{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/214/2140190.htm","path":"chr/ecf/214/2140190.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/214/2140190.htm","text":"The subdeacons have no right to a place in the Diaconicum, nor to touch the Lord\u2019s vessels.\nA subdeacon shall not touch the vessels.\nThe \u201cLord\u2019s vessels\u201d are the chalice and what we call the sacred vessels.\nThe ecclesiastical ministers shall not take into their hands the Lord\u2019s vessels, but they shall be carried to the Table by the priests or deacons.\nBoth Balsamon and Zonaras agree that by \u1f51\u03c0\u03ad\u03c1\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 is here meant subdeacons.\nIt is doubtful whether by diaconicum is here meant the place where the deacons stood during service, or the diaconicum generally so called, which answers to our sacristy of the present day. In this diaconicum the sacred vessels and vestments were kept; and as the last part of the canon especially mentions these, I have no doubt that the diaconicum must mean the sacristy. For the rest, this canon is only the concrete expression of the rule, that the subdeacons shall not assume the functions of the deacons.\nWith regard to the last words of this canon, Morinus and Van Espen are of opinion that the subdeacons were not altogether forbidden to touch the sacred vessels, for this had never been the case, but that it was intended that at the solemn entrance to the altar, peculiar to the Greek service, the sacred vessels which were then carried should not be borne by the subdeacons.\nThis canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian\u2019s Decretum, Pars I., Dist. xxiii., c. xxvj.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XIV: The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neoc\u00e6sarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods.: Canon XXI","type":"page"}