Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/551

Rh ANGLICAN 491 ANQLIOAN says Lysons, "which has been erected on its site, apparently not more ancient than the time of (Juoen Elizabeth; the most remarkable of these remains consist of a kind of undercroft, tliirty-six feet by twenty-two, with a groined roof supported by clus- tered pillars, now divided into two rooms; anil a row of arches supported by brackets against a wall on the outside of the building". The hust prior was John Honar, who haSeven .Sacraments instituted l)y l lur Lord Je.sus Christ. Its oflice is to transmit and perpetuate those mystic powers of the priesthood whereuy the Blessed Sacrament of the altar is consecrated and ottered up in sacrifice; and whereby alone the Sacraments of Confirmation, Penance, and Kxtreme Unction can be validly ad- ministered. Holy Order is in three degrees: those of bishops, priests, and deacons, the bishops pos.sessing the priesthood in its plenitinle. that is, with the power not only to exercise this ministry personally, out also to transmit it and the diaconate to others. Thus the bishop is the only minister of Holy Oriler, and for its valid ailministration it is essential that he (1) should himself have received a valid epi-scopal consecration, and (2) should use a rite ui which are Ereserveil all the e-ssentials of validity as instituted y Christ. To have received or failed to receive orders uniler these conditions is to be within or with- out the -Vpostolical succession of the Catholic min- istry. In the sixteenth century this doctrine of a priest- hood endowed with mystical powers was pronounced superstitious by most of the Protestant Reformers, who, accordingly, rejected Holy Order from among the number of their sacraments. They recognized, however, that from primitive times liownwanls there had always been a bo<ly of clergy .set apart for the pastoral duties, and this they desired to retain in their .separated communions; in some cases organizing it in two degrees only, of presbyters and tleacons, in others of three degrees, which, in accordance with ancient practice, they continued to designate by the names of bishops, priests, and deacons. Hut their tloctrine in regard to these ministers wxs that they could pos.se.ss no jwwers beyond tho.sc of other men, but only "authority in the congregation" to preach and teach, to govern churches, and to presitle oer 8er-ices and ceremonies; and that the rites, of im- position of hands or otherwi.se, whereby candidates were inducted into the grades of their ministrj', were to be regardeii merely as simple and impressive ex- ternal ceremonies employed for the sake of decency and order. This view of the Cliristian ministry is very distinctly expres.setl in the public formularies and private writings of the continental Rcfonners. In Kngland it w:us certainly shared by Cr.anmer, Ridley, and others who with them presided over the ecclesiastical alterations in the reign of Edward VI. That the present. glican clergj' are bishops, priests, and deacons in the latter sense admits of no (lispute. Hut are they so also in the former and Catholic sen.se; and are they in consequence in the true line of .*[x)stolical succession, and enilowed with all its mystical powers ocr the Sacrifice and sacraments? This is the (question of . gUcan orders. The Cn.MiAtTEH or Catholic udin.l.s. — From time immemorial a group of ordination rites have been in u.se in the Catholic Church and in tho.se Oriental schisms which broke .away from it in early times, but who.se orders it has always recognized as valid. When these various rites are compared, they are found to differ indeed in the text, but to be entirely alike in the essential character of the " forms " appointed to accompany the imposition of hands. .Ml, that is to say, signify in appropriate terms the order to be imparted, and supplicate Almighty God to bestow upon the candidate the divine gifts neces- sary for his state. In the Western Church, though there are traces of a now obsolete "form" anciently employed in parts of Gaul, the form of the Roman Church is the only one that has persisteil, and it quickly pa-ssed into universal u.se. This is the prayer, Deus honorum omnium, which can be fouml m the " Pontificale Romamim." Its earliest appear- ance in writing is in the so-called " Leonine Sacra- mentary ", referreil by Duchesne to the sixth cen- tury; that it should appear there is proof positive that it must have been in existence f<jr .some time previously, at least as orally prcsiTvcd, the force of which proof is greatly strengthened Kv the testimony to the coiLservatisra of the Roman Church which we have from Pope Innocent I. For this Pope, writing in. D. 41G, to Decentius, Hisliop of Kugubium, complains that "if the priests of the Lord desired to preserve ecclesiastical ordinances as they were handeil down to us by the Rlessed .Vpostles, no diversity, no variety would be founil in the very orders and consecrations them.selves ", but adds, "Who iloes not know and consider that what was delivered to the Roman Church by St. Peter, the Prince of the .Apostles, and I'.s to thin dai/ kept (by it), ought to be ob.served by all, and that no practice should be substituted or added without being sanc- tioneil by authority or precedent." When we trace downwards the history of this Roman rite we find that the conservative principle enunciatetl by St. In- nocent li.is been faithfully followe<l. Thus Morinus, a great authority, writes. "We deem it necessary for the reader to know that the modern Roman Pontifical contains all that w:us in the earlier Pontificals, but that the earlier Pontificals do not contain all that is in the modern Roman Pontifical. For some things have been added to the recent Pontificals, for various pious and religious reasons, which are wanting in all the ancient cilitions. .And the more recent Pontifi- cals are. the more these additions obtrude them- selves. But this is a wonderful antl impressive fact, that in all the volumes, ancient, more modern, and contemporary, there is ever one form of ortlination both ius regards words and as regards ceremony, and the later books omit nothing that was present in the oKler. Thus the modern form of ordination difTers neither in word nor in ceremony from that usetl by the ancient Fathers." . iong the additions which Morinus li.as in mind as having been inatle during the early Middle .Ages, the tradition of the instru- ments, that is, of the paten and chalice in the case of the priesthooil, and that of the book of the Gospels in the ciuse of the episcopate, are the most important. Indee<l, these drew to themselves so much attention that for many centuries they and the words accompanjnng them were supposed by many to be more essential even than the imposition of hands and the prayer, Dcus honorum. Still there was never any danger that the prevalence of these tli«)logical views would affect the validity of the ordinations given, for the simple reason that the principle of never omitting anything was rigidly adliere<l to. The Origin of the .A.vglican Succe.ssion. — It w.os this venerable ordination rite, as preserved in the Fnglish varieties of the Roman Pontifical, which w.Ts in u.se in the country when Henrj' VIII began his as,saults on the ancient religion. He iliil not liimsclf venture to touch it. but in the next reign it wxs set aside by Cranmor and his .q.s,sociates who, under the rule of .Somerset and .Northumberland, were engaged in remodelling the whole fabric of the Church of