SUBCINCTORIUM
320
SUBDEACON
of 12 August, 1768, and prohibited the use of Jesuit
authors, and therefore of Sudrez, in teaching. It is
obvious, says Cardinal Gonzalez, that, in so many
volumes written by Sudrez, there are to be found some
matters of little utility, or the practical or scientific
importance of which are not in proportion to the time
and space that Sudrez devotes to them. He is also
charged with being somewhat diffuse. His book
"De Defensione Fidei" was burned at London by
royal command, and was prohibited by the Parliament
of Paris (1614) on the ground that it contained
doctrines that were contrary to the power of sove-
reigns.
Works. — Sudrez published his first work, "De Deo Incarnato", at Alcald, in 1590; he published twelve other volumes, the last of which, " De Defensio Fidei," written against the King of England, was published at Coimbra, in 1613. After his death the Jesuits of Portugal published ten other volumes of his works, between 1619 and 1655. Of all of these works, two different editions were made; the first, at Venice, 23 volumes in folio (1740-1757); and the second in Paris (Vives), 28 volumes (1856-1861). In 1859 Mgr Manlou published another volume in folio, containing six short treatLses that had not been previously published. Father De Scorraille (Etudes, Vol. LXIV, pp. 151-175) gave an account of the manuscripts of Sudrez, noting the fact that they were numerous and that he himself possessed seventy-five of them. Many of these and others besides were found by Father Riviere. The works of Sudrez were held in the highest esteem in his day, as is shown by the numerous partial editions that were made of them (Lyons, Salamanca, Madrid, Coimbra, May- ence, Cologne, Paris, Evora, Genoa), as also by the fact, related by his biographers, that one of the wings of the old college of the Jesuits at Salamanca was restored with the product of the sale of his meta- physical works. A compendium of the theology of Sudrez was published by Father Noel, S.J. (Madrid, 1732); a short epitome of his theological disputes, by the Portuguese Father Francis Sodrez, S.J. (Lisbon, 1626), and a compendium of the metaphysics, by Father Gregorio Iturria, S.J. (Madrid, 1901).
Descamps or Deschamps, Vida del Y. P. Francisco Sudrez de la Compatiia de JesTis ... (2 vols.. Perpignan, 1670-1671). It ia the moat complete biography of Sudrez; Massei. Vita di Venerabili servi di Dio et esimio teologo P. Francesco Sudrez . . . (Rome. 1687); SArtolo (BehnaRdo), El eximio Doctor y Vene- rable Padre Francisco Sudrez . . . (Salamanca, 1693); Ribeiro de Vasconcellos, Francisco Sudrez. Colle^ao de documentos, (Coim- bra. 1897) ; Werner. Franz Sudrez u. die Scholastik der letzten Jahrhunderte (JiSiiAshoa, 1S61): Hurter, Nomenclator. I. no. 115 (Innsbruck, 1892); Sommervogel. Bibliothique. VII, 1661-87; CoLERlDQE in The Month (1865), 53-67, 172-185.
A. Perez Goyena. Subcinctorium. See Maniple.
Subdeacon. — The subdiaconate is the lowest of the sacred or major orders in the Latin Church. It is defined as the power by which one ordained as a sub- deacon may carry the chalice with wine to the altar, prepare the necessaries for the Eucharist, and read the Epistles before the people (Ferraris, op. cit. infra, No. 40). According to the common opinion of theolo- gians at present, the subdeaconship was not instituted by Christ, nor are there any sufficient grounds for maintaining that it had an .Vpostolic origin. There is no mention of the subdiaconate in Holy Scripture or in the authentic WTitings of the .\postolic Fathers. These autliorities make reference only to bishops, priests, and deacons. At the Council of Benevento (a. d. 1091), Urban II says: "We call sacred orders the deaconshiij and priesthood, for we read that the primitive Church had only these orders" (Can. I). Gratian (Dist. 21) says: "In the course of time, the Church herself instituted subdeacons and acolytes". It is true th.at the Council of Trent (Sess. XXIII, cap. 17, de rcf.) says that "the functions of Holy orders from the deaconship to the ostiariatc were laudably
sanctioned in the Church from the times of the Apos-
tles" ; but these words simply indicate that the "func-
tions" were so exercised (that is as part of the diaco-
nate); it was only in the course of time that they were
separated from the office of deacon and committed
to inferior ministers. This explains whj- some theolo-
gians (e. g. Thomassinus, p. I, lib. II, cap. xl) speak
of the subdeaconate as of Divine institution, that is
they look on it as made up of functions proper to
deacons. Gasp.arri (op. cit. infra, I, No. 35) says:
"The Church, in the institution [of the subdeacon-
ship] proceeded thus. She wished to commit to
others the inferior functions of the order of diaconate,
both because the deacons, with the increase of the
faithful, could not suffice for their many and grave
duties, and because she wished that others, received
among the clergy- and marked with the clerical ton-
sure, should ascend through minor orders, only after
trial, to major orders. Imitating the Divine Law of
the first three grades (bishop, priest and deacon), she
decreed that the power of performing these functions
should be conferred by external rites similar to those
by which major orders were bestowed."
The subdiaconate is most probably, some say cer- tainly, not a true sacrament, but a sacramental in- stituted by the Church. If it can not be repeated, this is because the Church has so wished, for she could institute a sacramental similar to a sacrament exter- nally without thereby obliging us to hold that it im- prints an indelible character on the soul of the re- cipient. Wernz (op. cit. infra, No. 158) says: "Since ordinations below the deaconship are most prob- ably not true sacraments, but rather sacramentals, they do not imprint the true sacramental character, hence, if they are conferred validly, they give a power of order instituted solely by human law and circum- scribed by its limits."
Historically, the earliest mention of the subdiaco- nate seems to be fountl in the letter of Pope Cornelius (a. d. 255) to Fabius of Antioch, in which he states that there are among the Roman clergy forty-six priests, seven deacons, and seven subdeacons. There is nothing to indicate, however, that the subdiaconate is not older than the third centur\'. That there were subdeacons in the African Church in the same cent- ury is evident from the letters of St. Cyprian (e. g. ep. 8). The fourth Council of Carthage also mentions them in 398. The Synod of Elvira (305) in Spain does the same (c. 30). Their existence in the Oriental Church is testified to by St. Athanasius in 330 (ep. 2) and by the Council of Laodicea (can. 21) in 361. At present, among the Greeks and other orientals, as also formerly in the Western Church, subdeaconship is only a minor order. It hxs been counted among the major orders in the Latin Church, however, for nearly seven centuries. It seems to have been elevated to the rank of a sacred order in the thirteenth century, but it is impossible to fix the precise date. Urban II, at the close of the eleventh century, expressly limited the sacred orders to priesthood and diaconate, and in the middle of the twelfth century, Hugh of St. Victor still calls the, subdeaconship a minor order. But at the end of the twelfth century, Peter Cantor (De verbo mirifico) says that the subdiaconate h;id lately been made a sacred order. Early in the thirteenth century, Innocent III authoritatively declared that the subdeaconship was to be enumerated among the major orders and that subdeacons could be chosen to a bishopric without special dispensation (Cap. 9. x, de a>t., 1, 14). The reason for this change of discipline was prob.ably not because subdeacons were bound to celibacy, for this obligation began to be imposed upon them iri the Latin Church in the fifth and sixth cen- turies Ithus I.«o I in 446 (in c. 1, di.st. 32) and the Council of Orleans in 53S|, but more likely because their functions brought them so closely into the service of the altar.
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