Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/403



ANGLICAN ORDERS. 397

promoted according to the new form of rite, to the ex- amination of which the Cardinals specially deputed had given their careful attention. Neither should the passage much to the point in the same Pontifical Letter be over- looked, where, together with others needing dispensation, are enumerated those "who had obtained as well orders as benefices nidliter et de facto." For to obtain orders nulliter means the same as by an act null and void, that is in- valid, as the rery meaning of the word and as common parlance require. This is especially clear when the word is used in the same way about orders as about "ecclesias- tical benefices." These, by the undoubted teaching of the sacred canons, were clearly null if given with any vitiating defect. ]\Ioreover, when some doubted as to who, according to the mind of the Pontiff, could be called and considered bishops "validly and lawfully ordained," the said Pope shortly after, on October 30, issued further letters in the fonn of a brief, and said: "We, wishing to remove the doubt, and to opportunely provide for the peace of conscience of those who during the schism were promoted to Orders, by expressing more clearly the mind and intention \),,,M which We had in the aforesaid Letters, declare that only ' those bishops and archbishops who were not ordained and consecrated in the form of the Church cannot be said to have been validly and lawfully ordained." Unless this declara- tion had applied to the actual case in England, that is to say to the Edwardine Ordinal, the Pope would certainly have done nothing by these last Letters for the removal of doubt and the restoration of peace of conscience. Fur- ther, it was in this sense that the Legate understood the documents and commands of the Apostolic See, and duly and conscientiously obeyed them; and the same was done by Queen ]\Iary and the rest who helped to restore Catholicism to its former state.

The authority of Julius III. and of Paul IV., which we have quoted, clearly shows the origin of that practice which has been observed without interruption for more