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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Preface to 1828 Dictionary
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DIOCESE, n. [Gr., administration, a province or jurisdiction; residence; to dwell; a house. Diocese is a very erroneous orthography.] The circuit or extent of a bishops jurisdiction; an ecclesiastical division of a kingdom or state, subject to the authority of a bishop. In England there are two provinces or circuits of archbishops jurisdiction, Canterbury and York. The province of Canterbury contains twenty-one dioceses, and that of York three, besides the isle of Man. Every diocese is divided into archdeaconries, of which there are sixty; and each archdeaconry, into rural deaneries; and every deanery, into parishes. A diocese was originally a division of the Roman empire for the purpose of civil government, a prefecture. But the term is now exclusively appropriated to ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
The
circuit or extent of a bishop's jurisdiction; the district in which a
bishop exercises his ecclesiastical authority.
[Frequently, but
improperly, spelt diocess.] | ||||||||