Peter and Paul shewn from above the high altar; the procession
afterwards returns to the tribune, where the mass of the day is sung,
and orders are conferred by the Cardinal-Vicar.
[Sidenote: Mass and ordination.]
The orders of priests and deacons are often mentioned in the N.
Testament: and the church, as S. Thomas observes, instituted the
inferior orders. Subdeacons are mentioned by Pope Cornelius and S.
Cyprian in the 3rd century, as well as acolythes, exorcists, and
lectors. S. Augustine and S. Gregory Nazianzen speak of _ostiarii_;
and the clerical tonsure is mentioned by S. Isidore at the beginning
of the 5th century, as a rite established before his time. Orders
are conferred by the laying on of hands and prayer, as the scripture
teaches, and also by the delivery of the instruments belonging to each
order: appropriate exhortations addressed to the candidates for the
different orders are interspersed with the prayers prescribed in the
pontifical. (On their antiquity the reader may consult Morinus de
Ordinationibus, Martene de Antiquis Eccl. Ritibus, T. 2. etc.) The
tonsure is given after the _Kyrie eleison_ of the mass, the 4 minor
orders after the _Gloria in excelsis_; subdeacons are ordained before
the epistle, which one of them repeats; deacons after the epistle
and finally priests after the first part of the tract. These last,
after the imposition of hands, receive their peculiar vestments,
viz.
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