Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DI'O-CESE, n. [Gr. διοκησις, administration, a province or jurisdiction; δια and οικησις, residence; οικεω, to dwell; οικος, a house. Diocess is a very erroneous orthography.]

The circuit or extent of a bishop's jurisdiction; an ecclesiastical division of a kingdom or state, subject to the authority of a bishop. In England there are two provinces or circuits of archbishop's jurisdiction, Canterbury and York. The province of Canterbury contains twenty-one dioceses, and that of York three, besides the Isle of Man. Every diocese is divided into archdeaconries, of which there are sixty; and each archdeaconry, into rural deaneries; and every deanery, into parishes. – Blackstone. A diocese was originally a division of the Roman empire for the purpose of civil government, a prefecture. But the term, is now exclusively appropriated to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. – Encyc.