Diocese

di'o-ses, the district and people falling under the care of a bishop. The term is a political one. It was borrowed from the Romans by the early Christian church. In the day of Constantine the empire was divided into thirteen political dioceses, each comprising several provinces. Thus Italy was a single diocese. The ecclesiastical diocese is a smaller division. The diocese of John Carroll of Baltimore, the first American bishop, appointed in 1790, included the thirteen American colonies.