THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
ORDERICUS VITALIS: Monk and historian; b. at Atcham (4 m. s.e. of Shrewsbury), England, Feb. 16, 1075; d. probably on Feb. 3 of some year later than 1141. He was the son of a Norman- English priest named Odelerius; was sent when thirteen years of age to be trained for the monastic life at the monastery of St. Evroult in Normandy; he was ordained subdeacon 1091, deacon 1093, and priest 1107; attended possibly the Synod of Reims, 1119, and an assemblage of monks at Cluny, 1132. His significance depends upon his Historia ecclesiastica, in thirteen books, completed in 1141, and reaching from the first preaching of the Gospel to 1141. For the earlier parts the work has no independent value, the substance being derived from other authors. It is of value chiefly for the period following the Norman conquest. The style is somewhat florid and pedantic; but for his own period has interest for its detail and its first-hand views of things. A manuscript which is very possibly the autograph is preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. The original edition was in A. Duchesne's Histories Normannorum Scriptores, pp. 319-925 (Paris, 1619), reproduced in MPL, clxxxviii.; other editions are: Bouquet, Recueil, vols, ix.-xi.; A. le PreVost, 5 vols., Paris, 1838- 1855. A French transl. by L. Dubois (4 vols., Paris, 1825-27) and an Eng. transl. (in Bohn's Antiquarian Library, 4 vols., London, 1853-54) are accessible.
Bibliography: The chief source is his own work, principally (Prevost's ed.), ii. 300-302, 416-422, v. 133-136. Consult the Notice prefixed to vol. v. of Prevost's ed.; Bibliotheque de Vicole des chartes, xxxiv. 267—282, xxxvii. 491-494; T. Wright, Biographia Britannica literaria, ii. 111-116, London, 1846; T. D. Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue, in Rolls Series, No. 26, ii. 211-223, ib. 1862-71; R. W. Church, Life of St. Anselm, chap, vi., ib. 1870; J. Tessier, De Orderico Vitali, Paris, 1872; F. A. Wichert, in Forschungen zu deutschen Geschichte, xii (1872), 57- 112; Rioult de Neuville, in Revue des questions historiques, xxi (1877), 173-184; E. A. Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv. 495-500, Oxford, 1879; Schaff, Christian Church, v. 1, pp. 94, 636 et passim; DNB, xlii. 241-242.
ORDERS, HOLY: The usual term for the distinctions in rank and office among the clergy, also applied in the prelatical churches to the office and functions of the ministry. The term ordo was very early employed in the first sense; it occurs more than once in Tertullian, and was probably part of the recognized terminology before his time. For discussion of the separate orders see Acolyte; Bishop; Deacon; Organization of the Early Church; Ostiarius; Polity; and Presbyter; and for the " sacrament of orders " see Ordination. This article deals with the history and origin of the classification in general. At first no special stress was laid on an exact number or on a division into major and minor orders. Tertullian certainly knew other offices besides those of bishop, priest, and deacon, but it is impossible to determine exactly which they were. In the letters of Cornelius of Rome to Fabius the functionaries of the Roman Church include presbyters, deacons, subdeacons, acolytes, exorcists, readers, and doorkeepers; and there is evidence of the existence of all these but the last about the same time in Africa. The eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions treats
of the setting apart of bishops, presbyters, deacons, and readers only, although another part shows that the compiler was familiar with exorcists and singers as distinct official classes. But for a long time there was no settled number of orders; the functions which developed out of the necessities of church life took different forms in different places. Scholasticism undertook to systematize the matter. Peter Lombard regards the number seven and the division into two classes as settled, naming the presbyterate and diaconate as the only ones which existed in the primitive Church under explicit apostolic authority; according to him the episcopate is not a distinct order but " the name of a dignity and an office," subdivided into patriarchs, archbishops, metropolitans, and bishops. Thomas Aquinas agrees with him in substance, except that he numbers the subdiaconate among holy orders. The Council of Trent made the scholastic systematization a matter of faith, although some of the orders were no longer more than nominal, and nothing more than mere steps to the priesthood. In the Eastern Church (q.v.) the gradation of offices was not so systematically developed; the only ones to which significance is attached are the episcopate, priesthood, and diaconate.
(A. Hauck.) In the Roman Catholic Church the orders are distinguished into major (priests, deacons, and subdeacons) and minor (acolytes, exorcists, readers, and doorkeepers). Some difference of opinion seems to exist as to whether bishops constitute a separate order, in which case bishops, priests, deacons, and subdeacons are the major orders (see Deacon, II., § 1). Admission to these orders is governed in each church by canonical regulations.
Bibliography: Bingham, Origines, II., i. 1, III., i. 1-2; A. J. Binterim, Denkwilrdigkeiten, i. 1, pp. 281 sqq., Mainz, 1825; J. C. W. Augusti, Denkwilrdigkeiten, xi. 75 sqq., Leipsic, 1830; P. Hinschius, Kirchenrecht, i. 5 sqq., Berlin, 1869; G. Phillips, Kirchenrecht, i. 297-298, Regensburg, 1881; E. Friedberg, Kirchenrecht, pp. 25 sqq., Leipsic, 1903.
ORDINAL: " A form and manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons " added to the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican and Protestant Episcopal churches, not being, strictly speaking, a part thereof. It is translated and adapted from what among pre- Reformation books was called the Pontifical, a book containing services performed by a bishop. The first English ordinal was put forth in 1550, following the Prayer Book of 1549. It was somewhat revised in 1552, and again in 1662. The American ordinal dates from 1792. The Preface to the ordinal of 1550 (somewhat enlarged and strengthened in 1662 in view of the Presbyterian domination during the Commonwealth) declares that it is the intention of the Church of England to continue the orders of bishops, priests, and deacons maintained in the Church from the apostles' time (see Succession, Apostolic).
It was plainly the object of the compilers of the Anglican ordinal to retain all that was essential, according to Scriptural and primitive use, in the older offices, while aiming at greater simplicity (the Latin rites had become not only complicated but