Metropolitan

1.

In ecclesiastical law, is one of the titles of an archbishop. The archbishop of Canterbury is styled " primate of all England and the metropolitan," because the province of Canterbury contains within it the metropolis or chief city. The metropolitans were so called because they presided over the churches of the principal cities of the province. It was their duty to ordain the bishops of their province, to convoke provincial councils, and exercise a general superintendence over the doctrine and discipline of the bishops and clergy within the provinces. The province of York anciently claimed and had a metropolitan jurisdiction over all the bishops of Scotland, until about the year 1466, shortly after which time Pope Sixtus the Fourth created the bishop of St. Andrews archbishop and metropolitan of all Scotland.

1 Bum Ecc. Law, by Phillimbre, 194, 197, tit. Bishops; Bog. Ecc. Law, 105, 113. 2.

In English legislation, metropolitan is frequently used to characterize statutes which relate particularly to the government of the metropolis of London and environs. Thus, there are the metropolitan buildings acts, the metropolitan police acts, the metropolitan sewers acts, and. many others.

Metropolitan police district

In the laws of New York, this phrase was used for a term of years to designate a region composed of New York city and some adjacent territory, which was, for police purposes, organized as one district, and provided with a police force common to the whole.