As the Church is the plenipotentiary and infallible representative of Christ, her commandments are no less binding upon the faithful than the divine command- ments recorded in the Scriptures. Among the com- mandments given by the Church are the duty of the faithful to go once a year to confession, to receive once a year the eucharist, and to attend mass on every Sun- day and holiday. Upon her clergy the Church has imposed the duty of celibac}' ; as this, however, is not a part of Church doctrine, the priests of those of the Eastern churches which recognise the supremacy of the pope are allowed to marry.
Paintings and images are quite commonly used in Catholic churches as fitting ornaments, and as objects calculated to excite and keep alive feelings of devo- tion. The crucifix may be mentioned as the principal among them. A number of ceremonies and vestments are used in the celebration of divine worship. They are intended to give a peculiar dignity to the sacred mys- teries of religion ; to raise the mind of the beholder to heavenly things by their various and appropriate im- port; to instruct the ignorant and keep alive attention; to give to the ministers of religion a respect for them- selves and for the awfid rites in which they officiate.
In the celebration of the mass and other services of the Church, the Latin language is used. The Church cherishes it as a bond of union which connects the churches of the present with each other, as well as with the primitive apostolic Church of Home. For the use of the people, translations into the vernacular languages are made, and are in common use. The Eastern church- es which have entered into a corporate tmion w'ith Rome are allowed to retain at divine service the use of their old liturgical languages. Latin is also the lan- guage of the Breviary, which contains the prayers and religious readings prescribed by the Church for the daily devotional exercises of the priests.
IIL Constitution. — The Roman Catholic Church be- lieves in a special priesthood in which all the offices of the Church are vested. The powers conferred upon the priesthood are twofold — the priestly power, potegfus ordinis, and the governing power, potestds jiirisiUclio- nis. The former is vested in its fidness in the bishops, who alone have the right to provide for the continua- tion of the hierarchy by means of ordination. Subordi- nate to the bishop are the orders of priest and deacon. These two orders, together with that of bishop, con- stitute the ordines mojores, and form the keystone of the entire hierarchy. Several minor orders, ordines minorcs, the number of which has varied, are pre- paratory steps for the entrance into the hierarchy, and are no longer of any practical significance. The governing power is possessed in its fulness by the pope, who alone has apostolic authority, and may ex- ercise it in any part of the Church. The bishop has governing power only over one diocese, and, according to the present Church law, can practically exercise it only with the sanction of the pope. A number of epis- copal dioceses are commonly united in an ecclesiastical province, the head bishop of which bears the title of archbishop, presides at the provincial councils, but oth- wise interferes but rarely and only in special cases in the administration of the suffragan dioceses. If a coun- try has more than one ecclesiastical province, one of the archbishops has frequently the title of primate, and
as such ranks the other archbishops and presides at national councils. As all the Eastern patriarchates have severed their coiniection with Rome, the name patriarch has totally lost the signiti<'ation it had in the early Church. It is an honorary title which confers no de- gree of jurisdiction superior to that of archbishop or primate. The Church has at present, besides the pope, twelve patriarchs— namely, four of Antioch (for the Lat- in, Greek, Syrian, and Maronite rites respectively), an<l one each of ( AMistantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Baby- lon (of the Chaldiean rite),Ciiicia (of the Armenian rite), the East Indies, Lisbon, and Venice. Those fragments of Eastern churches which in course of time had entered into a corporate union, with the privilege of retaining the use of their ancient liturgical languages, the mar- riage of priests, and other ancient customs, are techni- cally designated as the Eastern or Oriental rite, in op- position to the Latin rite.
For the purpose of deliberating and legislating on ecclesiastical affairs, a system of councils or synods has gradually been developed, consisting of oecumenical, national, provincial, and diocesan synods. CEcumen- ical councils are such as represent the entire Church, and to which now all the ordained bishops of the Church are invited. The Church now numbers twenty of these councils, the latest of which— the Vatican Council — was held from Dec. 8, 18G9, to Oct. 20, 1870. (For a list of the first nineteen, see Councils.) Up to the Vatican Council, large portions of the Church, including many bishops and provincial synods, have asserted the supe- riority of an oecumenical council over the pope. After the proclamation of the inlallibility of the pope, it is no longer possible for any Roman Catholic to claim for an oecumenical council any kind of superiority. A nation- al council is one consisting of all the archbishops and bishopsof a country, under the presidency of the primate. The Church law makes no provision for their regular periodicity, and they have generalh' been convoked for some special reason. Provincial synods are meetings of the bishops of an ecclesiastical province under the presidency of the metropolitan or archbishop. Diocesan synods are meetings of the clergy of a diocese muler the presidency of the bishop. The (Ecumenical Council of Trent desired to introduce these two classes of synods to a larger extent than had been the case before into the regular organism of the Church, and therefore pro- vided that a provincial synod was to be held every third year in each ecclesiastical province, and a diocesan svnod annually in each diocese. This provision, however, has been carried out but very imperfectly, and in the 18th century the diocesan synods fell into disuse in every country of Europe except Italy.