Folio 256

Council of Florence, 1438-1445

printed p. 224 · pdf p. 256

priest all sins of which he has recollection. The third is satisfaction for sins according to the decision of the priest, which is accomplished chiefly by prayer, fasting, and alms. The words of absolution which the priest utters when he says: Ego te absolvo, etc., are the form of this sacrament, and the minister of this sacrament is the priest who has either ordinary authority for absolving or has it by the commission of a superior. The effect of this sacrament is absolution from sins.

700. The fifth sacrament is extreme unction, whose matter is the olive oil blessed by the bishop. This sacrament should be given only to the sick of whose death there is fear; and he should be anointed in the following places: on the eyes because of sight, on the ears because of hearing, on the nostrils because of smell, on the mouth because of taste and speech, on the hands because of touch, on the feet because of gait, on the loins because of the delight that flourishes there. The form of this sacrament is the following: Per istam sanctam unctionem et suam piissimam misericordiam indulgeat tibi Dominus, quidquid per visum, etc. (Through this holy anointing and his most kind mercy may the Lord forgive you whatever through it, etc.). And similarly on the other members. The minister of this sacrament is the priest. Now the effect is the healing of the mind and, moreover, in so far as it is expedient, of the body itself also. On this sacrament blessed James, the Apostle says: "Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man; and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him" [Jas. 5:14, 15].

701. The sixth sacrament is that of order, the matter of which is that through whose transmission the order is conferred:1 just as the priesthood is transmitted through the offering of the chalice with wine and of the paten

  1. On the sense and force of this part see what is set forth by G. M. Card. van Rossum, De essentia sacramenti Ordinis, Friburgi, Brisq., ed. 2 (1931): 174 ff. On the same subject Benedict XIV [De Synodo l. 8, c. 10, n. 8 ff. (ed. Mechl. II, 223 ff.)] had already acted, but it is not clear from his words to what opinion he decrees that adherence should be given [see ibid. n. 11]. It is established that for nine centuries earlier the imposition of hands alone prevailed in the Church, not only Western but also Eastern, and that this is the only matter even to the present day among some Easterners, as, for example, the Greeks. Clement VIII in Instr. "Presbyteri Graeci," August 31, 1595 [MBR 3, 53 a sect. 7], ordered that a Greek bishop be always present in Rome to confer orders on Greek students in this rite, and Urban VIII in a brief "Universalis Ecclesiae," Nov. 23, 1624 [MBR 4, 172 a ff.] confirmed this. Benedict XIV in the Bull "Etsi pastoralis," May 26, 1742, issued for Italo-Greeks, said: "Let Greek bishops in conferring orders preserve their own Greek rite as described in the Euchologium," and in Const. "Demandatum coelitus," Dec. 24, 1743, he forbade that any innovation be made in the rites of the Greeks [cf. BB (M) 1, 342 ff.; 2, 148 ff.; MBR 16, 99 a ff.; 166 b ff.]. Finally Leo XIII in the Bull "Orientalium dignitas Ecclesiarum," Nov. 30, 1894, confirmed this Constitution of Benedict XIV [cf. ASS 27 (1894/95) 257; AL V 303 ff.]. ↩