they were to light the candles in the church, and to supply wine for the Eucharist. Concerning the duty of the exorcists, from the obscurity attaching to the history of the energumens intrusted to their care, it is difficult to speak with certainty; it is thought that pe- culiar sanctity and especial reservation must have been required in persons who were to exercise so important a gift as the adjuration of evil spirits. Neverthe- less, some of the occupations of the exorcists, as no- ticed b\' the ninetieth canon of the fifth Council of Car- thage, belong rather to inferior keepers than to spirit- ual guardians of the demoniacs. Thus, although at times in which the Church was not assembled they were enjoined to pray over their unhappy charges, they were also to take heed that they were busied in Avhole- some exercises, such as sweeping the church pavement, etc., by which idleness might be banished, and the tempter thereby be deprived of favorable opportunities for assault. They were also to look after the daily meals of their patients. The bishop, on their appoint- ment, presented them with a book containing the forms of exorcising. The readers, as their name implies, read the Scriptures publicly, not, however, at the hema of the altar, but at the jndpiium in the bodj' of the church ; and the bishop's words, upon placing in their hands the Bible, by which he conferred the privilege, sufficiently denote their separation from the regular clergy: "Ac- cipe, et esto lector verbi Dei, habiturus, si fideliter et uti- liter impleveris officium, partem cum eis qui Yerbum Dei ministraverunt" (/ (' Cane. Car/h. c. viii). To the os- tiarii the bishops delivered the keys of the church; and they appear to have had about as much claim to the spiritual gifts conferred i)y ordination on the regu- lar ministry as is possessed by the beadle or pew-open- ers of a modern chapel. Besides them, at different pe- riods of ecclesiastical history, we read of psalinisfce, or singers, sometimes called i'TrolSoXuc, because as pre- centors they prompted and suggested the musical parts of the service to the remainder of the congregation; of copiata {KOTriaaOai, to labor), or fossarii, who looked after funerals, and seem to have united in one the func- tions both of a sexton and an undertaker; and of para- bolani, who undertook the dangerous work {TrapajSoKov tpyoi') of attending the sick.
The Church of England declines admitting orders as a sacrament, for the reasons stated in her twenty- fifth article : " For that they have not like nature of sacraments with baptism and the Lord's Supper, for that the}' have not any visible sign or ceremony or- dained of God." The doctrine of the Church of Rome on the subject of orders is thus given :
" Ciuion I. If any one shnll say that there is not in the New Testament a visible and external priesthood, nr tlmt there is not any power of consecrating and ofieriiig tlie tine body and blood of the Lord, and of remitting niid re- taining sins, but only an ofHce and bare ministry of preach- ing the Gospel ; or that those who do not preach are not priests at all : let him be anathema. Canon II. If any one shall say that, besides the priesihood, there are not in the Catholic Church other orders, both greater and lesser, by which, as by certain steps, advance is made unto the priesthood: let him be anathema. Canon III. If any one shall say that orders or sacred ordination is not truly and properly a sacrament instituted by Christ the Lord; or that it is a certain human figment devised by men un- skilled in ecclesiastical matters; or that it is only a cer- tain kind for choosing ministers of the Word of God and ofthe sacraments: let him be anathema. Canon IV. If any one shall say that by sacred ordination the Holy Ghost is not given ; and that the bishops do therefm-e vainly say, Jleccive ye the Hob/ Ghoat; or that a character is not thereby imprinted; or that he who has once been a priest can again become a layman : let him be anath- ema."
In all episcopal churches, including under that gen- eral descrijition the Church of England, the Protestant Episcopal, jNIethodist Episcopal, and Romish churches, three ranks of clergy are recognised : the bishop (q.v.), the priest or presbyter or pastor (q.v.), and the deacon (q. v.). The various higher officials in the episcopal churches — archbishop. i)rimate, metropolitan, etc. — all belong to the order of bishop ; and the lower officials —
ORDERS, RELIGIOUS
410
ORDINAL
curate, rector, parson, etc. — all belong to the order of priests or i)resbvters. The non-episcopal churches, i. e. the Presbyterians, Congregatioiialists, Baptists, some Lu- therans, and others, recognise only one order, the pres- byterate, no other officers being considered ministers, al- though lay elders and deacons are sometimes set apart by the imposition of hands. In no Reformed Church are there more than three orders — bishops, priests, and dea- cons. In the primitive Church the word onlo simpiy de- noted the distinction between the clergy and the laity, the former being the ovdo ecclesiasticus. See Okdo.
Different opinions prevail as to the source whence the authority of Holy Orders is derived. Some, who hold there is in Holy Orders a sacramental virtue which is indispensable for all the Christian ordinances and means of grace, maintain also that this virtue is inherent in- defeasibly in each individual, who (according to this sj'stem) has derived it in no ilegree from anj' particular communitij, but solely from the bishop whose hands were laid on him ; who derived his power to administer this sacrament altogether from consecration by another bishop, not necessarily a member of the same particular Church, but obtaining his power again from another; and so on, up to the apostolic times; a system, this, it will be seen, which makes the Church a sort of append- age to the priesthood, not the ministry to the Church. The opponents of this system consider that it is an er- ror to make the authority of a Church emanate from that of its ministers ; and place the title of the latter on the secure basis of a clear sanction given, once for all, to erery regularly appointed minister of any Christian community constituted on Gospel principles, instead of being made to depend on a long chain, the soundness of man}' of whose links cannot be ascertained. — Farrar, Eccles. Diet. s. v. ; Eadie, Eccles. Cyclop, s. v. ; Eden, C'/i. Diet. s. v.; Watson, Bible Diet. s. v.; Hook, C7i. Diet. s. V. ; Buck, Ch. Diet. s. v. See also Bergier, Diet, de Theologie, s. v. ; Watson, Institutes, ii, bl'l-blb ; Ha- genbach, Hist, of Doctrines ; Siegel, Christliehe A Iter- thiimer; M-Elhinney, Doct. nf the Ch. p. 192-194, 201; Palmer, Orig. Lit. \i, 249, 257," 258 ; Walcott, Sacred A r- chaol. s. V,; Burnet, Articles of the Ch. of England; Coleman, Ancient Christianity, p. 102 ; and his Ritualism and Prelacy, p. 153 ; Willett, Synop. Pap. s. v. ; Proctor, Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer ; Calvin, Institutes; Princet. Rev. xv,3i4:; and the literature in Malcom, Theol. Index, s. v. See Office ; Ordina- tion; PuiiLACY.