Chapter IV — On the matter and form of the sacrament of Order

I. In the celebrated decree for the Armenians Eugenius IV established these things concerning the matter and form of the sacred ordinations: The sixth sacrament is of Order, whose matter is that by whose delivery the Order is conferred. As the presbyterate is delivered through the holding out of the chalice with wine and the paten with bread; the diaconate through the giving of the book of the Gospels; the subdiaconate through the delivery of the empty chalice with the empty paten placed upon it. The form of the priesthood is such: Receive the power of offering sacrifice in the Church for the living and the dead, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and so of the forms of the other Orders, as is contained at large in the Roman Pontifical.

II. Resting upon this authority very many theologians defend that the essential matter of the sacrament of Order is set in the holding out of the instruments, and the form in the prayer which is recited while they are held out. But great trouble is made in this controversy by the fact that the Greek Church confers sacred ordinations by the imposition of hands and the prayer alone, no instruments being employed, save after the ordination is completed. What of this, that neither did the Latin Church for a long interval of ages employ the aforesaid instruments? This difficulty has divided theologians into various opinions. That seems to me the more probable which teaches that the imposition of hands is the essential matter and the annexed prayer the form; but that the holding out of the instruments with the words added to it is an accidental and integral matter and form, for the greater expression and declaration of the effect; and the theologians of that opinion contend that Eugenius IV spoke of this accessory matter and form. There is added the perpetual use of the universal Church, which in the ordaining of sacred ministers has always employed the imposition of hands and prayer. That the holding out of the instruments is not the essential but an accessory and integral matter is plain from this, that no vestige of it is had in holy Scripture; that the Latin Church itself through the first ten centuries did not employ these instruments; and that the Greek Church does not use them even at present, whose ordinations nevertheless the Latin Church holds as ratified.

III. For the rest, in practice all those things are to be observed which the Church prescribes. The things which have been said above comprehend chiefly the sacred or hierarchical Orders — the diaconate, the presbyterate, and the episcopate — to whose essential matter the instruments have been adjoined, namely to the diaconate the book of the Gospels, to the presbyterate the unction and the holding out of the chalice and paten with the sacred symbols to be consecrated. But of the other Orders — namely the subdiaconate and the four minor — the matter and form are the instruments and the prayers which the bishop recites in delivering them. Those who defend that these Orders are sacraments say that in the very holding out of the instruments the imposition of hands is understood. Thus the matter of the ostiariate is the delivery of the keys and of the little bell. The form: So act as those who are to render an account, and so forth. The matter of the lectorate is the delivery of holy Scripture. The form: Receive, and be relaters of the word of God, and so forth. The matter of the exorcistate is the delivery of the book of exorcisms, or the Pontifical. The form: Receive, and commit to memory, and so forth. The matter of the acolythate is the delivery of the candlestick with an extinguished taper. The form: Receive the candlestick with the taper, and so forth. The partial matter of the subdiaconate is the delivery of the empty chalice with the paten placed upon it. The form: See of what sort a ministry is delivered to you, and so forth. The matter of the diaconate is the imposition of hands with the delivery of the codex of the Gospels. The matter of the presbyterate is the imposition of hands with the delivery of the chalice and paten, the sacred symbols to be consecrated being added. As I have already said, in these three hierarchical Orders — the diaconate, the presbyterate, and the episcopate — the imposition of the hand is express, and has always been used in the Church. Authors dispute whether it be necessary to touch the individual parts of the matter — suppose the chalice, the paten, and so forth. And they commonly teach that it is enough to touch some part of the matter, either the chalice or the paten, and so forth. It behoves that this contact be physical, nor does a moral one suffice, as the more common opinion teaches.