Notitiae Episcopatuum

TheNotitiae Episcopatuum(singular:Notitia Episcopatuum) were official documents that furnished for Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of themetropolitanandsuffraganbishopricsof a church.

In theRoman Church(the mostlyLatin Rite'Western Patriarchate' of Rome),archbishopsandbishopswere classed according to the seniority of their consecration, and in Africa according to their age. In the Eastern patriarchates, however, the hierarchical rank of each bishop was determined by the see he occupied.

Thus, in thePatriarchate of Constantinople,the first Metropolitan was not the longest ordained, but whoever happened to be the incumbent of the See ofCaesarea;the second was theArchbishop of Ephesus,and so on. In every ecclesiastical province, the rank of each Suffragan (see) was thus determined, and remained unchanged unless the list was subsequently modified.

The hierarchical order included first of all the Patriarch; then the 'greater Metropolitans', i.e., those who had archdioceses with suffragan sees; next 'AutocephalousMetropolitans', who had no suffragans, and were directly subject to the Patriarch; next other Archbishops, although not functionally differing from autocephalous metropolitans, whose sees occupied hierarchical rank inferior to theirs, and were also immediately dependent on the Patriarch; then 'simple', i.e. exempt bishops, neither Archbishop nor suffragan; and lastly suffragan bishops, who depended on a (Greater) Metropolitan Archbishopric.

It is not known by whom this very ancient order was established, but it is likely that, in the beginning, metropolitan sees and simple exempt bishoprics must have been classified according to the date of their respective foundations, this order being modified later on for political and religious considerations.

The principal documents (by church) are:

Patriarchate of Constantinople

• TheEcthesis of pseudo-Epiphanius,a 7th-century revision of an earlier Notitia Episcopatuum (that was created probably byPatriarch EpiphaniusunderByzantine EmperorJustinian I), compiled and amended during the reign of EmperorHeraclius I(610-641) and his successors.
• a Notitia dating back to the first years of the ninth century and differing but little from the earlier one
• theNotitia of Basil the Armeniandrawn up between 820 and 842;
• the Notitia compiled byLeo VI the Wise,and PatriarchNicholas Mysticusbetween 901 and 907, modifying the hierarchical order established in the seventh century and since disturbed by incorporation of theecclesiastical provincesofIllyricumandSouthern Italyin theByzantine Patriarchate
• the Notitiae episcopatuum ofConstantine Porphyrogenitus(about 940), ofJohn I Tzimisces(about 980), ofAlexius I Comnenus(about 1084), ofNilus Doxapatris(1143), ofManuel Comnenus(about 1170), ofIsaac Angelus(end of twelfth century), ofMichael VIII Palaeologus(about 1270), ofAndronicus II Palaeologus(about 1299), and ofAndronicus III Palaeologus(about 1330).

All these Notitiae are published in:

• Gustav Parthey,Hieroclis Synecdemus(Berlin, 1866).
• Heinrich Gelzer,Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis romani(Leipzig, 1890)
• Heinrich Gelzer,Index lectionum Ienae(Jena, 1892)
• Heinrich Gelzer,Ungedruckte und ungenügend veröffentlichte Texte der Notitiae episcopatuum(Munich, 1900)

The later works are only more or less modified copies of the Notitia of Leo VI, and therefore do not present the true situation, which was profoundly changed by theIslamicinvasions of the region. After the capture of Constantinople by theTurksin 1453, another Notitia was written, portraying the real situation (Gelzer,Ungedruckte Texte der Notitiae episcopatuum613–37), and on it are based nearly all those that have been written since. The termSyntagmationis now used by theGreeksfor these documents.

Patriarchate of Antioch

The only knownNotitia episcopatuumfor theChurch of Antiochis that drawn up in the sixth century byPatriarch Anastasius(see Vailhe inÉchos d'Orient,X, pp. 90–101, 139–145, 363–8).

Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Alexandria

ThePatriarchate of Jerusalemhas no such document, nor has that ofAlexandria,although for the latter Gelzer has collected documents that may help remedy the deficiency (Byzantische Zeitschrift,II, 23–40). De Rougé (Géographie ancienne de la Basse-Egypte, Paris, 1891, 151–61) has published aCopticdocument that has not yet been studied. For theBulgarian Church of Achrida,see Gelzer,Byzantische Zeitschrift,II, 40–66, andDer Patriarchat von Achrida(Leipzig, 1902). Other churches having Notitiae areCypriot Orthodox Church,Serbian Orthodox Church,Russian Orthodox ChurchandGeorgian Orthodox Church.

Editions

• Parthey, Gustav, ed. (1866).Hieroclis Synecdemus et notitiae Graecae episcopatuum: Accedunt Nili Doxapatrii notitia patriarchatuum et locorum nomina immutata.Berolini: In aedibus Friderici Nicolai.
• Gelzer, Heinrich,ed. (1900).Ungedruckte und ungenügend veröffentlichte Texte der Notitiae episcopatuum.München: Akademie der Wissenschaften.
• Darrouzès, Jean, ed. (1981).Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae.Paris: Institut français d'études byzantines.

Bibliography

• Komatina, Predrag (2013)."Date of the Composition of the Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae nos. 4, 5 and 6"(PDF).Зборник радова Византолошког института.50(1): 195–214.
• Ostrogorsky, George(1959)."Byzantine Cities in the Early Middle Ages".Dumbarton Oaks Papers.13:45–66.doi:10.2307/1291128.JSTOR1291128.

External links

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Vailhé, Siméon (1911). "Notitiae Episcopatuum".In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Catholic Encyclopedia "Notitiae Episcopatuum" at New Advent
• English version of the Notitia of Pseudo-Epiphaniuswith most cities geolocated, byJohn Brady KieslingforToposText