Subsellium

a term given in the early Church to the footstool provided for persons of distinction. Upon Christian monuments God is represented as using the subsellium while receiving the, offerings of Cain and Abel; our Lord, when teaching his disciples; and the Holy Virgin, in the adoration of the magi. The episcopal chairs were also provided with them, and, to show their submission to bishops, persons were accustomed to seat themselves thereupon. They were also called scabellum, subpositorium, suppedaneum.

Subsellium was likewise a name for the seats of the presbyters, in the ancient Church, on each side of the bishop's throne, in the upper part of the chancel, called the apsis. Also the two lower steps in a sedilia, i.e.. those for the deacon and subdeacon.