PATRIARCH (M.E. and O. Fr. patriarche,

See also:

• LAT

Lat. patriarcha, Gr. aarpuipxtis, from srarptu.,

See also:

• CLAN (Gaelic clann, O. Ir. cland, connected with Lat. planta, shoot or scion, the ancient Gaelic or Goidelic substituting k for p)

clan, and apxil,

See also:

• RULE

rule)  , originally the father or chief of a tribe, in this sense now used more especially of the " patriarchs " of the Old Testament, i.e . Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with their forefathers, and the twelve sons of Jacob . In late Jewish history the title " patriarch " (Heb. n¢si, prince, chief) was given to the head of the sanhedrim in Palestine, and is sometimes, though wrongly, applied to the " exilarch," a head of the Jewish college at Babylon . In the early centuries of the Christian Church the designation " patriarch " was applied, like " archbishop," to bishops of the more important sees as a merely honorary style . It developed into a title implying jurisdiction over metropolitans, partly as a result of the organization of the empire into " dioceses," partly owing to the ambition of the greater metropolitan bishops, which had early led them to claim and exercise authority in neighbouring metropolitanates . At the Council of Chalcedon (451) the patriarchs still bore the title of " exarch "; it was not till the 7th century that that of " patriarch " was fixed as proper to the bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, " exarch " being reserved for those of Ephesus and Caesarea, who had fallen to a lower rank . In the West the only patriarch in the fully developed sense of the Eastern Church has been the bishop of Rome, who is patriarch as well as pope .