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 door-keepers 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, where he gives a catalogue of the clergy and fixes the number of every order, amounting to above five hundred in the whole, CHAP. III. Of Acolythists. SECT. 1.-Acolythists an Order peculiar to the Latin Church, and never mentioned by any Greek Writers for Four Centuries. NEXT to the subdeacons, the Latin writers commonly put acolythists, which was an order peculiar to the Latin Church; for there was no 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 latter 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 sub Ap. Euseb. lib. vi. c. 43. Notit. Con. c. 42. p. 249. c. 17. p. 526. Justin. Novel. iii. deacons; 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 acolythyst'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. SECT. 3.-The Origination of the Name. Some think they had another office, which was to accompany and attend the bishop whithersoever he went ; and that they were called acolythists upon this account; or, perhaps, because they were obliged to attend at funerals in the company of the Canonica and Ascetriæ, with whom they are joined in one of Justinian's Novels. The original word, 'Akóλs0oç, as Hesychius explains it, signifies a young servant, or an attendant who waits continually upon another: and the name seems to be given them from this. But the inference which a learned person makes from 5 'Con. Carth. iv. 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. Duaren. de Minister. et Benefic. lib. i. c. 14. 3 Justin. Novel. 59. ὁ περὶ τὸ σῶμα. * Hesych. Ακόλεθος, ὁ νεώτερος παῖς, θεράπων, 5 Bp. Fell Not. in Cypr. Ep. vii. hence, that the order of acolythists was first in the Greek Church, because the name is of Greek original, seems not to be so certain; because it can hardly be imagined, that it should be an order of the Greek Church, and yet no writer before Justinian's time make any mention of it. SECT. 4.-Whether Acolythists be the same with the Deputati and Ceroferarii of later Ages. I know, indeed, St. Jerom1 says, "it was a custom in the Oriental Churches to set up lighted tapers when the Gospel was read, as a token and demonstration of their joy;" but he does not so much as once intimate, that they had a peculiar order of acolythists for this purpose; nor does it appear that this was any part of their office in the Latin Church. For that, which the council of Carthage speaks of, is probably no more than lighting the candles at night, when the Church was to meet for their Lucernalis Oratio, or evening prayer. This office of acolythists, as much as the Romanists contend for the apostolical institution of it, is now no longer in being in the Church of Rome, but changed into that of the ceroferarii, or taper-bearers, whose office is only to walk before the deacons, &c. with a lighted taper in their hands: which is so different from the office of the ancient acolythists, that Duarenus cannot but express his wonder, how the one came to be changed into the other, and why their doctors should call him an acolythist of the ancient Church, who is no more than a taper-bearer of the present. Cardinal Bonas carries the reflection a little further, and with some resentment complains, that the inferior orders of the Romish Church bear no resemblance to those of the primitive Church, and that for five hundred years the ancient discipline has been lost. Hieron. cont. Vigilant. tom. ii. p. 123. Per totas Orientis Ecclesias, quandò legendum est Evangelium, accenduntur lumina, &c. 9 Duaren, de Minister. et Benefic. lib. i. c. 14. p. 74. Nescio quomodò tandem factum est, ut hoc munus in Luminariorum curam posteà conversum sit, et Doctores nostri passim Acolythos Ceroferarios interpretentur. 9 Bona, Rer. Liturg. lib. i. c. 35. n. 18. Desierunt quoque minorum Ordinum officia, quæ plerumque à pueris, et hominibus mercede conductis, nullisque ordinibus initiatis exercentur, &c. CHAP. IV. Of Exorcists. SECT. 1.-Exorcists at first no peculiar Order of the Clergy. THERE is nothing more certain, than that in the apostolical age, and the 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 order among them, but given to other Christians also; as many other extraordinary spiritual gifts then were. Origen1 says, "private Christians (that is laymen) did, by their prayers and adjurations, dispossess Devils." And Socrates observes particularly of Gregory Thaumaturgus, "that whilst he was a layman he wrought many miracles, healing the sick, and casting out Devils, by sending letters to the possessed party only." And that this power was common to all orders of Christians, appears further from the challenges of the ancient Apologists, Tertullian, and others, to the Heathens, wherein they undertake, that if they would bring any person possessed with a Devil into open court, before the magistrate, any ordinary Christian should make him confess that he was a Devil and not a God. Minucius* speaks of this power among Christians, but he does not ascribe it to any particular order of men: as neither does Justin Martyr,5 nor Irenæus, nor Cyprian, nor Arnobius, though they frequently speak of such a power in the Church. 'Orig. cont. Cels. lib.vii. p. 334. Ευχῇ καὶ ὁρκώσεσιν ἰδιῶται τὸ τοις τον πράσσεσι, &c. 2 Socrat. lib. iv. c. 27. Aaiòç ŵv πоXà σημεῖα ἐποίησε νοσῶντας θεραπεύων, καὶ δαίμονας δ ̓ ἐπιτολῶν φυγαδεύων. Tertul. Apol. c. 23. Edatur hic aliquis sub Tribunalibus vestris, quem Dæmone agi constet. Jussus à quolibet Christiano loqui Spiritus ille, tam se Dæmonem confitebitur de vero, quam alibi Deum de falso. • Minuc. Octav. p. 83. Ipsos Dæmonas de semetipis confiteri, quoties à nobis tormentis verborum et orationis incendiis de corporibus exiguntur. Apol. i. p. 45. 6 Iren. lib. ii. c. 56 et 57. Arnob. cont. Gent. lib. i. VOL. I. Justin. 'Cypr, ad Donat. 2 M SECT. 2.-Bishops and Presbyters, for the Three First Centuries, the usual Exorcists of the Church. But as this gift was common to all orders of men, so it is reasonable to believe, that it was in a more especial manner conferred upon the bishops and presbyters of the Church, who, when there was any occasion to use any exorcism in the Church, were the ordinary ministers of it. Thus Cardinal Bona' understands that famous passage of Tertullian, where, speaking of a Christian woman, who went to the theatre, and returned possessed with a Devil, he says, "The unclean spirit was rebuked in exorcism for presuming to make such an attempt 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 orders among the clergy in the Church. SECT. 3.-In what Sense every Man his own Exorcist. Some think the order was as old as Tertullian, because Ulpian, the great lawyer, who lived in Tertullian's time, in 3 Cypr. Ep. 1 Bona, Rer. Liturg. lib. i. c. 25. n. 17. 2 Tertul. de Spectae, c. 26. Theatrum adiit, et inde cum Dæmonio rediit. Itaque in Exorcismo cum oneraretur immundus Spiritus, quòd ausus esset Fidelem aggredi: "constanter et justissimè quidem," inquit, "feci, in meo enim inveni." 76. al. 69, ad Magnum, p. 187. Quod hodiè etiam geritur, ut per Exorcistas, voce humanâ et potestate divinâ, flagelletur, et uratur, et torqueatur Diabolus. Firmil. Ep. 75. ap. Cypr. p. 223. Unus de Exorcistis-inspiratus Dei gra tiâ fortiter restitit, et esse illum nequissimum Spiritum, qui prius Sanctus putabatur, ostendit. |