THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDECH A Defence of ... - Rore Sanctifica

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threefold ecclesiastical ministry as it had existed in this country hitherto but: . . . a ministry of the word and sacraments, and not, as hitherto, a sacrificial priesthood . . . Only thus can we reconcile Cranmer's statement that he intends to "continue" the threefold ministry with the patent fact that he at the same time draws up an entirely new rite of ordination, in which the sacrificial function, so prominent in the ancient rite, is not merely put into the background, but, as we shall see, is altogether excluded, and excluded in such a way as to make it plain that its exclusion is deliberate and is equivalent to a denial that any such powers belong to the Christian ministry. 5 As regards Cranmer's use of the word "continue", the Catholic Dictionary of Theology notes that: This ambiguous word could possibly mean "to keep on with an existing practice", but it also bears the meaning "to take up again; from a point of interruption", and it was exactly this taking up again from the apostolic age that Cranmer had in view . . . In his Miscellaneous Writings (p. 117) there is a paper he wrote in 1540 where in answer to a question he says: "In the New Testament he that is appointed to be a bishop or a priest needeth no consecration by the Scripture; for election or appointing thereto is sufficient." He puts the case that in some regions all bishops and priests have died, and says that it is not forbidden by God's law that the king of that region should make bishops and priests, so that the Word of God should not remain unpreached (ibid.). 6 Father Yarnold argues quite correctly that a false belief about what the Church does in a Sacrament does not by itself prove an absence of the intention to do what the Church does. This is a fact which is examined in Appendix II. Had Cranmer continued to use the Catholic rite, even his known heretical belief might not have been sufficient to invalidate his ordinations, but by introducing a rite intended to exclude the essence of the Catholic priesthood he made manifest and public his intention to do other than the Catholic Church does. As was shown in the last chapter, this was a factor of which Pope Leo XIII took full cognizance when pronouncing Anglican Orders to be invalid, and it is scarcely credible that Father Yarnold should have considered it worth raising in his pamphlet. Father Yarnold also advances the fact that the Edwardine Ordinal contains the words "be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God, and of his holy sacraments" as an argument in favour of the validity of Anglican Orders. 7 On the contrary, it indicates precisely the opposite. When considering the liturgical texts of the Protestant Reformers, it is essential to do so within their historical context and within the entire corpus of their writings. For example, it would be possible to extract certain statements by Cranmer to give the impression that he believed in the Real Presence in the Catholic sense but, as I have shown in Cranmer's Godly Order, such a procedure is not only dishonest but manifestly unjust to Cranmer. When a man is willing to die for a particular belief he should at least be given the credit for actually believing it. In 1530 the Emperor Charles V ordered the Lutheran princes to present a statement of their beliefs at a diet to be held at Augsburg. Accordingly, the famous Confession of Augsburg was drawn up. It was mainly the work of Philipp Melanchthon, but the text received Luther's approval. The Lutheran position was put in somewhat muted tones, in fact with deliberate ambiguity, in order to disguise the radical break from Catholic teaching. Article 5 was headed The Ecclesiastical Ministry and stated that there had been instituted "a ministry of teaching the gospel and of giving the sacraments (ministerium docendi evangelii et porrigendi sacramenta)". Superficially the statement appears to be orthodox, but it was clarified in the following year by Melanchthon, in his Apology for the Confession, when he set this phrase in specific opposition to the Catholic concept of a sacrificing priesthood. Our opponents (in other words the Catholics) understand the priesthood to be, not the ministry of
the word and the sacraments to others, but the power to offer sacrifice, as if it were necessary in the New Testament to re-establish the Levitical priesthood charged with sacrificing to obtain the forgiveness of sins. 8 The description of a minister as "a dispenser of the Word and sacraments" became firmly established in Protestant (not simply Lutheran) theology. In a scheme of Church government drawn up by Lutheran divines at Wittenberg in 1545, and subscribed to by Luther and Melanchthon among others, it is stated that: The mandate given in ordination should be to teach the Gospel and administer the sacraments, and not other works such as sacrificing for the living and the dead. 9 Calvin anathematized those who claimed that a priest was ordained to offer sacrifice. He insisted that: "True priests are ordained by the mouth of Jesus Christ to be dispensers of the Gospel and of the sacraments." 10 The phrase had achieved such notoriety that it was actually condemned by the Council of Trent in the canons anathematizing the Protestant heresy (see Canon III in Chap. II). The inclusion of this phrase in Cranmer's Ordinal can be construed as nothing other than a rejection of Catholic teaching on the priesthood, and yet Fr. Yarnold actually puts it forward as proof that Catholic teaching is safeguarded in this Ordinal! Fr. Yarnold's pamphlet is so replete with errors that it would require a disproportionate amount of space to deal with each one individually. Perhaps the most serious is his acceptance of a theory popular with Hans Küng and other Modernists, that there is an extraordinary means of entering the apostolic succession, simply by seeking to be faithful to the teaching of the Apostles. 11 Those who do so, it appears, automatically acquire valid Orders. This absurd hypothesis is dealt with in Appendix IV. Fr. Yarnold is also seriously at fault for failing to alert his readers to the fact that there is an influential body of opinion within the Church of England which holds the straightforward Protestant belief that there is no difference in essence between an ordained priest and a layman, and that there is no reason in principle why a layman should not preside at the Eucharist. As Chapter II establishes, there are Anglican ministers who believe that lay people should be allowed to preside at the Eucharist. This view was put very bluntly by the Reverend John Goldingay, Director of Studies at an Anglican theological college preparing students for the ministry. It would probably tax even Father Yarnold's ingenuity to reconcile Mr. Goldingay's position with that of Trent. There are no pointers in the New Testament that suggest it would be appropriate to concentrate any specific functions (such as presiding at the Eucharist) in one man . . . This is not to say that the creative contribution of a gifted leader will not be of key importance to the growth of a church; nor that a theologically equipped leader and teacher will not play a big part in the maturing of a church; nor that in our society a church may not function much more efficiently if it has a full-time stipendiary executive officer; nor even (for the sake of argument) that the presidency at the Eucharist may not be located at least normally in one particular person. It is rather to say that we should not look for all functions to be fulfilled by the same person, but rather that should be a genuinely corporate leadership of the local cl exercised by its elders. There is no place for the traditional concept of the clergyman. There is no theology of ordination. The emperor has no clothes. 12 Appendix VI contains the text of a letter sent by Pope Leo to Cardinal Richard of Paris. He explains that it was his intention to deliver a formal judgment on the question of Anglican Orders with his
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Page 5 and 6: In a gesture of scarcely credible a
Page 7 and 8: the sacramental significance and va
Page 9 and 10: The 1991 Vatican Response to ARCIC
Page 11 and 12: of those ordained each year. I wish
Page 13 and 14: as the same distinction (of a twofo
Page 15 and 16: 1. CCT, p. 330. Among the scriptura
Page 17 and 18: probably come as close as is possib
Page 19 and 20: Ordination, published in 1973 by th
Page 21 and 22: Chapter III New Ideas and Old Mista
Page 23 and 24: The situation described by Chestert
Page 25 and 26: vain; in vain, too, the coming of t
Page 27 and 28: Chapter IV Anglican Orders------Abs
Page 29 and 30: September 1555. The relevant sectio
Page 31 and 32: possible investigation. The origina
Page 33 and 34: operative words of the form do not
Page 35 and 36: Any words in the Anglican Ordinal,
Page 37 and 38: communion, we can know with infalli
Page 39 and 40: 13. CCAO, p. 8. 14. CCAO, pp. 24-28
Page 41: publications. Father Yarnold summar
Page 45 and 46: Chapter VI Agreement on the Ministr
Page 47 and 48: The Agreed Statement makes Apostoli
Page 49 and 50: ounty, sins are forgiven in virtue
Page 51 and 52: acceptable form of Church order. Th
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Page 55 and 56: The most objective manner of compar
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Page 59 and 60: The question it poses is whether a
Page 61 and 62: ishops in any other country had bee
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Page 65 and 66: Sacramentum Ordinis (see Chap. VII)
Page 67 and 68: Chapter IX Towards a Common Ordinal
Page 69 and 70: A priest is ordained within the his
Page 71 and 72: anything more than an appointment b
Page 73 and 74: Chapter X Blurring the Priesthood O
Page 75 and 76: XII, that most percipient of popes.
Page 77 and 78: Appendix I The Substance of a Sacra
Page 79 and 80: Pope Pius XII thus taught conclusiv
Page 81 and 82: Appendix II Ministerial Intention T
Page 83 and 84: intention is not necessary for the
Page 85 and 86: Observers, Canon Ronald Jasper. Bef
Page 87 and 88: is the way the Modernist mind opera
Page 89 and 90: office occurs as it was laid down a
Page 91 and 92: 6. Infallible? (London, 1972), pp.
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1. For a more detailed treatment of
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Metropolitan Churches from the hand
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Church-----even though the said bis
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Appendix VII Sacrifice and Priestho
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ecall the Old Testament from which
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590 when he was elected Peter's suc
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oportet) that there is in that Chur
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In these documents we meet always t
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Catholics to what they saw correctl
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international commission, clutching
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priestly ordination is central to t
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It seems somewhat unfair of Dr. Car
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Appendix IX The Revised Ordinal of
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The most evident manner of overcomi
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The Examination of the Candidate Th
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priest could have been made clear b
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Novissime vero Last of all, holy Fa
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Sic nationem so that all nations ga
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of the New Mass can be found. It is
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Mass.
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Communion is concerned, the norm fo
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Appendix XI The Form for the Ordina
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composed. In the new rite for the o
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