Chapter V — On the minister and subject of the sacrament of Order, and its effects

I. QUESTION I. Is a bishop alone the minister of this sacrament? ANSWER. As regards the major Orders all Catholics affirm it, and this was defined in Trent, session 23, canon 7, against the innovators. The inferior Orders only can be conferred by a simple priest, namely the tonsure and the four minor.

II. QUESTION II. How many bishops are required for the consecrating of a bishop? ANSWER. By the necessity of precept, three. Several theologians, as Cajetan and Bellarmine, defend that three, or two, are required by the necessity of the sacrament, so that there is no sacrament unless at least two be present. Several others deny this, and contend that an ordination made by one bishop is valid but unlawful. Custom nevertheless has always obtained that a presbyter be ordained bishop by three bishops, the case of necessity being removed.

III. Clerics are lawfully ordained by their own bishop alone, but validly by any bishop whatsoever. The proper bishop is either of origin, or of domicile, or of benefice. The bishop of the benefice is he in whose diocese a man in fact possesses a benefice; of origin, he in whose diocese the ordinand was baptized; the bishop of domicile, he in whose diocese a man has fixed his seat, with the mind of dwelling there in perpetuity. For contracting matrimony it suffices that a man dwell in good faith for a year in some parish, although he be afterwards about to depart. But for the receiving of sacred Orders not even a decade suffices, unless the mind be present of dwelling there perpetually. Since each man is assigned to the Church of that place in which he is ordained. A bishop can ordain his own familiar who shall have dwelt with him for a triennium, and can confer a benefice upon him, as Trent declared, session 23, chapter 9. Fraud would occur if a bishop with the intention of exempting the ordained man from his own bishop should confer a benefice upon him; in which case the bishop and the ordained man would be obnoxious to the penalties passed by the sacred canons.

IV. A bishop cannot ordain his own subject in another's diocese without the Ordinary's leave, as Trent declares, session 6, chapter 5 On Reformation. The bishop of Regulars is he in whose diocese they dwell, as several Councils have established. Concerning this the decree of Benedict XIV given in the year 1746 is to be seen, whose beginning is Impositi nobis, and so forth.

V. Dimissorial letters can be granted: 1. By the proper bishop; 2. By his Vicar general, if nevertheless he has received an express faculty; 3. By the Chapter of the cathedral Church, the See being vacant, a year having elapsed from the bishop's death, as Trent established, session 7, chapter 10. These letters a bishop ought not to grant save to those whom he shall have judged fit by his own examination. These letters do not expire by the death of the granter.

VI. QUESTION IV. At what time are Orders to be administered? ANSWER. On the Saturdays of the four seasons, on the Saturday before Passion Sunday, and on Holy Saturday. The consecration of a bishop on any Sunday whatsoever. Minor Orders privately on any feast day whatsoever; publicly on the Friday before the Saturday on which major Orders can be conferred, or on the same Saturday. The first tonsure on any day. These are the accustomed times. By privilege sacred Orders can be conferred on other days also. A bishop cannot repel the fit and worthy, since he is not the lord but the dispenser of ordination; just as neither can he ordain the unworthy. Frequently is it sinned in the latter, rarely in the former.

VII. In these ordinations the intervals ought to be observed, as Trent declared, session 23, chapter 11. A subdeacon cannot be ordained unless it be more than a year from the last Order received, nor be promoted to deacon unless a year has elapsed from the subdiaconate received, nor to the priesthood save after a year from the diaconate received. In the time of the intervals the ordained ought to exercise their own Orders. Upon these intervals a bishop can dispense from a reasonable cause with his own subjects.

VIII. QUESTION IV. Who are apt for sacred Orders? ANSWER. Males alone can be ordained, women being excluded. The demented and the unbaptized are excluded. For the minor Orders no age is determined by Trent, but only this is established, session 23, chapter 11, that they be conferred upon those who understand the Latin tongue. For the subdiaconate the 22nd year is required; for the diaconate the 23rd; for the presbyterate the 25th. Custom prevailing, it is enough that those years be begun. A higher Order cannot be received, the inferior not having been received. He who should be ordained by a leap would by that very fact remain suspended from the execution of the superior Order, the inferior being received.

IX. QUESTION V. Does he who receives Orders without being confirmed sin mortally? ANSWER. Trent, session 23, chapter 4 On Reformation, establishes these things: Let them not be initiated with the first tonsure who have not received the sacrament of Confirmation. Wherefore the graver theologians teach that they sin mortally who knowingly, Confirmation being omitted, receive the tonsure or the other Orders. Fr. La Croix, no. 2325, reports Busembaum with two others who teach that it is only a venial sin. And this opinion, says Fr. La Croix, no. 2325, is the more probable. Because where (he says) the question is of contracting a mortal sin, an obligation is not to be imposed unless it be certain. A robust reason! But neither, I say, is it to be taken away, unless it be more certainly established that no obligation is present. And as regards this knowledge it is safer to receive more certainty than the Angelic determines. Unless something more express be had, it is determined equally by denying and by affirming. In doubts therefore the safer part is to be chosen, all the figments of the Relaxers being dismissed. It is certain that he commits an evil who, Confirmation being neglected, receives Orders. What therefore is to be done? I decline the evil, and do the good.

X. QUESTION VI. Of how many kinds is a clerical title? ANSWER. Threefold: ecclesiastical, patrimonial, monastic. A title generally is taken for a right to possess anything lawfully. Wherefore the ecclesiastical clerical title is the right of enjoying the goods of the Church. This right is now acquired through a benefice peacefully possessed, or through a clerical pension. In the first ages of the Church men were not ordained unless assigned to a Church: ordination itself was the title by which the right was granted to a cleric of receiving sustenance from the goods of the Church.

XI. A patrimonial title is the right of perceiving fruits from goods other than those of the Church, which come to the ordained man either by gratuitous donation or by hereditary succession.

XII. By the ecclesiastical title alone, the patrimonial being excluded, clerics were ordained down to the tenth century, being assigned to a determinate Church. And by this title they received sustenance from the Church, and it was not permitted them to pass to another Church.

XIII. In these times, and chiefly after the eleventh century, a vicissitude of ecclesiastical discipline was brought forth. Among very many other documents, in Trent, as Cardinal Pallavicino narrates, Book 7, chapter 9, it was most keenly disputed against the patrimonial title; and for the restoring of the ancient discipline very many most holy Fathers laboured with the highest zeal, saying that priests loosed from the bond of an ecclesiastical title are like horses destitute of a bridle. The sacred Synod, suffused with divine light, that it might meet the evils of either kind, framed a most salutary rule, which if it were observed, ecclesiastical discipline would be restored. First it established that a bishop should ordain no one, even under the title of a patrimony, whom he had not judged useful or necessary to his Church. But those obtaining a patrimony or a pension (it says) can not hereafter be ordained, unless the bishop judge them to be assumed for the necessity or convenience of his Churches; it being first proved that they truly obtain that patrimony or pension, and that such is a right for them sufficient for sustaining life. But that the Tridentine Fathers might meet all the evils which had been exaggerated against clerics assigned to no Church, the holy Synod forbade, session 23, chapter 16 On Reformation, that anyone thereafter be ordained who is not assigned to some Church. Since (it says) no one ought to be ordained who in the judgment of his own bishop is not useful or necessary to his Churches, the holy Synod, treading in the footsteps of the sixth canon of the Council of Chalcedon, establishes that no one in future be ordained who is not ascribed to that Church or pious place for whose necessity or utility he is assumed, where he may perform his duties, and not wander in uncertain seats. But if he should forsake the place without consulting the bishop, let the exercise of sacred things be interdicted him.

XIV. Behold ecclesiastical discipline restored to its primeval splendour. Nothing is lacking, save that bishops exactly observe what Trent prescribes in promoting men to sacred ordinations. Whether today there be more clerics assigned to no Church than those who are assigned, let others judge.

XV. The third title is the monastic, by force of which Regulars are ordained, which title is called of poverty. For these are sustained from the goods of the Church, or of the house in which they made profession. Very many things concerning this title, and concerning life-pensions, which accompany the same, would have to be said. But they have been said elsewhere.

XVI. QUESTION VII. How many are the effects of the sacrament of Order? ANSWER. Three: 1. Sanctifying grace; 2. Sacramental grace, greater or less according to the diverse disposition of those receiving it; 3. The character is conferred. The character is a sign of Christ indelibly imprinted upon the soul. Very many other effects are wont to be recounted, such as are the obligation of preserving chastity by force of the annexed vow, of reciting the canonical hours, the privilege of the canon, of the forum, and others which are not effects of the sacrament, but obligations or privileges which follow upon the clerical state.