AUTOCEPHALUS

AUTOCEPHALUS, a person who is his own chief or master, and has no other over him. See ACEPHALUS. The word is compounded of the Greek αὐτός, ipse; and κεφαλή, head.

This denomination was given by the Greeks to certain archbishops, who were exempted from the jurisdiction of patriarchs.—Such was the archbishop of Cyprus, by a general decree of the Council of Ephesus, which freed him from the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Antioch. See ARCHBISHOP, PATRIARCH, etc.



There were several other bishops in the East, who were autocephali, and in the West, those of Ravenna pretended to the same right.—The VIth Council, Canon 39, says, they have the same authority with patriarchs; but this is not to be understood in the full latitude of the words; but only as intimating, that the autocephali have the same authority over their bishops, that patriarchs had over their archbishops: in which sense only they are equal to patriarchs. See BISHOP, METROPOLITAN, etc.

AUTOCEPHALUS