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ACOLYTE: A member of the highest of the minor orders of the Roman Catholic Church. The order was established in the fourth or fifth decade of the third century, at the same time as the other minor orders, probably by Pope Fabian (236-250), but was not known to the East. The name (from the Gk. akolouthos, '° a follower, attendant ") indicates that the acolyte was originally the personal attendant of the bishop or of the presbyters. In this capacity he appears in Cyprian's epistles, where acolytes carry letters and fraternal gifts as

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Aeolyu 26 THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG directed by their bishop; and the same thing is seen in Augustine's time. This close connection with the higher clergy explains the position of the acolytes at the head of the minor orders. In the year 251 the local Roman Church had not less than forty-two acolytes (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VI. xliii. 11). When the canonical age for the different orders was fixed, acolytes were required to be under thirty (Siricius, Ad Himerium, xiii.; 385 A.D.). In the Middle Ages the liturgical functions of the acolyte assumed greater prominence, including the charge of the altar-lights and the eucharistic wine. In Rome the acolytes were divided by special assign ment among the various churches and regionea of the city. Since the close of the Middle Ages, the order has had only a nominal existence, though the Council of Trent (Session xxiii., De reform., xvii.) expressed a desire to see it restored to its former practical activity. In his investigation of the origin of the minor orders, Harmck has given Fabian as the founder of that of the acolytes; but he considers that it was an imitation of the pagan ritual system, in which special attendants (calatores) were assigned to the priests. However, this and the other minor orders may perfectly well have grown out of the needs of the Church without any copying of the pagan system. H. AcHEms. Since the Middle Ages the order has been under stood as conferring the right to act as official assist ant of the subdeacon in a solemn mass. No canonical age is now explicitly prescribed, but the requirement of a knowledge of Latin excludes the very young. J. T. C. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bingham, Oriyinu, book i.; J. Mabillon, Museum ItaEieam, ii. 84, Paris. 1687-89; L. A. Muratori liturpia Romans roetus, ii. 407, Venice, 1748; A. Harnsek, Die Quallen der aopenannten apoetoliacltsn Kirchenordnunp ne6st einer Untsranchunp fiber die Ursprunp des Lectomta and der anderen niadersn Weihsn, TU, ii. b (1888), 94 eqq.; Ii. 3ohm, Kirchenrecht, i . 128-137, Leipsic, 1892.
ACOSTA, JOSE DE: Jesuit; b. at Medina dal Cameo (26 m. s.s.w. of Valladolid), Spain, about 1539; d. at Salamanca as rector of the university Feb. 11, 1800. He joined the Jesuits as early as 1553. In 1571 he went to the West Indies and later became second provincial of Peru. He wrote Confesaionario pare los cures de Irtdios, in Keehua and Aymara (1b83), perhaps the first book printed at Lima; a catechism in Spanish and the native tongues (Lima, 158b);Denatura novi orbis et de promulgatione evangelic aPtid barbrsroa (Salamanca, 1b89), which he afterward translated into Spanish and incorporated in the Historic natural y moral do lea Indies (Seville, 1690; Eag. transl., The Nat ural and Moral History of the East and Weat Irtdiea, London, 1604 ), one of the most valuable of the early works on America; De Chriato revelato et de tempon'bva nwrisaimis (Rome, 1590); Concilium provincials Limenae in anno MDL%XXlll. (Ma drid, 1590); Coracionum tomi iii. (Salamanca, 1596)

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