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 ORDINES

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ORDINES

times quotinj;, or opitoiiiizing, but elsewhere develop- ing ami adapting the directions of the earlier docu- ment. It contains some ritual features which arc certainly not of Roman but of Galilean origin (for example the recitation of the Creed in the Mass, which some, in spite of NN'alafrid Stralio, consider not to have been known in Rome before the eleventli century, as also the giving of a pontifical blcssinf; after the" Pax Domini"). It is generally accepted that this Ordo II belongs to the time of the general introduction of the Roman Liturgy into ( laul in the days of Cliarlemagne, i. e. about the begiiuiing of the ninth century. This Ordo, as well as r(lo 1 and imibably another now lost, was known to Amalarius, who in his "Eeloga" has annotated it with a view to the spiritual edification of his readers.

Ordo III and Ordo IV contain yet another series of directions for a solemn Mass celebrated by the pope. That of Ordo IV is only a fragment, but both III and IV are generally considered older than the eleventh century. Mabillon considered Ordo III to be dis- tinctly of later date than II and the fact that the stational church in III is called "Monasterium", a designation which does not seem to have come into use before the ninth century, lends support to this view. It is also confirmed by the fact that this Ordo III was apparently unknown to Amalarius. On the other hand III has clearly been extensively used in the com- pilation of the Ordo Romanus Vulgatus, which, as already stated, probably took shape in the second half of the tenth century. That the fragmentary Ordo IV is of later date than any of those previously men- tioned has been inferred by Mabillon from the fact that the pope is here described as communicating at the altar and not at his throne, as in the preceding rituals. Still, the manuscript in which it is found can- not be later than the first half of the eleventh century (Ebner, "Quellen", 133).

Ordo V and Ordo VI are again entirely consecrated to the celebration of a pontifical high Mass. Ordo V goes into details as to the vestments worn by the pope, and separately as to the vestments worn by a Roman bishop and the lesser clergy. It is specifically a Ro- man document and throughout assumes that the pope is pontificating. The pope here communicates at his throne and the Credo is sung after the gospel. But though Berno of Reichenau affirms that this last cus- tom only began at Rome in 1014, the fact that Wala- frid Strabo describes it as sung at Rome about the year 800 (P. L., CXIV, 947) renders this a very unsatis- factory test of date. On the other hand, the sixth Ordo is not directly connected with Rome, but like Ordo II it describes the ceremonies of a pontifical Mass adapted from the papal function for use else- where. In the opinion of Kosters, (Studien, 17) it probably belongs to the first half of the tenth century, since it was used by the compiler of the Ordo Vulgatus. It has been copied by a later twelfth century hand upon a blank page of the English " Benedictional of AJchbishop Robert", and is there described as a "rit- ual drawn up by the ancient Fathers of the West".

Ordo VII is probably the most ancient of all Mabil- lon's Ordines and is assigned by Probst, Kosters, and others to the sixth century. The whole document deals with the ceremonies of Christian initiation, i. e. the catechumenate with its Lenten scrutinies (see Baptism), the rite of the consecration of the baptismal water, the baptism itself, and finally confirmation. The Ordo is closely related to the Gelasian Sacrament- ary, and the prayers, given in full in the Gelasianum, are here for the most part only indicated by their beginnings. Like the Gelasianum, the Ordo speaks throughout of infantes as if they alone were likely to be subjects for baptism, and the whole ceremony is modi- fied to suit the case of infants in arms. When the catechumens are called upon to recite the Nicene Creed, it is directed that one of the acolytes shall take

up one of the children upon his left arm, lay his right hand upon the child's head and recite the Creed in Greek, uiiile another acolyte, holding another child, subscHiiiently rcciti-s the Creed in Latin. None the less, the cercnidnial of the scrutinies was originally designed for adidt catechumens who were capable of understanding the ( lospels and of learning and reciting the Creed for themselves. On the other hand, if the Ordo VII consistently regards the catechumens as itifanlea, this cannot be interpreted as a proof of rela- tively late date, for we find that already:il I lie be- ginning of the sixth century the mr iUiidrix. Scnarius, asks of John, deacon of Rome, "quarc Icrtio ante Paseha scrutinentur infantes" (why the infants have to undergo the scrutinies three times before Easter, Migne, P. L., LIX, 401). Seeing that the Gelasian Sacramentary also seems to know only of three scru- tinies, it is possible that Ordo VII which requires seven Bcrutines may be of even older date than the sixth century, for it is hardly likely that when there was question of none but infant catechumens, the number of scrutinies should have been increased from three to seven. The whole tendency must have been in the direction of simplification. It may be noticed that Mabillon's Ordo VII is incorporated entire in an in- struction on baptism by Jesse, Bishop of Amiens, c. 812.

Ordo VIII is concerned with the subject of ordina- tions and falls naturally into two divisions. The first part deals wit li t lie ordination of acolytes, subdeacons, deacons, and jiriests, the second with the ceremonial of the consecration of a bishop. Although the first part is extremely concise, and the second, more particu- larly in regard to the quatuor capitida (four forms of crime held to be a bar to ordination), is relatively developed, there seems no sufficient reason for ques- tioning the essential unity of the whole document. In spite of certain expressions, notably the "ancilla dei sacrata qua; a Francis nonnata dicitur", which may easily be an interpolation or a gloss, and of references to the Ember seasons, to the nomenclator, and the schola (i. e. the choir — which last seems to suggest an age posterior to Gregory the Great) certain critics, notably Kosters (Studien, 21-23), make no difficulty in assigning the document to the early part of the sixth century. It is certainly noteworthy that though there is no mention in Ordo VIII of exorcists or any cleric lower than the grade of acolyte, the usages described closely agree with the language of the letter of Jo- hannes Diaconus to Senarius at the beginning of the sixth century (Migne, P. L., LIX, 405). The function of the acolytes "portandi Sacramenta", here as in Ordo I, is recognized by assigning to them httle bags (sacciili) as their distinctive attribute, instead of the candlestick of a later date, while the delivery of the chalice is emphasized as the significant act in the con- secration of a subdeacon. When Bishop John Words- worth (Ministry of Grace, 180) assumes that the deliv- ery of the chalice is a Galilean ceremony and that it was introduced into the Roman Church in the seventh century at the earliest, he has clearly forgotten the exphcit language of the latter to Senarius: "hie apud nos ordo est ut accepto sacratissimo calice in quo con- suevit pontifex dominici sanguinis immolare myste- rium subdiaconus iam dicatur". Again both Kosters and Grisar (Gcschichte Roms, 765) regard the testing of the candidate for ordination by the quatuor capitula, requiring him to swear his innocence of certain un- natural crimes, as an indication which points to an age when many adult pagans still entered the Church as converts and were likely to be promoted to orders.

Ordo IX is entitled "De gradibus Romana; eccle- bIeb" and deals briefly with the ordinatiori of deacons and priests, with the consecration of a bishop some- what more fully, and finally with the consecration and coronation of a pope, while an appendix with a sepa- rate heading treats of the ember days. The date and