In partibus infidelium

In partibus infidelium (Lat., 'in the regions of the unbelievers'). Titular bishops in the Church of Rome were from the 13th century until the pontificate of Leo XIII. styled bishops in partibus infidelium. They were originally bishops who had no diocese, and took their titles from places where there was no longer a bishop's see. The usage originated after the Greek schism, and became general in the time of the Crusades. The places conquered by the crusaders in the East were furnished with Roman Catholic bishops; but when these conquests were again lost the popes continued to appoint and consecrate the bishops as a continual protest against the power which had prevailed over their alleged right, and to signify their hope of restitution. But in Britain, the assumption of territorial titles being illegal and dangerous, the Roman Catholic bishops actu- ally resident long bore titles derived from such distant places. In 1850 their assumption of titles from their actual sees gave prodigious offence in England, and led to the passing of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill (q.v.), which, however, remained a dead letter, and was repealed in 1871.