sacred ministry of the Church"[9]--and should realize
their own great responsibility in the matter. First, there is the age.

(1) _The Age._

No layman can be made a Deacon under 23.

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(2) The Preliminaries.

The chief preliminary is the selection of the Candidate. The burden of
selection is shared by the Bishop, Clergy and Laity. The Bishop must,
of course, be the final judge of the Candidate's fitness, but _the
evidence upon which he bases his judgment_ must very largely be
supplied by the Laity.

We pray in the Ember Collect that he "may lay hands suddenly on no man,
but make choice of _fit persons_". It is well that the Laity should
remember that they share with the Bishop and Clergy in the
responsibility of choice.

For this fitness will, as in the case of the Priest, be moral and
intellectual.

It will be _moral_--and it is here that the responsibility of the laity
begins. For, in addition to private inquiries made by the Bishop, the
laity are publicly asked, in the church of the parish where the
Candidate resides, to bear testimony to the integrity of his character.
This publication is called the _Si quis_, from the Latin of the first
two words of publication ("if any..."), and it is repeated by the
Bishop in open church in the Ordination Service. The {141} absence of
any legal objection by the laity is the testimony of the people to the
Candidate's fitness. This throws upon the laity a full share of
responsibility in the choice of the Candidate. Their responsibility in
giving evidence is only second to that of the Bishop, whose decision
rests upon the evidence they give.

Then, there is the testimony of the Clergy. No layman is accepted by
the Bishop for Ordination without _Letters Testimonial_--i.e. the
testimony of three beneficed Clergymen, to whom he is well known.
These Clergy must certify that "we have had opportunity of observing
his conduct, and we do believe him, in our consciences, and as to his
moral conduct, a fit person to be admitted to the Sacred Ministry".
Each signature must be countersigned by the signatory's own Bishop, who
thus guarantees the Clergyman's moral fitness to certify.

Lastly, comes the Bishop himself, who, from first to last, is in close
touch with the Candidate, and who almost invariably helps to prepare
him personally in his own house during the week before his Ordination.

It will be _intellectual_. In addition to University testimony,
ev