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Thomassin says that it was not only an order and office, but a benefice in the church for twelve centuries. It was so at Rome certainly, where, as we learn from S. Jerome, the seven deacons had larger revenues than the presbyters. Pope Cælestinus in the twelfth century, had been deacon of Rome for sixtyfive years, before he was made bishop". Gregory the Great desired one cardinal presbyter and two deacons to be ordained in the church at Populonia. Paschal II. in giving directions to the bishop of Compostella for the regulation of his church, after A. D. 1000, desires him to ordain cardinal presbyters and deacons. The council of Saumur, 1253, desired that deacons who refused to be ordained priests, should be deprived of sacerdotal prebends, thereby intimating that there were prebends for deacons also. The only benefice however originally instituted for deacons, which still remains generally in the western churches, is that of archdeacon; but this can now be only held by presbyters, in consequence of the jurisdiction attached to it, though even so late as the fifteenth century in England, the archdeacons were often only in deacon's orders *.

It appears to me very probable, that in the west, deacons were often not ordained in the lesser churches. In England, at least, we find but few traces of the order as a distinct office in parish churches. The council of Cloveshoe (747) makes many regulations as to presbyters, "who were placed by the bishops throughout the places and regions of the laity;" but

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deacons are not mentioned'. The constitutions of Odo, archbishop of Canterbury for his diocese (943) only contain chapters on the duty of presbyters and clerks, not of deacons ". Hence it seems probable that even then, it was not common to ordain deacons in the lesser churches, but clerks of the minor orders, as was long afterwards the custom ".

The order of deacons however was always retained in the western churches, according to the ancient canons, which prescribed it as a necessary qualification for the superior orders. These deacons either exercised their office of deacon in the churches to which they were ordained, or were taken by the parochial presbyters (called in the middle ages Rector curatus, Vicarius perpetuus, or Parochus), as their assistants. It appears from the annotations of John de Athon on the constitutions of cardinal Otho, that even in 1290 the temporary vicars, or (as we now call them) stipendiary curates, in England, were sometimes only in deacon's orders. In the fifteenth century, we learn from Lyndwood, that the curates or rectors themselves were sometimes only in deacon's orders, and that deacons thus beneficed might preach P.

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Van Espen says, that in the Roman churches, as far as concerns deacons, the modern discipline has so declined, that scarcely any office is left to the deacons except the ministry of the altar. And even in this, the ministry of the deacons is often (especially in cathedral and collegiate churches) supplied by presbyters: so that at

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last it has come to this, that deacons are not ordained to discharge the duties of deacons, but to ascend by the diaconate as a step to the presbyterate. Whence also no one is ordained deacon in order that he may continue in that office, but in order that he may be promoted to the presbyterate, when the canonical interval of time has elapsed. Whether this be entirely conformable to the will and intention of the church, let the bishops consider."

The duties ascribed to deacons by our churches, are first, assisting the priest in divine service, especially in the communion, and distributing the eucharist; secondly, reading scripture and homilies in the church; thirdly, catechizing; fourthly, baptizing in the priest's absence; fifthly, preaching, if he be licensed by the bishop; sixthly, offices of charity towards the poor, &c." These were exactly the duties of the deacon in the primitive church. It does not seem, either by the forms of ordination or by the ritual, that the church formally invests deacons with the power of celebrating divine service without a presbyter; or performing the rites of marriage, benediction of women after childbirth, visitation of the sick, or burial of the dead. Nor does she give them cure of souls or jurisdiction. It appears to me, that the occasional exercise of such functions by deacons, is rather by the tacit license and dispensation of the church than by any actual law. It cannot be the intention of the church that parishes should ever be left to the care of deacons, except in cases of absolute necessity; because they are not qualified to administer the sacrament of the holy eucharist, and other high offices of the ministry.

Van Espen, Jus Canonicum,

Ordination of Deacons.

t. i. p. 5, 6.

APPENDIX.

ON THE MINOR ORDERS.

The minor clergy of the church were generally set apart for offices which might have been discharged by deacons, or by laymen. We may therefore speak of them here. The churches which follow the Roman rite reckon four minor orders, besides subdeacons who have latterly been considered as one of the sacred orders, viz. readers, acolytes, exorcists, and ostiarii. The Greeks account as minor orders, subdeacons, readers, singers, and ostiarii, or doorkeepers. It is needless to detail the particular duties of these orders, which may be seen in the works of various writers *. These ancient orders of ecclesiastical institution, came at length in many churches to be conferred as merely introductory to the sacred orders of deacon and presbyter, while their duties were discharged by laymen. In the seventh century the readers and singers in the Armenian churches were laymen: in the eighth century the readers, and in the twelfth the ostiarii and exorcists were laymen in the Greek church. Before the year 1300, the four junior orders of acolyte, exorcist, reader, and ostiarius, began to be conferred together in the western churches. Not long after, it became customary to release the clerks thus ordained from the necessity of performing the duties of their orders, which were confided to lay-clerks. The councils of Cologne and Trent in vain endeavoured to alter this custom; and laymen continue generally to fulfil the offices of the

Field, Of the Church, book v. c. 25; Bingham, Antiquities, book iii; Thomassin. Vet. Nov.

Eccl. Discipl. pars i. lib. ii. c. 30, &c.

present

ancient orders in the Roman churches to the day. In England the same custom has prevailed, and the minor orders having become merely titular, were disused in the reformation of our churches. It may be observed, that all the inferior orders in the western churches wore the surplice in church, except subdeacons, who during the eucharist used the alb and tunicle.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE MINISTER OF ORDINATION.

THE question concerning the proper minister of ordination has been much debated between the church and different sects the Independents maintaining that popular election is the only essential; or that it supersedes the necessity of any other ordination: the Presbyterians asserting that presbyters of the second order are the proper ministers of ordination: and the church holding that her chief ministers alone are empowered by divine right, at least in ordinary cases, to ordain. I say, "in ordinary cases," because several theologians of the church in different ages have been of opinion, that in extraordinary cases, or by commission of the church, even presbyters might ordain. Several of the schoolmen held that a mere presbyter might confer every order except the episcopate, by commission from the church. Vasquez inclines to this opinion. Morinus" refers to many of the schoolmen and, others in

t Thomassin. ut supra.

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b Morinus de Ordin. par. iii. exerc. iv. c. 3, 4.

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