Crumb, Lawrence N.2018-06-132018-06-131963Church Quarterly Review 164, no. 350 (January-March 1963): 19-31https://hdl.handle.net/1794/233029 pages.The traditional minister of ordination is a bishop. However, during the late Middle Ages, several superiors of religious orders received papal permission to ordain their monks to the subdiaconate and diaconate. The principal recipient of this privilege was the Cistercian order, whose abbots used it as late as 1672. The purpose of this article is to present a systematic discussion of the various documents involved, the circumstances which made their issuance possible, the use to which they were put, and subsequent interpretations of the theological problems involved. (Note: The Code of Canon Law was revised in 1983 and the provision for an extraordinary minister of ordination was omitted.)enCreative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-USCatholic ChurchCanon LawCisteriansChurch historyMiddle AgesCanon LawOrdination