Secretarium (or Secretum)

Secretarium (Or Secretum), a part of early Christian churches, which was also called diaconicum (q.v.). It was called secretarium, as Ducange conjectures, because the consistory or tribunal of the Church was here kept, the secretum or seeretariura being a known name for the courts of the civil magistrate. Others suppose it derived its name from its being a place of safety, or the robing-room of the officiating clergy.