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Catholicos, plural Catholicoi, is a title used for the head of certain churches in some Eastern Christian traditions. The title implies autocephaly and in some cases is borne by the designated head of an autonomous church, in which case the holder might have other titles such as Patriarch. In other cases a catholicos heads a Particular Church and is subject to a patriarch or other church head. The word is a transliteration of the ancient Greek καθολικός, pl. καθολικοί, derived from καθ' ὅλου (''kath'olou'', "generally") from κατά (''kata'', "down") and ὅλος (''holos'', "whole"), meaning "concerning the whole, universal, general"; it originally designated a financial or civil office in the Roman Empire.〔Wigram, p. 91.〕 The name of the Catholic Church is derived from the same linguistic origin. The Church of the East, some Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox churches, and some Eastern Catholic Churches historically use this title;〔The Motu Proprio ''Cleri Sanctitati'' Canon 335〕 for example the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Georgian Orthodox Church. In the Church of the East, the title was given to the church's head, the Patriarch of the Church of the East. While in the Syriac Orthodox Church the Catholicos of the East was given to the Maphrian, historically an office below the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch. == Origin of the title == The earliest ecclesiastical use of the title Catholicos was by the Bishop of Armenia, head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, in the 4th century〔 while still under the Patriarchate of Antioch. Among the Armenians, catholicos was originally a simple title for the principal bishop of the country; he was subordinate to the See of Caesarea in Cappadocia.〔 Sometime later, it was adopted by the bishops of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in Persia, who became the designated heads of the Church of the East. The first claim that the bishop of Selucia-Ctesiphon was superior to the other bishoprics and had (using a later term) ''patriarchal'' rights was made by Patriarch Papa bar Gaggai (or ''Aggai'', c. 317-c. 329). In the 5th century this was claim strengthened and Isaac (or ''Ishaq'', 399-c.410), who organized the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, used the title of ''bishop of Selucia-Ctesiphon, Catholicos and Head over the bishops of all the Orient''. This line of Catholicos founded the Church of the East and the development of the East Syrian Rite. In the beginning of the fourth Century Albania and Georgia (Iberia) were converted to Christianity by Armenian missionaries, and the principal bishop of each of these countries bore the title of catholicos, although neither of them was autocephalous. They followed the Armenians in rejecting the Council of Chalcedon. At the end of the sixth, or beginning of the seventh, century the Georgian catholicos asserted his independence and came back to orthodoxy. Henceforward the Georgian Church underwent the same evolutions as the Greek. In 1783 Georgia abolished the office of its catholicos, and placed itself under the Holy Synod of Russia, to which country it was united politically in 1801. The Albanian catholicos remained loyal to the Armenian Church, with the exception of a brief schism towards the end of the sixth century. Shortly afterwards Albania was assimilated partly with Armenia and partly with Georgia. There is no mention of any catholicos in Albania after the seventh century. It is asserted by some that the head of the Abyssinian Church, the Abuna, also bears the title of catholicos, but, although this name may have been applied to him by analogy, there is, to our knowledge, no authority for asserting that this title is used by the Abyssinian Church itself.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Catholicos」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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