Bishop

In England, an ecclesiastical officer, who is the chief of the clergy of his diocese, and is the next in rank to an archbishop. A bishop is a corporation sole; 1 Bla. Com. 469. In the United States it is the title of a high ecclesiastical officer of the Roman Catholic, Episcopal and Methodist Episcopal and some other churches. In the first two he is the head of a diocese. He is addressed in the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church as Right Reverend. In England the two archbishops and twenty-four bishops are entitled to sit in the House of Lords, and are known as spiritual peers. When there is a vacancy, the senior existing bishop is entitled to fill it and not the successor of the one who died. The bishop's powers are threefold: 1. Potestas ordinis, under which he confers orders, confirms, consecrates churches, etc.; 2. Potestas jurisdictionis, which he exercises as ecclesiastical judge of the diocese; 3. Administratio familiaris, by which he governs the revenue; 1 Bla. Com. 377, 155. In the Roman Church he is the governing authority in his diocese and is said to be "the supreme pastor, the supreme teacher, the supreme governor." It is his duty, under the laws and discipline of his church, to administer the regulations provided by its laws, and to construe and interpret such regulations. The court will not review the judgments or acts of a religious organization with reference to its internal affairs for the purpose of ascertaining their regularity or accordance with the discipline and usage of such organization; Pounder v. Ashe, 44 Neb. 673, 63 N. W. 48; Bonacum v. Harrington, 65 Neb. 831, 91 N. W. 886.

See Religious Society.