Autocephaly (diocese)

Under autocephalic dioceses ( autokephal for self-contained, from Greek αὐτό ~ for ~ itself and κεφαλή for Main) is meant dioceses that no Metropolitan ansitz are subject.

Emergence

From the 5th / 6th In the 19th century, certain episcopal seats, which were distinguished by their importance, were given the title of archbishopric without being subject to suffragan bishoprics. They were therefore directly subordinate to the respective patriarchy , so in relation to the neighboring metropolitan seat "autocephalous". In rank they came after the metropolitan seats, but before suffragan bishops.

Eastern Churches

These conditions changed in Eastern Christianity, insofar as it came under Islamic rule, in the course of the Middle Ages due to the extensive decline of the earlier metropolitan associations, which collapsed due to the gradual loss of suffragan seats as a result of the decline in the Christian population. As a result, in Asia Minor and the Middle East only metropolises and very few archbishoprics - even earlier autocephalous - archbishoprics remained, while suffragan dioceses almost completely disappeared. Consequently, z. In the Orthodox Church of Greece, for example, the earlier distinction between metropolitans, archbishops and (suffragan) bishops was completely abandoned and all bishops of Greece were given the title "Metropolitan", among whom only the Archbishop of Athens enjoyed priority as head of the church.

Similar conditions also prevail in various ancient oriental churches in the Middle East, whose diocesan bishops are almost consistently referred to as "Metropolitan" or "Archbishop" and in which simple bishops only appear in special cases, for example in missionary dioceses .

Latin Church

In the Latin Church the organization in ecclesiastical provinces has remained unchanged to this day. Here, however, as in the east, the amalgamation of mostly small Suffragan dioceses with their metropolitan seat often led to autocephalous archbishoprics. An example is the Italian Archdiocese of Chieti , which was merged with its only suffragan Vasto . Sometimes, previously exempted dioceses were later elevated to the rank of archbishopric because of the increasing importance of the episcopal city, as in Barcelona or Marseille . Sometimes this was also because of their historical importance. For example, the Diocese of Udine , one of the two successor dioceses of the dissolved Patriarchate of Aquileia, was elevated to an archdiocese, although, unlike the other successor diocese of Gorizia , it had no suffragans.

Such autocephalous archbishoprics, like "simple" exemte dioceses, were theoretically regarded as belonging to the ecclesiastical province of Rome and as such also took part in Roman provincial synods . However, they were obliged to join a neighboring church province for visitation purposes. Since the 1980s, however, such archdioceses have increasingly been formally attached to an ecclesiastical province, so that now a number of archbishoprics, which used to be autocephalous or even metropolitan seat themselves, are subordinate to another archdiocese than suffragan - albeit while retaining their archbishopric.