Page "Titular see" Paragraph 9

Prospero Fagnani ( in cap.

Episcopalia, i, De privilegiis ) says that the regular appointment of titular bishops dates back only to the time of the Fifth Lateran Council under Leo X ( Session IX ); cardinals alone were authorized to ask for them for the dioceses.

St. Pius V extended the privilege to the sees in which it was customary to have auxiliary bishops.

Since then the practice became more widespread.

The Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, by its circular letter of 3 March 1882, abolished the expression in partibus infidelium ; the present custom is to join to the name of the see that of the district to which it formerly belonged, e. g. " Johannes Doe, Archiepiscopus Corinthius in Achaiâ ," or else merely to say " titular bishop ".