Ancient of them was written till within those last Four hundred years so that he gives us a clear view of the Ordinations of seven succeeding Ages of the Western Church His Book is scarce to be had and therefore I shall draw out of it what relates to the Ordination of Priests and Bishops Only as he has Printed these Forms Strictly as the Manuscripts were written without altering some things that are manifestly the Faults of the Transcribers so I shall set them down exactly as He has published them with the Emendations on the Margin from other Manuscripts and adde a Translation of them in English But I shall begin with the three first Canons of the Fourth Council of Carthage in which we have the fullest and earliest Account of the Ordidinations of Bishops and Priests in the Latin Church and from the Simplicity of these and the many pompous Rites that are added in the latter Rituals the Reader will both perceive how the Spirit of Superstition grew from Age to Age and will be able to judge whether the Church of England or the Church of Rome comes nearest the most Primitive Forms These I set down according to the MSS. published by Morinus and Collationed on the Margin with a MSS. belonging to the Church of Salisbury that is judged to be six hundred year old and also with that Published by Labbée in the Tomes of the Councils Sacrarum Ordinationum Ritus Ex Concilio Carthaginensi quarto depromptus CANON I. QUI Episcopus Ordinandus est antea examinetur si natura sit prudens si docibilis si moribus temperatus si vita castâ—…s si sobrius si semper suis negotiis cavens si humilis si affabilis si misericors si literatus si in lege domini instructus si in scripturam sensibus caâ—…tus si in dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis exercitatus ante omnia si fidei documenta verbis simplicibus asserat id est Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum unum Deum esse confirmans totamque Trinitatis Deitatem coessentialem consubstantialem coaeternalem coomnipotentem praedicans si singularem quamque in Trinitate personam plenum deum totas tres personas Unum deum Si incarnationem divinam non in Patre neque in Spiritu Sancto factam sed in Filio tantum credat ut qui erat in Divinitate Dei Patris ipse fieret in homine hominis Matris filius Deus verus ex Patre homo verus ex Matre carnem ex matris visceribus habens animam humanam rationalem simâ—…l in eo ambae naturae id est Deus Homo una persona unus filius unus Christus unus Dominus Creator omnium quae sunt autor Dominus Rector cum Patre Spiritu Sancto omnium creaturaram Qui passus sit vera carnis Passione mortuus vera corporis sui morte resurrexit vera carnis suae resurrectinoe vera animae resumptione in qua veniet judicarâ—… vivos mortuos Quaerendum etiam ab eo si Novi Veteris Testamenti id est leges Prophetarum Apostolorum unum eundemque credat autorem evâ—…m Si Diabolus non per conditionem sed per Arbitrium sit malus Quaerendum etiam ab eo si credat hujus quam gestamus non alterius carnis resurrectionem Si credat judicium futurum recepturoâ—… singulos pro his quae in carne gesserunt vel poenas vel gloriam Si nuptias non improbat si secunda Matrimonia non damnet si carnium perâ—…eptionem non culpet si poenitentibus reconciliatis communicet si in Baptismo omnia peccata id est tam illud originale contractum quam illa quae voluntate admissa sunt dimittantur si extra Ecclesiam Catholicam nullus salvetur Cum in his omnibus examinatus inventus fuerit plene instructus tunc cum consensu Clericorum Laicorum conventu totius provinciae Episcoporum maximéque Metropolitani vel Authoritate vel praesentia ordinetur Episcopus Suscepto in Nomini Christi Episcopatu non suae delectationi nec suis motibus sed his Patrum definitionibus acquiescat In cujus Ordinatione etiam aetas requiritur quam Sancti Patres in praeeligendis Episcopis constituerunt Dehinc disponitur qualiter Ecclesiastica Officia Ordinantur CAN. II. EPiscopus cum Ordinatur duo Episcopi ponant teneant Evangeliorum Codicem supra Caput cervicem ejus uno super eum sundente benedictionem reliqui omnes Episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant CAN. III. PResbyter cum Ordinatur Episcopo eum benedicente manum super caput ejus tenente etiam omnes Presbyteri qui praesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum Episcopi super caput illius teneat In English thus CAN. I. LET Him that is to be Ordained a Bishop be first Examined if he be naturally prudent and teachable if in his Manners he be temperate if chast in his life if sober if he looks to his own Affairs be humble affable merciful and learned if he be instructed in the Law of the Lord and skilful in the sense of the Scriptures and acquainted with Ecclesiastical Doctrines and above all things if he assert the Articles of Faith in simple Words that is to say affirms that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are one God and teaches that the whole Deity of the Trinity is Coessential Consubstantial Coaeternal and Coomnipotent and that every Person of the Trinity is fully God and all the Three Persons are one God If He believes that the Holy Incarnation was neither of the Father nor the Holy Ghost but of the Son only that He who was the Son of God the Father by the Godhead becoming a Man was the Son of his Mother very God of His Father and very Man of His Mother who had Flesh of the Bowels of His Mother and a human reasonable Soul And both Natures God and Man were in Him one Person one Son one Christ one Lord the Creator of all things that are and the Author Lord and Governour of all Creatures with the Father and the Holy Ghost Who suffered a true Passion in His Flesh and was dead by a true death of His Body and rose again with a true Resurrection of His Flesh and a true Re-assumption of His Soul in which He shall come to judge the quick and the dead It must likewise be asked if He believes that one and the same God was the Author of the Old and New Testament of the Books of the Law the Prophets and the Apostles If the Devil be not wicked by his will and not by his Nature And if he believes the Resurrection of this Flesh which we now carry and not of any other and the Judgment to come and that every one shall receive either punishment
800 years before this was used And to this day in the Greek Church there is no power given by the Consecration to offer propitiatory Sacrifices for though in the second Prayer said in Ordinations in which God's Holy Spirit is prayed for upon the Priest That he may be worthy to stand before the Altar of God without blame and may preach the Gospel of his Kingdom and holily administer the Word of his Truth It is added And may offer to thee Gifts and Spiritual Sacrifices but there is no reason to gather from these words that they give power for offering Propitiatory Sacrifices We acknowledg that we offer Gifts and Sacrifices in the Holy Eucharist but we reject Propitiatory ones and these words do not at all import them And the truth of it is when the Writers of the Roman Church are pressed with the Arguments before mentioned that the Eucharist can be no Propitiatory Sacrifice Since 1. there no Blood shed in it 2. No Destruction is made of the Sacrifice for it is only the Accidents and not the Blessed Body of Christ that the Priest consumes 3. That Christ's Cross is called one Sacrifice once offered 4. That his being now exalted at the Father's right hand shews his Body can no more be subject to be Sacrificed or mangled When these with many Authorities from the Father's are brought they are forced to fly to some Distinctions by which their Doctrine comes to differ little from ours but still those high and indecent Expressions remain in their Rituals and Missals which they are forced to mollifie as they do those Prayers in which the same things and in the same manner and words are asked of the Blessed Virgin and the other Saints which we ask of God And though they would stretch them to a bare Intercession which the genuine sense of the words will not bear yet they will never change them for it is the standing Maxim of that Church never to confess an error nor make any change to the better The third Reason against our Orders of Priesthood is a Repetition of the first and is already answered The fourth Argument is That none can Institute the Form of a Sacrament to give Grace and make present Christ's Body and Blood but the Authors of Grace and those that had power over his Body and Blood but they that Instituted this Form had only their Authority from the Parliament as appears by the Act it self by which some Prelates and other Learned men being impowered did Invent the Form before mentioned never before heard of either in Scripture or the Church of God To this I Answer First It is certain the Writer of this Paper did never think it would have been seen by any body that could examine it but intended only to impose on some Illiterate persons otherwise he would never have said that a Form which Christ himself used when he ordained his Apostles and which is used in their own Church as the proper Form of Ordination was never before heard of in the Scripture or the Church of God Secondly Those who compiled the Liturgy and Ordinal had no other Authority from the Parliament than Holy and Christian Princes did before give in the like cases It is a common place and has been handled by many Writers How far the Civil Magistrate may make Laws and give Commands about Sacred things 'T is known what Orders David and Solomon Iehosaphat Hezekiah and Iosiah gave in such cases They divided the Priests into several Courses gavâ—… Rules for their attendance turned out â—… High Priest and put another in his stead sent the Priests over the Cities to teach the People gathered the Priests and commanded them to Sanctifie themselves and the house of the Lord and offer Sacrifices oâ—… the Altar And gave orders about the Forms of their Worship that they should praise God in the words of David and Asaph and gave orders about the time 〈◊〉 observing the Passover that in a case oâ—… Necessity it might be observed on the second Month though by their Law it wâ—… to be kept the first Month. And for the Christian Emperors let the Code or the Novels or the Capitulars of Charles the Great be read and in them many Lawâ—… will be found about the Qualificationâ—… Elections and Consecrations of Church-men made by the best of all the Roman Emperors such as Constantine Theodâ—… sius c. They called Councils to judâ—… of the greatest points of Faith which met and sate on their Writ whose determinations they confirmed and added the Civil Sanction to them And even Pope Leo though a higher spiriteâ—… Pope than any of his Predecessors were did intreat the Emperor Martian to annul the second Council of Ephesus anâ—… to give order that the Ancient Decrees of the Council of Nice should remain in Force Now it were a great Scandal on those Councils to say that they had no Authority for what they did but what they derived from the Civil Powers So it is no less unjust to say because the Parliament Impowered some Persons to draw Forms for the more pure Administration of the Sacraments and Enacted that these only should be lawfully exercised in this Realm which is the Civil Sanction that therefore these persons had no other Authority for what they did Let those men declare upon their Consciences if there be any thing they desire more earnestly than such an Act for Authorizing their own Forms and would they make any Scruple to accept of it if they might have it Was it ever heard of that the Civil Sanction which only makes any constitution to have the force of a Law gives it another Authority than a Civil one and such Authority the Church of Rome thinks fit to accept of in all States and Kingdoms of that Religion Thirdly The Prelates and other Divines that compiled our Forms of Ordination did it by vertue of the authority they had from Christ as Pastors of his Church which did empower them to teach the people the pure Word of God and to administer the Sacraments and perform all other holy Functions according to the Scripture the practice of the Primitive Church and the rules of Expediency and Reason and this they ought to have done though the Civil Powers had opposed it in which case their duty had been to have submitted to whatever severities or persecutions they might have been put to for the Name of Christ and the Truth of his Gospel But on the other hand when it pleased God to turn the hearts of those that had the chief Power to set forward this good Work then they did as they ought with all Thankfulness acknowledg so great a Blessing and accept and improve the Authority of the Civil Powers for adding the Sanction of a Law to the Reformation in all the parts and branches of it So by the authority they derived from Christ and the Warrant they had from Scripture and the Primitive Church these Prelates and
it is not thereby vitiated but there is a perfect and entire Character begotten only the use of it is forbidden yet he that neglects that Interdict though he becomes very guilty begets a new Character on the person Ordained by him Therefore Heretiques or Schismatiques so Ordained need no new Ordination but only a Reconciliation and what is said of Heretiques and Schismatiques does hold much more of those who are Ordained by persons that are Excommunicated deposed or degraded And for those things that are essential to Ordination enough has been said already to demonstrate what they be to which I shall only add what that Author the most learned of all that ever treated of this Subject says in the beginning of the next Chapter In the Rite of Holy Ordination there are some things of Divine Institution and Tradition which do always and in all places belong to holy Orders such as Imposition of hands and a convenient Prayer which the Scripture has delivered and the universal practice of the Church has confirmed Now these our Church has retained and therefore from all that has been said I may with good reason conclude that all the Ordinations that were derived from Arch-Bishop Cranmer having as has been already shewed the essentials of Ordination and being done with the due numbers of Ordainers as can be proved Authentically from the publick Registers must be good and valid And though we have separated from many errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome and in particular have thrown out many superstitious Rites out of the Forms of Ordination that we might reduce these to a primitive simplicity yet as we acknowledg the Church of Rome holds still the fundamentals of the Christian Religion so we confess she retains the essentials of Ordination which are the separating of persons for sacred employments and the authorizing them with an Imposition of hands and a Prayer for the effusion of the Holy Ghost therefore we do not annul their Orders but receive such as come from that Church and look on them as true Priests by the Ordination they got among them and such were our first Reformers from whom we have derived our Ordination Having followed this Paper through the first Conclusion and the Arguments brought to confirm it I come now to the second which is That our Bishops are not true Bishops For which his first Argument is That our Bishops being no Priests they can be no Bishops This he thinks he has already proved therefore he sets himself to prove that none can be a Bishop till he be first a Priest About this I shall not dispute much for we acknowledg that Regularly and Canonically it must be so and assert that ours were truly such therefore we need not contend further about this though he must be very ignorant of Antiquity if he does not know that there are divers instances in Church History of Laymen nay and Catechumens chosen Bishops and we do not find those Intermedial steps were made of ordaining them first Deacons and then Priests but by what appears to us they at once made them Bishops But I shall wave this only I must put this Author in mind of a great Oversight he is guilty of when he goes about to prove our Bishops not to be true Bishops because they were not true Priests Does he not know that Bishop Ridley and the other Bishops of King Edward's days were Ordained Priests by the Rites of the Church of Rome And this was acknowledged by themselves when they degraded them at Oxford before they suffered if those then were Priests this is no Argument why they might not be Bishops For in this matter that which we ought to enquire into most carefully is what they were for if they were both Priests and Bishops and if the Forms by which they ordained others retained all the essential Requisites then we who are derived from them are also true Priests and Bishops His second Argument is No Ordination is valid unless there be fit words used to determine the outward Rites to signifie the Order given which he says our own Writers Mr. Mason and Dr. Bramhall do acknowledg But the words of Consecration do not express this they being only Take the Holy Ghost and remember that thou stir up the Grace c. which do not express the office of a Bishop and having proposed these Arguments that the unlearned Reader may think he deals fairly he goes on to set down our Objections and answer them First It has been already made out that the Form Receive the Holy Ghost was that which our Saviour made use of when he ordained the Apostles without adding To the office of an Apostle For which it is to be considered that all Ecclesiastical Orders being from the influence and operation of the Holy Ghost which being one yet hath different Operations for the different Administrations therefore the concomitant Actions Words and Circumstances must shew for which Administration the Holy Ghost is prayed for since that general Prayer is made for all but the Functions being different the same Holy Ghost works differently in them all Therefore it is plain from the practice of our Saviour that there is no need of expressing in the very words of Ordination what power is thereby given since our Saviour did not express it but what he had said both before and after did determine the sense of those general words to the Apostolical Function Secondly The whole Office of Consecrating Bishops shews very formally and expresly what power is given in these words Now though the Writers of the Church of Rome would place the Form of Consecration in some Imperative words yet we see no reason for that but the complex of the whole Office is that which is to be chiefly considered and must determine the sense of those words So that a Priest being presented to be made a Bishop the King's Mandate being read for that effect he swearing Canonical obedience as Bishop Elect Prayers being put up for him as such together with other circumstances which make it plain what they are about those general words are by these qualified and restrained to that sense We do not fly here to a secret and unknown Intention of the Consecrators as the Church of Rome does but to the open and declared intention of the Church appearing in this So that it is clear that the sense of those general words is so well explained that they do sufficiently express and give the power and office of a Bishop Thirdly In the Church of Rome the Consecration of a Bishop is made with these words Receive the Holy Ghost This being all that is said at the Imposition of hands which as has been already proved is the matter or sensible sign of Orders And in the Prayer that follows these words there is no mention made of the Episcopal Dignity or Function and all the other Ceremonies used in the Consecration of a Bishop are but Rites that are
of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie But that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should Rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers So that there is nothing of the Spiritual much less of the Papal and Tyrannical Power given to the King by the Law Fourthly From the power given to the Queen to Authorize such persons as she shall think fit to exercise that Jurisdiction he infers they may be either Clergymen Lawyers Merchants or Coblers since the Statute requires no more but that they be born Subjects of the Realm But this is as well grounded as all the rest for though that Statute does not name the qualification of the persons yet the other Statutes that Enacted the Book of Common-Prayer and the Ordinal do fully specifie what sort of persons these must be and it is not necessary that all things be in every Statute Fifthly He in the end of this Paper pretends that the reason why this present Parliament altered the Ancient Forms was because they were null and invalid The weakness and injustice of which was before shewed so that nothing needs to be repeated And in fine it has been also proved that as both the Greek and Latin Churches have made many alterations in their Rituals so the Church of England which made these Alterations had as good an Authority to do it by as they had To which I shall only add the words of the Council of Trent concerning the power of the Church for making such Changes when they give the reason for taking away the Chalice The Church has power in the Sacraments retaining the substance of them to change or appoint such things which she shall judg more expedient both for the profit of the Receivers and for the Reverence due to the Sacraments according to the variety of things times and places Where by their own confession it is acknowledged the Church may make alterations in the Sacraments So that it is a strange confidence in them to charge on us an annulling of former Orders because of a small addition of a few explanatory words And so much for his Paper Now having sufficiently answered every thing in it I hope I may be allowed to draw a few conclusions in opposition to his And First We having true Priests and true Bishops are a true Church since we believe all that Christ and his Apostles delivered to the World Secondly We being thus a part of the Catholick Church every one that lives according to the Doctrine professed a mong us mayand shall be saved Thirdly We do truly eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood having the Blessed Sacrament administred among us according to our Saviour's Institution Fourthly We have as much power to Consecrate the Holy Sacrament as any that were Ordained in the Church for near a thousand years together Fifthly We have the Ministerial power of giving Absolution and the Ministry of Reconciliation and of forgiving Sins given us by our Orders Sixthly All men may and ought to joyn with us in the profession of the Faith we believe and in the use of the Sacraments we administer which are still preserved among us according to Christ's Institution and that whosoever repents and believes the Gospel shall be Saved Seventhly All and every of the Arguments he has used are found to be weak and frivolous and to have no force in them And thus far I have complied with your desires of answering the Paper you sent me in as short and clear terms as I could But I must add that this ransacking of Records about a succession of Orders though it adds much to the lustre and beauty of the Church yet is not a thing incumbent on every body to look much into nor indeed possible for any to be satisfied about for a great many Ages all those Instruments are lost So that how Ordinations were made in the Primitive Church we cannot certainly know it is a piece of History and very hard to be perfectly known Therefore it cannot be a fit Study for any much less for one that has not much leisure The condition of Christians were very hard if private persons must certainly know how all Ministers have been Ordained since the Apostles days for if we will raise scruples in this matter it is impossible to satisfie them unless the Authentick Registers of all the ages of the Church could be shewed which is impossible for tho we were satisfied that all the Priests of this Age were duly Ordained yet if we be not as sure that all who Ordained them had Orders rightly given them and so upward till the days of the Apostles the doubt will still remain Therefore it is an unjust and unreasonable thing to raise difficulties in this matter And indeed if we go to such nice scruples with it there is one thing in the Church of Rome that gives a much juster ground these than any thing that can be pretended in ours does which is the Doctrine of the Intention of the Minister being necessary to make a Sacrament Secret Intentions are only known to God and not possible to be known by any man Therefore since they make Orders a Sacrament there remains still ground to entertain a scruple whether Orders be truly given And this cannever becleared since none can know other mens thought or intentions Therefore the pursuing nice scruples about this cannot be a thing indispensably necessary otherwise all people must be per plext with endless disquiet and doubtings But the true touchstone of a Church must be the Purity of her Doctrine and the Conformity of her Faith with that which Christ and his Apostles taught In this the Scriptures are clear and plain to every one that will read and consider them sincerely and without prejudice which that you may do and by these may be led and guided into all Truth shall be my constant prayer to God for you AN APPENDIX About the forms of Ordaining Priests and Bishops in the Latin Church BEcause the decision of all the questions that can be made by those of the Church of Rome about the validity of our Orders must be taken from the Ancient Forms of Ordination as hath been fully made out in the foregoing Papers therefore I hope it will not be unpleasant to the Reader to see what the Forms of Ordinations were in the Latin Church for many Ages which he will more clearly understand when he sees them at their full Length then he can do by any Quotations out of them Morinus has published sixteen of the most Ancient Latin Rituals he could find composed from the end of the Fifth Century at which time he judges the most
them thy Blessing and grace that being fitted by thy gift always to implore thy mercy they may be devout by thy Grace Through our Lord Iesus Christ. There follow some Collects that are called in the Rubrick Super Oblata which belong to the Office of the Communion and are Prayers for the Bishop and this is all in that Ritual that relates to the Ordination of a Bishop The Second Ritual in all things agrees with the former The Third Ritual begins that Office with the second Canon of the Fourth Council of Carthage about the Consecration of Bishops then follow the Collects Oremus Adesto and Propitiare as in the first then the Prayer of Consecration Deus Honorum omnium And at the word Comple the Bishop takes the Chrism and at the words Hoc Domine he pours it on the head of the person to be Consecrated but all from Sinceritas Pacis to Tribuas ei Domine is left out then follow the Collects Super oblata there is no more in that Ritual For the Annointing of Bishops tho it was neither used in the Eastern nor African Churches yet both Pope Leo and Gregory the Great mention it as a Rite then received in the Roman Church Amalarius gives an accout of it but cites no ancienter Author for it than Beda for some other Authorities that are brought to prove the greater Antiquity of this Rite are either Allegorical or relate to the Chrism with which all were annointed at their Confirmation The Fourth Ritual has first the Questions that are put to the Bishop that is to be Ordained which has begun it seems from the time of the fourth Council of Carthage where by the first Canon the Bishop was to be examined both about his Faith and Manners I shall only set down two of these the one is Vis ea quae ex Divinis scripturis intelligis plebem cui Ordinandus es verbis docere exemplis Wilt thou both by the words and example instruct the people for whom thou art to be Ordained in those things which thou dost understand out of the Holy Scriptures To which he answers I will And this alone were there no more may serve to justify those Bishops who got Orders in the Church of Rome and afterwards received the Reformation since by the very Sponsions given in their Ordination they had engaged themselves to instruct their Flocks according to the Scriptures Another Question is Vis esse subditus huic nostrae Sedi atque Obediens Wilt thou be subject and obedient to this our See Which was no other than what every Metropolitan demanded of all the Bishops under him and yet this is all the obedience then promised to the Pope far different from the Oaths which were afterwards exacted But I go on to give an account of the rest of the Office according to this Ritual in the Rubrick the Second Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage is set down to which is added Hoc facto accipiat patinam cum Oblatis Calicem cum vino det ei dicens Accipe Potestatem offerre Sacrificium c. Which being done he shall take the Paten with the Hosties and the Chalice with the Wine and shall give him saying Receive Power to offer Sacrifice c. So that this was used in the Consecration of Bishops long before it was in the making of Priests then follow Oremus Adesto and Propitiare as they are before set down then two new Rites are set down the Rubrick is Ad Annulum dandum MEmor sponsionis desponsationis Ecclesiasticae Dilectionis domini Dei tui in die qua assecutus es hunc honorem cave ne obliviscaris illius Accipe ergo annulum discretionis honoris fidei signum ut quae signâ—…nda sunt signes Et quae aperienda sunt prodas Quae liganda sunt liges quae solvenda sunt solvas utque credentibus per fidem baptismatis lapsis autem sed poenitentibus per mysterium reconciliationis januas regni coelestis aperias Cunctis verò de thesauro dominico nova vetera proferas ut ad aeternam salutem omnibus consulas gratia Domini nostri Iesu Christi cui cum Patre Spiritu Sancto est honor gloria in saecula saeculorum Amen For giving the Ring BEing mindful of the sponsion and Ecclesiastical wedding and of the Love of the Lord God in the day in which thou hast attained this honour beware least thou forget it Receive therefore the Ring the Seal of discretion and of the honour of Faith that thon maist seal the things that are to be sealed and maist open the things that are to be opened and maist bind the things that are to be bound and maist loose the things that are to be loosed and maist open the Gates of the heavenly Kingdom to the believers by the Faith of Baptism and to those that have fallen but are Penitent by the mysterie of Reconciliation and that thou maist bring forth to all Men out of the treasure of the Lord things new and old and that thou maist take care of all their Eternal Salvation Through the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ to whom c. Ad Baculum dandum ACcipe Baculum sacri Regiminis signum ut imbecilles consolides titubantes confirmes praves corrigas in viam salutis aeternae habeasque potestatem aâ—…trahendi dignos corrigendi indignos cooperante Domino nostro Iesu Christo cui cum patre in unitate Spiritus Sancti est virtus imperium per omnia saecula saeculorum Amen For giving the Staff REceive the Staff the sign of the sacred Government that thou maist strengthen the weak confirme them that stagger correct the wicked in the way of Eternal salvation and may have power to attract the worthy and correct the unworthy through the assistance of our Lord Iesus Christ to whom c. Then follows the Prayer of Consecration and at the words Hoc Domine the Rubrick appoints the Chrism to be put on his head and what is left out in the former Ritual is also left out in this after that Prayer follows the Collect Super Oblata and there is no more in that Ritual For these rites of the Ring and Staff the first I find that mentions them is â—…dore who both speaks of them and 〈◊〉 sets down some of the words used in the former Ritual Yet Alcuinus speaks not a word of it tho he entitles his Chapâ—…er The manner in which a Bishop is Ordained in the Roman Church But iâ—… seems he has only lookt on some more Antient Rituals in which there was no such Rite for it is most certain that it was used in his time Amalarius tho he does at a great length insist on the annointing of the Bishop yet speaks not a word of the Staff or Ring But Rabanus Maurus who lived in that time does mention it or rather sets down Isidores words without citing