d with the Church; and it will be well, in
doing so, to remember what is wisely said by our own Church, in her
thirty-fourth article, which is about "the Traditions of the Church"
(that is to say, the practices _handed down_ in the Church):--"It is not
necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places one, and
utterly like; for at all times they have been divers" (that is, they
have differed in different parts of Christ's Church), "and they may be
changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's
manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's word."

First, then, as to the ministers of the Church. The three orders which
had been from the beginning,--bishops, presbyters (or priests), and
deacons,[12] were considered to stand by themselves, as the only orders
_necessary_ to a church. But early in the third century a number of
other orders were introduced, all lower than that of deacons. These were
the _sub-deacons_, who helped the deacons in the care of the poor, and
of the property belonging to the church; the _acolyths_, who lighted
the lamps, and assisted in the celebration of the sacraments; the
_exorcists_, who took charge of persons suffering from afflictions
resembling the possession by devils which is spoken of in the New
Testament; the _readers_, whose business it was to read the Scriptures
in church; and the _doorkeepers_. All these were considered to belong to
the clergy; just as if among ourselves the organist, the clerk, the
sexton, the singers, and the bell-ringers of a church were to be
reckoned as clergy, and were to be appointed to their offices by a
religious ceremony or ordination. But these new orders were not used
everywhere, and, as has been said, the persons who were in these orders
were not considered to be clergy in the same way as those of the three
higher orders which had been ever since the days of the Apostles.

[12] Page 6.

There were also, in the earliest times, women called _deaconesses_, such
as Phoebe, who is mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans (xvi. I).
These deaconesses (who were often pious widows) were employed among
Christians of their own sex, for such works of mercy and instruction as
were not fit for men to do (or, at least, were supposed not to be so
according to the manners of the Greeks, and of the other ancient
nations). But the order of deaconesses does not seem to have lasted
long.

All bishops, as I have said already, are of one order.[