The apostolic care and charity with which we endeavor to refer to the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 13:20), and to imitate him, aspiring to his grace, we attribute no small part to the noble nation of the English. The letter which we gave last year to the English, who were seeking the kingdom of Christ in the unity of faith, is the chief witness of our will in itself.
And again, not so long ago, when it seemed to us that the unity of the Church should be dealt with more freely by the commons universally, we did not look at England in the last place; with the shining hope that Our documents may bring firmness both to Catholics and salutary light to dissidents. And I would like to admit that it equally commends the humanity of the nation and the concern of many for eternal salvation, that is, how favorably Our insistence and freedom of speech have been approved by the English, without any influence of human reason.
Now, with the same mind and the same spirit, we have decided to turn our studies to a cause of no less importance, which is connected with that very thing and with our wishes. For among the English, some time after they had departed from the center of Christian unity, a completely new rite of consecration to the sacred orders was officially introduced under King Edward VI. that the true sacrament of the Order, such as Christ instituted, and at the same time the hierarchical succession, had therefore failed, was already held by the common opinion, which the acts and constant discipline of the Church had more than once confirmed.
However, in more recent memory, and especially in these years, a controversy prevailed, whether sacred Ordinations, performed in the Edwardian rite, should pollute the nature and effect of the sacrament; favoring, affirmatively or doubtfully, not only some Anglican writers, but also a few Catholics, especially non-English ones. For others were moved by the excellence of the Christian priesthood, desiring that they might not be deprived of their double power in the body of Christ; He moved the others to the plan of facilitating a return to unity for them in some way: and both seemed to be convinced that, now that studies in that class had advanced with age, and new records of literature had been plucked from oblivion, it would not be inopportune to reconsider the cause by our authority. But we, not neglecting those counsels and wishes, and most of all obeying the word of apostolic charity, decided not to try anything that could be seen to be in any way employed to prevent or avert losses or favors of souls.
It was therefore decided to indulge in the matter of reconsideration very kindly: so of course, that by the utmost ingenuity of the new investigation, every appearance of doubt would be removed for posterity. Wherefore we gave to a certain number of men eminent in learning and erudition, of whom it was found that opinions differed in the matter itself, that they should write down the moments of their opinion; to spend And it is our request that they themselves should be able to bring out the proper number of passports in the Vatican archives, whether known or unexplored; and also that they should have ready any proceedings of the same kind to be preserved at the sacred Council, which is called the Supreme, and no less whatever the more learned men had published on both sides at this time. Equipped with this kind of assistance, we wanted to assemble them in separate meetings; which were held at twelve, the president being one of the S. R. E. Cardinals appointed by us, each being given free opportunity to debate. Finally, we ordered that the minutes of the same meetings, together with other documents, be presented to our Venerable Brothers Cardinals from the same Council; here meditated cause, and when they were then discussed before Us, they would each say his opinion.
With this order of conduct having been established, it was fair to proceed to an intimate evaluation of the case, not before it had appeared that it had been studied diligently, in which position it was already according to the prescriptions and established custom of the Apostolic See; and the beginnings and power of whose customs he was certainly to be regarded as of great importance. Accordingly, in the first place, the principal documents to which Our Predecessors, at the request of Queen Mary, contributed particular care to the reconciliation of the English Church, are to be considered. For Julius III appointed Cardinal Reginald Pole, an Englishman, of great praise, from his side, as an ambassador for that work, as his angel of peace and love, and gave him orders or powers to act outside the order and norms at any time and after news to Us, and other things); which Paul IV then confirmed and clarified. In order to correctly conclude what weight the documents mentioned have in themselves, it is necessary to establish as a foundation that their purpose was in no way abstracted from the matter, but entirely inherent and peculiar to the matter. For since the powers conferred upon the Apostolic Legation by those Pontiffs, they looked only to England and the state of religion in it; Norms of conduct imparted by the same legate to the inquirer, indeed could not be at all for those general decisions without which the sacred ordinances are not valid, but they had to concern themselves properly to provide for the sacred ordinances in that kingdom, as the times and the conditions of things expounded indicated. This very thing, apart from what is clear from the nature and manner of those same documents, is also clear from thence, that it would have been completely foreign, so to want to remind the legate, and he was a man whose doctrine had also shone in the Council of Trent, of those things which are necessary in making the sacrament of the Order.
With this order of conduct having been established, it was fair to proceed to an intimate evaluation of the case, not before it had appeared that it had been studied diligently, in which position it was already according to the prescriptions and established custom of the Apostolic See; and the beginnings and power of whose customs he was certainly to be regarded as of great importance. Accordingly, in the first place, the principal documents to which Our Predecessors, at the request of Queen Mary, contributed particular care to the reconciliation of the English Church, are to be considered. For Julius III appointed Cardinal Reginald Pole, an Englishman, of great praise, from his side, as an ambassador for that work, as his angel of peace and love, and gave him orders or powers to act outside the order and norms at any time and after news to Us, and other things); which Paul IV then confirmed and clarified. In order to correctly conclude what weight the documents mentioned have in themselves, it is necessary to establish as a foundation that their purpose was in no way abstracted from the matter, but entirely inherent and peculiar to the matter. For since the powers conferred upon the Apostolic Legation by those Pontiffs, they looked only to England and the state of religion in it; Norms of conduct imparted by the same legate to the inquirer, indeed could not be at all for those general decisions without which the sacred ordinances are not valid, but they had to concern themselves properly to provide for the sacred ordinances in that kingdom, as the times and the conditions of things expounded indicated. This very thing, apart from what is clear from the nature and manner of those same documents, is also clear from thence, that it would have been completely foreign, so to want to remind the legate, and he was a man whose doctrine had also shone in the Council of Trent, of those things which are necessary in making the sacrament of the Order.
It will not be difficult for those who hold this to be clear why in the letter of Julius III to the Apostolic Legation, written on the 8th of March 1444, there is a distinct mention of those who were first duly and legitimately promoted to be retained in their ranks, and then of those who were not promoted to the sacred orders. if they had been found worthy and qualified, they might have been promoted. For it is certainly and definitely marked, as it really was, a twofold class of men: hence those who had truly received the sacred ordination, obviously either before Henry's secession, or if after it and by the ministers involved in error and dissension, still according to the usual Catholic rite; hence others who had been initiated according to the Edwardian Ordinal, who could therefore be promoted, because they had received an invalid ordination. Nor indeed that the Pontiff's plan was otherwise, is clearly confirmed by the letter of the same legate, on the 29th of January MD55, requesting his powers from the bishop of Norwich. Moreover, it is most important to consider what the same letters of Julius III bring, concerning the free use of pontifical powers, even for the good of those on whom the office of consecration, less properly and not observing the usual form of the Church, was expended: by which expression certainly those who were consecrated in the Edwardian rite were designated; for besides that and the Catholic form there was no other in England at that time.
And these will become more open, commemorating the legation that Philip and Mary, persuasive Cardinal Polo, sent to Rome to the Pope in February in the month of AD55. The royal orators, three very distinguished men and endowed with all virtue, among whom was Thomas Thirlby, bishop of Elis, thus had the purpose of informing the Pontiff of the condition of religious matters in that kingdom, and of asking him first of all to reconcile those things which the Ambassador to the Church of the same kingdom had taken care of. and he had done it, he would approve and confirm it: for his cause, all the necessary written testimonies were brought to the Pontiff, and the parts of the new Ordinal dealing closely with the matter. Now Paul IV, having received a magnificent delegation, and with the same evidence carefully discussed by certain Cardinals, and having taken a mature decision, gave the Preclara letter to his beloved under lead on the 20th of June of the same year. In these cases, when full confirmation and strength was added to the things done by Polo, it is prescribed as follows about the regulations: . . . those who have been promoted to ecclesiastical orders... by someone other than a bishop who has been properly and properly ordained, are bound to take up the same orders... anew. But what kind of bishops there were, who were not properly and properly ordained, the previous documents had already sufficiently indicated, and the resources employed in that matter by the legate; and with intention, as the Ambassador himself wrote to the Bishop of Norwich. But these were certainly none other than those who had been promoted according to the new ritual form; to whom also the chosen Cardinals had given careful attention to be examined. Nor should we pass over a passage from the same Pontifical letter, which is entirely appropriate to the matter; where those who had obtained both orders and ecclesiastical benefices by no means and de facto are counted as needing the favor of the dispensation. For to have obtained orders by no means is the same as by a void act and by no effect, that is to say, invalidly, as the notation of his voice and the custom of his speech itself indicate. Especially since the same is asserted in the same way about orders as about ecclesiastical benefices, which were manifestly non-existent from the certain institutions of the sacred canons, because they were conferred by a debilitating vice.
It is added to this that, when certain bishops were in doubt as to whether bishops, properly and properly ordained, could be said and held to the mind of the Pope, he submitted not long after, on the 30th of October, another letter in the manner of the Brevius: of the conscience of those who had been promoted to the ranks during the schism, expressing more clearly the mind and intention that we had in the same letters of Ours, wishing to consult in an opportune way, we declare that only those bishops and archbishops who have not been ordained and consecrated in the form of the Church cannot be properly and correctly ordained of the day. If this declaration had not been applied to the present matter of England, that is to say, to the Edwardian Ordinal, the Pontiff would certainly have accomplished nothing with the new letters, by which either he would remove hesitation or consult the serenity of conscience. Moreover, the legate did not understand the documents and commands of the Apostolic See in any other way, and so he duly and religiously obeyed them: this was also done by Queen Mary and the others who gave them the effort to restore Catholic religion and institutions to their former place.
Although these things are so, no one sees that the controversy which has arisen in our times, was determined long before by the judgment of the Apostolic See, and that, having known to them not enough documents than they ought to have known, perhaps the fact that some Catholic writer has no doubt of having a discussion about it freely. Since indeed, as we warned at the beginning, nothing is more ancient and desired by Us than that we may be able to bestow the greatest indulgence and charity on men who are rightly animated, therefore we ordered that the Anglican Ordinal, which is the head of the whole cause, be searched again with the greatest diligence. In the rite of making and administering any sacrament, they rightly distinguish between the ceremonial part and the essential part, which is usually called matter and form. And all know that the sacraments of the new law, being the sensible signs and invisible efficiency of grace, ought to show grace and signify what they effect, and effect what they signify. This meaning, even if it is to be had in the whole essential rite, namely in matter and form, yet it pertains chiefly to form; whereas matter is a part not determined by itself, which is determined by it. And this appears more manifestly in the sacrament of Order, the matter of the conferring of which, in so far as it allows itself to be considered in this place, is the laying on of hands; which indeed signifies nothing definite by itself, and is equally used for certain Orders, and equally for Confirmation. - Now, the words which until the last age were held here and there by the Anglicans as the proper form of presbyteral ordination, namely, Receive the Holy Spirit, do not at all definitely mean the order of the priesthood or its grace, and the power, which is especially the power to consecrate and offer the true body and blood of the Lord ( Trid. Sess. 23, de sacr. Ord., can. 1), that sacrifice, which is not a bare commemoration of the sacrifice performed on the Cross (Trid. Sess. 22, de sacrif. Masse, can. 3). A form of this kind was indeed added later by those words, to the office and work of a priest: but this rather convinces the Anglicans that they themselves saw that the first form was wanting and not suitable for the purpose. But the same addition, if perhaps it could attach a legitimate meaning to the form, was introduced later, already a century after the reception of the Edwardian Ordinal; whereas, therefore, the Hierarchy having been extinguished, the power of ordering would no longer exist. Nothing further was brought to the aid of the cause at last by the prayers of others of the same Ordinal. For, in order that the rest may be passed over which show them to be less sufficient for the purpose in the Anglican rite, let this one argument be common to all, that whatever clearly designates the dignity and duties of the priesthood in the Catholic rite has been deliberately removed from them. Therefore, that form cannot be suitable and sufficient for the sacrament, which withholds that which ought to signify proper.
It is the same with episcopal consecration. For the formulas, Receive the Holy Spirit, were not only added later to the office and work of the bishop, but also, as we shall soon say, to be judged differently than in the Catholic rite. Nor does it do any good to invoke the prayer of the preface, Almighty God, since it is equally diminished by the words which declare the highest priesthood. Of course, it has nothing to do here to inquire whether the episcopate is a complement to the priesthood, or an order distinct from it; or conferred, as they say, by a leap, that is to say, to a man, not to a priest, whether it has any effect or not. But he undoubtedly, from the institution of Christ, most truly belongs to the sacrament of the Order, and is of the preeminent degree of priesthood; which, of course, both by the voice of the holy Fathers and by our ritual custom, is called the highest priesthood, the highest of the sacred ministry. From this it happens that, since the sacrament of the Order and the true priesthood of Christ have been completely expelled from the Anglican rite, and so much so that in the episcopal consecration of the same rite the priesthood is in no way conferred, likewise in no way can the episcopate be conferred in truth and right; , to ordain ministers in the holy Eucharist and sacrifice. For a true and complete evaluation of the Anglican Ordinal, apart from those noted by some of its parts, nothing is surely so valuable as if it is properly evaluated, under what circumstances it was founded and officially established. It is a long time to pursue the details, and it is not necessary: for the memory of his age speaks eloquently, whose mind was the originator of the Ordinals in the Catholic Church, whom the supporters of the heterodox sect had learned, to which they would finally report their plans. Indeed, knowing too well the relationship between faith and worship, between the law of belief and the law of supplication, they distorted the order of the liturgy, specifically to restore its early form, to the errors of the Novitiates in many ways. Therefore, in the whole Ordinal, not only is there no open mention of sacrifice, consecration, priesthood, and the powers of consecration and of offering sacrifice; On the contrary, all the traces of such things which remained in the prayers of the Catholic rite, not entirely rejected, were removed and obliterated on purpose, as we touched on above. Thus the nature and spirit of the native Ordinal appear in themselves, as they speak. But from this origin he was led by vice, if he could not at all be strong enough to use the ordinances, it was by no means possible in the course of the ages that he continued to be so strong. And those who, from the time of Charles I, are retching from the time of Charles I and brought down
In vain, we say, have been and have been the attempts of this world: and this also for this reason, that if any words, in English ordinals, as it is now, extend themselves into ambiguity, yet they are unable to take the same meaning that they have in the Catholic rite. For once with the new rite, as we have seen, by which the sacrament of the Order is denied or adulterated, and from which every notion of consecration and sacrifice is repudiated: the formula is already established at the very least, Receive the Holy Spirit, who is infused into the soul by the Spirit, presumably by the grace of the sacrament, and the words are not the least those, for the office and work of a priest or a bishop, and the like, which remain names without the thing which Christ instituted. Most of the Anglicans themselves, the interpreters of the Ordinal observation, have seen the force of this argument; which they do not disingenuously object to those who interpret the novel itself, that they do not attain to the value and valor conferred by the orders by their vain hope. By the same argument, or by one, it also collapsed, of those who thought that the prayer, Almighty God, bestower of all goods, which is at the beginning of the ritual action, could be sufficient for the legitimate form of the Order; even though it might perhaps be regarded as sufficient in some Catholic rite which the Church had approved. therefore, this inmost defect of form is joined to a defect of intention, which the sacrament equally necessarily demands in order to be. The Church does not judge about the mind or intention, since it is something internal in itself: but in so far as it is produced outside, it must judge about it. Now, when someone has seriously and properly used the material and form due to the making and conferring of the sacrament, he is considered to have intended to do what the Church does. Of course, the doctrine is based on this principle which holds that it is truly a sacrament or that which is conferred by the ministry of a heretic or unbaptized person, provided that it is in the Catholic rite. On the other hand, if the rite is altered, with the manifest purpose of bringing in someone not accepted by the Church, and so that what the Church does and that which, from the institution of Christ pertains to the nature of the sacrament, is rejected, then it is clear that not only is the intention necessary for the sacrament lacking, but rather that there is an intention contrary to the sacrament and contradictory.
We and our Venerable Brethren in the Supreme Court considered all these things for a long time and much; of which it was decided to summon the Assembly singularly before Us on the 5th, the 16th of July next, in commemoration of Maria D. N. Carmelitidis. And they agreed to one thing, that the proposed cause had already been fully known and judged by the Apostolic See a long time ago: but that it had been instituted anew and that the inquiry had been made, that it emerged more illustrious than that by the weight of justice and wisdom it had settled the whole matter. Nevertheless, we decided that the best thing to do would be to postpone the decision, as we could better consider that it would be convenient and expedient for the same matter to be declared again by Our authority, and we would beg for a more abundant supply of divine light for the victims. And when we consider that the same head of discipline, although already defined by law, has been recalled by some into controversy, for whatever reason it may have been recalled; and from this it would be prone to the pernicious error of not a few who think that they find there the sacrament of the Order and the fruits where they are not at all, it seemed to us in the Lord to proclaim Our opinion. Therefore, agreeing to all the decrees of the Pontiffs of the Deceased in this very matter, and fully confirming and as it were renewing them by Our authority, we pronounce and declare, by our own motion, with certain knowledge, that the ordinances carried out in the Anglican rite were and are completely null and void, and absolutely null and void.
This remains, that as we enter into the great Shepherd's name and heart to remind the truth of so serious a matter so certain, we may likewise exhort those who desire and require the benefits of the Orders and the Hierarchy with a sincere will. Until now, perhaps, focusing on the ardor of Christian virtue, more religiously consulting the divine letters, duplicating pious prayers, they still cling uncertainly and anxiously to the voice of Christ who has long intimately warned. They now clearly see where that good man invites himself and wants. If they return to his only fold, then they will indeed obtain the benefits sought for and the consequent protections of salvation, of which he has made the Church to administer, as the perpetual guardian and agent of his redemption among the nations. And then they draw the waters in joy from the fountains of the Saviour, from his wonderful sacraments: whence faithful souls are restored to the friendship of God, their sins having been forgiven, they are nourished and strengthened by heavenly bread, and they flow with the greatest helpers to the attainment of eternal life. May the God of peace, the God of all consolation, make those who are really thirsty for their good things and be graciously satisfied. - But we want to consider Our exhortation and wishes in a greater way to those who are considered ministers of religion in their communities. Men who by their very duty are preceded by doctrine and authority, who surely have the divine glory of their hearts and the salvation of their souls, will willingly obey God who calls them in the first place and in obedience, and set an excellent example of themselves. Surely the Mother Church will receive them with singular joy, and will embrace them all with kindness and providence, since they have been brought back to her bosom by the courage of a more generous spirit through the difficult difficulties of things. From this true virtue it can hardly be said that the praise itself remains in the groups of brothers throughout the Catholic world, that one day hope and confidence before Christ the judge, what rewards from him in the heavenly kingdom! We indeed, as far as possible with all help, do not cease to foster the reconciliation of their Church; From which both individuals and orders, that which we vehemently desire, can take much to imitate. In the meantime, let us all beseech and implore, through the bowels of the mercy of our God, that they may faithfully contend for the open course of truth and divine grace.
But the present letters, and whatever is contained in them, can at no time be noted or challenged as a matter of theft or stealth, or of Our intention, or any other defect; but we decree that it will always be strong and in its strength, and that it must be inviolably observed in court and outside by all of every rank and eminence; null and void also, if otherwise it happens to be attempted upon them by anyone, under any authority or pretext, knowingly or unknowingly, declaring them to be contrary, notwithstanding any. Now we wish that the copies of these letters, even printed ones, signed by the hand of a notary and sealed by a man appointed in ecclesiastical dignity, should be regarded as having the same faith as was shown to those present in the signification of Our will.
