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Minor orders are ranks of church ministry lower than major orders.〔(The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church )〕〔(Auguste Boudinhon, "Minor Orders" in ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' 1911 )〕 In the Catholic Church, the Latin Church traditionally distinguished between the major holy orders of priest (including both bishop and presbyter), deacon and subdeacon, and the four minor orders, that of acolyte, exorcist, lector and porter in descending sequence.〔〔(Catechism of the Council of Trent (Dublin 1829), p. 310 )〕 In 1972, the minor orders were renamed "ministries", with those of lector and acolyte being kept throughout the Latin Church.〔(''Ministeria quaedam'' ), II: "The orders hitherto called minor are henceforth to be spoken of as 'ministries'."〕 The rites by which all four minor orders were conferred, but not the actual conferral of the order, are still employed for members of some Roman Catholic religious institutes and societies of apostolic life authorized to observe the 1962 form of the Roman Rite. Some traditional Catholics continue to use minor orders, as do Old Roman Catholics and the Liberal Catholic Church In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the three minor orders in use are those of subdeacon, cantor and reader.〔 ==Roman Catholic Church== From the beginning of the 3rd century there is evidence in Western Christianity of the existence of what became the four minor orders (acolytes, exorcists, doorkeepers and readers), as well as of cantors and ''fossores'' (tomb diggers). The evidence for readers is probably the earliest. In the West, unlike the East, where imposition of hands was used, the rite of ordination was by the handing over to them of objects seen as instruments of the office.〔(A. Villien, H. W. Edwards, ''History and Liturgy of the Sacraments'', pp. 237ff. )〕 The Council of Sardica (343) mentions the lectorate alone as obligatory before ordination to the diaconate. The obligation to receive all four minor orders appears to date only from a time when they ceased to indicate exercise of an actual function. Even in the early years of the 20th century, no minimum age, other than that of the "age of reason", was laid down for receiving minor orders.〔 However, the 1917 Code of Canon Law laid down that nobody was to be given clerical tonsure, which had to be received before minor orders, before beginning the regular course of theological studies.〔(Canon 976 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law )〕 Before the entry into force of that Code, it was an almost universal custom to confer all four minor orders at one time, since the bishop was authorized to dispense from the rule that each order had to be exercised for some time before reception of the next highest order.〔 Today, as indicated in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, anyone who is to be ordained to the diaconate must already have received the ministries of lector and acolyte and exercised them for a suitable period, with an interval of at least six months between becoming an acolyte and becoming a deacon.〔(Code of Canon Law, canon 1035 )〕 The 1917 Code of Canon Law also restricted conferral of tonsure and any order below that of the presbyterate to those who intended to become priests and who were judged likely to be worthy priests.〔(Canon 973 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law )〕 Previously, there were lay cardinals and others, including the famous Franz Liszt, who received minor orders alone. They could even marry and remain clerics, the status of belonging to the clergy being at that time conferred through clerical tonsure, provided that they married only once and that to a virgin; but by the early 20th century a cleric who married was considered to have forfeited his clerical status.〔 Today, a man who receives what were previously called minor orders is not yet a cleric, since today one becomes a cleric only upon ordination to the diaconate,〔(Code of Canon Law, canon 266 )〕 a rule that applies even to members of institutes authorized to observe the 1962 form of the Roman Rite,〔(Instruction on the Application of the Apostolic Letter ''Summorum Pontificum'' ), 30〕 such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and others under the care of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. In the early 20th century, Auguste Boudinhon said that, on the grounds that minor orders did not originate with Jesus or the apostles, the view that minor orders and the subdiaconate were sacramental, a view held by several medieval theologians, was no longer held.〔 The slightly earlier G. van Noort said that the view of their sacramentality, which was held by most scholastic theologians, including Thomas Aquinas, was then held only by a few, among whom he mentioned Louis Billot (1846-1931) and Adolphe Tanquerey (1854-1932).〔G. van Noort (revised by J. P. Verhaar), ''Tractatus de sacramentis'' (Paul Brand, Bussum, Netherlands 1930), vol. II, pp. 145-146〕 In the 1950s, Antonio Piolanti recognized as orders only episcopacy, priesthood (presbyterate) and diaconate,〔Antonius Piolanti, ''De Sacramentis'' (fifth edition, Marietti 1955), pp. 461-463〕 the three whose transmission is reserved to bishops.〔Piolanti 1955, pp. 463-468〕 In speaking of the hierarchical structure of the Church, the Second Vatican Council mentioned only these three orders, not minor orders or subdiaconate.〔(Dogmatic Constitution on the Church ''Lumen gentium'' )〕 By Pope Paul VI's motu proprio ''Ministeria quaedam'' of 15 August 1972, the term "minor orders" has been replaced by that of "ministries".〔(''Ministeria quaedam'', II )〕 Two of what were called minor orders, those of reader and acolyte, are kept throughout the Latin Church, and national episcopal conferences are free to use the term "subdeacon" in place of that of "acolyte".〔''Ministeria quaedam'', IV〕 The motu proprio specified the functions of each of these two ministries,〔''Ministeria quaedam'', IV-VI〕 A prescribed interval, as decided by the Holy See and the national episcopal conference, is to be observed between receiving them.〔''Ministeria quaedam'', X〕 Candidates for diaconate and for priesthood must receive both ministries and exercise them for some time before receiving holy orders.〔''Ministeria quaedam'', XI〕 Conferral of the minor orders or ministries is by the ordinary: either a diocesan bishop or someone who is equivalent in law to a diocesan bishop or, in the case of clerical religious institutes and societies of apostolic life, a major superior.〔''Ministeria quaedam'', IX〕 The two ministries that are in use throughout the Latin Church could be conferred even on men〔''Ministeria quaedam'', VII〕 who are not candidates for holy orders.〔''Ministeria quaedam'', III〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「minor orders」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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