For the use of the word "primate" in biology, see primate.

Primate (from the Latin Primus, "first") is a title or rank bestowed on some bishops in certain Christian churches. Depending on the particular tradition, it can denote either jurisdictional authority (title of authority) or ceremonial precedence (title of honor).

Orthodox Christianity

In the Orthodox churches, Primate is often used in the general sense of the head of an autocephalous or autonomous church, but not as a specific title. Thus, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the Archbishop of Mtskheta and Tbilisi, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa, the Archbishop of Athens, the Archbishop of Washington and New York, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, and the Archbishop of Karelia and All Finland are all primates of their respective churches, regardless of their individual titles.

Anglican Communion

The title is often encountered in the churches of the Anglican Communion, which is divided into provinces each of which usually has a metropolitan. The senior metropolitan in the national church is called the primate, though this title was only in recent years added by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

In England, however, the metropolitans of the two provinces of Canterbury and York, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York, are Primate of All England and Primate of England respectively. It reflects the compromise struck between the Archbishops of York (who wanted to emphasize the equality of the archbishops) and the Archbishops of Canterbury (who wanted to emphasize the seniority of Canterbury). In Ireland, both the Anglican Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church style their

Roman Catholic Church

In the Western Church, a Primate is an archbishop (or rarely a suffragan or exempt bishop) of a see (called a primas) which confers precedence over the other bishops of his own province, or over a number of provinces (possibly part of a province), such as a 'national' church in (historical) political/cultural terms. This precedence gives no additional authority over these other bishops, such as that exercised by a Metropolitan bishop.

The term is generally found in the older Catholic countries, and is now purely honorific, enjoying no single real right under canon law. The title may be vested in one of the oldest Archdioceses in a country, if it exists. As incumbents, especially nation's leading archbishops, are often elevated cardinal, a higher rank, and the national leadership is rather vested in the chairmanship of the national conference of bishops (often vested in his see; old-fashioned synods have become rare) the title is rather void for them. The see city may no longer have the prominence it had when the diocese was created, or its circumscription may no longer exist as a state/nation. In rank, Primate corresponds to the title of Exarch of the Eastern Church: just below Patriarch, but both are inferior to the now far more frequent cardinalate (and within that college of true princes of the church they enjoy no precedence).

In the United States, the Archbishop of Baltimore is called "honorary primate." Since Baltimore was the first diocese in the nation, its bishop is granted ceremonial precedence before all other bishops in the United States.

At the Vatican Council (Coll. Lacens., VII, pp. 34, 488, 726) the only (arch)bishops figuring as primates, in virtue of recent concessions, were these (by country) :

• Hungary — Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, styled Prince-primate of Gran (uniquely a legal status)
• Germany — Archbishop of Mainz (before 1801)
• the exempt
  
  
  
  archbishopric Antivari (Bar in Servo-Croatian, now in Montenegro) is primate of Dalmatia since the 12th century (formal papal confirmation 1902)
• the archbishop of Salerno, in the historical Neapolitan kingdom
• Belgium — Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussel

(previously Mechelen, primate of all the Netherlands = Low Countries)

• Brazil — Archbishop of Sao Salvador da Bahia
• Ireland (whole island of Ireland, including UK-governed Northern Ireland) — Archbishop of Armagh
• Poland — traditionally Archbishop of Gniezno (Gnesen in German), an exception for the incumbent Archbishop of Warsaw who headed both archdioceses until 1992
• in Spain : Tarragona (under the Aragonese crown, now in Catalonia; for its Castilian rival, see below).

A selection of primatial pretences in other countries (here grouped by modern states, but often the claimed 'primas' had a smaller or overlapping territory) and their Roman Catholic primates (some claims are dormant or have been void for centuries):

• Australia — Archbishop of Sydney, who is effectively primate by precedence due to his usually being a cardinal.
• Canada — Archbishop of Quebec
• Cuba — Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba
• France — Archbishop of Lyon ("Primate of the Gauls"); also Reims, Bourges, Vienne, Narbonne, Bordeaux, Rouen
• Germany — the Elector-Archbishop of Mainz (Mayence; before 1801); also Trier (old imperial capital of a Tetrach) and Magdeburg (for the eastern colonisation)
• Austria — Archbishop of Salzburg (since 1648, confusingly styled "Primas Germaniae")
• Italy — Bishop of Rome (the Pope)
• Philippines — Archbishop of Manila
• across the Pyrenees, the French archbishoprics of Auch (western) and Narbonne (eastern) claimed, in 714-1019, primacy over the northern parts of Spain, ultimately relinquished to Tarragona (in Catalonia)
• in England, Canterbury and the old imperial Tetrarch's capital, York; both remained primatial within Anglicanism, there solidly institutionalized as the country's only provinces
• Portugal — the Archbishop of Braga, claiming primacy over the Spanish Roman province of Galicia to its north, where the pilgrimage mecca of Santiago de Compostela itself later claimed to be a primas - his Portuguese precedence was lost when the national capital was raised to the higher rank of Patriarch of Lisbon
• Scandinavia — Lund, now in southern Sweden and abolished even as a diocese, was primas of a larger Denmark, above the other, slightly younger Swedish Archbishopric, Upsala (famous for its university) also extending into Finland and even Reval (Teutonic Order, but not under Riga; now in Estonia)- all these countries turned protestant
• Scotland — Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh
• primate of all Spain by papal bull of 1088 — the Archbishop of Toledo (originally of the Visigothic kingdom), under the Castilian crown
• Tunisia's Carthage was 'restored' a primacy (though originally it held the position without the title in Roman times)in 1893, under French protectorate
• United States — technically has no primate, but the Archbishop of Baltimore was granted ceremonial precedence before all other American Archbishops

Regular equivalent

• In the modern confederation of the Benedictine Order, all the Black Monks of St. Benedict were united under the presidency of an Abbot Primate (Leo XIII, Summum semper, 12 July, 1893); but the unification, fraternal in its nature, brought no modification to the abbatial dignity, and the various congregations preserved their autonomy intact. The powers of the Abbot Primate are specified, and his position defined, in a Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars dated 16 September, 1893. The primacy is attached to the Abbey and International Benedictine College of St. Anselm, Rome, and the Primate, who takes precedence of all other Abbots, is empowered to pronounce on all doubtful matters of discipline, to settle difficulties arising between monasteries to hold a canonical visitation, if necessary, in any congregation of the order, and to exercise a general supervision for the regular observance of monastic discipline. However, certain branches of the Benedictine Order seem to have lost their original autonomy to some extent

Sources and references

• Westermann Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte Primas

Primado Primaso Primatie Primate (ecclesiastico) Primaat (persoon) Prymas