COPIATA, under the western empire, a grave-digger. In the first ages of the church there were clerks destined for this employment. In the year 357 Constantine made a law in favour of the priests copiatæ, i. e. of those who had the care of interments; whereby he exempts them from the laical contribution which all other traders paid. It was under him also that they first began to be called copiatæ, q. d. clerks destined for bodily labour, from κοπος, or κοπω scindo, cedo, fero, "I cut, beat," &c. Before that time they were called decani and lecticarii; perhaps because they were divided by decades or tens, each whereof had a bier or litter for the carriage of the dead bodies. Their place among the clerks was the next in order before the chantors.