author. St. Austin inscribes one of his epistles " to his own church of Hippo in this manner, Clero, senioribus, et universæ plebi, To the clergy, the elders, and all the people: and in several other places has occasion to mention these seniores in other churches." From whence some have concluded," that these were ruling lay-elders, according to the new model and modern acceptation. Whereas, as the ingenious author of the Humble Remonstrance rightly observes in his reply, those seniores of the primitive church were quite another thing. Some of them were the optimates, the chief men or magistrates of the place, such as we still call aldermen, from the ancient appellation of seniores. These are those which the Cabarsiessitan council of Donatists in St. Austin calls seniores nobilissimi; and one of the councils of Carthage more expressly, magistratus vel seniores locorum, the magistrates or elders of every city; whom the bishops were to take with them to give the Donatists a meeting. In this sense Dr. Hammond 16 observes, from Sir Henry Spelman, and some of our Saxon writings, that anciently our Saxon kings had the same title of elders, aldermanni, presbyteri, and seniores. As in the Saxon translation of the Bible, the word, princes, is commonly rendered, aldermen. And of this sort were some of those seniores ecclesiæ that have been mentioned, whose advice and assistance also, no doubt, the bishops took in many weighty affairs of the church. The other sort, which were more properly called seniores ecclesiastici, were such as were sometimes trusted with the utensils, treasure, and outward affairs of the church; and may be compared to our churchwardens, vestrymen, stewards, who have some care of the affairs of the church, but are not concerned as ruling elders in the government or discipline thereof. Now, lay-elders are a degree above the deacons; but the seniores ecclesiæ were below them which is a further evidence, that they were not lay-elders in the modern acceptation. But of this enough. I now proceed to consider the third order of the clergy in the primitive church, which is that of deacons. Omnes vos episcopi, presbyteri, diacones, seniores, scitis, &c. Ibid. ex Epist. Purpurii: Adhibete conclericos, et seniores plebis, ecclesiasticos viros, et inquirant diligenter, quæ sunt istæ dissensiones. Ibid. Clericis et senioribus Cirthensium in Domino æternam salutem. 1 Aug. Ep. 137. 1 Id. cont. Crescon. lib. 3. c. 29 et 56. Concio 2. in Psal. xxxvi. p. 120. 1 Smectymn. Answer to the Remonstrance, p. 74. Hamon l'Estrange, Defence of the Remonstrance. 14 Aug. Conc. 2. in Psal. xxxvi. p. 120. Con. Carthag. an. 403. in Con. African. c. 58. et in Cod. Can. Eccl. Afr. c. 91. Debere unumquemque nostrum in civitate sua per se convenire Donatistarum præpositos, ant adjungere sibi vicinum collegam, ut pariter eos in sin CHAPTER XX. OF DEACONS. Sect. 1. Deacons always reckoned one of the of the church. THE name diákovo, which is the original word for deacons, is sometimes used in the New Testament for any three sacred orders one that ministers in the service of God: in which large sense we sometimes find bishops and presbyters styled deacons, not only in the New Testament,' but in ecclesiastical writers also." But here we take it in a more strict sense for the name of the third order of the clergy of the primitive church. In treating of which it will be necessary, in the first place, to show the sense of antiquity concerning their original. The council of Trullo advances a very singular notion about this matter, asserting, that the seven deacons spoken of in the Acts, are not to be understood of such as ministered in Divine service or the sacred mysteries, but only of such as served tables and attended the poor. But the whole current of antiquity runs against this: Ignatius styles them expressly, ministers of the mysteries of Christ, adding, that they are not ministers of meats and drinks, but of the church of God. In another place," he speaks of them as ministers of Jesus Christ, and gives them a sort of presidency over the people, together with the bishop and presbyters: Study to do all things, says he, in divine concord, under your bishop presiding in the place of God, and the presbyters in the place of the apostolical senate, and the deacons most dear to me, as those to whom is committed the ministry of Jesus Christ. And in many other places," he requires the people to be subject to them, and reverence them as Jesus Christ, that is, as his ministers attending on his service. Cyprian speaks of them in the same style, calling them' ministers of episcopacy and the church; withal referring their original to that place in the Acts of the Apostles, which the council of Trullo disputes about, at the same time that he asserts they were called ad altaris ministerium, to the ministry and service of the altar. Tertullian was so far from thinking them only minis 9 gulis quibusque civitatibus vel locis, per magistratus vel seniores locorum conveniant. 116 Ham. Dissert. 4. cont. Blondel, c. 19. n. 1. Acts i. 25; 2 Cor. vi. 4; 2 Tim. iv. 5; 1 Cor. iii. 5; Ephes. iii. 7. 2 Athan. cont. Gent. Chrysost. Hom. 1. in Phil. i. 1. 3 Conc. Trull. c. 16. Ἑπτὰ διακόνους μὴ ἐπὶ τῶν τοῖς μυστηρίοις διακονουμένων λαμβάνεσθαι. 5 Ignat. Ep. ad Trall. n. 2. Epist. ad Magnes. n. 6. 6 Epist. ad Polycarp. n. 6. Ep. ad Trall. n. 3. Cypr. Ep. 65. al. 3. ad Rogatian. Diaconos post ascensum Domini in cœlos apostoli sibi constituerunt episcopatus sui et ecclesiæ ministros. Id. Ep. 68. al. 67. ad Pleb. Legion. et Astur. p. 172. 10 ters of meats and drinks, that he joins them with bishops and presbyters in the honourable titles of guides and leaders to the laity, and makes them in their degree pastors and overseers of the flock of Christ. And so St. Jerom, though he sometimes in an angry humour speaks a little contemptuously of them, styling them " ministers of widows and tables; yet in other places" he treats them with greater respect, giving them the same honourable title as Tertullian does, and ranking them among the guides of the people. I showed before, in the last chapter, that Optatus" had so great an opinion of them, as to reckon their office a lower degree of the priesthood. And St. Austin seems to have had the same sentiments; for in one of his epistles" he gives Præsidius the title of consacerdos, his fellow priest, whom yet St. Jerom in the next epistle" calls a deacon. Sect. 2. called priests, but ministers and Levites. 16 Yet here, that I may not seem to Yet not generally impose upon my readers, I must observe, that the name of priests was not generally given to the deacons, by those that esteemed them a sacred order; but they are commonly distinguished from priests by the names of ministers and Levites. Thus St. Jerom 15 distinguishes them from the priests of the second order, that is, from the presbyters, by the title of Levites. The author of the Questions 10 upon the Old and New Testament under the name of St. Austin, and Hilarius Sardus" under the name of St. Ambrose, are more positive and express in denying them the name of priests. And Salvian, though he acknowledges their ministration and function to be about holy things, yet he gives them but the same title of Levites, and that in contradistinction to the priests. And so frequently in the councils, the names sacerdos and Levita, are used as the peculiar distinguishing titles of presbyters and deacons. The fourth council of Carthage 20 speaks more expressly, that deacons are not ordained to the priesthood, but only to the ministering office, or inferior service. And hence the canons sometimes give them the name of unpéra and 19 18 ministri, the ministers and servants, not only of the church, but of the bishops and presbyters, as may be seen in the councils of Nice," and Carthage," and many others. Whence some learned men conclude against Optatus and St. Austin, that deacons were in no sense allowed to be priests: whilst others" with Optatus distinguish the several degrees of the priesthood, and reckon that though deacons were not absolutely called priests, because that was the appropriate title of bishops and presbyters, whose ministers and attendants they were; yet deacons sometimes performed such offices, as did entitle them to a lower degree of the priesthood. Having thus fairly stated and represented the matter on both sides, I must leave the judicious reader to determine for himself which opinion has the strongest reasons, whilst I proceed to give an account of the ordination of deacons, and their several offices, and such laws and rules as concerned their order. The ordination of a deacon differed from that of a presbyter, both in the form and manner of it, and also in the Sect. 2. For this reason the bishop was not tied ance of any presbyters to ordain them to have the assist gifts and powers that were conferred thereby. For in the ordination of a presbyter, as has been noted before, the presbyters who were present, were required to join in the imposition of hands with the bishop. But the ordination of a deacon might be performed by the bishop alone, because, as the council of Carthage" words it, he was ordained not to the priesthood, but to the inferior services of the church. These services are not particularly mentioned in the form of ordination now remaining in the Constitutions; but there the bishop only prays in general, that God would make his face to shine upon that his servant, who was then chosen to the office of a deacon, and fill him with his Holy Spirit and power, as he did Stephen the martyr; that he, behaving himself acceptably, and uniformly, and unblamably in his office, might be thought worthy of a higher degree, &c. What therefore were the particular offices of the deacons, we are to learn not from the forms of the church, but from other writers. in the service of the altar. It belonged to them to take care of the holy table, and all the ornaments and utensils appertaining thereto. The author under the name of St. Austin" takes notice of this as the common office of deacons in all churches, except in such great churches as the church of Rome, where there being a multitude of inferior clergy, this office was devolved on some of them. But in other churches it was the deacon's office, where the inferior clergy, subdeacons, &c. were prohibited by canon to come into the sanctuary, or touch any of the sacred vessels in the time of Divine service, as may be seen in several canons of the ancient councils. Sect. 5. the oblations of the them to the priest, 28 Another part of the deacon's office 2ndly, To receive was, to receive the people's offerings, people, and present and present them to the priest, who and recite the names presented them to God at the altar: of those that offered. after which the deacon repeated the names of those that offered, publicly; and this rehearsal was commonly called, offerre nomina, as may be seen in Cyprian, who speaks of it as part of the communion service of those times; which is also noted by Rigaltius and others; of which custom I shall say more hereafter, when we come to treat of the ancient service of the church. At present I only observe, that this recital of the names of such as made their oblations, was part of the deacon's office, as is evident from St. Jerom, who tells us," that extortioners and oppressors made their oblations out of their ill-gotten goods, that they might glory in their wickedness, while the deacon in the church publicly recites the names of those that offered: Such a one offers so much, such a one hath promised so much: and so they please themselves with the applause of the people, while their conscience secretly lashes and torments them. Some indeed deny that there was any such custom as this public and particular rehearsal of men's names that offered in the church, and by consequence, that this was any part of the deacon's 27 Aug. Quæst. Vet. et Nov. Testament. 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. * Con. Agathens. c. 66. Non oportet in sacratos ministros licentiam habere, in secretarium (quod Græci diaconicon appellant) ingredi et contingere vasa Dominica. Con. Laodic. c. 21. cum Notis Balsamon, et Zonar. in loc. Cypr. Ep. 10. al. 16. p. 37. Ad communicationem admittuntur, et offertur nomen eorum, &c. Rigalt. Not. in Cypr. Ep. 60. Bona, Rer. Liturg. lib, 2. c. 8. n. 7. Hieron. Com. in Ezek. xviii. p. 537. Multos conspicimus qui opprimunt per potentiam, vel furta committunt, ut office but I think St. Jerom's testimony is undeniable proof, and cannot otherwise be expounded, to make any tolerable sense of his words; for which reason I have made this one part of the deacon's office, though contrary to the judgment of some learned men. Sect. 6. 3rdly, To read the churches. Thirdly, In some churches, but not in all, the deacons read the Gospel both Gospel in some in the communion service, and before it also. The author of the Constitutions assigns all other parts of Scripture to the readers, but the Gospel is to be read only by a presbyter or a deacon. St. Jerom intimates that it was part of the deacon's function; and so it is said by the council of Vaison, which authorizes deacons to read the homilies of the ancient fathers in the absence of a presbyter, assigning this reason for it: If the deacons be worthy to read the discourses of Christ in the Gospel, why should they not be thought worthy to read the expositions of the holy fathers? This implies, that in the Western churches it was the ordinary office of the deacons to read the Gospels. But in other churches the custom varied: for, as Sozomen observes, it was customary at Alexandria for the archdeacon only to read the Gospels, in other churches the deacons, in others the priests only, and in some churches on high festivals the bishop himself read, as at Constantinople on Easter-day. In the African churches, in the time of Cyprian, the readers were allowed to read the Gospels as well as other parts of Scripture, as appears from one of Cyprian's epistles, where, speaking of Celerinus the confessor, whom he had ordained a reader, he says, It was fitting he should be advanced to the pulpit" or tribunal of the church, (as they then called the reading desk,) that he might thence read the precepts and Gospels of his Lord, which he himself, like a courageous confessor, had followed and observed. So that we are not to look upon this to have been the deacon's peculiar office, but only in some churches and some ages. Sect. 7. 4thly, To minister the consecrated ele But it was something more appropriate to them to assist the bishop or presbyters in the administration of the ments of bread and eucharist where their business was wine to the people in the eucharist. de multis parva pauperibus tribuant, et in suis sceleribus glorientur, publiceque diaconus in ecclesia recitet offerentium nomina: Tantum offert ille, tantum ille pollicitus est, placentque sibi ad plausum populi, torquente conscientia. 32 Constit. A post. lib. 2. c. 57. Hieron. Ep. 57. ad Sabin. Evangelium Christi quasi diaconus lectitabas. 34 Con. Vasens. 2. c. 2. Si digni sunt diaconi, quæ Christus in evangelio locutus est legere, quare indigni judicentur sanctorum patrum expositiones publice recitare ? 35 Cypr. Ep. 34. al. 39. Quid aliud quam super pulpitum, id est, super tribunal ecclesiæ oportebat imponi, ut loci altioris celsitate subnixus-legat præcepta et evangelia Domini, quæ fortiter ac fideliter sequitur. 38 to distribute the elements to the people that were present, and carry them to those that were absent also, as Justin Martyr" acquaints us in his second Apology. The author of the Constitutions" likewise, describing the manner of the ancient service, divides the whole action between the bishop and the deacon; appointing the bishop to deliver the bread to every communicant singly, saying, The body of Christ: and the deacon in like manner to deliver the cup, saying, The blood of Christ, the cup of life. This the author under the name of St. Austin calls the proper office of the deacon's order. Yet it was not so proper to their order, but that they were to depend upon the will and licence of the bishop and the presbyters, if they were present, as is expressly provided in some of the ancient councils, which forbid the deacon to give the eucharist in the presence of a presbyter, except necessity require, and he have his leave to do it. And therefore it was looked upon as a great absurdity for a presbyter to sit by and receive the sacrament from the hands of a deacon, as was sometimes practised, but the council of Nice 40 made a severe canon against it. So that what was allowed to deacons, was not to consecrate the eucharist, but only to distribute it, and that not to the bishop or presbyters, but only to the people. Yet this action of theirs is sometimes called oblation or offering, as in Cyprian," and the council of Ancyra," which forbids some deacons that were under censure, άρτον ἢ ποτήριον ávapépeiv, to offer either the bread or wine, as deacons otherwise were allowed to do. Sect. 8. But not allowed to Some learned persons," I know, put consecrate them at a different sense upon the words of the altar. this council: they understand by offering, consecration, and thence conclude, that deacons anciently were invested with the ordinary power of consecrating the eucharist in the absence of the presbyters. But this is more than can fairly be deduced from the words, which are capable of two more reasonable constructions: either they may signify the deacon's offering the people's oblations to the priest, which was a part of their office, as I showed before: and so Petavius" and Habertus understand them: or else they may be interpreted by Cyprian's words, who expresses himself more fully, calling it offering the consecrated bread and wine to the people; which seems to be the most natural sense, and is preferred to all others by some late learned writers." Whatever it be, there is no reason to believe it means that deacons were allowed the ordinary power of consecration. For the council of Nice, which was not long after the council of Ancyra, says expressly," that deacons had not power to offer; that is, in the sense in which offering signifies consecration; for in that sense it was the proper office of presbyters. Some deacons, indeed, did, about this time, take upon them thus to offer, but the council of Arles, which was held in the same year with that of Ancyra, reckons it a presumption and transgression of their rule, and therefore made a new canon to restrain them." St. Hilary is a good witness of the practice of the church in his own time, and he assures us there could be no sacrifice, or consecration of the eucharist, without a presbyter." And St. Jerom says the same," that presbyters were the only persons whose prayers consecrated bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. For which reason, speaking of one Hilary, a deacon, he says, he could not consecrate the eucharist," because he was only a deacon. The reason of this was, because the holy eucharist was looked upon as the prime Christian sacrifice, and one of the highest offices of the Christian priesthood: and deacons being generally reckoned no priests, or but in the lowest degree, they were therefore forbidden to offer or consecrate this sacrifice at the altar. This reason is assigned by the author of the Constitutions," and the author under the name of St. Austin, and several others. But there is a passage in St. Ambrose, which seems to intimate, that in the third century the deacons at Rome had power to consecrate the eucharist; for speaking of Laurentius the deacon, he brings him in thus addressing himself to Sixtus, his bishop, as he was going to his martyrdom: Whither go you, holy priest, without your deacon ? You did not use to offer sacrifice without your minister. Why are you then now displeased with me? Why may I not be partner with you in shed 46 Con. Nic. c. 18. Τοὺς ἐξουσίαν μὴ ἔχοντας προσφέ ρειν, &c. 47 Con. Arelat. 1. c. 15. De diaconibus, quos cognovimus multis locis offerre, placuit minime fieri debere. 48 Hilar. Fragm. p. 129. Sacrificii opus sine presbytero esse non potuit. 49 Hieron. Ep. 85. ad Evagr. Quid patitur mensarum et viduarum minister, ut supra eos tumidus se efferat, ad quorum preces Christi corpus et sanguis conficitur ? 50 Id. Dial. cont. Lucif. p. 145. Hilarius cum diaconus de ecclesia recesserit, solusque ut putat turba sit mundi: neque eucharistiam conficere potest, episcopos et presbyteros non habens, &c. 51 Constit. Apost. lib. 8. c. 28. Aug. Quæst. Vet. et Nov. Test. qu. 46. 53 ding my blood, who was used to consecrate the blood of Christ by your commission, and be your partner in consummating the holy mysteries? Baronius was so perplexed with this difficulty, that he resolves it to be a corruption of the text, and that instead of consecrationem, it should be read dispensationem: and some shameless editors have, without any grounds, made bold to foist this correction into the text; which Bona" and Habertus ingenuously condemn, as done against the authority of all the MSS., as well as former editions, and that without any reason for it from the difficulty of the expression. For the word, consecration, in this place, does not signify the sacramental consecration of the elements by prayer at the altar, which was performed by the bishop himself, as appears evidently from the context, where it is said, the bishop was never used to offer sacrifice without his minister or deacon: therefore the consecration, which was committed to the deacon, must be of another sort; for he could not offer, or consecrate the elements on the altar, in the bishop's presence, and at the same time that the bishop himself consecrated, but he might assist him, or bear a part with him, as it is there worded, in consummating the holy mysteries, that is, in giving the cup with the usual form of words to the people; which, in the language of those times, was called a ministerial consecration, or consummation of the sacrament, forasmuch as the receivers were hereby consecrated with the blood of Christ, and also consummated or made perfect partakers of the sacrament in both kinds, having received the bread from the hands of the bishop, and the cup from the hands of the deacon. This is plainly the consecration here spoken of, which refers only to the deacon's ministering of the cup to the people, which was their usual office, and so cannot be made an argument, as Hospinian and Grotius" would have it, that deacons were allowed to consecrate the eucharist at the altar. tize, nor offer; and Epiphanius" affirms universally, that the deacons were not intrusted with the sole administration of any sacrament; yet it appears from other writers that they had this power, at least in some places, ordinarily conferred upon them. Tertullian invests them with the same right as presbyters, that is, to baptize by the bishop's leave. And St. Jerom59 entitles them to the very same privilege. The council of Eliberis" as plainly asserts this right, when it says, If a deacon, that takes care of a people without either bishop or presbyter, baptizes any, the bishop shall consummate them by his benediction. This plainly supposes, that deacons had the ordinary right of baptizing in such churches over which they presided. So when Cyril" directs his catechumens, how they should behave themselves at the time of baptism, when they came either before a bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, in city or in village; this may be presumed a fair intimation, that then deacons were ordinarily allowed to minister baptism in country places. I speak only now of their ordinary power. For as to extraordinary cases, not only deacons, but the inferior clergy, and laymen also, were admitted to baptize in the primitive church, as will be showed in its proper place. Sect. 10. 6. Deacons to bid prayer in the con Another office of the deacons was, to be a sort of monitors and directors to the people in the exercise of their gregation. public devotions in the church. To which purpose they were wont to use certain known forms of words, to give notice when each part of the service began, and to excite the people to join attentively therein; also to give notice to the catechumens, penitents, energumens, when to come up and make their prayers, and when to depart; and in several prayers they repeated the words before them, to teach them what they were to pray for. All this was called by the general name of ηpúrrεv, among the Greeks, and prædicare, among the Latins; which does not ordinarily signify preaching, as some mistake it, but performing the office of a Kýpuž, or præco, in the assembly: whence Synesius 2 and some others call the deacons, ispoкýρUKES, the holy criers of the church, as those that gave notice to the congregation how all things were re |