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. anriod 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
