INCAPACITY
529
INCARNATION
deep' in order to unveil the futiure. They could extin- guish lire ; darken the sun or moon ; make fetters burst, a door or a mountain fly open; blunt a sword; make a limb powerless ; destroy a crop, or charm it away into another's barn," It is especially the heathenish nations that in their prayers, whether for blessings or for curses, partake largely of the nature of magical incantations. " Tliey are not supposed to act as petitions addressed to a free agent, but by an inherent force which even the gods cannot resist. This is very marked in Hinduism and Buddhism, but it actually pervades all superstitious worship, though sometimes quite disguised. 'They think they shall be heard for their much speaking.' For almost every occasion or operation of life there were appropriate formulas to be repeated in order to se- cure success ; and many of these, with that reverence for antiquity and conservative tendency which always characterize superstition, continue to live in popular memory, although often the words are so old as to be unintelligible. Thus, among the Romans, in the days of Cato, incantations were common for curing disloca- tions, full of words the meaning of which had been lost. A form of words used to this day in Slietland for healing a sprain can be traced back to the 10th centurj-. In its earliest form, as foimd in an old German manuscript, it narrates how their native gods, Woden and Baldur, rid- ing out to hunt, Baldur's horse dislocated its foot, and how Woden, using charmed words, set bone to bone, etc., and so liealed the foot. The repetition of this rhymed narration acted as a charm to heal other lamed horses. A modern version of this tratlition, current in Norway even in our day, makes the accident happen to the horse of Jesus, and Jesus himself perform the cure — in Shetland, also, the Lord (Jesus) is substituted for Wo- den ; and the formula is applied to the healing of per- sons' limbs as well as those of horses. The operation is thus described in R. Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland: 'When a person has received a sprain, it is customary to apply to an individual practiced in cast- ing the " wresting-thread." This is a thread spun from black wool, on which are cast nine knots, and tied round a sprained leg or arm. During the time the operator is putting the thread round the affected limb, he says, but in such a tone of voice as not to be heard by the by- standers, nor even by the person operated upon :
" 'Our Lord rade,
His foal's foot slade ; Down he lis^htod, His foal's foot righted. Bone to bone. Sinew to sinew, Blood to blood, Flesh to flesh. Heal, in name of the Father, Sou, and Holy Ghost.'"
—Chambers, Cyclop, v, 530-531. See JM.VGic ; Witch- craft.
Incapacity, in the ecclesiastical sense, is absolute unfitness for ordination. Thus women (Gen. iii, 16 ; 1 Tim. ii, 12 ; 1 Cor. xiv, 34, 35) and luibaptized persons are incapacitated from ordination. Baptism is essential to church membership, and therefore the basis of further advancement in the Church: "Cum baptismus sitfunda- mentum omniiun sacramentorum ante susceptionem bap- tismi non suscipiatur aliud sacramentum" (c. 60, can. i, qu. i, Capit. Theodori Canterb.) ; also c. 1 , x, De pi-esby- tero non baptizato (iii, 43) ; c. 3, x, eod. (Innocent III a. 1206) ; c. 2, De coffnaiione spirituali in vi (iv,3) Bonifacii VIII. So the early Church declared that he who has not received in due form the baptism of water is not a member of the visible church, and cannot therefore be ordained. The Council of Nicaia, A.D. 325, in c. 19 (c. 52, can. i, qu. i), directs that the clergj^ of the Paulinists (who did not perform baptism regularly) and of other sects were to be rebaptized and ordained on their return to the Catholic Church, and that such persons as had been previously ordained, but not baptized, should at once receive baptism, and then be reordained (c. 112, (list, i V, De comecr. [ Leo a. 458 J ; c. 60, can. i, qu. i ; comp. lY.— L L
Capit. lib. vi, c. 94, and other quoted passages), although, according to the decision of pope Innocent II (c. 2, x, De presb. non bapt. ; c. 34, 151 , dist. iv, De consecr.'), the subor- dination of a baptized priest ordained by an unbaptized did not necessarily follow. See Iijuegulakitv.
The incapacity of women for ordmation was believed to be so fully authorized by the passages above cited from the Bible that it was never questioned by the Church. God had made woman subject to the rule of man; she could therefore not instruct a congregation likely to be composed also of men (Cone. CaHharj. iv, a. 378, c. 36 in c. 29 ; dist. xxiii, c. 20 ; dist. iv, De consecr.). It is from this point of view that Tertullian regards this question when he says {De velandis virginibus, c. 8) : " Non permittitur mulieri in ecclesia loqui, sed non do- cere, nee tingere, nee oflferre, nee allius virilis muneris nedum sacerdotalis ofHciis sortem ubi vindicare." In a like strain argue Augustine (c. xvii, can. xxxiii, qu. v) and others. The early Church therefore declared that no woman should be ordained presbytera (vidua) {Cow. Laodic. a. 372, c. 11 in c. 19, dist. xxxii), nor diacona, or diaconissa (Condi. Ai-ausicanum i, a. 441, can. xxvi; Epaonense, a. 517, can. xxi ; A urelianense ii, a. 533, can. xviii [ed. Brimc. ii, 126, 170, 187] ; compare c. 23, can. xxvii, qu. i, Novella Justiniani vi, cap. 5) ; though edu- cated and pious, they are not to teach in the congrega- tions (Cone. Carthag. iv, a. 378, c. 36 in c. 29, dist. xxiii; c. 20, dist. iv, De consecr."). Abbesses were not to bless the nuns, to hear confessions, or to preach in public (c. 10, x, Depcenit. ei remiss, [v, 38] Innocent III a. 1210).