upon a believer: to which the spirit replied, that he had a right to her, because he found her upon his own ground. This exorcism, I say, Bona supposes to be performed by some presbyter of the church, endowed with that miraculous gift. And the like may be said of those exorcists in Cyprian," who cast out devils by a Divine power: and of those also who are mentioned by Firmilian," as persons inspired by Divine grace, to discern evil spirits and detect them: as one of them did a woman of Cappadocia, who pretended to be inspired, and to work miracles, and to baptize, and consecrate the eucharist by Divine direction. These exorcisms were plainly miraculous, and prove nothing more than that some persons had such a gift, who probably were some eminent presbyters of the church: at least, they do not prove that exorcists were as yet become any distinct order among the clergy in the church.

Sect. 3. In what sense every man his own exercist.

Some think the order was as old as Tertullian, because Ulpian, the great lawyer, who lived in Tertullian's time, in one of his books" speaks of exorcising, as a thing used by impostors, by whom probably he means the Christians. Gothofred thinks he means the Jewish exorcists, who were commonly impostors indeed: but admitting that he means Christians, (which is more probable, considering what Lactantius" says of him, that he published a collection of the penal laws that had been made against them,) yet it proves no more than what every one owns, that exorcising was a thing then commonly known and practised among the Christians. Others urge the authority of Tertullian himself in his book de Corona Militis, where yet he is so far from owning any particular order of exorcists, that he rather seems to make every man his own exorcist. For there, among other arguments which he urges to dissuade Christians from the military life under heathen emperors, he makes use of this," that they would be put to guard the idol temples, and then they must defend those devils by night, whom they had put to flight by day by their exorcisms; by which he means their prayers, as Junius rightly understands him. And so in another place, dissuading Christians from selling such things as would contribute toward upholding of idolatry, or the worship of devils, he argues thus; that other

"Cypr. Ep. 76. al. 69. ad Magnum, p. 187. Quod hodie etiam geritur, ut per exorcistas, voce humana et potestate divina, flagelletur, et uratur, et torqueatur diabolus.

Firmil. Ep. 75. ap. Cypr. p. 223. Unus de exorcistisinspiratus Dei gratia fortiter restitit, et esse illum nequissimum spiritum, qui prius sanctus putabatur, ostendit.

Ulpian. lib. 8. de Tribunal. in Digest. lib. 50. Tit. 13. Leg. 1. Si incantavit, si imprecatus est, si (ut vulgari verbo Impostorum utar) exorcisavit.

"Lact. Instit. lib. 5. c. 11.

wise the devils would be their alumni; that is, might be said to be fostered and maintained by them, so long as they furnished out materials to carry on their service: and with what confidence, says he," can any man exorcise his own alumni, those devils, whose service he makes his own house an armoury to maintain? Vicecomes" and Bona,18 by mistake, understand this as spoken of exorcism before baptism, taking the word, alumni, to signify the catechumens of the church: whereas, indeed, it signifies devils in this place, who are so called by Tertullian, in respect of those who contribute to uphold their worship; for such men are a sort of foster-fathers to them. So that this passage, when rightly understood, makes nothing for the antiquity of exorcists, as a peculiar order of the clergy, but only shows in what sense every Christian is to be his own exorcist, viz. by his prayers, resisting the devil, that he may fly from him.

Sect. 4. Exorcists constituted into an order

the third century.

Setting aside then both that extraordinary power of exorcising, which was miraculous, and this ordinary in the latter end of way also, in which every man was his own exorcist; it remains to be inquired, when the order of the exorcists was first settled in the church. And here I take Bona's opinion to be the truest, that it came in upon the withdrawing" of that extraordinary and miraculous power; which probably was by degrees, and not at the same time in all places. Cornelius," who lived in the third century, reckons exorcists among the inferior orders of the church of Rome: yet the author of the Constitutions, who lived after him, says it was no certain order," but God bestowed the gift of exorcising as a free grace upon whom he pleased: and therefore, consonant to that hypothesis, there is no rule among those Constitutions for giving any ordination to exorcists, as being appointed by God only, and not by the church. But the credit of the Constitutions is not to be relied upon in this matter: for it is certain, by this time exorcists were settled as an order in most parts of the Greek church, as well as the Latin; which is evident from the council of Antioch, anno 341, in one of whose canons" leave is given to the chorepiscopi to promote subdeacons, readers, and exorcists; which argues, that those were then all standing orders of the church. After this, exorcists are frequently mentioned among the

inferior orders by the writers of the fourth century, as in the council of Laodicea," Epiphanius," Paulinus, Sulpicius Severus, and the Rescripts of Theodosius," and Gratian in the Theodosian Code, where those emperors grant them the same immunity from civil offices, as they do to the other orders of the clergy.

Sect. 5. Their ordination and office.

Their ordination and office is thus described by the fourth council of Carthage: 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 upon the energumens, whether they be baptized or only catechumens. These forms were certain prayers, together with adjurations in the name of Christ, commanding the unclean spirit to depart out of the possessed person: which may be collected from the words of Paulinus concerning the promotion of St. Felix to this office, where he says," from a reader he arose to that degree, whose office was to adjure evil spirits, and to drive them out by certain holy words. It does not appear that they were ordained to this office by any imposition of hands either in the Greek or Latin church; but yet no one might pretend to exercise it either publicly or privately, in the church or in any house, without the appointment of the bishop, as the council of Laodicea directs; or at least the licence of a chorepiscopus, who, in that case, was authorized by the bishop's deputation.

and vexations, and disturbances of the body, occasioning sometimes frenzy and madness, sometimes epileptic fits, and other violent tossings and contortions; such persons are often upon that account styled xepalópμevo by the Greek, and hyemantes by the Latin writers, that is, tossed as in a winter storm or tempest. Thus the author of the Constitutions in some places styles them simply χειμαζόμε vo, by which that he means the energumens is evident, because in another place he styles them xeμalóμevo vñò rov áλλorpíov," such as were under the commotions and vexations of Satan; and tells us, that prayer was made for them under that character, in the oblation at the altar for all states and conditions of men, that God would deliver them from that violent energy or agitation of the wicked one. And thus most learned men, except Albaspinæus, understand that phrase in the canon of the council of Ancyra," which orders some certain notorious sinners, εἰς τοὺς χειμαζομένους εὔχεσθαι, το pray in loco hyemantium, in that part of the church where the demoniacs stood, which was a place separate from all the rest. And some also think the name, Avdwvičóμevoi, was given to the energumens upon the same account, because it signifies persons agitated by a spirit, as a wave in a tempest. Now these energumens, or demoniacs, or whatever other name they chiefly concerned in were called by, were the persons about whom the exorcists were chiefly concerned. For besides the prayers which were offered for them in all public assemblies, by the deacons and bishops, and the whole congregation, (some forms of which prayers may be seen in the author" of the Constitutions,) the exorcists were obliged to pray over them at other times, when there was no assembly in the church; and to keep them employed in some innocent business, as in sweeping the church and the like, to prevent more violent agitations of Satan, lest idleness should tempt the tempter; and to see them provided of daily food" and sustenance, while they abode in the church, which it seems was the chief place of their residence and habitation.

36

39

Sect. 7. The exorcist

the care of them.

23 Conc. Laodic. c. 24 et 26.
24 Epiphan. Expos. Fid. n. 21.
25 Paulin. Natal. 4. S. Felicis.

26 Sulpic. Vit. S. Martin. c. 5.

27 Cod. Theod. lib. 12. Tit. 1. de Decurion. Leg. 121. 28 Ibid. lib. 16. Tit. 2. de Episc. Leg. 24.

29 Conc. Carth. 4. c. 7. Exorcista quum ordinatur, accipiat de manu episcopi libellum, in quo scripti sunt exorcismi, dicente sibi episcopo: Accipe et commenda memoriæ, et habeto potestatem imponendi manus super energumenum, sive baptizatum, sive catechumenum.

20 Paulin. Natal. 4. Felic. Primis lector servivit in annis, inde gradum cepit, cui munus voce fideli adjurare malos, et sacris pellere verbis.

31 Conc. Laod, c. 26.

Sect. 8.

ess in reference to

This was the exorcist's office in reThe duty of exor ference to the energumens; to which the catechumens. Valesius and Gothofred" add another office, viz. that of exorcising the catechumens before baptism. Which is a matter that will admit of some dispute. For it does not appear always to have been the exorcist's office, save only in one of these two cases: either, first, when a catechumen was also an energumen, which was a case that very often happened: and then he was to be committed to the care of the exorcists, whose office was to exorcise all energumens, whether they were baptized, or only catechumens, as is evident from the canon already alleged, sect. 5, out of the council of Carthage. Or, secondly, it might happen that the exorcist was also made the catechist, and in that case there can be no question but that his office was as well to exorcise as to instruct the catechumens. But then the catechist's office was many times separate from that of the exorcist's: (though some modern writers confound them together:) sometimes a presbyter, or a deacon, or a reader was the catechist: and in that case it seems more probable that the exorcism of the catechumens was performed by the catechist than by the exorcist; and for that reason I shall treat of the office of catechist distinctly in its proper place.

Sect. 1.

en not instituted

CHAPTER V.

OF LECTORS OR READERS.

Ir is the opinion now of most learnThe order of readed men, even in the Romish church, till the 3rd century. that there was no such order as that of readers distinct from others for at least two ages in the primitive church. Bona owns it to be one of the four orders, which he thinks only of ecclesiastical institution. And Cotelerius' says there is no mention made of it before the time of Tertullian, who is the first author that speaks of it as a standing order in the church. For writing against the heretics, he objects to them, that their orders were desultory and inconstant: a man was a deacon among them one day, and a reader the next. Which implies, that it was otherwise in the church,

"Vales. Not. in Euseb. de Martyr. Palæstin. c. 2. Gothofred. Not. in Cod. Th. lib. 16. Tit. 2. Leg. 24. Bona, Rer. Liturg. lib. 1. c. 25. n. 17.

Coteler. Not. in Constitut. Apost. lib. 2. c. 25.

'Tertul. de Præscript. c. 41. Hodie diaconus, qui cras lector.

'Cypr. Ep. 24. al. 29. Fecisse me sciatis lectorem Sa

turum.

Id. Ep. 33. al. 38. Merebatur Aurelius clericæ ordinationis ulteriores gradus-Sed interim placuit ut ab officio

I

and that readers then were as much a settled order as deacons, or any other. Cyprian, who lived not long after Tertullian, frequently speaks of them as an order of the clergy. In one place he says he had made one Saturus a reader; and in another place he mentions one Aurelius, a confessor, whom he had ordained a reader for his singular merits, and constancy in time of persecution: and for the same reason he made Celerinus, another confessor, one of the same order among the clergy. So that it was then reckoned not only a clerical office, but an honourable office, to be a reader in the church, and such a one as a confessor needed not to be ashamed of. Sometimes persons of the greatest dignity were ordained to this office, as Julian is said to have been in the church of Nicomedia' while he professed himself a Christian. SozomenR says expressly, that both he and his brother Gallus were reckoned among the clergy, and read the Scriptures publicly to the people. And there is no writer of that age, but always speaks of readers as a distinct order of the clergy in the church.

Sect. 2.

By whom the Scriptures were read in the church before

that order.

But since the order of readers, though frequently spoken of in the third and fourth ages, are never once the institution of mentioned in the two first, it will be proper to inquire, by whom the Scriptures were read in the church for those two centuries? Mr. Basnage is of opinion that the Christian church at first followed the example of the Jewish church, and in this matter took her model from the synagogue, where, as he observes out of Dr. Lightfoot," the custom was on every sabbath day to have seven readers, first a priest, then a Levite, and after them five Israelites, such as the minister of the congregation (whom they called the bishop or inspector and angel of the church) thought fit to call forth and nominate for that purpose: he thinks it was much after the same manner in the Christian church; the office was not perpetually assigned to any particular man, but chiefly performed by presbyters and deacons, yet so as that any other might do it by the bishop's appointment. But indeed the matter is involved in so great obscurity, that no certain conjecture can be made from the writings of the two first ages, but all that we can argue is from the seeming remains of the ancient customs in the following ages. For since we find that deacons in many churches continued to read the Gospel, even after the lectionis incipiat, &c.

6 Id. Ep. 34. al. 38. Referimus ad vos, Celerinum-clero nostro non humana suffragatione, sed divina dignatione conjunctum, &c.