THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
conesses board, having general supervision over all deaconesses' work throughout the Church. One of its duties is to authorize new dea- 3. The conesses' homes. The committee of Methodists, the annual conferences is continued as established by the conference of 1888. Deaconesses are licensed and consecrated to their oiBce after two years of continuous probationary service and an examination. They must be twenty-three years of age and unmarried. The work of the deaconess is thus an integral part of the discipline of the Methodist Church. There is also in the Methodist Church " The Deaconesses' Bureau of the Woman's Home Missionary Society " and " The Methodist Deaconesses' Society," with headquarters in Chicago. The " Chicago Training School for City Home and Foreign Missions " was established as early as 1885 by Mrs. Lucy Rider Meyer. In 1890 the first deaconesses' home, under that distinctive name, was opened in Detroit by Mrs. Jane Bancroft Robinson, who was instrumental in opening similar homes in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Pittsburg, Los Angeles, and other cities. The " Elizabeth Gamble Deaconesses' Home and Christ's Hospital" was founded in 1888 in Cincinnati. The " Lucy Webb Hayes Deaconesses' Home and National Training School" was founded in Washingtron in 1889 and has associated with it the Sibley Hospital (1894). The same year a training-school was founded in New York. One of the largest houses in the Methodist Episcopal Church and in the United States is the " Rebecca Deaconesses' Home and Asbury Hospital " in Minneapolis, founded in 1891. At the present time there are over one hundred deaconesses' homes and training-schools in the United States under the care of the Methodist Church. It has also deaconesses' homes in Madras, Calcutta, Lucknow, and other cities of India. In 1902 the value of their properties was $2,402,000.
The German Reformed Church has a home in Cleveland, founded 1892. The Evangelical Association has one in St. Louis (1890). The German Methodists have homes in Cincinnati (Bethesda, 1891), St. Paul (the " Ehzabeth Haas Deaconess Home," 1891), Chicago (the "German Deaconesses' Institute," 1892), Louisville (1895), Kansas City (1897), and elsewhere. The United Brethren incorporated the deaconess office and idea into their discipline in 1891. The Congregationalists of Illinois secured a charter for " the American Congregational Deaconesses' Association " in 4. Other 1901 and established a training-school Denomina- in Chicago. The first organization in tions. the Baptist Church was the " Baptist Deaconesses' Society of the City of New York," organized 1895. The first deaconess was ordained after a full course of study in 1897 The deaconesses wear a special garb and are called sisters. The Christian Church under the lead of Rev. A. M. Harvuot established a " Training School for Pastoral Helpers " in Cincinnati in 1899, now removed to Des Moines and connected with Drake University. The Presbyterian Church, North, in 1899 refused to recognize the special office of the congregational deaconess, but several churches have
elected and set apart deaconesses by a special form of consecration. In accordance with action of the General Assembly in 1892, which commended the establishment of institutions and training homes for the instruction of godly women duly recommended by sessions and presbyteries for practical Christian work, a training-school for deaconesses was opened in connection with the First Presbyterian Church of Baltimore in 1903. The Presbyterian Church, South, in 1879 provided for the recognition of godly women in church work by the sessions, and in 1906 the synod of the United Presbyterian Church sanctioned congregational deaconesses. Lastly, a class of interdenominational deaconesses' homes may be mentioned, such as the " German Deaconesses' Home " in Cincinnati founded in 1888; the " Protestant Deaconesses' Home " in Indianapolis (1894); and the " German Deaconesses' Home" in Buffalo (1895). For a further presentation of the work of women in the Church see the article Woman's Work. D. S. Schaff.
Bibliography: On I. and II.: Bingham, Origines, books i., ii., iv.; L. Thomassin, Vetus et nova ecclesice disciplina, I. iii., chapa. 47-50, Paris, 1728; A. J. C. Pankowski, De diaconissis commentaiio, Regensburg, 1866; T. Zahn, Ignatius von Antiochien, pp. 680-587, Gotha, 1873; G. Uhlhorn, Die christliche Liebesthatigkeit, 3 vols., Stuttgart, 1881-90, vol. i. In der alien Kirche, 1881, Eng. transl.. Christian Charity in the Early Church, New York, 1883, vol. ii. Im Mittelater, 1884, vol. iii. Seit der Reformation, 1890; J. B. Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, ii. 322-324, 913 sqq., London, 1885; J. J. I. DoUinger, Beitrage zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters, Munich, 1890; the Commentaries on Romans, especially Lange's, New York, 1869, and by Sanday and Headlam, in International Critical Commentary, New York, 1895; works on the Apostolic Age, such as Schaff, Christian Church, i. 499, cf. iii. 259-262; DC A, i. 532-535.
III.: The classical work on Deaconesses in the modern Church is T. Sohafer, Geschichte der weiblichen Diakonie, 3 vols., Stuttgart, 1887-94. Consult: Florence Nightingale, The Institution of Deaconesses, London, 1851; Mrs. Jameson, Sisters of Charity, ib. 1855; P. Schaff, Germany, its Universities, Theology and Religion, chap, xxxviii., Philadelphia, 1857; J. S. Howson, Deaconesses, London, 1862; idem. The Diaconate of Women in the Anglican Church, ib. 1886; J. M. Ludlow, Woman's Work in the Church, ib. 1865; H. C. Potter, Sisterhoods and Deaconesses, New York, 1873; A. Spath, Phcsbe the Deaconess, Philadelphia, 1885; H. Wheeler, Deaconesses Ancient and Modern, New York, 1889; Jane M. Bancroft, Deaconesses in Europe, ib. 1889; L. R. Meyer, Deaconesses, ib. 1889; H. J. Cooke, Mildmay, the First Deaconess Institution, London, 1892; J. M. Thoburn, The Deaconess and Her Vocation, New York, 1893; G. M. Maynard, Pictures of Mildmay, London, 1895; C. Robinson, The Ministry of Deaconesses, ib. 1898; C. Golder, Hist, of the Deaconess Movement in the Christian Church, New York, 1903; G. H. Gerberding, Life and Letters of W. A. Passavant, Greenville, Pa., 1906; Livinia L. Dock and Mary A. Nutting, A History of Nursing, 2 vols., New York and London, 1908; the Reports of the Conferences of the Evangelical Lutheran Mother-houses in the United States. A concise review of the modern movement is given in the Addresses, Reports, Statements of the National Council of Congregational Churches of the United States, 1907, pp. 292-308, Boston, 1907.
DEAD SEA. See Palestine.
DEAN: A word which comes from the Latin decanus, originally a military term, designating the leader of a decania or body of ten soldiers. It early acquired the general meaning of overseer of a small number of inferiors, and was used in households for the overseers of slaves, subsequently in Constantinople for police officials. In ecclesiastical