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the reader, that I shall be anxious to furnish him with a selection of extracts from the councils and authoritative books of the English Church only, in number and in variety sufficient to enable him, not merely to understand the offices which I have edited, but also the doctrines which were to be held, and the practices which were to be observed regarding the clergy in general, from the Anglo-saxon age, down to the sixteenth century. I shall but very rarely refer to authors who have treated the subject at large, such as Thomassin, or Saussajus, or Martene, or Morinus, or Catalani, and many others; not to mention the canonists, Van Espen for example, or those who have directed their enquiries more particularly towards the Eastern Church, as Goar and Habertus: but I seek rather to supply the deficiencies which they have left, respecting the decisions and observances of that branch of the Church of Christ, with which we are the more intimately concerned, namely, of the Church of England.

First, as to the preliminary examinations which were to be had, before admittance into any of the Orders, whether the greater or the minor. In the middle of the eighth century, the 6th canon of the council of Cloveshoo is addressed to this point: "De examinatione eorum qui ordinandi sunt. Sexto statuitur decreto; ut episcopi nullum de clericis seu monachis ad sacrum presbyteri gradum ordinent, nisi prius ejus vitam, qualis extiterit, vel tunc quæ morum probitas, ac scientia fidei existat, manifeste perquirant." In the same century, later, about the year 785; at the council of Chalcuith: "Sextum decretum : ut nullus episcoporum presbyterum aut diaconum ordinare præsumat, nisi probatæ vitæ fuerint, et officium suum recte implere possint." I pass over the intermediate time,

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until the provincial council at Oxford, in 1222: which, in its canon "de ordinibus et ordinandis," prohibits, upon the authority of the ancient ecclesiastical statutes, "ut nullus ad ordines accedat aut admittatur, nisi qui fuerit canonice examinatus. Shortly after, the famous legatine constitutions of Otho were published of which the sixth is: "De scrutinio ordinandorum. Sacer ordo eo est digno dignius conferendus, quo ab ordinato sacramenta cætera conferuntur. Quare cum periculosum sit, minus dignos ordinari, statuimus, ut ante collationem ordinum per episcopum indagatio diligens habeatur.” 58

And we find the same care taken up to the period of the reformation. The statutes of a provincial council in 1529 direct: "Statuimus et ordinamus, quod nullus clericus sæcularis de cætero admittatur ad sacros ordines, nisi habuerit literas testimoniales curati

58 Wilkins Conc. tom. 1. p. 95. 147.595.651. Johnson, having translated this last constitution in his Ecclesiastical Laws, adds a very senseless remark below it: I notice it, because the same mode of reasoning is occasionally employed, when other means fail, by persons who have neither the learning nor the usual discretion of that writer. He says: "here we may see the great carelessness which then prevailed in ordaining clergymen." It just shews the very contrary. And if his inference is correct, we ought to conclude in a similar way from the canons of the Church of England now, and the often repeated admonitions of her bishops, that no

care is taken in ordaining fit persons to the sacred ministry; or from the charge given by S. Paul to Timothy, that even in that early age, men commonly were no less hastily ordained.

This constitution of Othobon is further remarkable, for the following provision: "ne reprobatis, qui fuerint reprobandi, approbatis, se clanculo immiscere valeant reprobati, in examinatione scribatur numerus, et nomina probatorum ; et qui scripti fuerint postmodum in ordinationis limine, perlecta scriptura discretione solita requirantur; ipsaque scriptura apud episcopum vel ecclesiam cathedralem conservetur."

et œconomorum vel parochiæ, in qua natus, beneficiatus, vel per triennium proxime præcedens commoratus

fuerit, sub sigillo archidiaconatus jurisdictionem habentis; seu, si in aliqua universitate studens fuerit, sub sigillo commissarii universitatis Oxon. seu vicecancellarii Cantabrig. cum testimonio superioris loci sui.

:

Exacte etiam curent episcopi, ut neminem de cætero ad subdiaconatus ordinem promoveant, nisi eum qui adeo sit exercitatus in evangeliis et epistolis sacris, saltem in missali contentis, ut eorundem sensum grammaticalem examinatori prompte et expedite reddere valeat sitque eorum quilibet sufficienter instructus etiam in aliis ad ordinem illum, quem tunc assumpturus est, per sacros canones requisitis, et in officiis divinis secundum morem ecclesiæ et loci consuetudinem promptus et expertus; habeatque præterea in presbyterum ordinandus cætera ad ipsius officium et ordinem ipsis sacerdotibus necessario requisita."59

The provincial canon cited above, of the year 1222, was repeated in almost the same words, under archbishop Walter Reynold, one hundred years after: and upon this examination I extract Lyndwood's gloss. "De hac examinatione quando, per quos, et de quibus fieri debet, habes 24 di. c. quando: debet enim examinator inquirere de vita, genere, patria, ætate, institutione sive titulo ordinandi. Item de loco ubi conversatus est, de conscientia, fide et hujusmodi. Item de his quæ concernunt regulam Apostolicam, etc." 60 "Hic

59 Wilkins. Conc. tom. 3. p. 718. Compare the canon of the convocation of 1557. ibid. tom. 4. p. 159. And the sixth decree of cardinal Pole's "Reformatio Angliæ."

60 Lib. 1. tit. 5. verb. Canonice examinatus. The "Pupilla oculi” says: "Ordinandi non sunt rigide examinandi, sed summatim cum quodam temperamento, et non requiratur nimia perfectio. Tria

nota, quod in ordinibus celebrandis primo fit examinatio, sc. per tres dies ante diem ordinum celebrandorum. Et tunc in die ordinum celebrandorum archidiaconus, vel examinator alius ad hoc deputatus, in actu celebrationis ordinum præsentabit episcopo ordinanti ipsos ordinandos."61 Upon the legatine constitution of Otho, his commentator J. de Athon, has a very ample gloss, of great importance, to which I am forced to refer the student: citing only this, upon the word "periculo"Sc. ordinanti, cum ordinat indoctum loco docti magistrumque facit qui vix discipulus esse po

sum."

vero in ordinandis potissime requiruntur: sc. literatura sufficiens, ætas legitima, morum honestas." Pars, vij. cap. 3. G.

61 Ibid. verb. Præsentatores. See Hostiensis in summa. cap. De scrutinio in ordine faciendo. This canonist was of high authority in the Church of England, as appears from the frequent reference to him not only by Lyndwood, but also by the rubrics of the old service-books of the church. See, for example, in the Ordo Sponsalium, vol. 1. p. 59. and note 32. p. 60. The Pupilla, I must add, speaks of a double examination, in a passage, of which the last part is worth the reader's attention: "Duplex scrutinium fieri debet ante ordinis collationem: primum debet fieri per archidiaconum. Vel per alios sacerdotes et viros prudentes, quos a latere suo mittet episcopus ad locum ubi celebrandi sunt ordines. Aliud

scrutinium fit in ipsa ordinatione, quando ordinandi præsentantur episcopo ante altare, cum archidiaconus dicit: Postulat sancta mater ecclesia, etc. [See below, p. 160.] Et talis præsentator hujusmodi responsione non peccat, dum tamen non loquatur contra conscientiam, nam quem nescit indignum debet æstimare dignum: quod si archidiaconus sciverit aliquem indignum vel conscientia sua de præsentando talem remordeat, tunc antequam veniatur ad ordinationem secrete studeat episcopo intimare. Et si episcopus nolit desistere, archidiaconus debet eum subtrahere: et si hoc non potest sine scandalo, debet illa verba dicere, tanquam minister ecclesiæ, quæ non judicat de occultis sed nullo modo debet crimen fratris publicare." Pars vij. cap. 3. E.

62 Cap. Sacer ordo.

tuit. Is enim culpæ est reus, qui tali indigno ordinem, curam, vel officium committit. Unde episcopus scienter ordinans indignum dicitur peccare mortaliter. Ratio est, quia infidelis est, etc. Item periculosum est decentiæ ecclesiæ in scandalo populari."

Not only were strict examinations insisted on, previously to the conferring of orders, but there were certain disabilities which either barred altogether the reception of them,63 or, at least, required a dispensation.

There are numerous canons, and decisions of canonists, against the conferring of any orders upon women. Very anciently there were undoubtedly heretics, such as the Collyridians, who practised such ordinations, but the Catholic Church instantly and unhesitatingly condemned them. Compare also the Constit. Apost. lib. 3. c. ix. Some have argued that nevertheless, in the first centuries, women were ordained, and appeal to the "presbyteræ," and "episcopa," whom we meet with in many records. But these were the wives of priests and bishops, either before or after their ordination in the former sense, according to the 19th canon of the council of Turin: cited by Bingham: (vol. 1. p. 338.) "Si inventus fuerit presbyter cum sua presbytera, aut diaconus cum sua diaconissa, aut subdiaconus cum sua subdiaconissa, annum integrum excommunicatus habeatur." Labbe. Concil. Tom. 5. p. 858.

Nor can the deaconesses of the primitive ages be taken as any precedent for such a custom : for independently of their functions being strictly kept separate from any matter appertaining to the priesthood, or to the public service of the Church, and being limited to the performance of mere secular duties, such as visiting the sick, and catechizing women, &c. it is very doubtful whether they received imposition of hands. I cannot enter into this question, but would refer the reader to Baronius, sub an. xxxiv. and to the 19th canon of the council of Nice, with the notes of Balsamon and Zonaras, in Bevereg. Pandect. Tom. 1. p. 82. And even if after all, there may seem to be a balance of evidence in favour of some imposition of hands, yet this was in the way of a benediction, and not of ordination. See Justellus, Bibl. Jur. Canon. tom. 1. p. 75. Casalius, de sacr. Christ. ritibus: pars. 2. cap. xxix. Bingham,

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