as conferring no divine commission to minister in sacred things. "Them that are without, God judgeth:" but all the promises of God are to his church: His grace is given in the church: the apostles and teachers sent from God are in the church. We know nothing from revelation of any grace, any christian ministry, any sacraments, or any salvation beyond the church. The church is not bound to recognize the heretical ordinations of those who enter her communion: it has always been a matter of special favour to receive such orders, and ought only to be conceded for very urgent reasons. But if the usual form and minister of ordination appear to have been continued in sects, and thus the external part of ordination has been regularly observed, the church has the power of animating this dead form with the inward grace of the divine commission; or of removing the impediments which had prevented that grace from descending for this case being not specially provided for by holy scripture, it is left in the power of the church, to which Jesus Christ himself said, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:" "Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted, and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained." The more general custom of the church, however, appears to have been, to reordain those who had been ordained in open heresy or schism. The sixty-eighth apostolical canon above referred to, and which is received as the law of the eastern church, permits ordination to be conferred on those who have only been ordained by heretics. The synod of Saragossa decreed that presbyters who were converted from the Arian heresy to the holy catholic church, if of sound faith and chaste life, "should at length receive the benediction or ordination. of priests, and minister in holiness and purity." There is a reply of a patriarch of Constantinople to Martyrius, patriarch of Antioch, A. D. 460, stating that the practice of the church of Constantinople was to reordain those who had received ordination in heresy. About 767, Constantine was schismatically elected bishop of Rome, being only a layman, and was consecrated after having suddenly received the orders of subdeacon and deacon. His successor, pope Stephen, convened a synod, to which the king of France, at his request, sent twelve learned bishops; and it was determined, that all the bishops, priests, and deacons ordained by Constantine should be reordained by pope Stephen, if again elected by their respective churches. Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, reordained all those who had been ordained by Ebbo a former archbishop after he had been synodically deposed, and reduced to lay communion. This was approved by a great council of Gallican bishops, but was rejected by pope Adrian II. on appeal'. Formosus having been made bishop of Rome contrary to the canons, after he had been proved guilty of various crimes, and deposed; his successor, Stephen VI. reordained the clergy he had ordained. The council of Constantinople against Photius decreed, that having been schismatically ordained he was not a bishop'. On g" Placuit sanctæ et venerabili synodo, ut presbyteri qui ex hæresi Ariana ad sanctam catholicam ecclesiam conversi sunt, qui sanctam et puram fidem, atque castissimam tenuerint vitam, acceptam denuo benedictionem presbyterii sancte et pure minis trare debeant," &c.-Conc. Cæsar h Morinus, p. 98. the other hand, Photius reordained those whom Ignatius his rival had ordained after his deposal". Leo IX., according to Peter Damianus, reordained many who had been simoniacally ordained". In the council of Quedlinburg under Gregory VII., the ordinations of Wecilo, Sigefrid, and Norbert, who had been ordained simoniacally and heretically, were judged to be entirely null according to the decrees of the holy fathers. The nullity of such orders was also decreed in the synod of Placentia, under Urban II., who reordained a deacon ordained by Nezilo, a simoniacally consecrated bishop P. Lucius III. reordained the clergy of Octavian and other antipopes. Theodore Balsamon, patriarch of Antioch, in his reply to Marcus of Alexandria, said, that heretical bishops if converted, and of approved life, should ascend by the accustomed degrees to the episcopal office'. He also denies the validity of heretical orders in his commentary on the apostolic canons, as do also Zonaras and Aristanus ". It is evident that all these instances concur to establish one leading principle, that the church is not bound to recognize orders conferred in open heresy or schism; and that reordinations in such cases are not forbidden. In several of the above instances indeed, the principle was stretched beyond its legitimate limits; but this does not affect the general tendency of the whole, and it is impossible to explain away these numerous reordinations, into mere rehabilitations or licenses for exercising orders. III. The rule against reordinations does not apply where there are uncertainties and doubts affecting the validity of an ordination. A council held in the time of Pepin, king of France, decreed, that "ordinations of presbyters should not be made by certain vagrant bishops: but if those presbyters were good men they should be consecrated again "." The synod of Cabilon says, "There are in certain places Scoti who say that they are bishops, and who ordain many negligent persons without permission of their lords or masters, whose ordination, because for the most part it is involved in the heresy of simony, and is liable to many errors, we have with one consent decreed by all means to be annulled "." The observations of Morinus are worthy of remark. "We must," he says, "distinguish between a certain and a dubious administration of this sacrament. A custom formerly prevailed in the church, which continued for nearly twelve hundred years, that in case any doubt arose in the ministration of the sacrament, it was forthwith ministered again unconditionally, whether the doubt affected the whole sacrament, as when it was doubted whether any one was baptized or ordained; or related only to a circumstance of the sacrament already administered. For the axiom was most commonly adopted, Non est iteratum, quod certis indiciis antea non ostenditur peractum.' For sacraments are of such great moment, especially those which are conferred but once, that when there is any probable doubt that they have not been validly received or delivered, they ought certainly to be conferred again without scruple, lest through our hesitation any soul which Christ redeemed should perish. . . . The crime of reordination is in no Hallier, De Sacr. Elect. et " Ibid. p. 829. Ordin. p. 828. degree to be dreaded in this case, since, as St. Leo says, 'the temerity of presumption does not intervene where the carefulness of piety exists.' The same custom continues even now, but that repetition which was formerly absolute, is now usually performed conditionally." Of this we have examples in the case of the bishops of Seez and Avellino, mentioned by Le Quien. Du Moulinet, bishop of Seez, was for nearly thirty-six years in the habit of giving the gospel, chalice, paten, bread and wine, to the priests and deacons whom he ordained, by the hands of his assistant priests, and not with his own. These ceremonies did not affect the essence of ordination; nevertheless, doubts and questions having arisen after his death as to the validity of these orders, pope Clement VII., in 1604, ordered the priests and deacons thus ordained, to be reordained privately and with a condition, which was accordingly done". In 1696, a similar decree was made by the pope and the congregation of the holy office,' in the case of Monsignor Scanagata, bishop of Avellino, who presented the instruments by means of his master of ceremonies *. "On voit," says Le Quien, " par ces exemples, et par d'autres semblables qu'on pourroit ramasser, que sans s'arrêter aux sentimens des théologiens, en fait de doute sur la validité d'une ordination, on prendra toûjours dans l'église le parti le plus sûr; et ce parti est celui d'ordonner de nouveau sous condition "." 6 IV. The customs of the church of England prevent reordinations, where the previous ordination has been performed in the church; and her law, contained in the Preface to the Ordination Service, excepts from the |