Dist. 25
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/25/q/bon-sent-IV-d25-littera
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### DISTINCTION XXV.

### Chapter I. *On those ordained by heretics.*

It is also wont to be asked whether heretics who have been cut off from the Church and condemned can hand on the sacred orders, and whether those ordained by them, when they return to the unity of the Church, ought to be reordained. — This question, perplexing and almost insoluble, is made so by the words of the doctors, who seem to disagree greatly. — For certain ones seem to hand down that heretics cannot give the sacred orders, nor can those who seem to be ordained by them receive grace. For Innocent says: «The clerics of the Arians are not to be received with the dignity of the priesthood or of any ministry; to whom he permits only baptism to be valid, which is received in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit». He says also that they «cannot give the Holy Spirit, whom they have lost»; and that «those ordained by heretics have a wounded head; and that he who has lost honor cannot give honor, nor did that one receive anything, since in the giver there was nothing that the other could receive». He also hands down that «to those coming from heretics only lay communion is to be granted by the imposition of hands, nor is any of them to be subrogated into clerical honor, even the least». Gregory also says that the consecration of the Arians is sacrilegious, when communion is received from their hand. Cyprian also says that all things whatsoever the heretics do are carnal, empty, and sacrilegious, and that their «altars are false and unlawful, their priesthoods and sacrifices sacrilegious», who «after the manner of apes, which, though they are not men, imitate the human form, claim for themselves the face and authority of the Catholic Church, though they themselves are not in the Church»; and though they are sacrilegious, they administer the priesthood and set up  an altar, though a sacrifice cannot be offered there, where the Holy Spirit is not; nor can the Lord be of profit to anyone through his prayers and supplications, who has himself violated God.

Jerome also asserts that «all things which are offered by heretics are defiled in the sight of the Lord; because, although they may seem holy in their own appearance, yet, because they have been touched by him who is polluted, all are polluted». The same: «God hates the sacrifices of heretics and casts them from himself; and as often as they are gathered in his name, he detests their stench and closes his nostrils». The same: «They offer sacrilegious bread» etc. Leo also testifies that «outside the Church neither are the priesthoods valid, nor the sacrifices true». The same also says: «Through a most cruel madness in the see of Alexandria the light of all the Sacraments has been extinguished: the oblation of the sacrifice has been cut off, the sanctification of the chrism has failed, and by the parricidal hands of the impious all the mysteries have withdrawn themselves». — By these and other testimonies it seems to be established that the ecclesiastical Sacraments, especially of the body and blood, of ordination and of confirmation, cannot be ministered through heretics.

But on the contrary others seem to hold that by heretics, even those cut off, the sacred orders, like baptism also, can be handed on; and that those returning from the heretics, who were ordained and baptized there, are not to be ordained again, just as they are not to be baptized again. Hence Augustine: «As to what some say concerning heretics even condemned: that the baptism which he received he does not lose who withdraws from the Church, but the right of giving which he received he does lose; it appears in many ways to be said vainly: first, because no cause is shown why he who cannot lose that baptism should be able to lose the right of giving it. For each is a Sacrament, and by a certain consecration each is given to a man, the one when he is baptized, and the other when he is ordained. Therefore it is not lawful in the Catholic Church to repeat either. For if at any time those coming from that side, even prelates, for the good of peace, the error of schism being corrected, have been received, and if it seemed needful that they should carry out the same offices which they were performing; they are not to be ordained again; but as baptism remained whole in them, so did ordination, because the fault had been in the cutting-off, which is corrected by the unity of peace, not in the Sacraments, which, wherever they are, are themselves. And when it seems expedient to the Church that their prelates, coming to the Catholic society, should not there administer their honors; yet the Sacraments of ordination are not taken away from them, but remain upon them; and therefore the hand is not laid upon them, lest an injury be done not to the man, but to the Sacrament itself. But as in baptism there is a right, whereby it can be given through them; so in ordination there is a right of giving, each indeed to their own ruin. But it is one thing not to have, another to have perniciously, another to have wholesomely». The same: «Concerning those who are separated from the unity of the Church there is now no question that they both have and can give; but they have perniciously and give perniciously, because they are outside the bond of peace. To neither Sacrament is injury to be done. As he who withdraws from unity does not rightly have, yet he has, and therefore it is not restored to him when he returns; so also he who withdraws from unity does not rightly give, yet he gives; and therefore, to him who receives from him, when he comes to unity it is not repeated». The same: «It is one thing not to have anything, another not to have it by right or to usurp it unlawfully. Therefore they are not for that reason no Sacraments of Christ and of the Church, because not only heretics but also all the impious use them unlawfully; but these men are to be corrected and punished, while those things are to be acknowledged and venerated». Likewise Gregory: «What you say, that he who has been ordained should be ordained again, is exceedingly ridiculous. For as one baptized once for all ought not to be baptized again; so he who has been consecrated once in the same order cannot be consecrated again». — By these and other authorities it seems to be asserted that in all the impious, even in heretics cut off and condemned, the Sacraments of Christ remain with the right of giving; for they can give, but perniciously, and those to whom they have given are not to be ordained again. Which things seem to run counter to the foregoing from the opposite side.

But some determine these matters thus. For they say that heretics, having received the priestly or episcopal unction, when they withdraw from the Church do indeed retain the right of giving baptism, but do not have the faculty of conferring the sacred orders, or of consecrating the dominical body, after they have been cut off and condemned by the Church; just as a degraded bishop does not have the power of bestowing the sacred orders, yet has not lost the faculty of baptizing. And what Augustine says is understood to be said of heretics who are divided from the truth of the faith and from the unity of doctrine not by the sentence of the Church, but by the depravity of their own understanding; who, although they are such, yet have the right of ordaining and consecrating. And those who are ordained by them before the manifest cutting-off, even if they have openly gone out with them and have been condemned by the sentence of the Church, nevertheless, if they return, are not to be ordained again. And wherever it is read concerning those ordained by heretics, that with those orders preserved they can minister, or are not to be ordained again; it is to be taken of such as these. For after they have been cut off and condemned by the judgment of the Church, they assert that the right of ordaining and consecrating is withdrawn from them, as from the degraded or the excommunicate.

— But others say that the Sacraments celebrated by heretics and by those cut off according to the form of the Church are true and valid, because in withdrawing from the Church they have not lost the right of giving and consecrating; and those who are thus ordained by heretics, when they return, are not to be ordained again. But those things which are done by heretics otherwise than in the Church are false and empty; and those who seem to be ordained by such receive not a gift, but a wound. And according to this  difference the doctors speak variously concerning these matters.

— Some say that the same Sacraments can be celebrated by heretics who have been cut off, which are celebrated by Catholics, if the form of the Church be preserved by them; and that, celebrated by them, they are true and valid as regards themselves, but as regards their effect false and empty, both in those who administer wickedly and in those who receive wickedly; therefore invalid and false, because what they promise and are believed to confer they do not bestow; they are also said to be condemnable, because they are unto judgment for those who unlawfully give or receive; they are also said to be polluted, not as regards themselves, but on account of the unworthy handling of the heretics. Therefore Gregory calls the communion of Arius an execration, and Innocent calls the ordination of Bonosus a condemnation, not that they are so in themselves, but because it makes wicked those who wickedly give or receive; just as Jerome also calls their sacrifices the bread of mourning, not as regards themselves, but as regards their effect. — Some however hand down that those heretics who were ordained in the Church have the right of ordaining and consecrating, even when they have been separated; but those who, placed in schism or heresy, have been ordained and anointed by them, lack that right, and therefore, when they wish to ordain, they inflict a wound rather than confer grace.

### Chapter II. *On simony, whence it is named, and what it is.*

But concerning simoniacs there is no doubt that they are heretics, who nevertheless before the sentence of degradation both ordain and consecrate. And although those are properly called simoniacs who, after the manner of Simon the magician, wish to purchase for a price the inestimable grace, and those who receive a price for a sacred ministry are to be called after the manner of Giezi the Giezite; yet all, both those who give and those who receive, are called simoniacs, and both are struck with the same sentence.

### Chapter III. *On those who are ordained by simoniacs knowingly, or not.*

Yet there is a difference between those who are ordained by simoniacs knowingly, and those who are ordained unknowingly. «For those who have knowingly permitted themselves to be consecrated by simoniacs, nay rather execrated, their consecration is wholly invalid. But those who are ordained by simoniacs, whom, when they are ordained, they do not know to be simoniacs, who at that time also are held as Catholics, their ordination is mercifully upheld».

### Chapter IV. *On those who say that they buy corporeal and not spiritual things.*

«But if any object that they do not buy consecrations, but the very things which come from consecration; they are proved to be utterly out of their senses. For whoever of these sells the one, without which the other is not had, leaves neither unsold».

### Chapter V. *On the distinction of simoniacs.*

But the distinction of the simoniacal heresy is threefold. For some are ordained simoniacally by simoniacs; others simoniacally by non-simoniacs; others non-simoniacally by simoniacs. Hence Pope Nicholas: «We have established a decree concerning the threefold simoniacal heresy, that is, concerning simoniacs who ordain or are ordained simoniacally, and concerning simoniacs ordained simoniacally by non-simoniacs, and concerning simoniacs ordained non-simoniacally by simoniacs. Let simoniacs simoniacally ordained, or the ordainers, fall from their proper grade according to the canons; let simoniacs also who have been ordained simoniacally by non-simoniacs likewise be removed from office; but simoniacs ordained non-simoniacally by simoniacs we mercifully permit to remain in office through the imposition of hands, for the necessity of the time». «Which is to be understood of those who are ordained by simoniacs without knowing that they are simoniacs. It is not the guilt of the crime that makes these simoniacs, but the ordination of the simoniac».

### Chapter VI. *On those who are ordained by force by heretics or simoniacs.*

Likewise, when Pope Alexander decrees «that simoniacs are wholly to be condemned and deposed», it is to be understood by implication: unless someone has been drawn in by force. «For concerning these, and those ordained by force by any heretics whatsoever, Innocent says that they can have some color of excuse, if they immediately depart from them and renounce their most wicked conventicle». Concerning the age of those to be ordained Pope Nicholas decreed thus: «The sacred canons, he says, have ordained that a subdeacon be not ordained before fourteen years, nor a deacon before twenty-five, nor a presbyter before thirty.  Then, if he be worthy, he can be chosen to the episcopate»; which we also command to be observed in like manner. Likewise Fabian: «If anyone has not completed thirty years of age, let him in no way be ordained presbyter, even if he be very worthy»; «because the Lord himself also was baptized at thirty years, and so began to teach».

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