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One who carries the cross before an archbishop. [Obs.]

(a) The staff used by a shepherd, the hook of which serves to hold a runaway sheep. (b) A bishop's staff of office. Cf. Pastoral stafu. He left his crook, he left his flocks. Prior.

The pastoral staff of a bishop (also of an archbishop, being the symbol of his office as a shepherd of the flock of God.

A subdeacon who bears a cross before an archbishop or primate on solemn occasions.

Bread baked in a mold, and scooped out, to serve minces upon. Bishop.

A vestment with wide sleeves, and with two stripes, worn at Mass by deacons, and by bishops at pontifical Mass; -- imitated from a dress originally worn in Dalmatia.

cap; I as ashamed to be dandled thus. Addison. The book, thus dandled into popularity by bishops and good ladies, contained many pieces of nursery eloquence. Jeffrey.

copal churches, a person admitted to the lowest order in the ministry, subordinate to the bishops and priests. In Presbyterian churches, he is subordinate to the minister and elders, and has charge of certain duties connected with the communion service and the care of the poor. In Congregational churches, he is subordi…

A woman set apart for church work by a bishop.

ertain ecclesiastical and lay bodies; esp., an ecclesiastical dignitary, subordinate to a bishop. Dean of cathedral church, the chief officer of a chapter; he is an ecclesiastical magistrate next in degree to bishop, and has immediate charge of the cathedral and its estates. -- Dean of peculiars, a dean holding a pref…

n office or society; diminution; as, the degradation of a peer, a knight, a general, or a bishop. He saw many removes and degradations in all the other offices of which he had been possessed. Clarendon.

constitution. [U.S.] Court of delegates, formerly, the great court of appeal from the archbishops' courts and also from the court of admiralty. It is now abolished, and the privy council is the immediate court of appeal in such cases. [Eng.]

away; to dissolve; to consume; to waste. [Obs.] Dilapidating, or rather deliquating, his bishopric. Fuller.

ugh neglect; to destroy the fairness and good condition of; -- said of a building. If the bishop, parson, or vicar, etc., dilapidates the buildings, or cuts down the timber of the patrimony. Blackstone.

mbent, through neglect or by intention. The business of dilapidations came on between our bishop and the Archibishop of York. Strype.

her jurisdiction; granting leave to depart. Letters dimissory (Eccl.), letters given by a bishop dismissing a person who is removing into another diocese, and recommending him for reception there. Hook.

A bishop, viewed in relation to his diocese; as, the diocesan of New York.

The circuit or extent of a bishop's jurisdiction; the district in which a bishop exercises his ecclesiastical authority. [Frequently, but improperly, spelt diocess.]

ome time the strata on all sides of the globe were dislocated. Woodward. And thus the archbishop's see, dislocated or out of joint for a time, was by the hands of his holiness set right again. Fuller.

ighest order of nobility after princes and princesses of the royal blood and the four archbishops of England and Ireland.