THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDECH
A Defence of the Catholic Priesthood
by Michael Davies
1979 AND 1993
Appendix VI
Papal Documents Relating to Anglican Orders
The translations of documents A to C are taken from The Popes and the Ordinal by Fr.
A. S. Barnes (published in 1896). The numbering of the paragraphs in
the text of Apostolicae Curae
was not in Father Barnes' version but has been added to correspond with
the numbering in the various translations published by the C.T.S. The
documents contained in this appendix are:
A) Faculties issued to Cardinal Pole by Pope Julius III in
1554.
B) The Bull Praeclara
Charissimi
(1555) of Pope Paul IV.
C) Declaratory Brief of Pope Paul IV (1555).
D) The Bull Apostolicae Curae (1896)
of Pope Leo XIII. Click HERE.
E) Letter of Pope Leo XIII to Cardinal Richard of
Paris
explaining the authority of the Bull (1896).
A). Faculties Issued by Pope Julius III to
Cardinal Pole, 8 March
1554
Beloved Son, etc.,
Some time ago when it was hoped that England, which had been separated
from the Catholic Church, might return to the sheepfold of the Lord and
the unity of the Church:
We appointed you our Legatus a latere
to Queen Mary and the whole kingdom, and conceded faculties to you for,
among other things, granting full absolution, etc., to all persons of
either sex, both clerical and lay, and if the former whether secular or
belonging to any of the religious orders, in whatsoever orders they
might be, even Holy Orders; and whatsoever rank, as of bishops, etc.,
they might hold: who had professed any heresy or attached themselves to
any new sect; on their acknowledging their errors and grieving for
them, and begging to be received back into the orthodox faith:
And further, (we gave you permission) to grant them dispensations from
all irregularity they might have incurred . . . so that provided that
before their lapse into heresy they had been rightly and lawfully
promoted or ordained, they might minister even in the ministry of the
altar, and that in cases where they had not been so promoted they might
now be promoted to all the orders, including Holy Orders and the
priesthood, by their own ordinaries, provided they were found to be
worthy and fitting subjects.
Besides these, we gave you other faculties by various letters, some
under the Seal, and some in the form of Briefs, as in those letters is
more fully set out.
Now, therefore, since you are now in Flanders, and likely to remain
there some little time, and since doubts have been raised, perhaps over
scrupulously, as to whether you can, while in those countries, use the
aforesaid and other faculties which have been granted to you, and
substitute and delegate the ordinaries of places in England, and other
persons who are properly qualified, to use the faculties granted to
you:
We by these presents do grant to your discretion full and free
Apostolic authority, faculty, and power, so long as you remain in those
parts, and your Legation continues, even while outside the Kingdom of
England, to use all the said faculties, and all others which have been
granted to you, and also those which are granted to you by these
presents: on behalf of all Archbishops, Bishops, and other inferior
clergy, and also on behalf of other persons who come or send to you in
Flanders, with regard to Orders by them not at all or unduly received,
and with regard to the gift of consecration conferred upon them by
other Bishops and Archbishops who were heretics or schismatics, or
otherwise unduly and not according to the Church's form, and this
notwithstanding that they have rashly exercised such orders and
consecration, even in the ministry of the altar . . . And further,
freely
and lawfully to grant dispensations to those who have received
Cathedral and Metropolitan Churches from the hands of laymen and
schismatics, so that they may preside freely and lawfully as Bishops
and Archbishops over such Cathedral Churches, or over others to which
they may be lawfully translated, and may rule and govern such Churches
both in spirituals and temporals, and may use the gift of consecration
which they have received, or, in cases in which they have not yet
received it, may now receive it from Catholic Bishops or Archbishops to
be nominated by you:
And likewise to any who have already been temporally absolved and
rehabilitated, so that, their past errors and excesses notwithstanding,
they may freely and lawfully be appointed to any Cathedral or
Metropolitan Church, and may rule and govern such Churches as Bishops
or Archbishops, both in spirituals and temporals,
and may be promoted to any orders, including Holy Orders and the
priesthood, and may minister in them, or in orders which they have
already though unduly received, even in the ministry of the altar, and
likewise may receive the gift of consecration and use the same: All
this notwithstanding, etc., etc.,
Given at Rome at St. Peter's under the Ring of the Fisherman, 8 March
1554. In the fifth year of our Pontificate.
B). The Bull "Praeclara
Charissimi" of Pope Paul IV in 1555
Paul, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God. For the perpetual memory
hereof.
The eminent piety towards God of the illustrious (sovereigns), Our most
dear son in Christ, Philip, King, and of Our most dear daughter in
Christ, Mary, Queen of England and France: their sincere devotion to
this Holy See and their singular zeal in the recent bringing back of
the Kingdom of England to the Unity of the Church, to the profession of
the true Faith, and to the obedience of Us and of the Roman Pontiff,
rightly move Us that We should confirm with the force of Our
approbation those measures which have issued from Apostolic authority
for the peace and tranquillity of the said Kingdom . . . The aforesaid
Reginald, Cardinal and Legate . . . has used the dispensing power in
favour of several ecclesiastical persons, both seculars and regulars of
the various orders, who by the pretended authority of the supremacy of
the English Church had in a way which is null and de facto obtained
various grants, dispensations, favours, and indults concerning orders
as well as ecclesiastical benefices or other spiritual matters and who,
upon their repentance, had been restored to the Unity of the Church
that they might be able to remain in their orders and benefices, and he
has offered to dispense with others who labour under the like
disqualification.
We, deeming that the reconciliation of the said Kingdom, upon which
depends the salvation of so many souls bought by the most Precious
Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the peace and tranquillity of the
kingdom itself in the profession of the true Faith and the unity of the
Catholic Church, ought not to be disturbed by any affection for earthly
things, and having considered and diligently discussed the foregoing
with several of Our brethren, the Cardinals of the Roman Church, and
having had thereupon mature deliberation, all the dispensations,
decrees, confirmation, remission, relaxation and will of Reginald
Cardinal and Legate, and as they concern all and each by the said
Reginald Cardinal and Legate in the foregoing done and executed and in
the said letters contained.
Provided always that those who have been promoted to major as well as
minor ecclesiastical Orders, by any other person than a bishop or an
archbishop duly and rightly ordained shall be bound to receive the said
Orders anew from their ordinary, and shall not in the meanwhile
minister in the said Orders.
We, by the aforesaid Apostolic authority and with certain knowledge
approve and confirm, and give to them the full and perpetual force of
inviolable stability, making good all and singular defects of law or of
fact, if any such there should be in the same, and We decree all these
things to be valid and efficacious, and to have their full effect. And
notwithstanding, as a more ample precaution, We, by the same Apostolic
Authority and as a special act of grace, dispense anew with all those
things with which the said Reginald Cardinal and Legate as
aforementioned has dispensed in the manner and form aforesaid; but so
that those who have been promoted to the aforementioned Orders by any
other person than a bishop or archbishop ordained as before mentioned,
shall be bound to receive these Orders anew as aforementioned, and in
the meantime, as We have said, shall not minister.
And all those things which the aforesaid Reginald Cardinal Legate has
decreed, We decree, and to all things to which he has given the force
of Apostolic stability, We also give the same force. . . .
Given at Rome at St. Mark's, in the year of the Incarnation of Our Lord
One Thousand Five Hundred and Fifty-five. The XII Kalends of July, and
the first year of Our Pontificate.
C). Declaratory Brief of Pope Paul IV
For the future memory hereof.
Presiding, by the disposition of the
Lord, albeit with merits insufficient, over the Government of the
Universal Church, We gladly consider those things whereby all
ecclesiastical persons may be enabled to minister with pure heart and
sound conscience in the orders which they have received.
And whereas lately Our beloved son, Reginald Pole, Cardinal Deacon of
S. Maria in Cosmedin, Legatus a latere
of Us and of the Apostolic See
in the Kingdom of England, has used the dispensing power in favour of
several ecclesiastical persons, seculars and regulars, of the various
orders, who, by the pretended authority of the supremacy of the English
Church had, in a way which is null and de facto, obtained various
grants, dispensations, favours, and indults concerning orders as well
as ecclesiastical benefices or other spiritual matters, and who, upon
their repentance, had been restored to the unity of the Church, so that
they might be able to remain in their orders and benefices, and that he
has offered to dispense with others who labour under the like
disqualification.
We, by Our other letters under seal executed, have approved and
confirmed all dispensations of this kind and all and singular matters
as they concern the same, by the said Reginald, Cardinal and Legate in
the aforesaid done and executed, and contained in the letters of the
said Reginald, Cardinal and Legate, issued thereupon, provided that
those who had been promoted to Orders, major as well as minor, by any
other person than a bishop or archbishop duly and rightly ordained
should be bound to receive the said Orders anew, from their ordinary,
and should not in the meantime minister in these Orders, and by a
special act of grace We have dispensed-----as in Our
aforesaid letters as well as those of the same Reginald,
Cardinal and Legate, is more fully set forth-----with
all those with whom
the Lord Reginald, Cardinal and Legate as aforesaid, had dispensed, in
the manner and form (aforesaid), provided that those promoted to Orders
aforesaid by any other person than a bishop or an
archbishop ordained as aforesaid should be bound to receive the said
Orders anew as aforesaid, and in the meantime, as aforesaid, should not
minister.
But whereas, as by several it has been lately notified to Us, that
doubt has arisen as to what bishops or archbishops, during the course
of the schism in the said Kingdom, can be said to be duly and
rightly ordained, We, desiring to wholly remove such doubt, and to
provide opportunely for the peace of conscience of those who
during the aforementioned schism were promoted to Orders, by clearly
stating the meaning and intention which We had in our said letters,
(declare) that it is only those bishops and archbishops who were not
ordained and consecrated in the form of the Church that can not be said
to be duly and rightly ordained, and therefore the persons promoted by
them to these Orders have not received Orders, but ought and are bound
to receive anew the said Orders from their ordinary according to the
tenor and content of Our aforesaid letters; and that those on whom
Orders were conferred by bishops or archbishops ordained and
consecrated in the form of the Church-----even
though the said bishops and
archbishops were schismatics and had received in times past the
Churches over which they preside from the hand of Henry VIII, and
Edward VI, pretended Kings of England-----have
received the character of
the Orders bestowed on them, and lack only the execution of the said
Orders, and therefore the dispensation granted to them by Us and
Reginald, Cardinal and Legate, has fully rehabilitated them to the
execution ,
of these Orders, so that they may freely minister in the same even
without their receiving these Orders anew from their ordinaries,
according to the tenor of Our aforesaid letters, and that they are to
be so considered by all and so adjudged by all whomsoever by whatsoever
authority. And if otherwise in these matters shall happen to be
attempted wittingly or unwittingly by whomsoever by whatsoever
authority. We declare it to be null and void, the foregoing and
Apostolic constitutions and ordinances and other things to the contrary
notwithstanding.
Given at Rome at St. Mark's on the 30th day of
October, 1555.
D) The Bull Apostolicae
Curae (1896) of Pope Leo XIII. Click HERE.
E). The Letter of Leo XIII to Cardinal Richard on
the Authority of the
Bull
It is still, to some extent, a disputed question whether the
Bull is to be ranked as an infallible document or not. That it is final
and irreformable all theologians are agreed, and the distinction
between such a decision and one that is formally infallible does not
seem easy to draw.
Some theologians were inclined to argue at first that it was evident
from the absence of certain customary expressions in the wording of the
Bull that the Holy Father could not have intended to use his full
power, and that, therefore, it was lawful for Catholics to minimize, as
far as possible, the force of his words. Pope Leo XIII subsequently
made his intention very clear by the following letter to Cardinal
Richard which was published in the
Acta
Sanctae Sedis.
To our well-beloved Son, Francis Mary, Cardinal Richard, Archbishop of
Paris.
Beloved Son, salutation and Apostolic benediction.
Taking heed, as Our office is, to religion and the eternal salvation of
souls among the English, We have lately put forth, as you know, the
Constitution Apostolicae Curae. It was Our intention thereby to deliver
a final judgment and to settle absolutely that most grave question
about Anglican Orders, which indeed was long since lawfully defined by
Our predecessors, but by Our indulgence was entirely reheard. And this
We did with such weight of argument and in such clear and authoritative
tones that no prudent or right-minded man could possibly doubt what Our
judgment was, and so all Catholics were bound to receive it with the
utmost respect, as being finally settled and determined without any
possible appeal. We must, however, confess that certain Catholics have
not so responded to it, a matter which has caused Us no little sorrow.
We have written this to you, beloved Son, because it especially applies
to a certain journal called the
Revue
Anglo-Romaine, published in Paris. There are some among its
writers who, instead of defending and illustrating this Constitution,
try instead to weaken it by explaining it away. Wherefore you must see
that nothing is put forth in this journal which is not in full
accordance with Our Statements, and it will certainly be better for it
to cease and be silent rather than to bring difficulties against these
excellent statements and decisions.
In like manner, whereas certain Englishmen who dissent from the
Catholic religion, appeared to be enquiring of Us in the spirit of
sincerity what was the truth about their ordinations, but received that
truth when We had declared it to them before God in a very different
spirit, it clearly follows that the Catholics, of whom we have spoken,
at least all the religious men amongst them, should know what their
duty is. For it is no longer right or fitting for them to join in or
assist in any way the plans of such people, for by so doing they might
cause no small hindrance to the spread of religion which they desire.
We therefore willingly confide these serious matters, beloved Son, to
your tried prudence and wisdom, and as an auspice of Divine gifts and a
proof of Our special goodwill towards you We affectionately impart to
you the Apostolic bendiction.
Given at Rome at St. Peter's, the fifth day of November, 1896, in the
nineteenth year of our pontificate.
Leo PP. XIII
BACK
-------Contact Us-------NEXT
www.catholictradition.org/Eucharist/
melchisedech-appx6.htm