Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan … > Volume 2, C-L

D E A ( 308 ) D E A
jn general councils. Their office out of the church
was to take care of the neceffitous, fuch as orplfhns,
widows, prifoners, and all the poor and fick who had
any title to be maintained out of the public revenues
of the church ; to inquire into the morals and conver-
fation of the people, and to make their report thereof
to the bifhop. Whence, on account of the variety of
bufinefs, it was ufual to have feveral deacons in the
fame church.
In the Romifh church, it is the deacons office to
incenfe the officiating prieft or prelate ; to lay the cor¬
poral on the altar ; to receive the paten or cup from
the fubdeacon, and prefent them to the perfon offi¬
ciating ; to incenfe the choir ; to receive the pax from
the officiating prelate, and carry it to the fubdeacon;
and at the pontifical mafs, when the biffiop gives the
bleffing, to put the mitre on his head, and to take off
the archbiffiop’s pall, and lay it on the altar. In'Eng-
land, the form of ordaining deacons, declares that it is
their office to affift the prieft in the diftribution of the
holy communion ; in which, agreeably to the practice
of the ancient church, they are confined to the admi-
niftering the wine to the communicants. A deacon,
with us, is not capable of any ecclefxaftical promotion,
yet he may be'a chaplain to a family, curate to a bene-
iaced clergyman, or lecturer to a pariffi chufch. He
may be ordained at twenty-three years of age, anno
currente ; but it is exprefsly provided, that the biffiop
ffiall not ordain the fame perfon a prieft and deacon in
the fame day. Deacons, according to St Paul, ffiould
be chafte, fincere, and blamelefs ; neither great drink¬
ers, nor given to filthy lucre; they ffiould hold the
myftery of the faith in a pure confcience, and ffiould
be well approved before they are admitted to the mi-
niftry.
DEACONESS, a female deacon, an order of women,
who had their diftindf offices and fervices in the pri¬
mitive church. This office appears as ancient as the
apoftolical age ; for St Paul calls Phebe a fervant of
the church of Cenchrea. The original word is \_dia-
kono3~\, anfwerable to the Latin word mtnijlra. Ter-
tullian calls them vidtue, widows, becaufe they were
commonly chofen out of the widows of the church ;
and, for the fame reafon, Epiphanius, when the coun¬
cil of Laodicea, calls them \_prejbutidas~], elderly
women, becaufe none but fuch were ordinarily taken
into this office. For, indeed, by fome ancient laws,
thefe four qualifications were required in every one
that was to be admitted into this order. 1. That ffie
ftiould be a widow. 2. That ffie ffiould be a widow
that had born children. 3. A widow that was but once
married. 4. One of a confiderable age, forty, fifty,
or fixty years old. Though all thefe rules admitted
of exceptions. Concerning their ordination, whether
it was always performed by impofition of hands, the
learned are much divided in their fentiments. Baro¬
nins and Valefius think they were not, and make no
other account of them than as mefe lay-perfons. But
the author of the conftitutions, fpeaking of their ordi¬
nation, requires the biffiop to ufe impofition of hands,
with a form of prayer which is there recited. We
are not, however, to imagine, that this ordination gave
them any power to execute any part of the facerdota!
• office. They were only to perform feme inferior fer¬
vices of the church, and thofe chiefly relating to the
women for whofe fakes they were ordained. One part
of their office was to affift the, minifter at the baptizing
of women, to undrefs them for immerfion, and to drefs
them again, that the whole ceremony might be per¬
formed with all the decency becoming fo facred an ac¬
tion. Another part of their office was to be private
catechifts to the women-catechumens who were pre¬
paring for baptifm. They were likewife to vifit and
attend women that were fick and in diftrefs; to minifter
to the martyrs and confeffors in prifon; to attend the
womens gate in the church ; and, laftly, to affign all
women their places in the church, regulate their beha¬
viour, and prefide over the reft of the widows, whence
in fome canons they .are ftyled [prokathemenaf\ go-
verneffes. This or.der, which fince the tenth or
twelfth.century has been wholly laid afide, was not
aboliffied every where at once, but continued in the
Greek church longer than in the Latin, and in fome of
the Latin churches longer than in others.
DEAD MAN’s HEAD, in geography, a cape or pro¬
montory near Tregony in Cornwall, between St Mawes
and Fowey.
Dead-mens-eyes, in the fea-language, a kind of
blocks with many holes in them, but no’ ffieevers,
whereby the ffirowds are faftened to the chains : the
crow feet reeve alfo through thefe holes; and, in fome
ffiips, the main-ftays are fet tight in them ; but then
they have only one hole, through which the lanyards
are parted feveral times.
Dead-nettle. See Lamium.
Dead-reckoning, in navigation, the calculation made
of a ffiip’s place by means of the compafs and log;,
the firft ferving to point out the courfe ffie fails on,
and the other the diftance run. See Navigation.
Dead’s part, in Scots law, that proportion of the
funds of a marriage, which, upon the diflblution of
it, goes to the executor of the deceafed huffiand or wife,
as the defund or dead’s part. See Scots Law,
title 28.
Dea.d-sea, in geography, a lake of Judea, into which
the river Jordan difeharges itfelf; being about feventy
miles long, and twenty broad. ,,
Dead-tops, a difeafe incident to young trees, and cu¬
red by cutting off the dead parts clofe to the next good
twig or ffioot, and claying them over as in grafting.
Dead-water, at fea, the eddy-water juft aftern of a
ffiip, fo called, becaufe it does not pafs away fo fwift
as the water running by her fides does. They fay
that a ffiip makes much dead water, when ftie has a
great eddy following her ftern.
DEADLY carrot. SccThapsia.
Deadly nightshade. See Atropa.
DEADS, among miners, denotes the earth or other
fertile fubftances which inclofe the ore on every fide.
Hence, breaking up the deads, is the temoving thefe
fubftances for the conveniency of carrying on their
work.
DEAFNESS,