Treatise: On Order

S. Th., Suppl., q. 34, a. 1 and 2.

709. The sixth sacrament is Order. - The five preceding sacraments are ordered to the necessities of the supernatural life of individual faithful; the last two immediately regard the good of the supernatural society, namely, of the Church of God. For a society must both be ordered and governed by superiors, and be perpetuated by propagation. For this the last two sacraments were instituted: Order and Matrimony, of which the first contributes more immediately to supernatural life, since it is given to those who must initiate others into sacred things and communicate supernatural life, while the other provides natural life to children afterward to be educated and sanctified unto the honor of God.

710. Order is taken in several ways:

a) Primarily it is the mutual bearing itself, or relation, of prior and posterior, of superior and inferior, by which they are referred to one another, and which for this reason is in the inferior as much as in the superior: namely, wherever there is something prior and posterior, there must be some order either according to place, or according to time, or according to origin, or according to power or office, and so forth. Whence Augustine, De Civ. Dei, l. IX, c. 13, n. 1: Order is an arrangement assigning to equal and unequal things their own places. In the present treatise order is not taken in this sense.

b) Secondly, it is the grade itself or state which makes this order, or causes the said relation, and "because the notion of order, as it is a relation, is found where first something superior to another occurs, therefore this eminent grade through power is named order" (a. 2, ad 4), namely, a power of pre-eminence, or also the group of those who are adorned with this dignity. Thus they speak of the order of nobles, knights, soldiers, judges, advocates, clerics, religious, etc.

Hence in ecclesiastical speech the spiritual and sacred power itself, by excellence, is called order. And because it embraces several different grades subordinated one to another according to a certain hierarchy,¹ order is hierarchical.

¹ Hierarchy etymologically is sacred principality; yet by received usage it means the distinction and subordination of grades: sacred power distinguished by grades.

c) In a transferred sense, from the effect to the cause, it is the external rite itself, or ceremonial action, by which a grade of power is conferred upon someone, and which properly is sacred ordination itself.

Now the order of sacred power is a sacrament. By this name, as is clear from what has been said, there principally comes the interior abiding power itself rather than the external rite or passing action: "the interior character itself is essentially and principally the very sacrament of Order" (a. 2, ad 1); "and therefore character, which is a spiritual power, is placed in the definition of Order" (ad 2).

711. The sacrament of Order is defined: A sacrament of the New Law by which, through a sacred rite from a competent minister, spiritual power is handed over and grace is conferred for offering sacrifice and rightly fulfilling other sacred offices.

In this definition there are indicated: the external sign, - the minister, - the twofold effect: character or sacred power, and grace; - and the end: sacrifice and other offices to be exercised and rightly fulfilled. The subject is indicated implicitly; the sign and minister rather indeterminately, since concerning these there can be diversity both in opinion and even in reality.

More briefly the Master of the Sentences says: A certain sign of the Church by which spiritual power is handed over to the one ordained; where he places two things, namely, the exterior sign: a certain sign; and the interior effect: by which spiritual power is handed over (a. 2).

The sacrament is designated by various names: by reason of the external sign, imposition of the hand, χειροτονία; by reason of the principal power: priesthood (priesterschap); by reason of the different grade: sacrament of hierarchy; by reason of the effect: consecration of priests and ministers.

712. Division of the treatise. - The treatise is divided into five questions:

1. On the sacrament of Order itself: a) on its institution; b) on its constitutive parts.

2. On the effects of Order.

3. On the different Orders.

4. On the minister of Order.

5. On the subject of Order.²

² On Order there can usefully be consulted: St. Thomas, in Suppl., q. 34-40; Billuart, Billot, Hugon, Tanquerey, Pesch, Diekamp, Van Noort-Verhaar among the dogmaticians; Morinus, Historical and Dogmatic Commentary on Sacred Ordinations; Gasparri, Canonical Treatise on Sacred Ordination; Many, Lectures on Sacred Ordination; Coppens, The Imposition of Hands and the Connected Rites; Tixeront, Order and Ordinations; Van Rossum, On the Essence of the Sacrament of Order; Perinelle, The Doctrine of St. Thomas on the Sacrament of Order, in Rev. des Sc., Phil. et Theol. 1930; Tymczak, Disputed Questions on Order; A. Janssens, On Holy Ordinations: I. Bishops and Priests; II. Diaconate, Subdiaconate and Minor Orders; Dict. de Theol., Galtier in the article Imposition of Hands, and Michel in the article Order; St. Alphonsus and recent manuals of moral theology.

There is added an appendix on irregularities.