92 CHAP. Persons inadmissible to orders; celibacy clergy they of -simony. this institution a sacrament. This ordinance. is to be administered by no ecclesiastic inferior to a Bishop. It is maintained that, to priests lawfully ordained, our Lord Jesus Christ has given power over His true and real body, to consecrate, offer, and administer it, as also over His mystical body, the church." The different orders in the Roman Church are then named. After the Clerical Tonsure, they advance in the following order,-Ostiary, Reader, Exorcist, Acolythus. These are the inferior orders. The higher orders are called holy, and are,-Subdeacon, Deacon, Priest, and Bishop, who succeeds the Apostles, and according to St. Paul, is said to be ordained to govern the Church of God.3 The Church enjoins continency and chastity upon all that take Holy Orders, that they may give themselves exclusively to the work of the ministry. The following persons are inadmissible to Holy Orders, slaves, murderers, illegitimates, persons with any bodily infirmity, those who have either been The more learned and candid members of the Roman Church admit that these inferior orders are comparatively a modern invention. That there were none of the lesser ecclesiastical order in the primitive church, is acknowledged by Cardinal Bona in his Book of Liturgies. Tertia classis Ministrantum, &c. "The schoolmen affirm, but do not prove, that these orders are very ancient, having been instituted by the Apostles or their immediate successors. It is therefore said, as though by St. Thomas, that in the Apostles' days, all the services included in the inferior orders, were not performed by separate persons, but by only one minister. Thus it happened very much to the church as it usually does to mankind, who, while possessed of a slender patrimony, are content with one servant, who does all they want: but, if their revenues improve, they add to the number of their servants, just as their family also increases." Geddes, 290. 3 1 Tim. iii. 1—7. twice married, or once to a widow, and boys under the appointed age. Decree 1st. None are to be ordained without previous examination. Sub-deacons to be at least two-and-twenty; deacons, three-and-twenty; priests, five-and-twenty. Decree 2nd. All that have obtained orders by the payment of a certain sum of money, have thereby been guilty of simony: yet are they absolved in consideration of their ignorance at the time. Decree 3rd. No priests infected with the leprosy are to be allowed to officiate in church. Decree 4th. No priest is to minister in the church, or pronounce the blessing, who is not living in charity with all his brethren, and who denies them the ordinary ecclesiastical salutation. Decree 5th. After complaining of the careless manner in which many priests recite the public service, they are directed henceforth to be more regular, and to omit no part of the office as recited in the church. If prevented from attending church, they are to go through the whole at home, "either by book, or, where a book is wanting, by beads." They are then instructed how many Pater Nosters and Ave Marias, to repeat at different parts of the service. "And when these were done, they shall say nine 5 4 Could Menezes have been ignorant that it was a common practice in the Roman Church to admit young boys to Orders for the purpose of enabling them to hold church preferment ? See Roscoe's Life of Leo X. 5" It would have been no true Roman devotion, had not the Ave Maries exceeded the Pater Nosters; for one may speak within compass, and say, that the Blessed Virgin has ten prayers and an hundred vows made to her in the Church of Rome, where Christ has one made to him: and of this the tabulæ votivæ in their churches, are a clear demonstration, A. D. 1599. CHAP. I. Ave Marias to our Lady, and one Pater Noster and one Ave Maria for the Pope, and another for the Bishop." Decree 6th. The Athanasian Creed is commanded to be translated into Syriac, and read every Sunday in the church immediately after morning service. Decree 7th. Earnestly recommends the clergy to be more punctual in their attendance at church, and more devout in their deportment during the service. Decree 8th. The clergy are to be fined for non-attendance at Church, unless hindered by some lawful impediment. Decree 9th. Prohibits the use of all superstitions and heathen Exorcisms, for the casting out of Devils, except those approved of by the holy Fathers, and used by the Church of Rome. Decree 10th. Forbids all astrologies and heathen superstitions, in order to ascertain what days are auspicious or inauspicious for the celebration of marriage. Decree 11th. Priests are recommended to use great moderation in their eating and drinking, and are to be suspended for frequent drunkenness. They are also forbidden to eat or drink in a public-house of any description, or in company with Heathens, Mahomedans or Jews. Decree 12th. Gives directions for the dress and manners of the clergy. Those who wear there being few or none of these tables, (and there are vast numbers of them in several churches) but what are dedicated solely to the honour of the Blessed Virgin." Geddes, p. 296. In a former part of this History, B. i. c. 3. ss. 7 & 8, it has been shown that the Virgin Mary, though not yet risen from the dead, has lost none of her divine honours in the 19th century. For a Litany and some prayers to the Virgin, see Appendix B. These will sufficiently substantiate the charge of idolatry, or creature-worship, brought against the Roman church. their beards very long, are to "take care to cut off the hair that grows near their lips, that so it may not be a hinderance to their receiving the blood of the cup in the Mass, by being so long as to touch it." Decree 13th. Prohibits the clergy from engaging in secular business. To avoid this, they are to abstain from going on the public Exchange, or undertaking any mercantile transactions, or bearing any secular office whatever." Decree 14th. That none may be able to transgress the foregoing decree without detection, the clergy are forbidden ever to appear in public without their clerical habits. Decree 15th. No ecclesiastic is from henceforth to receive pay for military service from any native sovereign. Decree 16th. Commands that "henceforward no clerk in Holy Orders presume to marry, nor shall any cattanar marry any such, nor shall any presume to be present at any such marriage, nor give counsel, favour, or assistance thereunto," upon pain of excommunication and cursing.8 The plea for binding this yoke upon the necks of the clergy is, as they affirm, "the universal custom from the beginning of the 6 This is one of the many superstitious scruples that the belief of Transubstantiation has introduced into the Roman Church. 7 "The Jesuits were among the most active at several custom houses in transacting business about sugars, tobacco, and other articles of merchandise; and with what grace could the Archbishop himself execute this decree, who, five years after, held the secular office of supreme governor of India ?" Geddes, p. 303. It will be seen in the next Book, that a Bishop of Meliapore, notwithstanding this decree, entered into very extensive mercantile pursuits, h. vi. c. 3. s. 20. This "forbidding to marry" is another of the signs given by St. Paul, (1 Tim. iv. 3.) whereby to mark the apostasy that "in the latter times" would come upon the church. A. D. 1599. CHAP. I. Church, for all that are in Holy Orders, and The Synod then takes upon itself to suspend 66 to 9 It is not true that a vow of perpetual celibacy was required of the clergy from the beginning of the church. No such vow was exacted for the first three centuries after the Apostles; as " is very evident from the innumerable examples of Bishops and presbyters, who lived in a state of matrimony without any prejudice to their ordination or function." It was generally agreed by ancient writers that all the Apostles were married, except St. Paul and St. John. Indeed, Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. iii. p. 448.) was of opinion, that even St. Paul was married, and that he alluded to his wife, when he spake of his yoke-fellow." (Phil. iv. 3.) Eusebius, Origen, and other early fathers were of the same opinion. The married Bishops and presbyters of the next century are too numerous to mention. At the Council of Nice, Anno Domini 325, Paphnutius, a celebrated Egyptian Bishop, who himself was never married, vehemently declaimed against a motion that was made, "that a law might pass to oblige the clergy to abstain from all conjugal society with their wives, which they had married before their ordination." The good Bishop would not consent that "so heavy a burthen should be laid upon the clergy." arguments prevailed, and the Council left the clergy at liberty as before. (Socrates, lib. i. c. xi. Sozomen, lib. i. c. 23. Bingham's Antiquities, b. iv. c. v. s. 5, 6, 7.) Valesius, the Commentator on Ecclesiastical History, wishing to get rid of this testimony, says, "That he suspects the truth of it, and desires leave to dissent from his historians." A very convenient way of disposing of a difficulty. Du Pin, himself a Romanist, saw through Valesius's objection, and had the candour to declare, that he, Valesius "was afraid lest the story might prejudice the present discipline, i.e. of the Roman Church, rather than from any solid proof that the objectors had for it." Consult also Father Morin. De Sacris ordinationibus, and La Croze, p. 253, notes a and b. His 1 |