16, p. 37, Micron. Coat. in heck. . , p. 537) (0) Imposition of Hands. Deacons were sometimes alithorized, as the bishops' special del egates, to give to penitents the solemn imposi tion of hands, which was the sign of reconcilia tion (Cypr. t3, al. al, ad liter.).
(7) Suspension of Inferior Clergy. Deacops had power to suspend the inferior clergy; this, however, was done only when the bishop and presbyter were absent and the case urgent (Con stit. Apost. viii :28).
(8) Scribes and Disputants. The ordinary duty of deacons, with regard to general Councils, was to act as scfibes and disputants according as they were directed by their bishops. In some in stances they voted as proxies for bishops who could not attend in person ; but in no instance do we find them voting in a general Council by vir tue of their office. But in provincial synods the deacons were sometimes allowed to give their voice, as well as the presbyters, in their own (9) Care of the Poor. But, besides the above, there were some other offices which the deacon was called upon to fill abroad. One of these was to take care of the necessitous, orphans, widows, martyrs in prison, and all the poor and sick who had any claim upon the public resources of the church. It was also his especial duty to notice the spiritual, as well as the bodily, wants of the people; and wherever he detected evils which he could not by his own power and authority cure, it was his duty to refer them for redress to the bishop.
In general the number of deacons varied with the wants of a particular church. Sozomen (vii
19, p. too) informs us that the church of Rome, after the apostolic model, never had more than seven deacons.
(10) Celibacy. It was not till the close of the third century that deacons were forbidden to marry. The council of Ancyra, A. D. 344, in its Loth Can., ordains that if a deacon declared at the time of his ordination that he would marry, he should not be deprived of his function if he did marry ; but that if he married without having made such a declaration. 'he must fall into the rank of laics !' (11) Required Qualifications. The qualifica tions required in deacons by the primitive church were the same that were required in bishops and presbyters ; and the characteristics of a deacon, given by St. Paul in his Second Epistle to Timothy, were the rule by which a candidate was judged fit for such an office. The second Council of Carthage. 4th Can., forbids the ordination of a deacon before the age of twenty-five; and both the Civil and Canon Law, as may be seen in Justinian's Novels, 123, c. 14, fixed his age to the same period.
(12) Archdeacons. The primitive church had its archdeacon, though when the office was first instituted is a matter of dispute with learned men. He was not in priest's orders; but was selected from the deacons by the bishop, and had consider able authority over the other deacons and inferior orders. Neander. Ch. Hist. (Torrey's trans].) i :184, ff.; Bingham, Orig. Eccles. bk. ii :2o; Saw yer, Organic Christianity, Ch. xiii; Dexter, Con gregationalism, p. 134 ff.