Sect. 1.

not of apostolical,

cal institution,

proved against Baronius and the council of Trent.

HAVING in the last book discoursed of The inferior orders the superior orders of the clergy in but only ecclesiasti- the primitive church, I come now to treat of those which are commonly called the inferior orders. And here our first inquiry must be concerning the original and number of them. The two great oracles of ↓ the Romish church, Baronius' and the council of Trent, are very dogmatical and positive in their assertions both about their rise and number; that they are precisely five, viz. subdeacons, acolythists, exorcists, readers, and door-keepers; and that they are all of apostolical institution. And herein they are followed not only by Bellarmine,3 and the common writers of that side, but also by Schelstrate,' a person who lived in greater light, and might have 'seen through the mists that were cast before the eyes of others. Cardinal Bona' distinguishes between subdeacons and the rest. He fairly owns, that acolythists, exorcists, readers, and door-keepers are not of apostolical institution, as the modern school-men pretend; but as to subdeacons, he joins with them entirely, and says, that though the Scripture makes no express mention of them, yet their institution must be referred either to Christ, or at least to his apostles. The French writers are not generally so tenacious of this opinion, as having never sworn to receive the decrees of the Triden

'Baron. an. 44. n. 78.

Conc. Trid. Sess. 23. c. 2. It. Catechism. ad Parochos tit. de Sacramento Ordinis, p. 222. 'Bellarm. de Clericis, lib. 1. c. 11. 'Schelstrat. Concil. Antiochen. Restitut. Dissert. 4. c. 17. art. 2. p. 520.

Bona, Rer. Liturg. lib. 1. c. 25. n. 17. Acolythos, exorcistas, lectores, et ostiarios, ab apostolis, vel ab immediatis eorum successoribus institutos, doctores scholastici asserunt, sed non probant.

'Bona, ibid. n. 16. Subdiaconorum licet expressa mentio in sacris literis non reperiatur, eorum tamen institutio vel ad Christum, ut recentiores scholastici existimant, vel ad apostolos referenda est.

tine fathers with an implicit faith; but many of them ingenuously confess the rise of the inferior orders to be owing only to ecclesiastical institution. Morinus' undertakes to prove that there was no such order as that of acolythists, or exorcists, or door-keepers among the Greeks in the age next to the apostles; nor does Schelstrate disprove his arguments, though he makes a show of refuting him. Duarenus" says there were no such orders originally in the first and primitive church. Cotelerius confesses their original is involved wholly in obscurity; that there is no mention made of any of them in Ignatius, or any other ancient writer before Cyprian and Tertullian. And therefore Habertus is clearly of opinion, that it would be more advisable for their church to expunge all the inferior orders out of the number and catalogue of sacraments, and refer them only to ecclesiastical institution, as the ancient divines were used to do. By the ancient divines, he means the school-men, who were generally of this opinion heretofore. For Peter Lombard, who is set at the head of them," declares that the primitive church had no orders below those of presbyters and deacons; nor did the apostle give command about any other, but the church in succeeding ages instituted subdeacons and acolythists herself. And this is the opinion of Aquinas," and Amalarius

Morin. de Ordinat. Exercit. 14. cap. 1.

8 Duaren. de Minister. et Beneficiis Eccl. lib. 1. c. 14. Coteler. Not. in Constitut. Apost. lib. 2. c. 25.

10 Habert. Archieratic. par. 5. observ. 1. p. 48. Consultius meo quidem judicio, ordines hierarchicis inferiores, ipsumque adeo hypodiaconi, et a sacramentorum censu expungere, et ad institutionem duntaxat ecclesiasticam cum anti quis theologis referre.

Lombard. Sent. lib. 4. Dist. 24. p. 318. Hos solos primitiva ecclesia legitur habuisse, et de his solis præceptum apostoli habemus. Subdiaconos vero et acolythos procedente tempore ecclesia sibi constituit.

12

Aquin. Supplement. par. 3. qu. 37. Art. 2. Resp. ad secundum.

Fortunatus," and many others. Schelstrate himself" owns, that it was the opinion of two popes, Urban II. and Innocent III., that the order of subdeacons was not reckoned among the sacred orders of the primitive church: it was indeed an inferior order in the third century, but not dignified with the title of a sacred or superior order till the twelfth age of the church; when, as Menardus informs us out of a MS. book of Petrus Cantor," a writer of that age, it was then but just newly dignified with that character: that is, in an age when bishops and presbyters began to be reckoned but one order, in compliance with an hypothesis peculiar to the Romish church, then the order of subdeacons stepped up to be a superior order; and whereas the primitive church was used to reckon the three superior orders to be those of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, the Romish church now began to speak in a different style, and count the three superior orders, those of priests, deacons, and subdeacons: so that this last became a superior order, which for some ages before had been only an inferior order, and at first was no order at all. For the testimonies alleged by Schelstrate after Bellarmine and Baronius, to prove the inferior orders of apostolical institution, are of no authority or weight in this case. The Epistle under the name of Ignatius ad Antiochenos, and the Constitutions under the name of Clemens Romanus, which are the only authorities pretended in this matter, are now vulgarly known to be none of their genuine writings, but the works of some authors of much later date. So that till some better proofs be given, there will be reason to conclude, that these inferior orders were not of apostolical, but only of ecclesiastical constitution.

Sect. 2. No certain num

And this may be argued further, ber of them in the not only from the silence of the most primitive church. ancient writers, but also from the accounts of those who speak of them presently after their institution. For though the Romish church determines them to be precisely five in number, yet in the ancient church there was no such rule; but some accounts speak of more than five, and others not of so many; which argues that they were not of apostolical institution. The author under the name of Ignatius 16 reckons six without acolythists, viz. subdeacons, readers, singers, door-keepers, copiata, and exorcists. The author of the Constitutions under the name of Clemens Romanus 17 counts but four of these orders, viz. subdeacons,

13 Amalar. de Offic. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 6.

14 Schelstrat. de Concil. Antioch. p. 515.

15 Pet. Cantor, de Verbo Mirifico, ap. Menard. Not. in Sacramental. Gregor. p. 280. De novo institutum est, subdiaconatum esse sacrum ordinem.

16 Ep. ad Antioch. n. 12. 17 Constit. A post. lib. 3. c. 11. 18 Ibid. lib. 8. c. 26. 19 Can. Apost. c. 69. 20 Jerom. de Septem Ordin. Eccl. t. 4. p. 81.

readers, singers, and door-keepers. For he makes no mention of the copiate, or of acolythists: and though he speaks of exorcists, yet he says" expressly it was no church order. The Apostolical Canons, as they are commonly called, name only three, subdeacons, readers, and singers. And though the author under the name of St. Jerom mentions four, yet he brings the copiate or fossari into the account, and makes them the first order of the clergy, leaving out acolythists and exorcists. Epiphanius" makes no mention of acolythists, but instead of them puts in the copiate, and interpreters. Others add the parabolani also; and except Cornelius," there is scarce any other ancient writer, who is so precise to the number of five inferior orders, as now computed in the church of Rome.

Sect. 3. Not instituted in

same time.

The reason of which difference must needs be this, that there was no cer- all churches at the tain rule left originally about any such orders; but every church instituted them for herself, at such times and in such numbers as her own necessities seemed to require. For at first most of the offices of these inferior orders were performed by the deacons, as I have had occasion to show in another place." But as the number of converts increased in large churches, such as that of Rome, which confined herself to the number of seven deacons, the duties of the deacon's office quickly became too great and heavy for them: whereupon a sort of assistants to them were appointed, first in those great churches, under the names of these inferior orders, to take off from the deacons some of the heavy burden that lay upon them. And that is the reason why we meet with the inferior orders in such great and populous churches as Rome and Carthage in the beginning of the third century; whereas in many of the lesser churches all the offices were still performed by deacons, even in the fourth and fifth centuries: which may be concluded from the words of the author under the name" of St. Austin, where speaking of the deacons of Rome, he says, the reason why they did not perform all the inferior services of the church was, that there was a multitude of the lesser clergy under them; whereas otherwise they must have taken care of the altar and its utensils, &c. as it was in other churches at that time. Which seems evidently to imply, that these inferior orders were not taken into all churches when that author made this observation.

21 Epiphan. Expos. Fid. n. 21.

22 Cornel. Ep. ad Fab. ap. Euseb. lib. 6. c. 43.

23 Book II. chap. 20. sect. 15.

24 Aug. Quæst. Vet. et Nov. Test. t. 4. c. 101. Ut autem non omnia ministeria obsequiorum per ordinem agant, multitudo facit clericorum. Nam utique et altare portarent, et vasa ejus, et aquam in manus funderent sacerdoti, sicut videmus per omnes ecclesias.

Sect. 4.

of them in the

prianitive church,

But such churches as admitted

The principal use them, made them subservient to dito be a sort of nurse- Vers good ends and purposes. For ry for the hierarchy. besides that of relieving the deacons in some part of their office, they were also a sort of nursery for the sacred hierarchy, or superior orders of the church. For in those days such churches as had these orders settled in them, commonly chose their superior ministers, bishops, presbyters, and deacons, out of them; and the clergy of these lesser orders were a sort of candidates under trial and probation for the greater. For the church, not having the advantage of Christian academies at that time, took this method to train up fit persons for the ministry, first exercising them in some of the lower offices, that they might be the better disciplined and qualified for the duties of the superior functions. And by this means every bishop knew perfectly both the abilities and morals of all the clergy of his diocese, for they were bred up under his eye, and governed by his care and inspection. In some places they lived all in one house, and ate all at one table: as Possidius" particularly notes of St. Austin's church at Hippo, and Sozomen" of the church of Rinocurura in the confines of Palestine and Egypt, that they had house, and table, and every thing in common. Hence it became a custom in Spain, in the time of the Gothic kings, about the end of the fifth century, for parents to dedicate their children very young to the service of the church; in which case they were taken into the bishop's family, and educated under him by some discreet and grave presbyter, whom the bishop deputed for that purpose, and set over them by the name of, præpositus, et magister disciplinæ, the superintendent, or master of discipline, because his chief business was to inspect their behaviour, and instruct them in the rules and discipline of the church. As we may see in the second and fourth councils" of Toledo, which give directions about this affair.

Possid. Vit. Aug. c. 25. Cum ipso semper clerici, una etiam domo ac mensa, sumptibusque communibus alebantur et vestiebantur.

* Sozom. lib. 6. c. 31. Κοινή δέ ἐστι τοῖς αὐτόθι κληριτοῖς οἴκησις καὶ τράπεζα καὶ τἄλλα πάντα.

Conc. Tolet. 2. c. 1. De his, quos voluntas parentum a primis infantiæ annis in clericatûs officio vel monachali posuit, statuimus-ut in domo ecclesiæ sub episcopali præsentia a præposito sibi debeant erudiri. It. Tolet. 4. c. B. Si qui in clero puberes aut adolescentes existunt, omnes in uno conclavi atrii commorentur, ut in disciplinis ecclesiasticis agant, deputati probatissimo seniore, quem et magistrum disciplinæ et testem vitæ habeant.

2

* Conc. Chalced. c. 7. Τοὺς ἄπαξ ἐν κλήρῳ κατειλεγ

28

sake their station, and return to a mere secular life again at their own pleasure. The council of Chalcedon has a peremptory canon to this purpose: That if any person ordained among the clergy betake himself to any military or civil employment, and does not repent and return to the office he had first chosen for God's sake, he should be anathematized. Which is repeated in the council of Tours," and Tribur, and some others, where it is interpreted so, as to include the inferior orders as well as the superior.

But though they agreed in this, yet in other respects they differed very much from one another. As, 1. In

Sect. 6.

from the superior

How they differed

office, and manner

orders, in name, in

of ordination.

name: the clergy of the superior orders are commonly called the iepμevo, holy" and sacred, as in Socrates and others; whence the name hierarchy is used by the author under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, to signify peculiarly the orders of bishops, presbyters, and deacons; as Hallier, a famous Sorbonne doctor, has abundantly proved against Cellotius the Jesuit, in his learned and elaborate Defence of the Hierarchy of the Church. But on the other hand, the inferior orders in the ancient canons have only the name of insacrati, unconsecrated; as in the council" of Agde, where the insacrati ministri are forbidden to touch the sacred vessels, or to enter into the diaconicon or sanctuary, it is plain there must be meant the inferior orders. 2. Another difference, which gave rise to the former distinction, was the different ceremonies observed in the manner of their ordination. The one were always ordained at the altar; the others not so: the one with the solemn rite of imposition of hands; the other commonly without it. Whence St. Basil" calls the one βαθμός, a degree; but the other, ἀχειροτόνητος væŋρɛσíɑ, an inferior ministry, which had no imposition of hands. 3. The main difference was in the exercise of their office and function. The one were ordained to minister before God as priests, to celebrate his sacraments, expound his word publicly in the church, &c. In which respects the three superior orders of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, are said by Optatus, and others, to have each their

μένους, ὡρίσαμεν, μήτε ἐπὶ στρατείαν, μήτε ἐπὶ ἀξίαν κοσμικὴν ἔρχεσθαι, &c.

29 Si quis clericus, relicto officii sui ordine, laicam voluerit agere vitam, vel se militiæ tradiderit, excommunicationis pœna feriatur.

30 Conc. Triburiens. c. 27.

31 Socrat. lib. 1. c. 10 et 15.

32 Dionys. de Hierar. Eccles. c. 5. n. 2.

Hallier, Defensio Hierarch. Eccles. lib. 1. c. 3. lib. 3. sect. 2. c. 1 et 2.

34 Conc. Agathen. c. 66. Non licet insacratos ministros licentiam habere, in secretarium, quod Græci diaconicon appellant, ingredi, et contingere vasa dominica.

35 Basil. Ep. Canon. c. 51.

share and degree in the Christian priesthood, as has been noted in the former book: but the inferior orders were not appointed to any such ministry, but only to attend the ministers in Divine service, and perform some lower and ordinary offices, which any Christian, by the bishop's appointment, was qualified to perform. What these offices were, shall be showed by a particular account of them in the following chapters.

Sect. 1.

No mention of subdeacons till the thurd century.

CHAPTER II.

OF SUBDEACONS.

THE first notice we have of this order in any ancient writers is in the middle of the third century, when Cyprian and Cornelius lived, who both speak of subdeacons as settled in the church in their time. Cyprian' mentions them at least ten times in his epistles; and Cornelius, in his famous epistle to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, where he gives a catalogue of the clergy then belonging to the church of Rome, reckons seven subdeacons among them. But some think they were not quite so early in the Greek church for Habertus says, no Greek writer speaks of them before Athanasius,' who lived in the fourth century.

performed without

in the Latin church.

imposition of hands original, and, in compliance with that hypothesis, brings in Thomas the apostle giving directions to bishops to ordain them with imposition of hands and prayer,' as he does for all the rest of the inferior orders. But that author is singular in this; for it does not appear to have been the practice of the Greek church, whose customs he chiefly represents: St. Basil, a more credible witness, says of this and all the other inferior orders, that they were dyeротóvητo, ordained without imposition of hands. And for the Latin church it is evident, from a canon of the fourth council of Carthage, where we have the form and manner of their ordination thus expressed: When a subdeacon is ordained,' seeing he has no imposition of hands, let him receive an empty patin and

36 See Book II. chap. 19. sect. 15.

1 Cypr. Ep. 8, 20, 29, 34, 35, 45, 78, 79. ed. Oxon.

2 Ap. Euseb. lib. 6. c. 43. 3 Habert. Archieratic. p. 49. Athan. Ep. ad Solitar. Vit. agent. 5 Constit. Apost. lib. 8. c. 21.

Basil. Ep. Canon. c. 51. 7 Conc. Carth. 4. c. 5. Subdiaconus quum ordinatur, quia manûs impositionem non accipit, patinam de episcopi manu accipiat vacuam, et calicem vacuum. De manu vero archidiaconi, urceolum cum aqua, et mantile, et manutergium.

viz. that it was to fit and prepare the sacred vessels and utensils of the altar, and deliver them to the deacon in time of Divine service. But they were not allowed to minister as deacons at the altar; no, nor so much as to come within the rails of it, to set a patin or cup or the oblations of the people thereon: as appears from a canon of the council of Laodicea, which forbids the inŋpérat, by which is meant subdeacons, to have any place within the diaconicon, or sanctuary, nor to touch the holy vessels, meaning at the communion table. Though this is now their office in the church of Rome; and in that, Bona" owns they differ from those of the ancient church. Another of their offices was, to attend the doors of the church during the communion service. This is mentioned by the council of Laodicea, in a canon" which fixes them to that station. And Valesius thinks Eusebius meant them, when describing the temple of Paulinus, he speaks of some whose office it was θυραυλεῖν καὶ ποδηγεῖν Tovç Elolóvraç, to attend the doors, and conduct those that came in to their proper places. The author of the Constitutions" divides this office between the deacons and subdeacons, ordering the deacons to stand at the men's gate, and the subdeacons at the women's; that no one might go forth, nor the doors be opened in the time of the oblation. Besides these offices in the church, they had another office out of the church, which was to go on the bishop's embassies, with his letters or messages to foreign churches. For in those days, by reason of the persecutions, a bishop did not so much as send a letter to a foreign church but by the hands of one of his clergy. Whence Cyprian" gives such letters the name of literæ clericæ: and the subdeacons were the men that were commonly employed in this office, as appears from every one of those epistles in Cyprian, which speak of subdeacons: particularly in that which he wrote to the clergy of Carthage in

his retirement, where he tells them, that having occasion to write to the church of Rome, and needing some of the clergy to convey his letter by, he was obliged to ordain a new subdeacon for this purpose, because the church could not spare him one at that time, having scarce enough left to perform her own daily services. These were anciently the chief of the subdeacons' offices at their first institution.

Sect. 4.

might not perform.

And great care was taken that they What offices they should not exceed their bounds, or encroach too much upon the deacon's office. They might not take upon them to minister the bread" or the cup to the people at the Lord's table; they might not bid the prayers, or do any part of that service which the deacons did, as they were the Kýpurts or holy criers of the church. This is the meaning of the canon" of the council of Laodicea, which prohibits the subdeacons from wearing an horarium in time of Divine service: which was a habit of deacons, that they made use of as a signal to give notice of the prayers, and other services of the church, to the catechumens, penitents, &c., who were to observe their directions: this habit therefore the subdeacons might not wear, because it was a distinguishing habit of a superior order. And further, to show the same subjection and deference to deacons, as deacons did to presbyters, they are forbidden by another canon 1 of that council to sit in the presence of a deacon without his leave.

Sect. 5.

18

There is but one thing more I shall

The singularity of note concerning this order, which is

the church of Rome

precise number of seven subdeacons,

in keeping to the the singularity of the church of Rome in keeping to the number of seven subdeacons. For in the epistle of Cornelius" which gives us the catalogue of the Romish clergy, we find but seven deacons, and seven subdeacons, though there were forty-four presbyters, and fortytwo acolythists, and of exorcists, readers, and doorkeepers no less than fifty-two. But other churches did not tie themselves to follow this example. For in the great church of Constantinople, and three lesser that belonged to it, there were ninety subdeacons, as may be seen in one of Justinian's Novels,20 where he gives a catalogue of the clergy, and fixes the number of every order, amounting to above five hundred in the whole.

B Cypr. Ep. 24. al. 29. Quoniam oportuit me per clericos scribere; scio autem nostros plurimos absentes esse, paucos vero, qui illic sunt, vix ad ministerium quotidiani operis sufficere: necesse fuit novos aliquos constituere, qui mitterentur: fecisse me autem sciatis lectorem Saturum et hypodiaconum Optatum confessorem.

Conc. Laodic. c. 25. & dɛī væηpéTas äρTov didóvaι, ¿ôè ποτήριον εὐλογεῖν.

* Ibid. c. 22. Η δεῖ ὑπηρέτην ὡράριον φορεῖν, &c. "Conc. Laodic. c. 20. 19 Ap. Euseb. lib. 6. c. 43.

Justin. Novel. 3.

CHAPTER III.

OF ACOLYTHISTS.

Sect 1. Acolythists an order peculiar to the never mentioned by four centuries.

NEXT to the subdeacons the Latin writers commonly put acolythists, which was an order peculiar to the Latin church, and Latin church: for there was no any Greek writer, for such order in the Greek church for above four hundred years; nor is it ever so much as mentioned among the orders of the church by any Greek writer all that time, as Cabassutius' and Schelstrate confess. And though it occurs sometimes in the later Greek rituals, yet Schelstrate says it is there only another name for the order of subdeacons. But in the Latin church these two were distinguished for Cornelius in his catalogue makes a plain difference between them, in saying there were forty-two acolythists, and but seven subdeacons in the church of Rome. Cyprian also speaks of them frequently in his epistles, as distinct from the order of subdeacons; though wherein their offices differed is not very easy to determine from either of those authors.

:

Sect. 2. Their ordination and office.

But in the fourth council of Carthage there is a canon which gives a little light in the matter: for there we have the form of their ordination, and some intimation of their office also. The canon' is to this effect: When any acolythist is ordained, the bishop shall inform him how he is to behave himself in his office and he shall receive a candlestick with a taper in it, from the archdeacon, that he may understand that he is appointed to light the candles of the church. He shall also receive an empty pitcher to furnish wine for the eucharist of the blood of Christ. So that the acolythist's office seems at that time to have consisted chiefly in these two things, lighting the candles of the church, and attending the ministers with wine for the eucharist : the designation to which office needed no imposition of hands, but only the bishop's appointment, as is plain from the words of the canon now cited.

p.

Cabassut. Notit. Concil. c. 42. p. 249.

2 Schelstrat. de Concil. Antiocheno, Dissert. 4. c. 17. 526.

Cypr. Ep. 7, 34, 52, 59, 77, 78, 79. ed. Oxon.

Conc. Carthag. 4. c. 6. Acolythus quum ordinatur, ab episcopo quidem doceatur qualiter in officio suo agere debeat: sed ab archidiacono accipiat ceroferarium cum cereo, ut sciat se ad accendenda ecclesiæ luminaria mancipari. Accipiat et urceolum vacuum ad suggerendum vinum in eucharistiam sanguinis Christi.

5 Duaren. de Minister. et Benefic. lib. 1. c. 14.