§ 92. 2. Archbishops, as Heads of Autocephalous Churches

2. Archbishops, as heads of autocephalous churches.

The proper title of the head of a regional autocephalous church is archbishop (ἀρχιεπίσκοπος). This designation is first met with in the Church in the 4th century, when Athanasius called Alexander of Alexandria archbishop.[1] After that, very rarely was this title given to any bishop, and only on particular solemn occasions were individual bishops of notable cities—highly esteemed for their significance in the Church—so titled: Leo of Rome, Anatolius of Constantinople, Cyril of Alexandria, Maximus of Antioch, and Juvenal of Jerusalem. These bishops were called archbishops in the acts of the Fourth Ecumenical Council. From that time—that is, from the first half of the 5th century—in imperial novels and similar important documents the name of archbishop was regularly given to the church heads who were in the chief cities of the Greco-Roman state.[2] At the Sixth Ecumenical Council it was established that henceforth the following were to be called by the name of archbishop: the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, and then the bishops of Cyprus, Nova Justiniana, Iberia, Ephesus, and Thessalonica.[3] The first five had already, since the Council of Chalcedon, borne the title of patriarch, and the other five the title of senior metropolitan. Of these ten bishops, who were called archbishops in the strict sense—that is, true first bishops of the ecumenical Church—eight were at the same time also heads of autocephalous churches, while to the remaining two the name of archbishop was granted on account of the importance of the cities in which they held their sees, and in memory of the activity of the Apostle Paul connected with those cities. By this the foundation was laid for that practice which afterward always prevailed in the Church. Archbishop, in the strict sense, is the title of the head of every regional autocephalous church; but as an honor the same title was also given to individual bishops who occupied sees in cities that were of historic ecclesiastical significance, or that were of greater importance in political relations, but who were archbishops in title only.[4]