The Church: Her Books and Her Sacraments Part 12

[1] Husband--from _hus_, a house, and _buan_, to dwell.

[2] Until fifty-three years ago an Act of Parliament was necessary for a divorce. In 1857 _The Matrimonial Causes Act_ established the Divorce Court. In 1873 the _Indicature Act_ transferred it to a division of the High Court--the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division.

[3] "Visitation Charges," p. 252.

[4] It is a common legal error that seven years effective separation between husband and wife ent.i.tles either to remarry, and hundreds of women who have lost sight of their husbands for seven years innocently commit bigamy. Probably the mistake comes from the fact that _prosecution_ for bigamy does not hold good in such a case. But this does not legalize the bigamous marriage or legitimize the children.

[5] The origin of Banns.

[6] The Rubric says: "It is convenient that the new-married persons receive the Holy Communion _at the time of their marriage_, or at the first opportunity after their marriage," thus retaining, though releasing, the old rule.

[7] Consanguinity--from _c.u.m_, together, and _sanguineus_, relating to blood.

[8] Affinity--from _ad_, near, and _finis_, a boundary.

[9] See a most helpful paper read by Father Puller at the E.C.U.

Anniversary Meeting, and reported in "The Church Times" of 17 June, 1910.

[10] There seems to be no legal definition of the word "reside". The law would probably require more than leaving a bag in a room, hired for twenty-one days, as is often done. It must be remembered that the object of the law is _publicity_--that is, the avoidance of a clandestine marriage, which marriage at a Registry Office now frequently makes so fatally easy.

[11] 25 Hen. VIII, cap. 21.

[12] Such as, for example, Royal Chapels, St. Paul's Cathedral, Eton College Chapel, etc.

[13] Cf. Blunt's "Church Law," p. 133; 4 Geo. IV, c. 76, s. 21.

[14] It will be remembered that runaway marriages were, in former days, frequently celebrated at Gretna Green, a Scotch village in Dumfriess.h.i.+re, near the English border.

{123}

CHAPTER X.

HOLY ORDER.

The Second Sacrament of Perpetuation is Holy Order. As the Sacrament of Marriage perpetuates the human race, so the Sacrament of Order perpetuates the Priesthood. Holy Order, indeed, perpetuates the Sacraments themselves. It is the ordained channel through which the Sacramental life of the Church is continued.

Holy Order, then, was inst.i.tuted for the perpetuation of those Sacraments which depend upon Apostolic Succession. It makes it possible for the Christian laity to be Confirmed, Communicated, Absolved. Thus, the Christian Ministry is a great deal more than a body of men, chosen as officers might be chosen in the army or navy.

It is the Church's media for the administration of the Sacraments of Salvation. To say this does not a.s.sert that G.o.d cannot, and does not, save and sanctify souls in any other way; but it does a.s.sert, as Scripture does, that the {124} Christian Ministry is the authorized and ordained way.

The Threefold Ministry.

In this Ministry, there are three orders, or degrees: Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. In the words of the Prayer Book: "It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that, from the Apostles' time, there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons".[1]

(I) BISHOPS.

Who was the first Bishop? Jesus Christ, "the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls". When, and where, was the first Ordination? In the Upper Chamber, when He, the Universal Bishop, Himself ordained the first Apostles. When was {125} the second Ordination? When these Apostles ordained Matthias to succeed Judas. This was the first link in the chain of Apostolic Succession. What followed? In apostolic days, Timothy was ordained, with episcopal jurisdiction over Ephesus; t.i.tus, over Crete; Polycarp (the friend of St. John), over Smyrna; and then, later on, Linus, over Rome. And so the great College of Bishops expands until, in the second century, we read in a well-known writer, St. Irenaeus: "We can reckon up lists of Bishops ordained in the Churches from the Apostles to our time". Link after link, the chain of succession lengthens "throughout all the world," until it reaches the Early British Church, and then, in 597, the English Church, through the consecration of Augustine,[2] first Archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1903 of Randall Davidson his ninety-fourth successor.

And this is the history of every ordination in the Church to-day. "It is through the Apostolic Succession," said the late Bishop Stubbs to his ordination Candidates, "that I am empowered, through the long line of mission and Commission {126} from the Upper Chamber at Jerusalem, to lay my hands upon you and send you."[3]

How does a Priest become a Bishop? In the Church of England he goes through four stages:--

(1) He is _nominated_ by the Crown.

(2) He is _elected_ by the Church.

(3) His election is _confirmed_ by the Archbishop.

(4) He is _consecrated_ by the Episcopate.

(1) He is _nominated_ by the Crown. This is in accordance with the immemorial custom of this realm. In these days, the Prime Minister (representing the people) proposes the name of a Priest to the King, who accepts or rejects the recommendation. If he accepts it, the King nominates the selected Priest to the Church for election, and authorizes the issue of legal doc.u.ments for such election. This is called _Conge d'elire_, "leave to elect".

(2) He is _elected_ by the Church. The King's {127} nominee now comes before the Dean and Chapter (representing the Church), and the Church either elects or rejects him. It has power to do either. If the nominee is elected, what is called his "Confirmation" follows--that is:--

(3) His election is _confirmed_ by the Archbishop of Canterbury, according to a right reserved to him by _Magna Charta_. Before confirming the election, the Archbishop, or his representative, sits in public, generally at Bow Church, Cheapside, to hear legal objections from qualified laity against the election. Objections were of late, it will be remembered, made, and overruled, in the cases of Dr. Temple and Dr. Gore. Then, if duly nominated, elected, and confirmed,--

(4) He is _consecrated_ by the Episcopate. To safeguard the Succession, three Bishops, at least, are required for the Consecration of another Bishop, though one would secure a valid Consecration. No Priest can be Consecrated Bishop under the age of thirty. Very carefully does the Church safeguard admission to the Episcopate.

{128}

_Homage._

After Consecration, the Bishop "does homage,"[4] i.e. he says that he, like any other subject (ecclesiastic or layman), is the King's "_h.o.m.o_". What does he do homage for? He does homage, not for any spiritual gift, but for "all the possessions, and profette spirituall and temporall belongyng to the said ... Bishop.r.i.c.ke".[5] The _temporal_ possessions include such things as his house, revenue, etc.

But what is meant by doing homage for _spiritual_ possessions? Does not this admit the claim that the King can, as Queen Elizabeth is reported to have said, make or unmake a Bishop? No. Spiritual _possessions_ do not here mean spiritual _powers_,--powers which can be conferred by the Episcopate alone. {129} The "spiritual possessions"

for which a Bishop "does homage" refer to fees connected with spiritual things, such as Episcopal Licences, Inst.i.tutions to Benefices, Trials in the Ecclesiastical Court, Visitations--fees, by the way, which, with very rare exceptions, do not go into the Bishop's own pocket!

_Jurisdiction._

What is meant by Episcopal Jurisdiction? Jurisdiction is of two kinds, _Habitual_ and _Actual_.

Habitual Jurisdiction is the Jurisdiction given to a Bishop to exercise his office in the Church at large. It is conveyed with Consecration, and is given to the Bishop as a Bishop of the Catholic Church. Thus an Episcopal act, duly performed, would be valid, however irregular, outside the Bishop's own Diocese, and in any part of the Church.

_Actual Jurisdiction_ is this universal Jurisdiction limited to a particular area, called a Diocese. To this area, a Bishop's right to exercise his Habitual Jurisdiction is, for purposes of order and business, confined.

The next order in the Ministry is the Priesthood.

{130}

(II) PRIESTS.