ipsos posse, quarum functionum potestatem reliqui inferioris ordinis nullam habent. Docet insuper sacrosancta synodus, in ordinatione episcoporum, sacerdotum et ceterorum ordinum nec populi nec cujusvis sæcularis potestatis et magistratus consensum sive vocationem sive auctoritatem ita requiri, ut sine ea irrita sit ordinatio; quin potius decernit, eos, qui tantummodo a populo aut sæculari potestate ac magistratu vocati et instituti ad hæc ministeria, exercenda adscendunt, et qui ea propria temeritate sibi sumunt, omnes non Ecclesiæ ministros sed fures et latrones per ostium non ingressos habendos esse. Hæo sunt, quæ generatim sacræ synodo visum est Christi fideles de sacramento ordinis docere. His autem contraria certis et propriis canonibus in hunc, qui sequitur, modum damnare constituit, ut omnes adjuvante Christo fidei regula utentes in tot errorum tenebris Catholicam veritatem facilius agnoscere et tenere possint. functions others of an inferior order have no power. Furthermore, the sacred and holy Synod teaches, that, in the ordination of bishops, priests, and of the other orders, neither the consent, nor vocation, nor authority, whether of the people, or of any civil power or magistrate whatsoever, is required in such wise as that, without this, the ordination is invalid: yea rather doth it decree, that all those who, being only called and instituted by the people, or by the civil power and magistrate, ascend to the exercise of these ministrations, and those who of their own rashness assume them to themselves, are not ministers of the Church, but are to be looked upon as thieves and robbers, who have not entered by the door. [257] These are the things which it hath seemed good to the sacred Synod to teach the faithful of Christ, in general terms, touching the sacrament of Order. But it hath resolved to condemn whatsoever things are contrary thereunto, in express and specific canons, in the manner following; in order that all men, with the help of Christ, using the rule of faith, may, in the midst of the darkness of so many errors, more easily be able to recognize and to hold Catholic truth.
DE SACRAMENTO ORDINIS. ON THE SACRAMENT OF ORDER. Canon I.--Si quis dixerit, non esse in Novo Testamento sacerdotium visibile et externum, vel non esse potestatem aliquam consecrandi et offerendi verum corpus et sanguinem Domini, et peccata remittendi et retinendi, sed officium tantum et nudum ministerium prædicandi evangelium, vel eos, qui non prædicant, prorsus non esse sacerdotes: anathema sit. Canon I.--If any one saith, that there is not in the New Testament a visible and external priesthood; or, that there is not any power of consecrating and offering the true body and blood of the Lord, and of forgiving and retaining sins, but only an office and bare ministry of preaching the Gospel; or, that those who do not preach are not priests at all: let him be anathema. Canon II.--Si quis dixerit, præter sacerdotium non esse in Ecclesia Catholica alios ordines et majores et minores, per quos, velut per gradus quosdam, in sacerdotium tendatur: anathema sit. Canon II.--If any one saith, that, besides the priesthood, there are not in the Catholic Church other orders, both greater and minor, by which, as by certain steps, advance is made unto the priesthood: let him be anathema. Canon III.--Si quis dixerit, ordinem sive sacram ordinationem non esse vere et proprie sacramentum a Christo Domino institutum, vel esse figmentum quoddam humanum, excogitatum a viris rerum ecclesiasticarum imperitis, aut esse tantum ritum quemdam eligendi ministros verbi Dei et sacramentorum: anathema sit. Canon III.--If any one saith, that order, or sacred ordination, is not truly and properly a sacrament instituted by Christ the Lord; or, that it is a kind of human figment devised by men unskilled in ecclesiastical matters; or, that it is only a kind of rite for choosing ministers of the Word of God and of the sacraments: let him be anathema. Canon IV.--Si quis dixerit, per sacram ordinationem non dari Spiritum Sanctum, ac proinde frustra episcopos dicere: Canon IV.--If any one saith, that, by sacred ordination, the Holy Ghost is not given; and that vainly therefore do the bishops say,
Accipe Spiritum Sanctum, aut per eam non imprimi characterem; vel eum, qui sacerdos semel fuit, laicum rursus fieri posse: anathema sit. Receive ye the Holy Ghost; or, that a character is not imprinted by that ordination; or, that he who has once been a priest can again become a layman: let him be anathema. Canon V.--Si quis dixerit, sacram unctionem, qua Ecclesia in sancta ordinatione utitur, non tantum non requiri, sed contemnendam et perniciosam esse, similiter et alias ordinis ceremonies: anathema sit. Canon V.--If any one saith, that the sacred unction which the Church uses in holy ordination is not only not required, but is to be despised and is pernicious, as likewise are the other ceremonies of order: let him be anathema. Canon VI.--Si quis dixerit, in Ecclesia Catholica non esse hierarchiam divina ordinatione institutam, quæ constat ex episcopis, presbyteris et ministris: anathema sit. Canon VI.--If any one saith, that, in the Catholic Church there is not a hierarchy by divine ordination instituted, consisting of bishops, priests, and ministers: let him be anathema. Canon VII.--Si quis dixerit, episcopos non esse presbyteris superiores, vel non habere potestatem confirmandi et ordinandi, vel eam, quam habent, illis esse cum presbyteris communem, vel ordines ab ipsis collatos sine populi vel potestatis sæcularis consensu aut vocatione irritos esse; aut eos qui nec ab ecclesiastica et canonica potestate rite ordinati, nec missi sunt, sed aliunde veniunt, legitimos esse verbi et sacramentorum ministros: anathema, sit. Canon VII.--If any one saith, that bishops are not superior to priests; or, that they have not the power of confirming and ordaining: or, that the power which they possess is common to them and to priests; or, that orders, conferred by them, without the consent or vocation of the people, or of the secular power, are invalid; or, that those who have neither been rightly ordained, nor sent, by ecclesiastical and canonical power, but come from elsewhere, are lawful ministers of the Word and of the sacraments: let him be anathema. Canon VIII.--Si quis dixerit, episcopos, qui auctoritate Romani Canon VIII.--If any one saith, that the bishops, who are assumed
pontiftcis assumuntur, non esse legitimos et veros episcopos, sed figmentum humanum: anathema sit. by authority of the Roman Pontiff, are not legitimate and true bishops, but are a human figment: let him be anathema.
[252] Heb. vii. 12.
[253] 2 Tim. i. 6, 7.
[254] Cant. vi. 3.
[255] Ephes. vi. 11, 12.
[256] Acts xx. 28.
[257] John x. 1.
Sessio Vigesimaquarta, Twenty-fourth Session, celebrata die XI. Nov. 1563. held Nov. 11, 1563. DOCTRINA DE SACRAMENTO MATRIMONII. DOCTRINE ON THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY. Matrimonii perpetuum indissolubilemque nexum primus humani generis parens divini Spiritus instinctu pronuntiavit, cum dixit: Hoc nunc os ex ossibus meis et caro de carne mea; quamobrem relinquet homo patrem suum et matrem et adhærebit uxori suæ, et erunt duo in carne una. The first parent of the human race, under the influence of the Divine Spirit, pronounced the bond of matrimony perpetual and indissoluble, when he said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. [258] Hoc autem vinculo duos tantummodo copulari et conjungi, Christus Dominus apertius docuit, cum postrema illa verba tamquam a Deo prolata referens dixit: Itaque jam non sunt duo, sed una caro; statimque ejusdem nexus firmitatem ab Adamo tanto ante pronuntiatam his verbis confirmavit: Quod ergo Deus conjunxit, homo non separet. But, that by this bond two only are united and joined together, our Lord taught more plainly, when, rehearsing those last words as having been uttered by God, he said: Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh; [259] and straightway confirmed the firmness of that tie, proclaimed so long before by Adam, by these words: What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. [260] Gratiam vero, quæ naturalem illum amorem perficeret et indissolubilem But the grace which might perfect that natural love, and confirm
unitatem confirmaret conjugesque sanctificaret, ipse Christus, venerabilium sacramentorum institutor atque perfector, sua nobis passione promeruit; quod Paulus Apostolus innuit, dicens: Viri, diligite uxores vestras, sicut Christus dilexit Ecclesiam, et seipsum tradidit pro ea; mox subjungens: Sacramentum hoc magnum est, ego autem dico in Christo et in Ecclesia. that indissoluble union, and sanctify the married, Christ himself, the institutor and perfecter of the venerable sacraments, merited for us by his passion; as the Apostle Paul intimates, saying, Husbands love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered himself up for it; adding shortly after, This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church. [261] Cum igitur matrimonium in lege evangelica veteribus connubiis per Christum gratia præstet, merito inter novæ legis sacramenta adnumerandum, sancti patres nostri, concilia, et universalis Ecclesiæ traditio semper docuerunt, adversus quam impii homines hujus sæculi insanientes non solum perperam de hoc venerabili sacramento senserunt, sed de more suo prætextu evangelii libertatem carnis introducentes, multa ab Ecclesiæ Catholicæ sensu et ab apostolorum temporibus probata consuetudine aliena scripto et verbo asseruerunt non sine magna Christi fidelium jactura; quorum temeritati sancta et universalis synodus cupiens occurrere, insigniores prædictorum schismaticorum hæreses et errores, ne plures ad Whereas therefore matrimony, in the evangelical law, excels in grace, through Christ, the ancient marriages, with reason have our holy Fathers, the Councils, and the tradition of the universal Church, always taught, that it is to be numbered amongst the sacraments of the new law; against which, impious men of this age raging, have not only had false notions touching this venerable sacrament, but, introducing according to their wont, under the pretext of the Gospel, a carnal liberty, they have by word and writing asserted, not without great injury to the faithful of Christ, many things alien from the sentiment of the Catholic Church, and from the usage approved of since the times of the Apostles; the holy and universal Synod, wishing to meet the rashness of these men, has thought
se trahat perniciosa eorum contagio, exterminandos duxit, hos in ipsos hæreticos eorumque errores decernens anathematismos. it proper, lest their pernicious contagion may draw more after it, that the more remarkable heresies and errors of the above-named schismatics be exterminated, by decreeing against the said heretics and their errors the following anathemas. DE SACRAMENTO MATRIMONII. ON THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY. Canon I.--Si quis dixerit, matrimonium non esse vere et proprie unum ex septem legis evangelicæ sacramentis a Christo Domino institutum, sed ab hominibus in Ecclesia inventum, neque gratiam conferre: anathema sit. Canon I.--If any one saith, that matrimony is not truly and properly one of the seven sacraments of the evangelic law, [a sacrament] instituted by Christ the Lord; but that it has been invented by men in the Church; and that it does not confer grace: let him be anathema. Canon II.--Si quis dixerit, licere Christianis plures simul habere uxores, et hoc nulla lege divina esse prohibitum: anathema sit. Canon II.--If any one saith, that it is lawful for Christians to have several wives at the same time, and that this is not prohibited by any divine law: let him be anathema. Canon III.--Si quis dixerit, eos tantum consanguinitatis et affinitatis gradus, qui Levitico exprimuntur, posse impedire matrimonium contrahendum et dirimere contractum, nec posse Ecclesiam in nonnullis illorum dispensare aut constituere, ut plures impediant et dirimant: anathema sit. Canon III.--If any one saith, that those degrees only of consanguinity and affinity which are set down in Leviticus can hinder matrimony from being contracted, and dissolve it when contracted; and that the Church can not dispense in some of those degrees, or establish that others may hinder and dissolve it: let him be anathema. Canon IV.--Si quis dixerit, Ecclesiam non potuisse constituere impedimenta matrimonium dirimentia, vel in iis constituendis Canon IV.--If any one saith, that the Church could not establish impediments dissolving marriage; or, that she has erred in establishing