Archpriest

Latin Catholic Church

In the western Church, by the Middle Ages, the use of the title archipresbyter had evolved and became assigned to the priest of the principal parish among several local parishes. This priest had general charge of worship in this archpresbyterate, and the parishioners of the smaller parishes had to attend Sunday Mass and hold baptisms at the principal parish while the subordinate parishes instead held daily mass and homilies. By the time of the Council of Trent (1545–1563) the office of archpriest was replaced by the office of vicar forane, also known in English as "dean". The first recorded use of this meaning of the title comes from Charles Borromeo's reforms in his own diocese. Unlike vicars general and vicars episcopal, vicars forane are not prelates, which means they do not possess ordinary power. Their role is entirely supervisory, and they perform visitations for the bishop and report to the bishop or vicar general any problems in their territory.

Exceptionally, the pope on occasion raised a territory to the rank of archipresbyterate nullius, detached from any prelature, yet under a non-prelate, as happened in 1471 with the future abbacy (1583) and later (1828–1986) Diocese of Guastalla.

In 1598, during the persecution of Catholics in England, an archpriest was appointed by the Holy See as head of the Catholic Church in England. The archpriest had authority over all of the secular clergy in the country.^[8] The Archpriest Controversy was a dispute between Roman Catholics supporting and opposed to this structure. In 1623 the Apostolic Vicariate of England was established, headed by an apostolic vicar rather than an archpriest.

In the Latin Catholic Church, it was traditional in some localities for a priest to be assisted at his First Mass by another priest termed for the occasion the archipresbyter, who functioned as the deacon otherwise does. This was not a permanent title but referred only to the particular occasion.

The title of archpriest has survived in Rome, in Malta and elsewhere, where it is now held by the rectors of the principal basilicas. However, the title is entirely honorary, reflecting the fact that these churches held archpriest status in the past. In Rome today, there are four archpriests (all bishops), one for each of the four papal major basilicas of John Lateran, St. Peter, St. Mary Major, St. Paul. According to the specific historical tradition, many churches throughout the world, other than basilicas, are under the authority of a priest who bears the title of archipresbyter. However, the title is mostly honorary and today, such an archpriest has no control over subordinate clergy other than that of a parish priest over junior clergy assigned to assist him in meeting pastoral needs.

The use of "archpriest" (French: archiprêtre,^[9] Italian: arciprete) in the Latin Church should not be confused with "protopriest", the senior Cardinal-Priest in the College of Cardinals.

Other uses

In the Church of England there exists the "Archpriest of Haccombe", a unique remnant of pre-Reformation local Latin practice first employed in 1315, confirmed by council on 1 April 1913 under King George V.^[10] The title reflects the fact that the archpriest has the right to sit beside the bishop and acknowledges no authority below that of the Archbishop of Canterbury, although today it is more appropriate to go through the usual channels of the church's hierarchy. The office most closely resembling the role is rural dean (rural dioceses) or area dean (urban dioceses). Like the archpriest of old, these officers have supervisory duties, but not ordinary jurisdiction, and are entitled to carry out visitations of subordinate parishes when so commissioned.

The Unitarian Church of Transylvania is divided into five Archpriestships as a form of territorial governance,^[11] virtual dioceses.