P. Coustant, De decreto unico quod Caio adscribitur, circa ordinandos

ON THE SOLE DECREE ASCRIBED TO CAIUS, CONCERNING THOSE TO BE ORDAINED.

1. Of this pope not only has no genuine letter been handed down to us, but none is even mentioned anywhere. It is said only in the Pontifical Book that he decreed "that all should ascend through the orders in the Church thus: if anyone deserved to be made a bishop, he should be doorkeeper, lector, exorcist, acolyte, next subdeacon, deacon, presbyter, and thereafter be ordained bishop."

2. If by this decree he is understood to have laid down that it is fitting for each man to ascend to the episcopate through those ecclesiastical offices, and not by a headlong leap, then Cyprian bears witness that this had already been received in practice before the times of Caius, when he proves the ordination of Cornelius to have been lawful on the ground (Cornelius, letter 10, no. 7) that "he had not come to the episcopate suddenly, but, promoted through all the ecclesiastical offices, and having often deserved well of God in the divine ministrations, he ascended by all the grades of religion to the sublime summit of the priesthood." What those grades were, Cornelius himself teaches us, when he records that there were then in his church (Letter 9, no. 4) "46 presbyters, 7 deacons, as many subdeacons, 42 acolytes, 52 exorcists and lectors together with doorkeepers." Yet I would not dare to affirm that Cornelius discharged the offices of all those grades, none excepted.

3. But if the enactment above is reckoned as an ecclesiastical law, from which no one may be exempt except through him who made the law, it is easily shown by several examples to be far more recent than Caius. Later than this pope is the Council of Sardica, held as it was in the year 347, by whose canon 10 (13 in Isidore Mercator) it is enacted "that if anyone from the forum, whether a rich man or a scholasticus, is held worthy to be made a bishop, he should not be appointed before he has fulfilled the ministry of lector and of deacon and of presbyter"; and it wills that "the grade of each order should have a length of no very short time, through which both his faith and the uprightness of his morals... may be known." To those three grades the Greeks add the subdiaconate, who acknowledge only these four grades of orders together with the episcopate, as is clear from various records, and in particular from these words of the Eighth Synod, act. 10, chap. 5: "If anyone .. is found to have passed a blameless life through all the ecclesiastical grades for fixed periods, so that he has completed one year in the office of lector, two in that of subdeacon, three in that of deacon, four in that of priest, let him be raised to the honour of the episcopate." It remains now, therefore, that also in the Latin

Church, and in particular the Roman, we should prove that it was not required of all that they pass through the seven aforesaid grades before they could be raised to the episcopate.

4. Siricius, letter 1, to Himerius, nos. 9 and 10, and also Zosimus, letter 9, to Hesychius, nos. 2 and 5, in defining by which grades each man was to be advanced to the dignity of bishop or presbyter, direct that "the rudiments of the divine service" be laid, to use the words of Zosimus, not in the grade of doorkeeper but "first in the grade of lectors." Indeed, when Siricius lays down concerning one who is baptized in advanced age that, if he hastens to come to the sacred warfare, he should at once (after receiving baptism) be joined to the number of lectors or exorcists," he seems to require of him not both grades but only one or the other. In agreement with him Zosimus decrees concerning the same man, "that immediately after baptism, if he desires to be bound to the divine warfare, he should be held either among the lectors or among the exorcists." This passage of Zosimus, however, can be explained so that for him "either among the lectors or among the exorcists" is the same as "both among the lectors and, etc.," especially since he puts these words first: "Let him become accustomed in the camp of the Lord, first among the lectors, to the rudiments of the divine service; and let it not be mean in his eyes to become exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon in order." This is remarkable, that though Siricius and Zosimus in the letters cited describe so precisely the single grades by which they would have men reach the summit of the priesthood, yet they are consistently silent about the doorkeeper. Surely they would not have passed him over in silence if the decree above had come forth from Caius. With them in this matter agrees the Constitutum of Silvester, spurious indeed but nevertheless ancient, or the Second Roman council under Silvester, by whose chapter 11 it is enacted: "That no one from the lay state should be raised to the honour of acolyte up to the episcopate unless he had first been lector for thirty years, then exorcist for one day, and afterwards should take up the charge of acolyte, and should spend ten years in the same order of acolyte, so that he might receive the charge of subdeacon, and should be in the subdiaconate five years, etc." As here no word is said besides about the doorkeeper, so neither in these words of the same Constitutum, chap. 7: "That from the subdeacon down to the lector all should be subject to the cardinal deacon of the city of Rome, representing the honour in the Church only, but to the pontiff the presbyters, subdeacons, deacons, acolytes,

exorcists, lector, in every place showing obedience." Yet the same constitution or council, chap. 3, mentions the doorkeeper, where we read: "That the presbyter should not bring any accusation against the bishop, nor the deacon against the presbyter, nor the subdeacon against the deacon, nor the exorcist against the subdeacon, nor the lector against the exorcist, nor the doorkeeper against the lector." Therefore from the silence of Siricius or Zosimus it is by no means to be inferred that the grade of doorkeeper, which, as we have said, Cornelius recognized, was unknown to them. From this, however, it can be gathered that they judged it by no means necessarily to be required of those who gave their names to the clergy that they should perform the ministry of doorkeeper. Certainly the infants whom they wished to be enrolled in the sacred service, although they could shortly perform the office of lector, did not so quickly become strong and fit to fulfil the duties of doorkeeper. For it was the doorkeepers' task to drive the unworthy back from the entrance of the church. Augustine, in the book On Pastors, now Sermon 46, no. 31, describes how among the Donatists the doorkeeper, "standing or sitting at the door" of the basilicas, questions those who wish to enter, and casts out those who are not of the same communion. Infants were unequal to this duty. Long after the times of Siricius

and Zosimus, Gelasius, letter 11, ch. 2, although he recognizes the grade of doorkeeper, nevertheless prescribes in the same place: "If anyone, even one trained in the religious life and in monastic disciplines, comes to the clerical office... having at once been made lector or notary or at any rate defender, after three months let him become acolyte, especially if his age also supports it, and in the sixth month let him receive the name of subdeacon"; and so he permits not only the grade of doorkeeper but also that of exorcist to be passed over. There is no need here to bring forward examples of those who obtained the episcopate with one of the aforesaid seven grades, or even several, left out. Therefore the decree we are dealing with seems to belong to Caius no more than that one belongs to Silvester which was published under this pope in the name of the third Roman council: "If anyone desires to merit the clerical state, it is right that he be doorkeeper for one year, lector for twenty years, exorcist for ten years, acolyte for five years, subdeacon for five years, deacon for five years, and if he comes to the honour of the presbyterate, and spending six years in that order... thus let him be elected by the whole Church to be consecrated bishop." Coustant.