METROPHANES
244
METROPOLITAN
Metrophanes of Smyrna, leader of the faithful
Ignutian hishops at the time of the Photian .^ohism
t8()7). Baronius (Ann. EccL.ad an. 843, 1) says that
his mother was the woman who was bribed to l>ritig a
false aceusation of rape against the Patriarch Metho-
dius I (842-S4()) during the leonoelast troubles. If
this lie true he was a native of Constantinople. In 857,
when Ignatius was deposi'd, ih'trophanes was already
Metropolitan of Smyrna. He was strongly opposed to
Photius. I'or a short time he wavereil, as Photius
promised not to attack Ignatius' rights, but. as .soon
as he found how little the intruder kept his word, lie
went back to his former attitude, from which nothing
could make him waver again. Metrophanes was the
leailer of the bishops who excommunicated Photius in
85S; they declared them.sclves excommunicate if ever
they recognized him. This .somewhat rash pledge ex-
plains his attitude later. He was chained and impris-
oned, then .sent into exile by the Government. After
Photius' first fall (SG7) Metrophanes came back to
his see. He was present at the eighth general council
(Constantinople, IV, 8G9), opened the sixth session
with a six'ech and was one of the judges who con-
demned Photius. When Ignatius died in 877 and
Photius succeeded lawfully with the consent of John
VIII, Metrophanes still refused to recognize him, for
which conduct he was again banished. At the Photian
Synod of 879 a certain Xicetas appears as Metropolitan
of SnuTna; meanwhile Metrophanes lay sick at Con-
stantinople. In 880 as he still refused to have any-
thing to do with Photius he was excommunicated by-
the papal legates. After that he disappears. It is
uncertain whether he returned to his see at Photius'
second fall or whether he died in exile. A letter of his
to a patrician. Manuel, is extant, written in 870, in
which he gives his reasons for his opposition to Photius
(in Mansi. XIV, 414). C)ther works attributed to him
but strongly Photian in tone (" Against the new Man-
icheans", i. e.. the Latins, and " On the Procession of
the Holy Ghost from the Father alone ") are certainly
spurious. See Fabricius-Harlcs, Bibliotheca Graeca
(Hamburg, 1790-1809), XI, 700.
Hergenrother, Photius (Regeosburg, 1867), vols. I and II, P<"»""- Adman Fortescue.
Metropolis, a titular episcopal see and suffragan of Ephesus. 8trabo(XIV, 1, 2; XIV, 1, 15), who speaks of its celebrated wines, places this city between Ephe- sus and .Smyrna, at one hundred and twenty stadia (nearly fourteen miles) from the former. It is like- wise mentioned in Pliny, " Historia naturalis", V, 29, and in Ptolemy (V, ii, 14) unless here the refer- ence be to Metropolis in Phrygia. A similar allusion is made in "Corpus inscript. Latin." (Ill, 79, Addi- tam., 59). Le Quicn (Oriens chr., I, 709) indicates only two of its bishops: Marcellinus at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and John at the pseudo-Council of Photius in 878, but from the " Xotitiae episcopatuum " we know that in the fourteenth century the diocese was still in exi.stence. Metropolis is now completely destroyed, its niins being visible in a place called Tra- tsa in the nahie of Torbali and the vilayet (Turk- ish province) of Smyrna, quite close to the river Cays- trus. The neighbouring village of Torbah has been built up with stone once u.sed in the structures of an- cient Metropolis and. at Tratsa, there may .still be seen a portion of its wall, also its theatre and acropohs, the latter formed of huge l)locks, while the olive groves are dottea with architectural ruins. This Metropolis, however, must not be confounded with two cities of the same name, one of which was in Phrygia and the other in Thessaly.
SuiTH, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (London, 1870). 8. v.; Texibr, Atie Mineure (Paris, 1862), 35S.
S. Vailhk.
Metropolitan, in ecclesiastical language whatever relates to the metropolis, the principal city, or see, of
an ecclesiastical province ; thus we speak of a metropol-
itan church, a metropolitan chapter, a metropolitan
official, etc. The word metropolitan, used without
any qualificative, means the bishop of the metropoli-
tan see, now usually styled archbishop. The term
metropolite (MtjtpoitoX/ti;!, Metropolita) is also em-
ployed, especially in the Eastern Churches (see
Archbishop). The entire body of rights and duties
which canon law attributes to the metropolitan, or
archbishop as such, i. e., not for his own dioce.se, but
for tho.se suffragan to him and forming his ecclesi-
astical province, is called the metropolitirum. The
effective authority of metropolitans over their prov-
inces has gradually diminished in the course of^ cen-
turies, and they do not now exercise even so much as
was acconled them by the Council of Trent; every
liishop being more strongly and more directlv bound
to Rome is so much the less bound to his province and
its metropolitan. The jurisdiction of the latter over
his suffragan dioceses is in a sen.se ordinarj-, being
established by law; but it is mediate and restricted
to the objects provided for by the canons. Since the
Council of Trent the rights of the metropoUtan have
been reduced to the following:
(1) He convokes and presides at the provincial council, at which all his suffragans must appear, saving legitimate excuse, and which must be held every three years (Cone. Trid., Sess. XXIV. c. ii, Ue ref.). The same holds for other provincial meetings of bishops.
(2) He retains, in theory, the right of canonical visi- tation of his suffragan dioceses, but on two conditions which make the rignt practically inoperative: he must first finish the visitation of his own diocese, and the visitation must be authorized by the provincial council. In the course of this visitation, the metropolitan, like the bishop, has the right of " procuration ", i. e., he and his retinue must be received and entertained at the expense of the churches visited. Moreover, he can absolve " in foro conscientiie " (ibid., iii).
(3) He is charged with special vigilance over his suf- fragans in the matter of residence; he must denounce to the pope those who have been twice absent for six months each time, without due cause or permission (Cone. Trid. Sess., vi, c. i). And similarly for the pre- scriptions relating to.seminaries (Sess. XXIII, c. xviii).
(4) The metropolitan has no judicial authority over his suffragans, major criminal causes of bishops Ijeing reserved to the Holy See, and minor ones to the prc>- vincial council (Sess. XXIV, c. v.); but he is still the judge of second instance for causes, civil or criminal, adjudicated in the first instance by the officials of his suffragans and appealed to his tribunal. Hence re- sults a certain inequality for matters adjudicated in the first instance in the archdiocese, and to remedy this various concessions have now been provided. But the nomination of two officials by the archbishop, one diocesan, the other metropolitan, with appeal from the one to the other, is not admissible. This practice was used in France under the old regime, but was not general, and even the Gallicans held it to be at variance with canon law (Hericourt, "Les Lois ecclesiastiques de France", E. V, 13). On this prin- ciple the nullity of Napoleon's marriage was decided bv the dioce.san and the metropolitan officials of Paris, 1810 (Schnitzer, "Kathol. Eherecht ", Freiburg, 1898, 660). The metropolitan tribunal may also try as at first instance causes not terminated within two years by a bishop's tribunal (Sess. XXIV, c. xx).
In regard to devolution (q. v.). the metropolitan may nominate the vicar capitular of a vacant diocese, if the chapter has failed to nominate within eight days (Sess. xxiv, c. xvi). In like manner he has the right to fill open lienefices (i. e., those of free collation) which his suffragans have left unfilled after six months; also to canonically institute candidates presented by patrons if the bisliop allows two months to pass with- out instituting.
