Obedience

Obedience (Ecclesiastical), in canon law, means the duty by which the various gradations in ecclesiastical organization are held subject, in all things consistent with the law of God or of the Church, to the several superiors placed immediately above them, respectively, in the hierarchical scale. Thus priests and inferior clergy owe canonical obedience to the bishop, and priests are bound thereto by a solemn promise administered at ordination. The bishop primitively took a similar oath to the metropolitan; but by the modern law the jurisdiction of the metropolitan is confined to the occasions of his holding a visitation or presiding in the provincial synod. Bishops, by the present law of the Roman Catholic Church, take an oath of obedience to the pope. This obedience, however, is strictly limited by the canons, and is only held to bind in things consistent with the divine and natural law.

In ecclesiastical history the word obedience has 'a special signification, and is applied to the several parties in the Church who during the great Western schism (q.v.) adhered to the rival popes. Thus we read of the "Roman obedience," which included all who recognized the pope chosen at Rome, and the "Avignon obedience," which meant the supporters of the Avignon pope. So, again, historians speak of "the obedience of Gregory XII," and "the obedience of Benedict XIII," etc.