Archbishop
a chief bishop. The first-formed Christian churches soon became surrounded by younger and less powerful congregations. The pastors of these new churches being called bishops, that term no longer appeared a dignified enough appellation for the spiritual chief of the mother church, and about A. D. 340, the Greek title of archiepiscopos was introduced to meet the difficulty, and in subsequent centuries the designation became common over Christendom. In England the early British churches were, in large measure, swept away by the. Anglo-Saxon invaders, who were heathens, and the country consequently required to be reconverted. The great southern center from which this was done was Canterbury, then the capital of Kent, where King Egbert gave Augustine, the chief missionary, a settlement. In the N., York, the chief town of Northumbria, where King Edwin built a shrine for Paulinus, became the great focus of operation for that part of England; hence the two archbishoprics now existing are those of Canterbury and of York. The prelate who occupies the former see is Primate of all England, while his brother of York, is only Primate of England.
The former is the first in dignity after the princes of the blood; the latter is not second, but third, the Lord Chancellor taking precedence of him in official rank.
An archbishop is often called a metropolitan. In the United States the Roman Catholic Church is the only one which has dignitaries of this rank.