Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On the Clergy (Book I)
Chapter 12: On the Antiquity of the Orders
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Clericis (De Membris Ecclesiae, Book I), On the Clergy (On the Members of the Church, Book I). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
John Calvin speaks thus of the antiquity of the orders, especially the minor ones (Book IV Institutes, chapter 19, section 27): “They were unknown to the primitive Church, and devised many years afterward.” But that this opinion of Calvin is false, Clement and Ignatius, disciples of the Apostles, testify; for each of them mentions the orders. Clement (Book VIII of the Constitutions) declares the rites of almost all the orders, even the minor ones. And Ignatius (in the letter to the Antiochenes) concludes thus: “I salute your holy priest; I salute the holy deacons; I salute the subdeacons, lectors, cantors, doorkeepers, laborers, exorcists.”
Besides, in the time of Saint Cyprian all the orders were in the Church, nor yet did they then begin. For the authors of that time — who indeed were not far from apostolic times — speak of it as of an ancient thing, everywhere received. Cyprian (Book II, letter 10): “I have sent the same copies now also by Mettius the subdeacon, sent by me, and Nicephorus the acolyte.” In Book II, letter 5, and Book IV, letter 5, he writes that he ordained Aurelius and Celerinus lectors. In Book V, letter 14: “Lucian, a priest of the clergy, and an exorcist and lector, has written.” At the same time Saint Cornelius wrote a letter to Fabian of Antioch, from which are the words in Eusebius (Book VI of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 43): “He, then, who championed the Gospel did not know that in the Catholic Church there ought to be one bishop, where he saw that there were 46 priests, seven deacons, seven subdeacons, 42 acolytes, and exorcists and lectors with doorkeepers, 52.” I pass over the Council of Laodicea (canon 24) and of Carthage (the Fourth, canon 2 and following), in which mention is made of all the orders — the former celebrated 1100 years ago, the latter 1200 years ago — from which it is sufficiently gathered that the matter is far more ancient than Calvin thinks.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XII. De antiquitate Ordinum. \ Joannes Calvinus, de Ordinum, praecipue minorum, antiquitate ita loquitur lib. IV, Institution. cap. 19. §. 27: «Primitivae, inquit, Ecclesiae incogniti fuerunt, et multis postea annis excogitati. » Sed falsam esse hanc Calvini sententiam testantur Clemens et Ignatius, Apostolorum discipuli : Uterque enim eorum Ordinum meminit. Clemens lib. VIII. constitut. omnium fere Ordinum etiam minorum ritus declarat. Ignatius au¬ tem in epist. ad Antiochenses ita concludit : « Saluto, inquit, sanctum Presbyterum ves¬ trum, saluto sanctos Diaconos, saluto Sub- diaconos, Lectores, Cantores, Ostiarios, La¬ borantes, Exorcistas. » Adhsec, tempore S. Cypriani omnes ordi¬ nes erant in Ecclesia, nec tamen tunc coepe¬ runt. Nam ut de re antiqua, et ubique recepta loquuntur auctores illius temporis, qui sane non multnm aberant ab Apostolicis temporibus. Cyprianus lib. II. epist. 10. « Exemplaria, inquit, eadem nunc quoque Mettium Hypodiaconum a me missum, et Nicephorum Acolythum transmisi. » Lib. II. 437 CAPUT XIII. epist. 5. et lib. IV. epist. 5. scribit se ordi¬ nasse Lectores Aurelium, et Celerinum. Lib. V. epist 14 : « Presbyter, inquit, de Clero, et Exorcista, et Lector Lucianus scripsit. » Eodem tempore scripsit epistolam S. Cor¬ nelius ad Fabianum Antiochenum, ex qua sunt verba apud Eusebium lib. AT. histor. Eccles. cap. 33 : « Is ergo qui Evangelium \endicabat, nesciebat in Ecclesia Catholica unum Episcopum esse debere, ubi videbat esse Presbyteros 46, Diaconos septem, Sub- diaconos septem, Acolythos 42, Exorcistas, et Lectores cum Ostiariis 52. » Omitto Con¬ cilium Laodicenum, can. 24, et Carthagi¬ niense LY, can. 2. et seq. in quibus omnium Ordinum mentio fit, quorum hoc celebratum est ante annos 1100, illud ante annos 1200, ex quibus satis colligitur rem esse longe an¬ tiquiorem, quam putet Calvinus.