CHORBISHOP

The title given in the Christian East to a bishop caring for people in the country. The rapid diffusion of Christianity in the first half of the 2d century "not only in the cities but also in the villages" (pliny, Ep. ad Traianum 96) rendered necessary the "institution of bishops for the villages and countryside" (clement, I ad Cor. 42:4). Zoticus, bishop of the village of Comana in Phrygia c. 200, who excommunicated the Montanist Maximilla, is the first so named (eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5:16); and the fact that this sect still had chorbishops in Phrygia in the 4th century (sozomen, Ibid. 7:19) lends credence to the belief that they existed in the 2d century when montanism began.

There are numerous mentions of chorbishops in the 3d century: in Bithynia, Asia, Phrygia, Antioch (eusebius, 7:30), Egypt, and Palestine (Apost. Church Order 16). In the religious peace that followed the persecution by the Roman Emperor decius, it was possible to centralize and subordinate the smaller bishoprics under the bishop of the civil metropolis of the province. There was considerable resistance, which left its mark in the canonical legislation of the 4th century (Nicaea I, can. 8; Laodicea, can. 57; Ancyra, can. 13; Antioch, can. 10; and Neocaesarea, can. 14, which cites the example of the subordination of the 70 Disciples).

Canonical institution was given to chorbishops by the bishop of the city (Antioch, can. 10), and they were called coadministrators (Neocaesarea, can. 14); they governed their territory with the bishop's supervision (Laodicea, can. 57), but they were confined to the villages and countryside (Antioch, can. 10). Their powers included the ordination of lectors, subdeacons and exorcists on their own authority, but of deacons and priests only with the consent of the bishop (Antioch, can. 10), which was to be obtained in writing (Ancyra, can. 13). basil of ancyra demanded this even for subdeacons (can. 87). The care of the poor was particularly their office (Neocaesarea, can. 14). The institution was opposed (Ancyra, can.89) because they were accused of not obeying the canons of the Fathers, and it was suggested that they be replaced by priests (Laodicea, can. 57; Sardica, can. 6).

In the 8th century chorbishops could not ordain even lectors without the bishop's consent (Nicaea II, can. 14), and in the 12th century the jurist balsamon judged it "senseless to speak of them since they were extinct" [Syntagma 3 (1853) 47]. Today the institution has completely disappeared in the Orthodox Churches. Among the Chaldeans and Syrians, there is one per diocese, and he can ordain lectors and subdeacons. Among the Maronites, they serve as auxiliary bishops; among the Melkites, the term chorbishop is a purely honorary title.

In the West, there is no sign of a similar institution until the 8th century, when Pope zachary in a letter to Pepin (747) ordered their subordination to the diocesan bishop in accord with the Synod of Antioch (can. 10). On the Anglo-Saxon mission this system seems to have been an adaptation of the Irish institution of bishops attached to monasteries under the abbot, in which the bishop's sole function was spiritual. The abuse whereby bishops used a chorbishop as an auxiliary to perform his duties in his absence on secular affairs was opposed in the Carolingian reform (Synods of Paris, 829; Meaux, 845). While the system grew in the 9th century, it declined in the 10th and 11th and disappeared in the 12th century.

Bibliography: f. gillmann, Das Institut der Chorbischöfe im Orient (Munich 1903). t. gottlob, Der abendländische Chorepiskopat (Bonn 1928). v. fuchs, Der Ordinationstitel … (Bonn 1930). p. joannou, Sacra Congregazione Orientale, Codificazione orientale, Fonti 9, v.2, Suppl. (Rome 1964), Index s.v. "Chorepiscopus."

[p. joannou/eds.]