Ordener

“ Ordener accepted the old priest’s gift with emotion.
“Sir Chaplain,” said he, “God grant that your prayer may be heard! Thank you. But,” he added, laying his hand on his sword, “I already carry my passport at my side.”
“Young man,” said the priest, “that poor parchment{182} may perhaps protect you better than your steel blade. The gaze of a penitent man is more potent than the archangel’s sword. Farewell! My prisoners await me. Pray sometimes for them and me.” ”

“ That Three or more of them should meet at the Sovereign’s Court, and begin to put the said Commission in execution in Whitson Week next ensuing, attended and assisted by the Chancellor of the Order, and all, or any other Officers, or such of them as they should fix on, or find serviceable. And being assembled, to have free Liberty to hear, propound, and debate of whatsoever shall fall under their Cognisance, or that they should conceive conducible to the Honour and perfect Establishment of so Illustrious and Noble a Body. ”

“ Not only the Order but each member is bound to take every opportunity of assisting every other by every method within his power. We employ them, we promote them, we give them the preference in every kind of patronage at our command. But these obligations are points of honour rather than of law. ”

“ The Order, as an Order, does not bestow the honour, but its members do not forfeit their right as knights to bestow it individually, and none among us are more worthy of admitting them to your rank than yourself. ”

“ The Grand Wizard, who is the supreme officer of the Empire, shall have power, and he shall be required to, appoint Grand Dragons for the different Realms of the Empire; and he shall have power to appoint his Genii, also a Grand Scribe, and a Grand Exehequer for his Department, and he shall have the sole power to issue copies of this Prescript, through his subalterns, for the organization and dissemination of the Order ”

“ That I am a servant it is most true, that as I am head and governor of all the people in my dominion who are my natural vassals and subjects, considering them in numbers and distinct ranks: so, if we will take the whole people as one body and mass, then, as the head is ordained for the body and not the body for the head, so must a righteous king know himself to be ordained for his people and not his people for him. ”

“ The commander was bound by the advice of his brethren; and in the same way the general chapter of the Order, consisting of the landmeisters and the great dignitaries, formed an advisory board to the grand master in matters such as treaties and internal legislation. It was government by an aristocracy almost Venetian in character. The individual was merged in the Order: each brother must pray four times in the day, and four times at night, and he must at all times pay an unquestioning obedience to his superiors. The Order was at once supreme ecclesiastical and political authority. ”

“ There were to be Thirteen Canons Secular, who at the Time of their Institution, or within a Year, were to be Priests, and as many Vicars already Priests, or to be made so at the next Ordination, answerable to the number of the Knights-Companions; these religious Persons to be presented by the several Founders each one, and upon the Death or Vacancy of such presented, the Sovereign of the Order ever afterwards to have the Nomination of them, who were bound to pray for the good Estate of the Sovereign and his Kingdom, and particularly for this Order. ”

“ Yet with all our worst carelessness towards the Order, we never felt for it the same pitying contempt we feel towards an Order worn by many—not at their button-holes, not outside their breasts, but in the very core of their hearts—the Order of the Golden Calf. ”

“ Servants take pride in the orders they receive; that our badge of honour is an ‘Order’ is a significant use of words. It is still true that ‘Order is heaven’s first law’ and order is the outcome of authority. ”

“ If the Progression was begun on Horse-back at the beginning of the Feast, so it continued, as often as the Sovereign (his Lieutenant or Commissioner) went to the Chapter-House, or Chappel, and their returns were marshalled in the like Order at their setting out.
The Servants and Attendants belonging to the Knights elect, (if they be taken into the Procession,) pass on first two and two in a Rank, according to their Quality; and those who are the most inferior, the foremost: Next the Alms-Knights in their Habits and usual Order. ”

“ For instance, a man can have the Red Eagle order of the first, second, third or fourth class, and these may be complicated with a laurel crown, with an oak crown, with swords and with stars, etc. Even domestic servants, who have served a long time in one family, receive orders; and faithful postmen and other officials who have never appeared on the police books for having made statements against the government or the army are sure of receiving some sort of order. ”

“ Presuming then, that a full Number of Knights, (in Obedience to their Summons) are attending their Sovereign habited in their Mantles and Garters, and entred into the Chapter-House at Windsor, or other Place appointed for this Assembly, the Sovereign having taken his Seat at the upper End of the Table, and given leave to the Knights-Companions to sit, the Occasion of their being call’d together is first declar’d either by the Sovereign himself, or the Chancellor of the Order by his Command. ”

“ We have now only to show what capacities and talents must be possessed by the true Ruler,—by what estimate of his calling, and what mode of practising it, he proves that he looks upon it as sacred.
He who undertakes to guide his Age and order its constitution, must be exalted above it,—must not merely possess an historical knowledge of it, but must thoroughly understand and comprehend it. The Ruler possesses, in the first place, a living and comprehensive idea of that relation of human life which he undertakes to superintend;—he knows what is its essential nature, meaning, and purpose. ”

“ That in future the rank of general officer should of itself be sufficient to confer the full right of nobility upon all those who should arrive at that degree of military promotion; and that their heirs and successors, as well as their children, actually born and lawfully begotten, should be entitled to the same distinction; and that all general officers should enjoy all the rights and privileges of nobility from the date of their commissions. ”

“ It may be noticed that whereas the Order of the Bath, which was a purely military Order, was after nearly five hundred years opened to civilians, Orders like the Star of India, St. Michael and St. George, and the Indian Empire, started on exactly opposite lines; they were intended for civilians only. But happily now all these Orders are open alike to soldiers, sailors, and civilians who have done in their own lines good service to their King and Empire, and that is really all that matters. ”

“ It is your duty to proclaim the Grand officers at their installation; to arrange all processions of the Grand Lodge, and to preserve order according to the forms prescribed. Skill and precision are essentially necessary to the faithful discharge of these duties.
GRAND PURSUIVANT.
Brother, you have been appointed Grand Pursuivant, and we now invest you with the jewel of your office, and intrust this sword of state to your keeping. ”

“ We can imagine when the council rose, that the angel who watched over the youth of our republic, and who had trembled for the result, clapped his hands for joy, and that the exultant sound, taken up by messenger after messenger, passed from hierarch to hierarch, until all heaven rang with the acclaim. ”

“ Passing to the effect of ordination, we meet with two views, each of which still finds advocates. According to some, ordination simply entitles a man to hold an office and perform its functions. It corresponds to the form by which, e.g., a Roman official was put in possession of his magistracy. This theory is clearly stated by Cranmer: “In the New Testament he that is appointed bishop or priest needed no consecration, by the Scripture, for election or appointment thereto is sufficient.” ”

“ The order of rank of the various duties must necessarily be for the State, as it is power, quite other than for individual men. A whole series of these duties, which are obligatory on the individual, are not to be thought of in any case for the State. To maintain itself counts for it always as the highest commandment ”

“ The object of every rank is precedency, and every order may display its advantages to their full extent. The sovereign himself owes great part of his authority to the sounding titles and the dazzling equipage which he exhibits in public. The subordinate ranks lay claim to importance by a like exhibition, and for that purpose carry in every instant the ensigns of their birth, or the ornaments of their fortune. ”

“ Sisters and brothers of the Grand Chapter, these persons, selected by you, are now ready and willing to take upon themselves the obligations, duties and responsibilities of office. In our beautiful Order, preferment to office should not be sought after, but should come to the individual chosen, as an honor justly merited and freely bestowed. Those only should be chosen, who, by their reputation, their work, and high moral character, command the esteem and confidence of our members, and can give us standing and credit before the world. ”

“ Though the Statutes of the Order appoint and prefix a time, wherein the Sovereign’s Letters of notice to an elect Knight ought to be sent, yet as to the sending a solemn Embassy with the Habit and Ensigns, they do not limit any certain time, but leave it wholly to the Sovereign’s Pleasure, wherein his own Interest and Conveniency, as well as that of the elect Stranger, is to be considered. ”

“ For instance, great organizations are in process of formation--people are beginning to flock together for purposes of protection. Charles the First and Henry the Eighth and Louis the Fourteenth have established Ye Ancient and Honorable Order of Kings, to which only those who have actually worn crowns shall be eligible. ”

“ Hence, an officer over officers of the same kind, is not an officer of Christ's institution, and consequently any power conveyed from him is null; but a prelate pretends to be an officer, over officers of the same kind: therefore, 4. Because every officer in the church hath equally, and in perfect parity, equal power and authority allowed them of God in the exercise of both order and jurisdiction; all ruling elders may rule alike, and deserve equal honour; and all preaching elders have the like authority, and the like honour conferred upon them, 1 Tim. ”

“ I inquired whether the order of Worthies was a numerous body, and was informed that it embraced a majority of the men of mature age; all of whom were called in turn according to the order of their admission, to fill a place in the ordinary council of the Best Man. This council consists of one hundred; fifty-five of whom must be of the Good, forty of the Useful, and five of the Wise. ”

“ Order is our motto, and we practise it, while, if men strive to follow our example, they content themselves with stamping the motto on the buttons of their national guards. Our monarchy is order, and order is absolute. ”

“ ORDINATION, the act of conferring holy orders, or of initiating a person into the ministry of religion, or setting him apart for performing ecclesiastical rites and duties. All the Christian denominations which have a special ministry use some kind of ordination, but their opinions greatly differ respecting the authority by which it is conferred, its essence, and its effect. The Roman Catholic, the eastern (Greek, Armenian, Nestorian, and Jacobite) , and the Protestant Episcopal churches agree in maintaining that ordination is a prerogative of the bishops. ”

“ Though expressing the motives of their conduct differently, both those in command and their subordinates are agreed in saying that they act thus because the existing order is the order which must and ought to exist at the present time, and that therefore to support it is the sacred duty of every man. ”

“ By this peculiar system of organization the moving spirits of the Order are conversant with all that transpires below them, while their own identity is carefully concealed from the masses whom they design to move for their own vile purposes. The objects of the Order are somewhat covertly set forth in the oaths administered to the members, but previous to this time the grand designs intended to be accomplished were known only to the members of the Supreme Grand Council. ”

“ Over the State God placed the magistrate, who might here be a monarch, an Emperor or King, and there a Syndic or Council, created by the people for the people; but whatever he might be, he was yet a power ordained of God for the good of man and the regulation of society. ”

“ Constitution.—As finally constituted, the order consisted of (1) knights (fratres milites) , (2) chaplains (fratres capellani) , (3) sergeants or esquires (fratres servientes armigeri) , (4) menials and craftsmen (fratres servientes famuli and officii) . All were bound by the rules of the order and enjoyed its privileges. Women were not admitted to the order. [6]
1. At the head of the order was the master of the Temple at Jerusalem (in Cyprus after the fall of the Latin Kingdom) , known as the grand master. ”

“ Upon first Notice of the Death of any of the Order, the Sovereign shall ordain a Thousand Masses, every Foreign Prince shall cause Eight Hundred, a Prince of Wales Seven Hundred, a Duke Six Hundred, an Earl Three Hundred, every Baron Two Hundred, and every Knight Batchellor One Hundred Masses to be celebrated for the Good of the Soul departed ”