They, who denied that there were seven orders only, encreased the number sometimes to eight, by adding the Episcopate; sometimes to nine, by adding the Tonsure; and others would even make a tenth, by distinguishing the archbishops of the church." The chief difficulty rested with the episcopate: whether bishops were to be considered as distinct from priests, not merely in the degree of their office, but in its nature.

There are so many duties common to both bishops and priests, that we may regard the two degrees as but one Order: "both are ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God; both are invested with the cure of souls: both are sent to teach and preach the Gospel of Christ: to baptize: to celebrate the eucharist: to bless the congregation:" " but there still remains the very high power, attached to the one only, of sealing with the Holy Spirit in confirmation, and of conferring orders. The balance of authority, even from the earliest ages, certainly inclines to consider

with so much hesitation: "Docendum erit, hosce omnes ordines septenario numero contineri, semperque ita a catholica ecclesia traditum esse, quorum nomina hæc sunt. etc." And it accurately distinguishes between the greater and the minor orders. p. 199. Edit. Aldus. 1566.

22 Morinus, de sacr. Ordin. Pars. 3. Exercit. 3. cap. 1. Where are collected the various authorities on the different points of the question. I cite a place from S. Isidore, (who appears by it, also, to have included the ton

VOL. III.

sure,) as illustrating the term clericus. "Omnes qui in ecclesiastici ministerii gradibus ordinati sunt, generaliter clerici nominantur." De eccles. off. lib. 2. cap. 1.

33 Palmer, Treatise of the Church. vol. 1. p. 374. I cannot agree with Mr. Palmer however in including confirmation within the offices common to both because, although as Habertus says, Pontif. Græc. p. 709, the Greek church permits her priests to confirm, yet it is only by special commission, and with chrism previously hallowed.

g

the episcopate, as an Order, to be identical with the priesthood, but the completion of it; and I think that this may mainly be attributed, not so much to the fact that many offices are common to both, as that one chief office and power is so; namely, that of consecrating the Holy Eucharist. Much, however, as I would desire to pursue this question further, I must nevertheless proceed to matters more immediately within my subject.

The opinion in the Anglo-saxon age generally, seems to have been that the number of orders was limited to seven. Late in the seventh century we find a constitution, beginning: "Septem sunt dona spiritus sancti, et septem gradus sunt ecclesiasticorum ordinum et sacrarum functionum." 34 Again, in the canons of Elfric: "Seven degrees are established in the church-the sixth diaconus, the seventh presbyter. "35 Once more, in the pastoral epistle of the same Ælfric: "Beloved, seven orders are appointed in books [on bocum] for God's ministries in Christ's church." 36 Against these, we have the following in the Ecclesiastical Institutes, about the same period, in the chapter "De munere et dignitate sacerdotum." "Ye ought also to know, that your orders are the second orders after our orders, and the next to us; like as the bishops are in the stead of the apostles in the church of the holy, so are the mass-priests in the stead of Christ's disciples."

99 37

For later opinions, I shall content myself with quoting, first, the Pupilla Oculi. "Septem sunt ordines. sive gradus: et sic loquendo de ordine, ut est sacramentum, et characterem imprimit;-prima tonsura non est ordo sed dispositio quædam ad ordinem.-Episcopatus autem non est ordo proprie, sed dignitas, sive excellentia in ordine, tum quia non imprimit characterem, tum etiam quia omnis ordo ordinatur ad sacramentum eucharistiæ." 38 And secondly, Lyndwood: "Ut volunt theologi quasi omnes, solum sunt septem ordines. Unde secundum eos, tonsura, quæ vocatur psalmistatus, non est ordo sed solum dispositio ad ordines: sic etiam episcopatus, secundum eos, non est ordo in quantum sacramentum, sed dignitas.

Pars. vij. cap. 1. C. The author of the "Manipulus curatorum," is decided against reckoning the tonsure as an order, but he continues; "De episcopatu "De episcopatu vero utrum sit spiritualis ordo dubito." Lib. 5. Cap. ij. And Guillermus Parisiensis, de vij. sacramentis, draws a distinction similar to that laid down in the Pupilla, saying also, that the episcopate presupposes the priesthood, and depends upon it. fol. xij. b. But he does not clearly decide the point, that is, in his opinion. I quote this book, as it was also in much estimation among the English clergy of the 15th century. Compare also, the "Parochiale curatorum," Tit. 9. cap. vj. edit. 1514.

T later opinions of the Roman theologians seem to incline

Ordo namque sumitur

to consider the episcopate as a distinct order: see Perrone, Prælect. Theol. vol. viij. p. 126. Dens Theologia. tom. 7. p. 39. But Thomas Aquinas plainly said, "episcopatus non est ordo." In 4. sect. dist. 24. q. 2. art. 2. And Bonaventure, "Episcopatus, prout distinguitur contra sacerdotium, non est proprie nomen ordinis, nec novus character imprimitur, nec nova potestas datur, sed potestas data ampliatur." Opera. tom. 5. p. 369. Bellar

min takes a middle line between the two extremes. He reckons seven orders, and dividing the priesthood, declares that ordination to the episcopate is a sacrament, confers grace, and impresses a character. Opera. tom. 3. p. 609. Compare Bonacina. tom. 1. Disp. viij. p. 219.

multipliciter. Nam aliquando est nomen dignitatis, et sic episcopatus dicitur ordo: aliquando est nomen officii, et sic psalmistatus dicitur ordo: aliquando est nomen spiritualis potestatis, et sic diaconatus dicitur ordo." 39

As an office, there is no evidence that the "Modus faciendi tonsuras" can be traced higher than the seventh century. Hence we do not find any prayers or forms in the oldest MSS. and sacramentaries, "de clerico faciendo." Not that it can be disputed, that the practice of distinguishing the clergy by their hair, is of very high antiquity: first probably introduced to a moderate and seemly extent, for the sake of outward decency and gravity, according to the admonition of the Apostles; afterwards restricted within the limits of a certain fashion, and shape. And it is not difficult to trace the progress of these restrictions, in the canons of successive councils, as time went on.40 The reason why, about the time that I have mentioned above, the conferring of the tonsure came to be a separate and distinct office, probably was, because parents were then accustomed to dedicate their children to the

39 Lib. 3. Tit. 1. Ut clericalis. verb. Ordinis. But compare Lib. 1. Tit. 4. Eos qui. verb. Sacros ordines: where he enumerates eight. I may add here, that it was not simply through humility, but probably as claiming their highest privilege, that we find bishops anciently styling themselves priests, and ministers. Thus a letter of a bishop of Durham to king Henry V. is subscribed "Your humble Preest of Duresme." Cotton MS. Vesp. F. xiij.

sacred ministry, and to leave them in monasteries, at an age too young to permit of their performing even the lowest functions of ostiarius or lector: when, nevertheless, it was desirable that a mark should be set upon them, that they were no longer merely secular." As to the shape, and fashion of the tonsure, many writers have not hesitated to trace it up to the authority of S. Peter himself. For instance, Rabanus Maurus. "Sunt quidam doctorum, qui asserunt, diversas ob causas Petrum apostolum hunc ritum primum sumpsisse primitus." But long before his time, Bede records an epistle of the abbot Ceolfrid, about the year 710, to whom an application had been made, for an opinion, concerning the variety of tonsures: who says; "inter omnes tamen, quas reperimus tonsuras, nullam magis sequendam nobis amplectendamque jure dixerim ea, quam in capite suo gestabat ille, cui se confitenti Dominus ait, Tu es Petrus.'--Neque vero ob id tantum in coronam attondemur, quia Petrus ita attonsus est; etc."43 And such would seem to be still

"Whence the definitions of the canonists may be reduced to this: "Tonsura; cæremonia ab ecclesia instituta, qua laicus baptizatus, et sacramento confirmationis consignatus, sacro ritu in clerum instituitur."

42 De instit. Cleric. lib. 1. cap. 3. Bibl. Patrum. Auct. tom. 1. p. 546. See also Alcuin, cap. de tonsura; Amalarius, de div. Off. Lib. 2. Cap. 5. Compare also the prayer or exhortation in the office below, beginning, "Oremus, dilectissimi."

43 Hist. Ecc. Lib. 5. Cap. 21.

The excerpts however of his contemporary Egbert, although they recognize the tonsure of S. Peter, follow another common view taken by the early canonists: "Exordium tonsuræ a Nazaræis incepit, qui crine servato post vitæ magnæ continentiam caput radebant, ut devotionem Domino consecrarent." Wilkins. Conc. tom. 1. p. 111. I am not speaking of the varieties of the tonsure in that age, but of its supposed original. The disputes which took place in the eighth century as to the proper shape of the ton