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 copiatae, or of those who had the care of interments, exempting them from the lustral contribution, which all other traders paid. It was under him also that they first began to be called copiates, or clerks destined for bodily labour from *zeo*, or *zeo*, *seido*, *cedo*, *ferio*, I cut, I beat, &c. Before that time they were called *decani* and *lecticarii*; probably because they were divided into decades or tens, each of which had a bier or litter for the carriage of dead bodies. Their place among the clerks was the next in order before the chanters.