140 CEYLON BRANCH — ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY- 



in Council ; after the Governor's approval of these names, 

 the consistory proceeded by ballot to the final choice of the 

 number actually required to fill up the vacancies. This was 

 afterwards changed, and Government had the final approval 

 of the persons actually elected by the consistory. It also 

 appears that the deacons did not always attend the meeting, 

 nor take part in purely ecclesiastial proceedings, but limited 

 their duties generally to the care of the poor. The fund 

 under their direction was called the Diaconie fons. Besides 

 the clergy and lay elders, a member of the Politic Council 

 had a seat in the Colombo consistory meeting, in the name 

 and as the representative of Government, and was called 

 the Commisaris Politiek. Whenever he was present, the 

 business of the meeting was not entered upon until the 

 President had first addressed him, to know whether he had 

 any thing to communicate, propose or remark, on the part 

 of Government. In the consistory there were a Presis, a 

 S crib a, and an Epistolarum Scriba, these offices were filled 

 only by the clergy, who exchanged them every year. The 

 consistory met twice in the quarter ; their meeting consisted 

 of two sorts : the ordinary meeting, when all matters touch- 

 ing their church-establishment were discussed; and the 

 Censura Morum meeting, in which church discipline was 

 exercised, and the spiritual state of the congregation as well 

 as the individual conduct of offenders were brought for- 

 ward. But the Presis had the power of convening an ex- 

 traordinary meeting at any time. In their meeting, arrange- 

 ments were also made as to the turns of preaching, what 

 minister was to administer the sacraments that quarter, 

 in what place of worship and to what classes of the con- 

 gregation. It was also the practice for a minister, accom- 

 panied with an elder, to visit the church-members at their 

 dwellings previous to their partaking of the sacrament. 

 The turn for this duty was also fixed in the meeting, as 

 also what elders and deacons were to assist the ministers at 

 the Lord's Table ; and the general practice was, that the 

 same set of elders and deacons assisted thus both the Eu- 

 ropean and Native congregations in the town. 



The Colombo consistory was regarded the first in rank, 

 through whom all important matters between the Home 

 Government and the other consistories were communicated 

 and transacted. The other consistories looked to their Co- 

 lombo brethren for advice and direction in important or 

 difficult cases. But there are several instances on record, of 

 the Colombo consistory declining to enter into the merits 



