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Primus inter pares is aLatin phrase meaningfirst among equals.[a] It is typically used as an honorary title for someone who is formally equal to other members of their group but is accorded unofficial respect, traditionally owing to theirseniority in office.[1]
Historically, theprinceps senatus of theRoman Senate was such a figure and initially bore only the distinction that he was allowed to speak first duringdebate. After thefall of the Republic,Roman emperors initially referred to themselves only asprinceps despite having enormous power.
Various modern figures such as theprime minister inparliamentary systems, thepresident of the Swiss Confederation, thechief justice of the United States, thechief justice of the Philippines, thearchbishop of Canterbury of theAnglican Communion, thechair of the Federal Reserve in the United States and theecumenical patriarch of Constantinople of theEastern Orthodox Church fall under both senses: bearing higher status and various additional powers while remaining still merely equal to their peers in important senses.
In thePeople's Republic of China, which was placed under thecollective leadership of thePolitburo Standing Committee the term "first among equals" was often used to describe China'sparamount leader.
The term "prime minister" can be compared to "primary minister" or "first minister". Because of this, the prime ministers of many countries are traditionally considered to be "first among equals" – they are thechairman or "head" of aCabinet rather than holding an office that isde jure superior to that of ministers.[citation needed]
Theprime minister of the United Kingdom has frequently been described as "first among equals". In theUK, the executive is the Cabinet, and duringHanoverian times a minister had the role of informing the monarch about proposed legislation in the House of Commons and other matters. In modern times, however, although the phrase is still occasionally used, it understates thepowers of the prime minister, which now include many broad, exclusive, executive powers over which cabinet members have little influence.[citation needed]
First Among Equals is the title of a popular political novel (1984) byJeffrey Archer, about the careers and private lives of several men vying to become British prime minister. It was later adapted into aten-part TV series, produced byGranada Television.[citation needed]
In the federalCommonwealth realms in whichKing Charles III ishead of state as constitutional monarch, agovernor-general is appointed by theKing-in-Council to represent the King during his absence. The governor-general typically appoints the leader of the political party holding at least a plurality of seats in the elected legislature to beprime minister, whose relationship with the otherministers of the Crown is in theory said to be that of aprimus inter pares, or "first among equals".[citation needed]
InAustralia, thegovernor-general of Australia, is "first among equals" of thegovernors.[2]
Asfederations inCanada,lieutenant-governors represent theCanadian monarch in each of the provinces, thus, acting as the "heads of state" in theprovinces.[citation needed] Lieutenant-governors in Canada are appointed by thegovernor general, on theadvice of theprime minister of Canada, known as theGovernor-in-Council. In each case, these lieutenant-governors are not envisaged as subordinate to the governor general who, as a federal viceroy, is "first among equals".[3] Alieutenant governor asLieutenant-Governor-in-Council appoints a leader of a provincial political party holding at least a plurality of seats in the elected provincial legislature to be provincialpremier.[citation needed]
Starting with theMeiji Constitution of 1885, as part of the "Cabinet System Act", and lasting until the revision of themodern constitution in 1947, theprime minister of Japan was legally considered to be of the same rank as the other ministers who formed theCabinet. During this time, the prime minister was referred to as "同輩中の首席"dōhai-chū no shuseki ("chief among peers").
Theprime minister of the Netherlands (officially, the "minister-president") is thechairman of theCouncil of Ministers and active executive authority of theDutch government and is the first among equals of theCouncil of Ministers.[4]
The phrase "first among equals" is often used to describe the political succession within the rulingPeople's Action Party leadership and future candidate for theprime minister of Singapore.[5][6][7]
InSwitzerland, the seven-memberFederal Council constitutes the executive in the Swissdirectorial system. Each year, theFederal Assembly elects apresident of the Confederation. By convention, the positions of President and Vice President rotate annually, each Councillor thus becoming vice president and then President every seven years while in office.
The president is not the Swisshead of state, but is the highest-ranking Swiss official. The president presides over Council meetings and carries out certain representative functions that, in other countries, are the business of the head of state. In urgent situations where a Council decision cannot be made in time, the president is empowered to act on behalf of the whole Council. Apart from that, though, the president is aprimus inter pares, having no power above and beyond the other six councillors.
The phrase "first among equals" has also been used to describe theChief Justice of the United States.
The Chief Justice has no authority over the decisions of the other Justices, but holds one key administrative power: when the Chief Justice votes with the majority on a decision, they can either author the majority opinion or assign it to another Justice voting with the majority.
InLatin andEastern Catholic Churches, thepope (bishop of Rome) is seen as theVicar of Christ and "first among equals", the successor ofSaint Peter, and leader of the Christian world, in accordance with the rules ofapostolic succession to theapostles. In theCatholic Church, the pope holds the office with supreme authority incanon law over all other bishops.[8]
In the Catholic Church, thedean of the College of Cardinals is the first among equal princes of the Church in the college, which is the pope's highest-ranking council and elects the papal successor, generally from its own ranks.[9]
Various episcopal sees were granted or claim the title ofprimate (usually of a past or present political entity), which grants such aprimas (usually a metropolitan archbishopric, often in a former/present capital) precedence over all other sees in its circumscription, outranking (other) metropolitan sees, but the incumbent primates can be trumped by personal ranks, as they rank below cardinals. More commonly, dioceses are geographically grouped in anecclesiastical province, where only one holds the rank ofmetropolitan archbishop, which outranks his colleagues, who are therefore called hissuffragans, even if these include (fairly rarely) another archbishop.
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The phrase "first among equals" is also used to describe the role of thepatriarch of Constantinople, who, as the "ecumenical patriarch", is the first among all thebishops of theEastern Orthodox Church. He has no direct jurisdiction over the otherpatriarchs or the otherautocephalous Orthodox churches and cannot interfere in the election of bishops in autocephalous churches, but he alone enjoys the right of convening extraordinary synods consisting of them or their delegates to deal with ad hoc situations, and he has also convened well-attended pan-Orthodox Synods in the last forty years. His title is an acknowledgement of his historic significance and of his privilege to serve as primary spokesman for theEastern Orthodox Communion.
Eastern Christians considered the bishop of Rome to be the "first among equals" during the first thousand years of Christianity[10] according to the ancient, first millennial order (or "taxis" in Greek) of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, known as thePentarchy that was established after Constantinople became the eastern capital of the Byzantine Empire.[10][11]
The canons relative to the universal primacy of honor of thepatriarch of Constantinople are the 9th canon of thesynod of Antioch[12][non-primary source needed] and the 28th canon of theCouncil of Chalcedon.[13][14][15][non-primary source needed]
In the LutheranChurch of Sweden, theArchbishop of Uppsala is considered by the church asprimus inter pares.[16][17] As such, the Archbishop of Uppsala has no powers over the other 13 bishops but has some additional administrative and spiritual duties, as specified in theChurch Order of the Church of Sweden.[18] According to the chapter 8 of the Church Order, only the Archbishop of Uppsala can ordain a bishop. The other bishops of the Church of Sweden are peers, not subordinate, to the Archbishop of Uppsala. Among the Archbishop of Uppsala's other duties is the obligation to convene and chair the Episcopal Assembly. Unlike the other bishops, who are elected to office by members of their diocese, the Archbishop of Uppsala is elected by the entire body of the church. There is a peculiar regulation that stipulates that the total votes cast in the archdiocese of Uppsala, when electing an archbishop, "shall be divided by ten, with decimals removed", before being added to the national vote.[18]
In theEvangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, theArchbishop of Turku and Finland serves as theprimus inter pares.[19]
The bishop of theSlovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Serbia is the primus inter pares of that denomination.[20]
According to theAnglican Covenant, thearchbishop of Canterbury is "first among equals" in his or her presidency over theAnglican Communion.[21] The senior bishop of the seven diocesan bishops of theScottish Episcopal Church bears the truncated titleprimus fromprimus inter pares. Leading bishops or primates in other Anglican 'national' churches are often said to beprimus inter pares within their provinces (e.g. Church of Ireland), while the (first) primatial see of Canterbury remains primus among them.
However, on 20 February 2023, theGlobal South Fellowship of Anglican Churches declared the Archbishop of Canterbury had lost its mantle of first among equals due to him accepting theChurch of England's incorporation into theAnglican liturgy ofblessings of same-sex unions.[22][23][24]
The International Anglican-Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, in its 2007 agreed statementGrowing Together in Unity and Mission, "urge[s] Anglicans and Catholics to explore together how the ministry of the Bishop of Rome might be offered and received in order to assist our Communions to grow towards full, ecclesial communion".[25]
TheModerator of the General Assembly in aPresbyterian church is similarly designated as aprimus inter pares. This concept holds also for the Moderators of eachSynod,Presbytery, andKirk Session. As all elders are ordained – some for teaching and some for ruling – none sit in higher status, but all are considered equal behind the one and only head of the church Jesus Christ.[26]
Canon 9. The presiding Bishop in a metropolis must be recognized by the Bishops belonging to each province (or eparchy), and undertake the cure of the entire province, because of the fact that all who have any kind of business to attend to are wont to come from all quarters to the metropolis. Hence it has seemed best to let him have precedence in respect of honor, and to let the rest of the Bishops do nothing extraordinary without him, in accordance with the ancient Canon of the Fathers which has been prevailing, or only those things which are imposed upon the parish of each one of them and upon the territories under it.
Everywhere following the decrees of the Holy Fathers, and aware of the recently recognized Canon of the one hundred and fifty most God-belovedBishops who convened during the reign ofTheodosius the Great of pious memory, who became emperor in the imperial city of Constantinople otherwise known as New Rome; we too decree and vote the same things in regard to the privileges and priorities of the most holy Church of that same Constantinople andNew Rome. And this is in keeping with the fact that the Fathers naturally enough granted the priorities to the throne of Old Rome on account of her being the imperial capital. And motivated by the same object and aim the one hundred and fifty most God-beloved Bishops have accorded the like priorities to the most holy throne of New Rome, with good reason deeming that the city which is the seat of an empire, and of a senate, and is equal to old imperial Rome in respect of other privileges and priorities, should be magnified also as she is in respect of ecclesiastical affairs, as coming next after her, or as being second to her.
