The hierarchy of the Catholic Church consists of its bishops and deacons. In the ecclesiological sense of the term, "hierarchy" means the "holy ordering" of the Church, the Body of Christ, so to respect the diversity of gifts and ministries necessary for genuine unity. In canonical and general usage, it refers to those. In the Catholic Church, authority rests chiefly with the bishops, while priests and deacons serve as their assistants, co-workers or helpers. Accordingly, "hierarchy of the Catholic Church" is used to refer to the bishops alone; the special power of the Bishop of Rome derived from Peter the Apostle was not mentioned until Pope Stephen I made this claim. And the term "pope" was still used loosely until the sixth century, being at times assumed by other bishops; the term "hierarchy" became popular only in the sixth century, due to the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius. As of 30 December 2014, the Catholic Church consisted of 2,998 dioceses or equivalent jurisdictions, each overseen by a bishop.

Dioceses are divided into individual communities called parishes, each staffed by one or more priests, deacons, or lay ecclesial ministers. Ordinarily, care of a parish is entrusted to a priest. 22% of all parishes do not have a resident pastor, 3,485 parishes worldwide are entrusted to a deacon or lay ecclesial minister. All clergy, including deacons and bishops, may preach, baptize, witness marriages, conduct funeral liturgies. Only priests and bishops can celebrate the sacraments of the Eucharist, Penance and Anointing of the Sick. Only bishops can administer the sacrament of Holy Orders, by which men are ordained as bishops, priests or deacons; the bishops, who possess the fullness of orders, therefore the fullness of both priesthood and diaconate, are as a body considered the successors of the Apostles and are "constituted Pastors in the Church, to be the teachers of doctrine, the priests of sacred worship and the ministers of governance" and "represent the Church." In the year 2012, there were 5,133 Catholic bishops.

The Pope himself is a bishop and traditionally uses the title "Venerable Brother" when writing formally to another bishop. The typical role of a bishop is to provide pastoral governance for a diocese. Bishops who fulfill this function are known as diocesan ordinaries, because they have what canon law calls ordinary authority for a diocese; these bishops may be known as hierarchs in the Eastern Catholic Churches. Other bishops may be appointed to assist ordinaries or to carry out a function in a broader field of service to the Church, such as appointments as papal nuncios or as officials in the Roman Curia. Bishops of a country or region may form an episcopal conference and meet periodically to discuss current problems. Decisions in certain fields, notably liturgy, fall within the exclusive competence of these conferences; the decisions of the conferences are binding on the individual bishops only if agreed to by at least two-thirds of the membership and confirmed by the Holy See. Bishops are ordained to the episcopate by at least three other bishops, though for validity only one is needed and a mandatum from the Holy See is required.

Ordination to the episcopate is considered the completion of the sacrament of Holy Orders. On the other hand, titles such as archbishop or patriarch imply no ontological alteration, existing bishops who rise to those offices do not require further ordination. Sacramentally, all bishops are equal. According to jurisdiction and privileges, various ranks are distinguished, as indicated below. All bishops are "vicars of Christ"; the pope is the bishop of Rome. He is by virtue of that office: Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the Latin Church, Primate of Italy and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the Vatican City State, Servant of the servants of God. "Pope" is a pronominal honorific, not an office or a title, meaning "Father". The honorific "pope" was from the early 3rd century used for any bishop in the West, is known in Greek as far back as Homer's Odyssey. In the East, "pope" is still a common form of address for clergy in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, is the style of the Bishop of Alexandria.

Pope Marcellinus is the first Bishop of Rome shown in sources to have had the title "pope" used of him. From the 6th century, the imperial chancery of Constantinople reserved this designation for the Bishop of Rome. From the early 6th century, it began to be confined in the West to the Bishop of Rome, a practice, in place by the 11th century, when Pope Gregory VII declared it reserved for the Bishop of Rome; as bishop of the Church of Rome, he is successor to the co-patrons of that local Church, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. As such, the Church of Rome, its bishop, has always had a prominence in the Catholic communion and at least to some degree primacy among his peers, the other bishops, as Peter had a certain primacy among his peers, the other apostles; the exact nature of that primacy is one of the most significant ecumenical issues of the age, has

Tangled Webs is a fantasy novel by Elaine Cunningham, set in the world of the Forgotten Realms, based on the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It is the second novel published in the "Shadows" series, it was published in hardcover in April 1996, ISBN 978-0-7869-0516-4 and in paperback in May 1998, ISBN 978-0-7869-0698-7 with a paperback re-issue in March 2003, ISBN 978-0-7869-2959-7). Tangled Webs follows Fyodor on a sea voyage. Trenton Webb reviewed Tangled Webs for Arcane magazine, he commented that "B-movies aren't just fun because you can spot the wires, invariably predict the cliched plot and see the sets wobble from time to time. They're enjoyable. Tangled Webs shares this sense of tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking, gung-ho fun in a non-stop barrage of hostile situations hung loosely around a sketchy plot. Liriel, the oddest Drow you met and Fyodor, her Beserker boyfriend and hack their way through an overly long sea voyage from Skullport to Ruathym; the obligatory political intrigue is supplied by the conspiracies of the Northern powers of the Forgotten Realms."

He felt that "It's not the destination nor the schemes which are employed that are important though. It's the spirit that makes the book happen - the gut-spilling sword action, flashy spell casting and ensemble of characters pushes Tangled Webs from chapter to chapter with a wanton disregard for anything but having fun; the trip on the grand ship Elfmaid is made not just bearable but quite brilliant by the good Captain Hrolf setting up and solving all kinds of situations with a deft flick of a blade, a knowing glance or an impressive show of sheer bravado. His First Mate supplies sour-faced cynicism, Xorsh the Sea-elf is your off-the-peg innocent. Together they roll across the ocean battling everything from Laskan pirates to vast Water Elementals." Webb added that "With the principals foiling deadly threats at the last second while the supporting cast wander about inadvertently creating yet another world of trouble, each chapter of the book is an exciting adventure in itself. Some of the spells cast or actions taken are less than convincing, but it's pleasantly easy to get carried away with this wild romp."

He continued: "Sadly, the bubbling wave of ever-increasing adventuring energy falters short of the final chapter, which results in the villains it's taken Liriel 300 pages to meet being dispatched in a mere line or two. This is a shame, because the archetypal adventure heroes developed in this book deserve a much bigger showdown, these few lines seem woefully inadequate for the job at hand. What's more, these evil controllers of mighty magic and vast armies fought in the final battle prove less threatening than the ghoul on page four!" Webb concluded his review by saying "Purists are bound to condemn Tangled Webs for Liriel's complete lack of Drowness. DMs trying to run the new Forgotten Realms North campaign may well curse it for giving away too many secrets of this new land. Literature heads will no doubt have a pop at it because it's a Dungeons & Dragons book and not a proper novel, but if, when you're honest, you prefer B-movies to art-house cinema you should give Tangled Webs a shot!"

Mildred Allen was an American physicist. Mildred Allen was born in Sharon, Massachusetts to MIT professor C. Frank Allen and Caroline Hadley Allen, she had Margaret Allen Anderson. Allen graduated from Vassar College in 1916 with Phi Beta Kappa honors, she completed her doctoral studies in physics in 1922 at Clark University with Arthur Gordon Webster, with thesis research done at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During the 1920s and early 1930s, Allen taught at Mount Holyoke and Oberlin Colleges and undertook post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago and at Yale University, she began working with William Francis Gray Swann at Yale and continued work under his direction with the Bartol Research Foundation between 1927 and 1930. She did research at Harvard University before becoming a professor at Mount Holyoke, where she taught until her retirement in 1959. For nearly 20 years, starting in the early 1960s, Allen collaborated with Erwin Saxl, an industrial physicist living in Harvard, Massachusetts, on experiments with a torsion pendulum.

Allen and Saxl reported anomalous changes in the period of a torsion pendulum during a solar eclipse in 1970 and hypothesized that “gravitational theory needs to be modified”. Their measurements, similar anomalies earlier observed by Allais using a paraconical pendulum, have not been accepted by the physics community as in need of unconventional explanation, subsequent experiments have not succeeded in reproducing the results. Interview of Mildred Allen by Katherine Sopka, College Park, MD USA: Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, June 18, 1979 Mildred Allen Papers at Mount Holyoke College Mildred Allen photo dated 1959, Mount Holyoke Digital Collections Online Mildred Allen at the Mathematics Genealogy Project