There’s a Google Book entitled
Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome: The Christian monuments of Rome which goes into some detail:
Page 530-531:
The lowest grade of *order *is the ostiarius or doorkeeper, first mentioned in Rome with reference to S. Laurence’s martyr-companion Romanus. This function was anciently performed by the deacons and deaconesses, and does not appear to have been ever accepted in the East as a separate order. Even in Rome the ostiarii were replaced from the vi. century by the socalled *mansionarii, *lay sacristans or vergers.
Wikipedia states, “The porter had in ancient times the duty of opening and closing the church-door and of guarding the church; especially of ensuring no unbaptised persons would enter during the Eucharist. Later on, the Porter would also guard, open and close the doors of the Sacristy, Baptistry and elsewhere in the church.”
Page 528:
The lector’s is, after the diaconate, the oldest of the ecclesiastical orders, though to-day the acolyte and exorcist rank before him. He is ordained by placing a Lectionary in his hands. He used to chant the Lessons, and has power to bless bread and the fruits of the earth. This order is practically non-existent in the West to-day.
In the early Church the lector was a person of much importance. Even some of the bishops could neither read nor write, and the Lector read the subject which was to be preached. There was a special Lector or Reader in Rome as early as the ii. century. We know that in early times reading and expounding or preaching — reading and *prophecy *— were closely interwoven: the prayer for the imposition of hands on the Lector, in the Apostolical Constitutions, expressly asks for him “Thy Holy Spirit, the prophetic Spirit”; and the Readers were compared to the prophets.
Wikipedia states, “In the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, the term “lector” is used in preference to that of “reader”. The term can mean someone who in a particular liturgy is assigned to read a Biblical text other than the Gospel. (Reading the Gospel at Mass is reserved specifically to the deacon or, in his absence, to the priest.) But it also has the more precise meaning of a person who has been “instituted” (or, in some cases, “ordained”) as a lector, and so is a lector even when not assigned to read in a specific liturgy. This is the meaning in which the term is used in this article.”
Page 530:
The exorcist appears in Rome as *ordo *at the same time as the acolyte. But there can be no doubt that exorcism was originally a *charisma. " *In my name he shall cast out demons " was regarded as a sign following “those that believe,” like gifts of healing, or immunity from perils. We see both currents acting in the VIII. Book of the Apostolical Constitutions: “An exorcist is not ordained. For it is a trial … of the Grace of God . . . through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. . . . but if there be occasion for him, *let him be ordained, *a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon.” But while in Rome the exorcist became *ordo, *in the East the office continued to be a miraculous one. To the Roman exorcist were given numerous functions in solemn baptism, functions which the Gregorian Sacramentary, as well as the ordos of the viii. and ix. centuries, show us were then performed by acolytes. To-day priests fill the office of exorcist.
Wikipedia states, “At the time this order was formally defined and confined exclusively to exorcism of the catechumen in the rite of Baptism, leaving exorcisms of demons to priests; but its role was later expanded.”
Page 529:
The special business of the acolyte is to carry lights; this is expressed in his ordination where many beautiful texts relating to the light of good works and of truth are rehearsed to him. He is the assistant of the deacon in the ministry of the altar. In the early ages of the Church it was by the hands of his acolytes that Innocent I sent the Host to the parish priests on Sunday; and in the ix. century the acolytes still brought the consecrated bread from the altar to the bishops and priests in little bags for the rite of the Fraction
Wikipedia states, “Before August 15, 1972 (with the issuing of Pope Paul VI’s motu proprio, suppressing the minor orders) the acolyte was the highest of the minor orders, having as duties the lighting of the altar-candles, carrying the candles in procession, assisting the subdeacon and deacon, and the ministering of water and wine to the priest at Mass.”
Hope this helps!
. The acolyte did indeed serve, carry candles in the procession, etc.