Some account has been already given of scholastic opinion on presbyteral ordination to the diaconate and even to the priesthood.
St Jerome (Ep. 1 4 6) tells us that as late as the middle of the 3rd century the presbyters of Alexandria, when the see was vacant, used to elect one of their own number and without any further ordination set him in the episcopal office.
Therein we are told that the threefold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons may be traced back to apostolic times, and in the final revision of 1662 a clause was added to the effect that no one is to be accounted " a lawful bishop, priest or deacon in the Church of England," unless he has had episcopal consecration or ordination.
He was ordained at Zurich, and from him Court himself received ordination.
The Schoolmen had no historical sense and little historical information; hence they fell into one error after another on the essentials in the rite of ordination.