Question Three: On the Different Orders

S. Th., Suppl., q. 37; q. 35, a. 2 and 5; and q. 40.

725. There are several orders in the Church, which are ordered to different offices. - This is certain, indeed defined by the Council of Trent, sess. 23, c. 2 and can. 2, as pertaining to Catholic truth.

St. Thomas gives the reasons, q. 37, a. 1:

"The multitude of orders has been introduced in the Church for three reasons:

1. For commending the wisdom of God, which shines forth most of all in an ordered distinction of things, both in natural things and in spiritual things...

2. For assisting human infirmity, because through one man all things which pertained to the divine mysteries could not be fulfilled without great burden; and therefore diverse orders are distinguished for diverse offices. And this is clear from the fact that the Lord gave seventy elders to Moses for assistance.

3. That a broader way of profiting may be given to men, while many are distributed in diverse offices, so that all may be cooperators of God; than which nothing is more divine, as Dionysius says in Eccl. hier. 3."

726. Seven orders are distinguished in the Church, by which, as by grades, clerics ascend even to the priesthood. - This is certain from the Council of Trent, sess. 23, c. 2.

St. Thomas, a. 2, takes the reason of the distinction from the relation to the Eucharist, to which the sacrament of Order is ordered: the priest consecrates the Eucharist; the three more noble somehow cooperate with him in order to the Eucharist itself: the deacon immediately cooperates with the priest in the sacrament itself, and indeed does not consecrate it but dispenses it; the subdeacon prepares the matter in sacred vessels, but the acolyte in vessels not sacred; the remaining three cooperate only in order to preparing those receiving the Eucharist: the exorcist cleanses the faithful who have an impediment from the power of the demon; the lector prepares the subject by instructing, or by teaching the rudiments of faith; the ostiary keeps the unworthy from the Church, by opening to the worthy alone.

Thus in the Latin Church; and although in the time of the apostles the inferior ministers had not yet been distinguished from deacons, but their power and office remained contained in the diaconate, nevertheless from the beginnings of the Church all orders with their proper ministries are known to have been in use.¹

¹ Thus the Council of Trent, l. c. - Thus, for example, Cornelius (a. 251), ep. to Fabius of Antioch (H. E. VI, 43), says "that in the Roman Church there are 46 presbyters, 7 deacons, 7 subdeacons, 42 acolytes, and 52 exorcists and lectors with ostiaries." The function of all these is described by the Apostolic Constitutions, l. II, c. 57. They are also numbered in the Liber Pontificalis, decree of Pope Caius; afterward in the canons which come under the name of the Council of Carthage IV. - Already before Cornelius, in the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, subdeacons and lectors are named; indeed in can. 7 of Hippolytus lectors are exhibited as fulfilling an excellent function, so that they ought to be adorned with the virtues of deacons. The Council of Laodicea also speaks of several, even of exorcists, who according to can. 26 must be ordained by bishops.

In the Greek Church, however, besides the diaconate there are only the subdiaconate and lectorate; but the offices of the others are reduced to these: thus the acolyte-ship and ostiary-ship are conferred together with the subdiaconate, the exorcistate with the diaconate.

727. All orders are more probably sacraments, but they constitute only one sacrament of Order. - This is the obvious sense of the Councils of Florence and Trent, l. c.

A. The individual orders are sacraments. It is proved:

1. From the Councils. For the Council of Florence says: "The sixth sacrament is Order, whose matter is that by the handing over of which Order is conferred"; which it applies to the presbyterate, diaconate, subdiaconate, and similarly to the other orders.

It does the same for the form of the orders. Afterward it adds: The effect is an increase of grace, that one may be a fit minister.

Similarly the Council of Trent, after it has enumerated the seven orders, immediately adds without restriction: that Order is a sacrament.

2. From the Pontifical, which generally says concerning all orders: "Let the bishop admonish those to be ordained to touch the instruments by which character is imprinted."

3. From the reason of St. Thomas, q. 35, a. 2: "Some have said that character is imprinted only in the priestly order; but this is not true, because no one can licitly exercise the act of a deacon unless he is a deacon; and thus it is clear that he has some spiritual power in the dispensation of the sacraments which others do not have. And because of this others have said that character is imprinted in sacred orders, but not in minor orders. But again this is nothing, because through each order someone is constituted above the people in some grade of power ordered to the dispensation of the sacraments. Whence, since character is a sign distinctive from others, it is necessary that character be imprinted in all; a sign of this also is that they remain perpetually, and are never repeated."

Moreover, that their character is indelible is clear from the fact that it is not taken away by excommunication.

Many moderns, however, deny this, and hold all orders below the diaconate not as sacraments but as mere sacramentals instituted by the Church, both because they were not always in the Church, and because they are not conferred by the imposition of hands, which is the essential rite of Order instituted by Christ. - Resp. If Christ did not determine the sacramental sign in its ultimate species, but left it to the Church to be more determined, she could ordain that the power which at first was conferred all at once in the presbyterate or in the diaconate should now or elsewhere be conferred in several times by partitions; and also that this might fittingly be done by a sign, even if diverse from the imposition of hands. "In the primitive Church," says St. Thomas, q. 37, a. 2, ad 2, "on account of the paucity of ministers, all the inferior ministries were committed to deacons... Nevertheless all the aforesaid powers were there, but implicitly in the one power of the deacon. But afterward divine worship was enlarged; and what the Church implicitly had in one order, she handed over explicitly in diverse orders."

B. All orders are one sacrament in species. This is clear from the fact that in the Church there are neither more nor fewer than seven sacraments. And it is understood from the fact that the sacrament of Order essentially and principally consists in the sacred power of character, which exists fully in the supreme order, namely, in the priesthood, and in the others participatively and defectively.

Whence St. Thomas: "The division of order is not that of an integral whole into its parts; nor of a universal whole (as a genus which has several species), but of a potestative whole, whose nature is that the whole according to its complete account is in one, but in the others there is some participation of it. And so it is here: for the whole fullness of this sacrament is in one order, namely, the priesthood, but in the others there is a certain participation of order... And therefore all orders are one sacrament" (q. 37, a. 1, ad 2).

728. Note. - Three orders are called sacred by a special title, namely, by reason of the matter, because they are concerned with a sacred thing. For "order is called sacred in two ways: in one way according to itself, and thus any order is sacred, since it is a certain sacrament (at least, according to others, a sacramental); in another way by reason of the matter concerning which it has some act, and thus that order is called sacred which has some act concerning some consecrated thing. And thus there are only three sacred orders, namely, priesthood and diaconate, which have an act concerning the consecrated body and blood of Christ, and subdiaconate, which has an act concerning consecrated vessels; and therefore continence is also enjoined upon them, that those who handle holy things may be holy and clean" (a. 3), and they are kept from nuptials (can. 132, § 1). Hence they are also called major, because in dignity and holiness they exceed the others.

Before the twelfth century, however, the subdiaconate was not considered a major and sacred order; and today in the Greek Church it is still reckoned among the minor orders, where neither does it have the vow of continence annexed.

729. The power and acts of the individual orders. - Orders are distinguished by the grade of sacred power and consequently by the diverse acts to which the power is ordered.

1. The presbyterate is a sacred order by which there is conferred the power of consecrating the body and blood of Christ and remitting sins. That it is a sacrament is doctrine of faith, as was demonstrated, n. 714; but concerning its matter and form there is dispute, as we noted, nn. 718-720. Five of its acts are customarily numbered: "the priest must offer, bless, preside, preach, and baptize," says the Pontifical.

To offer indicates power concerning the real body of Christ, namely, of consecrating the body and blood of the Lord, offering it in sacrifice, and dispensing it in communion. The others are referred to the mystical body of Christ: to bless, even solemnly, things and persons; to preside, i.e., in the absence of the bishop, to preside over the divine offices and to rule the people under the bishop; to preach or announce the word of God; to baptize and confer other sacraments unto the remission of sins, namely Penance and Extreme Unction.

2. The diaconate is a sacred order by which power is handed over for ministering immediately to the priest at the altar in solemn Mass, for solemnly singing the Gospel, and, by legitimate commission, for solemnly baptizing, dispensing the Eucharist, and preaching.

According to the opinion now long common, the diaconate is a sacrament; which seems certain. For in it there is a sensible sign conferring sacred power; it is instituted by Christ, since it pertains to the hierarchy instituted by divine ordination, as the Council of Trent defined, sess. 23, can. 6; it also confers grace, as is deduced from the same Council, can. 4: If anyone shall say that through sacred ordination the Holy Spirit is not given, and therefore that bishops say in vain: Receive the Holy Spirit..., let him be anathema; but bishops say this in the ordination of deacons.

Concerning the rite of the diaconate in the Latin Church there was dispute. Some placed it in the sole imposition of the hand by physical touch, with the words: Receive the Holy Spirit unto strength and unto resisting the devil and his temptations; others in the sole handing over of the book of the Gospels, with the words: Receive the power of reading the Gospel in the Church of God, both for the living and for the dead; others in both together.

Now the question for the future has already been decided from the Apostolic Constitution cited above: "In Diaconal Ordination the matter is the imposition of the Bishop's hand, which alone occurs in the rite of this Ordination. But the form consists in the words of the 'Preface,' of which these are essential and therefore required for validity: 'Send forth upon him, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the Holy Spirit, by whom he may be strengthened by the gift of Thy sevenfold grace for faithfully carrying out the work of Thy ministry.'"

3. The subdiaconate is a sacred order by which the power is conferred of ministering to the deacon in solemn Mass and solemnly singing the epistle in it. Hence he can prepare the matter of the sacrifice, offer the chalice and paten to the deacon, and pour water into the chalice for the priest solemnly celebrating.

The matter is the handing over of an empty consecrated chalice with an empty paten; the form: See whose ministry is handed over to you; therefore I admonish you, that you so exhibit yourselves that you may be able to please God. Yet the consecration of the chalice with the paten does not seem to be required for validity from the rescript of the S. Off., Jan. 28, 1937. To the essence do not pertain: the handing over of the book of epistles (or Missal) under the words: Receive the book of epistles, and have the power of reading them in the Church..., for formerly the epistle was read by the deacon; likewise neither the handing over of the cruets, which is done by the archdeacon, nor of the sacred vestments.

The obligations annexed to the subdiaconate in the Latin Church are of reciting the divine office and preserving continence, whose vow is implicitly emitted by the reception of the order, as the perpetual tradition of the Church has understood; but if someone internally refused to vow, he would nevertheless be held to continence from the precept of the Church.

4. The acolyte-ship is an order by which power is handed over of presenting the cruets with wine and water in Mass and of lighting and carrying the lights; or by which the office is conferred of ministering to the sacred ministers in solemn Mass, and also to the priest in private Mass.

The matter and form are twofold: 1) the handing over of a candlestick with an extinguished candle under the words: Receive the candlebearer with candle, and know that you are bound to the lighting of the lights of the church in the name of the Lord; - 2) the handing over of an empty cruet, with the words: Receive the cruet for supplying wine and water into the Eucharist of the blood of Christ in the name of the Lord.

5. The exorcistate is an order by which the power is conferred of expelling demons by the exorcisms of the Church from the bodies of the baptized or catechumens, and of providing blessed water.

The matter is the handing over of the book of exorcisms, such as the Ritual, in place of which the Pontifical or Missal can be given; the form: Receive and commit to memory, and have the power of imposing hands upon energumens, whether baptized or catechumens. - In practice, however, it is not licit solemnly to pronounce exorcisms over the possessed except by the special and express license of the Ordinary, which is not conceded except to priests who are pious and prudent (can. 1151).

6. The lectorate is an order by which the power is conferred of reading the word of God in the Church, and of catechizing the people in the rudiments of faith.

The matter is the handing over of the book in which the readings of Scripture are contained; in place of which the Bible, Missal, or Breviary can be handed over; the form: Receive and be relaters of the word of God, about to have, if you shall have fulfilled your office faithfully and usefully, a part with those who have ministered the word of God well from the beginning.

In antiquity they were accustomed to bless; the Pontifical notes: The lector must bless bread and all new fruits; today this power is bound, so that they can validly and licitly give only those blessings which are expressly permitted to them by law (can. 1147, § 4).

7. The ostiary-ship is an order by which spiritual power is conferred of opening and closing the doors of the church, calling the people together for the sacrifice, admitting the worthy and keeping out the unworthy, and having custody of the sacred furnishings.

The matter is the handing over of keys; the form: So act as those about to render an account to God for those things which are closed by these keys.

730. The preamble to orders is tonsure. - Tonsure properly is not an order, because it does not confer sacred power, nor is it numbered by the Councils or Pontifical among the orders, but is distinguished from them. Whence according to theologians commonly it is not an order, but a preparation for orders, as the novitiate is for profession. It is a sacred rite by which a layman is transferred to the clerical state; but this is so named from κλῆρος (lot, inheritance), because they are called to it by lot or gratuitous election, or because God is the part and inheritance of clerics.

It consists in the cutting of hair on the crown of the head under the words, to be pronounced at the same time by the minister and by the one to be tonsured: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my chalice; Thou art He who wilt restore my inheritance to me. The crown signifies the royal dignity which clerics obtain and, by reason of the removal of hair, that useless and worldly things are to be contemned by clerics, lest their mind be hindered from the contemplation of divine things (q. 40, a. 1).

The effects are that the tonsured person 1) is transferred to the clerical state (can. 108, § 1), and thus becomes capable of obtaining power either of order or of jurisdiction, and ecclesiastical benefices and pensions (can. 118); 2) becomes a participant in the rights and privileges of clerics (can. 119-123); and also subject to the common obligations of clerics (can. 124-144).

731. The Episcopate surpasses all orders. - The Council of Trent, sess. 23, c. 4 and can. 7, defined that bishops are superior to presbyters, and indeed not only by power of jurisdiction, but also by the power of confirming and ordaining, which is of order. Moreover can. 6 defined that in the Catholic Church there is a hierarchy instituted by divine ordination, which consists of bishops, presbyters, and ministers, i.e., at least deacons. From this it seems logically to follow that bishops are by divine right superior to presbyters, although the Council did not wish to define this.

Thus against Aerius in the fourth century, the Waldenses, Wyclif, Calvin, and Presbyterians. It is insinuated in the Scriptures, since among the presbyters ordained by St. Paul, certain ones had the power of ordaining, ruling, and judging others, such as Timothy and Titus (I Tim. V, 19; Tit. I, 5); and it is clear from the whole tradition, from Ignatius of Antioch onward, which is customarily proved in the treatise on the Church. St. Thomas gives the reason, q. 40, a. 4, because "the order of human offices requires that in any office one be set over it, who is the prince of that office, just as a leader is set over soldiers. Therefore over priests also someone must be set who is the prince of priests; and this is the bishop."

The Episcopate, although it is an order or hierarchical grade, superior to presbyters in power and office, nevertheless is not a sacramental order adequately distinct from the presbyterate; otherwise there would be eight orders, although in the Church only seven are numbered. For:

1. The distinction of orders is made according to their relation to the Eucharist; but as to the Eucharist there is not in bishops a different relation or power from that in presbyters; therefore neither is there a distinct sacramental order, but only an extension or complement of order.

2. The sacrament of Order essentially is in the supreme sacred power, of which the others are consequences or participations. But the supreme sacred power is for offering sacrifice or for consecrating the body and blood of the Lord, which belongs equally to priests and bishops. Therefore the episcopate is not a sacrament essentially distinct from the presbyterate; but it is only a secondary power consequently added, or an extension of the presbyterate.

3. The episcopate, or the power of ordaining other priests, cannot be conceived without priesthood, but necessarily supposes and includes it, since no one can communicate to others a power which he does not have. And therefore one cannot validly be ordained bishop who is not, or at least is not at the same time ordained, a priest. Therefore the episcopate is not an order coordinate with priesthood and standing by itself, but an intrinsic complement of priesthood.

Hence: 1. Priesthood is not a participation of the episcopate, since the more excellent power over the true body of Christ is not a participation of the less excellent power over the mystical body of Christ; but the episcopate is an enlargement of priesthood, of which it is the fullness and consummation.

2. On the contrary, the diaconate and inferior orders are a participation of priestly power.

3. Whence a priest can validly be ordained who has not received the diaconate or the inferior orders, because they are eminently contained in the priesthood; on the contrary, one who is not a priest is not validly consecrated bishop, because the episcopate formally supposes and extends the priesthood.

4. In the episcopate a new character is not imprinted, but the character of the priesthood is enlarged in power, and indeed indelibly.

5. Consequently, from the work worked there is also conferred an increase of grace, for duly exercising the episcopal power.

But the episcopate cannot be conferred except by the peculiar rite of ordination, as is clear from the whole tradition of the Church; by this rite the power of the character of the priest is enlarged, and grace is conferred, as is certain according to the Council of Trent, sess. 23, can. 4, because in the ordination of a bishop the Holy Spirit is given, since the words pronounced in it are not said in vain: Receive the Holy Spirit.

In Episcopal Ordination or Consecration the matter is the imposition of hands which is made by the consecrating Bishop. But the form consists in the words of the "Preface," of which these are essential and therefore required for validity: "Complete in Thy Priest the summit of Thy ministry, and sanctify with the dew of heavenly ointment one furnished with the ornaments of all glorification." Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis, Nov. 30, 1947.

Therefore many moderns say that it is a true distinct order and a sacrament, since it confers indelible power and grace; but this proves that the episcopate pertains to orders and to the sacrament of Order, by no means however that it is a sacrament adequately distinct from the presbyterate, or a separate order.²

² They object: 1) formerly deacons were directly ordained bishops, indeed those who were not deacons; 2) the matter depends merely on the positive will of God and the intention of the Church, whence nothing prevents saying that the whole fullness of priesthood is conferred at once by one ordination.

Resp.: To the first. It is not repugnant that in the same ordination the presbyterate be conferred first and at the end the episcopate as its complement; indeed, that by the same sign the power of priesthood be conferred principally and at the same time its complement secondarily, namely, the episcopate, and thus it was sometimes done in the primitive Church; on the contrary, it is repugnant that the episcopate alone be conferred which would eminently include the priesthood, because the episcopate supposes the priesthood as an accessory complement supposes the principal thing.

To the second. The matter does not depend on the positive will of God alone, but the will which is ruled by divine wisdom must be conformed to the nature of things: from the nature of the thing the power of offering sacrifice is principal, which in the bishop is enlarged by the added power of ordaining; but the power of ordaining is not principal in such a way that it would include, as a lesser power, the power of offering sacrifice. Whence the power of priesthood must be conferred at least by nature prior to the power of ordaining.

732. Corollaries. - 1. There are only seven orders properly so called; sometimes, however, among canonists eight or nine are enumerated, by including, namely, the episcopate or first tonsure, but then order is taken in a broader and improper sense (can. 950).

2. The character of the higher order does not necessarily presuppose the character of the inferior orders, and therefore, although it is illicit to receive ordination by a leap (can. 977), it is nevertheless valid, because the powers of the orders are distinct and one does not prerequire another in the same subject. "And therefore in the primitive Church some were ordained as presbyters who had not first received the inferior orders; and yet they could do all things which the inferior orders can do, because the inferior power is comprehended in the higher power, as sense in intellect and generalship in kingship. But afterward by the constitution of the Church it was determined that one who had not first humbled himself in the lesser offices should not thrust himself into the greater orders. And from this it is that those who are ordained by a leap, according to the canons, are not reordained, but that which had been omitted from the preceding orders is conferred upon them" (q. 35, a. 5).

3. Hence "if someone, already promoted to some orders in an Eastern rite, has obtained from the Apostolic See an indult of receiving higher orders in the Latin rite, he must first receive in the Latin rite the orders which he did not receive in the Eastern rite" (can. 1004).

4. Sometimes by order sacred power is given for doing things which otherwise could not be validly or licitly done; sometimes it is given for those things which someone could do even otherwise, but "he receives power so that he can do this from office; although it can also be done by others (namely, laymen), but not from office. And so it is in all the acts of the minor orders, that they can be done licitly by others, although those others do not have any office for this: just as Mass can also be said in a non-consecrated house, although the consecration of a church is ordered to this, that Mass be said in it" (q. 37, a. 4, ad 9).

5. The hierarchy of order consists, as it were, in a threefold grade: bishops, presbyters, and ministers, under whose name come deacons and others inferior to them. In bishops sacred power is according to fullness; in presbyters according to substance; in deacons and others according to inchoation and preparation.

6. Above all bishops there must be someone superior in the whole Church. For "wherever there are many governments ordered into one, there must be some universal government above the particular governments... And therefore, since the whole Church is one body, it is necessary, if this unity must be preserved, that there be some ruling power with respect to the whole Church above the episcopal power, by which each special Church is ruled; and this is the power of the pope" (q. 40, a. 6; cf. c. Gent. IV, 76). Nevertheless he is not superior to them in power of order, in which "all bishops are equal, and on account of this any bishop can consecrate another" (ad 3); but in the power of jurisdiction of governing, which must descend from the pope to all (ad 1).