The tumular epigraph on the catacombs of Rome exhibits a curious list of the various special duties allotted to the priests, as well as to the deacons, besides the service of the altar: here we find a priest doctor; a priest guardian, overseer, possibly our inn or lodging-keeper (_mansionarius_); again, we find a deacon archivist, or keeper of the archives (_scrinarius_), a priest schoolmaster (_magister ludi_), &c. In the first three centuries of the Church, holy orders were conferred not only in the basilicas and in the catacombs, but also in private oratories; some few recluses were even ordained in their own cells. From the reign of Constantine, it was decided by the councils that the laying on of hands upon the clerks to raise them to deacons, or upon deacons to raise them to the priesthood, should always take place in public (_coram populo_) and at fixed periods. The epoch chosen was at first the calends of December, afterwards extended to each of the four seasons. [Illustration: Fig. 224.--The Ecclesiastical Tonsure.--Miniature from the “Rationale Divinorum Officiorum” of William Durand (Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century), Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.] The iconography of the officers of the sanctuary nearly always represents the bishop as seated upon an elevated chair, laying hands upon clerks of a gradually descending order; the priest raising his arms and spreading them out to give the benediction; the deacon, bearing a cross or a book of the Gospels, or perhaps both, as he is portrayed in an ancient mosaic in St. Lawrence-without-the-walls, at Rome. It must also be noted that the deacons and the priests, as well as the clerks of a lower order, are represented as beardless and with short-cut hair. In the sixth century, the tonsure or _clerical crown_, was universally adopted by the Church. It was a mark of dignity which distinguished the clerks from the monks and the rest of the faithful; laymen wore their hair more or less long with a proportionate amount of beard, and the monks cut their hair almost as close as if shorn. The primitive Church had created the office of acolyte, whose duty consisted in accompanying the bishops, the priests, and even the deacons. Under the pontificate of Cornelius (251), there were forty-two of these assistants. The Eastern Church also had its acolytes, but did not accord them the importance which they had in the city of the popes, where they formed three classes: the _palatines_, who assisted the sovereign pontiff in the basilica of the Lateran; the _stationaries_, who aided him in the churches where the stations took place; the _regionaries_, who assisted the deacons in each of the regions or parishes.