episcopacy

[Lat. episcopatus =the office of a bishop.] [EPISCOPATE.] 1. The office of a bishop. 2. The government of the Church by bishops, one of the three leading forms of church government, the two other being Presbyterianism and Congregationalism, or Independency. Taking Christen dom as a whole, there is a large preponderance of suffrages in favor of Episcopacy, which is the accepted form of government in the Greek and Latin churches, the Church of England, the Methodist Episcopal churches, with some other le important denominations. "Those who seem most doubtful about the original of episcopacy do yield the general consent of the church to the practice of it."- Stilling fleet , vol. 1i., ser. 10.