Bible Encyclopedias
Custodes Ecclesiae

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(keepers of the church) were, in ancient ecclesiastical use, either those otherwise called Ostiarii, one of the inferior orders in the early Church, or, more probably, perhaps, the same officers who are sometimes distinguished as "elders of the Church," and whose duties corresponded in certain points with those of the modern CHURCHWARDEN (See CHURCHWARDEN) (q.v.).