Titular

Titular, tit′ū-lar, adj. existing in name or title only: nominal: having the title without the duties of an office.—n. one who enjoys the bare title of an office, without the actual possession of that office: a person invested with a title in virtue of which he holds a benefice, whether he performs its duties or not.—n. Titular′ity.—adv. Tit′ularly.—adj. Tit′ulary, consisting in, or pertaining to, a title.—n. one having the title of an office whether he performs its duties or not.—Titular bishop, in R.C. usage, a bishop without a diocese, taking his title from a place where there is no longer a bishop's see, as in the countries once conquered by Crusaders in the East—before 1882 called 'bishop in partibus infidelium;' Titular church, one of the parish churches of Rome supplying a title to cardinal-priests; Titular of a church, that from which a church takes its special name—distinguished from a patron, who must be a canonised person or an angel; Titulars of the tithes, laymen invested with church lands after the Reformation in Scotland.