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Notarii

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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(Lat. for notaries) is the name given in ecclesiastical language to those persons who reported the examination and trial of martyrs and confessors, prepared protocols for the synods and acts of councils, and otherwise discharged the duties of secretaries. They were generally deacons, and sometimes a presbyter was the chief of them. Occasionally these notarii used a sort of short-hand, and were therefore employed in taking down the sermons of eloquent preachers; by which means some of the discourses of Chrysostom have been preserved which otherwise would have been lost. The bishops also had a kind of secretary, or reader, called ὑπογραφεύς , the acolyth, who registered the names of persons to be baptized. Pope Julius I required the notaries, or the primier of notaries, to digest the history of the Church. In 1237 there were no public notaries (tabelliones) in England.