When young clerics were assembled in schools for training in the ecclesiastical service in the different districts of the Western Church (from the fifth or sixth century), the directors of these schools were also given this title. Thus, an inscription of the year 551 from Lyon mentions a ""Stephanus primicerius scolae lectorum servientium in ecclesia Lugdunensi"". Isidore of Seville treats of the obligations of the primicerius of the lower clerics in his "Epistola ad Ludefredum". From this position the primicerius also derived certain powers in the direction of liturgical functions.