The cursus honorum comprised the
minor orders of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte, and the major orders of subdeacon, deacon, presbyter, and bishop.
One of those sophisticated connoisseurs was Jean-Claude Richard, Abbe de Saint-Non, a worldly cleric (a common figure during this period) like the Abbe Prevost and indeed Casanova (who also took
minor orders).
Generally, the
minor orders were exempted, though, of course, the priesthood was not the only major order.
Since there was no ontological difference between the different orders, the distinction between major and
minor orders was simply not that important.
Following the death of his son in 1859 and his daughter in 1862, he retreated to living a solitary life in the monastery Madonna del Rosario just outside of Rome, where he became friends with the Pope and took
minor orders in the Catholic Church.
Although becoming a priest was farthest from his youthful dreams, he went through the early steps toward the priesthood by taking what were then called "
Minor Orders." These were enough to make him technically a "cleric," and, in an era when there was no separation of church and state, these were also enough to give him immunity from arrest for minor offenses.
Successive chapters treat the development of Durham's parishes; what records reveal of the course of the church year; lay parish life (on which see below); relations between the lower clergy and the laity; relations between the higher clergy and the laity; the secular clergy, including those in
minor orders; education both through school attendance and pastoral instruction; chantries and other forms of commemoration after death; associations, guilds, and confraternities; hospitals and other charities; the laity's awareness of the wider church beyond Durham; and evidence for the impact of the Reformation in Durham.
The Pardoner's religious status (whether that of friar or
minor orders) is impossible to discover from his outward appearance (pp.
(7) Itinerant preachers of indulgence, then, probably fell into two categories: ordained clerics, such as Franciscan and Dominican friars (among others), and pardoners, among whom were men in
minor orders, as well as laymen.
First, it would fit with the early and Byzantine Church's practice of clearly restricting liturgical functions to clergy, of either major or
minor orders. Eirene-Eulogia and her daughters indeed participated in a liturgical procession, but it was an out-of-doors procession that was not part of a standard liturgical service.
Eager to improve seminary funding, Carlo Bascape followed a tactic already employed by his predecessors, directing the revenues of clericati, small benefices originally intended for the maintenance of clerics in
minor orders, towards the new foundations.