. i). And similarly for the prescriptions relating to <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a> (Sess. XXIII, c. xviii).</li><li>The metropolitan has no judicial authority over his suffragans, major criminal causes of <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> being reserved to the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, and minor ones to the provincial council (Sess. XXIV, c. v.); but he is still the judge of second instance for causes, civil or criminal, adjudicated in the first instance by the officials of his suffragans and appealed to his tribunal. Hence results a certain inequality for matters adjudicated in the first instance in the archdiocese, and to remedy this various concessions have now been provided. But the <a href="../cathen/11093a.htm">nomination</a> of two officials by the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishop</a>, one <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a>, the other metropolitan, with appeal from the one to the other, is not admissible. This practice was used in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> under the old regime, but was not general, and even the Gallicans held it to be at variance with canon law (Héricourt, Les Lois ecclésiastiquesde France", E.V, 13). On this principle the nullity of <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon's</a> marriage was decided by the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> and the metropolitan officials of <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>, 1810 (Schnitzer, "Kathol. Eherecht", Freiburg, 1898, 660). The metropolitan tribunal may also try as at first instance causes not terminated within two years by a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop's</a> tribunal (Sess. XXIV, c. xx).</li><li>In regard to <a href="../cathen/04768a.htm">devolution</a>, the metropolitan may nominate the <a href="../cathen/15401c.htm">vicar capitular</a> of a vacant diocese, if the chapter has failed to nominate within eight days (Sess. xxiv, c. xvi). In like manner he has the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to fill open <a href="../cathen/02473c.htm">benefices</a> (i.e., those of free collation) which his suffragans have left unfilled after six months; also to canonically institute candidates presented by patrons if the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> allows two months to pass without instituting.</li><li>Lastly, in the matter of honorific <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> and privileges the metropolitan has the <a href="../cathen/11427a.htm">pallium</a> as the ensign of his <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a>; he takes precedence of all <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>; he may have the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archiepiscopal</a> cross (crux gestatoria) borne before him anywhere within his province, except in the presence of a <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">papal legate</a>; he may celebrate pontifically (saving such acts as constitute an exercise of <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a>, e.g., <a href="../cathen/11279a.htm">ordination</a>), may wear his <a href="../cathen/13104a.htm">rochet</a> and <a href="../cathen/10624b.htm">mozetta</a> uncovered (not hidden under the <a href="../cathen/09611a.htm">mantelletta</a>, like a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of another diocese); may <a href="../cathen/02599b.htm">bless</a> publicly, and may grant an <a href="../cathen/07783a.htm">indulgence</a> of 100 days (S.C. Indulg., 8. Aug., 1903). He ensigns his arms with the double <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archiepiscopal</a> cross and the hat with ten tassels on either side. </li></ul></div> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">FERRARIS, Prompta Bibliotheca, s.v. Archiepiscopus; SAGMULLER Lehrbuck des kathol. Kirchenrechts (Freiburg, 1909), 391; BOUIX, De Episcopo, I (Paris, 1859), 441.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Boudinhon, A.</span> <span id="apayear">(1911).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Metropolitan.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10244c.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Boudinhon, Auguste.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Metropolitan."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 10.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1911.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10244c.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Kenneth M. Caldwell.</span> <span id="dedication">Dedicated to the memory of Don McGonigle.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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