office-bearers about the close of the second century.  The sub-deacons are said to have had the care of the sacramental cups; the acolyths attended to the lamps of the sacred edifice; the exorcists [592:3] professed by their prayers to expel evil spirits out of the bodies of those about to be baptized; and the janitors performed the more humble duties of porters or door-keepers.  At a subsequent period each of these functionaries was initiated into office by a special form of ordination or investiture.  It was laid down as a principle that no one could regularly become a bishop who had not previously passed through all these inferior orders; [592:4] but when the multitude wished all at once to elevate a layman to the rank of a bishop or a presbyter, ecclesiastical routine was compelled to yield to the pressure of popular enthusiasm. [592:5]

The great city in which Prelacy originated appears to have been the place where these new offices made their first appearance.  Rome, true to her mission as “the mother of the Catholic Church,” conceived and brought forth nearly all the peculiarities of the Catholic system.  The lady seated on the seven hills was already regarded with great admiration, and surrounding Churches silently copied the arrangements of their Imperial parent.  In the East, at least one of the orders now instituted by the great Western prelate, that is, the order of acolyths, was not adopted for centuries afterwards. [593:1]

The city bishops were well aware of the vast accession of influence they acquired in consequence of their election by the people, and did not fail to insist upon the circumstance when desirous to illustrate their ecclesiastical title.  Any one who peruses the letters of Cyprian may remark the frequency, as well as the transparent satisfaction, with which he refers to the mode of his appointment.  Who, he seems to say, could doubt his right to act as bishop of Carthage, seeing that he had been chosen by “the suffrage of the whole fraternity”—­by “the vote of the people?” [593:2] The members of the Church enthusiastically acknowledged such appeals to their sympathy and support, and in cases of emergency promptly rallied round the individuals whom they had themselves elevated to power.  But as all the other church officers were meanwhile likewise chosen by common suffrage, the bishops soon betrayed an anxiety to appropriate the distinction, and began, under various pretexts, to interfere with the free exercise of the popular franchise.  In one of his epistles Cyprian excuses himself to the Christians of Carthage because he had ventured to ordain a reader without their approval.  He pleads that the peculiar circumstances of the case and the extraordinary merits of the candidate must be accepted as his apology.  “In clerical ordinations,” says he, “my custom is to consult you beforehand, dearest brethren, and in common deliberation to weigh the character and merits of each.  But testimonies