Patriarchal

1. Of or pertaining to a patriarch or to patriarchs; possessed by, or subject to, patriarchs; as, patriarchal authority or jurisdiction; a patriarchal see; a patriarchal church.
2. Characteristic of a patriarch; venerable.
3. (Ethnol.) Having an organization of society and government in which the head of the family exercises authority over all its generations.
Patriarchal cross (Her.),
a cross, the shaft of which is intersected by two transverse beams, the upper one being the smaller. See Illust. (2) of Cross.
Patriarchal dispensation ,
the divine dispensation under which the patriarchs lived before the law given by Moses.