Orders, HOLY, an institution, regarded in the Greek and Roman churches as a sacrament, by which ministers are specially set apart for the service of religion. While some of the reformed churches altogether deny the distinction of ranks in the ministry, none of them admits more than three ranks, of bishop, priest, and deacon. But in the Roman and Greek churches a distinction is made between the major or holy orders and the minor orders. The major orders are those of bishop, priest, and deacon (see the articles under those heads). A fourth rank of sub-deacons is generally regarded as one of the major orders, but its functions closely resemble in their nature and their degree those of the deacon. Some theologians, it should be noted, regard the episcopate not as a separate order, but as the completion and extension of the priesthood. The minor orders in the Roman Church are four in number—those of door-keeper, reader, exorcist, and acolyte. To none of these orders is any vow of celibacy annexed. Some of their functions had their origin in the peculiar religious condition of the early church. Preparatory to the receiving of these orders candidates are initiated in the Tonsure (q.v.). In the Roman Church the sacrament of holy orders is held to produce an indelible character, and therefore to be incapable of being forfeited and of being validly repeated. The Greek Church has also the distinction of major and minor orders; but all the functions of the four minor orders of the Roman Church are united by the Greeks in one single order, that of reader (anagnostēs).
In the Anglican and other Reformed Episcopal churches the three higher orders of bishop, priest, and deacon are alone retained. An Anglican clergyman may be deprived of his benefice, or suspended by his bishop for various ecclesiastical offences. But, in the usual case of deprivation, the clergyman does not forfeit his status of priest or deacon, which can only be lost by deposition or degradation. A bishop may be deprived of his see by his metropolitan, with or without the co-operation of a synod of the bishops of the province, but it has been questioned whether he can be lawfully deprived of his orders as bishop. Till 1870 a clergyman of the Church of England could not become a member of the House of Commons (see CLERGY). In the Presbyterian and other non-episcopal churches the ceremony of ordination is not held to impart any indelible character. A minister found guilty of heresy or immorality is deprived of his office by deposition, by which his clerical status is forfeited. A minister deposed ceases altogether to be a minister, and is no more capable of any of the functions of the office than if he had never been ordained. There is nothing to prevent a minister of the Church of Scotland, or any Presbyterian or Independent church, from being a member of the British House of Commons.
The use of a ceremonial for ordination is traceable among the Jews, and the New Testament contains frequent reference to the specific ceremonial of 'laying on of hands' (Acts, vi. 1-7, xiii. 1-4, xiv. 23; 1 Tim. iv. 14, v. 22; 2 Tim. i. 6). In the Roman, the Greek, and the other eastern churches this rite of ordination is held to be sacramental, and it is reserved, at least as regards the major orders, exclusively to bishops. In extraordinary cases it was permitted to cardinals and to certain abbots to confer the minor orders. Considerable controversy exists among Catholic writers as to what are the essential portions (Materia Sacramenti) of the rite of ordination. Some place it in the 'imposition of hands,' some in the 'presentation of the instruments' symbolic of each order. As regards the validity of the rite of ordination, the mere fact of its being conferred by a bishop suffices; but there is not any part of the Roman discipline which is more jealously guarded by laws than the administration of orders. The candidate can only be lawfully ordained by 'his own bishop' (proprius episcopus), or with the authority of his own bishop, who is 'his own' in respect of birth, of domicile, of benefice, or of connection by personal service.
In the Church of England and other Reformed Episcopal churches the rules of the ancient canon-law are retained, by which no one could be ordained without previous examination of his fitness, or who was disqualified by bodily infirmity, illegitimacy, immorality, or simony, or who was unprovided with a title (i.e. an appointment to serve in some church) which should provide him with a maintenance; or who, being a candidate for deacon's orders, was under twenty, and for priest's, under twenty-four years of age; but the age for admission to deacon's orders is changed to twenty-three.
In other Reformed churches ordination is performed by the presbytery by imposition of hands, or by one or more ordinary ministers. Some smaller Protestant denominations have no ceremony of ordination whatever.