Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/409



ANGLICAN ORDERS. 403

clearly manifests itself. Hence, if vitiated in its origin it was wholly insufficient to confer Orders, it was im- possible that in the course of time it could become suf- ficient since no change had taken place. In vain those who, from the tim.e of Charles I., have attempted to hold some kind of sacrifice or of priesthood, have made some additions to the Ordinal. In vain also has been the con- tention of that small section of the Anglican body formed in recent times that the said Ordinal can be understood and interpreted in a sound and orthodox sense. Such efforts, We affirm, have been and are made in vain, and for this reason, that any words in the Anglican Ordinal, as it now is, which lend themselves to ambiguity, cannot be taken in the same sense as they possess in the Catholic rite. For once a new rite has been initiated in which, as we have seen, the Sacrament of Orders is adulterated or denied, and from which all idea of consecration and sacrifice has been rejected, the formula "Receive the Holy Ghost, '^ no longer holds good; because the Spirit is infused into the soul with the grace of the sacrament, and the words "for the office and work of a priest or bishop" and the like no longer hold good, but remain as words without the reality which Christ instituted.

Several of the more shrewd Anglican interpreters of the Ordinal have perceived the force of this argument, and they openly urge it against those who take the Ordinal in a new sense and vainly attach to the Orders conferred thereby a value and efficacy which they do not possess. By this same argument is refuted the contention of those who think that the prayer "Almighty God, giver of all good things," which is foimd at the beginning of the ritual action, might suffice as a legitimate form of Orders, even in the hypothesis that it might be held to be sufficient in a Catholic rite approved by the Church.

With this inherent defect of form is joined the defect of intention, which is equally essential to the sacrament. The Church does not judge about the mind and intention