Exarch

Exarch
Exarch
A title used in various senses both civilly and ecclesiastically

Catholic Encyclopedia. . 2006.

Exarch
    Exarch
     Catholic_Encyclopedia Exarch
    (Greek Exarchos).
    A title used in various senses both civilly and ecclesiastically. In the civil administration of the Roman Empire the exarch was the governor or viceroy of any large and important province. The best-known case is that of the Exarch of Italy, who, after the defeat of the Goths, ruled from Ravenna (552-751) in the name of the emperor at Constantinople. In ecclesiastical language an exarch was at first, a metropolitan whose jurisdiction extended beyond his own (metropolitical) province, over other metropolitans. Thus, as late as the time of the Council of Chalcedon (451), the patriarchs are still called exarchs (can. ix). When the name "patriarch" became the official one for the Bishops of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch (and later of Constantinople and Jerusalem), the other title was left as the proper style of the metropolitans who ruled over the three remaining (political) dioceses of Diocletian's division of the Eastern Prefecture namely the Exarchs of Asia (at Ephesus) of Cappadocia and Pontus (at Caesarea), and of Thrace (at Heraclea). The advance of Constantinople put an end to these exarchates, which fell back to the state of ordinary metropolitan sees (Fortescue, Orth. Eastern Church, 21-25). But the title of exarch was still occasionally used for any metropolitan (so at Sardica in 343, can. vi). Since the use of all these titles became gradually fixed with definite technical meanings, that of exarch has disappeared in the West, being replaced by the names "Apostolic vicar" and then "primate". A few cases, such as that of the Archbishop of Lyons, whom the Emperor Frederick I named Exarch of Burgundy in 1157, are rare exceptions.
    In Eastern Christendom an exarch is a bishop who holds a place between that of patriarch and that of ordinary metropolitan. The principle is that, since no addition may be made to the sacred number of five patriarchs, any bishop who is independent of any one of these five should be called an exarch. Thus, since the Church of Cyprus was declared autocephalous (at Ephesus in 431), its primate receives the title of Exarch of Cyprus. The short-lived medieval Churches of Ipek (for Servia), Achrida (for Bulgaria) Tirnova (for Rumania), were governed by exarchs though these prelates occasionally usurped the title of patriarch (Forteseue, Orth. Eastern Church, 305 sq. 317 sq., 328 sq.). On the same principle the Archbishop of Mount Sinai is an exarchy though in this case as in that of Cyprus modern Orthodox usage generally prefers the (to them) unusual title, "archbishop" (Archiepiskopos). When the Bulgarians constituted their national Church (1870), not quite daring to call its head a patriarch, they made him an exarch. The Bulgarian exarch, who resides at Constantinople, is the most famous of all persons who bear the title now. Because of it his adherents throughout Macedonia are called exarchists (as opposed to the Greek patriarchists). It was an inaccurate use of this title when Peter the Great, after abolishing the Patriarchate of Moscow (1702), for twenty years before he founded the Russian Holy Directing Synod, appointed a vice-gerent with the title of exarch as president of a temporary governing commission. Since Russia destroyed the old independent Georgian Church (1802) the Primate of Georgia (always a Russian) sits in the Holy Synod at St. Petersburg with the title of Exarch of Georgia (Fortescue, Orth. Eastern Church, 304-305). Lastly, the third officer of the court of the Patriarch of Constantinople, who examines marriage cases (our defensor matrimonii), is called the exarch (ibid., 349).
    ADRIAN FORTESCUE
    Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII. — New York: Robert Appleton Company. . 1910.


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Exarch — Exarch …   Deutsch Wörterbuch

  • Exarch — Ex arch, n. [L. exarchus, Gr. ? ? commander; ?,?, out + ? to lead, rule: cf. F. exarque.] A viceroy; in Ravenna, the title of the viceroys of the Byzantine emperors; in the Eastern Church, the superior over several monasteries; in the modern… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Exarch — (v. gr. Exarchos), 1) bei den Byzantinern Obrigkeit, mit verschiedener Gewalt; 2) bei den Römern unter den späteren Kaisern Titel der, mit hoher Gewalt in die Provinzen gesendeten Großen. So gab es E. von Afrika, von Athen, Mailand etc.; bes.… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Exarch — (Exarchos, griech.), Befehlshaber, Feldherr, seit dem 6. Jahrh. offizieller Titel der zugleich mit der höchsten militärischen und zivilen Gewalt bekleideten byzantinischen Statthalter in Italien (Exarchat von Ravenna, s. unten) und Afrika. Dann… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Exárch — (grch.), Titel der byzant. Statthalter. Exarchāt, das Gebiet eines E., bes. das Exarchat von Ravenna; es umfaßte nach Vernichtung des Ostgotenreichs (555) das ganze Italien, wurde aber bald durch die Eroberungen der Langobarden (seit 568) auf die …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Exarch — Exarch, griech., Vorsteher, Gouverneur, in der Reichseintheilung Konstantins der Statthalter einer Diöcese. Der Name E. wurde Ehrentitel der Metropoliten, besonders des Erzbischofs von Konstantinopel, allmälig aber auf die Bischöfe der… …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • Exarch — Exarch* der; en, en <über lat. exarchus aus gr. éxarchos »Vorsteher«, zu árchein »der Erste sein, herrschen«>: 1. byzantinischer (oströmischer) Statthalter. 2. in der orthodoxen Kirche der Vertreter des ↑Patriarchen für ein bestimmtes… …   Das große Fremdwörterbuch

  • exarch — from L.L. exarchus, from Gk. exarkhos, from ex (see EX (Cf. ex ) (2)) + arkhos leader, chief, ruler (see ARCHON (Cf. archon)) …   Etymology dictionary

  • exarch — exarch1 [eks′ärk΄] n. [LL exarchus, overseer of monasteries < Gr exarchos, leader, chief (in LGr, prefect, bishop): see EX 1 & ARCH] 1. a governor of an outlying province in the ancient Byzantine Empire 2. the supreme head of the independent… …   English World dictionary

  • Exarch — This article is about Byzantine governors and ecclesiastical ranks. For other uses, use Exarch (disambiguation). In the Byzantine Empire, an exarch, from Greek polytonic|ἔξαρχος (exarchos), was governor with extended authority of a province at… …   Wikipedia

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