CHAPTER IV.

INFERIOR OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH.

§ 1. OF SUBDEACons.

The vangirai, servants, of the New Testament are the same as the subdeacons of whom mention is so frequently made, both by the early fathers and by later ecclesiastical writers. This appellation was first used by Athanasius, but earlier traces of it occur in the epistles of Cyprian, 8. 20. 29. 34. 35, etc., as a term in use in the Latin church, from whom it was afterwards adopted by the Greek church. The office became common to both the Eastern and Western churches in the fourth century.

The specific duty of the subdeacons was to assist the deacons in their duties. The number of these was so limited that it was quite impracticable for them personally to discharge all the duties of their office. For this reason they were provided with the assistance of the subdeacons. Like the deacons they were usually seven in number. To this number the church of Rome adhered with singular pertinacity. But in order that they might retain their sacred number seven, and still have the aid of a sufficient number of assistants, they created three several orders of these officers, consisting of seven each, and called palatini, stationarii, and regionarii. In the church at Constantinople there were at one time ninety, and at another, seventy subdeacons.

Authorities are not agreed respecting the consecration of the subdeacons. Some affirm that they were, and others that they were not, ordained by the imposition of hands.3 In the East they were uniformly regarded as of a subordinate rank, and classed with the readers. In the West they ranked the first in the lower order of the priesthood, and about the twelfth or thirteenth centuries they were transferred to the superior order. The reason for this promotion was that on the elevation of the episcopal order the three orders might still retain their original number and relative rank. The Eastern church adhered more closely to the original design for which they were appointed.

Before their promotion in the Western church, their duties were the following:-to convey the bishop's letters or messages to foreign churches, and to execute other commissions of the superior ministers; to fit and prepare the sacred vessels of the altar, and to deliver them to the deacon in time of divine service; to attend the door of the church during the communion service, taking care that no one went in or out during the time of oblation; and, perhaps, to conduct those who came into church to their proper places.5

After their promotion in the Western church, they were permitted to assist in celebrating mass. An empty chalice and patine was delivered to them at their ordination; but they were not allowed either to consecrate, or distribute the sacred elements. As it was customary to deliver to the deacons a copy of the gospels, so to the subdeacons was delivered a copy of the epistles also, at their ordination. In a word the strife was to elevate their office as much as possible above that of the reader, and to attach to it all possible honors. Contrary to all the authority of the primitive church, they were often promoted to the highest honors and offices of the priesthood.

2. OF READERS.

These occupied the first rank in the lower order of church officers in the Greek church; in the Roman they were next in rank to the subdeacons. They have been frequently regarded as an order instituted by the apostles, and by them derived from the Jewish synagogue. Compare Luke 4: 16. Acts 13: 15, 27. 2 Cor. 3: 14. And it must be admitted, that reading formed a very important part of public worship. There were also, among the Jews, persons who performed the same duties as the readers in the christian church.1 But the fact that the Scriptures were read by certain individuals, is not proof that these constituted a distinct order. Justin, indeed, distinguishes between the reader and the presiding officer of the church, and yet the former may have been a presbyter or deacon. The deacons were expressly required to read at the communion service, but this is no certain evidence that they may not have been at the same time the ordinary readers in the religious service. For these reasons it is advisable to refer the institution of this order to the third century. They are first mentioned by Tertullian, who complains of the heretics that they confound all rule and order, allowing the

same person to perform alternately the offices of bishop, presbyter, deacon, and reader.2 Cyprian also mentions the ordination of a reader, and remarks that the readers are a subordinate class who are candidates for promotion to the clerical office. Ep. 24. (al. 29).3

The office was at first held in peculiar honor. Cyprian styles the reader the instructor of the audience, intimating thereby both the dignity of the office, and the importance of the reading of the Scriptures as a part of divine worship. The church observed the rules of the synagogue in admitting persons to this office without prescribing to them any specific age. As with the Jews, so with the primitive Christians, lads at an early age, if duly qualified, might serve as their readers. There are instances on record of youth who, even at seven years of age, have been employed in this service; and others at eight, ten, and twelve years of age. Young men of noble birth especially, aspired to this office.4

In the Western church the subdeacons soon sought means to bring the readers under subordination to them, and accordingly this order finally ceased from the church. In the cloisters and chapters, on the contrary, they acquired still increasing consideration, and at a period still later, as they were withdrawn from the service of the church, they were transferred to the professorships of Philosophy and Theology in the universities and other schools of learning.

3. OF ACOLYTHS.

The word azóλovos denotes a servant. The office corresponds to that of the Roman apparitor, or pedellus, bedellus, a beadle. The word is evidently of Greek origin. Hesychius defines it by o veteρος παῖς, θεράπων, ὁ περὶ τὸ σῶμα, a servant, or personal attendant. With this view of the origin of the word, it is remarkable that it was, for four hundred years, an office of the Latin church, and adopted from them by the Greek at a late period. This may have arisen from the fact that the subdeacons in the Greek church have a close analogy with the acolyths in the Latin, and that name was commonly retained. But the term ůzólovos was also familiar in the Greek church, and is explicitly mentioned by Eusebius and others.1 Eusebius relates that an inconceivable number of presbyters, deacons, acolyths and others attended the bishops at the council of Nice.

The acolyths, as their name implies, were the immediate atten

dants and followers of the bishop, especially in public processions, and on festive occasions, and were employed by them in errands of every kind. Their duties in regard to religious worship, as specified by the council of Carthage, were to light the candles, and to bring the wine and water for the eucharist.2

4. OF EXORCISTS.

Our business is merely to speak of the origin and offices of this order in the church. And this we can do by adopting the language of Bingham, who gives the following as the result of his investigations on this subject: 1. That exorcists did not at first constitute any distinct order of the clergy; 2. That bishops and presbyters were in the three first centuries the usual exorcists of the church; 3. That in a certain sense, by prayer and by resisting the devil, every Christian might be his own exorcist; and 4. That exorcists began to be known as a distinct order in the church in the latter part of the third century. The appointment and office of the exorcists is by the fourth council of Carthage, c. 7, described as follows: When an exorcist is ordained, he shall receive at the hands of the bishop a book wherein the forms of exorcising are written, the bishop saying," receive thou these and commit them to memory, and have thou power to lay hands on the energumens, whether they be baptized or only catechumens." This was the uniform mode of ordination, although, after the introduction of infant baptism, the assistance of exorcists in administering this ordinance was either omitted entirely, or greatly changed. Subsequently, the exorcising of demoniacs was either wholly discontinued, or subjected, by explicit decrees of council, to the oversight of presbyters or bishops. "The routine of their duties was prescribed by the bishop according to circumstances of time and place. In some churches in Germany, they had the oversight of the consecrated water, and the vessels in which it was kept. In other churches they reciprocated their duties with the door-keepers, readers, and acolyths of the church, or it was their business to conduct communicants in crowded assemblies to the sacramental table."

[According to the authority of Bingham, "Nothing is more certain than that, in the apostolic age, and that next following, the power of exorcising or casting out devils was a miraculous gift of the Holy Ghost, not confined to the clergy, much less to any single or

der among them, but given to other Christians also, as many other extraordinary gifts then were." For his authorities, see reference.2

Cave's account of this order is as follows: "After the miraculous power of casting out devils began to cease, or at least not to be so common as it was, these possessed persons used to come to the out parts of the church where a person was appointed to exorcise them, i. e. to pray over them in such prayers as were peculiarly composed for such occasions, and this he did in the public name of the whole church, the people also at the same time praying within, by which means the possessed person was delivered from the tyranny of the evil spirit without any of those charms and conjurations and other unchristian forms and rites which by degrees crept into this office, and are at this day in use in the church of Rome."—TR.]

5. OF THE SINGERS, OR PRECENTORS.

The appointment of singers and choristers takes its origin from the importance in which the singing of psalms and hymns was held not only in the temple and synagogue service of the Jews, but in the apostolic and primitive churches. We have the fullest and most satisfactory evidence of the early and universal introduction of this part of religious worship into the christian church,1 Eph. 5: 19, 20, Col. 3: 16, and of the appointment of singers as a distinct class of church officers. It is remarkable that this part of public worship was restricted by the council of Laodicea,3 to a distinct order in the church, styled by them zavovizoì púktai, canonical singers. These went up into the singer's seats and sung from a book. The object of this restriction was to correct abuses and suitably to regulate this part of worship. The subjects of their psalmody were submitted to the control of the bishops or presbyters. But all that related to the performance of the music as an art was left to the singers.

[Bingham asserts, that from the apostolic age, for several centuries, the whole body of the church united in singing, and that these κανονικοὶ ψάλται were only a temporary provision to regulate and restore the singing to some tolerable degree of harmony, and that it continued to be the usage of the church for the whole assembly to join in singing. For this opinion he quotes various authorities. Baumgarten. p. 136, and Siegel, Vol. II. 206, also agree with Bingham in opinion.-TR.]