.

_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 4), there is required for the
state of perfection a perpetual obligation to things pertaining to
perfection, together with a certain solemnity. Now both these
conditions are competent to religious and bishops. For religious bind
themselves by vow to refrain from worldly affairs, which they might
lawfully use, in order more freely to give themselves to God, wherein
consists the perfection of the present life. Hence Dionysius says
(Eccl. Hier. vi), speaking of religious: "Some call them
_therapeutai_," i.e. servants, "on account of their rendering pure
service and homage to God; others call them _monachoi_" [*i.e.
solitaries; whence the English word 'monk'], "on account of the
indivisible and single-minded life which by their being wrapped in,"
i.e. contemplating, "indivisible things, unites them in a Godlike
union and a perfection beloved of God" [*Cf. Q. 180, A. 6]. Moreover,
the obligation in both cases is undertaken with a certain solemnity
of profession and consecration; wherefore Dionysius adds (Eccl. Hier.
vi): "Hence the holy legislation in bestowing perfect grace on them
accords them a hallowing invocation."

In like manner bishops bind themselves to things pertaining to
perfection when they take up the pastoral duty, to which it belongs
that a shepherd "lay down his life for his sheep," according to John
10:15. Wherefore the Apostle says (1 Tim. 6:12): "Thou . . . hast
confessed a good confession before many witnesses," that is to say,
"when he was ordained," as a gloss says on this passage. Again, a
certain solemnity of consecration is employed together with the
aforesaid profession, according to 2 Tim. 1:6: "Stir up the grace of
God which is in thee by the imposition of my hands," which the gloss
ascribes to the grace of the episcopate. And Dionysius says (Eccl.
Hier. v) that "when the high priest," i.e. the bishop, "is ordained,
he receives on his head the most holy imposition of the sacred
oracles, whereby it is signified that he is a participator in the
whole and entire hierarchical power, and that not only is he the
enlightener in all things pertaining to his holy discourses and
actions, but that he also confers this on others."

Reply Obj. 1: Beginning and increase are sought not for their own
sake, but for the sake of perfection; hence it is only to the state
of perfection that some are admitted under certain obligations and
with solemnity.

Reply Obj. 2: Tho