"where proyision is so made, to search for the sick, poor, and impotent people of the parish, and to inti- mate their estates, names, and places where they dwell, unto the curate" (that is, to the rector or yicar haying the cure or care of souls), '* that by his exhortations they may be relieyed with the alms of the parishioners or others" (Rubric in the form of Ordination). This was the more ancient office of a deacon, and this rule was made in England before the establishment of the poor-laws, in pursuance of which that care has now de- yolyed upon the churchwardens and oyerseers of the poor, which last office was specially created for that purpose.
In the Methodist Episcopal Church the deacons con- stitute an order in the ministry. They are ordained by the bishop, without the imposition ot hands of the elders. According to the ordixiation serdce, * * it apper- taineth to the office of a deacon to assist the elder in diyine sendee. And especially when he ministereth the holy communion, to help him in the distribution thereof and to read and expound the Holy Scriptures ; to instruct the youth, and, in the absence of the elder, to baptize. And furthermore, it is his office to search for the sick, poor, and impotent, that they may be yis- ited and relieved."
In the Presbyterian Church of the United States the '^Form of Gk)yemment" states that **the Scriptures clearly point out deaoons as distinct officers hi the Church, whose business it is to take care of the poor, and to distribute among them the collections which may be raised for their use. To them also may be properly committed the management of the temporal affiurs of the Church" (chap. yi). In some Presby- terian congregations, and in the Free Church, there are deacons regularly ordained to haye charge of the funds of the Church. I^ other Presbyterian church- es the office is merged in that of ruling elders.
In Gemum Protestant churches the assistant minis- ters are generaUy called deacons. If there be two as- sistants, the first of them is called archdeacon. In the German Reformed Church in the United States, the Constitution, ch. iii, art 2, proyides as follows : " The office of the deacons is to collect the alms and other contributions which are designed for the relief of the poor, or the necessities of the congregation ; to distrib- ute the alms willingly and conscientiously; and to proyide for the support of the ministiy of the Gospel." See also the form of ordmation in the German Beform- ed Church.
Among ConffregatumaUstSf the deacons, besides at- tending to the temporal concerns of the Church, assist the minister with their adyice, take the lead at prayer^ meetings when he is absent, etc.
Literaiture. — Besides the works named in the course of this article, see Neander, Church History (Torrey*s transl.), i, 184 sq. ; Bingham, Orig. Ecdes. bk. ii, chap. XX ; Siegsl, Chr.-UrchL AUerthQmer, i, 498 sq. ; Saw- yer, Organic ChristianUy, chap, xiii; Dexter, On Con- ffregationaUsm, p. 184 sq. ; Hooker, Ecdes. PoUttfj bk. y, § 78 ; Howell, The Deaetmskip (Am. Bapt Pub. Soc), PhiL 1846, 18mo; Punchard, Congrtgationaiism^ 1844, partiiL
DeaconeSB (17 Biokovoq ; iuuc&viaoa^ diacomssa), the title of an office of women in the eariy Church ; an office supposed by some to haye originated under the apostles, by others to be of later origin.
I. Deaconesses in the Apostolical Church. — ^The title (usually rendered minister or '* deacon") is found in Bom. xyi, 1, associated with a female name (Phoebe, ovoav tioKovov), and this has led to the conclusion that there existed in the apostolic age, as there un- doubtedly did a little later (Flmy, Ep. ad Traj.\ an order of women bearing that title, and exercising, in relation to their own sex, functions which were analo- gous to those of the deacons. On this hypothesis it has been inferred that the women mentioned in Bom. xyi, 6, 12, belonged to such an order (Herzog, Mea^
DEACONESS
10S
DEACONESS
Eneykl, iii, 868). The rnles given as to the conduct of women in 1 Tim. iii, 11 ; Titus ii, 3, have in like man- ner been referred to them (Chrysostom, TheophyUct, Hummond, Wiesinger, ad loc.). Some writers (e. g. Rothe; Schaff, Apott, Ckureh, § 135) suppose that the " widows*' of 1 Tim. v, 3-10, were deaconesses. Her- zog, on the other hand, holds that the passages in Timothy cannot be applied to *' deaconesses." Dr. W. L. Alexander, in Kitto*s CychpcMa (s. v.), main- tains that Bom. xri, 1, does not show that Phcsbe held any official relation to the Church; for all that ap- pears, she may have been simply the doorkeeper or cleaner of the place of worship. Plumptre (in Smith's Dictionary y s. v., says that ** it seems hardly doubtful that writers hare transferred to the earliest age of the Church the organization of a later. It was of course natural that the example recorded in Luke viii, 2, 8, should be followed by others, even when the Lord was no longer with his disciples. The new life which per- vaded the whole Christian society (Acts ii, 44, 45 ; iv, 81, 82) would lead women as well as men to devote themselves to labors of love. The strong feeling that the true BprieKiiay or service of Christians, consisted in * visiting the fiitherless and the widow,' would make this the special duty of those who were best fitted to undertake it. The social relations of the sexes in the cities of the empire (comp. Grot. <m Rom, xvi, 1) would make it fitting that the agency of women should be employed largely in the direct personal application of Christian truth (Titus ii, 8, 4), possibly in the prepara- tion of female catechumens. Even the later organi- zation implies the previous existence of the germs finom which it was devebped. It may be questioned, how- ever, whether the passages referred to imply a recog- nised body bearing a distinct name. The * widows' of 1 Tim. ▼, 8-10, were clearly, so far ak the rule of ver. 9 was acted on, women who were no longer able to discharge the active duties of life, and were there- fore maintoined by the Church, that they might pass their remaining days in 'prayers night and day.' The conditions of ver. 10 may, however, imply that those only who had been previously active in minis- tering to the brethren were entitled to such a mainte- nance." See also Ludlow, Woman^i Work m the Church, ch. i (Lond. 1866).