Bonaventure

Quaestio III. Utrum characteres diversorum ordinum sint essentialiter ordinati.

The numbered footnotes below correspond to markers in both the Latin body above and the English translation. Footnote numbering restarts on each printed page in the Quaracchi edition; this quaestio spans printed pp. 624–626, and only its own markers are rendered here (see Notes for the shared-page splits).

Tertio quaeritur, utrum characteres diversorum ordinum sint essentialiter ordinati. Et quod sic, videtur:

1. Quia maior est connexio ordinis ad ordinem quam ordinis ad baptismum, et characteris unius ordinis ad characterem alterius quam ad baptismalem; sed essentialis est ordinatio characteris ordinis ad baptismalem, sicut dicitur in decretali de Presbytero non baptizato, libro tertio¹: Non baptizatus non potest ordinari — unde si de facto ordinatus p. 625 est, debet baptizari et post iterum per ordinem ordinari — ergo character ordinis essentiali ordine praesupponit baptismalem: ergo etc.

2. Item, ordo magis competit ordini quam numero; sed sic est in numeris, quod numerus posterior necessario praeexigit priorem, in figura similiter posterior antecedentem — unde nunquam est quaternarius sine ternario, nec tetragonus sine trigono² — ergo nunquam est gradus secundus sine primo, nec tertius sine secundo, et sic de aliis.

3. Item, ex diversis formaliter non potest fieri unum, nisi ad invicem ordinentur³; sed omnes ordines unum completum reddunt ministerium: ergo necesse est, quod ad invicem ordinentur.

4. Item, si quis scienter promoveretur ad ordinem posteriorem, priori omisso, hoc ipso suspenditur ab exsecutione, sicut dicitur in decretali⁴; sed hoc non esset, nisi oporteret, ibi servari ordinem: ergo etc.

5. Item, ubicumque sunt gradus, oportet ponere ordinem; sed in Sacramento ordinis diversi ordines «sunt gradus spiritualium officiorum», sicut dicitur in littera⁵: si ergo per characteres in illis gradibus situantur, videtur, quod sit ibi essentialis ordo.

Contra: 1. In his, in quibus est ordo essentialis, destructo priori, destruitur posterius; sed non habito priori ordine, nihilominus habetur posterior, sicut patet in ordinatis per saltum, qui non sunt reordinandi: ergo etc. Maior patet per se, minor probatur per illud quod dicitur distinctione quinquagesima secunda⁶, Sollicitudo etc., et Extra, de Clerico per saltum ordinato, Tuae litterae etc.

2. Item, characteres comparationem habent sicut potestates et actus ordinum, ad quos ordines comparantur; sed in illis potestatibus nullus omnino est ordo, sicut in potestate expellendi daemones et ferendi cereos: ergo nullus est ordo in talibus characteribus.

3. Item, in his quae respiciunt corporale et spirituale, prius est corporale quam spirituale⁷; sed exorcizatio dicit liberationem a vexatione spirituum, sed acolythatus respicit officium illuminandi: ergo prior est ordo acolythi, quam sit exorcistae: non ergo recte ordinantur, cum unus dicatur ordo tertius, alter quartus.

4. Item, prius est quod liberat a malo, quam quod habilitat ad bonum; sed in secundo est habilitatio ad bonum, in tertio est liberatio a malo⁸: ergo videtur, quod tertius ordo sit prior quam secundus. Sed ita videtur, quod nullus sit ordo certus inter istos gradus.

Conclusio

Inter diversos ordines est ordo congruitatis, non necessitatis.

Respondeo: Dicendum, quod est ordo necessitatis, et est ordo congruitatis. Si ergo loquamur de ordine istorum graduum ecclesiasticorum, dicendum quod non est ordinatio necessaria nec essentialis, pro eo quod ordo posterior haberi potest et suscipi sine priori. Si autem loquamur quantum ad ordinationem congruitatis, sic est ibi ordo, pro eo quod ad bene esse ministerii sequentis praeexigitur ordo sive potestas ministerii praecedentis. — Quemadmodum igitur, si quis velit ordinate procedere, prius debet exordium praemittere, post narrationem et post ratiocinationem et postremo conclusionem⁹; tamen, si vellet, incipere posset a posteriori, licet non ita ordinate: sic in ordinibus oportet intelligi. Cum enim ordines inferiores ministrent sacris, et sacri ordines ministrent sacerdotio, et inferior gradus prior sit in ascendendo, et potestas ministerialis sit inferior: patet, quod ibi est ordo, non tamen necessitatis, quoniam potestates diversae sunt et per se ipsas obtineri et haberi possunt, licet non ita perfecte sine aliis.

Est igitur ordo in his gradibus secundum maiorem accessum ad ultimum gradum, scilicet sacerdotium. Unde primo homo introducitur in ecclesiam per ostiarium; secundo manuducitur per lectorem Prophetarum; tertio adiuvatur per exorcistam, ut liberetur a malo; quarto excitatur per p. 626 acolythum, ut proficiat¹⁰ in bono: deinde sunt alii duo ordines, qui ministrant sacerdoti in oblatione sacrificii.

Et sic patet, quod est ibi ordo congruitatis non necessitatis. Nec valent illae rationes in contrarium de exorcista et acolytho, pro eo quod omnes ordines potestatem spiritualem dicunt, et pro eo quod eruditio praecedit liberationem a malo: et ideo concedendum est, quod sit ibi ordo in characteribus, sed non est ordo essentialis. — Sicut in elementis ordo est, tamen elementum sive litera ante ultimum scribi posset et prima litera ultimo, ordine retrogrado in scribendo, sed tamen ordinato post scripturam¹¹: sic et ordines possunt suscipi descendendo sive retrocedendo.

Ad argumenta pro parte affirmativa:

1. Ad illud ergo quod obiicitur de baptismo, dicendum, quod non est simile: quoniam sicut tactum fuit supra¹² in tractatu de baptismate, et in Concilio apud Compendium determinatum fuit, et decretalis Innocentii, de Presbytero non baptizato, confirmat — baptismus est fundamentum et ianua omnium Sacramentorum, et quoniam fundamento non existente, nihil potest superaedificari: ideo character baptismi alios praecedit essentiali ordine; non sic est in aliis.

2. Ad illud quod obiicitur de numeris, dicendum, quod non est simile: quoniam numerus sequens habet praecedentem partem sui, sed non sic gradus sequens habet praecedentem partem sui, sed ut disponentem de congruo.

3. Ad illud quod obiicitur, quod ex pluribus differentibus non fit unum, dicendum, quod verum est, quod non fit unum per essentiam, fit tamen unum Sacramento, quae est unitas in comparatione ad unum significandum perfecte¹³; et Sacramentum ordinis non habet omnimode unitatem absolutam, sed per comparationem, ad quam unitatem constituendam non requiritur essentialis dependentia in partibus.

4. Ad illud quod obiicitur ibi ultimo de saltu et de gradu, dicendum, quod illae duae rationes non ostendunt, quod non sit ibi nisi ordo congruitatis, quantum est de integritate Sacramenti; est tamen ibi ordo necessitatis, quantum est de obligatione praecepti, quo quis tenetur ordinate ascendendo, non saltando, ordinari¹⁴.

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Question III. Whether the characters of the different orders are essentially ordered.

Thirdly it is asked whether the characters of the different orders are essentially ordered. And that they are, it seems:

1. Because the connection of one order to another is greater than that of an order to baptism, and the connection of the character of one order to the character of another is greater than to the baptismal character; but the ordering of the character of an order to the baptismal one is essential, as is said in the decretal On the Unbaptized Presbyter, book three¹: An unbaptized person cannot be ordained — whence, if he has in fact been ordained, he must be baptized and afterward ordained again through [each] order — therefore the character of an order presupposes the baptismal one by an essential ordering: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, order befits an order more than [it befits] number; but it is so in numbers, that a later number necessarily presupposes the prior one, and likewise in a figure a later [figure presupposes] the antecedent one — whence there is never a quaternary without a ternary, nor a tetragon without a trigon² — therefore there is never a second grade without the first, nor a third without the second, and so of the rest.

3. Likewise, out of things formally diverse a unity cannot come to be unless they are ordered to one another³; but all the orders render one complete ministry: therefore it is necessary that they be ordered to one another.

4. Likewise, if anyone were knowingly promoted to a later order, the prior one having been omitted, by that very fact he is suspended from the exercise [of the order], as is said in a decretal⁴; but this would not be so unless it were required that order be preserved therein: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, wherever there are grades, an order must be posited; but in the Sacrament of order the different orders «are grades of spiritual offices», as is said in the littera⁵: if therefore they are set in those grades through the characters, it seems that there is an essential order there.

On the contrary: 1. In those things in which there is an essential order, when the prior is destroyed, the posterior is destroyed; but when the prior order is not had, the posterior is nonetheless had, as is clear in those ordained by a leap, who are not to be re-ordained: therefore etc. The major is clear of itself; the minor is proved by what is said at distinction fifty-two⁶, Sollicitudo etc., and in the Extra, On a Cleric Ordained by a Leap, Tuae litterae etc.

2. Likewise, characters stand in comparison as do the powers and acts of the orders, to which the orders are compared; but in those powers there is no order at all, as in the power of casting out demons and of carrying candles: therefore there is no order in such characters.

3. Likewise, in those things which regard the corporeal and the spiritual, the corporeal is prior to the spiritual⁷; but exorcism denotes liberation from the vexation of spirits, whereas the acolythate regards the office of illumining: therefore the order of the acolyte is prior to that of the exorcist: therefore they are not rightly ordered, since the one is called the third order, the other the fourth.

4. Likewise, that which frees from evil is prior to that which enables for good; but in the second [order] there is enabling for good, in the third there is liberation from evil⁸: therefore it seems that the third order is prior to the second. But thus it seems that there is no fixed order among these grades.

Conclusion

Among the different orders there is an order of congruity, not of necessity.

I respond: It must be said that there is an order of necessity and there is an order of congruity. If therefore we speak of the order of these ecclesiastical grades, it must be said that there is no necessary or essential ordering, on the ground that the later order can be had and received without the prior. But if we speak with respect to the ordering of congruity, then there is an order there, on the ground that for the well-being of the following ministry there is presupposed the order or power of the preceding ministry. — Just as, therefore, if someone wishes to proceed in an orderly way, he ought first to set down the exordium, then the narration, then the argumentation, and last the conclusion⁹; yet, if he wished, he could begin from the later part, though not so orderly: so it must be understood in the orders. For since the lower orders minister to the sacred [orders], and the sacred orders minister to the priesthood, and the lower grade is prior in ascending, and the ministerial power is lower: it is clear that there is an order there, yet not of necessity, since the powers are diverse and can be obtained and had through themselves, though not so perfectly without the others.

There is therefore an order in these grades according to a greater approach to the last grade, namely the priesthood. Whence first a man is introduced into the church through the doorkeeper; second he is led by the hand through the lector of the Prophets; third he is aided through the exorcist, that he may be freed from evil; fourth he is roused through p. 626 the acolyte, that he may advance¹⁰ in good: then there are two other orders, which minister to the priest in the offering of the sacrifice.

And thus it is clear that there is there an order of congruity, not of necessity. Nor do those arguments to the contrary concerning the exorcist and the acolyte prevail, on the ground that all the orders denote a spiritual power, and on the ground that instruction precedes liberation from evil: and therefore it must be granted that there is an order there in the characters, but it is not an essential order. — Just as in the elements there is an order, yet an element or letter could be written before the last, and the first letter last, in a retrograde order in the writing, though nonetheless set in order after the writing¹¹: so too the orders can be received by descending or going back.

To the arguments for the affirmative side:

1. To that, then, which is objected concerning baptism, it must be said that it is not similar: because, as was touched on above¹² in the treatise on baptism, and as was determined in the Council at Compendium [Compiègne], and as the decretal of Innocent, On the Unbaptized Presbyter, confirms — baptism is the foundation and gate of all the Sacraments, and since, the foundation not existing, nothing can be built upon it: therefore the baptismal character precedes the others by an essential order; it is not so in the others.

2. To that which is objected concerning numbers, it must be said that it is not similar: because a following number has the preceding one as a part of itself, but a following grade does not thus have the preceding one as a part of itself, but as disposing [it] by way of congruity.

3. To that which is objected, that out of many different things a unity does not come to be, it must be said that it is true that a unity does not come to be by essence, yet a unity comes to be by [being] a Sacrament, which is a unity in comparison to signifying one thing perfectly¹³; and the Sacrament of order does not have an absolute unity in every mode, but by comparison, and for constituting this unity an essential dependence in the parts is not required.

4. To that which is objected there lastly concerning the leap and the grade, it must be said that those two arguments do not show that there is there anything but an order of congruity, as regards the integrity of the Sacrament; yet there is there an order of necessity, as regards the obligation of the precept, by which one is bound to be ordained in an orderly way by ascending, not by leaping¹⁴.

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