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Rh ARCHDEACON

693

ARCHDEACON

the privileges of these heads of orders are imparted to bishops. Such extraordinary powers have been eonsiilerably restricted within recent years. The \icar-general may not erect confraternities unless he has been expressly ileleg;Ued for the purpose by his bishop. l'"or the aggregation it.self the following are the principal regulations to be observed under penalty of forfeiting the indulgences. .Aggregation, or aflilia- tion, as it is al.so called, may be made by those only who have received from the Ht)ly See express powers for that purpose. They must make use of a pre- scribed formula. In the same church only one con- fraternity of the .same name and purpose may be aggregated. The consent of the bishop must be given in writing. Hut in the case of religious orders ag- gregating their own confraternities in their own churches, the consent of the bishop given for the erection of the hou.se or church of the order is .suffi- cient. The bishop must approve, but may modify the practices and regulations of the confraternity to be aggregated, except those to which the indulgences have been expressly attached. Only tho.se in- dulgences are imparted by aggregation which have been conceded with that provision. Such indul- gences mu.st be enumerated in detail, as is usually lione in the prescribeel formula of aggregation; no tax may be nnposod for aggregation, not even for diplomas, except the expenses requisite for paper and postage. I'or modifications of these regulations, the laws of the various archconfraternities should be consulted.

Only the general process of conducting the aggre- gation is given. If it pertains to the bishop to erect the confraternity, then the pastor of a church or the superior of a religious hou.se petitions him for canonical erection, giWng the kimf of confraternity desired, its title, its patron .saint, the church and locality where it is to be erected, its directors, and any desnations from the ortlinary rules of the con- fraternity in question, and asking the consent of the bishop for aggregation to the archconfratemity. If the erection pertains to the head of a religious order, then the bishop's consent to the aggregation is re- quired. In all cases the information just detailed must be sent to the bishop anil to the head of the order to insure the validity of the process. FormultP embodying such essential information may be ob- tained usually from the authorities in charge of a confraternity. Some of the more wiilely known archconfraternities are tho.se of the Holy Name, the Hlessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Precious Hlood, the Holy Face, the Holy Rosary, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Sodality of the Blessed Heart of Mary for the Conversion of Sinners, the Cord of St. Francis, Christian Doctrine, Bona Mors, Christian Mothers.

U^:RiNGt:R, Les Indulgences (Pari.-*, 1905). II. eive.** the legisla- tion on tlii.1 subject, with a list of the arohconfraternitiea, their nature ana requirements. an<i formula' for canonical erection ami for ajZKfcgatiun. Moccheqiani, Collectio Indul- genliarum (Quaracchi, 1897); Tachy, TraUe de» Confrmet (Haute-Mame, 1898).

F. P. Donnelly.

Archdeacon (Lat. archidiaconus: Gr. ipx^SidKom) , the imuriiheiit of an ecclesiastical ullice dating back to anliiiuity, and up to the fifteenth ccnturj' of great importance in diocesan administration, partictuarly in the West. The term does not appear before the fourth century, and is then first met with in the histor)' of the Donatist schism, written about 370 by Optatus of Milevc (I, xvi, ed. Corp. Script. Kci-1. Lat., XXVI, 18). However, as he here bestows the title on Ca'cilian, a deacon of Carthage early in the fourth centurj-, it would appear that since that ix>riod there wius an occasional use of the name. Towards the end of the fourth and the l)eginning of the fifth century, the term begins to ap|X!ar more frequently both among Latin and Greek authors.

We also occasionally find other names used to indicate the office, e. g. 4 roD x'>f>o<> '^w'' i'aK6i/aiw i]yoviui>ot (Theodoret, Hist. Eccl., I, xxvi, in P. G., LXXXII, 981). The term soon acquired fixity, all the more rapidly as the archidiaconal office l)Ccanio more prominent and its duties were more sharply defined. The beginnings of the archi- diaconate are found in the first three centuries of the Christian era. The immediate predecessor of the archdeacon is the diaconus episcopi of primitive Christian times, the deacon whom the bi.shop se- lected from the diaconal college (see Deacon) for his personal service. He was made an assistant in the work of ecclesiastical administration, was charged with the care of the poor, ami was suijervisor of the other deacons in their administration of church pro|)erty. He thus became the special procurator, or aconomus. of the Christian community, and was also entrusted with the surveillance of the sub- ordinate clergy. In this early ])eriod the duties of the diaconus ipiscopi were not juridically defined, but were performed under the direction of the bishop and for the time s|M;cified by him. Beginning with the fourth century this s|x;cialized activity of the diaconux cpi.scopi takes on gradually the character of a juridical ecclesiiustical office. In the round of ecclesiastical administration certain duties appear attached by the law to the office of the archdeacon. Thus, in the period from the fourth to the eighth century the archdeacon is the oflicial supervisor of the subordinate dergj', has disciplinary authority over them in all cases of wrong-doing, and exercises a certain surveillance over their discharge of the duties assigned them. It was also within the arch- deacon's province to examine candidates for the priesthooti; he had also the right of making visita- tions among the rural clcrg}-. It was even his duty, in exceptional cases of episcopal neglect, to safeguard the interests of the Church; to his hands were entrusted the preservation of the Faith in its primitive purity, the cvistody of ecclesiastical discip- line, and the prevention of damage to the property of the Church. The archdeacon was, moreover, the bishop's chief confidant, his assistant, and when it was necessar)', his representative in the exercise of the manifold duties of the episcopal office. This was especially the case in the administration of eccle- siastical pro|H>rty. the care of the sick, the visitation of prisoners, and the training of the clergj'. In the E;ist there wius no further development of the archi- diaconatc; but in the West a new stage was in- augurated with the eighth century. By virtue of his office the archdeacon liecame, next to the bishop, the regular organ of supervision and discipline in the diocese. In this respect he w;is assigned a proper and independent jurisdiction (Jurixdiclio propria) and even as late as the twelfth century there was a con- stant effort to increa.se the scope of this authority. The great amount of business to be transacted ne- cessitated in large dioceses the appointment of several archdeacons. The first bishop to introduce this innovation was Hcddo of Stnisburg, who in 774 divided his diocese into seven archidiaconates {archi- diaconaluf! ruralex). His example was quickly fol- lowed throughout Western Christendom, except in Italy where the majority of the dioceses were so small as to need no .such division of authority. Henceforth the archi<liaconux magnui! of the cathe- dral (usually the pmvost, or prftpo.titus of the chap- ter), who.se duties chiefly concerned the citv clergj*, is offset by the archidiaconi ruralex placeil over the deans {archi prr.ib;itrri ruralex). These archdeacons were generally priests, either canons of the cathedral or provosts of the principal (collegiate') churches in small towns. The authority of the archdeacons cul- niinatetl in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. .\t that time they exercised within the province of their