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The 30 Canons 6:17Council of Chalcedon of 451It is to Victor that we owe the most striking of all anecdotes about readers. During the former persecution under Genseric (or Gaiseric), the Arians attacked a Catholic congregation on Easter Sunday; and while a reader was standing alone in the pulpit, and chanting the "Alleluia melody" (cf. Hammond, Liturgies, p. 95), an arrow pierced his throat, the "codex" dropped from his hands, and he fell down dead (De Persec. Vand., i., 13). Five years before the Council, a boy of eight named Epiphanius was made a reader in the church of Pavia, and in process of time became famous as its bishop. Justinian forbade readers to be appointed under eighteen (Novel., 134, 13). The office is described in the Greek Euchologion as "the first step to the priesthood," and is conferred with delivery of the book containing the Epistles. Isidore of Seville, in the seventh century, tells us that the bishop ordained a reader by delivering to him "coram plebe," the "codex" of Scripture: and after giving precise directions as to pronunciation and accentuation, says that the readers were of old called "heralds" (De Eccl. Offic., ii., 11). (b) The Singers are placed by the xliijrd. Apostolic canon between subdeacons and readers, but they rank below readers in Laodic., c. 23, in the Liturgy of St. Mark (Hammond, p. 173), and in the canons wrongly ascribed to a IV Council of Carthage, which permit a presbyter to appoint a "psalmist" without the bishop's knowledge, and rank him even below the doorkeepers (Mansi, iii., 952). The chief passage respecting the ancient "singers" is Laodic., xv.The 30 Canons 10:13Council of Chalcedon of 451Nearly three years after the Council, Leo saw reason for requesting Marcian not to allow civil judges, "novo exemplo," to audit the accounts of "the oeconomi of the church of Constantinople," which ought, "secundumtraditum morem," to be examined by the bishop alone (Epist. cxxxvij. 2). In after days the "great steward" of St. Sophia was always a deacon; he was a conspicuous figure at the Patriarch's celebrations, standing on the right of the altar, vested in alb and stole, and holding the sacred fan ( ripidion ); his duty was to enter all incomings and outgoings of the church's revenue in a charterlary, and exhibit it quarterly, or half yearly, to the patriarchs; and he governed the church during a vacancy of the see (Eucholog., pp. 268, 275). In the West, Isidore of Seville describes the duties of the "oeconomus"; he has to see to the repair and building of churches, the care of church lands, the cultivation of vineyards, the payment of clerical stipends, of doles to the widows and the poor, and of food and clothing to church servants, and even the carrying on of church law suits,-all "cure jussu et arbitrio sui episcopi" (Ep. to Leudefred, Op. ii., 520); and before Isidore's death the IV Council of Toledo refers to this canon, and orders the bishops to appoint "from their own clergy those whom the Greeks call oeconomi, hoc est, qui vici episcoporum res ecclesiasticas tractant (canon xlviij., Mansi, x, 631). There was an officer named "oeconomus" in the old Irish monasteries; see Reeves' edition of Adamnan, p. 47.GregoryMoralia · Book22 4:22Gregory the Dialogist44. For because to the People still fearing, the Law was committed by the hands of a Servant, but upon the loving Children, the grace of the Gospel was bestowed by the Lord, Who as coming for our Redemption, instituted the New Covenant for us, but in examining as touching the precept of that Covenant one day cometh as Judge also, it is not requisite that by explaining it should be made clear, that He Who Judges is the Same Who writes a book. For Truth Itself says by Itself, The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. [John 5, 22] And so He will then be the Enacter of judgment Who is now the Composer of the 'book;' that He should then demand in strictness, what He now bids in mildness. For thus we see every day that masters set children the rudiments of their letters caressing them, but exact those of them dealing hardly with them; and what they give with gentleness, they require back with the rod. For now the precepts of Divine Revelation sound gentle, but they shall be to be thought harsh in the exacting of them. Now, there is a gentle warning of One calling, but then there shall come the strict justice of the Judge, because it is certain that no whit even of the very least commandment will pass without scrutinizing. By which same it is apparent that He that 'judgeth is the Same That wrote the Book,' Which same 'Book' of the New Testament, that the Redeemer of man should Himself frame in His own Person at the last, the Prophet Ezekiel rightly tells forth, saying, And behold six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn at his reins. [Ez. 9, 2] For what else is there denoted in the 'six men coming' but the six ages of mankind? [St. Gregory's division of ages, Him. in Ev. xix. §. 1. from Adam to Noah, Noah to Abraham, Abraham to Moses, Moses to Our Lord, and then to the end, will not suit this place. What is meant is probably that in St. Isidore of Seville, Etym. lib. v. c. 39. De Discretione temporum, where two more divisions are made, at David, and the Captivity. He compares these ages to the days of Creation. The same division is given in the beginning of his Chronicon.] Who 'come from the way of the higher gate,' because from the state of Paradise as from the beginning of the world, they are unwound from the upper generations. Which 'gate looks to the North' in this way, because the mind of man lying open to evil, except that, abandoning the warmth of charity, it had courted the numbness of the interior, would never have gone out to this breadth of mortality. And every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; because each particular generation being evolved by the several respective ages, before the Coming of the Redeemer, had in its practice that wherefrom it took the punishment of condemnation. And one man among them was clothed with linen. Because our Redeemer deigned to have parents even of the priestly Tribe ['Tribu,' perhaps 'nation,' but Elizabeth, 'of the daughters of Aaron,' was a kinswoman of the Blessed Virgin. Luke 1, 5. and 36.] after the flesh, he is described as coining 'clothed with linen.' Or, surely, because linen is from the earth, and is not like wool produced from the corruptible flesh, seeing that He derived the covering of His Body from a Virgin mother, and not by the corruptness of copulation, therefore He came to us 'clothed with linen.' And a writer's inkhorn at his reins. In the 'reins' is the hind part of the body. And because the Lord Himself after that He died for our sakes, and rose again, and ascended up into heaven, then wrote the New Testament through the Apostles, this man had an 'inkhorn at his reins.' For He Who after He departed framed the writing of the New Testament, as it were, carried an 'inkhorn' behind him. Thus this 'inkhorn' he sees to hold fast to the man 'clothed with linen,' who says, And that the same who judges would write a book. But wherefore, blessed Job, desirest thou that a book should be written by Him, Who is Judge? It goes on;Chronicon · English translation 1:1Isidore of SevilleIsidore of Seville, Chronicon (2004). English Translation.Chronicon · Introduction 1:1Isidore of SevilleIsidore of Seville, Chronicon (2004). Introduction.Chronicon · Introduction 1:2Isidore of SevilleWith St. Isidore of Seville (Isidorus Hispalensis, born ca. 560, d. 636 AD), the patristic age in the West comes to an end. He became Archbishop of Seville in 600-601. He was a very industrious author, and exercised an immense influence on medieval Europe. His works are mainly compilations from earlier authors, but of great value because he was the last author still in touch with antiquity. Many of his works, especially the exegetical ones, have never been printed. More details of his works with a limited bibliography can be found in B. Altaner, Patrology , tr. H. Graef, Freiburg:Herder (1960) pp. 594-8.