Prince-bishop

Prince-Bishop

A Prince-Bishop is a bishop who is a territorial Prince of the Church on account of one or more secular principalities, usually pre-existent titles of nobility held concurrently with their inherent clerical office. Thus the principality ruled politically by a prince-bishop could wholly or largely overlap with his diocesan jurisdiction, but not necessarily; several lost their actual see (the city itself), which could obtain the status of free imperial city. If the see is an archbishopric, the correct term is prince-archbishop; the equivalent in the regular (monastic) clergy is prince-abbot.

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