Commissary
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): (n.) One to whom is committed some charge, duty, or office, by a superior power; a commissioner.
(2): (n.) An officer of the bishop, who exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction in parts of the diocese at a distance from the residence of the bishop.
(3): (n.) An officer having charge of a special service; as, the commissary of musters.
(4): (n.) An officer whose business is to provide food for a body of troops or a military post; - officially called commissary of subsistence.
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [2]
An officer of the bishop, who exercises spiritual jurisdiction in places of a diocese so far from the episcopal see, that the chancellor cannot call the people to the bishop's principal consistory court without great inconvenience.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
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.
