Order as perceptible sacrament, and the many characters in one order

But in the third way order is taken for the perceptiblesensibilis: perceptible sacrament, which is the ordinationordinacio; ordinancia: ordinance; of the sacrament, ordination by a bishop to the sacred office of ministering in the churchecclesia: church above the laity; and if the hidden reality of this perceptible sacrament is order or charactercarecter, caracter (sensibilis): (perceptible) character imperceptiblyinsensibilis: imperceptible; of a thing that cannot feel, without sensation subjected in the soul, [then] order is also a perceptible work celebrated by the bishop, which [consists] in the utterance of the sacramental words, in the ministering of rite, touch or anointing, and outwardly in the circumscribing [of it], as by attention to place, 511time, the person to be ordained and the licence of superiors.¹ Hence it is commonly said that, as a rule, in a celebration of orders rightly performed God graciously assists together, giving grace. And therefore it is necessary that a sinner who is to be ordained be contrite for his sins. For God, giving power to minister, gives also grace for carrying out the office, unless the unfitnessindisposicio: unfitness of the ordained hinders [it]. Hence in baptism and in any other sacrament, when the assistance of Christ giving grace, which is to be the reality of the sacramentres sacramenti: reality of the sacrament, is withdrawn, the sacrament is made equivocallyequivoce: equivocally, through the unfitness of the one receiving it.² Nevertheless God, after the bishop’s consecrating, often makes the order revive; for he regularly gives the reality of the sacrament; and so he often makes orders in a way unknown to us.³ Hence it seems to me vain that we should be anxious to inquire when, how and with what words God ordained the apostles, or blessed Paul, or other disciples. Yet we must carefully beware lest false clerics feign that they are ordained by God to such an office of the clerical stateclericatus: clerical state. For to this end are ordered the examination of the one to be ordained, the bishop’s celebration and the figuring of perceptible signs, that thus the exclusion of the frowarddiscoli: froward may become known to the church; yet on both sides illusion often happens.⁴ And (as I have often said) one must believe chiefly the lawful work of the ordained. These things premised, it seems to me, as to the first conclusionconclusio: conclusion, that, just as order taken in the third way is an aggregate of many perceptible signs, celebrated even little by little at diverse and interrupted times: so higher order taken in the second way is an aggregate of diverse characters or sealssignaculum: seal, which God gives as is fitting, together or at intervals; and they are its quantitative partspars quantitativa: quantitative part, not as to bulk but as to power; so that as many lawful acts as a man suffices to do, so many characters he has, given by God, compounded 512proportionally with one another.⁵ But lest a subject should distrust the power of his superiorprepositi: superiors, since at the ceasing of any office one character is extinguished, God has given a higher character, which is an assignmentlimitacio (ad officium): assignment to sufficiency for a given kind of ministry, without distinction; and such a character the ordained cannot desert so long as there remains in him the power to minister the perceptible signs. Yet he can be suspendedsuspendere; suspencio: to suspend; suspension by a superior for reasonable cause, lest the ordained should then put the character into effect.⁶ And if the need of positing so many characters is asked, the answer isdicitur multipliciter: is said in many ways that, granted the significationsignacio / significacio: signification of what the name meansquid nominis: what the name means, and supposing the divine ordinanceordinacio; ordinancia: ordinance; of the sacrament, ordination of dividing diverse graces of office, freely given, among diverse men, the aforesaid diversity of characters follows inevitably.⁷ Hence, to ground this teachingsentencia: CONTEXTUAL: teaching / sentence, one must first suppose the faith of scripture, 1 Corinthians 12:4–7: "There are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all. And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit." And afterwards he sets out nine grades in the body of the church. Nor is it lawful to deny such an order while granting the body of the church, or its ministers according to the canon laws.⁸

Hence the threefold division of the apostle’s text is to be noted. For some things God gives to the predestinatepredestinatus, -i: the predestinate (sg. "a predestinate [person]"), which he calls graces given by the Holy Spirit, because to the predestinate "that fear God all things work together unto good". Hence, since mortal [sin] stands with these gifts according to present justicesecundum presentem iusticiam: according to present justice, they are therefore called graces freely givengracie gratis date: graces freely given, from the benevolence of the predestinating Spirit.⁹ And ministries are in every rational creature, predestinate 513or foreknownprescitus, -i: the foreknown, which must serve the Lord freely or by compulsion; therefore the apostle joins that second membermembrum: member to the Lord. But thirdly every created nature, at least one existing by itself, has from its creator its office of operating. Therefore he marks that third, general [member] under the conditionhabitudo: condition toward God creating.¹⁰ These things supposed, it is clear that every clericclerus; clericus: the clergy; cleric has from God, according to his grade, an assignment of the office of ministering; and this I call the character, which every believer must grant to any member of the church whatever, and no other.¹¹ And that some take the term more strictly in one sense and others more broadly in another is no great matter, since it is a masters’ termtermini magistrales: masters' terms; nevertheless one must speak (as the majority [do], speaking more conformably to scripture and reason); and the answer is clear, how some character ceases when the office is completed, and such [a character] is divided proportionally, as its office [is]. And that is called the character in actcaracter in actu: character in act; and the other character signifies the power to perform the ministry indistinctlyconfuse / confusus (fides, noticia): indistinct(ly), whether [the act] follows or not; and that does not depend on the work but on sufficiency for the work as to the species of what terminates it; and this way of speaking seems easier.¹²

Further, it is clear that there are seven orders taken in the second way, distinct in species; but none of them is the perceptible sacrament, but its reality or fruit. And the sacrament of order which the priestsacerdos / presbiter: priest / presbyter celebrates is in a way one, subjected for a great part of it in the one ordaining, since the end from which its unity is taken is the whole priesthood of the whole priest of the church; nor do I resist [the view] that there are diverse orders distinct in species, sacraments as well as reality of the sacrament; yet all those orders are one order; and so there are only seven sacraments, though there is only one sacrament, as Chrysostom, in the first homily, says of the seven churches.¹³ 514And it is clear, first, that he who ordains a man first and immediately into a priest by that very fact gives him, or ministerially shows by a sacramental sign, that he has seven orders or characters. It is clear from this, that by that very fact he is assigned to a sevenfold power, which is order. For he would not be a priest univocallyunivoce: univocally unless he had power to minister every species of spiritual ministry that a cleric of lower grade suffices to minister. Indeed, as many as are the species of office to which one who holds a grade suffices in power, so many are the orders or characters.¹⁴ Yet all are one order, whose integral partspars integralis: integral part can be called potestative partspartes potestative / subiective / aliquote: potestative / subjective / aliquot parts; as the part of six common to any unit of it is called its first aliquot part, and its part common to any two or three of it is called its second and third aliquot part, of which six is adequately made up. Hence if God, by an impossible supposition, were to give a cleric power of consecrating and not of absolving, he would not be a priest, if not equivocally; and it is clear, secondly, that¹⁵

as with the reality of the sacrament of order, so the realities of the diverse sacraments follow one upon another essentially. For it is necessary¹⁶

that one who receives order effectually be first baptized with the baptism of the Spirit, as it is necessary that he be confirmed in some degree of divine confirmation, be espoused to the head of the church, have the fruit of penance, the union of the eucharist and the anointing of consummated grace. Nevertheless in our perceptible sacraments there is an order by accidentordo per accidens: order by accident, from the institution of the church, to which order, in valuing [them], we¹⁷

attend more than to the reality or fruit of the perceptible sacrament; and this irregularity, by which we attend more¹⁸