Topic 3

These brief glimpses help us recall the place and role of deacons in the early Church.  However changes were ahead.  The very context for the ministry of deacons was about to undergo major change and in this topic we look at developments over the next thousand years.

In summary, under the emperor Constantine, fourth century Christianity began the process of becoming the state religion of the Roman Empire.  This had major consequences for the role of clergy and the organisation of the Church particularly in areas formerly assigned to deacons, i.e. administration and welfare.  Dramatic increases in Church membership and workload led to the development of minor orders who took over diaconal roles.  At the same time Bishops delegated some of their responsibilities to presbyters who gained power and status (including over deacons) in an increasingly hierarchically ordered Church.  To ensure adequate training and experience for presbyters and bishops it began to be required they progress through what were now seen as ‘the minor orders’ and this included the diaconate.  The stage was now set for the Christianity in the West to see the diaconate as merely a stepping stone to priesthood rather than a lifelong commitment.

By the Middle Ages, when monasteries and religious orders had taken over administrative and welfare roles and deaconesses had been absorbed into monastic movements, deacons  (all male) functioned primarily in a liturgical role, subordinate to the priesthood and as an apprenticeship (albeit often a brief one) to it.  By the 12th century even most archdeacons were priests.

 World-wide change at every level.

Let us not forget the wider context for this change in the Church; these were years of worldwide change at political and social, economic and religious levels.    For example, between 800 and 1000 C.E., in China paper money was being introduced, in England King Alfred was at work uniting smaller Anglo-Saxon states, Iceland was being colonised by Vikings, Eric the Red settled in Greenland and the Mayans emigrated to Yucatan peninsular.

In Christendom, controversies raged over  the veneration of icons, transubstantiation and filioque, the independence of the papacy and its relationship with temporal authority.  Popes came and went, for better or worse; monasteries grew, renewed, grew again; eastern orthodoxy was declared the official state religion of Russia and the split between east and western Christianity deepened.

In the first two hundred years of the second millennium, the Chinese perfected production and use of gunpowder, there was an agricultural revolution in medieval Europe following improved climate and  technological innovation and William the Conqueror invaded England.

Meanwhile Scandanavia and Hungary converted to Christianity, there was growing disagreement between secular and papal rulers, Muslim armies marched on Jerusalem to begin their destruction of Christian holy sites, and in Europe the building of massive cathedrals had begun. Cardinals became responsible for the election of popes, the East-West schism was sealed, Pope Gregory VII excommunicated all married priests and Westminster Abbey opened. Anselm became Archbishop of Canterbury. The Crusades marched against Muslim invaders making their way to reclaim Jerusalem killing Jews and Muslims along the way.  The Order of the hospital of St John was founded as a special order of knights dedicated to guarding a pilgrim hospital in Jerusalem, the Polynesian Islands were colonised, even more religious Orders created and the Virgin Mary became a saint.

To go more deeply into the radical changes in the diaconate in the fourth century and beyond we use the Barnett text first.