# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1856_S338
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

338 On the Call of Church Ministers.

...of Holy Orders, Chapter 4: The holy Synod teaches that in the institution of bishops, priests, and the rest of the clergy, neither the approval, calling, nor voice of the people, nor of any civil authority or power whatsoever, is required in such a way that the institution would be invalid without it.

Bellarmine, in the book On the Clergy, Chapter 2: The teachers of the Catholic Church agree entirely that the right to consecrate and call bishops belongs to the people in no way whatsoever; the right of election, however, the people once had in a certain sense, namely through the concession and indulgence of the popes, but not by divine right.

Cornelius a Lapide, in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. There, on the words "called to be an Apostle," he says: To consecrate sacred things and holy superiors is not the business of the civil authority, nor is calling the business of the people.

We prove our opinion:

1) from Holy Scripture and propositions derived from it;
2) from apostolic practice;
3) from the custom of the early Church.

To the first class belong the following propositions:

1) From the doctrine of the power of the keys. Whoever has been given the keys of the kingdom of heaven by Christ Himself has the right to call church ministers, because by the keys is to be understood the power of the Church, of which the right to call and install church ministers forms a part. Now it is to the whole Church that Christ has given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 16:19; and therefore the Church of Christ is called His wife, Psalm 45:10, His bride, John 3:29, the mother of the household, Psalm 68:13, and in Matthew 18:18 the power to exclude stubborn sinners is ascribed to the Church. Therefore the Church has the right to call church ministers;

2) From the examination of teachers. To whomever it belongs to distinguish teachers from seducers, to search out wholesome doctrine, to recognize the voice of Christ the Chief Shepherd and, conversely, to flee that of false shepherds, and to curse those who preach another gospel than that which the Apostles proclaimed — to him it belongs, for his part, to call church ministers. For if the hearers are to beware of false prophets, then they must also, in due order and manner, take care that the ministry of the Church is not entrusted to false teachers, and use all diligence that true, godly teachers be called to this office. But all the former is laid upon the sheep of Christ, or the hearers, by divine command — Matthew 7:15, John 5:39, 10:27, Galatians 1:9, 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21, 1 John 4:1, 2 John 10-11. Therefore the latter, too, may not be denied them;

3) From the name of church ministers. To whomever the shepherds are and are called servants, to him belongs the right and the power to call the shepherds. But they are and are called servants of the Church, 1 Corinthians 3:21-22, 2 Corinthians 1:24,...