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The termminister has long been appropriated in a distinctive way to theclergy. The language of1 Corinthians 4:1-2;Hebrews 8:2;Matthew 20:26, etc. must have helped to familiarize the thought that those charged with spiritual functions in theChristian Church were called upon to be the servants (ministri) of their brethren. Even before theReformation the word minister was occasionally used in English to describe those of theclergy actually taking part in a function, or the celebrant as distinguished from the assistants, but it was not then usedsine addito to designate anecclesiastic. This employment of the term dates fromCalvin, who objected to the namepriest etc. as involving anerroneous conception of the nature of the sacred office. TheseCalvinistic views had some influence inEngland. In theBook of Common Prayer the word minister occurs frequently in the sense of the officiant at a service, and in the thirty-second of the Canons Ecclesiastical (1603) we read "no bishop shall make a person deacon and minister both upon one day", where clearly minister stands as the equivalent ofpriest. As regards modern usage the Hist. Eng. Dictionary says: "The use of minister as the designation of anAnglican clergyman (formerly extensively current, sometimes with more specific application to abeneficedclergyman) has latterly become rare, and is now chiefly associated withLow Church views; but it is still the ordinary appellation of one appointed to spiritual office in any non-Episcopal communion, especially of one having a pastoral charge".
As regardsCatholic use, minister is the title of certain superiors in variousreligious orders. The head of theFranciscan Order is known as the minister general, and the superior of the different provinces of the various branches is called minister provincial. The same istrue of the Order of the Trinitarians for the Redemption of Captives and of some other orders. In theSociety of Jesus the second in command in each house, who is usually charged with the internal discipline, the commissariat, etc., is called minister. The statement made in Addis and Arnold's "Catholic Dictionary" and thence incorporated into the great Hist. Eng. Dictionary that each of the five assistants of the General of theJesuits is called minister is without foundation.
APA citation.Thurston, H.(1911).Minister. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10326a.htm
MLA citation.Thurston, Herbert."Minister."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 10.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1911.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10326a.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by Bruce C. Berger.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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