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An Early Medieval Tract on the Diaconate

“The Decline of the Diaconate” was a title given by T. G. Jalland to the addendum to his well-known article, “The Doctrine of the Parity of Ministers.” In this addendum Jalland showed that in the late patristic Church, at the very time when the presbyter's office was being equated with that of the episcopate, the deacon's office was being minimized. In the ante-Nicene Church the deacon had basked in the reflected glory of the bishop and had wielded administrative and consultative powers great enough to make any presbyter envious, but by the fourth century this prestige and power had begun to slip.