Apostolic Succession and Orders that are Absolutely Null & Utterly Void

Anglican orders  are “absolutely null and utterly void” according to the famous papal bull Apostolicae cure (1896). One hundred twenty five years ago today, February 20, 1878, Vincenzo Pecci became Pope Leo XIII. Leo was a scholar and an intellectual, and one of the longest serving popes. He kept busy issuing lots of pronouncements (encyclicals) about lots of things. He is remembered popularly as the “rosary pope” because he embraced the idea that Mary is “mediatrix” (mediator between God and man, and worthy to receive our prayers). In his tedious Apostolic cure, Pope Leo went back to Edward VI’s Ordinal (the English Reformation ordination service), opining that Anglican ordinations are invalid because our formularies clearly state that there are only two sacraments ordained by Christ (baptism and the Supper of the Lord, Article XXV), and that Anglicans reduce ordinations to ecclesiastical institution instead of a sacramental conferral of actual grace by the action itself. He was not malicious in his assessments, and may be right about what Anglicans believe. 

Edward’s Ordinal (Cranmer, 1550) dramatically changed the focus of ordained ministry from the sacrificing priesthood of the Medieval church to the ministry of word and sacrament - with an emphasis on the preaching of the Bible. The Council of Trent stated that the successors of the apostles have “the power delivered of consecrating, offering, and administering His Body and Blood, as also of forgiving and of retaining sins.” The Anglican Ordinal (1662) presents a newly consecrated bishop with a Bible (not a chalice and paten) with the enjoinder to “think about the things contained in this Book. Be diligent in them, that the encrease coming thereby may be manifest unto all men.” A Bible alone was the gift presented to the new bishop up until the 1979 Book of Common Prayer service when the Bible  and “other symbols of office may be given.” The 2019 ACNA Prayer Book stipulates that a Bible be given the new bishop, with a provision that, in addition to the Bible, a bishop may be presented with a staff, anointing oil, a cross, ring, and a mitre - all ahistorical sentimental things, but representing a significant departure from Cranmer’s Ordinal and the intent of the English reformers.

Anglicans do not believe in “apostolic succession” as commonly thought. There is no unbroken line of ordained bishops and priests traceable back to St. Peter by the automatic conferral of grace by the tactile laying-on-of-hands. The succession the Bible teaches is the succession of apostolic teaching from the Apostles to all subsequent generations to the end of time - the passing on of the catholic faith once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3; 2 Tim 2:2). This succession is symbolized in the laying-on-of-hands from bishop to bishop and bishop to priest, but the transference is authority to preach the Bible, not clerical "specialness" (or some ontological change or imputed “priestly character”). The idea of a tactile, automatic conference of special grace is Roman Catholic, not Anglican, but there is a move in that direction in many Anglican circles today.

The 1830s Oxford Movement is to blame for turning the Church of England in a decidedly Roman Catholic direction, declaring that bishops are the essence (esse) of the church. Before this, even through the High Church Movement, bishops were recognized as ancient, helpful, and “good order” (bene esse).  But the idea that a special grace is imputed in ordination to a make an ordinary man special for the purpose of making bread and wine special, is only in nascent form before the Oxford Movement (Peter Nockles’ The Oxford Movement in Context, and Peter Toon’s Evangelical Theology 1833-1856). Tract 10 reminds us that “he that despiseth the Bishops despiseth the Apostles,” but Anglicans historically would say that he who despises the catholic and apostolic faith is no successor to the Apostles. Colin Buchanan reminds us that “one can approve the office of a bishop without subscribing to an exclusive doctrine of episcopacy.” The succession that is the undercurrent in all the Anglican formularies is the apostolic teaching whereby “we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou has given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.” 

“Cranmer did not believe that the apostles passed down the Holy Spirit through an unbroken line of holy bishops like a pipeline. No, for Cranmer, the author of the founding formularies of Anglicanism, apostolic succession meant the passing down of apostolic teaching . . . each generation of the church is to receive, witness to and pass on the Bible and its message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone.”

-Ashley Null, Divine Allurement: Cranmer’s Comfortable Words”