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there was a true diaconate of women in the churches founded by St Paul. Bishop Lightfoot held that Phoebe, Sid/covos of the church at Cenchreae (Bom. xvi. 1), “is as much a deacon as Stephen or Philip is a deacon ”; and even if the word be used loosely here, it is clear that 1 Tim. iii. 11 means “ Women (-deacons) in like manner,” &c. (6) Nor must they be confused with the “ widows ” of the ancient Church, to whom certain functions were sometimes intrusted ; they were ordained (excepting apparently for a time in Egypt) and had a definite position “ about the altar,” i.e., in the ranks of the clergy. Their work was to visit and instruct the women, to have charge of them during service, and to anoint women and children for baptism; sometimes also to cleanse the sanctuary and even administer the chalice to women. At first they ranked with, but below, the men-deacons; in course of time, however, the former rose in the scale and the latter fell, ranking below the sub-deacons; and indeed the author of the Testamentum Domini (r/.v.) places over them an entirely new officer, the “canonical widow,” “presbytera,” or “vidua habens prcecedentiam sedendo” of whom there are only faint traces elsewhere. Although the order appears to have existed from the first in the East, where women were much secluded (the two ministroe tortured by Pliny, Ep. xcvi, may well have been deaconesses), it only spread elsewhere by degrees. It is not mentioned in Egypt till well on in the 3rd century, and does not appear in the West till about 400 a.d.,—first in Gaul and then in Italy. Even then it does not seem to have been a thriving institution. Some deaconesses are known to us of a strictly ministerial kind, but more frequently they are of a monastic or quasimonastic character; and the institution died away by about the 11th century. In the East they throve better: they are well known to us in the writings of St Chrysostom and other fathers, synods made regulations respecting them, and their position before the law is clearly laid down in the Civil Law. Nevertheless, here also they passed away by degrees; first the office came to be held by the heads of communities of women, then the name came to be given to abbesses in general, and by about the 13th century deaconesses were practically extinct. Several mediaeval and Protestant sects, however, possessed a ministry of deaconesses, amongst whom may be mentioned the Cathari, Mennonites, United Brethren, and the early Independents. Moreover, the enlarged scope of women’s work at the present day has led to the foundation of “ deaconess institutions ” of an entirely new kind. Such an institution was inaugurated at Kaiserwerth in 1833 by the Lutheran Dr Fleidner; others of the same kind followed, both abroad and in England (e.g., at Tottenham and Mildmay Park) ; and they are now to be found in most parts of Europe. The members of these institutions, however, do not really represent the deaconesses of early days: they are not ministers of their churches in any real sense, but rather members of voluntary societies for common work. In fact they are Protestant sisters of charity rather than deaconesses. In recent days, however, there has been a movement in the churches of the Anglican communion for the revival of the order of deaconess on ancient lines. In 1861 Bishop Tait of London set apart Miss E. Ferard as a deaconess by laying on of hands, and she became the first head of the London Deaconess Institution. Similar institutions have since been founded at home and abroad, some on a “regular” and some on a “secular” basis; i.e., in some cases the members are professed sisters, in others not. By degrees, too, they have received further recognition. In 1871 a body of “Principles and Rules” for deaconesses received the signature of the two English archbishops and eighteen bishops; in 1891 eight “Resolutions” on the subject were passed in the Convocation

SEA of Canterbury; and the Lambeth Conference of 1897 “recognizes with thankfulness the revival of the office of deaconess.” Nevertheless, the revival cannot yet be considered complete: the deaconess is not yet more than a diocesan officer, who “ may be released from her obligations by the bishop, if he thinks fit, upon cause shown ”; her special functions are undetermined, and her status is still in many ways indefinite. No doubt, however, further development is only a question of time. Deaconess Cecilia Robinson. The Ministry of Deaconesses. London, 1898.—Church Quarterly Review, vol. xlvii. p. 302 f., art. “On the Early History and Modern Revival of Deaconesses.” London, 1899 ; and the works there referred to.—D. Latas. 'X.pKTTLa.viK'f] ’ApxcaoXoyia, vol. i. pp. 163-171. Athens, 1883.— Testamentum Domini, ed. Rahmani. Mainz, 1899. (w. E. Co.) Dead Sea, a lake in Palestine, so called from the absence of animal life in its waters. It lies nearly north and south, in the deepest part of the Jordan-Araba depression. It has no outlet, and its surface is from 1289 to 1300 feet below that of the Mediterranean. At its northern end is the broad valley down which the Jordan flows; and beyond the marshy plain at its other extremity, the floor of the Araba rises southward to the watershed between the Dead and Red Seas (65J miles from the Dead and 46-| miles from the Red Sea; altitude 660 feet). From the eastern shore the ground rises abruptly in terraces to the Moabite plateau (3100 feet) ; and from the western with almost equal abruptness to the hill country of Judah (3300 feet). The slopes on either side are deeply seamed by watercourses, through which winter torrents and, in some cases, perennial streams flow to the lake. The Dead Sea is about 47b miles long, and its greatest width is 9^ miles; its area is about 340 square miles. It is divided into two unequal parts by a peninsula, el-Lisan, which breaks off on the west in a cliff about 300 feet high, and is connected with the Moabite shore by a narrow strip of marshy land. The peninsula is composed of white calcareous marl with beds of salt and gypsum, and, like Jebel Usdum, which it resembles in character and composition, it formed part of the bed of the lake when its waters stood at a higher level. North of the peninsula the lake has a maximum depth of 1278 feet. South of it the depth is only 3 to 12 feet, and some years ago it was fordable opposite el-Lisan. The marshy plain, es-Sebkha, at the south end is liable to inundation, and strewn with driftwood encrusted with salt; it extends southwards to a terrace 500 feet high, which marks the commencement of the 'Araba. At the south-west end of the lake is Jebel or Khashm Usdum, about 600 feet high, and 7 miles long, of which the lower part is formed of solid rock-salt. The principal affluents, including winter torrents, are, on the north, the Jordan and ‘Ain esSueimeh; on the east, Wadies Ghuweir, Zerka Mam, in which lie the hot sulphur springs of Callirrhoe, Mojib (Arnon), ed-Dera a or el-Kerak, en-N'meirah, and el-Hesi or es-Safieh, which passes to the lake through the reed-thickets of es-Sebkha ; on the south, Wadies et-Taffleh, el-Jeib, and el-Fikreh; and on the west, Wadies Muhauwat and Seyal, 'Ain Jidi, W. el-Merabba or ed-Derajeh, 'Ain Ghuweir, W. en-Nar, and 'Ain Feshkha. It is estimated that these affluents pour more than six million tons of water into the Dead Sea daily, all of which passes off by evaporation. The surface level of the lake varies with the season. In March 1865 it was 1292 feet below sea-level (Wilson): it is highest in February or March. The boiling-point of the water is 221° F. The density increases from north to south, and with the depth—rapidly to a certain point, after which it is more uniform. Its density at 300 metres is D253, average IT66. The solid matter at a depth of