officials in which the candidate for the priesthood was detained for some time. The first ceremony, called the ‘tonsure,’ in which the bishop symbolically cuts five locks of hair from the head of the neophyte, is a formal initiation into the ranks of the clergy; in cutting the hair the bishop repeats the words of the psalm ‘Dominus pars hereditatis meae,’ for the ‘cleric’ is one who has thrown in his ‘lot’ (kleros) with the ministers of the Lord. After a time he passes through the four minor orders and becomes successively doorkeeper, reader, exorcist, and acolythe. Now the tonsure and the minor orders are usually given in one ceremony, for the lower offices have been absorbed into the higher. The inveterate conservativism of the Church of Rome has led to some curious and ridiculous survivals in the ceremony; for instance, after receiving the order of doorkeeper, the cleric is solemnly marched by the master of ceremonies to the church-door, where he pulls the bell, opens the door and shuts it, and returns to the sanctuary for the next step, having ‘faithfully discharged his office of doorkeeper.’ The function of exorcist can now only be exercised by a priest with the permission of the bishop in each case; in the west of Ireland, where belief in diabolical interference and the power of the priest is still profound and widespread, exorcisms are not unknown.
The subdiaconate is usually received at twenty-one and the diaconate a year afterwards. In the monastic
