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Deacons, Deaconesses and the Minor Orders in the Patristic Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

J. G. Davies
Affiliation:
Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology in the University of Birmingham

Extract

Writers in the early centuries of the Christian era were accustomed to employ the term διάκονος with either the masculine or the feminine definite article. In the former case it is to be translated ‘deacon’ and in the latter ‘female deacon’ or ‘deaconess’. This usage suggests a close relationship, if not an identity, between the diaconate and the order of deaconesses and it is the purpose of this Note to explore this subject, beginning with the vexed question of the obscure origin of this order for women.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1963

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References

page 1 note 1 διακόνισσα first appears in c. 19 of the Council of Nicaea.

page 1 note 2 I Cor., iii. 5.

page 1 note 3 Col., i. 7.

page 1 note 4 I Thess., iii. 2.

page 1 note 5 Col., i. 25.

page 1 note 6 In Ep. ad Tim. Hom., xi.

page 2 note 1 Though not necessarily, the author was not a master of Greek grammar, cf. iv. 3.

page 2 note 2 Ep., 96.

page 3 note 1 Didasc., iii. 12, 13 reproduced in Const. Ap., iii. 15.

page 3 note 2 Const. Ap., ii. 57; viii. 28; Pseudo-Ignatius, Ad Antioch., xii; Eth. Didasc., ii. 57, 58.

page 3 note 3 Const. Ap., ii. 26; according to Eth. Didasc., ii. 26 women approach the deacon through the deaconess and then the bishop through the deacon.

page 3 note 4 Test. Dom., ii. 20.

page 3 note 5 viii. 18 and 20. They are conveniently printed side by side for comparison in The Ministry of Women, London 1919, 74.Google Scholar

page 3 note 6 iii. 12, cf. Eth. Didasc., iii. 16.

page 3 note 7 iii. 15.

page 3 note 8 Const. Ap., viii. 18.

page 3 note 9 Adv. Haer., iii. 2. 79.

page 3 note 10 Const. Ap., viii. 27.

page 4 note 1 Hippolytus, Ap. Trad., ix. 11; xxiii. 1.

page 4 note 2 C. 44. It is often assumed that the formulation of a canon proves the existence of the practice that it condemns, but this is not necessarily so. It is quite possible for a certain course of action to be considered and then, after discussion, to affirm that such a practice is not to be adopted.

page 4 note 3 viii. 28.

page 4 note 4 Const. Ap., viii. 30.

page 5 note 1 Acts ix. 39.

page 5 note 2 Acts vi. 1.

page 5 note 3 I Tim. v. 9.

page 5 note 4 Ignatius, Ad. Poly., iv.; Polycarp, Ad. Phil., iv.

page 5 note 5 Justin, I Apol., lxvii.

page 5 note 6 Ap. Trad., xi. 5.

page 5 note 7 Didascalia, iii. 2.

page 5 note 8 Ibid., iii. 6.

page 5 note 9 Ibid., iii. 7; cf. Eth. Didasc., iii. 7, Const. Ap., iii. 7.

page 5 note 10 Ibid., iii. 8.

page 5 note 11 Harnack, A., Sources of the Apostolic Canons, London 1895, 20.Google Scholar

page 5 note 12 Const. Ap., vi. 17.

page 5 note 13 Eth. Didasc., vi. 17.

page 5 note 14 H.E., vii. 16.

page 5 note 15 H.E., viii. 9.

page 5 note 16 C. 24.

page 6 note 1 i. 23.

page 6 note 2 i. 40.

page 6 note 3 ii. 8., cf. IV. Carth., c. 12. As far as I am aware no explanation of the important position assigned to widows in the Testamentum Domini has hitherto been proposed; critics do no more than record the fact and assume it is a reaction, for reasons unknown, against the order of deaconesses. I would suggest that it is possible to regard it as a survival of the original pre-eminence of the widows from whom the deaconesses were recruited.

page 6 note 4 Eus., H.E., vi. 43. 11.

page 6 note 5 xiv. The Apostolic Constitutions is unique in prescribing the laying on of hands for the ordination of subdeacons; this is denied by Hippolytus (loc. cit), Basil (Ep. Canon., 51) and IV Carthage, c. 5.

page 7 note 1 xxx.

page 7 note 2 Epp., 8; 9; 20; 36; 45; 77; 79. Cyprian also refers to one Optatus whom he had made a subdeacon and a teacher of the hearers (29) and to Philumenus and Fortunatus, subdeacons, who had lapsed in the persecution (34. 2).

page 7 note 3 Ad Smyrn., xi; Ad Phil., x.

page 7 note 4 Const. Ap., viii. 11.

page 7 note 5 viii. 21.

page 7 note 6 viii. 11.

page 7 note 7 C. 5.

page 7 note 8 Laodicea, c. 21.

page 7 note 9 Ibid., c. 25.

page 7 note 10 Ibid., c. 22.

page 7 note 11 For the increase in congregations in the first half of the third century see Frend, W. H. C., The Donatist Church, Oxford 1952, 91 f.Google Scholar

page 7 note 12 It is perhaps not difficult to account for this Greek form of the name of what was primarily a western order if we remember that Greek would seem to have been the official language of the Roman Church even until the middle of the third century.

page 8 note 1 Ep., 7.

page 8 note 2 Cyprian, Epp., 52; 59.

page 8 note 3 Cyprian, Ep., 7.

page 8 note 4 Const. Ap., ii. 31, 32.

page 8 note 5 Eus., H.E., vii. 11. 24.

page 8 note 6 Cyprian, Epp., 77. 3; 78. 1.

page 8 note 7 The will of bishop Bennadius, predecessor of St. Remigius, lists all orders of clerics save the acolytes: Flodoard, Hist. Rem., i. 9.

page 8 note 8 De Cor. Mil., xi; De Idol., xi.

page 8 note 9 Octav., xxvii.

page 8 note 10 C. Celsum, vii. 67.

page 8 note 11 Ad Donat., v.

page 8 note 12 Adv. Gent, i. 46.

page 8 note 13 Ep., 69. 15.

page 8 note 14 Cyprian, Ep., 75. 10. At the Council of Arles there were present seven exorcists and two lectors.

page 8 note 15 C. 16.

page 8 note 16 C. 26.

page 8 note 17 De S. Felix Natal., Carm., iv.

page 9 note 1 E.g., Duchesne, L., Christian Worship, 5 th ed., reprinted 1956, 349 f.Google Scholar

page 9 note 2 Augustine, when bishop of Hippo, also states that he was responsible for the final pre-baptismal exorcism, De Pecc. Mer. et Remis., i. 34.

page 9 note 3 Ap. Trad., xx. 7,8.

page 9 note 4 At a much later date the deacons are bidden to exorcise the candidates: Council of Constantinople, A.D. 536, Acta 5; Pseudo-Dionysius, Eccl. Hier., v. 1.6; cf. Can. Hipp., 121.

page 9 note 5 Apostolic Constitutions, viii. 27, is unusual in affirming that the power of exorcism is a charisma vouchsafed to certain individuals; but it does add that the person thus singled out should be ordained a bishop, priest or deacon.

page 9 note 6 Procat. ix; Catech., xvi. 19.

page 9 note 7 Catech., xx. 3.

page 10 note 1 De Idol. Van., vii.; Octav., xxvii.

page 10 note 2 Pseudo-Dionysius, Eccl. Hier., iv. 3.

page 10 note 3 Const. Ap., viii. 6, 7.

page 10 note 4 C. 7.

page 10 note 5 CC. 90; 92.

page 10 note 6 Ap. Trad., iii. 19. It also formed part of the duty of the presbyter in the fourth century: Const. Ap., viii. 16; Jerome, Ep., 52. 15.

page 10 note 7 Exorcists, like acolytes, are not mentioned by Hippolytus, but are referred to by both Cyprian and Cornelius.

page 10 note 8 Eusebius mentions one Romanus who was both a deacon and an exorcist: M.P., ii. 1.

page 10 note 9 Lk. iv. 16, 17.

page 10 note 10 i. 3.

page 11 note 1 lxvii.

page 11 note 2 De Praes., xli.

page 11 note 3 Harnack, A., Sources of the Apostolic Canons, 1895, 61–2.Google Scholar

page 11 note 4 Ap. Trad., xii.

page 11 note 5 viii. 22.

page 11 note 6 Ep., 29. The reference to being next to the clergy includes Opatus, a reader, who after examination by the teacher-presbyters (presbyteri doctores) has been made a subdeacon.

page 11 note 7 Ep., 39. 1

page 11 note 8 vi. 17.

page 11 note 9 Ep., 39. 4.

page 11 note 10 Ep., 38. 2.

page 11 note 11 Socrates, H.E., vii. 40, 41.

page 11 note 12 Paulinus, Nat. IV. Fel., civ.

page 11 note 13 Jeromè, De Vir. Ill., xc.

page 11 note 14 Duchesne, Lib. Pont, Paris 1886, i. 210, 217.

page 11 note 15 Cf. Julian and Gallus, Socrates, H.E., iii. 1; Sozomen, H.E., v. 2.

page 11 note 16 Op. cit., 54 ff.

page 11 note 17 Ibid., 77–8.

page 12 note 1 Apostolic Fathers. I. Pt. II, Oxford 1890, 204–8.Google Scholar

page 12 note 2 The Primitive Church, London 1930, 251–3.Google Scholar

page 12 note 3 Op. cit., 15–17.

page 12 note 4 iii. 7. 2.

page 12 note 5 ii. 28.

page 12 note 6 viii. 22.

page 12 note 7 Op. cit., 69.

page 13 note 1 ii. 25.

page 13 note 2 Ep., 38.

page 13 note 3 Ep., 39. 4.

page 13 note 4 H.E., ix. 2.

page 13 note 5 I Apol., lxvii.

page 13 note 6 De Praes., xxxvi.

page 13 note 7 Cyprian, Epp., 38; 39.

page 13 note 8 ii. 57.

page 13 note 9 Ep., 147. 6.

page 13 note 10 H.E., vii. 19.

page 13 note 11 C. 4.

page 14 note 1 Const. Ap., viii. 11.

page 14 note 2 Ibid.; Laodicea, c. 43.

page 14 note 3 C. 2. Harnack's theory that the doorkeepers derive from the aeditui and the acolytes from the calatores of the pagan temples (op. cit., 85–8) has nothing to recommend it.

page 14 note 4 Cod. Theod., xvi. 2. 15.

page 14 note 5 H.E., vii. 11. 24.

page 14 note 6 C. 15.

page 14 note 7 Victor, De Persec. Vand., i. r3.

page 14 note 8 Duchesne, op. cit., 348–9.

page 15 note 1 Sozomen, H.E., vii. 19.

page 15 note 2 iii. 13; cf. ii. 34.

page 15 note 3 Const. Ap. viii. 4, 46.

page 15 note 4 C. 15.

page 15 note 5 Lib. Pont., i. 5.