Editing Exarchate (section)

{{short description|Territory ruled by an exarch}}
{{cleanup reorganize|date=January 2016}}
An '''exarchate''' is any territorial [[Jurisdiction (area)|jurisdiction]], either secular or [[Ecclesiastical province|ecclesiastical]], whose ruler is called an [[exarch]]. [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] [[Maurice (emperor)|Emperor Maurice]] created the first exarchates in the recently reconquered provinces of the former [[Western Roman Empire|Western Empire]]. The term is still used for naming some of the smaller communities of [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Eastern Rite Catholics]] as well as [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Christians]].