In what has been said We have faithfully described the exemplar and form of the Church as divinely consti- tuted. We have treated at length of its unity: We have explained sufficiently its nature, and pointed out the way in which the divine Founder of the Church willed that it should be preserved. There is no reason to doubt that all those, who by di\dne grace and mercy have had the happi- ness to have been born, as it were, in the bosom of the Catholic Church, and to have lived in it, will listen to Our apostolic voice: My sheep hear My voice,'^ and that they will derive from Our words fuller instruction and a more perfect disposition to keep united with their respective ] astors, and through them with the Supreme Pastor, so that they may remain more securely within the one fold, and may derive therefrom a greater abundance of salutary fruit. But We, who, notwithstanding Our un- fitness for this great dignity and office, govern by virtue of the authority conferred on Us by Jesus Christ, as We look on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, ^ feel Our heart fired by His charity. What Christ has said of Himself We may truly repeat of Ourselves: Other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I must bring and they shall hear My voice.* Let a ll those, therefore, who detest the widespread irreligion of our times, and acknowledge and confess Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the human race, but who have wandered away from the Spouse, listen to_ Our vo ice. Let them not refuse to obey Our paternal charity. Those who_ackno\vIeLl^e Christ must acknowledge Him wholly^ ^and entirely. "The Head and the bofly are Christ wholly and entirely^ The Head is the only-begotten Son of God, the body is His Church; the bridegroom and the - S. Gregorius M. Epistolanim, lib viii., ep. xxx., ad Eulogium. ^ John X. 27. s Heb. xii. 2.
John X. 16.
390 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
bride, two in one flesh. All who dissenj, from the Scrip- tures concerning Christ, although they may be found m all places in which the Church is found, are not in.the^Church; and again all those who agree with the Scriptures con- cerning the Head, and do not communicate in the unity of the Church, are not in the Church." * And with the same yearning Our soul goes out to those whom the foul breath of irreligion has not entirely cor- rupted, and who at least seek to have the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, as their Father. Let such as these take counsel with themselves, and realize that they ■J can in no wise be counted among the children of God, jinless they take Christ Jesus as their Brother, and at the same time the Church as their Mother. We lovingly ad- dress to all the words of St. Augustine: "Let us love the Lord our God: let us love His Church; the Lord as our Father, the Church as our Mother. Let no one say, I go indeed to idols, I consult fortune-tellers and soothsayers; but I leave not the Church of God: I am a Catholic. Clinging to thy Mother, thou offendest thy Father. An- other, too, says: 'Far be it from me; I do not consult fortune-telling, I seek not soothsaying, I seek not pro- fane divinations, I go not to the worship of devils, I serve not stones: but I am on the side of Donatus.' What doth it profit thee not to offend the Father, who avenges an offence against the Mother? What doth it profit to confess the Lord, to honor God, to preach Him, to ac- knowledge His Son, and to confess that He sits on the right hand of the Father, if you blaspheme His Church?...If you had a beneficent friend, whom you honored daily — and even once calumniated his spouse, would you ever enter his house? Hold fast, therefore, O dearly beloved, hold fast altogether God as your Father, and the Church as your Mother.'
)} 2 S. Aiigustinus, Contra Donatistag Epistola, sive De Unit.
Eccl., cap. iv., n. 7.
' Enarratio in Psal. Ixxxviii,, sermo ii., n. 14.
THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 391 Above all things, trusting in the mercy of God, who is able to move the hearts of meii_and to incline them as and when He pleases, We most 'earnestly commend to His loving kindness all those ol whom We have spoken. As a pledge of divine grace, and as a token of Our affection, We lovingly impart to you^ in the Lord, Venerable Brethren, to your clergy and people, Our Apostolic Blessing.
ANGLICAN ORDERS.
Apostolic Letter Apostolicæ Curæ, September 13, 1896.
We have dedicated to the welfare of the noble English nation no small portion of the apostolic care and charity by which, helped by His grace, We endeavor to fulfil the office and follow in the footsteps of "the Great Shepherd of the sheep," ^ Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Letter which last year We sent to "the English seeking the kingdom of Christ in the unity of the faith " is a special witness of Our good-will towards England. In it We recalled the memory of the ancient union of her people with Mother Church, and We strove to hasten the day of a happy reconciliation by stirring up men's hearts to offer diligent prayer to God. And, again, more recently, when it seemed good to Us to treat more fully the unity of the Church in a general Letter, England had not the last place in Our mind, in the hope that Our teaching might both strengthen Catholics and bring the saving light to those divided from Us.
It is pleasing to acknowledge the generous way in which Our zeal and plainness of speech, inspired by no mere human motives, have met the approval of the Eng- lish people; and this testifies not less to their courtesy than to the solicitude of many for their eternal salvation.
With the same mind and intention We have now deter- mined to turn Our consideration to a matter of no less importance, which is closely connected with the same subject and with Our desires. For an opinion already >Heb. xiii. 20. 392 ANGLICAN ORDERS. 393 prevalent, confirmed more than once by the action and constant practice of the Church, maintained that when in England, shortly after it was rent from the centre of Christian unity, a new rite for conferring Holy Orders was publicly introduced under Edward VI., the true Sacra- ment of Orders, as instituted by Christ, lapsed, and with it the hierarchical succession. For some time, however, and in these last years especially, a controversy has sprung up as to whether the Sacred Orders conferred according to the Edwardine Ordinal possessed the nature and effect of a sacrament: those in favor of the absolute validity, or of a doubtful validity, being not only certain Anglican writers, but some few Catholics, chiefly non-English. The coasideration of the excellency of the Christian priesthood moved Anglican writers in this matter, de- sirous as they were that their own people should not lack the twofold power over the body of Christ. Catholic writers were impelled by a wish to smooth the way for the return of Anglicans to holy unity. Both, indeed, thought that in view of studies brought up to the level of ^ecent research, and of new documents rescued from oblivion, it was not inopportune to re-examine the question by Our authority. And We, not disregarding such desires and opinions, and, above all, obeying the dictates of apostohc charity, have considered that nothing should be left untried that might in any way tend to preserve souls from injury or procure their advantage.
It has, therefore, pleased Us to graciously permit the cause to be re-examined so that through the extreme care taken in the new examination all doubt, or even shadow of doubt, should be removed for the future. To this end We commissioned a certain number of men noted for their learning and ability, whose opinions in this matter were known to be divergent, to state the grounds of their judg- ments in writing. We then, having summoned them to Our person, directed them to interchange writings and further to investigate and discuss all that was necessary 394 ANGLICAN ORDERS.
for a full knowledge of the matter. We were careful also that they should be able to re-examine all documents bearing on this question which were known to exist in the Vatican archives, to search for new ones, and even to have at their disposal all acts relating to this subject which are preserved by the Holy Ofhce — or as it is called the Supreme Council — and to consider whatever had up to this time been adduced by learned men on both sides. We ordered them, when prepared in this way, to meet together in special sessions. These to the number of twelve were held under the presidency of one of the Car- dinals of the Holy Roman Church, appointed by Our- selves, and all were invited to free discussion. Finally We directed that the acts of these meetings, together with all other documents, should be submitted to Our vener- able brethren, the Cardinals of the same Council, so that when all had studied the whole subject, and discussed it in Our presence, each might give his opinion.
This order for discussing the matter having been de- termined upon, it was necessary, with a view to forming a true estimate of the real state of the question, to enter upon it, after careful inquiry as to how the matter stood in relation to the prescription and settled custom of the Apostolic See, the origin and force of which custom it was undoubtedly of great importance to determine. For this reason, in the first place, the principal documents in which Our predecessors, at the request of Queen Mary, exercised their special care for the reconciliation of the English Church, were considered. Thus Julius III. sent Cardinal Reginald Pole, an Englishman, and illustrious in many ways, to be his Legate a latere for the purpose, " as his angel of peace and love," and gave him extraordinary and unusual mandates or faculties and direction for his guidance. These Paul IV. confirmed and explained. And here, to interprete rightly the force of these docu- ments, it is necessary to lay it down as a fundamental principle that they were certainly not intended to deal 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 — one whose learning had been conspicuous in the Council of Trent — 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, 396 ANGLICAN ORDERS.
even in behalf of those who had received their consecra- tion "minus rite and not according to the accustomed form, of the Church," is to be especially noted. By this ex- pression those only could be meant who had been con- secrated according to the Edwardine rite, since besides it and the Catholic form there was then no other in England. This becomes even still clearer when we consider the legation which, on the advice of Cardinal Pole, the Sov- ereign Princes, Philip and Mary, sent to the Pope in Rome in the month of February, 1555. The royal ambassadors — three men, "most illustrious and endowed unth every virtue," of whom one was Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Ely — were charged to inform the Pope more fully as to the religious condition of the country, and especially to beg that he would ratify and confirm what the Legate had been at pains to effect, and had succeeded in effecting, towards the reconciliation of the kingdom with the Church, For this purpose all the necessary written evidence and the pertinent parts of the new Ordinal were submitted to the Pope. The Legation having been splendidly re- ceived, and their evidence having been "diligently dis- cussed" by several of the Cardinals, "after mature deliber- ation" Paul IV. issued his Bull Pra;clara carissimi on June 20 of the same year. In this, whilst giving full force and approbation to what Pole had done, it is ordered in the matter of the Ordinations as follows: "Those who have been promoted to Ecclesiastical Orders...by any one but by a bishop validly and lawfully ordained are bound to receive those Orders again." But who those bishops not "validly and lawfully ordained" were had been made sufficiently clear by the foregoing documents and the faculties used in the said matter by the Legate: those, namely, who have been promoted to the Episcopate, as others to other Orders "not according to the accustomed form of the Church," or, as the Legate himself wrote to the Bishop of Norwich, "the form and intention of the Church " not having been observed. These were certainly those 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 declaration 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 398. ANGLICAN ORDERS.
than three centuries, that Ordinations conferred according to the Edwardine rite should be considered null and void. This practice is fully proved by the numerous cases of absolute reordination according to the Catholic rite even in Rome. In the observance of this practice we have a proof directly affecting the matter in hand. For if by any chance doubt should remain as to the true sense in which these Pontifical documents are to be under- stood, the principle holds good that *' Custom is the best interpreter of law." Since in the Church it has ever been a constant and established rule that it is sacrilegious to repeat the Sacrament of Order, it never could have come to pass that the Apostolic See should have silently ac- quiesced and tolerated such a custom. But not only did the Apostolic See tolerate this practice, but approved and sanctioned it as often as any particular case arose which called for its judgment in the matter. We adduce two facts of this kind out of many which have from time to time been submitted to the Supreme Council of the Holy Office. The first was (in 1684) of a certain French Cal- vinist, and the other (in 1704), of John Clement Gordon, both of whom had received their Orders according to the Edwardine ritual. In the first case, after a searching investigation, the consultors, not a few in number, gave in writing their answers — or, as they call it, their vota — and the rest unanimously agreed with their conclusion, for "the invalidity of the Ordination" and only on account of reasons of opportuneness did the Cardinals deem it well to answer by a "dilata" [viz., not to formulate the conclusion at the moment]. The same documents were called into use and considered again in the examination of the second case, and additional written statements of opinion were also obtained from consultors, and the most eminent doctors of the Sorbonne and of Douai were likewise asked for their opinion. No safeguard which wisdom and prudence could suggest to insure the thorough sifting of the question was neglected.
I ANGLICAN ORDERS. 399 And here it is important to observe that although Gordon himself, whose case it was, and some of the con- suitors had adduced, amongst the reasons which went to prove the invaUdity, the Ordination of Parker, accord- ing to their owti ideas about it, in the deUvery of the decision this reason was altogether set aside, as docu- ments of incontestable authenticity prove. Nor, in pronouncing the decision, was weight given to any other reason than the ^'deject of form and intention"; and in order that the judgment concerning this form might be more certain and complete, precaution was taken that a copy of the Anglican Ordinal should be submitted to examination, and that ndth it should be collated the Ordination forms gathered together from the various Eastern and Western rites. Then Clement XI. himself, wdth the unanimous vote of the Cardinals concerned on the "Feria V.," ^ April 17, 1704:, decreed: "John Clement Gordon shall be ordained from the beginning and uncon- ditionally to all the Orders, even Sacred Orders, and chiefly of priesthood, and in case he has not been con- firmed he shall first receive the Sacrament of Confirma- tion." It is important to bear in mind that this judg- ment was in no wise determined by the omission of the tradition of instruments, or in such a case, according to the estabUshed custom, the direction would have been to repeat the ordination conditionally; and still more important it is to note that the judgment of the Pontiff applies universally to all Anglican Ordinations, because, although it refers to a particular case, it is not based upon any reason special to that case, but upon the defect of ' [The term " Feria V." here used has a technical value. Ordi- nary' meetings of the Supreme Council for t'he ratification of de- crees usually take place on the Wednesdays, and are marked ' 'Feria IV." But the special and solemn sessions which, in matters of graver import, are held in the presence and under the presidency of the Pope himself, who thus in a special way makes the decisions his own, take place on Thursdays, and are marked "Feria V." — Translators' Note.]
400 ANGLICAN ORDERS.
form, which defect equally affects all these Ordinations; so much so, that when similar cases subsequently came up for decision the same decree of Clement XI. was quoted as the norma.
Hence it must be clear to every one that the contro- versy lately revived had been already definitely settled by the Apostolic See, and that it is to the insufficient knowl- edge of these documents that we must, perhaps, at- tribute the fact that any Catholic writer should have considered it still an open question. But, as We stated at the beginning, there is nothing We so deeply and ardently desire as to be of help to men of good-will by showing them the greatest consideration and charity. Wherefore We ordered that the Anglican Ordinal, which is the essential point of the whole matter, should be once more most carefully examined.
In the examination of any rite for the effecting and administering of a sacrament, distinction is rightly made between the part which is ceremonial and that which is essential, usually called the matter and form. All know that the sacraments of the New Law, as sensible and efficient signs of invisible grace, ought both to signify the grace which they effect, and effect the grace which they signify. Although the signification ought to be found in the whole essential rite — that is to say, in the matter and form — it still pertains chiefly to the form; since the mat- ter is the part which is not determined by itself, but which is determined by the form. And this appears still more clearly in the Sacrament of Orders, the matter of which, in so far as We have to consider it in this case, is the im- position of hands, which indeed by itself signifies nothing definite, and is equally used for several Orders and for Confirmation. But the words which until recently were commonly held by Anglicans to constitute the proper form of priestly Ordination — namely, "Receive the Holy GJiost," certainly do not in the least definitely express the Sacred Order of Priesthood, or its grace and power, which is chiefly the power "of consecrating and of offering the true body and blood of the Lord" in that sacrifice which is no "nude commemoration of the sacrifice offered on the Cross." This form had indeed afterwards added to it the words "for the office and work of a priest," etc.;—but this rather shows that the Anglicans themselves perceived that the first form was defective and inadequate. But even if this addition could give to the form its due signification, it was introduced too late, as a century had already elapsed since the adoption of the Edwardine Ordinal, for, as the hierarchy had become extinct, there remained no power of ordaining. In vain has help been recently sought for the plea of the validity of Orders from the other prayers of the same Ordinal. For, to put aside other reasons which show this to be insufficient for the purpose in the Anglican rite, let this argument suffice for all: from them has been deliberately removed whatever sets forth the dignity and office of the priesthood in the Catholic rite. That form consequently cannot be considered apt or sufficient for the sacrament which omits what it ought essentially to signify.
The same holds good of Episcopal consecration. For to the formula "Receive the Holy Ghost" not only were the words "for the office and work of a bishop," etc., added at a later period, but even these, as we shall presently state, must be understood in a sense different to that which they bear in the Catholic rite. Nor is anything gained by quoting the prayer of the preface "Almighty God," since it in like manner has been stripped of the words which denote the summum sacerdotium. It is not here relevant to examine whether the Episcopate be a completion of the priesthood or an Order distinct from it, or whether when bestowed, as they say per saltum, on one who is not a priest, it has or has not its effect. But the Episcopate undoubtedly by the institution of 402 ANGLICAN ORDERS.