PATRIARCH

(A compoimd oi ttcitvi^, father, and o^iX'^, I govern.) The title given by the sacred writers to the earliest heads of families recorded in Scripture, from Adam to Jacob and his sons. This title was a umed also in the early ages of the church by the bishops of the principal cities of the empire, as Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, . The name was adopted from the practice of the Jews; who, after the dispersion, subjected themselves to the spiritual superintendence of the patriarchs resident at Tiberias and Babylon. The first mention of a Christian patriarch occurs about 440. They were, for the most part, superior to archbishops or metropolitans, being set over several provinces. I'his, however, was not' always the case. The patriarchs of Ephesus and Csesarea, for instance, were subject to the bishop of Constantinople, and were only on a par with diocesan prelates. (See Hooker, Ecctes. Polity, 6,7.; Mosheim, vol.i. pp. 179. 349., trans. 1790.) PATRICIANS. {hat. -patres, fathers.) The first order or nobility of the Roman people. When the constitution of Rome was monarchical, they elected the king; and after the expulsion of the Tarquins all the great ofticers of state, as consuls, praetors, ., were chosen from their body for many generations. Of the patricians, also, the senate was composed; but, in after times, botii this and the great magistracies were thrown open to thtt plebeians. The subdivisions of this order were as follow:— First, they were cla ed into three tribes, called Ramnenses, Titienses, and Luceres j of which the first contained the original patricians of Romulus, the two latter being probably admitted to their privilege at different subseq^uent times. Each of these tribes again was divided mto ten curies, and each curia again contained ten clans, or gentes. The general a embly of the patrician houses, who constituted the populus, in contradistinction to the plebs, or plebeian citizens, was called comitia curiata, because they voted therein by curies; and this, in the earliest times, was the Roman popular a embly, to which plebeians were not admitted. PATRICK, SAINT, [s. 914]