And in what follows (ii. 58. Cotel. 267) it is particularly impressed upon them, that just as the Deacon is to see that any unknown stranger, or any poor man, or meanly-born man, coming into the congregation, is to be treated with respect, and have an honourable place cheerfully conceded to him; so the Deaconess is to attend to the comfort of all the women who come, whether rich or poor.*

Another service for which these ministers were wanted was on the occasion of the baptism of women. (iii. 15. Cotel. 287) This we understand at once, when we remember the primitive practice of immersion, as well as the secluded habits of females in the East. Thus it is said in a second passage, where the subject is mentioned (iii. 16. Cotel. 288), that Deaconesses are needed on such occasions, in order that the ceremony may be done "with becoming decency;" and in a third passage (viii. 28. Cotel. 411), that the arrangement is adopted "for the sake of decorum."t

The two duties which have just been mentioned may be truly called duties of routine. But there are other passages which exhibit the Deaconesses as engaged in a higher and less restricted sphere. Thus in a place (iii. 15. Cotel. 287) where it is said in general terms that "the services are many for which a female diaconate is needed," it is particularly specified that it may be necessary to employ women under domestic conditions, where men would be unsuitable. This evidently opens a wide field of usefulness. Whatever the acts in which she might be engaged, the range of the influence of a Deaconess would of course depend on her character and her circumstances. The same remarks are applicable to her service among the poor, which has been just touched on already, but which is more specifically mentioned elsewhere. (iii. 19. Cotel. 289.) This last passage is worthy of especial notice for more reasons than one. It is prescribed that "the Deacons are to be, like the Bishop, free from blame, but more fitted for active service, that they may be able to minister to those who need help and the woman," it is added, "must be zealous in ministering to the women and both‡ must be ready for errands, for journeys, and for subordinate service of every kind." By "the woman" is meant "the female Deacon." Thus the passage is a very

* Something of the same kind is customary in the Society of Friends, whose rule is, that in public worship the inen and women are seated separately. But the comparison may be pressed still further. In Sewel's "History of the Quakers" (1811) we are told, in an account of some opponents of the Order established by George Fox, that "they were greatly bent against the women's meetings, who, as deaconesses, met together at set times, to provide for poor

families, and sick people that were in want," ii. 399.

† For an illustration of the last point I referred to the Quakers. For an illustration of this I may refer to the arrangements customary among the Bap

tists.

This reminds us of one of the Puritan regulations regarding "Deacons of both kinds." See Quarterly Review for October, 1860, p. 359.

important commentary on 1 Tim. iii. 11, where "the women" are undoubtedly (as I think) not "the wives of the Deacons," but "female Deacons."

But the point before us is the nature of the duties of these ministering women. And here clearly we see something of their wider range. Thus the allusion to journeys brings at once to our recollection another passage of Scripture, viz., Rom. xvi. 1, where "Phoebe, the deaconess of the church of Cenchreæ," is presented to us as travelling on some Christian errand from Corinth to Rome. But we may proceed to gather more from this paragraph of the Constitutions, where the duties of the diaconate are pursued in detail, and with rich illustrations from those passages of Scripture which speak of the example of Him, who came "not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Bearing in mind the co-ordination of the male and female Deacons, we naturally apply to both whatever is general. And where "the sick" are mentioned, as they are very prominently, we feel that we are especially within the sphere of feminine ministration. Another point, too, is worthy of notice. It is urged on the Deacons (and I presume this includes both branches of the diaconate) that their duty is "to seek out cases of distress, and to inform the bishop of those who need visiting." "For ye ought," continues the sentence, "to be his very life of activity, and his means of obtaining information." This, however, is a wordy translation of a very terse and emphatic phrase. I have never seen so well expressed what I conceive the practical effect of a well-arranged female diaconate would be.* But I must pass to my third head, remarking only, as I proceed, that the fragments thus lightly put together show that the office of the Early Deaconesses was concerned, not only with the routine of public worship and baptism, but with the condition of the poor, the life of families, the sufferings of the sick, with the parochial work of the clergy, and even with distant missions.

(3.) From the duties, then, of the Deaconess we pass to her ecclesiastical status: and some of the passages which I have already quoted give us her true position at once. We have seen the Deacon and the Deaconess mentioned side by side as co-ordinate officers. And this is the case repeatedly in the Apostolical Constitutions. The latter was for the women what the former was for the men. We find the "man-deacon" and the " woman-deacon as representing two sides of one office. This co-ordination of the two, and the subordination of both to the Bishops and Presbyters, together give a fair representation of the whole of the case.

* If I might hazard a conjecture, I should take the 19th Section of the third book to be an early and unmixed part of the Constitutions. It is full both of the words and the spirit of the New Testa

ment; and it has no ultra-hierarchical features. Presbyters are not mentioned, and the diocese of the bishop seems to be little more than a parish. Compare Philipp. i. 1, iv. 2, 3.

The great line was drawn below the Presbyter. Just as it is said (iii. 6. Cotel. 277) that " women must not teach in the church; for that our great Teacher, the Lord Jesus, when He sent out the twelve, sent not women to preach: and yet had He no lack of women; for with Him were His mother and His sisters, also Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, the sisters of Lazarus, Salome, and others :"-so in another place (iii. 9. Cotel. 282, 284) it is said that "women ought themselves not to baptize, not to exercise priestly functions; for," it is added, "to ordain priestesses would be a Pagan impiety: had such an office been destined for women, the Lord would have been baptised, not by John, but by His mother."*

But further, the Deaconess was in fact rather below the Deacon. This is clear from a passage in the eighth book (viii. 28. Cotel. 411), where the functions of the different ecclesiastical persons are described. Thus it is there said that, in the absence of the Presbyter, the Deacon is to exercise discipline over the Deaconess, as well as over the Sub-deacon, the Reader, and the Singer. The same result follows from another passage (viii. 31. Cotel. 412), concerning what remains of oblations at the Eucharist, where it is directed that the Bishop is to receive four parts, the Presbyters three, the Deacons two, and the Deaconesses, with the other subordinate officials, only one,— "each class according to its dignity; for the church is not a "school of confusion, but of order.'

But then, on the other hand, the Deaconess is by no means a mere lay person. She has an official status. She is formally appointed to something more than mere casual and voluntary duties.

In these Apostolical Constitutions we find three classes of women definitely mentioned as in some way distinguished from the rest of their sex-Deaconesses, Widows, and Virgins. At the Lord's Supper (viii. 13. Cotel. 405) these three classes communicate after the clergy and their subordinate ministers, and before the general body of the laity. But the Widows and Virgins do not appear in the same official character as the Deaconesses. The three classes are grouped together in the passage which was first cited in this letter (ii. 25. Cotel. 238); but immediately afterwards, when active official duty is to be used in the analogy (ii. 26. Cotel. 239), the Deaconess alone is adduced, and very different language is used of the others. The Widows and Orphans are compared to the Altar of Burntoffering, the Virgins to the Altar of Incense. So we might contrast two consecutive sections in the eighth book, in one of which (viii. 30. Cotel. 411) it is said that tithes are intended partly for "the Virgins, the Widows, and those who are suffer

It should be noticed, that in the Constitutions the Deacon, as well as the Deaconess, is precluded from baptising (viii. 28. Cotel. 411).

ing from poverty;*" whereas in the other, which relates to oblations at the Eucharist (viii. 31. Cotel. 413), the Deaconesses have a position, as above noticed, among official persons, while Widows and Virgins are not mentioned. In my two other letters the terms "Widow" and "Virgin" will come under notice in their secondary application, as possibly synonymous with "Deaconess:" but in the Apostolical Constitutions I believe the distinction which I have drawn to be absolute; and, possibly, this distinction may have some bearing on the question of the antiquity of these documents. However this may be, it is important; and, so far as I know, it has not been clearly pointed out before.

The most forcible proofs, however, of this distinction have not yet been quoted. Several chapters at the beginning of the third book are occupied with details regarding the Widows; conveying the impression that they were a class of persons registered to receive relief, and also that they were a very troublesome class;† and then follows (iii. 7. Cotel. 281) the injunction-that they are to obey not only the Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons, but also the Deaconesses. But above all, the decisive words in the eighth book are to be remarked,—“ The Virgin is not ordained." (viii. 24. Cotel. 409.) "The Widow "is not ordained." (viii. 25, ib.) Whereas the Deaconess, on the other hand, is most explicitly "ordained."

I have said that the Deaconess is, according to the Constitutions, "ordained." By this I mean that she is set apart to her office by prayer and the laying on of hands. The prayer used on the occasion (and it is a most beautiful and expressive prayer) is actually given to us (viii. 20. Cotel. 408). And as to the laying on of hands, this is not a mere inference from the prayer, or from the technical meaning of a word. The direction is most explicit, and in strong contrast with the above-mentioned prohibition (viii. 19. Cotel. 407)-"As regards the Deaconess, O Bishop, thou shalt lay thy hands on her, in the presence of the Presbyters, the Deacons, and the Deaconesses; and thou shalt say". Then follows the prayer.‡

But now I have to say, in conclusion, with regard to this "ordination," that the very same technical term is applied (iii. 11. Cotel. 284) to Readers, Doorkeepers, and Singers, as well as to Deaconesses; and that the regulation concerning the imposition of hands on these female ministers is immediately followed by regulations in the same terms, having reference to

In the same section it is said the first-fruits belong to the Priests, and those who exercise the Diaconate under them. I imagine the latter phrase may include both male and female Deacons.

† Here we recur inevitably to 1 Tim.

v. 3-16; but discussion of this must be reserved.

on

The prayer is quoted in the article "Deaconesses" in the Quarterly p. 354.

Review,

Sub-deacons and Readers :-"O Bishop, in appointing the Sub-deacon thou shalt lay thy hands on him." (viii. 21. Čotel. 408.) "Appoint the Reader by laying thy hands on him." (viii. 22. Cotel. 409.) We must not allow ourselves to be misled by the meaning of the word "ordination," as we now employ it. The imposition of hands had a wider range in the Early Church than it has with us ;* and distinctions must be drawn with regard to the import of the ceremony on different occasions. In the case of the Bishop and the Presbyter, it is a solemn consecration. In the case of the Deaconess, it is only an official blessing. We ourselves are familiar with a line of demarcation, not very dissimilar, between Ordination and Confirmation.

It is not to be wondered at that those Protestants on the Continent who have been practically occupied in restoring the Primitive Female Diaconate, have differed in regard to the adoption of the imposition of hands. This question of restoration, however, is not the subject with which I am now concerned. I am endeavouring to reproduce and arrange the facts which ancient writings supply to us in illustration of this diaconate. We have now succeeded in obtaining from the Apostolical Constitutions a clear, though perhaps imperfect, representation of it. The ministers in question are exhibited to us here as strictly subordinate to the clergy, but still as a very conspicuous part of the ecclesiastical system: they had a very decidedly official position, though of the Diaconic as opposed to the Presbyteral kind; and their work had chief reference to Christians of their own sex, and arose partly out of the social circumstances of the times, and also is seen to touch those various points of social life, at which the service of women is peculiarly effectual.

From the general features of the case we naturally turn to details. And, no doubt, the Constitutions leave many questions unanswered. Yet they do answer, approximately or fully, some of those questions of detail which we are most inclined to ask. Within what limits of age were the Deaconesses chosen? Of this nothing seems to be said. How were they supported? From a passage quoted above we should gather that, so far as they needed support, it came from church collections. Were they allowed to retain their own property? Nothing is said which implies the contrary. Were they allowed to marry? There is no hint of any prohibition. What was their number? We have the sensible rule (iii. 19. Cotel. 289) † that it is to be "proportionate to the size of the congregation." Were they required to go through a time of probation? This is not made

* See Heb. vi. 2.

This passage, adduced again below, is viewed as inclusive of both kinds of Deacons.