WEIHBISCHOF: A suffragan, or assistant bishop, differing from a Coadjutor (q.v.) in having no power of independent jurisdiction. Such auffragans first arose in the seventh century, when, the oriental bishops being driven from their dioceses by the Saracens, the thirty-seventh canon of the Trullan Council of 692, supplementing the older canons (Cmxstitutiones aPostolicte, canon xxxviii.; Council of Antioch [341] canon xviii.), safeguarded the rights of these prelates. Later, in the ninth and tenth centuries, their services were utilized in Spain by allowing them to assist in episcopal functions, in other regions, and new bishops were also . consecrated for the dioceses which were in the power of the unbelievers (Mansi, Concidia, xviii. 183, 219; cf. Bishop, Titular). After the abrogation of the institution of the Chorepiscopus (q.v.), authority was accorded these bishops to discharge the duties of assistants in matters exclusively episcopal, thus doing away with the difficulty of securing such assistants or representatives, this difficulty arising from the eighth canon of the Nicene Council of 325, which allowed but one bishop to be consecrated for each diocese. The number of these exiled bishops. increased, more especially in the fourteenth century, when the Latin dioceses founded in the orient after the Crusades had fallen into the hands of unbelievers, though bishops continued to be consecrated for these dioceses rather as a matter of principle than from any hope of soon regaining possession of the sees. Clement V., on account of the abuses which grew out of these conditions, made the nomination and consecration of such bishops directly dependent from the papal chair.

At first the auxiliary position of the suffragan bishops was only temporary, and they often changed the dioceses wherein they discharged their duties. Yet as early as the thirteenth century, the suffragana

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sought to obtain fuller powers, and they were suc<;csaful in their efforts toward the end of the fifteenth century, when they were consecrated either for a long term or for life, with the assurance of a stated revenue.

These episcopi titulares (the title officially given them by Leo XIII. in 1881), formerly called episcopi in Partibus infcdelium (and also nullatenses, annulares), are bishops consecrated for a diocese formerly Roman Catholic, though at the time in the hands of unbelievers (though not of Protestants). They are appointed solely by the pope, and perform the same ceremonies and fulfil the same duties as do the regular bishops, and, since the Roman Curia holds strictly to the tradition that these suffragans really possess a diocese, they receive with their nomination a dispensation from residence in these dioceses. They have a seat and a vote in the general council, and are subject, like all other bishops, to the pope, and not to the diocesans in whose sees they reside.

The titular bishops are composed of the following classes: (1) Those who assist the diocesan bishops in the performance of episcopal functions (hence called vicarii in pontificalibus, episcopi auxiliares, or epescopi suffraganei). The suffragan can not, however, discharge episcopal functions merely by the direct nomination of the pope, for he must also be specifically commissioned by his diocesan both for special cases and for general assistance. By revocation on the part of the bishop of the diocese, or by the latter's resignation or death, the prerogatives of the auffragan cease, but not his stipend, which can be revoked only by the pope or the Congregation of the Council. If, however, the new bishop desires to retain the suffragan as an assistant, he is obliged to remain. (2) The Greek bishops residing in Rome, San Benedetto di Ullano, and Palermo, who ordain Greek Uniate priests throughout Italy. (3) The principal army prelates, when the ,army is exempt from ordinary episcopal jurisdiction, as is the case in Austria. (4) The apostolic vicars in the missionary fields. (5) Lastly, the apostolic nuncios and some of the Roman prelates are usually appointed titular bishops or archbishops; and this promotion is also accorded to other ecclesiastics as an honorary distinction. Since titular bishops can draw no incomes from their sees, they are often permitted by papal indult to retain benefices ordinarily incompatible with episcopal consecration.

The Hungarian titular bishops differ from the others in that they are priests, and receive the title of bishop only from the king. In England the position of the suffragans was regulated by Henry VIII. in 1534, but none were nominated after 1592 until 1870, when a suffragan was appointed. Since then the institution has been revived. [In the American branch of the Anglican communion there is, at the present time, considerable agitation in favor of the creation of suffragan bishops as distinct from the bishops coadjutor, and such have been created. See Protestant Episcopalians, II., 1.1

A. Hauck.

Bibliography: L. Thomassin, Vetus et nova ecclesice discipline, L, i., chaps. 27-23, Paris, 1728; A. H. Andreucei,

De episcopo titulari seu in partibus infidelium, Rome, 1732; 1'. Hinschius, Kirchenrecht, ii. 171 sqq., Berlin, 1871; Arc)axa für hathoLisches Kirchenrecht, al i. 201 sqq., li. 146.