Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/401



ANGLICAN ORDERS. 395

with an abstract state of things, but with a specific and concrete issue. For since the facuhies given by these Pontiffs to the ApostoUc Legate had reference to England only, and to the state of religion therein, and since the rules of action were laid down by them at the request of the said Legate, they could not have been mere directions for determining the necessary conditions for the validity of ordinations in general. They must pertain directly to providing for Holy Orders in the said kingdom, as the recognized condition of the circumstances and times demanded. This, besides being clear from the nature and form of the said documents, is also obvious from the fact that it would have been altogether irrelevant to thus instruct the Legate â€” one whose learning had been conspicuous in the Council of Trent â€” as to the conditions necessary for the bestowal of the Sacrament of Orders. To all rightly estimating these matters it will not be difficult to understand why, in the Letters of Julius III., issued to the Apostolic Legate on March 8, 1554, there is a distinct mention, first, of those who, "rightly and law- fully promoted," might be maintained in their Orders; and then of others who, "not promoted to Sacred Orders,'* might "be promoted if they were found to he worthy and fitting subjects." For it is clearly and definitely noted, as indeed was the case, that there were two classes of men : the first those who had really received Sacred Orders, either before the secession of Henry VIIL, or, if after it and by ministers infected by error and schism, still according to the accustomed Catholic rite; the second, those who were initiated according to the Edwardine Ordinal, who on that account could be "promoted," since they had received an ordination which was null. And that the mind of the Pope was this and nothing else is clearly confirmed by the Letter of the said Legate (Janu- ary 29, 1555) subdelegating his faculties to the Bishop of Norwich. Moreover, what the Letters of Julius III, themselves say about freely using the Pontifical faculties,