RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Deacon
to the head of the house, submit to all tasks imposed upon them, and look upon their office not as a temporary calling, but as their mission in life. The course of training lasts three years, with an extension to five or six for those handicapped by a lack of the requisite educational qualifications, or preparing themselves for positions of responsibility in the service of the " Innere Mission." Candidates are not allowed to determine beforehand to which branch of the work they will devote themselves, and must be ready to pursue their work for a part of the time in affiliated institutions. The documents that must accompany applications for admission are comprehensive and deal minutely with the facts of the applicant's life and his moral and spiritual history, including the testimony of physicians, pastors, and parents or guardians. The greater number of candidates for admission are from the artisan and peasant classes.
The chief aim of the training to which candidates are subjected is the formation of steadfast Christian character, and in this respect the relations of the head of the house toward his associates and assistants are among the most decisive factors. The standard of intellectual acquirements set up is approximately that of the elementary school teacher or lower government ofhcial. In addition, however, there is the special knowledge of the main principles of pedagogy and of the history of education, studied chiefly in the form of biography, together with a mastery of catechetical methods.
The specialization of function must 3. Training, also be kept in view so that the needs
of the future colporteur, instructor for the feeble-minded, or elementary teacher may be provided for. The problem presented is by no means a simple one, in that it involves the training of students possessing the education of the child with the experience of the youth or the full-grown man. Practical work is carried on side by side with theory, and every house of deacons stands in close connection with one or more relief institutions — rescue-homes, hospitals, asylums for the feebleminded, homes for epileptics, etc. An important element is the religious life of the brotherhoods. Some satisfy their needs by attendance at the churches of the community of which they form a part, while others possess chapels of their own. The training of a brother once completed, he is detailed to outside duty, his graduation and dismissal being marked by a solemn service. The regulations of the Rauhes Haus, which may be taken again as typical, provide that on the acceptance by a brother of an office to which he is recommended by the head of the house he is pledged to render conscientious service and not to abandon his post without seeking the advice of the head of the house; failure to do so will exclude him from further appointment. A brother who abandons the service of the " Innere Mission " ceases thereby to be a member of the fraternity. From the foregoing it is apparent that the brotherhoods possess their spiritual center in the deacons' houses. The truth is
briefly expressed in the following summary from the regulations of the Rauhes Haus : " The brethren of the Rauhes Haus are gathered in fraternal communion about the Rauhes Haus as a center, and their aim is to come to the aid of the community by devoting themselves to the welfare of those who have been estranged from the Church and its teachings. In belief and practise they live within the bounds of the Evangelical Church, to whose ordinances they submit themselves."
V/hile the problem of the cooperation and communication is not a serious one with the minor fraternities, it is a weighty one in the case of the Rauhes Haus, whose branches are found in all parts of Germany. Here conferences em- 4. Organi- bracing the organizations of the varization. ous provinces are held every year, in Wide Extent addition to which special conferences of the Work, and general conventions are held from time to time at the Rauhes Haus. With regard to their spheres of activity, every house has its special field. At the Rauhes Haus special emphasis was laid in the beginning upon rescue work; Duisburg devoted itself primarily to the care of the sick; the summoning of Wichern to Berlin led to the rapid rise of mission work in the prisons. From many deacons' houses members have been called to positions as colonial and hom^e missionaries, superintendents of labor colonies, heads of other houses, etc. A complete list of institutions wherein the members of the brotherhoods have been active would include rescue-homes,' orphan asylums, homes for destitute children, workhouses, hospitals, asylums for the feeble-minded, the insane, and the epileptic, industrial schools, apprentices' lodging-houses, city and harbor missions, penal institutions, and institutes for the cure of alcoholism. (Theodok Schafee.)
Bibliography: I. J. B. Lightfoot, Commentary on Philippians, pp. 179 sqq., London, 1878; E. Hatch, Organization of the Early Christian Church, pp. 26 sqq., Oxford, 1888 (the preceding are the two authoritative discussions); R. Sohm, Kirchenrecht, Leipsic, 1892; F. J. A. Hort, Christian Ecclesia, London, 1897; A. C. McGiffert, Apostolic Age, pp. 76-77, 667 sqq.. New York, 1897; T. M. Lindsay, Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries, pp. 154-1.55, 194-195, London, 1902; W. Lowrie, The Church and its Organization, pp. 370-383, ib. 1905; Schaff, Christian Church, i. 59 sqq.; A. Harnack, in TU, ii. 5, pp. 57-103, 1886; DB, i. 574-575; EB, i. 1038-40; and the various treatises on the Didache (q.v.).
II. and III. J. N. &eid\, Der Diaconat in der katholischen Kirche, Regensburg, 1884; A. J. Binterim, Denkwilrdigkeiten, i. 335-386, Mainz, 1825; J. C. W. Augusti, Denkwilrdigkeiten, xi. 194 sqq., Leipsic, 1830; Bingham, Origines, book ii., chap. 20; DCA, i. 526-533; KL, iii. 1660- 1674; and for modern practise, the Book of Discipline of the various denominations.
IV. Important sources of knowledge are the Monatsschrift far Diakonie und Innere Mission, and Monatsschrift fur Innere Mission; also Aktenstucke aus der Verwaltung des evangelischen Oberkirchenraths, vols, iii.-iv., Berlin, 1856-57 (contain accounts of Fliedner, Wichern, Jakobi, and others prominent in the movement). Consult: P. Schaff, Germany, its Universities, Theology and Religion, chap, xxxviii., Philadelphia, 1857; J. Wichern, Das Rauhe Haus und die Arbeitsf elder der Brilder des Rauhen Hauses, 1833-83, Hamburg, 1883; idem, J. H. Wichern und die Bruderschaft des Rauhen Hauses, ib. 1892; G. Uhlhorn, Die christliche Liebesthatigkeit, iii. 347 sqq., 365 sqq., Stuttgart, 1890.
Deaconess