Archdeacon

The Archdeacon  is a character and one of the minor protagonists of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, who serves as the clergyman at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame
On a snowy, winter night, the Archdeacon was apparently roused to answer someone desperately pounding on the door of Notre Dame. He is responsible for allowing Quasimodo to live in the film by condemning Frollo's murder of Quasimodo's mother, a gypsy who he was too late to help, and Frollo's attempt to destroy Quasimodo under the eyes of Notre Dame and the statues of the saints, and convincing him to spare Quasimodo's life or be damned to hell for his actions. Later, he defends Esmeralda when she claims sanctuary in Notre Dame from Frollo. He and the other priests provide some of the dialogue in the song ''Hellfire. ''

In his final appearance, the Archdeacon steps forward to protest against Esmeralda's execution, but is halted by the guards. When Frollo breaks into the cathedral to kill Esmeralda and Quasimodo, the Archdeacon demands that he call off the attack on Notre Dame and stay away from the two, to which Frollo responds by shoving the startled Archdeacon down a flight of stairs and injuring his ankle, and locking the Archdeacon out of the belltower so he can't interfere. He eventually survives and is last seen cheering with the crowd when Phoebus and Esmeralda emerge safely from the church.

Creation
The Archdeacon was most likely created as a placeholder for Frollo, as Frollo functioned as the Archdeacon in the Victor Hugo novel. This was probably done by Disney's part as a means of not creating tensions with the Roman Catholic Church, which played a large role in the film and the book, especially seeing that the Archdeacon functions as a good character in the film. It could be said that Frollo's act of shoving the Archdeacon down the stairs could be symbolic of religious extremism attacking pure religion.

However, even though Frollo was depicted as the Minister of Justice in the film, he still seemed to hold more power over the Archdeacon himself while outside Notre Dame. This probably stems from his role in the book, but it remains unexplained how Frollo, as a mere Judge, could commit such terrible crimes without having to answer to the King of France.

Trivia

 * In the novel, Frollo was the archdeacon but the villain as well, so this character didn't exist.