In no Reformed church are there more than three orders, namely, bishops, priests, and deacons. In the Roman Catholic church there are seven, exclusive of the episcopate, all of which the Council of Trent enjoins to be received and believed, on pain of anathema. They are distinguished into petty or secular orders, and major or sacred orders.

The petty or minor orders are four; those of doorkeeper, exorcist, reader, and acolyte. Persons in petty orders may marry without any dispensation. In effect, the petty orders are looked on as little other than formalities, and as degrees necessary to arrive at the higher orders. The Greeks disavow these petty orders, and pass immediately to the subdiaconate; and the Reformed churches to the diaconate. Their rise Fleury dates in the time of the Emperor Justinian. There is no call nor benefit required for the four petty orders; and even a bastard may enjoy them without any dispensation, nor does a second marriage disqualify.

ORDERS, Religious, in the Romish Church, are generally reckoned three,—viz., the monastic, the military, and the mendicant. (Respecting these, see Monachism, Knights and Knighthood, Mendicants, and Jesuitism.)

ORDERS, Holy. See ORDINATION.