Distinction XXIII

GRATIAN. Part I. We have briefly shown what difference there is among ecclesiastical offices. Now, beginning from the highest and descending from these to the last grade, let us show by the authorities of the saints how each of them ought to be ordained.

In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the year 1059 from his Incarnation, in the month of April, in the twelfth indiction, with the sacrosanct Gospels set forth, and with the most reverend and blessed Pope Nicholas presiding in the basilica of the Lateran patriarchate that is surnamed the Constantinian, and with the most reverend bishops, abbots, priests, and deacons also sitting together, the same venerable pontiff, decreeing by apostolic authority concerning the election of the supreme pontiff, said: §1. Your blessedness knows, most beloved brothers and fellow bishops, and it has not escaped the lower members either, how many adversities this apostolic see, which by God’s authorship I serve, endured after the death of our lord Stephen of pious memory, our predecessor; and finally how many times, through the money changers of the simoniacal heresy, it was subjected to repeated hammers and frequent blows, so that the pillar of the living God already appeared almost to waver and the net of the supreme fisherman was compelled, as the storms swelled, to sink into the depths of shipwreck. Hence, if it pleases your fraternity, with God’s aid we ought prudently to meet future occurrences and provide for the ecclesiastical state hereafter, lest revived evils—which God forbid—prevail. §2. Therefore, instructed by the authority of our predecessors and of the other holy fathers, we decree and establish that, when the pontiff of this universal Roman Church dies, first the cardinal bishops, treating the matter together with the most diligent consideration, should soon summon the cardinal clerics to themselves; and thus the rest of the clergy and the people should approach to give consent to the new election, plainly taking care lest the disease of venality creep in on any occasion. Let the most religious men be the leaders in advancing the election of the pontiff, and let the rest be followers. §3. This order of election is recognized as certain and legitimate if, after the rules or acts of diverse fathers have been examined, that judgment of blessed Leo, our predecessor, is also recalled. “No reason,” he says, “permits those to be held among the bishops who were neither elected by the clerics, sought by the peoples, nor consecrated by the fellow provincial bishops with the judgment of the metropolitan.” Because the apostolic see is placed before all the churches throughout the world, and therefore cannot have a metropolitan over it, the cardinal bishops undoubtedly discharge the office of the metropolitan; they, namely, are to advance the elected prelate to the summit of the apostolic height. §4. Let him be chosen from the bosom of that Church itself if a suitable man is found; but if one is not found from it, let him be taken from another, with the due honor and reverence of our beloved son Henry preserved, who at present is held as king and, God granting it, is hoped to be the future emperor, as we have already conceded to him and to those of his successors who personally obtain this right from this apostolic see. §5. But if the perversity of depraved and wicked men should grow so strong that a pure, sincere, and gratuitous election cannot take place in the city, let the cardinal bishops, together with religious clerics and Catholic laymen, although few, have the right and power to elect the pontiff of the apostolic see wherever it shall be fitting. §6. Clearly, after the election has been made, if the tempest of war or any endeavor of men through the zeal of malignity should resist so that the elected man cannot be enthroned in the apostolic see according to custom, nevertheless let the elect, as true pope, possess authority to govern the Roman Church and the faculty to dispose all its possessions; we know that blessed Gregory did this before his consecration. §7. But if anyone contrary to this our decree, promulgated by synodal judgment, shall have been elected or even ordained or enthroned through sedition, presumption, or any contrivance, by divine authority and that of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, let him, together with his authors, supporters, and followers, be cast out, separated by perpetual anathema from the thresholds of the holy Church of God, as an antichrist, invader, and destroyer of all Christianity. Nor is any hearing concerning this ever to be reserved for him, but without reconsideration let him be deposed from every ecclesiastical grade, whatever he had previously been. Whoever adheres to him, displays reverence of any kind toward him as pontiff, or presumes to defend him in any respect is to be subjected to an equal sentence. §8. Whoever proves a violator of this our decretal sentence and attempts, contrary to this statute, to confound and disturb the Roman Church by his presumption, let him be condemned by perpetual anathema and excommunication and “be numbered with the impious who shall not rise in judgment”; let him feel against himself the wrath of the Almighty, and in this life and the future let him feel the fury of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, whose Church he presumes to confound. “Let his habitation become desolate, and let there be no one who dwells in their tents. Let his sons become orphans and his wife a widow. Let him and his sons be moved and removed; let them beg and be cast out from their habitations. Let the moneylender search out all his substance, and let strangers plunder his labors. Let the globe of the earth fight against him, and let all the elements be contrary to him”; let the merits of all the saints at rest confound him and show open vengeance upon him in this life. §9. But may the grace of the Almighty protect the observers of this our decree, and may the authority of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul absolve them from the bonds of all sins. Part II. GRATIAN. Let us show, from the authority of the Fourth Council of Carthage [c. 1], at which Augustine was present in the time of Honorius Augustus, how bishops and the others established in an order below them ought to be ordained, beginning with their examination:

One who is to be ordained a bishop is first to be examined: whether he is prudent by nature; whether teachable; temperate in morals; chaste in life; sober; always cautious in his own affairs; humble; affable; merciful; literate; instructed in the law of the Lord; cautious in the meanings of the Scriptures; exercised in ecclesiastical doctrines; and, before all things, whether he asserts the teachings of the faith in simple words—that is, confirming that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, and preaching the whole deity of the Trinity as coessential, consubstantial, coeternal, and co-omnipotent; whether he confesses each individual person in the Trinity as fully God and all three persons together as one God; whether he believes that the divine incarnation was effected neither in the Father nor in the Holy Spirit but in the Son alone, so that he who in divinity was the Son of God the Father should be true God from the Father and true man from his mother, having flesh from his mother’s womb and a rational human soul; with both natures together in him, that is, God and man, one person, one Son, one Christ, one Lord, creator and author of all things that exist, Lord and ruler of all creatures together with the Father and the Holy Spirit; who suffered for our salvation by the true reception of his flesh and the true resumption of his soul, in which he is to come to judge the living and the dead. §1. It is also to be asked of him whether he believes that the one and same God is the author of the New and Old Testament—that is, of the law, the prophets, and the Apostles—and whether the devil was made evil not by creation but by choice. §2. It is also to be asked of him whether he believes in the resurrection of this flesh that we bear and not of another; whether he believes in the future judgment and that each will receive either punishments or rewards for the things that they did in this flesh; whether he does not prohibit marriages; does not condemn second marriages; does not censure the receiving of meats; communicates with penitents who have been reconciled; believes that in baptism all sins are forgiven, that is, both that original sin contracted and those voluntarily committed; and believes that no one is saved outside the Catholic Church. §3. When, having been examined in all these things, he has been found fully instructed, then, with the consent of the clerics and laymen and with the assembly of the bishops of the whole province, and especially with the authority or presence of the metropolitan, let him be ordained a bishop. Having received the episcopate in the name of Christ, let him acquiesce not in his own pleasure or his own morals, but in these definitions of the fathers.

Likewise Isidore, on the life of clerics. Part III. The law of the fathers therefore provides that they, separated from common life, should abstain from the pleasures of the world; should be present neither at spectacles nor at processions; should flee public banquets and cultivate private ones that are not only chaste but also sober; should by no means devote themselves to usury or to occupations of shameful profits; should not seek zealously after frauds against anyone; should flee the love of money as the material of all crimes; should refuse secular offices and affairs; should not receive grades of honor through ambition; should not accept gifts in return for the benefits of God’s medicine; should beware of deceits and conspiracies; should flee hatred, rivalries, detraction, and envy; should walk neither with wandering eyes, an unbridled tongue, nor with wantonness and a dissolute gesture, but should show the modesty and shamefastness of the mind by simple dress and gait; should utterly abhor obscenity of members and words as they do that of deeds; should flee the frequent company of widows and virgins; should in no way seek the companionship of unrelated women; should strive to preserve perpetually the chastity of an inviolate body, or at least be joined by the bond of one marriage; should also furnish due obedience to elders and should not exalt themselves by any zeal for vainglory; finally, should devote themselves continually to readings of doctrine, psalms, hymns, songs, and constant exercise. For those who strive to bind themselves to divine worship ought to be such, namely so that, while they devote labor to knowledge, they may administer the grace of doctrine to the peoples.

Likewise Clement [to James, the brother of the Lord, epistle II]. Let such clerics be chosen for the ministry as can worthily handle the Lord’s sacraments. For it is better for a priest of the Lord to have a few ministers who can worthily perform the work of God than many useless ones who bring a heavy burden upon the ordainer.

Likewise from the Fourth Council of Carthage. This is to be established: when we assemble to elect a bishop, if any contradiction has arisen—as such things have occurred among us—let only three not presume to purge the one who is to be ordained, but let two or three be requested in addition to the aforesaid number; and among that same people for whom he is to be ordained, let the persons of those contradicting first be examined, and finally let the things that are charged also be discussed; and when he has been purged in public view, only then let him be ordained. If this agrees with the mind of your holiness, let it be confirmed by the response of your dignity. It was said by all the bishops: “It pleases us sufficiently.”

Likewise from the Eleventh Council of Toledo [c. 10]. Although all who are bound to sacred orders are held fast by canonical rules, it is nevertheless expedient that those whom ecclesiastical discipline approves for grades of promotion should pledge the vows of their promise under a guarantee. For what is promised individually is usually feared more than what is included in a general pledge. §1. And therefore it pleased this holy council that each one who is about to approach ecclesiastical grades should not receive the consecration of honor before he promises by a declaration of his agreement that, guarding the Catholic faith with sincere devotion of heart, he ought to live justly and piously, contradict the canonical rules in none of his works, and render in all things the honor owed and the reverence of obedience to the one set over him, according to that edict of Pope Leo: “One who knows himself to be placed over certain persons should not bear it grievously that another is placed over him, but should himself also render the obedience that he demands.” Nevertheless, according to the manner of ecclesiastical custom, a penalty is to be imposed upon agreements of this kind and paid by those who are transgressors.

Thereafter it is arranged how ecclesiastical offices are to be ordained.

When a bishop is ordained, let two bishops place and hold the codex of the Gospels over his head and neck; and while one pours the blessing over him, let all the other bishops who are present touch his head with their hands.

When a priest is ordained, while the bishop blesses him and holds a hand over his head, let all the priests who are present also hold their hands over his head beside the bishop’s hands. But just as on the day of his ordination a priest is surrounded over both shoulders by the stole, so at the time of consecration he ought constantly to use the same stole. Hence it is read in the Council of Braga [III, c. 3]:

We know that it was prescribed by ecclesiastical institution that every priest, when he is ordained, should be surrounded over both shoulders by the stole: namely, so that one who is commanded to stand untroubled amid prosperity and adversity may always appear surrounded over both shoulders by the ornament of the virtues. By what reasoning, therefore, does he not take up at the time of sacrifice what he does not doubt that he received in the sacrament? Hence it is fitting in every way that what each person received in the consecration of honor he should retain also in the oblation or reception of his salvation; namely, that when a priest approaches the solemn rites of the Mass, either about to offer sacrifice to God himself or about to receive the sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, he should be surrounded over both shoulders by the stole in no other manner than that in which he is recognized to have been consecrated at the time of his ordination, so that, pressing his neck and both shoulders together with one and the same stole, he may form the sign of the cross upon his breast. §1. But if anyone acts otherwise, he will be subject to the due excommunication. Part IV. GRATIAN. Neither bishops nor deacons, however, are permitted to use dalmatics without apostolic license. Hence Gregory to Aregius, bishop of the Franks [Book VII, epistle 111]:

Our common son, the deacon Peter, made known to us that your fraternity, at the time when he was here, requested that we grant you and your archdeacon license to use dalmatics. But because he was compelled by the infirmity of his men and departed hastily, so that neither did the sorrow pressing upon him permit him to remain long, as was fitting and as the desired matter required, nor did consideration of ecclesiastical principle permit us, entangled in many affairs, to grant this new thing without counsel and suddenly, the effect of the requested matter was therefore delayed. Now, however, recalling to mind the good qualities of your charity, by the tenor of this our authority we grant the things requested; and we have conceded that you and your archdeacon are to be adorned with the use of dalmatics, and have transmitted those dalmatics with our most beloved son Cyriacus the abbot carrying them.

[From the Fourth Council of Carthage, c. 4.] When a deacon is ordained, only the bishop who blesses him is to place his hands over his head, because he is consecrated not to the priesthood but to the ministry. Part V. GRATIAN. It is asked, however, whether after the blessing the hands of priests and deacons ought to be anointed with the liquid of chrism. Pope Nicholas [I] writes thus concerning these things to Radulf, archbishop of Bourges:

Furthermore, you ask whether the hands of priests alone, or also those of deacons, ought to be anointed with the liquid of chrism when they are ordained. In the holy Roman Church, which by God’s authorship we serve, this is done to neither. But we nowhere read—unless forgetfulness deceives us—that it was done by the ministers of the new law. We therefore direct your holiness to the canonical decrees of blessed Pope Innocent, and the opening portions of the page sent to Decentius, bishop of Gubbio, will teach you abundantly what things are to be observed by you in consecrations and orders.

[PALEA.

C. XIII. From the Second Council of Seville, c. 5.

From the epistle of Pope Simplicius directed to Bishops Severus and Florentinus. It came to the cognizance of our examination through the report of a Gabrensian deacon concerning certain clerics of that Church. When one of them was being consecrated to the priesthood and two to the ministry of the Levites, their bishop, detained by pain of the eyes, is reported only to have placed his hand over them, and a certain priest, contrary to ecclesiastical order, to have given them the blessing. Because of the audacity of so great a presumption, this priest could have been accused and condemned in the present judgment if, while still placed in the body, he had not been forestalled by the summons of death. But because he, now left to divine examination, cannot be accused by human judgment, we have decreed that those who survive, and received from him not the title of consecration but rather a written attestation of disgrace, should be deposed and cast out by equitable judgment from the grade of the priestly or Levitical order that they perversely obtained, lest such usurpation make a license for itself hereafter. For such persons were deservedly judged to be removed because they were found to have been perversely established.] GRATIAN. Likewise it is asked whether the ordination of those upon whom a bishop, impeded by a weakness of the eyes, imposes hands while a priest says the prayer over them is to be held valid. Concerning these things it was established thus in the Council of Toledo:

While certain clerics—one to the priesthood and two to the ministry of the Levites—were being consecrated, their bishop, detained by pain of the eyes, is reported only to have placed his hand over them, and a certain priest, contrary to ecclesiastical order, to have given them the blessing. But because the latter, already left to divine examination, cannot be accused by human judgment, let those who survive lose the grade of the priesthood or Levitical order that they perversely obtained.

Part VI. When a subdeacon is ordained, because he does not receive the imposition of a hand, let him receive from the hand of the bishop an empty paten and an empty chalice; but from the hand of the archdeacon let him receive an ewer together with a basin and a hand towel.

When an acolyte is ordained, let him indeed be taught by the bishop how he ought to act in his office; but let him receive from the archdeacon a candlestick with a candle, so that he may know himself to be assigned to kindling the lights of the Church. Let him also receive an empty small pitcher for supplying wine for the Eucharist of the blood of Christ.

When an exorcist is ordained, let him receive from the hand of the bishop a little book in which the exorcisms are written, with the bishop saying to him: “Receive this and commit it to memory, and have the power of imposing hands upon a possessed person, whether baptized or a catechumen.”

When a reader is ordained, let the bishop address the people concerning him, indicating his faith, life, and ability. After this, while the people look on, let him hand to the reader the codex from which he is to read, saying: “Receive this and be a reporter of the word of God, destined, if you faithfully and usefully fulfill the office, to have a portion with those who have ministered the word of God.”

When an ostiary is ordained, after he has been instructed by the archdeacon how he ought to conduct himself in the house of God, at the recommendation of the archdeacon let the bishop hand him the keys of the church from the altar, saying to him: “Act in such a way as one who will render an account to God for those things that are unlocked with these keys.”

A psalmist, that is, a singer, can receive the office of singing without the knowledge of the bishop, solely at the command of a priest, with the priest saying to him: “See that what you sing with your mouth you believe with your heart, and that what you believe with your heart you prove by works.” GRATIAN. Clerics are prohibited from growing their hair; their head ought to be shaved above in the manner of a sphere. Hence Pope Anicius [to the bishops of Gaul]:

Prohibit, brothers, throughout all the churches of your regions, that clerics, according to the Apostle, should not grow their hair, but should shave the head above in the manner of a sphere.

Likewise from the Council of Agde [c. 20]. Clerics who grow their hair are to be shorn by the archdeacon, even if they are unwilling, against their will. Nor may they use or possess garments or footwear other than such as befits religion.

Likewise Gregory II [in the council held at Rome in the Basilica of Saint Peter, c. 17]. If any cleric lets his hair grow long, let him be anathema.

When a religious virgin is presented to her bishop for consecration, let her appear in such garments as she will always use, suitable to religious life and profession. GRATIAN. Women dedicated to God are prohibited from touching consecrated vessels and the vestments of the altar and from carrying incense about the altars. Hence Pope Soter to the bishops of Italy [epistle II]:

It has been reported to the apostolic see that women consecrated to God or nuns among you touch sacred vessels or consecrated altar cloths and carry incense about the altars. No one who rightly understands doubts that all these things are full of blame and reproof. Therefore, by the authority of this holy see, we judge that you are utterly to cut away all these things as quickly as you can. And lest this pest be spread more widely, we command that it be wiped away most swiftly throughout all the provinces.

Likewise from the Council of Laodicea [c. 21]. Subdeacons ought not to have license to enter the secretarium or sacristy—which the Greeks call the diaconium—and to touch the Lord’s vessels.

Likewise. A minister ought not to use stoles or to abandon the doors.

Likewise. Readers and psalmists ought not to use stoles and thus to read or sing psalms.

Likewise from the Fourth Council of Carthage [cc. 99 and 98]. A woman, although learned and holy, is not to presume to teach men in an assembly. A layman, however, when clerics are present, is not to dare to teach unless they request it.

Likewise from the Council of Agde [c. 66]. Unconsecrated ministers ought not to have license to enter the secretarium—which the Greeks call the diaconium—and to touch the Lord’s vessels.

Likewise from the First Council of Braga [c. 10]. None of the readers, nor any others except those who have been ordained subdeacons by the bishop, may carry the sacred vessels of the altar.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin [c. 41]. No one except a subdeacon or an acolyte may touch the ministries—the Lord’s vessels—in the secretarium. §1. Nor ought clerics to grow their hair and minister in that manner, but they are to have a shorn head, exposed ears, and to put on a garment down to the ankles according to Aaron, so that they may be adorned in habit.

When a bridegroom and bride are to be blessed by a priest, let them be presented by their parents or by the attendants of the bridal pair; and when they have received the blessing, let them remain in virginity that same night out of reverence for that blessing.