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The Ordinatio of John Duns Scotus
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Ordinatio. Book 4. Distinctions 14 - 42.
Book Four. Distinctions 14 - 42
Twenty Fourth Distinction
Single Question. Whether there are Seven Orders in the Church in the Way in which Order or Ordination is Posited to be a Sacrament
I. To the Question
A. What an Order is According as we are Now Speaking of Order
1. Opinion of Others
b. Rejection of the Opinion

b. Rejection of the Opinion

13. On the contrary:

From this description it follows that episcopacy is an Order, which is against them.72 For it appears that episcopacy is a spiritual order for some special act in the Church, as for act of confirming and conferring Holy Orders - and not just a power for carrying out these acts fittingly, but for carrying them out simply, because a non-bishop, if he attempt to do these acts, does not, as it seem, do anything.

14. Second, it follows that under the priestly order there is not any Order in the Church, which is against everyone. Proof of the consequence: for spiritual power, speaking of power simply, is not had by a deacon or a sub-deacon, because although he could do something fittingly that a layman would not do fittingly, yet if a layman were to attempt to do it, he would simply do it.

15. Third, it follows that priesthood is two Orders, because a double spiritual power belongs to a priest, namely of confecting the body of Christ and of absolving the penitent, which are not one power because one seems to have existed before the other; for in the Cena the Lord conferred the first power, and the second only after the resurrection, John 20.22-23.