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ORDER, HOLY
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See also:ORDER, See also:HOLY . " Holy Orders " (ordines sacri) may be defined as the See also:rank or status of persons empowered by virtue of a certain See also:form or ceremony to exercise spiritual functions in the See also:Christian See also: 3; Herm. Vis. ii. 2, 6). Here we pause to remark that in Tertullian's view the church as a whole possesses the See also:power of self-See also:government and See also:administration, though in the See also:interest of discipline and convenience it delegates that power to See also:special See also:officers. It is, he says, the " authority of the church " which has constituted the difference between the governing See also:body and the laity, and in an emergency a layman may baptize and celebrate (Exhort. Cast. 7), nor can this statement be lightly set aside on the plea that Tertullian, when he so wrote, had lapsed irito See also:Montanism. The fact is that the Montanists represented the conservatism of their See also:day, and even now the See also:Roman Church admits the right of laymen to baptize when a See also:priest cannot be had. The Apostolic Constitutions (viii. 32) allow a layman to preach, if he be skilful and reverent, and the See also:language of St See also:Ignatius (Ad Smyrn. 8), " Let that be esteemed a valid See also:Eucharist which is celebrated in the presence of the See also:bishop; or of some one commissioned by him," is really inconsistent• with any firmly established principle that celebration by a layman was in itself absolutely null (see also EUCHARIST). When we go on to inquire what special offices the church from the beginning, or almost from the beginning, adopted and recognized, two points claim preliminary See also:attention. In the first place, much would be done in See also:practical administration by persons who held no definite position formally assigned to them, although they wielded See also:great See also:influence on See also:account of their See also:age, talents and See also:character. Next, it must be carefully remembered that the See also:early church was, in a sense hard for us even to under-stand, ruled and edified by the See also:direct See also:action of the Holy Spirit. St See also:Paul (r See also:Cor. xii. 28) furnishes us with a See also:list of church offices very different from those which obtain in any church at the See also:present day.' " See also:God," he says, " hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, See also:helps, governments, (See also:divers) kinds of See also:tongues." See also:Ministry of this sort is not to be confounded with " order," of which this See also:article treats. It died out very gradually, and the See also:Didache or Teaching of the Apostles, compiled probably between A.U. 130 and 16o, gives clear See also:information on the nature of this prophetic or charismatic ministry. The See also:title of " apostle " was not limited to the immediate disciples of our Lord, but was given to missionaries or evangelists who went about See also:founding new churches; the prophets spoke by See also:revelation; the teachers were enabled by supernatural See also:illumination to instruct others. All of these men were called to their See also:work by the See also:internal See also:voice of the Holy Spirit: none of them was appointed or elected by their See also:fellows: none of them, and this is an important feature, was necessarily confined to a See also:local church. Nevertheless, See also:side by side with this prophetic ministry there was another, mediately at least of human See also:appointment, and local in its character. Here we have the germ of orders in the technical sense. At first this local ministry was twofold, consisting of presbyters or bishops and deacons. Christian presbyters first appear (Acts xi. 30) in the church of See also:Jerusalem, and most likely the name and office were adopted from the Jewish municipalities, perhaps from the Jewish synagogues (see PRIEST). Afterwards St Paul and St See also:Barnabas in their first missionary See also:journey " appointed 2 (Acts xiv. 23) presbyters in every church." Further, we find St Paul about A.D. 62 addressing the " See also:saints " at See also:Philippi with the bishops and deacons." The word E7rLQK07roS or overseer may be of See also:Gentile origin, just as See also:presbyter may have been borrowed from the See also:Jews. There is strong See also:proof that presbyter and episcopus are two names for the same office. It has indeed been maintained by eminent scholars, chiefly by See also:Hatch and See also:Harnack, that the word episcopus was given originally to the See also:chief officer of a See also:club or a confraternity, so that the episcopus was a See also:financial officer, whereas the presbyters regulated the discipline. To this it may be objected that presbyters and bishops are never mentioned together, and that the names were interchangeable (Acts xx. 17 and 28; r Pet. v. r, 2; I Tim. iii. 1-7 and v. 17-19; Tit. i. 5-7). The work of the presbyter or bishop was concerned at first with discipline rather than with teaching, which was largely in the hands of the charismatic ministry; nevertheless, the See also:Pastoral Epistles (r Tim. iii. 2) insist that an episcopus must be " See also:apt to See also:teach," and some presbyters (I Tim. v. 17) not only ruled but also " laboured in the word and in teaching." They also "offered the gifts " (r Clem. 44), i.e. to adopt Bishop See also:Lightfoot's See also:interpretation, "they led the prayers and thanksgivings of the See also:congregation, presented the See also:alms and contributions to God and asked His blessing on them in the name of the whole body." Under the bishops or presbyters stood the deacons or " helpers " (Philipp. i. r, r Tim. iii. 8-13). Whether they were the successors, as most of the Fathers believed, of the seven chosen by the church of Jerusalem A partial exception may be made in favour of the " See also:Catholic Apostolic Church " founded by See also:Edward See also:Irving. 2 See also:Josephus, e.g. Antiq. vi. 4. 2, abundantly justifies this See also:translation.to relieve the apostles in the administration of alms (Acts vi.) is a question still disputed and uncertain. Be that as it may, the See also:deacon was See also:long considered to be the " servant of the widows and the poor " (See also:Jerome, Ep. 146), and the See also:archdeacon, who first appears towards the end of the 4th century, owes the greatness of his position to the fact that he was the chief See also:administrator of church funds (see ARCHDEACON). This See also:ancient See also:idea of the diaconate, ignored in the Roman Pontifical, has been restored in the See also:English ordinal. The growth of sacerdotal theories, which were fully See also:developed in See also:Cyprian's See also:time, fixed attention on the bishop as a sacrificing priest, and on the deacon3 as his assistant at the See also:altar.
Out of the twofold See also:grew the threefold ministry, so that each local church was governed by one episcopus surrounded by a See also:council of presbyters. See also: 246) tells us that as See also:late as the See also:middle of the 3rd century the presbyters of See also:Alexandria, when the see was vacant, used to elect one of their own number and without any further ordination set him in the episcopal office. So the canons of See also:Hippolytus (about A.D. 250) See also:decree that a. See also:confessor who has suffered torment for his adherence to the Christian faith should merit and obtain the rank of presbyter forthwith-" Immo confessio est ordinatio ejus." Likewise in A.D. 314 the thirteenth See also:canon of See also:Ancyra (for the true See also:reading see Bishop See also:Wordsworth's Ministry of See also:Grace, p. 140) assumes that See also:city presbyters may with the bishop's leave ordain other presbyters. Even among the See also:medieval schoolmen, some (See also:Gore, Church and Ministry, p. 377) maintained that a priest might be empowered by the See also:pope to ordain other priests. The threefold 2 ministry was developed in the 2nd, a seven-See also:fold ministry in the middle of the 3rd century. There must, says See also:Cornelius (apud Euseb., H.E. vi. 43), be one oishop in the Catholic Church; and he then enumerates the church officers subject to himself as bishop of Rome. These are 46 presbyters, 7 deacons, 7 subdeacons, 42 acolytes, 52 exorcists and readers, together with doorkeepers. The subdeacons, no doubt, became a See also:necessity when the deacons, whose number was limited to seven in memory of their See also:original institution, were no longer equal to their duties in the " regions " of the imperial city, and See also:left their See also:lower work, such as preparation of the sacred vessels, to their subordinates. The office of See also:acolyte may have been suggested by the attendant assigned to heathen priests. The office of See also:door-keeper explains itself, though it must be remembered that it was the special See also:duty of the Christian ostiarius to exclude the unbaptized and persons undergoing See also:penance from the more See also:solemn See also:part of the Eucharistic service. But readers and exorcists claim " Fixed attention " on the deacon's ministration, the ministration itself being much more ancient. See See also:Justin, Apol. i. 65. The See also:Nestorians may be said to have a fourfold ministry, for they reconsecrated a bishop when he was made catholicos or See also:patriarch. Chardon, v. p. 222. special See also:notice. The reader is the only minor official mentioned by Tertullian (Praescr. 41). An ancient church order which belongs to the latter part of the 2nd century (see Harnack's See also:Sources of Apostolic Canons, Engl. Transl. p: 54 seq.) mentions the reader before the deacon, and speaks of him as filling " the place of an evangelist." We are justified in believing that both exorcists and readers, whose functions differed essentially from the See also:mechanical employments of the other minor clerics, belonged originally to the " charismatic " ministry, and sank afterwards to a See also:low rank in the " orders" of the church (see See also:EXORCIST and See also:LECTOR). There were also other minor orders in the ancient church which have fallen into oblivion or lost their clerical character. Such were the copiatae or See also:grave-diggers, the psalmistae or chaunters, and the parabolani, who at great See also:personal See also:risk—whence the name—visited the sick in pestilence. The See also:modern See also:Greek Church recognizes only two minor orders, viz, those of subdeacons and readers, and this holds See also:good of the See also:Oriental churches generally, with the single exception of the Armenians.' The See also:Anglican Church is content with the threefold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons, but in See also:recent times the bishops have appointed See also:lay-readers, licensed to read prayers and preach in buildings which are not consecrated. The Latins, and Armenians who have borrowed from the Latins, have sub-deacons, acolytes, exorcists, readers and doorkeepers. Since the pontificate of See also:Innocent III., however, the Latin Church has placed the subdiaconate among the greater or sacred orders, the subdeacon being obliged to the See also:law of See also:celibacy and See also:bound to the daily recitation of the See also:breviary offices. The minor orders, and even the subdiaconate and diaconate, are now regarded as no more than steps to the priesthood. Roman theologians generally reckon only seven orders, although, if we See also:count the episcopate an order distinct from the presbyterate, the sum is not seven, but eight. The explanation given by St See also: 4) the ecclesiastical See also:hierarchy of bishops, priests and ministers, the bishops as successors of the Apostles holding the highest place. The Roman Church forbids ordination to higher grades unless the See also:candidate has received all the inferior orders. Further, a cleric is bound to exercise the minor orders for a See also:year before he can be ordained subdeacon, he must be subdeacon for a year before he is ordained deacon, deacon for a year before he is made priest. However, instances of men elevated at once from the See also:condition of laymen to the priesthood were known in the early church, and Chardon (Hist. See also:des sacraments, vol. v. part 1, ch. v.) shows that in exceptional cases men were consecrated, bishops without previous ordination to the priesthood. Passing to the effect of ordination, we meet with two views, each of which still finds See also:advocates. According to some, ordination simply entitles a See also:man to hold an office and perform its functions. It corresponds to the form by which, e.g., a Roman official was put in See also:possession of his magistracy. This theory is clearly stated by See also:Cranmer: " In the New Testament he that is appointed bishop or priest needed no See also:consecration, by the Scripture, for See also:election or appointment thereto is sufficient."2 This view, widely held among modern scholars, has strong support in the fact that the words used for ordination in the first three centuries (xeepo'roveiv, aaOWQTavew, aXnpoiluOat, constituere, ordinare) also expressed appointment to See also:civil office. Very different is the medieval theory, which arose from the See also:gradual See also:acceptance of the belief that the Jewish was the prototype of the Christian priest. According, then, to the Roman view, ' The Syrian See also:Jacobites and the See also:Maronites also ordain " singers," Denzinger, Rit. Oriental, i. p. 118 seq. ; Silbernagl, See also:Kircher des Orients, pp. 254. 315. 2 Cranmer's See also:works are to be found in See also:Burnet, " Collection of Records " appended to his See also:History of the See also:Reformation (ed. See also:Pocock), iv. 478. Cranmer also maintained that " bishops and priests are but both one office in the beginning of Christ's See also:religion," ib. p. 471.holy order is a See also:sacrament, and as such instituted by Christ; it confers grace and power, besides setting a See also:mark or character upon the soul, in consequence of which ordination to the same office cannot be reiterated. Such is the teaching of the Roman Church, accepted by the Greeks and with certain modifications by Anglicans of the High Church school, who See also:appeal to I Tim: iv. 14, 2 Tim. i. 6. We may conclude with brief reference to the most important aspects of the Roman See also:doctrine. The See also:ordinary See also:minister of orders is a bishop. The See also:tonsure and minor orders are, however, still sometimes conferred by abbots, who, though simple priests, have special faculties for the ordination of their monks. Some account has been already given of scholastic See also:opinion on presbyteral ordination to the diaconate and even to the priesthood. Can a heretical or schismatical bishop validly ordain? Is a simoniacal ordination valid? All modern theologians of. the Roman Church See also:answer these questions in the affirmative, but from the 8th to the beginning of the 13th century they were fiercely agitated with the utmost divergence of opinion and practice. Pope See also:Stephen' reconsecrated bishops consecrated in the usual way by his schismatical predecessor See also:Constantine. Pope See also:Nicholas declared orders given by See also:Photius of See also:Constantinople null. St See also:Peter Damian was grievously perplexed about the validity of simoniacal ordinations. Similarly See also: 2) may ordain validly, and that a priest who has been degraded can still celebrate the Eucharist (Summ. iii. 82.. 8) validly, though of course not lawfully. This opinion, defended by See also:Bonaventura, See also: Deaconesses in the East received the imposition of the bishop's hands, but could not ascend to the priesthood. The Roman theologians regard them as incapable of true ordination, alleging 1 Tim. ii. 12. An unbaptized See also:person is also incapable of valid ordination. On the other See also:hand, St Thomas holds that orders may be validly conferred on See also:children who have not come to the use of See also:reason. For lawful ordination. in the Roman Church,' a man must be confirmed, tonsured, in possession of all orders lower than that which he proposes to receive, of legitimate See also:birth; not a slave or notably mutilated, of good See also:life and competent knowledge. By the present law (Concil. Trid. Sess. xxiii. de Ref. cap. 12) a subdeacon must have begun his twenty-second, a deacon his twenty-third, a priest his twenty-fifth year.' The 2 In reality this is a survival of the See also:primitive view that holy order is institution for an office which the local church confers and can therefore take away. The canon law fixes the thirtieth year as the lowest age for episcopal consecration. Council of Trent also requires that any one who receives holy orders must have a " title," i.e. means of support. The chief titles are poverty, i.e. solemn profession in a religious order, patrimony and See also:benefice. Holy orders are to be conferred on the Ember Saturdays, on the Saturday before See also:Passion See also:Sunday or on Holy Saturday (See also:Easter See also:Eve). The ancient and essential rule that a bishop must be " chosen by all the See also:people (Can. Hipp. ii. 7) has fallen into disuse, partly by the right of See also:confirmation allowed to the bishops of the See also:province, partly by the influence of Christian emperors, who controlled the elections in the See also:capital where they resided, most of all by the authority exercised by See also:kings after the invasion of the See also:northern tribes and the See also:dissolution of the See also:empire (see CHURCH HISTORY). Such in brief were the doctrine and use of the early churches, gradually systematized, developed and transformed in the churches of the Roman obedience. The Reformation brought in See also:radical changes, which were on the whole a return to the primitive type. See also:Calvin states his views clearly in the See also:fourth book of his Institutes, cap. iii. Christ, as he holds, has established in His church certain offices which are always to be retained. First comes the order of presbyters or elders. These are sub-divided into pastors, who administer the word and sacraments, doctors, who teach and expound the See also:Bible, elders pure and simple, who exercise rule and discipline. The special care of the poor is committed to deacons. Ordination is to be effected by imposition of hands. The monarchical episcopate is rejected. This view of order was accepted in the Calvinistic churches, but with various modifications. See also:Knox, for example, did away with the imposition of hands (M'Crie's Knox, See also:period vii.), though the rite was restored by the Scottish Presbyterian Church in the Second Book of Discipline. Knox also provided the Church of See also:Scotland with superintendents or visitors, as well as readers and exhorters, offices which soon fell into disuse. Nor do Scottish presbyterians now recognize any special class of doctors, unless we suppose that these are represented by professors of See also:theology. See also:Independents acknowledge the two orders of presbyters and deacons, and differ from the Calvinistic presbyterians chiefly in this, that with them the church is See also:complete in each single congregation, which is subject to no See also:control of See also:presbytery or See also:synod. See also:Luther was not, like Calvin, a man of rigid See also:system. He refused to look upon any ecclesiastical constitution as binding for all time. The keys, as he believed, were entrusted to the church as a whole, and from the church as a whole the " ministers of the word and sacraments " are to derive their institution and authority. The form of government was not essential. Provided that the See also:preaching of the See also:gospel was See also:free and full, Luther was willing to tolerate See also:episcopacy and even papacy. Hence the Lutheran churches exhibit great variety of constitution. In Scandinavia they are under episcopal rule. The Lutheran See also:Bugenhagen, who was in priest's orders, ordained seven superintendents, afterwards called bishops, for See also:Denmark in 1527, and See also:Norway, then under the same See also:crown, derives its present episcopate from the same source. See also:Sweden stands in a different position. There three bishops were consecrated in 1528 by Peter Magnusson, who had himself been consecrated by a See also:cardinal with the pope's approval at Rome in 1524, for the see of Westiras, to which he had been elected by the See also:chapter. J. A. See also:Nicholson (A postolical See also:Succession in the Church of Sweden, 188o) seems to have proved so much from contemporary evidence. A reply to Mr Nicholson was made in See also:Swedish by a Roman priest, See also:Bern-hard, to whom Mr Nicholson replied in 1887. Unfortunately Mr Nicholson gives no detailed account of the form used in consecration, and on this and other points See also:fuller information is needed. We may say, however, that Mr Nicholson has presented a strong See also:case for the preservation of episcopal succession in the Swedish Church. If the Swedish Church has preserved the episcopal succession, it does not make much of that See also:advantage, for it is in communion with the Danish and See also:Norwegian 'bodies, which can advance no such claim. On the other hand, the Church of See also:England adheres closely to the episcopal constitution. It is true that in articles xix. and See also:xxxvi. she defines the church, without any expressreference to the episcopate, as a " congregation of faithful men in which the pure word of God is preached and the sacraments be duly administered according to Christ's See also:ordinance," and simply adds that the ordinal of Edward VI. for the consecration of bishops, priests and deacons, contains all that is necessary for such ordination and nothing which is of itself superstitious. The See also:preface to the ordinal (1550) goes farther. Therein we are told that the threefold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons may be traced back to apostolic times, and in the final revision of 1662 a clause was added to the effect that no one is 'to be accounted " a lawful bishop, priest or deacon in the Church of England," unless he has had episcopal consecration or ordination. The words " in the Church of England " deserve careful notice. Nothing is said to condemn the opinion of See also: The English Church derives its orders through See also:Matthew See also:Parker, See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury, who was consecrated in 1559 by William See also:Barlow, bishop-elect of See also:Chichester. We may assume that the rite employed was serious and onl CR°
orders.
reverent, and there is no longer any need to refute
the See also:fable of a ludicrous consecration at the " Nag's Head " See also:tavern. We may further take for granted that Barlow was a bishop in the Catholic sense of the word. He had been nominated bishop of St See also:Asaph in 1536, translated to St See also:David's in the same year, and to See also:Bath and See also:Wells in 1547. He also sat in the upper See also:house of See also:Convocation and in the House of Peers. Now if Barlow all this time was not consecrated—and so far the only form of consecration known in England was according to the Roman rite—he would have incurred the penalties of praemuriire, let alone the fact that See also: The case first came under See also:consideration when Cardinal See also:Pole returned to England early in See also:Mary's reign with legatine authority for reconciling the See also:realm to the Holy See. In his instructions to the bishops (Burnet Collect., pt. iii., bk. v., 33; see also See also:Dixon, Hist. Ch. of England, v. 238 seq.') he clearly recognizes orders schismatical but valid, i.e. those conferred in Henry's reign, and so distinguishes them by implication from invalid orders, i.e. those given according to the Edwardine book. In the former alone were " the form and intention of the church preserved." He could not doubt for a moment the utter invalidity of Edwardine ordinations to the priesthood. He knew very well that the theologians of his church almost without exception held that the handing over of the paten and chalice with the words, " Receive power of offering See also:sacrifice," &c., were the essential matter and form of ordination to the priesthood; indeed he published the decree of See also:Eugenius IV. to that effect 'Compare also the article on Anglican orders in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. i., especially at p. 492. (See also:Wilkins, Concil. iv. 121). The Anglican priesthood being gone, the episcopate also lapses. For according to the Pontifical, the episcopate is the " summum sacerdotium "; the bishop in consecration receives " the sacerdotal grace "; it is " his office to consecrate, ordain, offer, baptize, confirm." Thus in the Pontifical the words " Receive the Holy Ghost " are determined and defined by the context. There is nothing in the Anglican ordinal to show that the Holy Ghost is given for the consecration of a bishop in the Roman sense. In 1704 John See also:Gordon, formerly Anglican bishop of See also:Galloway, gave to the Holy Office an account of the manner in which he had been consecrated. The Sacred Congregation, with the pope's approval, declared his orders to be null. The See also:constant practice has been to reordain unconditionally Anglican priests and deacons. In 1896 See also:Leo XIII. summoned eight divines of his own communion to examine the question anew. Four of those divines were, it is said, decidedly opposed to the See also:admission of Anglican orders as valid; four were more or less favourably disposed to them. The See also:report of this See also:commission was then handed over to a See also:committee of cardinals, who pronounced unanimously for the nullity of the orders in question. Thereupon the pope published his See also:bull Apostolicae curae. In it he lays the chief stress on the indeterminate nature of the Anglican form " Receive the Holy Ghost " at least from 1552 till the addition of the specific words, " for the office and work of a bishop (or priest) in the church of God," as also on the changes made in the Edwardine order " with the See also:manifest intention.. . of rejecting what the church does." His conclusion is that Anglican orders are " absolutely null and utterly void." More-over, in a See also:letter to Cardinal See also:Richard, archbishop of Paris, the pope affirms that this his solemn decision is " See also:firm, authoritative and irrevocable." For Roman Catholics the decision necessarily carries great See also:weight, and it may perhaps have its influence on Anglicans of the school which approximates most closely to Roman belief. It need not affect the opinion of dispassionate students. It is not the See also:judgment of experts. The rejection of Anglican orders in the 16th and 17th centuries was based on a theory about the " tradition of instruments," which has long ceased to be tenable in the face of history, and is abandoned by Romanists themselves. The opinion of a liturgical See also:scholar like Mgr. See also: C. Chardon, Hxstoire des sacraments, vol. v. (1745), are See also:rich in material chiefly See also:relating to the patristic and medieval periods. For the controversy on Anglican orders see P. F. See also:Courayer, Validiti des ordinations anglaises (1732), and two works in reply by M. Le Quien, Nullite des ordinations anglicanes (172 ), Nullite des ordinations anglicanes demonstree de nouveau (1730. In recent times Anglican orders have been defended by A. W. See also:Hadrian, See also:Apostolical Succession in the Church of England; F. W. Puller, The Bull A postolicae Curae and the Edwardine Ordinal. They have been attacked by E. E. See also:Estcourt, Question of Anglican Ordinations (1873), and by A. W. See also:Hutton. The Anglican Ministry, with a preface by Cardinal J. H. See also:Newman (1879). (W. E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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