Commissary
Commissary
1. In the Church of England, an officer who fills the bishop's place in exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction, in places so far distant from the chief city that the chancellor cannot call the people to the bishop's principal consistory court without great trouble to them. — Eden, Churchman's Dictionary, s.v.
2. In the Church of Rome, archbishops, bishops, or other dignitaries are deputed as Papal Commissaries for the exercise of functions properly belonging to the pope; and in the same manner bishops may depute episcopal commissaries. If they are deputed for one particular act they are temporary commissaries (commissarii temporarii). If several individuals are conjointly deputed for such a function they are called a commissions. If persons are clothed by the pope, or by a bishop, with power to exercise regularly functions belonging to them, they are called perpetual commissaries (commissarii perpetui). See Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lex. 2:714.
