primate, in Christianity, an ecclesiastical title for a bishop in some churches who has precedence over a number of other bishops. In the early church, it was one of several titles, including metropolitan, exarch, and patriarch, used to designate a chief bishop who had certain rights of superintendence over an entire district or area. Through gradual development it became primarily an honorary office.
In the modern Roman Catholic church, primates are those metropolitan archbishops whose sees, by reason of antiquity or prominence, are the primary sees of a region or nation. Apart from the special case of the pope, who has among his titles that of primate of Italy, primates generally do not possess any jurisdiction outside their own dioceses, but only a limited and honorary right to precedence.
In the Church of England, the archbishop of York is primate of England, whereas the archbishop of Canterbury is primate of the entire Anglican Communion.