Canon XVIII.
has come to the knowledge of
the holy and great Synod that, in some districts and cities, the
deacons administer the Eucharist to the presbyters, whereas neither
canon nor custom permits that they who have no right to offer should
give the Body of Christ to them that do offer. And this also has
been made known, that certain deacons now touch the Eucharist even
before the bishops. Let all such practices be utterly done away, and let the deacons remain within their own bounds, knowing that they are the ministers of the bishop and the inferiors of the presbyters. Let them receive the Eucharist according to their order, after the presbyters, and let either the bishop or the presbyter administer to them. Furthermore, let not the deacons sit among the presbyters, for that is contrary to canon and order. And if, after this decree, any one shall refuse to obey, let him be deposed from the diaconate.
Notes.
Deacons must abide within their own bounds. They
shall not administer the Eucharist to presbyters, nor touch it before
them, nor sit among the presbyters. For all this is contrary to
canon, and to decent order.
Four excesses of deacons this canon condemns, at least
indirectly. The first was that they gave the holy Communion to
presbyters. To understand more easily the meaning of the canon it
must be remembered that the reference here is not to the presbyters who
were sacrificing at the altar but to those who were offering together
with the bishop who was sacrificing; by a rite not unlike that which
to-day takes place, when the newly ordained presbyters or bishops
celebrate mass with the ordaining bishop; and this rite in old times
was of daily occurrence, for a full account of which see Morinus De SS. Ordinat. P. III. Exercit. viij.…The present canon does not take away from deacons the authority to distribute the Eucharist to laymen, or to the minor clergy, but only reproves their insolence and audacity in presuming to administer to presbyters who were concelebrating with the bishop or another presbyter.…
The second abuse was that certain deacons touched the
sacred gifts before the bishop. The vulgar version of Isidore
reads for “touched” “received,” a meaning which
Balsamon and Zonaras also adopt, and unless the Greek word, which
signifies “to touch,” is contrary to this translation, it
seems by no means to be alien to the context of the canon.
“Let them receive the Eucharist according to their
order, after the presbyters, and let the bishop or the presbyter
administer to them.” In these words it is implied that some
deacons had presumed to receive Holy Communion before the presbyters, and this is the third excess of the deacon which is condemned by the Synod.
And lastly, the fourth excess was that they took a place
among the presbyters at the very time of the sacrifice, or “at
the holy altar,” as Balsamon observes.
From this canon we see that the Nicene fathers
entertained no doubt that the faithful in the holy Communion truly
received “the body of Christ.” Secondly, that that
was “offered” in the church, which is the word by which
sacrifice is designated in the New Testament, and therefore it was at
that time a fixed tradition that there was a sacrifice in which the
body of Christ was offered. Thirdly that not to all, nor even to
deacons, but only to bishops and presbyters was given the power of
offering. And lastly, that there was recognized a fixed hierarchy
in the Church, made up of bishops and presbyters and deacons in
subordination to these.
Of course even at that early date there was nothing new
in this doctrine of the Eucharist. St. Ignatius more than a
century and a half before, wrote as follows: “But mark ye
those who hold strange doctrine touching the grace of Jesus Christ
which came to us, how that they are contrary to the mind of God. They have no care for love, none for the widow, none for the orphan, none for the afflicted, none for the prisoner, none for the hungry or thirsty. They abstain from eucharist (thanksgiving) and prayer, because they allow not that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which flesh suffered for our sins, and which the Father of his goodness raised up.”