HIERARCHY
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HIERARCHY
should admit this theorj'; but formerly, especially in
the case of the ordination of the bishops of Home, the
practice of the Church was different. The title Dc
septem ordinibus, which we read in the editions of the
Council of Trent (Sess. XXIII, De sacramento ordinis
cap. ii), is an addition of a later period, and the coun-
cil expressly declares that bishops have a power of
order superior to that of priests. The Greek I'niat
Church, as a general rule, only coimts two grades of
ecclesiastical institution: the subdiaconate and the
lectorship. Nevertheless, ordination to the subdia-
conate implies also the minor orders of acolyte and
porter, and ecclesiastical tonsure is given when the
bishop confers the lectorship. The order of exorcist
is in reality the only one not known to the Greek
Church. It considers the power of exorcising as a
special gift of Divine goodness, not as something ac-
quired by ordination. By the Constitution "Etsi
pastoralis" Benedict XIV derogated from the deci-
sion of Innocent IV, and completely approved the
discipline of the Greek Church on this matter (Papj>-
Szilagyi, "Enchiridion juris Ecclesia; Orientahs ca-
tholics;", Grosswardein, 1802, 405-7). It is probable
that no other minor orders were originally known to
the Greek Church. In Christian antiquity, it is true,
especially among the Greek Christians, we meet with
many subordinate functionaries, e. g. singers ("can-
tores", or " confe-ssores ") ; "parabolani", who cared
for the sick; "copiata?" (fossores), or sextons who
buried the dead; defensores", who attended to ec-
clesiastical trials; notaries and archivists; "her-
meneuta;", or interpreters, whose duty it was to
translate for the people the Scriptures, also the
homilies of the bishop; with these, however, there
is not question of orders, but of functions entrusted,
without ordination, either to clerics or lapnen (Bene-
dict XIV, "De Synodo Dicecesana", VIII, ix, n. 8;
Gasparri, "op. cit.", I, vii).
B. Hierarchy of Jurisritction. — In the hierarchy of jurisdiction the episcopate and the papacy are of Divine origin ; all the other grades are of ecclesiastical institution. According to the ^'atican Coimcil the Bishop of Rome, as successor of St. Peter, has been established by Christ as the visible head of the whole Church militant, and possesses a real primacy of juris- diction, in virtue of which he has supreme power of jurisdiction over the imiversal Church in matters of faith, morals, discipline, and the government of the Church. This power is ordinary' and immediate over all the Churches, and over each one in particular, over all the pastors and faithful, collectively and individ- ually (Const, de Eccl. Christi. cap. i-3). The gov- ernment of the Church is strictly monarchical. The bishops are the successors of the Apo.stIes, but do not inherit their personal prerogatives, such as universal jurisdiction and infallibility (Cone. Trid., vSess. XXIII. De sacramento ordinis, cap. iv). The pope is bound to establish bishops who enjoy genuine ordmary power in the Church (potestas ordinaria), and who are not merely his delegates or vicars, as some medieval theologians held. On the other hand, the theorv' pro- posed in the fifteenth centurv- at the Councils of Con- stance and Basle, which made the pof)e subject to an oecumenical council: the Gallican theorj', that would impose limits on his power by the ancient canons received in the Church, and requiring the acceptance or consent of the Church before his decisions could become irreformable ; and the theory- of Febronius, who maintained that the Holy See had usurped many rights which properly belonged to the bishops and that ought to be restored to them, are all equally false and opposed to the monarchical constitution of the Church (see G.\llic.\nism; Febroxi.^nusm). .\n oecumenical council does, indeed, possess .sovereign authority in the Church, but it cannot be oecumenical without the pope.
It will suffice to mention the now universally re-
jected opinion of Gerson and a few other doctors of the
University of Paris in the Middle Ages, who held that
parish priests were of Divine institution, being (in this
opinion) the successors of the (72) disciples of Christ.
This opinion was defended, in more recent times, by
certain Jansenists, by ^'an Espen, and a few other
canonists (Houwen, "De parochorum statu", Lou-
vain, 18-J8, 7 sqq.).
The composition of the hierarchy of jurisdiction in the (Western) Catholic Church is indicated, in sum- niarj' form, as follows. By virtue of his primacy, supreme authority over the whole Church belongs to the pope, who is at the same time Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, metropolitan of the ecclesias- tical province of Rome, and bishop of the city of Rome. In the actual discipline of the Church, the cardinals hold .second place. They are the pope's advisers in the more important matters concerning the universal Church, and exercise their jurisdiction in the various congregations, tribunals, and offices insti- tuted by the pope for the government of the imiversal Church. (For the recent reorganization of the Roman Curia and the Roman Congregations, see articles under those headings; and cf. the "Sapienti Consilio" of Pius X, 29 June, 1908.) Next in order come the patriarchs. The Councils of Nica-a (325), of Constan- tinople (-381), of Chalcedon (451) recognized in the Bishop of Rome for the West, in those of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople for the East, overthe territories included within their patriarchates, a jurisdiction higher than that of archbishops. The four Eastern patriarchates, as a con.sequence of the Mohammedian invasion and the Greek schism, gradu- ally lost communion with Rome, but were re-estab- lished in the Latin Rite at the time of the Crusades.
After the Fall of Constantinople (1453) the Holy See contented itself with nominating for these sees four titular patriarchs resident in Rome; however, since 1847, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem resides in that city. Besides the.se ancient or "greater" patri- archs there are. in the Latin Rite, minor patriarchs, whose title is purely honorary. They are: the Patri- arch of Venice (formerly Patriarch of Grado); the Patriarch of the West Indies, who resides in Spain; the Patriarch of the Ea.st Indies (.Vrchbishop of Goa); and the Patriarch of Lisbon. The Patriarchate of Aquileia was suppressed in 1751.
In the A\'est the dignity of primate corresponds to that of exarch in the East, ^^■ith the exception of the Primate of Gran (Strigonenxis) in Hungarj', primates have a mere pre-eminence of honour over metropoli- tans. Among the primates are the Archbishop of Salzburg (Germany), Prague (Bohemia), Gnesen- Posen and A\'arsaw (Poland), Toledo and Tarragona (Spain), Rouen (France), Armagh (Ireland), Venice (for Dalmatia), Mechlin (Belgium), and Carthage (.\frica). Metropolitans, on the other hand, have real rights over the bishops within their ecclesiastical province, and o\er the province itself. The bishops subject to their jurisdiction are called episcoin com- pronncinles or pronnciatca, also sufjraganei or suffra- gans. Since the sixth century metropolitans have been also known as archbishops, which title they share with titular archbishops. By this term are meant arch- bishops who administer a dioce.sc but have no suffra- gans, also archbi.shops merely titular, i. e. who have no jurisdiction, but only the title of some extinct arch- diocese. Metropolitans are obliged at stated times to summon provincial sjmods, to legislate for the whole province.
.After the archbishops come the bishops, who of Divine right administer the dioceses entrusted to them by the Holy See, which may determine or in a measure limit their rights. If they are not subject to the au- thority of an archbishop, they are known as exempt bishops, and are directly subject to the Holy See. Besides the diocesan bishops there are also titular
