A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

ORDERS OF MONKS. The several orders of monks are distinguished in this manner by their habits. The White Friars are canons regular of the order of St. Augustine. Grey Friars are Cistercian monks, who changed their black habit into a grey one. The Black Friars are Benedictines.

ORDINAL. The Ordinal is that book which contains the forms observed in the Church for making, ordaining, and consecrating, bishops, priests, and deacons. In the liturgy established in the second year of King Edward VI., there was also a form of consecrating and ordaining of bishops, priests, and deacons, not much differing from the present form. Afterwards, by the 3 & 4 Edward VI. c. 10, it was enacted that all books heretofore used for the service of the Church, other than such as shall be set forth by the king’s majesty, shall be clearly abolished (s. 1). And by the 5 & 6 Edward VI. c. 1, it is thus enacted: The king, with the assent of the lords and commons in parliament, has annexed the Book of Common Prayer to this present statute, adding also a form and manner of making and consecrating of archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons, to be of like force and authority as the Book of Common Prayer. And, by Art. 36: “The book of consecration of archbishops and bishops, and ordering of priests and deacons, lately set forth in the time of Edward VI., and confirmed at the same time by authority of parliament, doth contain all things necessary to such consecration and ordering; neither hath it anything that of itself is superstitious and ungodly. And therefore whosoever are consecrated or ordered according to the rites of that book, since the second year of the forenamed King Edward unto this time, or hereafter shall be consecrated or ordered according to the same rites, we declare all such to be rightly ordered, and lawfully consecrated and ordered.” And by Canon 8: “Whosoever shall affirm or teach, that the form and manner of making and consecrating bishops, priests, and deacons, containeth anything that is repugnant to the word of God; or that they who are made bishops, priests, and deacons, in that form, are not lawfully made, nor ought to be accounted either by themselves or others to be truly either bishops, priests, or deacons, until they have some other calling to those Divine offices, let him be excommunicated, ipso facto, not to be restored until he repent and publicly revoke such his wicked errors.”

The form in which orders are conferred in our Church is this: “The bishop, with the priests present, shall lay their hands severally upon the head of every one that receiveth the order of priesthood; the receivers humbly kneeling, and the bishop saying, ‘Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest, in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God, and of his holy sacraments: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’” In the office for the ordering of deacons, the bishop lays on his hands, but does not use the words, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” &c., or grant authority to forgive or retain sins. In the office for the consecration of bishops, the form is thus: “Then the archbishop and bishops present shall lay their hands upon the head of the elected bishop, kneeling before them on his knees, the archbishop saying, ‘Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a bishop in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the laying on of our hands, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. And remember that thou stir up the grace of God which is given thee BY the imposition of our hands, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and soberness.’”

Several Protestant dissenting communities have taken it upon themselves to lay on hands when a person is elected to the dissenting ministry; but none, that we are aware of, have ever assumed the solemn office of thus conferring the grace of God by the imposition of human hands, which would clearly be blasphemous, except there existed a commission from God to do so, which commission, without the apostolical succession, cannot be proved, unless by miracle. This form has given great offence to many conscientious ultra-Protestants. Attempts are sometimes made to explain the words away; but such explanations have been seldom found satisfactory, except to those whose interest it is to be satisfied. It is evident that they are to be understood simply, clearly, unequivocally, to express that the grace of God is given by the imposition of the bishop’s hands; and that if we speak of this as superstitious or ungodly, we are, as may be seen from the 36th Article and the 8th Canon, under the anathema of our Church. On the other hand, the comfort is indescribably great to those who believe that grace ministerial is thus conveyed in attending the ministry of the Church; the efficacy of the ministrations of whose ministers depends not on the merit or talent of the individual, but on the grace of God, of which he is the authorized, though unworthy, dispenser.

ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. Rites ordained by God to be means of grace, such as, 1. Baptism (Matt. xxviii. 19); 2. The Lord’s supper (Matt. xxvi. 26; 1 Cor. xi. 24, &c.); 3. Preaching and reading the word (Mark xvi. 15; Rom. x. 15); 4. Hearing the gospel (Mark iv. 24; Rom. x. 17); 5. Public and private prayer (1 Cor. xiv. 15, 19; Matt. vi. 6; Ps. v. 1, 7); 6. Singing of psalms (Col. iii. 16; Eph. v. 19); 7. Fasting (Matt. ix. 15; Joel ii. 12); 8. Solemn thanksgiving (Ps. ix. 14; 1 Thess. v. 18). See Rites.

ORDINARY. The person who has ecclesiastical jurisdiction, as of course and of common right, in opposition to persons who are extraordinarily appointed. In some acts of parliament we find the bishop called ordinary, and so he is taken at the common law, as having ordinary jurisdiction in causes ecclesiastical; albeit, in a more general acceptation, the word Ordinary signifies any judge authorized to take cognizance of causes in his own proper right, as he is a magistrate, and not by way of deputation or delegation.

ORDINATION. (See Orders.) The apostles appointed bishops, priests, and deacons, to be the standing guides and governors of the Church; and because there should be a succession of them continued in all ages, for the peace and preservation of those churches which they had planted, therefore it is necessary that there should be a power lodged somewhere, to set apart some distinct orders of men to those public offices, and this is called ordination. Many dissenting sects hold it necessary that there should be such a power, but they dispute where it is. Some affirm that a man ought not to take upon him the ministry without a lawful call, which is very true. They likewise agree that ordination ought to be continued, and they define it to be a solemn setting apart of some person to a church office; but they say it is only to be done by preaching presbyters, and that those who are not set apart themselves for the work of the ministry, have no power to join in setting apart others for that purpose; and this form of ordination was proposed to the parliament, in the year 1643, by an assembly of those persons, in order to be ratified. There is another sort of people who hold that where there are no such preaching presbyters, in such case, other persons, sufficiently qualified and approved for their gifts and graces by other ministers, being chosen by the people, and set apart for the ministry, by prayer and fasting in the congregation, may exercise that office, so that some place the power of ordination in simple presbyters, and others in the people. There are others who maintain that ordination is not to be justified by Scripture, and that the word itself signifies a lifting up of hands, and is used in Scripture for giving a vote, which in all popular assemblies is customary even at this day: from whence they infer that the Christian churches were at first democratical, that is, the whole congregation chose their pastor; and that by virtue of such choice he did not pretend to any peculiar jurisdiction distinct from others, but he was only approved by the congregation for his parts, and appointed to instruct the people, to visit the sick, and to perform all other offices of a minister, and at other times he followed his trade; and that the Christians in those days had no notion how a pastor could pretend to any succession to qualify him for the ministry, for that the pretence of dispensing divine things by a mere human constitution was such an absurdity that it could not be reconciled to reason.

This and many more such calumnies were cast on ordination, and the bishops themselves were called ordination-mongers; but it was by those who alleged that the purity of the Christian religion, and the good and orderly government of the world, had been much better provided for without any clergy. But we will show from Scripture, from antiquity, and from the concurrent testimony of the Fathers, that bishops had, and ought to have, the power of ordination.

When our Saviour established the Christian Church, he made his apostles governors thereof, and vested them with a power to ordain others to the ministry; and, accordingly, they ordained the seven deacons, and consecrated St. James bishop of Jerusalem, and he ordained presbyters of that church. That Timothy, as soon as he was made bishop of Ephesus by the great apostle of the Gentiles, but not before, had this power of ordination, is allowed by St. Chrysostom himself, who magnified the power of presbyters more than any of the Fathers; and he proves it thus, viz. because St. Paul gave Timothy a caution, not to admit any one rashly to an ecclesiastical office. It is true he likewise bid him not to despise the gift which was given to him by prophecy, with laying on of the hands of the company of elders; but he could not mean by those words an assembly of ordinary presbyters, for as such they could not have conferred any extraordinary commission, especially upon Timothy, because he was, at that very time, a bishop, and ordained by St. Paul himself. He had a jurisdiction over all the presbyters of Asia; for he had power given him by that apostle to inquire into their conversation and abilities, and then to admit them into that holy office, if he found them qualified, and not otherwise. Titus had the same power throughout that populous island of Crete; and these things are so plain, that they must deny the authority of the Scriptures, who deny the power of ordination to be originally in bishops: and therefore they have invented a senseless objection, viz. that though Timothy and Titus were superior to presbyters, yet their power was but temporary; for they were chosen by the apostles at that time, upon a particular occasion, to preside in the assemblies of presbyters, to moderate the affairs of those churches, which power was to determine at the expiration of their commission. But this cannot be proved by history, or any records. It is a mere invention, contrived to make a party between those two distinct orders of men; and it can have no foundation in Scripture, from the promiscuous use of the words bishop and presbyter: for though it is true that the last is used to show the humility of a bishop, yet it is as true that the word apostle is likewise used to show his superiority. So that, in the primitive times, bishops ordained as bishops, and not as presbyters; for in those days, as it has been already observed, bishops and presbyters were accounted distinct in order, whatever has of late years been advanced to the contrary. Therefore, the objection that a bishop and presbyter were neither distinct in order or office; that though the apostles, and those who immediately succeeded them, exercised a large jurisdiction, yet it was granted to them by our Saviour as they were apostles, and did in no wise concern their successors, to whom he gave no such authority, nor any manner of superiority over their fellow presbyters,—these, and such like, are doctrines which neither agree with the Scripture, nor with the Fathers; they are contrary to the plain and constant usage in the Church for 1600 years, during all which time all Christian churches were governed by bishops.

By the 31st canon of the Church of England it is ordained: “Forasmuch as the ancient Fathers of the Church, led by the example of the apostles, appointed prayers and fasts to be used at the solemn ordaining of ministers, and to that purpose allotted certain times, in which only sacred orders might be given and conferred, we, following their holy and religious example, do constitute and decree, that no deacons or ministers be made or ordained, but only on Sundays immediately following jejunia quatuor temporum, commonly called Ember Weeks, appointed in ancient time for prayer and fasting, (purposely for this cause at the first institution,) and so continued at this day in the Church of England.” (See Ember Days.)