of Antioch. These they set before the Apostles, and they, praying, imposed hands upon them." Here we have the account of the appointment of deacons. They were to help the priest, and relieve his burden in the external management of the church, especially in the distribution of alms.

St. Paul, in his Epistle to St. Timothy, dwells on the virtues which this office requires, and gives us a high idea of its dignity (1 Tim. iii. 8, 10). "To the deacon," says the Catechism of Trent, "as the eye of the Bishop, it belongs to investigate who, within the diocese, lead lives of piety and religion, and who do not; who attend Mass, and who do not; and to make the bishop acquainted with all these matters. In the absence of the bishop and priest, he may be delegated to expound the Gospel to the people; not, however, from an elevated place, to make it understood that this is not his proper office." The deacon's principal office at present is to assist the priest during solemn Mass. He pours wine into the chalice, offers it with the priest, chants the gospel, dismisses the people at the end. When it was the discipline of the Church to administer in both kinds, the deacon used to distribute the chalice. He used also to carry the Blessed Sacrament to the absent.

The office of the subdeacon, as the name shows, is to serve the deacon at the altar. It is his business to prepare the altar-linen, the vessels, the bread and wine necessary for the sacrifice. He delivers the chalice and paten to the deacon, hands him the cruet filled with wine, and pours the water into the chalice while the priest blesses it. He chants the epistle, ministers water to the bishop when he washes his hands during the Mass, and assists as a witness to the sacred mysteries.

The acolyte accompanies and serves the deacon and subdeacon. He hands the latter the cruets filled with wine and water; carries and attends to the lights used during the celebration of the sacrifice.

The exorcist receives power to drive out evil spirits from those possessed.

The reader's office is to read portions of the Old and New Testament during certain services of the Church.

The porter has to keep the keys and gate of the church, and exclude unworthy persons from entering. His duties correspond to those of a sacristan.

As a preparation for orders there is a ceremony called the tonsure, in which the hair is cut off the top of the head in form of a crown, in honour of the crown of thorns our Saviour wore, and to denote the royal dignity of the clerical state. Persons who have been tonsured are henceforth called clerics, because they have chosen the Lord for their lot ("cleros") and inheritance.

Such are the different kinds of ministers of the Church. The rite by which they are made is called from them Holy Orders, because it establishes that regular gradation of rank of which they are the instance.

As God alone could institute the priesthood, so God alone could appoint the means of its transmission; we are then prepared to find and are required to believe, at least in the case of the priesthood, that Holy Orders is one of the seven sacraments: "If any one shall say that orders, or sacred ordination, is not truly and properly a sacrament instituted by Christ the Lord, let him be anathema" (Coun. of Trent, sess. xxiii. c. 3). And its sacramental character is manifest in Holy Scripture. St. Paul, in his Epistles to St. Timothy, says: "Neglect not the grace that is in thee, which was given by prophecy with imposition of the hands of the priesthood"> (1 Tim. iv. 14). And again, "I admonish thee that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee by the imposition of my hands" (2 Tim. i. 6). Here we have all the elements of a sacrament,-the outward sign, the inward grace annexed, and divine appointment; for God alone can make outward signs means of grace.

As we hold that Christ instituted the diaconate, it is certain that that power, as well as the priesthood, is communicated by the same Sacrament of Orders; the distinct ordinations do not form different sacraments, but one sacrament conveys different powers. It is, however, very doubtful whether the Sacrament extends beyond the diaconate to the other orders, which are of ecclesiastical origin.

Imposition of hands, and the prayer which the Bishop says, constitute the matter and form in the ordination of priests, and probably nothing further is essential; the delivering of the sacred vessels, and the words, "Receive power to offer sacrifice for the living and the dead, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," as well as the last laying-on of the Bishop's hands, with the accompanying words, being only more explicit expressions of the same act. In the diaconate, too,

most probably nothing further is needed for the external sign, than the imposition of the Bishop's hands and the words, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost for strength, and to resist the devil and his temptations."

CHAP. CXXII. On the Effects of the Sacrament of Orders: its Minister, and the Dispositions required for it.

1. BESIDES sanctifying grace, this sacrament impresses a character on the soul which distinguishes the ordained from other men, making him participate in a special manner in the ministry and priesthood of our Lord; hence it cannot be repeated.

2. In consequence, it gives power to offer sacrifice, administer sacraments, and govern the faithful; for external jurisdiction, or power over the body mystical, as well as the sacrificial and sacramental power of the priesthood, are given by Holy Orders, but in a different manner. The former is made over absolutely and irrevocably to the individual in form of an inherent faculty; the latter is given only on condition of due appointment by the Church, and rather in form of a title to actual grace for the fulfilment of an office. Any Bishop can validly ordain, and any priest can validly consecrate, even in direct opposition to the Church; but an heretical or schismatical Bishop has no jurisdiction or power of teaching or governing. Hence ordination alone does not confer jurisdiction; but it does confer the power of offering sacrifice and administering sacraments, and so the latter is commonly called the power of orders.

3. The ordained receives sacramental grace to perform aright all the duties of his state.

A bishop, and a bishop only, can administer Holy Orders; so that not even the Pope can delegate the power to a simple priest. This is certain as regards the priesthood; some deny it in the case of the diaconate, and beyond a question priests have been permitted to administer minor orders.

Subdeacons, deacons, and priests are ordained by one bishop; a bishop is always consecrated by three others, although one could do so validly.

Lastly, as to the dispositions for holy orders. To receive holy orders validly, (1) a person must be of the male sex; only a man can represent Christ, and only a man can mediate between God and man; "for a man is the glory of God, but a woman is the glory of the man" (1 Cor. xi. 7). (2) He must have been baptised; and (3) intend to receive the sacrament. To receive it duly, (1) he must be in a state of grace; (2) he must have a vocation or special call from God,-"for no man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God, as Aaron was" (Heb. v. 4); (3) he must be free from certain canonical impediments; and lastly, he must have a fixed purpose of continuing single and chaste.

From very early times the Western Church has required her bishops, priests, and deacons to be unmarried men, and for some centuries has included subdeacons under the same discipline. She now will not ordain married men, much less will she suffer them to marry after ordination. She does not assert that this practice is of divine precept, or that it is otherwise than a discipline of her own. There are, however, the strongest reasons for its enforcement: 1. Because celibacy is a more perfect state than that of marriage; and the clergy ought to be examples of that which is most perfect. 2. Because the distractions, cares, and embarrassments of the married state would interfere sadly with the duties of the priest, and prevent his giving himself wholly to the service of God: "He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God; but he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things

of the world, how he may please his wife, and is divided" (1 Cor. vii. 27).

CHAP. CXXIII. Of Matrimony. Its First Institution. THE last of the Seven Sacraments is Matrimony. It is so called from two Latin words, signifying the office of mother, matris munus; because, as the Roman Catechism says, the woman is married in order that she may become a mother: to bear and bring up children is the office of a mother.

The Catechism defines matrimony to be " a sacrament by which the contract of marriage is blessed and sanctified." As a sacrament it was instituted by our Lord when He was on earth; but as a contract, or state of life, it dates from the beginning of the world. As, then, the sacrament is founded on this contract, and cannot be separated from it, it is necessary first to speak of matrimony as a contract, before treating it as a sacrament of the new law. As a contract it is defined, "a lawful union of a man and woman, by which they give themselves up one to the other for mutual society and the begetting of children." As men bind themselves to one another by contracts of different sorts, and with different objects in view, so the essential part of matrimony, as a contract, is the man and woman binding themselves to one another. But in order to this being valid, it is necessary that the contract should be between persons who are not lawfully hindered from making it; that it should be voluntary, or else it is not really the parties binding themselves; and that the contract be expressed by words or outward signs, and this to signify, not that the contracting parties intend or promise to bind themselves hereafter to each other, but that they actually do so then and there, and with the intention of living as man and wife.

This being the explanation of the contract of matrimony, it must be remembered that it was instituted by God Himself when He made man. We read in the first chapter of Genesis, that "God created man in His own