continued internal use of certain drugs, such as the iodide
or bromide of potassium. In treating this condition the
face should first of all be held over steaming water for
several minutes, and then thoroughly bathed. The blackheads
should next be removed, not with the finger-nail, but with
an inexpensive little instrument known as the ``comedo
expressor.'' When the more noticeable of the blackheads
have been expressed, the face should be firmly rubbed for
three or four minutes with a lather made from a special
soap composed of sulphur, camphor and balsam of Peru. Any
lather remaining on the face at the end of this time should
be wiped off with a soft handkerchief. As this treatment
might give rise to some irritation of the skin, it should be
replaced every fourth night by a simple application of cold
cream. Of drugs used internally sulphate of calcium, in pill,
1/6 grain three times a day, is a very useful adjunct to the
preceding. The patient should take plenty of exercise in
the fresh air, a very simple but nourishing diet, and, if
present, constipation and anaemia must be suitably treated.
Rosacea, popularly known as acne rosacea, is a more
severe and troublesome disorder, a true dermatitis with
no relation to the foregoing, and in most cases secondary
to seborrhea of the scalp. It is characterized by great
redness of the nose and cheeks, accompanied by pustular
enlargements on the surface of the skin, which produce marked
disfigurement. Although often seen in persons who live too
freely, it is by no means confined to such, but may arise in
connexion with disturbances of the general health, especially
of the function of digestion, and in females with menstrual
disorders. It is apt to be exceedingly intractable to treatment,
which is here too, as in the preceding form, partly local
and partly constitutional. Of internal remedies preparations
of iodine and of arsenic are sometimes found of service.
ACOEMETI (Gr. akoimetos, sleepless), an order of Eastern
monks who celebrated the divine service without intermission
day or night. This was done by dividing the communities into
choirs, which relieved each other by turn in the church.
Their first monastery was established on the Euphrates, in
the beginning of the 5th century, and soon afterwards one
was founded in Constantinople. Here also, c. 460, was
founded by the consular Studius the famous monastery of the
Studium, which was put in the hands of the Acoemeti and
became their chief house, so that they were sometimes called
Studites. At Agaunum (St Maurice in the Valais) a monastery
was founded by the Burgundian king Sigismund, in 515, in
which the perpetual office was kept up; but it is doubtful
whether this had any connexion with the Eastern Acoemeti.
The Constantinopolitan Acoemeti took a prominent part
in the Christological controversies of the 5th and 6th
centuries, at first strenuously opposing Acacius, patriarch
of Constantinople, in his attempted compromise with the
monophysites; but afterwards, in Justinian's reign, falling
under ecclesiastical censure for Nestorian tendencies.
See the article in Dictionary of Christian Antiquities; Wetzer und
Welte, Kirchenlexicon (2nd ed.); and Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie
(3rd ed.); also the general histories of the time. (E. C. B.)
ACOLYTE (Gr.akolouthos, follower), the last of the four
minor orders in the Roman Church. As an office it appears
to be of local origin, and is entirely unknown in the Eastern
Church, with the exception of the Armenians who borrowed
it from the West. Before the council of Nicaea (325) it was
only to be found at Rome and Carthage. When in 251 Pope
Cornelius, in a letter to Fabius of Antioch, mentions among
the Roman clergy forty-two acolytes, placing them after
the subdeacons and before the other minor officials (see
Eusebius, Hist. Ecc. lib. v. cap. 43), he gives no
hint that the office was a new one, but speaks of them as
holding an already established position. Their institution
has therefore to be sought for at an earlier date than his
pontificate. It is possible that the Liber Pontificalis
refers to the office under the Latin synonym, when it says
of Pope Victor (186--197) that he made sequentes cleros,
a term---sequens---which Pope Gaius (283--293) uses in the
sense of acolyte. While the office was well known in Rome,
there is nothing to prove that it was also an order through
which, as to-day, every candidate to the priesthood must
pass. The contrary is a fact proved by many monumental
inscriptions and authentic statements. Though the office
is found at Carthage, and St Cyprian (200?-258) makes many
references to acolytes, whom he used to carry his letters,
this seems to be the only place in Africa where they were
known. Tertullian, while speaking of readers and exorcists,
says nothing about acolytes; neither does St Augustine. The
Irish Church did not know them; and in Spain the council of
Toledo (400) makes no mention either of the office or of the
order. The Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua (falsely called the
Canons of the Fourth Council of Carthage in 397), a Gallican
collection, originating in the province of Arles at the
beginning of the 6th century, mentions the acolyte, but does
not give, as in the case of the other orders, any form for
the ordination. The Roman books are silent, and there is
no mention of it in the collection known as the Leonine
Sacramentary; while in the so-called Gelasian Massbook,
which as we have it, is full of Gallican additions made to
St Gregory's reform, there is the same silence, though in
one MS. of the 10th century given by Muratori we find a form
for the ordination of an acolyte. While there is frequent
mention of the acolyte's office in the Ordines Romani, it
is only in the Ordo VIII. (which is not earlier than the
7th century) that we find the very simple form for admitting
an acolyte to his office. At the end of the mass the
cleric, clad in chasuble and stole and bearing a linen bag
on one arm, comes before the pope or bishop and receives a
blessing. There is no collation of power or order but a
simple admission to an office. The evidence available,
therefore, points to the fact that the acolyte was only a
local office and was not a necessary step or order for every
candidate. In England, though the ecclesiastical organization
came from Rome and was directed by Romans, we find no trace
of such an office or order until the time of Ecgbert of York
(767), the friand of Alcuin and therefore subject to Gallican
influence. The Pontifical known as Ecgbert's shows that it
was then in use both as an office and as an order, and Aelfric
(1006) in both his pastoral epistle and canons mentions the
acolyte. The conclusion, then, which seems warranted by
the evidence, is that the acolyte was an office only at
Rome, and, becoming an order in the Gallican Church,
found its way as such into the Roman books at some period
before the fusion of the two rites under Charlemagne.
The duties of the acolyte, as given in the Roman Pontifical,
are identical with those mentioned in the Statuta Ecclesiae
Antiqua of Arles: ``It is the duty of acolytes to carry
the candlesticks, to light the lamps of the church, to
administer wine and water for the Eucharist.'' It might
seem, from the number forty-two mentioned by Pope Cornelius,
that at Rome the acolytes were divided among the seven
ecclesiastical regions of the city; but we have no proof
that, at that date, there were six acolytes attached to each
region. From the ancient division of the Roman acolytes
into Dalatini, or those in attendance on the pope at the
Lateran palace, Stationarii, or those who served at the
churches where there was a ``station,'' and Regionarii,
or those attached directly to the regiona, it would seem
that the number forty-two was only the actual number then
existing and not an official number. We get a glimpse of
their duties from the Ordines Romani. When the pope
rode in procession to the station an acolyte, on foot,
preceded him, bearing the holy chrism; and at the church
seven regionary acolytes with candles went before him in the
procession to the altar, while two others, bearing the vessel
that contained a pre-consecrated Host, presented it for his
adoration. During the mass an acolyte bore the thurible
(Ordo VI.) and three assisted at the washing of the
hands. At the moment of communion the acolytes received in
linen bags the consecrated Hosts to carry to the assisting
priests. This office of bearing the sacrament is an ancient
one, and is mentioned in the legend of Tarcisius, the Roman
acolyte, who was martyred on the Appian Way while carrying the
Hosts from the catacombs. The official dress of the acolyte,
according to Ordo V., was a close-fitting linen garment
(camisia) girt about him, a napkin hanging from the left side,
a white tunic, a stole (orarium) and a chasuble (planeta)
which he took off when he sang on the steps of the ambone.
At the present day, despite the earnest wish of the council
of Trent (Sess. xxiii. cap. 17 d.r.), the acolyte, while
remaining an order, has ceased to be essentially a clerical
office, since the duties are now performed, almost everywhere, by
laymen. The office has been revived, though unofficially, in
the Church of England, as a result of the Tractarian movement.
See Morin, Commentarius in sacris Ecclesiae ordinationibus
(Antwerp, 1685), ii. p. 209, iii. p. 152; Martene, De Antiquis
Ecclesiae ritibus (Antwerp, 1739), ii. pp. 47 and 86; Mabillon,
Musaeum Italicum II. for the Ordines Romani; Muratori,
Liturgia Romana Vetus; Cabrol, Dictionnaire d'archeologie
chretisnne et de liturgie, vol. i. col. 348-536.-. (E. TN.)
ACOMINATUS (AKOMINATOS), MICHAEL (c. 1140-1220),
Byzantine writer and ecclesiastic, was born at Chonae
(the ancient Colossae). At an early age he studied at
Constantinople, and about 1175 was appointed archbishop of
Athens. After the capture of Constantinople by the Franks
and the establishment of the Latin empire (1204), he retired
to the island of Coos, where he died. He was a versatile
writer, and composed homilies, speeches and poems, which,
with his correspondence, throw considerable light upon the
miserable condition of Attica and Athens at the time. His
memorial to Alexis III. Angelus on the abuses of Byzantine
administration, the poetical lament over the degeneracy of
Athens and the monodes on his brother Nicetas and Eustathius,
archbishop of Thessalonica, deserve special mention.
Edition of his works by S. Lambros (1879--1880); Migne, Patrologia
Graeca, cxl.; see also A. Ellissen, Michael Akominatos
(1886), containing several pieces with German translation; F.
Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter, i.
(1889); G. Finlay, History of Greece, iv. pp. 133-134 (1877).
His younger brother NICETAS (Niketas), sometimes called
CHONIATES, who accompanied him to Constantinople, took up
politics as a career. He held several appointments
under the Angelus emperors (amongst them that of ``great
logothete'' or chancellor) and was governor of the ``theme''
of Philippopolis at a critical period. After the fall of
Constantinople he fled to Nicaea, where he settled at the
court of the emperor Theodorus Lascaris, and devoted himself to
literature. He died between 1210 and 1220. His chief work
is his History, in 21 books, of the period from 1180 to
1206. In spite of its florid and bombastic style, it is of
considerable value as a record (on the whole impartial) of
events of which he was either an eye-witness or had heard at
