METROPOLIS

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) 1. A parent state from which colonies have sprung, in which sense the word is uniformly employed by ancient Greek writers. 2. The chief city of a province in the later ages of the Roman empire. The Christian Church having adopted the secular division of the Roman empire into provinces, the episcopal seat established in every s-h-Ii city, and the bishop of it himself, were termed metropolitan. It. In modern usage, the chief or capital city of an independent Kate. METROPOLITAN, in early Ecclesiastical History, was a title applied to the archbishop, or chief ecclesiastical dignitary, resident in a city. The establishment of ■netropoflplace at the end of the third century, and was I by the council of Nice. In some of the Protestant states of Germany the title exists to the present lime, and the person in po e ion of it has rank equivalent to the bishop* of the English Church. [s. 757]