Chapter III — On the sacrament of Order

I. QUESTION I. What is sacred Order, by which ecclesiastical persons are consecrated? ANSWER. It is a true sacrament of the new law, by which power is conferred for consecrating the most sacred body of Christ, and for rightly performing the other ecclesiastical ministries and offices, as Trent defined against Luther, Calvin, and the Protestants, session 23, chapter 3.

II. QUESTION II. Whether there are, and how many, Orders there are? ANSWER. Seven are numbered, namely the priesthood, the diaconate, the subdiaconate, the acolythate, the exorcistate, the lectorate, and the ostiariate. The first three are called major or sacred; the other four minor. This sevenfold number Trent confirmed in the place cited. It did not nevertheless disapprove the rite of the Greeks, who retain only four Orders.

III. Neither the tonsure nor the cantorate are Orders. The tonsure is a disposition and preparation for the same. Theologians dispute whether the episcopate is a sacrament distinct from the priesthood. St. Thomas denies it. But this disputation does not now pertain to us.

IV. QUESTION III. What is the ostiariate, and what are its offices? ANSWER. It is the Order by which a cleric is set over the caring for the sacred furniture of the Church and the guarding of the house of God. Four offices of the ostiarius cleric the Tridentine Catechism recounts, part 2, On the Sacrament of Order. 1. He ought to unbar the doors to the worthy and to close them to the unworthy — suppose to unbelievers and the excommunicated. 2. He ought to hinder laymen from approaching nearer to the altar. 3. It is his to call together the faithful people to the divine offices by the ringing of the bell. 4. To preserve the sacred vessels and to guard the furniture of the Church. He ought also to keep watch that all bear themselves modestly in the church.

V. QUESTION IV. What is the lectorate, and what are its offices? ANSWER. It is the Order by which power is conferred of reading in the Church holy Scripture and the doctrine of the holy Fathers. Five are its offices: 1. To read the divine Scripture of either Testament; 2. To instruct catechumens and the rude baptized, by explaining the articles of faith; 3. Formerly it was the lector's office to read that part of the divine Scripture which the bishop was about to interpret; 4. To chant the divine praises, and to preside over those singing psalms; 5. To bless new fruits.

VI. QUESTION V. What is the exorcistate, and what are its offices? ANSWER. It is the Order by which power is imparted of expelling demons from the bodies whether of catechumens or of the baptized: this is the exorcistate's single office.

VII. QUESTION VI. What is the acolythate, and what are its offices? ANSWER. It is the Order by which power is delivered of serving the subdeacon and the deacon in the sacrifice of the Mass. Three are its duties: 1. To prepare the wine with water in the cruets to be exhibited by the subdeacon; 2. To carry the lights when the Gospel is read by the deacon with solemn rite; 3. To kindle and keep the lamps of the Church.

VIII. QUESTION VII. What is the subdiaconate, and what are its offices? ANSWER. It is the Order by which power is delivered of ministering to the deacon and to the priest in the sacrifice of the Mass. Theologians dispute whether that Order be a sacrament. But of this controversy nothing at present pertains to us. In the Roman Pontifical five of its duties are numbered: 1. To offer the chalice and paten to the deacon for the use of the sacrifice; 2. To pour water for the sacrificing priest to wash the tips of his fingers; 3. To receive the oblations from the people; 4. To read the Epistle; 5. To wash the palls of the altar, the corporals, and the purificators.

IX. QUESTION VIII. What is the diaconate, and what are its duties? ANSWER. It is the sacred Order by which spiritual power is delivered of serving proximately the sacrificing priest. Three are its offices: 1. Deacons stand ready to the bishop or presbyter performing the sacred rites, and exhibit the matter of the sacrifice, bread and wine, and offer the chalice to be consecrated together with him. They read the Gospel from a higher place solemnly. They separate the unworthy from the worthy with this terrible voice: Let the penitents withdraw: holy things to the holy. 2. A deacon by office baptizes, not indeed solemnly, unless as an extraordinary minister. 3. A deacon by force of his ordination is a minister of the word of God, if the preaching be after the manner of a catechesis and without any apparatus. Deacons are evangelists, says the author of the book On Ecclesiastical Dogmas.

X. QUESTION IX. What were deaconesses? ANSWER. Some were the wives whom deacons had married before their inauguration: on this account the wife of a bishop was called episcopa, of a presbyter presbytera, of a deacon diaconissa, of a subdeacon subdiaconissa. Both among the Latins were bound to preserve perpetual continence. Other deaconesses were women, widows or virgins dedicated to God for some ecclesiastical ministry. The custom of deaconesses obtained in the universal Church, whether Latin or Greek, from the Apostles themselves. Deaconesses were: 1. Portresses of the women, who were then separated from the men in the temple; 2. They stripped and clothed the women to be baptized; 3. They instructed rustic women. Little by little the deaconesses fell out of use.

XI. QUESTION X. What is the presbyterate, and what are its duties? ANSWER. It is the sacred Order by which power is given of consecrating the body of Christ and of remitting sins. Five of its duties are numbered in the Roman Pontifical: to offer, to bless, to preside, to preach, to baptize. 1. To offer the Sacrifice; 2. To bless the persons and things which pertain to their use; 3. Under the bishop's hand to preside over the people; 4. The office of preaching; 5. To baptize belongs to them by ordinary right.

XII. QUESTION XI. What is the episcopate, and what are its duties? ANSWER. It is the supreme Order, by which power is given to a presbyter of conferring the sacraments of Confirmation and of Order, and of ruling the Church committed to him, namely the clergy and the people. It is called an Order, because it is the summit and highest point of the priesthood. This Order is conferred upon a presbyter, because no one can be a bishop unless he has first been a presbyter. The power of conferring the sacraments of Confirmation and of Order belongs to a bishop alone.

XIII. QUESTION XII. Are the individual Orders sacraments? ANSWER. It is of faith that the presbyterate is a sacrament, as Trent defined, session 23, canon 3. That the diaconate is a sacrament all now affirm: for the diaconate is conferred through the imposition of hands, which is a sensible sign divinely instituted. That the subdiaconate and the minor Orders are not sacraments very many theologians defend, and they oppose arguments not to be despised. I pass over the controversy undecided. But although the Orders, whether major or minor, were sacraments, yet the sacrament of Order is one, because all are ordained to one priesthood. He who receives these sacred Orders in mortal sin sins mortally. And although the minor Orders were not sacraments, he would not on that account be immune from grave malice who should receive them with a conscience defiled by a deadly crime.

XIV. Some deny that a deacon or subdeacon sins mortally while he exercises his proper office in mortal sin. This opinion is to me false. For these exercise a sacramental ministry. Therefore they sin gravely while with a filthy conscience they profane it. Nor are there wanting those who teach that the minor Orders are sacraments, and at the same time defend that those do not sin gravely who exercise them in mortal sin. Of this opinion the discourse will be below.