RENUNCIATION
774
REORDINATIONS
Gaston de Renty
H^LYOT, Gesch. d. Kldster u. 207; St. Jure, Das Bitd eines 1837); MlCHAUD. Biog. Univi ordres relig., I (Paria, 1847), 1139.
Frires Cordonniers. They worked honestly at their
trade, divided their earnings with the poor and per-
formed special acts of devotion prescribed by the
pastor of St. Paul's. The statutes were approved by
the Archbishop
of Paris, John
Francis de Gondi.
After his death,
Renty's body was
brought to Citri
in the Diocese of
Soissons. When
the coffin was
opened nine years
later his body was
found intact. Tlie
bishop ordered it
placed in a mar-
ble tomb behind
the high altar.
Throughout his
career at court, in
the army, and in
politics he merited
the esteem of all,
and took an active
part in public
good works.
, VIII (Leipzig. 175B).
'.en Christen (Ratisbon,
Heltot-Badiche. Diet, des
Francis Mershman.
Renunciation (Lat. renuntiare), a canonical term signifying the resignation of an ecclesiastical office or benefice. It may be defined as the abdication of a clerical dignity made freely and spontaneously, for just reasons, into the hands of the legitimate superior who accepts it. Generally speaking, any ecclesiastic may renounce his dignity, whether his office be perpetual or temporal. To be valid, the resignation must be free, that is, not extorted by fear, or threats, or fraud. It must be made into the hands of the superior who had conferred it, that is of the pope for bishops and holders of major benefices; of the ordinary for parish priests and all incumbents of minor benefices. As to the pope himself, he may abdicate his dignity, but, as he has no earthly su- perior, his resignation must simply be declared canon- ically (see Abdication). Before a renunciation is canonically valid, it must be accepted by the legiti- mate superior, for otherwise it would work great detriment to the Church. Moreover, no one is at liberty to resign his office unless he is certain of revenues for his competent support. A resignation may be absolute or conditional. The latter term is used for renunciations that are made in favour of a third person, or with reservation of a pension, or when incumbents exchange benefices. The causes for which resignations are lawful are given in verse in the "Corpus juris canonici" (cap. x, "de renunt", 1, 9); Debilis, ignarus, male conscius, irregularis, Quern mala plebs odit, dans scandala, cedere possit. Therefore, one may justly resign on account of ill- health, want of proper knowledge, consciousness of guilt, clerical irregularity, ill-will of the people, or scandalous bcha\'ior.
Smith, Elements of Ecclesiastieal Law, I (New York. 1S95); Taonton, The Law of the Chureh (London, 1906), s. v. Resigna- tion; Sangdinetti, Juris ecclesiastici instiluliones (Rome, 1896).
William H. W. Fanning.
Reordinations. — I. State of the Question. — The
Oratorian .lean Morin, in the .seventeenth century, and Cariliiial Hergenriithcr, in the nineteenth, desig- nated as "reordinations" the history of all ordinations which were considered null for any other rea.son than defect of the prescribed form or intention and which
were repeated. This means that if there were in
fact reordinations corresponding to this definition
they were unjustifiable because theology determines
as the sole causes of nullity of the Sacrament of Holy
orders defect of the prescribed form or intention.
But in the course of the history of the Church other
causes of nullity have been admitted in certain cir-
cumstances. It has been admitted that all or any
sacraments administered or received extra ecclesiam
(outside the Church) were null and had to be re-
peated. By the words extra ecclesiam is understood
the situation of the minister or the Christian separated
from the Church by heresy, or schism, or excom-
munication. At certain periods these separatists
were considered so dangerous and were kept at such
a distance that there was a tendency to deny them
wholly or in part the power of conferring the sacra-
ments. The maxim, "Out of the Church, no sacra-
ments", was applied with more or less severity.
II. The Facts. — That this history is complex and difficult is shown by the action of the Council of Trent. The council declared as a tnith of faith the doctrine affirming the validity of baptism adminis- tered outside the Church according to the prescribed form and intention; but the validity of confirmation and Holy orders conferred under the same conditions was not defined as a matter of faith, owing to the waverings and partial disagreements on these points of tradition revealed by the history of theology. The council was unwiUing to give a definition that would place the doctrine of numerous writers in opposition to a teaching of faith. A good judge in these mat- ters. Father Perrone, has written: " Ordinationes ab illegitimo ministro peractas illicitas esse, nemo unquam theologorum dubitavit: utrum vero prae- terea irrita", inanes ac nulla? habenda" sint, implica- tissima olim quaestio fuit, adeo ut Magister Sen- ten tiarum scribat: 'Hanc qua-stionem perplexam ac pjene insolubilem faciunt doetorum verba, quae plurimum dissentire videntur' (I, iv, dist. 25); deinde profert quatuor sententias, quin ulh adha?reat. Monumenta ecclesiastica prope innumera pro utraque sententia, sive affirmante irritas esse eius- modi ordinationes sive negante, stare videntur, cum res nondum eliquata esset. Nunc iam a pluribus saeculis sola viget S. Thoma? doctrina, cui suffragium accessit universse ecclesia>, ordinationes ab ha^reticis, schismaticis ac simoniacis factas validas omnino esse habendas" — That ordinations performed by an un- lawful minister are illicit, no theologian ever doubted; but whether they are, moreover, to be regarded as null and void was of old a most intricate question — so much so that the Master of the Sentences writes: "This problem is rendered complex and almost insoluble by the statements of the doctors which show con- siderable discrepancy" (I, iv, dist. 25). He then presents four opinions, none of which he adopts. For each ^iew — that which affirms and that which denies the nullity of such ordinations — there seemed to be inniunerable evidences from church history, as long as the question was not cleared up. But for several centuries past, the teaching of St. Thomas alone has prevailed and is accepted by the whole Church, to the effect that ordinations performed by heretical, schismatical, or simoniacal ministers arc to be considered as valid ["Tractatus de ordine", cap. iv, n. 136, in Migne, "Theologia; cursus comple- tus", XXV (Paris, 1841), 55].
In the second half of the fifth century the Church of Constantinople repeated the confirmation and or- dination conferred by the .\rians, Macedonians, Novatians, Quartodecimans, and Apollinarists (Beve- ridge, "Synodicon", II, Oxford, 1672, Annotationes, 100). The Roman Synod of 769 permitted and even I)rcscribed the repetition of orders conferred by the anti-pope Constantine ("Liber Pont.", ed. Duchesne, I, 40,S sqq.). In the ninth century, during the
