2. A body of officials disposed organically in ranks and
orders each subordinate to the one above it; a body of
ecclesiastical rulers.
3. A form of government administered in the church by
patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, and, in
an inferior degree, by priests. --Shipley.
4. A rank or order of holy beings.
Standards and gonfalons . . . for distinction serve
Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees. --Milton.