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 such city, and the bishop of it himself, were termed metropolitan. 3. In modern usage, the chief or capital city of an independent state. METROPOLITAN, in early Ecclesiastical History, ■was a title applied to the archbishop, or chief ecclesiastical dignitary, resident in a city. The establishment of metropolitans took place at the end of the third century, and was confirmed by the council of Nice. In some of the Protestant states' of Germany the title exists to the present time, and the person in po e ion of it has rank equivalent to the bishops of the English church. [s. 751]