In the Anglican Communion the official principal is the person entrusted by a bishop with the exercise of judicial authority. The same function is discharged by the chancellor or commissary general of the Consistory Court. The Orthodox Church has no comparable office, since the bishop himself exercises jurisdiction. Nor is there any place for an office of this kind in the jurisdiction of Protestant churches.

In the Roman Catholic Church the officialis, or judicial vicar (vicarius iudicialis), represents the diocesan bishop in ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The 1983 CIC 1419–27 emph…