HOLY

A term, properly speaking, applied to the different ranks of ecclesiastical persons; but, in ordieight nary language, used to indicate the character of such per- 8i = sons. The Roman Catholic Church admits of seven orone ders:four minor, secular, or petty, of doorkeeper, exorcist, reader, and ncolyth: three major, of deacon, priest, and in bishop. The first are mere formalities, and generally con col fer red on the same day; the admi ion to the hitter constitutes the sixth sacrament of Romanism: the Reformed third be churches acknowledge only the three latter orders. (See Episcopacy). The Greek church rejects the four minor, case but has the additional one of sub-deacon. See Ordination. ORDERS, RELIGIOUS, are of three kinds; I. Monastic; II. Military; III. Mendicant. I. The monastic orders were distinguished by the rules to which they were subjected by their respective founders. Of these the principal are the Basilian, the Benedictine, and "S the August in i an. 1. The earliest comprehension of ahumber of conventual and societies under one rule was effected by St. Basil, archbishop of of Caesarea. in Asia Minor, who united the hermits and cenmost obites already established in his dioce , and prescribed a is uniform constitution for them, in which he strongly recoil mended the obligation of a vow upon admi ion. This recommendation was a novelty in the monastic system, which 1-04 had existed up to that time (A.D. 370) without any such > imposition. This institution prevailed throughout the eastern districts of Christen dom, and has subsisted in the Greek church up to the present time with little variation. 1031-21 2. In the West, the first order of monks was founded by 11-361.1716 Benedict of Nursia (A.D. 529). He conceived that the ends of monastic seclusion might be better attained by a 1-72t 24 milder discipline, uniformly imposed, than by the fanatical 1-71 and arbitrary austerities of many of the European communi ties. While other reformers of the monkish system have 2052-18 aimed at repairing its laxity and degeneracy by the infnsior 1-621371-581-84 of greater strictne and severity, he alone seems to hav« adopted a contrary course, and to have provided for the at tainment of more real excellence by the imposition ofmilde* obligations. He insisted, moreover, very strongly, upon th* duties of manual labour and reading, as well as of prayer III. 1. The Mendicant orders were the creation of the pa- (See pacy,for the advancement of its own political purposes. It the was in the 13th century that the apprehensions of the holv plane see were first excited by the rise and spread of heretical lines opinions: nor, at that period, were either the secular or the points regular clergy disposed to rouse themselves from their indolence and vice to combat with these active a ailants. these The counteracting force, also, which the monks had sup by plied,in earlier ages, to the independent spirit of the secular priesthood, had lost much of its efficacy, and, in some the measure, been turned against the central authority of Rome. A new ally was required, and was furnished in the order of from St. Dominic, which, after completing its first mi ion in the Christ; extinction of the heresy of the Albigenscs, was placed upon that, a permanent footing by a bull of Honor i us III. me, 2. The Francis can friars were of cotem|>orary institution, and and avowed the same principles of poverty and mendicity. Our limits allow us merely to mention — 3. The Carmelites (who derived their name from Mount Carmel, in Syria, imposition where the order originated); 4. The Angiistininns, who the complete the number of the Mendicant orders; and 5. The dination 1 dee JesIITS. Christian ORniNAL, or [s. 872]