THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
" touching deacons of both sorts, namely men and women." Both were to be chosen by the congregation and " to be received into their ofRce with the general prayers of the whole Church " (cf. D. Noal, History of the Puritans, i., New York, 1855, p. 140). In Gov. Bradford's Dialogue it is stated that there -n as one deaconess " who visited the sick, relieved the poor, and sat in a convenient place in the congregation, with a little birchen rod in her hand, and kept little children in great awe from disturbing the congregation. She did frequently visit the sick and weak, especially women, and if there ■nere poor she would gather relief for them of those that were able, or acquaint the deacons, and she was obeyed as a mother in Israel and an officer of Christ " (A. Young, Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, Boston, 1841, pp. 445-446). Early American Congregationalism recognized the office and ordered the " ancient widows (where they may be had) to minister in the Church, in giving attendance to the sick, and to give succor unto them, and others in the like necessities " {Cambridge Platform, 1648, vii. 7). This theory was not put in practise (cf. W Walker, History of the Congregational Churches in the United States, New York, 1894, p. 230). The Mennonites of Holland seem to have had the custom of appointing deaconesses to serve among the sick and poor and do other Christian and charitable work.
2. The Nineteenth Century: No more important feature characterizes the recent history of Protestantism than the development of woman's public activity in the Church. Woman's work among women and for women in the various missionary organizations and in other bodies is in the direct line of the diaconal work of Phoebe and other female " helpers " of the early Church. Some of the Protestant bodies have given official recognition to the vocation of the congregational deaconess in one form or another, without, however, sanctioning an order of deaconesses in the sense that the order of deacons is sanctioned. It is difficult to make a sharp distinction when an ecclesiastical body commends training-schools for deaconesses and yet denies their election and setting apart to their office by the individual congregation.
a. Germany: The organization and offi-cial training of women for Christian work in the Protestant Churches were developed in the early half of the nineteenth century, and found their first embodiment in the institution of deaconesses founded by Pastor Theodor Fliedner (q.v.), which has been the model for similar organizations throughout the Protestant world. This institution was founded in 1836 at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, near Dtisseldorf. Fliedner was not moved in the first instance by the pious idea 1. Orig-in. of reviving the apostolic order of Theodor female helpers, although he believed Fliedner. jt to have been in existence in primitive times. He was animated by practical considerations to meet a pressing need of his day, the proper care of the sick and the training of neglected children. A feeling existed in certain pious German circles that the Church needed an
order of trained women, similar to the sisterhoods of the Roman Catholic Church. This feeling found expression in a pamphlet published by Pastor Klonne of Bislich near Wesel in 1820, entitled " The Revival of the Deaconesses of the Ancient Church in our Ladies Societies." In 1835 the pious Count Adalbert von der Recke-Volmerstein began the publication of a periodical " Deaconesses, or Life and Labors of the Handmaids of the Church in Teaching and Training and in Nursing the Sick." It was Fliedner, however, who gave practical embodiment to this feeling. Before 1836, on his visits to Holland in 1823 and 1832, he was struck with the employment of deaconesses among the Mennonites. They were appointed by the official boards of the churches and did their work without remuneration. In his description of his experiences in Holland he wrote: " This praiseworthy early Christian institution of deaconesses should be revived by other Protestant communions." He was also struck, on his visit in England in 1832, with the contrast between the fine architecture of the hospital buildings and the incompetency of the attendants within. Impressed by the need of trained women, after these visits he prepared a constitution for " the Order of Deaconesses for the Rhenish Provinces," which was signed in the house of Count Stolberg at Diisseldorf, 1836. In October of the same year the first deaconess, Gertrud Reichard, entered the Institute. Two years later it sent the first deaconesses to the city hospital of Elberfeld.
The Institute has grown to large proportions. It educates three kinds of deaconesses. The first class devote themselves to the care of the sick, the poor, and the fallen in Magdalen asylums. The second dedicate themselves to teaching; the third class aid ministers in parish-work. The fundamental conditions of admission are 2. The Christian character and a strong con- Kaisers- stitution. Other rules are that candiwerth In- dates must be of suitable age, must be stitute. unmarried or widows, and must consecrate themselves for five years to the office. Candidates are accepted on probation for a year. The Kaiserswerth deaconesses take no vows, wear no crucifixes, and are distinguished by a simple and distinctive, but not necessarily uniform, dress. The internal organization of the houses comprises as a rule a clergyman as rectnr and chaplain, assisted by a woman superior, of whom the former exercises general administrative control, while the more intimate details of domestic economy are in the hands of the sister superior. In a few institutions the influence of Roman Catholic models may be discerned in that the clergyman acts only in the capacity of spiritual adviser to the sisterhood. The Kaiserswerth institutions lay stress upon their form of organization. The time of training lasts from two to six years according to the attainments of the women on entering the Institute and according to their aptness. The instruction includes a thorough course of training in Biblical knowledge. At the close of the term of preparation the deacoiiesaes are consecrated by a fitting ritual and with the laying on