Dist. 24, Part 1, Art. 2, Q. 2
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/24/q/bon-sent-IV-d24-p1-a2-q2
----------------------------------------
### Question II. *Whether order is a sacrament.*

Secondly it is asked whether order is a sacrament. And that it is, is shown:

1. By the division of the sacraments, which are held to be seven, among which order too is numbered, which division was given above, in the second distinction.

2. Likewise, in the Church there is an ordained power, which

is manifested through certain signs and confirmed by divine institution, and this is a sacred thing; but these [features] state the complete account of a sacrament: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, that is most properly a sacrament which most consecrates a person to God in the very receiving of it; but such is ecclesiastical order, whence too they are called priests who attain the supreme grade — therefore order is most of all a sacrament.

4. Likewise, that is most powerfully a sacrament through which the other sacraments are conferred and dispensed; but such is the sacrament of order: therefore among the rest it seems to be the preeminent sacrament.

**On the contrary:** 1. Every sacrament is an element or sign that offers itself to the senses, but order is something relative: therefore order is not a sacrament.

2. Likewise, every sacrament is [given] as a medicine according to the state of fallen nature; but order is for perfecting certain persons — whence none are ordained except those who in some way wish to undertake the works of perfection — therefore order falls short of the account of a sacrament.

3. Likewise, in the angels there is order; and yet it does not hold the account of a sacrament: therefore by parity of reasoning neither in the lower hierarchy. If you say that it is not similar, because there [all] is wholly spiritual; the objection is raised concerning laymen, who belong to the Church and receive the sacraments and have order and power and signs of power, as a king has scepter and purple and crown; and yet such order is not a sacrament.

4. Likewise, order regards what is inferior just as [what is] superior, because, when either is destroyed, order is destroyed; but order with respect to subjects is not a sacrament: therefore neither with respect to the others. The minor is evident, because, since all are either subjects or prelates, all would have the sacrament of order; which is manifestly false.

5. Likewise, in the celestial hierarchy there is «order, knowledge, and action», as blessed Dionysius holds: therefore, if the Church ought to correspond to it, it likewise seems that [the same] is in the human [hierarchy]. But knowledge and action are not counted among the sacraments: therefore neither is order.

### Conclusion

> **Conclusion.** *A sensible sign, by which is conferred the ordained spiritual power that is rightly called order, is a sacrament.*

**I respond:** For the understanding of the aforesaid it must be noted that "order" is said in two ways. In one way order is called the very relation of those set in order, as prelacy and subjection; and this is not called, nor is it, a sacrament. In another way order is called an ordained power, according to which the empowered subject itself can be ordered in two ways, namely to a work or to a ministry, and it also has [the capacity] to be ordered toward another; and this power we call the sacrament of order.

And this must necessarily be posited in the Church for the sake of governance and comeliness, which are attended to by order, as was seen earlier, wherefore there ought to be order in the Church. — But the more principal reason why this power ought to be conferred by way of a sacrament is on account of the dignity of the sacraments, which are dispensed in the Church and in which God is worshipped; and lest these come into contempt, they ought not to be committed to all to be dispensed, but to special persons; and while there is committed to these what is not given to others, there is given to these a power by which they are established in the Church of God by a special order. And since these had to be marked off from others by certain signs; and this sign is of a sacred thing: therefore this power had to be ordained by way of a sacrament; and that is most fitting. For since it is for the ordained distribution of the sacraments, the ministers had to be ordained for this by the reception of some sacrament, in which a power is given, by which the ministers of God are ordered both to minister and also among themselves; therefore it is rightly called order. — These things seen, the objections to the contrary are easily settled.

1. As to what is objected, that it is an element; it must be said that in the conferral of this power there is some sign externally, which in a broad sense is called an element, since [element] is taken in a broad and extended sense in the definition of a sacrament.

2. To what is objected concerning medicine, it must be said that order is not only [given] as a medicine with respect to the recipient, but also with respect to others; whence it most holds the account of a sacrament. Nor does that stand in the way which is said, that it ought to be given to the perfect; since no one is found so perfect that he cannot be further perfected. Whence anyone receiving this sacrament receives some grace, if he receive worthily, by which is removed the difficulty of ministering in those things which pertain to the worship of God.

3. To what is objected, that order is in the angels and in laymen; it must be said that in both cases the account of a sacrament is lacking: for there are two things which constitute a sacrament, namely a sensible sign, and

a spiritual or sacred thing signified; by reason of the first it is lacking in the angels, who are wholly spiritual; by reason of the second it is lacking in laymen, in whom order is regarded with respect to earthly power, which regards the goods of nature or of fortune of a particular person or of the republic; but in the ecclesiastical hierarchy both occur.

4. To what is objected, that order regards the inferior, etc.; it must be said that he objects concerning order insofar as it states a relation, but in this way it is not a sacrament, but insofar as it states a power, upon which that relation is founded; and this places something in those who are preferred by something given to them, but nothing in those who are subjected.

5. To what is objected, that knowledge and action do not state a sacrament; it must be said that knowledge and action are annexed [to it], and order is the principal thing; whence when order is posited to be a sacrament, the other two are included together; and that was touched on above, when treating of the power of the keys.

---