Superintendents were created in Sweden after the Protestant Reformation. The office was similar to that of bishop, but instead of being ordained by the archbishop, the superintendent was appointed by the Crown. This new model of ecclesiastical polity was partly political, as the Roman Catholic bishops before the Reformation held considerable political power and often used it against the king. Superintendents' loyalty was supposed to lie with the head of the new Church of Sweden, the monarch. Some Lutheran theologians also considered the term less Catholic and therefore preferable to 'bishop'. In Sweden proper, the following dioceses have been governed by a superintendent:
The Church of Sweden's organisation in the Baltic provinces were created by similar provisions. Livonia came under a superintendent in 1622 and a superintendent-general from 1678. Superintendents were also appointed to Ingria in 1641 and to Saaremaa in 1650; a superintendent was also appointed to Estonia for a shorter period, probably 1622-1638, as well as to Riga and Reval.
German-speaking Europe
In 1652 the general government of Swedish Bremen-Verden introduced a Consistory, led by a General Superintendent, for this German territory of Imperial immediacy. In 1535 the Estates of the Land of Hadeln introduced a consistory, led by a General Superintendent. The Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover used to maintain several consistories until 1922, each led by a General Superintendent. In the Electorate of Brandenburg the title General Superintendent was used until 1632. In the years since 1817 during the constitutional reforms of the Evangelical Church in Prussia, including the then March of Brandenburg provincial subsection, the title General Superintendent was reintroduced in 1828, with each general superintendency supervising a number of deaneries. The title superintendent referred to the head of a deanery. In the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia, a successor church body of the former, the term Superintendent refers to the head of a deanery. The term General Superintendent refers to the each head of one of the three regions, each comprising several deaneries.
Slovenia
From 1561 to 1564 Primož Trubar was superintendent of Slovenian Protestant church in Ljubljana.
Methodist usage
The term "Superintendent" is used for several varying positions in Methodism worldwide. In the American sense, specifically within the United Methodist Church, the title is used not to refer to a minister who is equivalent to a bishop but to the supervisor of a district, which is a regional subdivision below an episocopal area. According to the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, In the British Methodist Church and its offshoots, a Superintendent is a minister who serves in a supervisory position over a Methodist Circuit. The term Superintendent evolved in Britain before the death of Methodist founder John Wesley and was a description of the responsibilities of some of his Assistants.
Presbyterian usage
The Hungarian Reformed Church has bishops which continue to this day unlike in Scotland where the positions were more like roles rather than offices of the church and were historically discontinued. The Church of Scotland's First Book of Discipline of 1560 provided for Scotland to be divided into ten dioceses with superintendents. They were: -
