Patriarch

(paériarcha, formed of ga- Tpta, a family, and apywy, chief.) One of those first fathers who lived towards the beginning of the world; and who became famous by a long line of descendants. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and his twelve sons, are the patriarchs of the Old Testament. Seth, Enoch, . were antediluvian patriarchs. Long life and a number of children were the ble ings of the patriarchs. The patriarchal government consisted in the fathers of families, and their first-born after them, exercising all kinds of ecclesiastical and civil authority in their respective households: and to this government, which continued till the time of the Israeli tes dwelling in Egypt, some have ascribed an absolute and despotic power, extending even to the punishment by death. In proof of this, they allege the curse pronounced by Noah upon Canaan, Gen. ix. 25; but it is replied, that in this affair Noah seems to have acted rather as a prophet than a patriarch. Another instance of supposed despotic power is Abraham’s turning Hagar and Ishmael out of his family, Gen. xxi. 9, .; but this furnishes no evidence of any singular authority vested in the patriarchs, as such, and peculiar to those ages.” The third instance alleged to the same purpose is that of Jacob’s denouncing a curse upon Simeon and Levi, Gen. xlix. 7. which is maintained by others to be an instance of prophetic inspiration, more than of patriarchal authority, ‘he fourth instance is that of Judah with regard to Tamar, Gen. xxxviii. 24 with regard to which it is observed, that Jacob, the father of Judah, was stil] living, that Tamar was not one of his own family, and that she had-been guilty of adultery, the punishment of which was death by burning, and that Judah on this occasion might speak only as.a prosecutor, PaTrraRcu is also used, in christen dom, for the bishops in po e ion of some of the grand sees, independent of the papal jurisdiction. The patriarchate has been always esteemed the supreme dignity in the church: so that, to rise by degrees, the bishop had only under him the territory of the city whereof he was bishop; the metropolitan commanded a province, and had for suffragans the bishops of his province; the primate was the chief of a diocese, and had several metropolitans under him; and the patriarch had under him several dioceses, and the primates themselves were under him. But this order was not always observed. Usher, Pagi, De Marca, and Morinus, attribute the establish ment of the grand patriarchates to the apostles.. They suppose that the apostles, according to the description of the world then given by geographers, pitched on the three principal cities in the three parts of the known world; viz. Rome, in Europe; Antioch, in Asia; and Alexandria, in Africa: and thus formed a trinity of patriarchs. Others, far from attributing this institution to the apostles, maintain that the name patriarch was unknown at the time of the council of Nice; and that, for a long time afterwards, patriarchs and primates were confounded together; as being all equally chiefs of dioceses, and equally superior to metropolitans, who were only chiefs of provinces. Hence it is that So crates gives the title patriarch to all the chiefs of dioceses, and reckons ten of them. In effect, it does not appear that the dignity of patriarch was appropriated to the five grand sees of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, till after the council of Chalcedon, in 451. For when the council of Nice regulated the limits and prerogatives of the three patriarchs of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, it did not give them the title of patriarchs, though it allowed them the preeminence and privileges thereof. ‘Thus, when the council of Constantinople adjudged the second place to the bishop of Constantinople, who, till then, was only a suffragan of Heraclea, it said nothing of the patriarchate. Nor is the term patriarchate found in the decree of the council of Chalcedon, whereby the fifth place is a igned to the bishop of Jerusalem; nor-did these five patriarchs govern all the churches. PaTRIARCH is also applied to the chief of several churches in the East, who live out of communion with the Roman church: such are the patriarch of the Armenians, residing in the monastery of St. Gregory; the patriarch of the Aby in i ans, called Abuna; the patriarchs of the Cophti, the Jacobites, . 136