of the Priesthood which were contained in the medieval rites; and (b) by insisting on the supposed unorthodoxy of the English Church with regard to the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the Priesthood. The answer to the objection above stated is therefore that the object of the rite is sufficiently specified or determined, if not by the words actually accompanying the imposition of hands then by expressions used in the concomitant parts of The answer is (a) that the Rethe rite. And that this must be visers of the Ordinal retained all regarded as sufficient is fully estab- the essential acts of ordination lished by the fact that according common to the ancient rites of the to the Roman Pontifical itself the Church, and struck out only some imposition of hands in the ordina- later medieval accretions. If there tion of Priests takes place in abso- was any doctrinal significance at lute silence; in the ordination of all in the omissions, they struck Deacons, and the consecration of a not at the true doctrine of the Bishop, it is accompanied by the Eucharistic Sacrifice, but at a cerwords Accipe Spiritum Sanctum tain monstrous perversion of it alone. The meaning is determined, which the Revisers are known to as in the Anglican rite, by the have believed, rightly or wrongly, expressions of the concomitant to be very prevalent, and which prayers. Hence it is evident that, of all persons, members of the Roman Communion have the least right to adduce the objection cited above. 2. The English Ordinal is further objected to by Roman Catholics as supplying an insufficient intention. It is held that the minister of a Sacrament must intend to do what the Church does. He is not required to have a clear understanding, nor even a sound faith as to what this really is; but he must intend to do what the true Church does, whatever that may be. Neither is it any secret intention of his own mind that is here in question; in using any rite his intention must be held to be governed by the purpose of that rite. Thus a Bishop, himself an unbeliever, using any Catholic rite of ordination, must be held to intend to confer real and valid orders. But, it is argued, the purpose of the English Ordinal is not to make true priests of the Catholic Church; therefore a Bishop, whose intention is governed by the purpose of the Ordinal, does not intend to do what the Church does. This argument is sustained, (a) by pointing to the eliminations of certain expressions about the power might find some plausible support in the words omitted. (b) The supposed unorthodoxy of the English Church is not a fact. Even if inadequate and erroneous views about the Sacrifice have been commonly held and tolerated, these have not thereby become the formal public teaching of the Church. Moreover, the following facts clearly prove that the Ordinal, at all events, is not the expression of these views. I. The word "Priest" used in the Ordinal, though derived etymologically from Presbyter," was always used in contemporary English as the equivalent of Sacerdos. Thus in the English Bible" Priest' always stands for Sacerdos or Pontifex, while "Presbyter" is always represented by "Elder." Conversely, in the authorized Latin version of the Prayer Book, published in 1560," Priest" is rendered seventeen times by Sacerdos, and "Presbyter" occurs only five times. II. The Preface to the Ordinal expresses the intention of continuing in reverent use the same Priesthood which had always been in the Church from the beginning. other words the "Priest" of the Ordinal was to be identical with the Priest of the older Pontificals. In III. In 1550, when the Ordinal mission and jurisdiction belong to was first brought into use, by far them. Here, too, proof is not dethe greater part, to say the least, ficient. Mission, starting from the of the English Church held the sending of the Apostles, means the Catholic doctrine of the Priesthood office of preaching the Gospel, and and the Sacrifice. Of the twenty-setting up the Church in a heathen four Bishops then holding English land. Only two possible events Sees, only six were inclined to the can occur which make a fresh act new doctrines. Fourteen of them con- of mission needful, the total disaptinued to exercise their ministry un-pearance of Christianity (as when der Mary, and three others, though the early teachers of Greenland and removed on the ground of marriage, their disciples all died of the escaped all charge of heresy. These plague), or the abandonment by seventeen Bishops accepted the new Christians themselves of the AposOrdinal, and brought it into use. tolic ministry, so as to lose the Some of them, no doubt, strongly Sacraments of Order, Penance, and objected to any change; but others, the Eucharist, as in Denmark and on the other hand, supported it. other Presbyterian countries. But All accepted it. Only one of them, so long as a Christian remnant, Heath of Worcester, raised the episcopally ruled, continues, fresh slightest protest, and even he, mission is impossible. Such is though objecting to put his name obviously the case in England. It to the book, as one of its authors, has not ceased to be Christian, its formally undertook to use it when Church has never ceased to be introduced. Moreover, some of episcopally transmitted, and no these same Bishops a few months other body can have true mission later endured imprisonment and so long as this state of things condeprivation in resisting the demoli- tinues. tion of Altars, which they rightly regarded as a severe blow at the doctrine of the Sacrifice. They would certainly then have resisted the introduction of the new Ordinal had they found in it any denial of this same doctrine. The Ordinal having been introduced under these circumstances, the terms which it employs must be understood in their natural Catholic sense, and no personal unorthodoxy of certain amongst its authors, still less of any later generation of Englishmen, can affect its meaning and purpose. The purpose of the Ordinal, then, is the conferring of the Priesthood as it has always been understood in the Catholic Church. The Bishop who uses the Ordinal is therefore tied to the intention of doing what the Church does. Anglican Orders are therefore conferred by a valid form with a valid intention. But a fresh question now arises, as to their regularity, whether full Jurisdiction means the legal, as distinguished from the spiritual, right of publicly discharging the functions acquired by consecration, and of exercising rule in a definite place. Thus it is not a divine grace, making part of the gift of Holy Orders, but a human limitation of the exercise of that gift. By ordination or consecration a man is made a Priest or a Bishop of the whole Catholic Church, his acts being equally valid everywhere. By the ecclesiastical law of jurisdiction he is barred from exercising those powers outside of a given area; and thus jurisdiction is in no sense a spiritual grace, but a human arrangement for administrative convenience. By the most ancient code of the Church, the African Canons already mentioned, jurisdiction is lodged in a Metropolitan by the assent of his comprovincials, and is communicated from the Metropolitan to all newly-made Bishops in his province. This Metropolitan might be, as in some Churches, the seven sees were vacant, six in the senior Bishop, in years or in date south, and one in the north. Nine of consecration, or as in other more Bishops were dead before the Churches, including England, the middle of January, 1560, that is holder of a particular See. The to say, within little more than a See of Canterbury had enjoyed this month after Parker's consecration. pre-eminence ever since the mission Only eight Marian prelates then of S. Augustine, and a Papal Brief survived. Three of these quitted of Boniface V. is recorded by Wil- England, and never returned, the liam of Malmesbury, anathematiz- five who stayed made no sign, and ing any person who should ever in- did not interfere in any way. Thus, terfere with or resist its primatial even the six sees into which men rights, no matter what changes had been intruded were canonically time might bring about in human filled one by one, and when Scamaffairs. This Brief, on Roman prin- bler, the intrusive Bishop of Peterciples, disposes of the claims of borough, who had supplanted Poole, the titular See of Westminster, to died in 1585, and was canonically which, in fact, no jurisdiction is succeeded by Howland, the last annexed, as its occupant is com- trace of irregularity vanished. No pelled to refer all matters of the schism, such as that of the Nonforum externum to Rome. There jurors, no protest, like that of 36 of is thus, even since the setting up the 135 French Bishops deprived of the Anglo-Roman hierarchy in unlawfully by Pius VII., acting as 1850, no rival jurisdiction to con- the tool of Napoleon I. in 1801, is test the claims of Lambeth. When to be found in this period of EngParker was canonically elected to lish Church history. The Roman the vacancy left by Pole's death, he Church allowed the case to go by entered, on consecration, into all the default, and the breach to heal itself Metropolitical and Primatial rights in twenty-seven years, making no of his predecessor, including that effort to start a rival claim till 1850, of giving jurisdiction to his suf- three centuries too late for any fragans. If Pole had lived, and been show of canonical validity, and even uncanonically deposed, this would then, by not venturing to set up an not have been so, since Parker, if Archbishop of Canterbury, professintruded in his place, would have ing to be the true successor of Pole, been in an irregular position, but it left the new titular Primate under as matters actually were, his rights the operation of Boniface V.'s anaarc unimpeachable. Only one thing thema. And ever since Parker's could have impugned them, and time the episcopal registers of Engthat was not forthcoming, to wit, a land show a regular adhesion to protest against his authority by the the Nicene rule of at least three suffragans of his province, with the consecrators, which contrasts forciputting forward another claimant bly with the frequent relaxations of the Primacy. His consecrators of it in the Roman obedience (as, were precisely the surviving re- for example, in the consecration of presentatives of the Episcopate of the first Roman Catholic Bishop 1553, which had been illegally, for the United States, who had but (even if deservedly) deprived by one consecrator, an English Vicarthe State-not by Canon law-Apostolic with a merely titular sce under Mary. And death was sin- of Ragal), and testifies completely gularly busy amongst the Marian to the care with which the succession Bishops. When Queen Mary died, has been fenced and preserved. PONTIFICAL. CONFIRMATION OF A BISHOP ELECT. To Metr. Let it be read. Before the Confirmation of any Sir, pray for a blessing. Metr. Is he of your own Diocese, or of another? Dean. Our own [or otherwise, as the case may be]. Metr. What has caused you to elect him? Dean. His godly conversation in CHRIST and good repute amongst the brethren. Metr. Have you the deed of clection? Dean. We have. Dean, or some official appointed As is known unto your Grace, the Church of N. is deprived of its pastor. Therefore, lest in the absence of a ruler of its own, the flock of the LORD should be exposed to the ravening of treacherous wolves, and be a prey to the wicked spoiler, we have by joint vote and assent elected as Bishop, N., Priest of our Church [or of the Church N.], a prudent man, given to hospitality, virtuous, chaste, sober, and courteous, pleasing in all things to GoD and man, whom we have caused to be brought hither to your Grace, with one accord asking and beseeching you, Most Reverend Father, to consecrate him Bishop, that by the LORD's goodness, he may rule over us, and be profitable to us, and that we, under his wise governance, may always fight as we should the battles of the LORD. And that you may know that the votes of us all are agreed in this election, we have signed our names with our own hands in confirmation of this deed. The Metropolitan shall have no power Then the Dean and Canons with- Sir, pray for a blessing. My son, what desirest thou? Elect. Most Reverend Father, my brethren have elected me (albeit unworthy) to be their Pastor. Metr. Of what order art thou? Elect. Of the Priesthood [as the case may be]. Metr. Dost thou accept and undertake the office of Bishop of the See N., to which thou hast been canonically elected? Elect. Since the Chapter [or Synod] of the diocese has judged me worthy to undertake this charge, I give thanks therefore, and do undertake it, and in no wise gainsay it. Metr. I require and charge thee, as thou shalt answer at the day of judgment, that if thou knowest any just impediment by reason of thy faith, morals, or share in bringing about thine election, why thou shouldest not be consecrated to this office, thou do now declare it. Elect. I declare, and that without reservation, that I know not of any such impediment. So help me GOD. Amen. Metr. And I, by the authority committed unto me, hereby confirm thine election as Bishop of N., in the Name, &c. Then shall be sung Ps. 68, with the Antiphon: Stablish the thing, O GOD, that Thou hast wrought in us, for Thy temple's sake, which is in Jerusalem. Let GOD arise, &c. Then the Metropolitan, rising from his seat, and standing before the kneeling Bishop elect, shall say, 7. O GOD, save Thy servant. Ry. Who putteth his trust in Thee. V. Be unto him a strong tower. R. From the face of the enemy. 7. Let not the enemy prevail against him. Ry. Nor the son of wickedness approach to hurt him. Y. LORD, hear, &c. R. And let, &c. y. The LORD, &c. Ry. And with, &c. y. Let us pray. LORD, have mercy, &c. |