A cathedral is a church that contains the cathedra (Latin for 'seat') of a bishop,[1] thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate.[2] Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches.[2] Church buildings embodying the functions of a cathedral first appeared in Italy, Gaul, Spain, and North Africa in the 4th century, but cathedrals did not become universal within the Western Catholic Church until the 12th century, by which time they had developed architectural forms, institutional structures, and legal identities distinct from parish churches, monastic churches, and episcopal residences. The cathedral is more important in the hierarchy than the church because it is from the cathedral that the bishop governs the area under his or her administrative authority.[3][4][5]
Following the Protestant Reformation, the Christian church in several parts of Western Europe, such as Scotland, the Netherlands, certain Swiss Cantons and parts of Germany, adopted a presbyterian polity that did away with bishops altogether. Where ancient cathedral buildings in these lands are still in use for congregational worship, they generally retain the title and dignity of "cathedral", maintaining and developing distinct cathedral functions, but void of hierarchical supremacy. From the 16th century onwards, but especially since the 19th century, churches originating in Western Europe have undertaken vigorous programmes of missionary activity, leading to the founding of large numbers of new dioceses with associated cathedral establishments of varying forms in Asia, Africa, Australasia, Oceania and the Americas. In addition, both the Catholic Church and Orthodox churches have formed new dioceses within formerly Protestant lands for converts and migrant co-religionists. Consequently, it is not uncommon to find Christians in a single city being served by three or more cathedrals of differing denominations.
The word cathedral is derived, possibly via the French cathédrale, from the Latin ecclesia cathedralis and from the Latin cathedra ('seat'), and ultimately from the Ancient Greek καθέδρα (kathédra), 'seat, bench', from κατά (kata) 'down' and ἕδρα (hedra) 'seat, base, chair'.
The word refers to the presence and prominence of the bishop's or archbishop's chair or throne, raised above both clergy and laity, and originally located facing the congregation from behind the high altar. In the ancient world, the chair, on a raised dais, was the distinctive mark of a teacher or rhetor and thus symbolises the bishop's role as teacher. A raised throne within a basilican hall was also definitive for a Late Antique presiding magistrate; and so the cathedra also symbolises the bishop's role in governing his diocese.
The word cathedral, as the seat of a bishop, is found in most languages; however in Europe a cathedral church can be referred to as a duomo (in Italian) or Dom (e.g. German, Dutch, etc.), from the Latin term domus ecclesiae(house of the church) or domus episcopalis (episcopal house). While the terms are not synonymous (a duomo is a collegiate church, similar to the English "Minster") many cathedral churches are also collegiate churches, so that duomo, and Dom, have become the common names for a cathedral in those countries. It is also common in parts of the Iberian peninsula to use Sé (in Portuguese), and Seu (in Catalan, with its Spanish form Seo), all of them from the Latin term episcopalis sedes, meaning "episcopal seat".