Dist. 24, Part 1, Art. 2, Q. 4
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-q4
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### Question IV. *Whether order is one Sacrament, or several.*

Fourth and last it is asked, whether order is one Sacrament, or several. And that it is one, seems [true]:

1. By the division of the Sacraments, which are divided into seven: if therefore the others are not subdivided, it seems that order is one Sacrament.

2. Likewise, the Sacrament of union or of communion is one Sacrament: therefore by parity of reasoning also the Sacrament of order.

3. Likewise, from the same [source] is unity from which is perfection and completion; but the Sacrament of order has one completion, namely the priesthood, which completes all the preceding orders: therefore it is one Sacrament.

4. Likewise, «the more powerful any power is, the more it is united»: therefore the greater and more excellent a Sacrament is, the more it is one; but the Sacrament of order is excellent and sets the ordained in an excellent state: therefore etc.

**On the contrary:** 1. When the inferior is multiplied, the superior is multiplied; but the Sacrament is superior to order: therefore, since there are several orders, there are therefore several Sacraments.

2. Likewise, since the Sacrament of order is divided; either into integral parts, or into subjective. Not into integral, because no integral part receives the predication of the whole, but each ecclesiastical grade receives the predication of its whole [self]. If into subjective: then it returns to the same as before, that that Sacrament is multiplied.

3. Likewise, this Sacrament is ordained to the dispensing of the other Sacraments; but the other Sacraments differ in species: therefore the powers ordained to them must differ in species: therefore it seems that this Sacrament is multiplied through diverse species.

4. Likewise, priest with priest has agreement in the Sacrament of order; but priest with deacon has distinction and difference; it is established that [he has] not only a *material* [difference], therefore he has a *specific* difference: therefore, since each of these is a Sacrament, it seems that the Sacrament of order has diverse species of Sacraments.

### Conclusion.

> The Sacrament of order is one, yet it has several potestative parts, constituting one perfect Sacrament.

**I respond:** It must be said that the Sacrament of order is one, yet it has many parts, which do not multiply the Sacrament, for the reason that they are not wholly subjective parts, and yet they receive the predication of the whole, because they have in a certain way the nature of subjective parts; and such are potestative parts. Which most fittingly belong to order: both because order is called an ordered power, which by the ordering of many to one is rendered perfect, and each of them participates in the character of power, though not of perfection; and also because order concerns distinction in [its] parts, just as number [does]. Hence, just as the parts of a *number* in a certain way have the nature of *integrant* parts in this, that *coming together* in order they render a *perfect number*, as the parts of six constitute six, and yet *each part* of a number is a number: so all the grades of orders make one perfect Sacrament, and yet each grade is called an order. — And the arguments showing this Sacrament to be one are to be conceded, although some are not very cogent.

1. To that, then, which is objected, that when the inferior is multiplied etc.; it must be said that that is true in what has the nature of a *species* or of a *subjective* part only; it is not so in the matter at hand.

2. To that which is asked, whether it is divided into integral parts or subjective; it must be said that it is divided into potestative parts, which have the nature of both [kinds of] parts; whence, just as the division of the *analogous* holds a middle between the division of the *equivocal* and of the *univocal*: so such a division holds a middle between the division of the *universal whole* and of the *integral whole*.

3. To that which is objected, that it is ordained to the dispensing of the others; it must be said that it is principally ordained to the dispensing of the Sacrament of the altar, which is one.

4. To that which is objected concerning difference, it must be said that in a certain way it is *specific*, in a certain way not. For one species does not dispose to another, as one order disposes to another; and therefore there is not there a specific distinction, but nevertheless they are in some way distinguished; yet because they are ordained to one completion, therefore they make one Sacrament.

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