Page:Faithcatholics.pdf/447

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St. EPIPHANIUS, G. C. “He that has married a second time, is not admitted to the Priesthood, though he remain continent, or be a widower. Such a one, I say, is not admitted to the degree of Bishop, Priest, Deacon, and Subdeacon. But, as to the degree of lector, he may be taken from any rank-because the lector is no Priest, but the scribe, as it were, of the divine word.” In Exposit. Fidei Cath. T. i. p. 1104.

CENT. V.

INNOCENT I. L.C. He then writes to Alexander, Bishop of the Patriarchal See of Antioch, who had consulted him ; remarking, that, by the authority of the Nicene Council, his Church had received an extensive jurisdiction, founded as it had been by St. Peter. “ We deem it right, that, as by a special power you ordain Metropolitans, you ought not to suffer other Bishops to be ordained without your knowledge and consent, by writing to those that are afar off, and causing those that are near to come to you for ordination." Ep. xviii. Conc. Gen. T. ii. p. 1269.

ST. AUGUSTIN, L.C. “Both are Sacraments, (Baptism and Order), and both are, by a certain consecration, given to man; the first when he is baptised, the second when he is ordained: and therefore, in the Catholic Church, neither of them is ever repeated. Thus, if any of the Donatist Prelates, renouncing their Schism, come over to us, and it seem proper that they should continue to exercise the same functions, we re-ordain them not; for as their Baptism, so their Ordination, remains entire. The evil was in their Schism, which conciliation has corrected; not in the Sacraments, of which the character is unchangeable. And when it is deemed expedient, that Prelates, so returning, should not be employed, they are not, for that, deprived of their Orders, which continue in them. Wherefore, lest the Sacrament,