DEA 
other, Soon after the apoftolic age, (or perhaps fooner,) 
though we have no direct orion concerning it, the 
ai 3 e inferi 
in almo 
hunches, where the three orders of bifhop, prefbyter, and 
deacon are found, the laft-mentioned has no fort of charge 
in that particular, which was at firft his whole charge, and 
which alone gave occafion for the inftitution of the office; 
infomuch that we cannot fay the modern deacon is in med 
refpe& the fame with the apoftolic deacon, u it be i 
he name. Properly the original charge of fe pe erie 
of which we are informed in As vi. 1,- is abolifhed, 
though the name be retained, and applied to an office to- 
tally diftin&. At pre ent the overfight of the poor be- 
longs, in England, the church- a in who are an- 
nually eleGed in pan parifh by the veftry. he deacons 
ave no concern in it. In other ea. other methods 
are adopted. 
By the ancient canons, marriage was not incompatible 
with the ftate and miniftry of a deacon; but it is now a 
long time that the Romifh church has prohibited their mar- 
rying i and the Pere ony & grants them difpenfations 7 
ery caufes d, after this difpenfation, they lo 
the rank and pac of their order, and return to a - 
ftate. 
At Rome, gl pope Sylvefter, they ie only one - 
con; then feven were appointed; then fourteen; an 
“daft, eighteen ; aie were called cardinal seaceee, to difin. 
temporalities of 
the churc h, to look to the rents and charities, and provide 
for the necetities of the ecclefiaftics, and even of the pope. 
The collecting of the » alms, to the 
fubdeacons; the deacons were the depofitaries and diftribu 
ving thus the manageme reve of the 
church in their hands, their rues apace, as the 
riches of the church increafed. h Dore as being 
minifters of the jae church, preceded “all others, and even 
Doubtlefs, 
nated 
ste Hi eh behaved them- 
e&. They were not al- 
are were thence den 
- They i a care fee. the peo 
felves with due eceaeg and r 
eT hefe fubdeacons a 
are mentioned both by Cyprian, aa 
24.) and Cornelius, (apu e 
; refbyters w 
pe l. vi. c. 43.) 
i 
€ prcf- 
byters, apie King, (Conft. &c. of the Primitive ‘Chive ch, 
p. 81 ere of the {ame order with the bifhop, (fee 
Bisnor) fo probably the fubdeacons were of the fame 
order with the deacons, which we may infer from the origin 
and rife of thefe fubdeacons, which might be this, that 
pe 
3 
Q 
S 
o 
a 
f 
came fo great and numerous, that this lim ited amber of 
eacons was not fufftcient to difcharge their neceflary minif- 
trations, that they might rot fcem to deviate from the apof- 
tolical example, they added affiftants to the deacons, whom 
they called fubdeacous or underedeacons, who were em- 
Vou. XI, 
DEA 
poye by ey head or chief deacons to perform thofe fer- 
ces in their room, to which, by their office, they were 
pele ged. 
The office of a deacon, in the chirch of England, ac- 
cording to the form of ordination, is to baptize, preach, and 
afi in the adminiftration of the Lord’s fupper; and, in 
fhort, to perform all the other cffices in the liturgy, which 
t can do, except that of confecrating the ele =ments of 
perfon can be or on under ave of twenty- 
three years, unlefs by a faculty or difpenfation obtain d 
from the pocleratt of Canterbury : and in ordcr to this, he 
mutt be 
ae (ae college in Cambridge or Oxford, or a maf. 
er of arts of five years ftanding, living at bis own charge in 
either of the univ sane ee or be admitte . a = bifhop, who 
enefice or cu void. ers 
fhall aah him, til he is pre-~ 
e pee living. And by ftat. 14 and 
. 4. no perfon is capable of being admitted to 
any aad or ecclefiaftical Sisson: till he be ordained 
a prieft; nor is a deacon capable of a donative, but is only 
allowed 5 ufe his orders as a chaplain to en aa a cus 
rate to fome prieft, or a lecturer without at 
DEACO NESS, Eee an cae proba y of a 
lic intlitution, thoug we hav in iformation con ing 
re occafion and manner o ae in vee inthe sate net 
from the ti times of the apottles, though now laid afide. St. 
fit in his Epiftle to the Romans, (Rom. 
XVI. r.) the younger Pliny, in a letter to Trajan, tells 
that a oe that he had ordered two deaconefles, whom he 
calls miniftre, to be tortured. 
eaconefs was a title given to certain devout elderly woe 
, commonly widows, who confecra ted aap he : the 
fe ervice of the chur ch, and rendered thofe office the 
women, which men ae not dees ntly ca > as in baptifm, 
.for inane = was conferred, by immerfion, on women 
as well asm 
They were lean: to look to the doors on the fide the 
“ 
[i 
he cuftom of thofe times. T the: 
infpeétion of the poor, fick, &c. in times of perfecu- 
» when a deacon could not be fent to the en, to ex-~ 
and fortify them, a deaconefs was fent. See Balfamon 
n the eleventh canon of the council of Laodicea; and the 
Apoftolical Coullitutions lib. ii. cap. 57. o fay nothing 
of the epiltle of Ignatius to the people of Antioch; where 
what is faid of deaconeffles is fuppofed to be an interpo- 
ion 
The council of Nice ranks deaconeffes among the clergy, 
though f old, that their ordination was not facramental, 
but a mere ecclefi es ceremony. However, it gave them 
a pre-eminence abo reft of their fex ; for which reafon 
Weftern church about the twelfth century, and in the Eatt- 
ern ee the thirteenth. 
wee in his eighth letter, gives the reafon of 
their nee abolifhed ; he obferves, ies the firlt ages the 
more eaf 
iniftry 
ng of o 
ganifm ; and th 
adminiftration of baptifm t 
then neceffary, becaufe none ein children were baptize 
it might now be added, becaufe baptifm is only coated 
by fprinkling, 
The number of deaconeffes does not feem to have been 
4 fixed 
