The third fabrication: Aquinas, and the senses of order

The third fabricationcommentum (mendacii): fabrication is the fictionficcio: fiction of St Thomas’s testimony, that in the order of priesthood alone, or in the one subject to it, 507the character of order is imprinted; and the place is assignedlimitare; limites: to assign (an office); limits on distinction 24 of the fourth [book] of the Sentences. And without doubt he treats this teachingsentencia: CONTEXTUAL: teaching / sentence there, in the second question, third article, reciting three opinions, as the doctor Bonaventure [does]; of which the first says that a charactercarecter, caracter (sensibilis): (perceptible) character is imprinted in the priestly order alone; the second, that [it is imprinted] in the sacred orders alone; "but this too," he says, "is nothing. Hence," he says, "since a character is a sign that distinguishes from others, it must be imprinted in all orders; and a sign of this too is that the characters must remain perpetually and never revert."¹ And he answers three arguments to the opposite, as above. And it is clear that this is no fitting testimony either for proving that a character is imprinted only in the priestly order, since it fights directly for the opposite;² and truly, since a lie is hated in the camps of bodily arms as contrary to them (as is clear in Maccabees 7), much more [so] in the camps of the schools, in which only champions of truth should fight.³ But it is objectedinstatur; obicitur: it is objected in three ways. For it seems, first, that each of these doctors posits the character as altogether indelible, whereas I said above that some character is only temporal. Here I say that neither of them is authenticautenticus / autenticacio: authentic / authentication for me. Therefore I do not allege them except in arguing to the manargumentum ad hominem: argument to the man.⁴ Yet I say that they can be glossed by understanding by "character" being, or having been, deputed to some sacred ministry in holy churchecclesia: church; and this cannot cease to be; and therefore the earlier doctor says that the character remains perpetually in office or in reward. For in the predestinatepredestinatus, -i: the predestinate (sg. "a predestinate [person]") there remains, after their soldieringmilicia; milites: knighthood; knights, [the fact] that they were deputed to a temporal 508office, for the fulfilment of which they are perpetually rewarded; just as in the foreknownprescitus, -i: the foreknown there remains perpetually [the fact] that they are perpetually punished for the abuse of their office; and in this sense every character remains perpetually in office or in wage.⁵ But I was speaking of the character as it signifies, without qualificationsimpliciter / secundum quid: without qualification / in a certain respect, deputationdeputacio: deputation to an office; nor do I believe that this sense will be disproved from scripture or reason. For such a character is not one thing that could exist by itself, but the subject’s being disposed in such a way.⁶ But secondly it seems that a character is imprinted in every man, and consequently in every order; and so kings and knights would have a glorious character corresponding to their order. Here I say that, speaking of character broadly (as above), the conclusionconclusio: conclusion is to be granted, for God deputes to every man an office for the profit of the church. Therefore, since every man must be a servant of Christ, either by doing or by suffering, every man must bear [the mark] of his sectreligio privata; secta: private religion; sect in one way or another.⁷ Nor do I believe that anyone can break [this point], that just as the spiritual soldiers of Christ have the character of their office, so too do kings and bodily knights (as is clear below). Yet in three sacraments a character is imprinted specially, namely in baptism, confirmation and order; and these three sacraments are unrepeatable, as the offices of the characters are indelible as to effect or fruit. For in baptism the servant of Christ receives distinction from those who are altogether unbelieversinfidelis: unbeliever; with a dative, faithless (to); in confirmation, the strengthening of his soldiering; but in order he receives a singular assignmentlimitacio (ad officium): assignment above the laity to the ministry of the sacrament.⁸ And so the doctors cloak their definitionsdescripcio: definition and apply scripture to the sense they assert, as is clear of character, of order and of the rest, which have scarcely a rind of appearance from scripture; as they say that the order of knighthood has no character, because that order is not assigned to ministering the church’s sacraments differently from the laity (of which elsewhere).⁹ 509But thirdly it is doubted how those characters of the orders make up one. And the doctors aforesaid say that they are neither quantitative partspars quantitativa: quantitative part of order nor subjective parts, but potestative parts, as is clear [from the words] of the earlier doctor on d. 24, so that the lower orders have power from the priesthood, to which they are finally ordered. Just as, then, six is made up of its aliquot parts, which are not its quantitative parts, so the sacrament of order is made up of its parts. But that Latin seems difficult to many.¹⁰ For, taking the case of Peter, who took the seven orders in turn, and let him now remain with all of them, it is clear that if each of them was a sacrament because [it was] an order, by the same token each of them is now a sacrament because [it is] an order. For each of them is of the same nature as each such would be if taken by itself; now it would then be an order and a sacrament; therefore now too. For if each of them is an order, then it is either the same order in number as the later one, or another; not the same in number, since so there would be a numerical identification; and if another, then there would be seven orders; and consequently, since any multitude of the earlier ones makes up one order, there would be fourteen or more orders distinct in species.¹¹ For just as a lower order and a higher order are of unlike species, so the order of priesthood consisting of the six preceding orders, and the simple order of priesthood having no such parts or causes, would be of unlike species, as simple and compound [are]. In this it seems to me first to be noted that order can be taken in three ways, quite equivocallyequivoce: equivocally. First, analogically, for the grade in which God ordains anything to be set for the beauty of the universe; and so each thing has its order, to such an extent that it is necessary that 510sinners, from the fact that they dissolve the due order to which they are ordered by their first institution, undergo the order of being punished; so that (as it seems to many) sin, insofar as it is good, has the nature of order as regards punishment, since order and good are convertible as to inferenceconsequencia: inference; whence the congregations of men in which the union is more ordered are called orders, by a certain excellence that is an exemplar to lower ones (as I have said elsewhere).¹²

In the second way order is taken for a grade assigned by God to a cleric for ministering sacramentally, differently from the laity; and so there are seven orders, namely porter, taper-bearer, lector, exorcist, subdeacon, deacon and priestsacerdos / presbiter: priest / presbyter (of which I have spoken above). And these orders are sometimes taken, in a restricted sense, for the characters subjected in the soul, and sometimes they regard perceptiblesensibilis: perceptible seals outwardly distinct, such as the shaving of head and beard, with similar signs instituted by men. And these perceptible characters are not the clerical order, since so the orders would continually vary with the increase, decrease or other variation of those signs, and a barber or other layman would confer orders more often [than a bishop]; which would be ridiculous. Therefore those who speak [of order] are compelled to posit that orders are subjected in the soul. From which it is clear that the soul is the person who is ordained, say a deacon or a priest. This order, then, remains at rest in the soul when the bishop has perished.¹³