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52-610: Antipope Felix II , an archdeacon of Rome, was installed as Pope in 355 AD after the Emperor Constantius II banished the reigning Pope, Liberius , for refusing to subscribe to a sentence of condemnation against Saint Athanasius . In May 357 AD the Roman laity, which had remained faithful to Liberius, demanded that Constantius, who was on a visit to Rome, should recall Liberius. The Emperor planned to have Felix and Liberius rule jointly, but when Liberius returned Felix

104-697: A 22 November, and his death was not a martyr's, occurring when the Peace of Constantine had been in force for half a century. As well as the Roman Martyrology, the Roman Missal identified the Saint Felix of 29 July with the antipope. This identification, still found in the 1920 typical edition, does not appear in the 1962 typical edition. To judge by the Marietti printing of 1952, which omits

156-468: A deacon whom the bishop selected to administer the church's finances under the bishop's personal direction, the office of archdeacon gradually developed, as certain functions were reserved to him by law. These functions included not only financial administration but also the discipline of the clergy, and examination of candidates for priesthood. From the 8th century, there was in the West a further development of

208-405: A diocese and has responsibility for serving at hierarchical services (those at which the bishop is present and presiding). He has responsibility for ensuring the smooth running of the service by directing the clergy and servers as appropriate. As such, he usually travels with the ruling bishop to various parts of the diocese, and will sometimes act as his secretary and cell attendant, ensuring that he

260-688: A hearing, ruled in favour of Caecilian and warned against unrest. A delegation from Rome travelled to Carthage in a vain attempt to seek compromise. The Donatists fomented protests and street violence, refusing to compromise in favor of the Catholic bishop. After the Constantinian shift , when other Christians accepted the emperor's decision, the Donatists continued to demonize him. After several attempts at reconciliation, in 317 Constantine issued an edict threatening death to anyone who disturbed

312-469: A senior official of a diocese. The duties are now performed by officials such as auxiliary or coadjutor bishops, the vicar general , and the episcopal vicars . The title remains. The term "archdeacon" appears for the first time in Optatus of Mileve 's history of Donatism of about 370, in which he applies it to someone who lived at the beginning of that century. From the office of the diaconus episcopi ,

364-404: Is able to balance his monastic life with his hierarchical duties. The archdeacon wears the double orarion , which is twice the length of the usual orarion, and wraps under the right arm as well as hanging from the left shoulder. An archdeacon may come from either the monastic or married clergy. A protodeacon also wears the double orarion, although he is distinguished from the archdeacon in that he

416-582: Is in the role of Bishop suffragan (- Archdeacon ) of Ludlow (in Shropshire ). They are usually styled The Venerable instead of their usual clerical style of The Reverend . In the Church of England the role can only be held by a priest who has been ordained for at least six years. (This rule was introduced in 1840. The rule that they be in priests' orders was enacted in 1662.) In the Church of England,

468-562: Is lower than the rank of a priest . Thus it is possible for a deacon to be appointed to the rank of an archdeacon within the Coptic Orthodox tradition. Donatism Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the church in the region of the Church of Carthage , from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Donatism had its roots in

520-513: Is still conferred on a canon of various cathedral chapters, and the word "archdeacon" has been defined in relation to the Latin Catholic Church as "a title of honour conferred only on a member of a cathedral chapter". However, Eastern Catholic Churches still utilize archdeacons . Archdeacons serve the church in part of a diocese by taking particular responsibility for all buildings, the welfare of clergy and their families and

572-458: Is the senior deacon at a cathedral or other principal church within a diocese and serves as the principal deacon when a number of deacons serve together. According to the canons of the Eastern churches, an archdeacon is of the highest priestly rank: he is the head of all the clerics belonging to a bishopric; he is responsible for the whole worship of the cathedral church and represents the will of

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624-547: The (Anglican) Diocese of Sydney . Very rarely, "lay archdeacons" have been arisen, most notably the former Anglican Communion Observer to the United Nations , Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagaloa-Leota , who retained her title after having served as Archdeacon of Samoa . In the Eastern Christian churches ( Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches ), an archdeacon is the senior deacon within

676-678: The Syro-Malabar Catholic and Pulikkottil Mar Dionysious stopped this amongst the Malankara Syrian Church later in 1816. In the Coptic Orthodox church, an archdeacon is the highest rank in the order of deacons. The lower ranks of the diaconate are deacon , subdeacon , lector and cantor , the holders of which ranks the Coptic people generically refer to as "deacons". However, the rank of archdeacon

728-643: The Vandals conquered North Africa. Donatism may have also gradually declined because Donatists and orthodox Catholics were equally marginalised by the Arian Vandals, but it survived the Vandal occupation and Justinian I 's Byzantine reconquest. Although it is unknown how long Donatism persisted, some Christian historians believe that the schism and its ensuing unrest in the Christian community facilitated

780-601: The Church of the East. This situation is best explained by the fact that from the point of view of the East Syriac Church structure the archdeacon had an ecclesiastical function, but from that of the St Thomas Christian community he had also a socio-political, princely function, representing the unity of the Christian nation, or caste(s), of Hindoo (India). Portuguese colonists stopped this practice among

832-522: The Donatists as the imperial church. The Donatists were persecuted by the Roman authorities to such a degree that Augustine protested their treatment. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) taught that in the divine sacrifice of the Holy Mass " is contained and immolated, in an unbloody manner, the same Christ that offered Himself in a bloody manner upon the altar of the Cross. Hence, it is the same victim,

884-461: The Donatists, sacraments administered by the traditores were invalid. Whether the sacrament of Penance could reconcile a traditor to full communion was questioned, and the church's position was that the sacrament could. The church still imposed years- (sometimes decades-) long public penance for serious sins. A penitent would first beg for the prayers of those entering a church from outside its doors. They would next be permitted to kneel inside

936-776: The Indian Church of the East was governed by a metropolitan sent by the Catholicos Patriarch. At the same time, at the local level, in India, church affairs were governed by the Malabar Assembly or Malankara Yogam . There was also an indigenous head of the Church of Malabar, the "head of the caste", that is the head of the St Thomas Christians called Jathikku Karthavyan or Malankara Mooppen . Patriarch Timothy (780–826) of Persia called him

988-499: The Russian bishops acquiesced to Patriarch Nikon 's reforms they (and the other patriarchs) forfeited any claim to apostolic succession . Accusations of Donatism remain common in contemporary intra-Christian polemics. Conservative Lutherans are sometimes called Donatists by their liberal brethren, referring to their doctrine of church fellowship and their position that churches which deny that Jesus’ body and blood are eaten during

1040-546: The Sovereign Pontiff Gregory XIII , it was found beneath the altar with the relics of the holy martyrs Mark, Marcellian, and Tranquillinus , and with the latter was put back in the same place on 31 July. In the same altar were also found the bodies of the holy martyrs Abundius, a priest, and Abundantius, a deacon, which were shortly after solemnly transferred to the church of the Society of Jesus, on

1092-411: The authority of the archdeacon, who now enjoyed a jurisdiction independent of the bishop. Large dioceses had several archdeaconries, in each of which the archdeacon (usually by now a priest), had an authority comparable to that of the bishop. He was often appointed not by the bishop but by the cathedral chapter or the king. However, from the 13th century, efforts were made to limit their authority. This

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1144-482: The bishop at ordinations and other diocesan liturgies. The Anglican ordinal presupposes (it is policy by default) that every Archdeacon helps to examine candidates for ordination and presents the most suitable candidate(s) to the ordaining bishop. In some parts of the Communion where women cannot be consecrated as bishops , the position is the most senior office a female cleric can hold: this being so, for instance, in

1196-427: The bishop controversy. Constantine, hoping to defuse the unrest, gave money to the non-Donatist bishop Caecilian as payment for churches damaged or confiscated during the persecution. Nothing was given to the Donatists; Constantine was apparently not fully aware of the seriousness of the dispute, which his gift exacerbated. The Donatists appealed to Rome for equal treatment; Constantine tasked Miltiades with resolving

1248-471: The bishop in his absence. However, from the local point of view, the rank of an archdeacon was more important than this; not only was he the most important priest of the community, but he also fulfilled the role of an ethnarch . An archdeacon was the "prince and head of the Christians of Saint Thomas" and had such titles as "Archdeacon and Gate of All India, Governor of India". The origin and the meaning of

1300-625: The church and the Donatists failed, and by 321 he asked the bishops to show moderation and patience to the sect in an open letter. During the brief reign of Julian , the Donatists were revitalized and, due to imperial protection, occupied churches and carried out atrocities. Laws against the Donatists were decreed by Valentinian I after the defeat of the Donatist usurper Firmus in North Africa. Augustine of Hippo campaigned against Donatism as bishop; through his efforts, orthodoxy gained

1352-515: The church during the Liturgy . After being allowed to stand with the congregation, the penitent would finally be allowed to receive the Eucharist again. According to Donatists, apostasy would permanently disqualify a man from church leadership. The validity of sacraments administered by priests and bishops who had been traditores was denied by the Donatists. According to Augustine, a sacrament

1404-578: The eve of their feast. This entry was based on what the Catholic Encyclopedia called later legends that confound the relative positions of Felix and Liberius. More recent editions of the Roman Martyrology have instead: At Rome, at the third milestone on the Via Portuensis, in the cemetery dedicated to his name, Saint Felix, martyr. The feast day of the Roman martyr Felix is 29 July. The antipope Felix died, as stated above, on

1456-527: The family varies, and the family seems to be identical with the Parambil family, translated into Portuguese as 'de Campo'. An archdeacon had all the attributes of a secular leader and was normally escorted by a number, sometimes several thousands, of soldiers. While there could be several bishops appointed for the Malabar Church, there was always only one archdeacon, a custom contrary to the canons of

1508-656: The following text: At Rome, on the Aurelian Way, St. Felix II, pope and martyr. Being expelled from his See by the Arian emperor Constantius for defending the Catholic faith, and being put to the sword privately at Cera in Tuscany, he died gloriously. His body was taken away from that place by clerics, and buried on the Aurelian Way. It was afterwards brought to the Church of the Saints Cosmas and Damian, where, under

1560-552: The fourth and fifth centuries. Donatism mainly spread among the indigenous Berber population, and Donatists were able to blend Christianity with many of the Berber local customs. The Roman governor of North Africa, lenient to the large Christian minority under his rule throughout the Diocletianic Persecutions , was satisfied when Christians handed over their scriptures as a token repudiation of faith. When

1612-576: The head of the faithful in India. While originally an archdeacon in the Church of the East was elected by the bishop according to merit, the office of the Archdeacon of India seems to have been dynastic. It was the privilege of the Pakalomattam family, at least from the sixteenth century onwards. Indeed, we know about a number of Pakalomattam archdeacons, beginning with 1502, when Metropolitan John of India appointed George Pakalomattam. The name of

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1664-463: The householder said to his servants, 'Whomsoever ye shall find, compel them to come in. ' " In 409, Emperor Honorius 's secretary of state, Marcellinus of Carthage , issued a decree which condemned the Donatists as heretical and demanded that they surrender their churches. This was made possible by a collatio in which St. Augustine legally proved that Constantine had chosen the Nicene church over

1716-501: The imperial peace; another edict followed, calling for the confiscation of all Donatist church property. Donatus refused to surrender his buildings in Carthage , and the local Roman governor sent troops to deal with him and his followers. Although the historical record is unclear, some Donatists were apparently killed and their clergy exiled. Outside Carthage, Donatist churches and clergy were undisturbed. Constantine's efforts to unite

1768-594: The implementation of diocesan policy for the sake of the Gospel. An archdeaconry is their territorial division; these vary in number according to the size of the diocese and in a few, mainly English, cases an assistant ( Suffragan ) Bishop will also stand in as Archdeacon, as applied to the Archdeaconry of Bodmin 1953–62 (which is one of two archdeaconries in the Diocese of Truro ). A later, possibly lasting instance,

1820-433: The issue, which led to the 313 commission. The Donatists refused to abide by the decision of the Roman council, demanding that a local council adjudicate the dispute and appealing directly to Constantine. In a surviving letter, a frustrated Constantine called for what became the first Council of Arles in 314. The council ruled against the Donatists, who again appealed to Constantine. The emperor ordered all parties to Rome for

1872-588: The latter had partially distanced themselves from Wycliffe's theology to avoid such a charge). Magisterial Reformers like Ulrich Zwingli labeled radical Reformers , such as the Anabaptists , as Donatists; Catholics were portrayed in Reformation rhetoric as Pelagian , another early Christian heresy. In Eastern Orthodoxy , the Bezpopovtsy (priestless) strain of Old Believers believed that because

1924-446: The legal act by which a priest becomes an archdeacon is called a collation . If that archdeaconry is annexed to a canonry of the cathedral, they will also be installed (placed in a stall) at that cathedral, in practice working largely in the chapter offices. In some other Anglican churches they can be deacons instead of priests; such archdeacons often work with the bishop to help with deacons' assignments to congregations and assist

1976-517: The long-established Christian community of the Roman province Africa Proconsularis (present-day Tunisia , the northeast of Algeria , and the western coast of Libya ) and Mauretania Tingitana (roughly with the northern part of present-day Morocco ), in the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian . Named after the Berber Christian bishop Donatus Magnus , Donatism flourished during

2028-486: The martyr Felix nothing is known except his name, that he was a martyr, and that he was buried in the cemetery on the Via Portuensis that bears his name. The Catholic Encyclopedia remarked that "the real story of the antipope was lost and he obtained in local Roman history the status of a saint and a confessor. As such he appears in the Roman Martyrology on 29 July." At that time (1909) the Roman Martyrology had

2080-500: The moral corruption of priests invalidated their offices and sacraments, a belief characterizing Donatism. Hus similarly argued that a prelate's moral character determined his ecclesiastical authority, a position his contemporaries compared to Donatism and condemned as heresy at the Council of Constance . During the Reformation, Catholic Counter-Reformers such as Johann Eck accused the magisterial Reformers of Donatism (although

2132-487: The numeral "II" and the word "Papae", the correction had already been made by then. One Catholic writer excuses this by saying that the antipope "himself did refuse to accept Arianism , and so his feast has been kept in the past on [29 July]". Archdeacon In the Latin Catholic Church , the post of archdeacon, originally an ordained deacon (rather than a priest), was once one of great importance as

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2184-406: The persecution ended, Christians who did so were called traditores —"those who handed (the holy things) over"—by their critics (who were mainly from the poorer classes). Like third-century Novatianism , the Donatists were rigorists ; the church must be a church of "saints" (not "sinners"), and sacraments administered by traditores were invalid. In 311 Caecilian (a new bishop of Carthage )

2236-488: The rest of the Catholic Church. The Donatists were still a force during the lifetime of Augustine of Hippo , and disappeared only after the seventh- and eighth-century Muslim conquest . The Donatists refused to accept the sacraments and spiritual authority of priests and bishops who were traditores during the persecution. The traditores had returned to positions of authority under Constantine I ; according to

2288-433: The same sacrificing-priest who offers Himself now through the ministry of priests and who once offers Himself upon the Cross." The worth of the sacrifice does not depend on the celebrating priest (or bishop), but on the "worth of the victim and on the dignity of the chief priest - none other than Jesus Christ Himself". The effects of Augustine's theological success and the emperor's legal action were somewhat reversed when

2340-784: The seventh-century Muslim conquest of the region. Donatism is associated with a number of other groups, including: In Mauretania and Numidia , the Catholic Encyclopedia claims that the splinter groups were so numerous that the Donatists could not name them all. The Donatists followed a succession of bishops: For several centuries during the High Middle Ages and the Reformation , accusations of Donatism were levelled against church-reform movements which criticized clerical immorality on theological grounds. The early reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were accused of Donatism by their theological opponents. Wycliffe taught that

2392-507: The term "gate" is mysterious. While the Catholicos Patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon reserved for himself the right to send his own prelates originating from Iraq to the Indian diocese, the continuous governance of his Indian flock was secured by the indigenous Archdeacon serving as the head of all the priests in Malabar and representing the bishop's will. According to the traditional structure,

2444-734: The upper hand. According to Augustine and the church, the validity of sacraments was a property of the priesthood independent of individual character. Influenced by the Old Testament , he believed in discipline as a means of education. In his letter to Vincentius, Augustine used the New Testament Parable of the Great Banquet to justify using force against the Donatists: "You are of opinion that no one should be compelled to follow righteousness; and yet you read that

2496-461: Was Antipope Felix V . The Catholic Encyclopedia (1909) called this confusion a "distortion of the true facts" and suggested that it arose because the "Liber Pontificalis", which at this point may be registering a reliable tradition, says that this Felix built a church on the Via Aurelia , which is where the Roman martyr of an earlier date was buried. However, a more recent source says that of

2548-563: Was consecrated by Felix of Aptungi , an alleged traditor . His opponents consecrated Majorinus , a short-lived rival who was succeeded by Donatus. Two years later, a commission appointed by Pope Miltiades condemned the Donatists. They persisted, seeing themselves as the true church with valid sacraments. Because of their association with the Circumcellions , the Donatists were repressed by Roman authorities. Although they had local support, their opponents were supported by Rome and by

2600-445: Was effected in part by the institution of the new office of vicar general. In 1553, the Council of Trent removed entirely the independent powers of archdeacons. Those who had been in charge of different parts of the diocese gradually ceased to be appointed. Only the archdeacon associated with the cathedral chapter continued to exist as an empty title, with duties almost entirely limited to liturgical functions. The title of archdeacon

2652-507: Was forced to retire to Porto, near Rome, where, after making an unsuccessful attempt to establish himself again in Rome, he died on 22 November 365 AD. This Felix was later confused with a Roman martyr named Felix, with the result that he was included in lists of the Popes as Felix II and that the succeeding Popes of the same name ( Pope Felix III and Pope Felix IV ) were given wrong numerals, as

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2704-544: Was from God and ex opere operato (Latin for "from the work carried out"). A priest or bishop in a state of mortal sin could continue to administer valid sacraments. The Donatists believed that a repentant apostate priest could no longer consecrate the Eucharist. Some towns had both Donatist and Orthodox congregations. The sect developed and grew in North Africa, with unrest and threatened riots in Carthage connected to

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