Dist. 24, Part 2, Art. 1, Q. 3
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-p2-a1-q3
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### Question III. *Whether the characters of the different orders are essentially ordered.*

Thirdly it is asked whether the characters of the different orders are essentially ordered. And that they are, it seems:

1. Because the connection of one order to another is greater than that of an order to baptism, and the connection of the character of one order to the character of another is greater than to the baptismal character; but the ordering of the character of an order to the baptismal one is essential, as is said in the decretal *On the Unbaptized Presbyter*, book three: *An unbaptized person cannot be ordained* — whence, if he has in fact been ordained, he must be baptized and afterward ordained again through [each] order — therefore the character of an order presupposes the baptismal one by an essential ordering: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, order befits an order more than [it befits] number; but it is so in numbers, that a later number necessarily presupposes the prior one, and likewise in a figure a later [figure presupposes] the antecedent one — whence there is never a quaternary without a ternary, nor a tetragon without a trigon — therefore there is never a second grade without the first, nor a third without the second, and so of the rest.

3. Likewise, out of things formally diverse a unity cannot come to be unless they are ordered to one another; but all the orders render one complete ministry: therefore it is necessary that they be ordered to one another.

4. Likewise, if anyone were knowingly promoted to a later order, the prior one having been omitted, by that very fact he is suspended from the exercise [of the order], as is said in a decretal; but this would not be so unless it were required that order be preserved therein: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, wherever there are grades, an order must be posited; but in the Sacrament of order the different orders «are grades of spiritual offices», as is said in the *littera*: if therefore they are set in those grades through the characters, it seems that there is an essential order there.

**On the contrary:** 1. In those things in which there is an essential order, when the prior is destroyed, the posterior is destroyed; but when the prior order is not had, the posterior is nonetheless had, as is clear in those ordained by a leap, who are not to be re-ordained: therefore etc. The *major* is clear of itself; the *minor* is proved by what is said at distinction fifty-two, *Sollicitudo* etc., and in the *Extra*, *On a Cleric Ordained by a Leap*, *Tuae litterae* etc.

2. Likewise, characters stand in comparison as do the powers and acts of the orders, to which the orders are compared; but in those powers there is no order at all, as in the power of casting out demons and of carrying candles: therefore there is no order in such characters.

3. Likewise, in those things which regard the corporeal and the spiritual, the corporeal is prior to the spiritual; but exorcism denotes liberation from the vexation of spirits, whereas the acolythate regards the office of illumining: therefore the order of the acolyte is prior to that of the exorcist: therefore they are not rightly ordered, since the one is called the third order, the other the fourth.

4. Likewise, that which frees from evil is prior to that which enables for good; but in the second [order] there is enabling for good, in the third there is liberation from evil: therefore it seems that the third order is prior to the second. But thus it seems that there is no fixed order among these grades.

### Conclusion

> *Among the different orders there is an order of congruity, not of necessity.*

**I respond:** It must be said that there is an order of necessity and there is an order of congruity. If therefore we speak of the order of these ecclesiastical grades, it must be said that there is no necessary or essential ordering, on the ground that the later order can be had and received without the prior. But if we speak with respect to the ordering of congruity, then there is an order there, on the ground that for the *well-being* of the following ministry there is presupposed the order or power of the preceding ministry. — Just as, therefore, if someone wishes to proceed in an orderly way, he ought first to set down the *exordium*, then the *narration*, then the *argumentation*, and last the *conclusion*; yet, if he wished, he could begin from the later part, though not so orderly: so it must be understood in the orders. For since the lower orders minister to the *sacred* [orders], and the *sacred* orders minister to the *priesthood*, and the lower grade is prior in ascending, and the ministerial power is lower: it is clear that there is an order there, yet not of *necessity*, since the powers are diverse and can be obtained and had through themselves, though not so perfectly without the others.

There is therefore an order in these grades according to a greater approach to the last grade, namely the priesthood. Whence first a man is introduced into the church through the *doorkeeper*; second he is led by the hand through the *lector* of the Prophets; third he is aided through the *exorcist*, that he may be freed from evil; fourth he is roused through  the acolyte, that he may advance in good: then there are two other orders, which minister to the priest in the offering of the sacrifice.

And thus it is clear that there is there an order of congruity, not of necessity. Nor do those arguments to the contrary concerning the exorcist and the acolyte prevail, on the ground that all the orders denote a spiritual power, and on the ground that instruction precedes liberation from evil: and therefore it must be granted that there is an order there in the characters, but it is not an essential order. — Just as in the elements there is an order, yet an element or letter could be written before the last, and the first letter last, in a retrograde order in the writing, though nonetheless set in order after the writing: so too the orders can be received by descending or going back.

**To the arguments for the affirmative side:**

1. To that, then, which is objected concerning baptism, it must be said that it is not similar: because, as was touched on above in the treatise on baptism, and as was determined in the Council at Compendium [Compiègne], and as the decretal of Innocent, *On the Unbaptized Presbyter*, confirms — baptism is the foundation and gate of all the Sacraments, and since, the foundation not existing, nothing can be built upon it: therefore the baptismal character precedes the others by an essential order; it is not so in the others.

2. To that which is objected concerning numbers, it must be said that it is not similar: because a following number has the preceding one as a part of itself, but a following grade does not thus have the preceding one as a part of itself, but as disposing [it] by way of congruity.

3. To that which is objected, that out of many different things a unity does not come to be, it must be said that it is true that a unity does not come to be by essence, yet a unity comes to be by [being] a Sacrament, which is a unity in comparison to signifying one thing perfectly; and the Sacrament of order does not have an absolute unity in every mode, but by comparison, and for constituting this unity an essential dependence in the parts is not required.

4. To that which is objected there lastly concerning the leap and the grade, it must be said that those two arguments do not show that there is there anything but an order of congruity, as regards the integrity of the Sacrament; yet there is there an order of necessity, as regards the obligation of the precept, by which one is bound to be ordained in an orderly way by ascending, not by leaping.

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