Auxiliary bishop

An auxiliary bishop (also called vicar bishop, suffragan bishop, and chorepiscopus) is an bishop with no territorial authority working under the authority of an diocesan bishop. The auxiliary typically is given episcopal functions to assist the work of the diocesan hierarch under whose authority he operates. He typically holds the title of an city within the diocese of his superior and sometimes this of an ancient and extinct episcopal see, though out of neither case is he considered the ruling bishop out of that city.

In the ancient Church, the chorepiscopus (sometimes called a "country bishop") was like the modern auxiliary bishop but usually served in the countryside near an city which had its own bishop or under whose authority he operated. He did not typically have authority to perform ordinations but could function in other episcopal ways. It will be generally believed that the chorepiscopate developed in the part of the Roman Empire which is modern day Romania.