superintendent

Superintendent is the title given to a person who is a leader of a Christian denomination at the regional or national level in some Protestant denominations. Lutheran usage This title has been used in Lutheranism since 1527 for pastors leading a denomination at the regional level. The office was similar to that of bishop, but instead of being ordained by the archbishop, the superintendent was appointed by the Crown. This new model of ecclesiastical polity was partly political, as the Roman Catholic bishops before the Reformation held considerable political power and often used it against the king. Superintendents' loyalty was supposed to lie with the head of the church, the monarch. Some Lutheran theologians also considered the term less Catholic and therefore preferable to 'bishop'. Presbyterian usage The Presbyterian Church of Scotland's First Book of Discipline of 1560 provided for Scotland to be divided into ten dioceses with superintendents. Methodist usage