Andrew B. Meehan

“ An acolyte carried to the deacon at the altar, the chalice and pall; acolytes received, and cared for, the offerings gathered by the Pope; an acolyte held the paten, covered with a veil, from the beginning to the middle of the canon. In due time acolytes bore, in linen bags, or burses suspended from their necks, the oblata, or consecrated loaves from the altar to the bishops and priests in the sanctuary; that they might break the sacred species (see Fractio Panis) . ”

“ We might conclude that at Reims, in the fifth century, there were no acolytes, if we could attach credence to the will of Bishop Bennadius, predecessor of St. Remigius. He gives all the categories of clerics except this one (Flodoard, Hist. Rem. Eccl., I, ix, in P.L., LXXXV, 43) . In the Christian epigraphy of Gaul mention is made, as far as is known, of only one acolyte, viz., at Lyons in 517 (La Blant, "Inser. chrét. de la Gaule," I, 36) , and, in general, very few epigraphs of acolytes are found in the first five centuries. ”

“ It is to be noted that as clerics, unless degraded or reduced to the lay state, were not submitted to the humiliation of public penance, so, consequently, their admission into the Church involved no imposition of hands or other ceremony except a profession of faith (Fratres Ballerini, in Epist. S. Leon., n. 1594, P.L., LIV, 1492) . In all cases there was demanded the presentation of a libellus, or form of abjuration, in which the convert renounced and anathematized his former tenets. ”

“ According to the ancient discipline of the Roman Church the order of acolyte was conferred as the candidate approached adolescence, about the age of twenty, as the decree of Pope Siricius (385) to Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona, in Spain, was interpreted (P.L., XIII, 1142) . Five years were to elapse before an acolyte could receive subdeaconship. Pope Zosimus reduced (418) this term to four years. The Council of Trent leaves to the judgment of bishops to determine what space should elapse between the conferring of the acolythate and subdeaconship; it is also interesting to note, with Dr. ”

“ Duchesne, I, 167) : "Hic hereticos invenit in Urbe Roma, quos ad manum impositionis [sic] reconciliavit." The same work (I, 216) declares of Pope Siricius (a.d. 384–399) : "Hic constituit hereticum sub manum impositionis reconciliari, prsesente cuncta ecclesia." ”