17. All clergymen, who loan money, or goods, on interest, to be deposed, and their names struck off the list.
18. Deacons shall not present the bread and wine to the presbyters, or partake thereof themselves, or sit among the presbyters:
Deacons not to Deliver the Eucharist to Presbyters.
"It having come to the knowledge of the great and holy Council, that, in certain places and cities, the eucharist is administered, by deacons, to presbyters, and neither law nor custom permitting that those, who have no authority to offer the body of Christ, should deliver it to those who have; and it being also understood, that some deacons receive the eucharist before even the bishops, let, therefore, all these irregularities be removed, and let the deacons remain within their own limits, knowing that they are ministers of the bishops, and inferior to the presbyters. Let them receive the eucharist in their proper place, after the presbyters, whether it be administered by a bishop or presbyter. Nor is it permitted to deacons to sit among the presbyters, as that is against the rule and order. If any one will not obey, even after these regulations, let him desist from his ministry."[1]
19. The followers of Paul, of Samosata,[2] on re-
- ↑ Deacons had the administration of the offerings, and of all the temporal concerns of the churches. They were employed to carry the bread and wine, says Justin Martyr, to such communicants as were absent. The poor received alms from their hands, and the clergy their stipends and remuneration.
- ↑ Paul, of Samosata, was a bishop of Antioch in Syria, A. D. 269, who taught the heresy, that there is but one God, called in the Scriptures, the Father; and, that Christ was only a mere man, endowed with the Divine Word or Wisdom. This Paul held his church at Antioch under Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, until she was conquered by Aurelian.
