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ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY

Roman Catholic clergy are those men who were assigned by the church's hierarchy to supervise the faithful and to administer the sacraments. The term "clergy" has its roots in the Greek word kleros, which expresses the idea of "lot" or "portion." In the first centuries of the church's existence, persons who administered liturgical functions became known as clerics, in contrast to the laikos or laity—the common people. Within clerical status there existed various ranks or "orders." During the first centuries of the Christian Church, three orders developed, those of the deacon, priest, and bishop. By the high Middle Ages these orders had developed into seven specific offices with specific liturgical functions. The minor orders included the offices of porter (sacristan), lector, exorcist, and janitor. Major orders included subdeacon, deacon, and priest. Theologians debated as to whether the episcopacy, the office of bishop, was a separate order or the fullness of the presbyterial (priestly) state. Hence sources refer either to the ordination of a bishop or to his consecration.

The ecclesiastical use of the word order has its foundation in classical Roman civil vocabulary. In classical Rome those with orders, or rank, were distinct from the plebs, or common Roman citizens. Patristic authors used the term ordo to designate those with official duties who were set apart from the rest of the Christian population. Emperor Theodosius II (ruled 408–450) identified this separation when he spoke of the order of ecclesiastics in his code that became effective on 1 January 439. Two aspects of clerical life that evolved during the patristic period became consequential points of debate during the age of reforms: the separate nature of the cleric from that of the general body of believers and the role of the cleric, particularly one in a major order, as the sole dispenser of the Sacraments.

Some summary points must be made concerning the status of clerics by the beginning of the early modern period. Only men were clerics. In most cases clerics were immune from the jurisdiction of the civil courts and the obligation to pay taxes. Men attained clerical status by ordination (the instilling of an order) by a bishop. Those with minor orders could be married, but the promise of celibacy was required of those with major orders. The church established benefices to provide support for those within orders. A benefice, from the Latin for "good work," was the income generated by property or goods assigned to a specific cleric. Frequently a benefice was assigned to a youth to support his education with the expectation that he would continue his career in the church as a priest. John Calvin (1509–1564) was the recipient of such a benefice.

SECULARS AND REGULARS

Clerics (clergy) were referred to as either secular or regular. Secular clergy were directly under the jurisdiction of a bishop and did not profess the evangelical vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Seculars (those in major orders) took promises of celibacy and a promise of obedience to their bishop. Regulars, frequently referred to as "religious," were members of religious orders who lived according to a specific way of life or rule and were governed by a religious superior. The term regular comes from the Latin regula, 'rule', which refers to a specific rule established by a founder of a religious community. Examples of such rules and their dates of official church approval are the Rule of Saint Benedict (c. 530–540), the Rule of Saint Dominic (1221), and Saint Ignatius's rule for the Jesuits, the Constitutions (1558). Although all regulars lived under a rule, not all regulars were clerics. Some were members of an order who took the evangelical vows but were not ordained. These persons were frequently referred to as brothers. Since regulars took the vow of poverty, they were referred to as mendicants, from the Latin mendicare, 'to beg.' Franciscans and Dominicans were known particularly as mendicates, since they did not take a promise of stability to one specific house, as did the Benedictines. Since their areas of activity frequently overlapped, disputes occurred concerning the proper jurisdictions of the mendicants and the seculars. For example, could one go to a mendicate to fulfill the obligation of the annual confession, or did one have to confess to his or her parish priest? From whom did a dying person receive the correct final blessing?

Prior to the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the spiritual and academic formation of the clergy within religious orders was superior to that of the secular clergy. Although several prior church councils and synods had recognized the need for a moral and educated secular clergy, the general breakdown of church discipline caused by the Avignon papacy (c. 1308–c. 1378), the demographic collapse of the Black Death (1348), and the western schism (1378–1417) had an adverse effect on establishing norms for forming the clergy. By the end of the fifteenth century there were three possible programs for formal education: monastic schools, episcopal schools, and universities. No specific regulation concerning the education of the secular clergy existed before the Council of Trent.

However, by the end of the late Middle Ages a growing number of clergy received their education at a major university. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) and the first members of the Jesuit order demonstrate this point; they received their degrees from the University of Paris and with these credentials were ordained. University-educated priests set a high standard and perhaps created a sharp contrast with those clerics of limited education (the basic ability to read and write). Although many clerics at the beginning of the Reformation were more educated than ever, they stood in contrast to those with poor or nonexistent preparations for the clerical state. Both these situations created opportunities for abuse. Persons with basic skills and little or no theological training were usually assigned to the care of souls in a parish or recited masses, supported by a benefice. Benefices varied in amounts but provided enough incentive for some to take on clerical office with little regard for its spiritual and temporal duties. University-trained clerics received benefices for their education and usually multiple benefices upon arrival at their new positions. The consequence of this was pluralism, the practice of holding more than one benefice at a time. This created the problem of absenteeism, accepting a benefice without fulfilling the obligation of spiritual and temporal care of souls attached to the benefice. Before the English Reformation almost 25 percent of English parishes were served by an "absentee." Celibacy was disregarded by many clerics as well.

REFORM OF THE CLERGY

Protestant and Catholic Reformers identified the lack of a well-trained clergy, sexual license, absenteeism, and simony (the selling of an office for profit) as the greatest scandals within clerical life. Desiderius Erasmus (1466?–1536) was particularly vehement in his castigation of both seculars and religious. Erasmus, however, was not alone in his desire for reform. A committee formed by Pope Paul III (reigned 1534–1549) in 1536 to identify the problems that beset the church acknowledged in its 1537 publication the ill-trained and immoral lives of religious and secular clerics, echoing many of the concerns raised on both sides of the confessional divide.

During the first half of the sixteenth century, Catholic and evangelical reformers debated the nature and role of the cleric. No one during the age of reforms disputed that the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus were fundamentally necessary for salvation; arguments instead centered on how the faithful acquired access to salvation. Catholic theologians, particularly in the Council of Trent, identified the priest, under the jurisdiction of a bishop, as the intermediary through whom the faithful experienced the saving grace of the Sacraments. Hence the priest, as the administrator of the Sacraments, was essential for salvation, and priestly reform was a necessary step in the reform of the entire church. The participants at Trent envisioned a bishop in residence supervising an educated and celibate clergy, each cleric in turn supervising and providing the Sacraments (the means of salvation) to the faithful registered in a parish. The council specifically noted that "it is of the highest import for the salvation of souls that parishes be governed by worthy and qualified men" (Trent, Session 24 canon 18, cited in Tanner, p. 770).

Even before the Council of Trent, Catholic Reformers identified problems within the clerical state and recommended means of reform. Ignatius of Loyola, following the recommendations of the committee appointed by Pope Paul III in 1536, established the first seminary, the German College (1552), as a residential training program for secular clerics, particularly Germans, to prepare them to "support the tottering and in some places collapsed church in Germany" (Ignatius of Loyola, 1959, p. 259). Other Reformers led the way toward a better-trained clergy. Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436–1517) of Spain, Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500–1558) of England, and Bishop Gian Matteo Giberti (1495–1543) of Vernona argued for a better-trained clergy as the principal means of reform. Bartholomew Fernández (1514–1590), bishop of Braga, Portugal, advanced clerical reform in his dioceses and was instrumental in the reforms of the clerical state crafted in the twenty-third session (1563) of the Council of Trent. Legislation in that session condemned absenteeism, the giving of benefices to those under the age of fourteen, and simony. One of the most consequential pieces of legislation for clerical formation was the recommendation of separate training for those interested in the priesthood. The council legislated that large dioceses were obliged to provide training for youths in preparation for the priesthood. These "seedbeds" or seminaries were to be strictly supervised by local bishops.

Seminary training, though legislated at Trent, was more the exception than the norm, however. Even one hundred years after the Council of Trent, most priests did not receive a seminary education. The diocese of Lyon, France, did not have a seminary until 1654, and until 1657 its bishop did not require a seminary education for its priests, which even then entailed only a ten- to fifteen-day retreat. A one-year seminary education was not required for those in major orders until the Lyon diocesan statutes of 1707 and 1715 (Hoffman, 1984, p. 77). In Fiesole, Italy, during the seventeenth century only 26 percent of the clergy were educated in a seminary. A seminary education did not lead to better church offices, as all the prestigious positions (bishop, notary, master of the chapel, and so forth) went to nonseminarians. Paris, with its a population of 400,000 persons and 472 parishes in the late seventeenth century, did not have a seminary until 1696.

There were important exceptions to this lack of seminary education. In 1564, the year after the Council of Trent adjourned, three seminaries were established. Cardinal Marcantonio Amulio (d. 1572) of Rieti, Italy, began the first Tridentine seminary in Italy. Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (1538–1584) opened a seminary in Milan with fourteen Jesuit faculty, thirty-four seminarians, and one hundred nonseminarians. Eight years later the number of seminarians increased to sixty. The first seminary in Germany began the same year in Eichstätt (Eichstadt), Bavaria. A year later Pope Paul IV (reigned 1555–1559) established the Roman Seminary and placed it under the jurisdiction of the Jesuits. In 1568 William Allen (1532–1594) established a seminary for English Catholic exiles in Douai, France. Bishops throughout Europe looked to the work of Borromeo, who called provincial councils and diocesan synods, created seminaries, and initiated extensive visitation of parishes, as an example for implementing clerical reform.

Although the church hierarchy of France did not accept Tridentine legislation until 1615, the country eventually became a model for the training of clerics and the implementation of Borromeo's ideals. Earlier in the century requirements for a curé, the head of a parish, were meager: the ability to read and write and ownership of a Bible, a Lives of the Saints, the catechism of the Council of Trent, and the legislation of provincial synods. The young bishop of Luçon, France, Armand-Jean du Plessis (1585–1642), the future Cardinal Richelieu, created the first seminary in France in his diocese in 1612 and placed it under the supervision of the Oratorians. The advancement of a deeper spiritual life was the special object of attention of Pierre de Bérulle (1575–1629), founder of the French Oratory, an organization of priests modeled on the oratory of Philip Neri (1515–1595) in Rome.

Adrien Bourdoise (1584–1665) may be considered the principal initiator of clerical reform in France. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660) advanced the character of clerical life in France with conferences for priests and the establishment of seminaries. François de Sales (1567–1622), as bishop of Geneva, conducted conferences for existing priests and carefully screened those who applied for ordination. Jean Eudes (1601–1680) established a congregation of secular priests in 1643 to form educated and virtuous priests. His society of secular priests established seminaries in six French cities from 1644 to 1670.

Because so few clerics received their training in seminaries, other means developed to assure the training of priests as effective implementers of Tridentine Catholicism. The Jesuits established congregations for priests that aimed to develop the spiritual and academic lives of the secular priesthood. During weekly meetings, the Jesuits discussed "cases of conscience," the application of church law to individual situations. So important were these meetings that the Roman diocese in 1721 ordered all priests living within the diocese to attend these or other such meetings. Similar groups met in different cities, especially where Jesuit colleges were located.

NUMBERS OF CLERGY

Enumerating the quantity of clergy, as David Gentilcore (1992) has demonstrated with his studies of southern Italy, is a difficult task. The Terra d'Otranto in southern Italy had 7,684 clerics for 41,980 hearths. But just less than half of these clerics were actually ordained priests. The kingdom of Naples in the mid-seventeenth century had a total of 58,597 clerics. Lecce at this same time had 404 clerics to its 154 priests, and Gallipoli had 203 clerics to its 139 priests and deacons (Gentilcore, 1992, p. 50). Since the designation of cleric included all those with any type of order (and its consequent benefice), discerning active priests among the total population of clerics necessitates a study of individual diocesan records—a daunting task. In pre-Reformation Europe it was not uncommon for clerics to make up 4 percent of the male population. Early sixteenth-century England maintained twenty to twenty-five thousand priests. Luçon, France, with a population of 100,000 in 1600, had 428 priests. Areas where Catholics were persecuted or were under restrictions have been better studied and hence have generated more statistics. During the reign of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558–1603) the number of priests in Wales was reduced from sixteen to four. In 1623 Scotland had thirteen secular priests. Ireland in 1731 had 1,445 parish priests and curates with an additional 700 religious priests for a Catholic population of 2,293,680.

See alsoJesuits; Reformation, Catholic; Religious Orders; Trent, Council of.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

Ignatius of Loyola. Letters of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Selected and translated by William J. Young. Chicago, 1959.

Tanner, Norman P., ed. Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. 2 vols. London and Washington, D.C., 1990.

Secondary Sources

Andrieu, M. "Les ordres mineurs dans l'ancien rite romain." Revue des sciences religieuses 5 (1925): 232–274.

Blet, Pierre. Le clergé de France et la monarchie: Étude sur les assemblées générales du clergé de 1615 à 1666. Rome, 1959.

Bowker, Margaret. The Secular Clergy in the Diocese of Lincoln, 1495–1520. London, 1968.

Burke, William P. Irish Priests in the Penal Times, 1660– 1760. London, 1914.

Comerford, Kathleen M. Ordaining the Catholic Reformation: Priests and Seminary Pedagogy in Fiesole, 1575–1675. Florence, 2001.

Congar, Y. M. J. "Aspects ecclésiologiques de la querelle entre mendiants et séculiers dans la second moitiédu XIIe siècle et au dèbut du XIVe." Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 28 (1961–1962).

Delumeau, Jean. Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire. Translated by Jeremy Moiser. London, 1977. An important study that argues that a thorough "Christianization" of France began only in the second half of the seventeenth century.

Ellis, John Tracy. "A Short History of Seminary Education: The Apostolic Age to Trent." In Seminary Education in a Time of Change, edited by James Michael Lee and Louis J. Putz, pp. 1–29. Notre Dame, Ind., 1965.

——. "A Short History of Seminary Education: Trent to Today." In Seminary Education in a Time of Change, edited by James Michael Lee and Louis J. Putz, pp. 30–81. Notre Dame, Ind., 1965.

García Oro, José. Cisneros y la reforma del clero español en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos. Madrid, 1971.

Gentilcore, David. From Bishop to Witch: The System of the Sacred in Early Modern Terra d'Otranto. Manchester, U.K., and New York, 1992.

Heath, Peter M. A. The English Parish Clergy on the Eve of the Reformation. London, 1969.

Hoffman, Philip T. Church and Community in the Diocese of Lyon, 1500–1789. New Haven and London, 1984.

Logan, Oliver. The Venetian Upper Clergy in the 16th and Early 17th Centuries: A Study in Religious Culture. Lewiston, N.Y., 1996.

Maher, Michael W. "Jesuits and Ritual in Early Modern Europe." In Medieval and Early Modern Ritual: Formalized Behavior in Europe, China, and Japan, edited by Joëlle Rollo-Koster, pp. 193–218. Leiden, 2002. Discusses the important role of ritual in Catholic reform and the part played by Jesuits in teaching ritual and forming priests.

Marshall, Peter. The Catholic Priesthood and the English Reformation. Oxford, 1994.

Olin, John C. Catholic Reform from Cardinal Ximenes to the Council of Trent, 1495–1563. New York, 1990. This collection of translated documents contains the report given to Pope Paul III in 1537.

Prosperi, Adriano. Tra evangelisom e controriforma: G. M. Giberti (1495–1543). Rome, 1969.

Reynolds, Roger E. Clerical Orders in the Early Middle Ages. Brookfield, Vt., 1999.

MICHAEL W. MAHER