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DOGMATIC THEOLOGY VIII
THE POHLE-PREUSS SERIES OF DOG- MATIC TEXT-BOOKS
I. God: His Knowability, Essence and At- tributes, vi & 479 pp., $2.00 net.
The Divine Trinity, iv & 297 pp., $1.50 net.
God the Author of Nature and the Su- pernatural. V & 365 pp., $1.75 net.
Christology. iii & 310 pp., $1.50 net.
Soteriology. iv & 169 pp., $1 net.
Mariology. iv & 185 pp., $1 net.
Grace : Actual and Habitual, iv & 443 pp., $2 net.
8. The • Sacraments in General. Baptism. Confirmation.
Other Volumes to Follow :
9. The Holy Eucharist. (In preparation.)
10. The Sacrament of Penance.
11. Extreme Unction. Holy Or- ders. Matrimony.
12. Eschatology.
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THE SACRAMENTS
A DOGMATIC TREATISE
BY
THE REVEREND JOSEPH POHLE, Ph.D., D.D.
FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF APOLOGETICS AT THE CATHOLIC
UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, NOW PROFESSOR OF DOGMA
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BRESLAU
AUTHORIZED ENGLISH VERSION, BASED ON THE FIFTH
GERMAN EDITION, WITH SOME ABRIDGMENT
AND ADDITIONAL REFERENCES.
BY
ARTHUR PREUSS
Volume I
1. The Sacraments in General. 2. Baptism. 3. Confirmation.
ST. LOUIS, MO., 1915
Published by B. Herder
17 South Broadway
Freiburg (Baden) Germany
London, W. C. 68, Great Russell Str.
NIHIL OBSTAT
Sti. Ludoviciy die j, Nov. igr^
F. G. HOLWECK,
Censor Librorunt
IMPRIMA TUR
Sti. Ludovici, die j, Nov. igr^
■f Joannes J. Glennon,
A rch iepiscopu s
Sti. Ludovici
Copyright, 1915,
by
Joseph Gummersbachy
All Rights Reserved Printed in U. S. A.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION i
Part I. The Sacraments in General 3
Ch. I. Definition, Division, and Number 3
§ I. Explanation of the Term " Sacrament " . . . . S
§ 2. Christian and Other Sacraments 18
§ 3. The Seven Sacraments of the New Testament . . 32
Ch. II. The Three Essential Constituents of a Sacrament 58 § I. The Visible Sign, or Matter and Form .... 59 § 2. Internal Grace, or Sacramental Effects .... 66 Art. I. Effects Common to All the Sacraments . . 66 Art. 2. The Sacramental Character Peculiar to Bap- tism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders .... 76 § 3. The Sacraments Instituted by Jesus Christ ... 97 Ch. III. The Efficacy of the Sacraments and Their Man- ner of Operation 121
§ I. The Efficacy of the Sacraments ex Opere Operato 122 § 2. Whether the Sacraments are Physical or Moral
Causes of Grace 143
Ch. IV. The Minister of a Sacrament 161
§ I. The Conditions of Valid Administration .... 162
Art. I. The Person of the Minister 162
Art. 2. Requisites of Valid Administration . . . 166
Art. 3. Necessity of a Right Intention .... 175
§ 2. The Requisites of Worthy Administration . . . 188
Ch. V. The Recipient of a Sacrament 191
§ I. The Requisites of Valid Reception 191
§ 2. The Requisites of Worthy Reception .... 200
Part II. Baptism ^^A.
Ch. I. Baptism a True Sacrament 205
§ I. Divine Institution 206
§ 2. Matter and Form 2x3
§ 3. Sacramental Effects 228
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Ch. II. The Necessity of Baptism 238
Ch. Ill, The Minister of Baptism 254
§ I. The Minister of Solemn Baptism 255
§ 2. Who Has the Power to Confer Baptism in Cases
of Emergency 259
Ch. IV. The Recipient of Baptism 265
§ I. The Requisites of Valid Reception 265
§ 2. Infant Baptism 268
Part III. Confirmation 276
Ch. I. Confirmation a True Sacrament 278
§ I. Divine Institution 278
§ 2. Matter and Form 288
§ 3. Sacramental Effects 300
Ch. II. The Obligation of Receiving Confirmation . . 304
Ch. III. The Minister of Confirmation 307
Ch. IV. The Recipient of Confirmation 314
Index 319
INTRODUCTION
The justification of the sinner, with which we have dealt in a previous treatise/ is ordinarily not a purely internal and invisible process or series of acts, but requires the instrumentality of external visible signs instituted by Jesus Christ, which either confer grace " or augment ^ it.
Such visible means of grace are called Sacra- ments/
The source and well-spring of all grace under the present dispensation is the Sacrifice of the Cross, from which redemptive power flows into the souls of men through the Sacraments and the Mass. This consideration led St. Thomas to re- gard the Passion of Our Divine Saviour as the foundation-stone of the dogmatic treatise on the Sacraments. The importance of this treatise, from both the theoretical and the practical point of view, is in turn evident from the fact that the
1 Grace, Actual and Habitual, St. sense, and are therefore treated Louis, Mo., 1915. elsewhere — prayer in moral and
2 In this sense justification is ascetic theology, sacrifice partly in called iustificatio prima. Soteriology (cfr. Pohle-Preuss,
3 In this sense it is called iiistifi- Soteriology, pp. iii sqq.) and partly calio sccunda. in the dogmatic treatise on the
4 Prayer and sacrifice are also Holy Eucharist, Part III, " The nieans of grace, but in a different Holy Eucharist as a Sacrifice."
2 INTRODUCTION
grace of the Atonement cannot in the present economy effect justification in the individual soul without the use of the Sacraments, in re, or at least in voto.
Following the example of the Tridentine Coun- cil,^ modern theologians are wont to introduce the treatise on the Sacraments with an explana- tion of the nature, operation, and requisites of Sacraments in general.^ Besides obviating the need of constant repetition, this introduction serves to show that the Sacraments are closely connected by a common bond and constitute an or- ganic unit.
The present volume contains, besides this gen- eral introduction De Sacramentis in Gcnere, the special treatises on Baptism and Confirmation. The next volume will be devoted entirely to the Holy Eucharist, the following one to Penance, while a fourth will deal with Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.
5 Concilium Trident., Sess. VII, 6 " De Sacramentis in genere; "
quoted in Denzinger-Bannvvart's in German, " Allgemeine Sakra-
Enchiridion, nth ed., n. 844 sqq., mentenlehre." Freiburg 191 1.
PART I THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
CHAPTER I
DEFINITION, DIVISION, AND NUMBER
In this Chapter we shall first define the term "Sacrament," then show how it has been ap- plied to various rites in the Old and the New Testament, and finally demonstrate that under the New Law there are seven Sacraments, neither more nor less.
General Readings : — Peter Lombard, Liber Sent., IV, dist i sqq. — St. Thomas, Sumiiia Thcologica, 3a, qii. 60 sqq., and his commentators, notably the Salmanticenses, Cicrsus TheoL, Vol. XVIII (ed. Paris 1880) ; Billuart, De Sacramentis in Communi (ed. Lequette, Paris, Vol. VI, pp. 97 sqq.), etc. — *Suarez, De Sacramentis (ed. Vives, Paris 1856 sqq.). — Bcllarmine, Con- trovers, de Sacrament, in Genere (ed. Fevre, Vol. Ill, pp. 325 sqq., Paris 1870). — Allen, De Sacramentis in Genere, etc., Ant- werp 1576. — *M. Cano, Relectio de Sacramentis in Genere (ed. Rome 1890). — *De Lugo, Dispntationcs de Sacramentis in Genere (ed. Foiirnials, Vol. Ill, Paris 1892). This last-mentioned treatise is especially thorough and valuable.
Among later writers: Drouvenius, De Re Sacramentaria contra Perduellos Hacrcticos, Venice 1737; *Tournely, Pracl. TheoL de Sacramentis, Paris 1739; N. Muszka, S. J., De Sacramentis Novae Legis, Vienna 1758.
Among modern authors: Bautz, Einig, Heinrich-Huppert,
3
4 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
H'urter, Simar, Hunter, Wilhelm-Scannell, et al., in their re- spective treatises on the Sacraments, and in addition to these the fonowing :
Merlin, Traite Historiqiie et Dogmatique sur les Paroles ou Formes des Sept Sacrements de I'Eglise, Paris 1844 (Migne, Theol. Cursus Completus, Vol. XXI). — Besson, Les Sacrements ou la Grace de I'Hommc-Dieu, Paris 1879. — Katschthaler, Theol. Dogmatica Cath. Specialis, Vol. IV, Ratisbon 1884. — *Franzelin, De Sacramentis in Genere, 4th ed., Rome 1888. — *De Augustinis, De Re Sacramentaria, Vol. I, 2nd ed., Rome 1889. — Billot, Dc Ecclesiac Sacramentis, Vol. I, 4th ed., Rome 1907. — P. Schanz, Die Lehre von den Sakramenten der kath. Kirche, Freiburg 1893. — Oswald, Die dogmatische Lchre von den hi. Sakramenten, Vol. I, 5th ed., Miinster 1894. — *Chr. Pesch, Praelectiones Dog- maticae, Vol.VI, 3rd ed., Freiburg 1908. — G. B. Tepe, Institidiones Theologicae, Vol. IV, Paris 1896. — J. B. Sasse, De Sacramentis Ecclesiae, Vol. I, Freiburg 1897. — Heinrich-Gutberlet, Dog- matische Theologic, Vol. IX, Mainz 1901. — H. Lahousse, S. J., De Sacramentis in Genere, etc., Bruges 1900. — A. Paquet, De Sacramentis, Vol. I, Quebec 1900. — Scheeben-Atzberger, Dogma- tik. Vol. IV, Part 2, Freiburg 1901. — Noldin, De Sacramentis, Innsbruck 1901. — N. Gihr, Die hi. Sakramente der kath. Kirche, Vol. I, 2nd ed., Freiburg 1902. — G. van Noort, De Sacramentis, Vol. I, 2nd ed., Amsterdam 1910. — P. Pourrat, La Thcologie Sacramentaire, 4th ed., Paris 1910 (English tr., Theology of the Sacraments, 2nd ed., St. Louis 1914). — D. J. Kennedy, art. "Sacraments," in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIII. — W. Humphrey, S. J., The One Mediator, London 1890. — A. Devine, C. P., The Sacraments Explained, 3rd ed., London 1905.
N'on-Catholic authors worth consulting are : Hahn, Die Lehre von den Sakramenten in Hirer geschichtlichcn En-tzvicklnng in- ncrhalb der abendldndischen Kirche bis zum Konzil von Tricnt, Breslau 1864, and Alex. Maltzew, Die Sakramente der orthodox- katholischen Kirche des Morgenlandes, Berlin 1898.
*) The asterisk before an author's name indicates that his treatment of the subject is especially clear and thorough. As St. Thomas is invariably the best guide, the omission of the asterisk before his name never means that vi'e consider his work inferior to that of other vi'riters. There are vast stretches of theology which he scarcely touched.
SECTION I
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM "sACRAMENT"
I. Derivation and History of the Term. — "Sacrament" is a word of Latin origin. It is de- rived from sacrare ^ and denotes a thing wliich produces holiness — a means of sanctification.
The concept sacramentum was enriched by the inclusion in it of the Greek t^vaT^piov^ (from /*^'w, to shut the mouth or eyes), and thus came to denote a thing both sacred and mysterious.^
Such sacred and mysterious things were: (a) venerable objects, as the truths of religion,^ and especially (b) signs directing men to God, as, for instance, the types employed in the Old Testa- ment.^
This usage was adopted by the Fathers ^ and re- tained by the early Schoolmen,^ even after the term "Sacrament" had come to be technically re- stricted to "a definite number of sensible signs of sanctification, given to man by Christ, who has
1 As testamcntum from testari, 4 Cfr. Tcrtilllian, Contra Mar- linimentum from linire, etc. cion., V, 4.
2 Res sacra et arcana. 5 E. g., St. Augustine.
8 Cfr. Eph. I, 9. Ill, 3 sqq.; Col. 0 £. g., Hugh of St. Victor.
I, 27; I Tim. Ill, 16.
6 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
annexed to the due use of these signs the power of working that which they signify." '^
The usage mentioned was common aHke to pro- fane and ecclesiastical literature. Thus, in the early days of Rome, when a lawsuit was brought, the parties were often bound to deposit a sum of money with the priests, and that portion of it for- feited by the loser was called sacr amentum, i. e. res sacra, and employed to provide sacrifices for the gods. The Romans used the word sacra- mentum also to denote a solemn engagement, es- pecially a soldier's military oath of allegiance. Tertullian no doubt had this particular usage in mind when he referred to the baptismal vow as a sacramentum in the sense of a sacred obligation entered into under the sanction of an oath.^ Since whatever is sacred has refer- ence to the Deity, and the Deity is of its very na- ture mysterious, the term sacramenUmi gradually came to include the various meanings of the Greek word i^vcT^piov, Hence the indiscriminate use of sacramentum and mysterium in the Vul- gate ^ and the ancient liturgies. St. Augustine read in his Itala Bible: "Si sciero omnia sacra- menta" (i Cor. XIII, 2), where our Vulgate has: "Si noverim mysteria omnia."
7Cfr. S. J. Hunter, S. J., Out- 9 E. g., Tob. XII, 7: "Sacra- lines of Dogmatic Theology, Vol. vientntn regis abscondcre bonum III, pp. 167 sq. est."
8De Idol., c. 6, 19.
THE TERM "SACRAMENT"
The words sacramenta and iiiysferia were fur- ther applied indiscrimmately to symbols or signs representative of the "holy mysteries," that is to say, all sacred usages and ceremonies, even such as were not sacramental rites in the technical sense. Thus St. Augustine in his sermons speaks of the "Sacrament of the Lord's Prayer." ^^ In the Eleusinian Mysteries the term p-varripia was ap- plied both to doctrines and rites.^^
From this vague and indefinite usage it follows that not every rite called sacramentum in the primitive Church was necessarily a Sacrament in the later and more precise sense of the term. To understand what is meant in each case we must carefully attend to the context. Thus, for in- stance, it would be a mistake to attempt to prove from St. Paul's phrase "magnum sacramentum/' that he regarded Matrimony as a Sacrament. The Apostle simply meant to say that it is a great mystery.^^ Similarly the Fathers and early ec- clesiastical writers employ the term Sacrament very loosely, as may be gathered from the fact
10 Serm,, 228, n. 3: " Sermonem ad altare Dei debemus hodie infan- tibus de sacramento altaris. Trac- tavimus ad eos de sacramento symboli, quod credere debeant, iractavimus de sacramento orationis dominicae, quomodo petant, et de sacramento fontis ct baptismi."
11 The rite of initiation, Phallic worship, etc. On the mysteries of the Mithraic cult, which the Ro-
mans got from Persia, see Blotzer, "Das heidnische Mysterienwescn zur Zeit der Entstehung des Cliri- stentums," in the Stimmcn aus Maria-Laach, 1906, 1907. On the mysteries of Eleusis cfr. P. Foucart, Lcs Mystdres d'Eleusis, Paris 19 14. 12 For further information on this point cfr. the dogmatic treatise on Matrimony.
8 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
that Tertullian ^^ refers to the Gnostic systems as "sacramenta haereticaruni idearum," while St. Augustine repeatedly applies the term to the ex- ternal worship of God and to sacrifice in general.^^ It was reserved for the Schoolmen, notably Peter Lombard and St. Thomas, to define the term Sacrament, and to restrict its use to certain rites.^^
2. Definition of a Sacrament in the Re- stricted Sense of the Term. — Generally speak- ing, a Sacrament is, as we have seen, "a symbol of a sacred and mysterious thing." Now, as there exists a vast number of such symbols that are not Sacraments in the technical sense, it is nec- essary to eliminate from the formal definition of the term all those which do not refer to man's personal sanctification. Only the visible signs of internal sanctification are called Sacraments in the proper sense.^*^ To distinguish the Sac- raments of the Old Testament from the far more excellent and effective ones of the New, we must add, as a characteristic mark of the
13 Contra Marcion., I, 13. crificii sacramentum, i. e. sacrum
li Ad Marcellin., ep. 138, n. 7: signum est."
" Signa, quum ad res divinas per- 15 Cfr. Pourrat, La Theologie
tinent, sacramcnta vocantur." — Sacramentaire, pp. 1-46, Paris 1910.
Contra Faust., XIX, 11: "In (English td.. Theology of the Sacra-
nullum nomen religionis sen veriim ments, 2nd edition, pp. 1-47. St.
sen falsum coagulari homines pos- Louis 1914).
stmt, nisi aliquo signaculoritm vel 16 Petrus Lomb., Sent,, IV, dist.
sacramcntorum visibilium, consortia 1: " Sacram,entutn est invistbilis
colligentur." — De Civ. Dei, X, 5 : gratiae \_sanctificantis'\ visibilis
" Sacrificium visibile invisibilis sa- forma,"
THE TERM "SACRAMENT" 9
latter, that they not only signify but actually confer grace. Hence Peter Lombard's famous definition: ''Sacramentum proprie id dicitur quod ita est signwn gratiae Dei et invisihilis gratiae forma, ut ipsius imaginem gerat et causa existat," or, more concisely, "Sacramcfitum est signum efficax gratiae sanctiUcantis," — a Sacra- ment is an efficacious sign of sanctifying grace.
a) The note of "personal sanctification" eliminates a multitude of signs or symbols which were formerly in- cluded in the term Sacrament, e. g., such Old Testament types as the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, the brazen serpent, the manna, and in general all those signs, rites, symbols, and ceremonies which had for their chief purpose the glorification of God rather than the sanctification of man, for example, the sacrifices of the Old Law, the Mass, the physical universe as a mani- festation of the Creator's greatness, and so forth.^'' Similarly, the dove as a symbol of the Holy Ghost, the Bible, images of the saints, the sign of the cross, are in- deed signa rei sacrae, but not Sacraments, because they signify or symbolize something else than the sanctification of the soul. Even among the sensible signs of interior sanctification, only those are truly Sacraments that were permanently instituted for this purpose by God Himself. Such was, for instance, circumcision under the Old Law, such is Baptism under the New. By this criterion we must eliminate merely transient rites, as the communica- tion of the Holy Spirit by breathing, etc.^^ To exclude
iTCfr. Ps, XVin, I. isCfr. John XX, 22,
lo THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
from the definition of a Sacrament a number of rites or signs that are merely sacramentals, it is necessary to emphasize with De Lugo ^^ that a true sacrament not only signifies but actually causes interior sanctification. In the complete and perfect sense this is true only of the seven Sacraments of the New Law.
b) As there were undoubtedly true Sacra- ments, though of an inferior order, under the Old Law, we must find some note by which to dis- tinguish the Sacraments of the Christian dispen- sation from those of the Ancient Covenant, and elaborate a generic definition applicable to both classes.
The existence of Sacraments under the Old Law may be deduced from the constant belief of the Fathers ^° and Scholastics,"^ and especially from the positive teach- ing of the Church. The Council of Trent defines : " If anyone saith that these Sacraments of the New Law do not differ from the Sacraments of the Old Law, save that the ceremonies are different, and different the outward rites, let him be anathema." -^ It is not easy to formulate a generic definition that will fully answer the require- ments laid down. According to the exposition of doc- trine drawn up by Eugene IV for the Armenian delegates at the Council of Florence, A. D. 1439, the essential differ- ence between the Sacraments of the Old and those of the New Testament consists in this that the former merely
19 De Sacramentis, disp. i, sect. 2. dixerit, ea ipsa Novae Legis sa-
20 Cfr. St. Augustine, Contra cramenta a sacramentis antiquae Faust., XIX, II. Legis non differre nisi quia cacri-
21 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa moniae sunt aliae ct ritus alii, ana- Theol., la 2ae, qu. 102, art. 5. thema sit." (Denzinger-Bannwart,
22 Sessio VII, can. 2: "Si quis n. 84s).
THE TERM "SACRAMENT" ii
symbolize, or prophetically typify, sanctifying grace, whereas the latter '' contain " and actually " confer " it.-^ In other words, the distinguishing characteristic of the Sacraments of the New Law is the efUcacia signi, that of the Sacraments of the Old Law, the ineMcacia signi. But if the Sacraments of the Ancient Covenant were ineffica- cious signs, — if they did not somehow truly effect or convey grace, how can they be called Sacraments ? Holy Scripture makes a distinction between a twofold sanctity, the legal " sanctity of the flesh," -* and the theological " sanctity of the spirit." ^^ The Sacraments of the Old Law foreshadowed but did not of themselves (ex op ere opcrato) confer "theological sanctity," i. e. sanctify- ing grace, but they actually conferred " legal sanc- tity," and in so far at least were endowed with the necessary causality or eificacia signi. They were efficaci- ous signs of legal sanctity in the present, and inefficacious signs of theological sanctity for the future, and conse- quently types or models of the Sacraments of the New Testament. To exercise this twofold function they had been instituted by God Himself as a permanent institution, to last till the coming of the Messias. This distinction enables us to formulate an adequate generic definition as follows : " A Sacrament is a visible sign of sanctity, instituted by God, the efficaciousness of which is deter- mined by the particular economy of grace to which it belongs." ~^
23"Noz'ae Legis sacrantenta 2i Sanctitas Icgalis sen carnis.
multuin a sacramcntis differunt anti- 25 Sanctitas theologica sen gratia
quae Legis; ilia enim non causa- sanctificans.
bant gratiam, sed earn solum per 20 On the question whether this
passionem Christi dandain esse definition applies in exactly the same
figurabant, haec vera nostra et con- sense or only analogically to the
tinent gratiam et ipsain digne sus- Sacraments of both Testaments, see
cipientibus conferunt." (Denzinger- BellarmiDC, De Sacramcntis, I, 12. Bannwart, n. 695).
12 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
3. Theological Discussion of the Defini- tion.— The important part played by the word "sign" in both the specific and the generic defini- tion of a Sacrament, makes it necessary to ex- plain the meaning of that term.
a) A sign (signum, arjixelov) is some thing, the knowl- edge of which leads to the knowledge of some other thing. There are here two distinct elements. The ma- terial element is " some thing known ; " the formal ele- ment, the aptitude of the material to convey " the knowl- edge of some other thing as yet unknown."
" A sign," says St. Augustine, " is a thing which, over and above the impression it makes on the senses, causes something else to come into the mind as a consequence of itself ; as when we see a footprint, we conclude that an animal, whose footprint this is, has passed by; and when we see smoke, we know that there is fire beneath." ^^ For the purposes of the present treatise we may disregard visible signs of visible things ^^ and invisible signs of invisible things,'^ and concentrate our attention on the vis- ible signs of invisible things.
b) Signs may be divided according to the point of view from which they are regarded.
a) Between a sign and the thing it signifies there must be some connection. This connection may either arise from the nature of the two, independently of any free-will act, or it may be purely conventional. Thus it is owing to
27 De Doctrina Ckrist., II, i : 28 Such as foot-prints, images of
" Signum est res practcr speciem, saints, etc.
quam ingerit sensibns, aliud aliquid 29 E. g., peace of mind as an in-
ex se faciens in cogitationem venire, dication of the state of grace, the
sicut vestigio visa transiisse animal sacramental character conferred by
cuius vestigium est cogitamus et Baptism, etc. fumo visa ignem subesse cognosci- mus."
DEFINITION OF A SACRAMENT 13
the very nature of things that there should be fire where there is smoke, and vice versa; smoke is therefore the nat- ural sign of fire. A purely conventional sign bears no innate relation to the nature of things, but originates in an arbitrary act of one person, which is subsequently recognized by others.
To which of these two classes do the Sacraments be- long? They are not purely natural signs of invisible grace because their signification is owing to a free act of God. Nor can they be regarded as purely conventional or arbitrary signs because between the sacramental rite and its effects there is a striking similarity, which results in a sort of affinity between the symbol and the thing symbolized. In other words, the Sacraments are arbi- trary but at the same time deeply significant signs of grace. It was this observation which led St. Augustine to say: "If the Sacraments did not possess some kind of resemblance to the things which they signify, they would not be Sacraments." ^°
Cardinal Bellarmine ^^ divides signs, according to their origin, into three classes : ( i ) Those which signify some thing by nature, regardless of any act of the free-will (e. g. footprints, photographs) ; (2) those which origi- nate entirely in the free-will of the inventor and are strictly conventional {e. g. signals, the ringing of a bell) ; (3) those which involve what may be called an obvious symbolism {e. g. the sign of the cross). It is to this last-mentioned category that the Sacraments belong. Be- ing naturally adapted to symbolize interior grace, they have been chosen to perform this office and formally in- stituted for this purpose by Christ. Thus the external
ZO Ep., 98, 9 (ad Bonifac): "Si sunt, non hahcrcnt, omnino non sacramenta qiiandam similititdincm esscnt sacramcnta.'" earum rcrum, quartim sacramenta 31 De Sacramentis, I, 9.
14 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
ablution in Baptism fitly symbolizes the cleansing of the soul from sin ; Holy Communion under the species of bread and wine is an apt symbol of the spiritual nourishing of the soul, and so forth.
/8) Another classification, important for our purpose, is that into speculative and practical signs. A speculative sign symbolizes that which it signifies (e. g. the national flag, an image), while a practical sign both symbolizes and effects it. Thus the act of handing over the keys of a fortress to the general of an invading army not only symbolizes the surrender of the stronghold, but actually puts it into effect. From what has been said about the essential distinction between the Sacraments of the Old and those of the New Testament, it is evident that the Sacraments are not merely speculative but practical signs. This is true of the " weak and needy elements " of the Old Covenant,^^ and, in a still higher sense, of the Sacraments of the New Testament.
y) Signs may also be divided with respect to past, present, or future events. A sign that refers to some past event is called in Scholastic terminology signiim re- memorativum. To this category belong paintings repre- senting battles, commemoratory medals, etc. A sign that refers to some present happening is called signum demonstrativum. Such is, for example, the hoisting of a flag to signify the presence of a ruler. A sign that points to some future occurrence is called signum pro- gnosticum (e. g. the blowing of a whistle to announce the impending arrival or departure of a train). The sacra- mental signs of the New Testament belong to all three of these categories. They recall the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, they symbolize sanctifying grace as here and now present in the soul, and they foretell the future glory
32 Gal. IV, 9.
DEFINITION OF A SACRAMENT 15
of the elect. This teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas ^^ and of practically all other Catholic theologians has been adopted into the Roman Catechism.^* Its truth can be clearly demonstrated from Scripture. Of Baptism, St. Paul teaches : ( i ) that " we are baptized in J esus Christ, in his death " ; ^^ (2) that by virtue of this Sacrament " we walk in newness of life; " ^® and (3) that Baptism makes us like Christ, as in death, so also in the resurrection.^^ Holy Communion " shows the death of the Lord " in the past,^^ confers spiritual life in the present,^^ and guaran- tees resurrection " in the last day." '*°
For the other five Sacraments this threefold significa- tion cannot be proved with the same convincingness, but it is virtually included in the indisputable Scriptural truth that the present reception of any one of them postulates as its meritorious cause the Passion of Christ, which is an event of the past, and carries within itself as a reward the future glory of Heaven. Note, how- ever, that the sacramental signs are always primarily signa demonstrativa and only secondarily signa rememorativa and prognostica. This is owing to the fact that the Sac- raments by their very nature must produce that which they signify, i. e. sanctifying grace here and now present in the soul, because it is sanctifying grace that they ac- tually effect, whereas they merely signify the Passion of Christ and the glory of Heaven, the former as an in- dispensable requisite, the latter as a promise and a guar- anty.
8) In this connection the Fathers and Catholic theo- logians are wont to enlarge on a truth of great speculative
33 Summa Tkeologica, 3a, qu. 60, 37 Rom. VI, 5.
art. 3. 38 Cfr. i Cor. XI, 26.
^iCat. Rom., V. II, cap. i, n. 12. 39 Cfr. Jolin VI, 57.
35 Rom. VI, 3. 40 John VI, 55- 30 Rom. VI, 4.
i6 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
importance with reference to the intrinsic relation be- tween the Sacraments of the Old and those of the New Testament and between the latter and the glory of Heaven or eternal beatitude. As the ancient Synagogue was merely a type foreshadowing the Church, they say, so the New Covenant is but a type prefiguring the Heavenly Jerusalem, where we shall behold God as He is, without sign or symbol. This idea is intimated by St. Paul when he says in his Epistle to the Hebrews : " For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of things." *^ In other words, the New Testament, too, is but a " shadow " and an " image " of " things " which shall not be unveiled to our eyes until we are in Heaven. St. Ambrose succinctly expresses this truth as follows : " A shadow in the law, an image in the Gospel, truth in Heaven." *^ The relation of the two Testaments with their respective Sacraments to the beatific vision of God in Heaven has been beautifully described by St. Bruno of Asti , who says : " The first tabernacle, therefore, is the Synagogue; the second, the Church ; the third. Heaven. . , . The first was in a shadow and an image, the second is in an image and in truth, and the third [will be] in the truth alone. In the first, life is foreshadowed ; in the second it is given ; in the third it is possessed." *^ This teaching was adopted by the Scholastics. " There is a threefold state for men," says St. Thomas ; " the first is that of the Old Law, . . .
41 Heb. X, I : " Umhrani (aKidp) tabcrnaciilum est Synagoga, secttn-
enim habens lex futurorum bonoruin dum Ecclesia, iertium caelum. . . .
[jCiV. N. T.], non ipsam imaginem Primum in umbra fuit et figura,
rerum (ovk aVTTjv ttjv eiKova ruu secundum in figura est et veritate,
TrpayfiaTuv)." tcrtium [erifl in veritate sola. In
i^ In Ps., 38, n. 25: " Umbra in primo ostenditur vita, in secundo
Lege, imago vero in Evangelic, datur, in tertio possidetur." St.
Veritas in coelestibus." Bruno of Asti was Bishop of Segni
43 Horn., 34: "Primum igitur and died A. D. 1123.
DEFINITION OF A SACRAMENT
i;
the second that of the New Law, ... the third follows not in this, but in the future life, i. e. in the fatherland. But as the first of these states is figurative and imperfect with regard to the state of the Gospel, so this latter is figurative and imperfect with regard to the state of our eternal home, by which it will be supplanted." •**
c) There is a final though less important distinction between sensible and insensible signs. The former are in some manner perceptible by the senses, while the latter can be recognized only by immaterial beings. Sensible signs are, e. g., peace of mind, as indicative of the state of sanctifying grace, the sacramental character imprinted by Baptism, etc. The sacramental signs are all sensible. When a sick man is anointed with holy oil, this can be seen with the eyes; when absolution is pronounced in the tribunal of Penance, this can be heard with the ears ; when a person receives Holy Communion, he can perceive the Sacrament with several senses simul- taneously.
Ockam "^^ held that, absolutely speaking, God might have attached sacramental efficacy to a purely spiritual and immaterial sign, such as " contemplative prayer " or " meditation on the Passion," — a view combated by Bellarmine for the convincing reason that a Sacrament, by its very definition, is connected with an external rite, i. e. a sensible sign of some kind.^'^
H Sit mm a TheoL, la 2ae, qii. io6, art. 4, ad I : " Triplex est hominum status. Primus quidcm Veteris Legis, . . . sccundus Novae Legis, . . . tertiiis status succedit non in hoc vita, scd in futitra, sail, in patria. Sed sicut primus status est figuralis ct imperfectus respectu Evangelii, ita hie status est figura- lis et imperfectus respectu status patriae, quo veniente iste status ei'acuatur." Cfr. Fraiizelin, Dc Sa- cramentis in Gcncrc, 4th ed., thes.
2; N. C.ilir, Die hi. Sakramente dcr katholischen Kirchc, Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 27 sqq., Freiburg 1902.
40 Comment, in Quatuor Libras Sent., IV, dist. i.
40 Ijellarmine, De Sacramcntis, I, 9. On the subject of this entire Section the student may profitably consult C. Oriou, Etude Historique sur la Notion du Sacrement depuis la Fin du, I"" Sii^clc jusqn'au Concile de Trente, Montauban 1899.
SECTION 2
CHRISTIAN AND OTHER SACRAMENTS
Catholic theologians distinguish four different states through which the human race has successively passed: (i) The state of original justice in Paradise; (2) the state of the law of nature; (3) the state of the Mosaic Law, and (4) the state of the New Covenant. Each of these states has its own peculiar means of grace.
I. The Quasi-Sacraments of Paradise. — Whether there were true Sacraments in the state of original innocence enjoyed by our first parents in Paradise, is a disputed question. The major- ity of theologians, following St. Thomas, take the negative, while a respectable minority main- tain the positive side.
The Angelic Doctor argues that mankind required no means of sanctification in a state which was of itself holy. " In the state of innocence," he says, " man needed no sacraments, whether as remedies against sin or as means of perfecting the soul." ^
Bellelli and others contend that the Tree of Life " and Marriage ^ might properly be called Sacraments. These
1 Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 61, art. etiam inquantum ipsa ordinantur ad 2: '"In statu innocentiae homo animae perfectionem." sacramentis non indigebat, non 2 " Sacramcntum arboris vitae,"
solum inquantum sacramenta ordi- 3 " Sacramentum matrimonii."
nantur ad remedium peccati, scd
18
PRE-CHRISTIAN SACRAMENTS
19
writers appeal in support of their view to St. Augustine, who ascribes to the Tree of Life the miraculous im- mortality of the body as well as the communication of supernatural wisdom/ and describes the union of Adam and Eve as a pattern of the mystic union between Christ and His Church.^ But there is no conclusive proof that St. Augustine regarded these two institutions as Sacra- ments in the technical sense of the term. The element of personal sanctification, so essential to the notion of a Sacrament, is not sufficiently evident in either, and, be- sides, the great Bishop of Hippo probably used the word " Sacrament " in its wider meaning of signum rei sa- crae.^
For the rest, St. Thomas did not deny that the mar- riage of our first parents in Paradise was a true type of Christ's union with His Church. " Matrimony," he says, " was instituted in the state of innocence, not as a Sacrament, but for a function of nature. In regard to what followed, however, it foreshadowed something in relation to Christ and the Church, just as everything else foreshadowed Christ." ^
2. The State of the Law of Nature. — The status legis naturae, (not to be confounded with the status naturae purae),^ comprises that long
4 Cfr. St. Augustine, De Gcnesi ad Lit., VIII, 6: " lllud quoque addo, quamquam corporalem cibum, talent tatnen illam arborem praestitisse, qua corpus hominis sanitate stabili firmaretur, non sicul ex alio cibo, sed nonnuUa inspirations salubritatis occulta." — Ibid., XI, 40: " lArbor vitae"] sacramentum visibile invisi- bilis sapientiae."
OL. c, VIII, 4.
6 V. supra. Sect. I, No. i.
7 Summa TheoL, 3a, qu. 61, art. 2: " Matrimonium fuit institutum in slatu mnocentiae non secundum quod est sacramentum, sed secun- dum quod est ofRcium naturae. In consequenti tamen aliquid significa- bat futurum circa Christum et Ec- clesiam, sicut et omnia alia quae in figura Christi praecesserunt."
8 On the status naturae purac see
20 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
interval between the fall of our first parents and the enactment of the Mosaic dispensation, during which men were subject to no other law than that of nature, ''written in their hearts." ^ The state of the law of nature, under the influence of the redemptive grace of Christ promised in the Protogospel, was a supernatural state, and may be divided into two epochs. The first of these, from Adam to Abraham, had a ''Sacrament of Na- ture ;" ^*^ the second, from Abraham to Moses, possessed a true Sacrament of regeneration in the rite of circumcision.^^
a) It is theologically certain, and admitted by all Catholic divines, that from Adam to Moses mankind possessed a Sacrament of Nature.
a) To deny this would be to except the infants born during that epoch from the divine will to save, which, as we have demonstrated in our treatise on Grace, is uni- versal.^- If God wills to save all men without exception, there must have been some means by which the infants of the pre-Mosaic period could be cleansed of original sin. The Fathers were firmly convinced of the existence of such a sacramentum naturae. St, Augustine repeatedly insists on its necessity.^^ Suarez states the position of the Schoolmen thus : " It is impious and repugnant to the universal tradition and sentiment of the Church, to hold
Pohle-Preuss, God the Author of 12 Pohle-Preuss, Grace, Actual and
Nature and the Supernatural, pp. Habitual, pp. 153 sqq.
226 sqq., St. Louis 1912. 13 Cfr., e. g.. Contra lulian., V,
9 Rom. II, 15. II, 45: " Nee tanien credendum est,
10 " Sacramentum naturae." et ante datam circumcisionem
11" Sacramentum circumcision is." famulos Dei, quandoquidem eis in-
PRE-CHRISTIAN SACRAMENTS
21
that, under the natural law as well as under the law of Moses, infants were without a remedy against original sin, and that consequently all who died before attaining to the use of reason, were damned." ^*
/?) The exact character of this sacramentum naturae is a matter of conjecture. All that can be said with any degree of certainty is: (i) As a medium of regenera- tion, the Sacrament of Nature must have been based in some way on belief in the future Redeemer, because " there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved." ^^ (2) This faith in the Messias most probably found expression in a prayer and was symbolized by a visible sign.^® (3) As no one but God can cleanse the soul of original sin, the " Natural Sacrament " of the pre-Abrahamic period must have been instituted by Him, at least in substance, though He may have left the determination of its form and the selection of the grace-conferring symbols to the free choice of men. St. Thomas' view of the matter may be gathered from the following passage in the Smnma: " It is probable that believing parents ofifered up some prayer to God for their children, especially if these were in any danger, or bestowed on them some blessing, as a seal of faith; just as the adults offered prayers and sacri- fices for themselves." ^'^ These three requisites are suf-
eral mcdiatoris fides, nulla Sacra- mento eius ot'itulatos fuisse parvulis suis; qtianivis quid illud esset, aliqua necessaria causa Scriptura latere vohiit." Other Patristic passages bearing on this subject will be found in Vasquez's Comment, in Quatuor Libros Sent., Ill, disp. 165, cap. i. 14 De Sacramentis, disp. 10, sect. i: "Tarn in lege naturae quam Moysis omnes infantes fuisse relictos sine remedio peccati ori-
ginalis atque adeo omnes, qui mortui sunt ante tisum rationis, damnatos fuisse, impium est sentire et contra communeni ecclesiae traditionem et sensum." Cfr. De Lugo, De Sacra- mentis, disp. 3, sect. 2.
IS Acts IV, 12.
10 This is the common opinion of theologians, including St. Thomas {Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 61, art. 3), against Ronaventure and Vasquez.
17 Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 70,
22
THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
ficlent to constitute a Sacrament in the generic sense of the term.
It is much more difficult, nay practically impossible, to decide whether, in the state of the natural law, there were also Sacraments for adult persons. The Thom- ists ^® think there were several, while other theologians ^^ reject this assumption, on the ground that for the state of the natural law God provided only what was absolutely necessary, and Sacraments were not necessary because adults could obtain forgiveness of sin by an act of perfect contrition.
It is to be noted that for the heathen and the female children of the Israelites the economy of grace which existed in the status legis naturae remained in force even after the proclamation of the law of circumcision. ^"^
b) At the time of Abraham, long before the promulgation of the Mosaic law, circumcision be- came the ordinary means of spiritual regenera- tion. This rite has all the characteristics of a true Sacrament.
a) God promulgated the law in these words : " This is my covenant which you shall observe, between me and you, and thy seed after thee: all the male kind of you shall be circumcised; and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, that it may be for a sign of the cove-
art. 4: " Probabile est quod parentes fideles pro parvulis natis et maxime in periculo existentibus aliquas Deo preces funderent vel aliquam benedictionem eis adhi- berent, quod erat aliquod signaculum fidei, sicut adulti pro seipsis preces et sacrificia offerebant."
18 E, g., Gonet, basing on St.
Thomas, Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 65, art. I, ad 7.
19 Notably Suarez, Vasquez, and De Lugo.
20 On the probable nature of the Sacramentum nnttirae, cfr. Franze- lin, De Sacramentis in Genere, thes. 3, and De Augustinis, De Re Sa- cramentaria, Vol. 1, 2nd ed., pp. 17 sqq., Rome 1889.
PRE-CHRISTIAN SACRAMENTS
23
nant between me and you. An infant of eight days old shall be circumcised among you. . . . The male whose flesh of his foreskin shall not be circumcised, that soul shall be destroyed out of his people, because he hath broken my covenant." -^ Here circumcision is plainly made a conditio sine qua non of salvation. As no one can be saved unless he is cleansed of original sin, circumcision was obviously an instrument of regeneration. This is the opinion of St. Thomas,-^ and though it is disputed by Vasquez, Tournely, and Bellarmine,-^ Suarez rightly maintains that the teaching of the Angelic Doctor on this head cannot be denied " without a certain degree of tem- erity," especially in view of Pope Innocent Ill's declara- tion against the Cathari,-* that " Original sin was for- given and the danger of damnation avoided by the mys- tery of the circumcision."
The rite of circumcision was truly sacramental : an ex- ternal sign, accompanied by internal grace, instituted by God for the remission of sin. The Fathers and Scho- lastics could not have regarded circumcision as the type of Baptism, had they not believed it to be a real Sacrament.^^
(3) In what manner did circumcision remit original sin?
21 Gen. XVII, 10 sqq.: "Hoc est pactum meum, quod observabitis inter me et vos et semen tuum post te: circumcidetur ex vobis omne masculinum et circuincidctis carnem praeputii vcstri, ut sit in signum foederis inter me et vos. Infans octo dicrum circumcidetur in vobis . . . Mascuhis, cuius praeputii caro ctrcumcisa non fucrit, dclebitur anima ilia de populo suo, quia pac- tum meum irrittim fecit."
22 Cfr. Sumwa TIicol., 3a, qu. 70, art. 4: " Ab omnibus co)nmtini- ter ponitur, quod in circumcisione peccatum originate rcmittcbatur."
23 £><? Sacramentis, II, 17.
24 Decret., L. Ill, tit. 42, c. 3, "Maiores:" " Originalis culpa re- mittebatur per circumcisionis myste- ritim et damnationis periculum vita- batur."
25 Cfr. Col. II, 11: " circtimcisio Christi." See St. Augustine, De Anima, II, 11, 15: " Circumcisio fuit illius temporis sacramentum, quod figurabat nostri temporis bap- tismum." For a more extended ar- gument see De Augustinis, De Re Sacramentaria, Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 29 sqq., and Hugo Weiss, Die mes- sianischcn Vorbildcr im Alien Testament, pp. 58 sqq., Freiburg 1905.
24
THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
In adults, no doubt, through the instrumentality of jus- tifying faith (fides formata), and consequently "by the work of the worker" {ex opere operantis). But how about infants? This question is intimately connected with another, on which theologians disagree, vis.: How do circumcision and Baptism differ in regard to their mode of operation? It will prove helpful to review the varying opinions on these two points.
(i) The Scotists contend that circumcision wiped out original sin " by the work wrought " {ex opere o pernio), ^^ but that it was not on the same level with Baptism be- cause it did not confer an equal measure of holiness nor an immediate claim to Heaven.^^ In support of this con- tention, Scotus and his followers appeal to the authority of St. Augustine, who says that circumcision supplied the place of Baptism among the Jews,"^ and they also
26 " There is a famous phrase which is employed to express con- cisely the Catholic doctrine: the Sac- raments are said to work ' by the work wrought.' This is opposed to the doctrine that their effect comes about ' by the work of the worker ' ' — ex opere operato, ex opere operan- tis. Some half-learned Latin gram- marians maintain that the first phrase ought to be translated, ' by the work that works.' These critics forget that every word means that which it is intended to mean by him who uses it; and even on their narrow ground of Latin grammar they are wrong, for there are plenty of cases where the participle of a deponent verb is used passively, as may be seen in any good dictionary. (See dominor, ulciscor, etc.). This very word operatiim is so employed by Lactantius {De Instit. Divin., vii, 27; P. L., 6, 819), and by St. Am- brose (.De Incarn., c. 9, n. 95 ; P,
L., 16, 841), so that the theological use does not involve a blunder in an elementary point of grammar. The phrase . . . opus operatum seems to have been first used by Peter of Poitou, a writer of the twelfth century {Sent., p. 5, c. 6; P. L., 211, 1235); ... it made its way into the common language of theology, partly through the influ- ence of Pope Innocent III, who saw how aptly it expressed the Catholic doctrine (De Myst. Aiissae, III, 5; P. L., 217, 844), and finally re- ceived the sanction of the Council of Trent." (S. J. Hunter, S. J., Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, Vol. Ill, pp. 191 sq.)
27 Cfr. Scotus, Comment. in Quatuor Libros Sent., IV, dist. i, qu. 6, and Mastrius, De Sacra- mentis, disp. i, qu. 2, art. 2.
2S Contra Lit. Pctil., II, 72: " Certe antiquus populus Dei cir- cumcisionem pro baptismo habuit."
PRE-CHRISTIAN SACRAMENTS
25
quote Pope Innocent Ill's declaration that original sin was remitted by the mystery of the circumcision.-^ But the Scotist view is incompatible with St. Paul's repeated assertion of the futility and inefficacy of all " works of the law," ^° and moreover contradicts the positive teach- ing of the Fathers that the Sacraments of the Ancient Covenant had no power to forgive sins.^^
(2) Bellarmine, Vasquez, Tournely, and a few others go to the opposite extreme, saying that circumcision was merely an external sign of Israel's covenant with Jehovah and a mark distinguishing the Chosen People from the gentiles. We have already criticized this theory because it suggests, — or at least does not absolutely exclude, — the implication that the circumcised infants remained in the state of mortal sin. This assumption is refuted by the same arguments which speak in favor of a sacramentum naturae for the pre-Mosaic period.^-
(3) A third group endeavors to reconcile the two ex- tremes just mentioned by saying that the remission of original sin depended somehow on the rite of circum- cision, though that rite was by no means the cause but merely an occasion or a conditio sine qua non of justifica-
20 Decret., L. Ill, tit. 42, c. 3, " Maiores:" " Etsi originalis culpa remittebatur per circumcisionis my- sterium et damnationis periculum vitabatur, non tamen perveniebatur ad regnum coelorum, quod usque ad mortem Christi fuit omnibus obsera- tum."
30Cfr. Rom. Ill, 20; IV. 15; VII, 6; Gal. Ill, ii sqq.; IV, 9; V. 2; I Cor. VII, 19; 2 Cor. Ill, 7 sq.; Heb. VII, 18.
31 A number of Patristic texts in proof of this assertion will be fpund in Dc Augustinis, De Re
Sacrament., Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 57 sqq.
32 y. supra, pp. 20 sqq. Pope Inno- cent III says in the above-quoted Cap. " Maiores " (reproduced in Den- zinger-Bannwart, n. 410): " Absit enim, ut universi parviiU percant, quorum quotidie tanta multitudo moritur, quin et ipsis misericors Deus, qui neminem vult perire, ali- quod remedium procuraverit ad salu- tem." For a detailed statement see Suarcz, De Sacramentis, disp. s, sect. I ; J. B. Sassc, De Sacramentis Ecclesiae, Vol. I, pp. 85 sqq., Frei- burg 1897.
26
THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
tion. From this point of view it is clearly a sophism to argue, as the Scotists do: "The remission of original sin is effected either ex opere operato or e.v opere operan- tis; it is not effected ex opere operantis because infants are incapable of justifying faith; consequently, it must be effected ex opere operato." For, unless we take the phrase ex opere operato merely as the counterpart of opus operans, as De Lugo does,^^ it is possible to insert between the two a middle term, explaining the rite of circumcision merely as a " sign of faith," to which regeneration is outwardly attached but which lacks the intrinsic power of effecting it. Or, to express the idea differently : Circumcision did not, like Baptism, wipe out original sin causally, as a signum demonstrativum, but merely inci- dentally, as a signum prognosticum. This theory, which is held by St. Thomas and the majority of Catholic theologians, bears all the earmarks of truth. It takes into account St. Paul's teaching of the inefficacy of all the Old Testament ceremonies, and at the same time agrees with the universal teaching of the Fathers and the conciliary definitions of Florence and Trent.
34
3. The Sacraments of the Mosaic Law. — The fact that circumcision was an essential con-
33 De Sacramcntis, disp. 5, sect. 4, n. 59. Billuart suggested the term opus operatum passive for opus operans {De Sacram,, diss. 3, art. 6).
34 St. Thomas, Sumnia TheoL, 3a, qu. yo, art. 4 : "In circumcisione conferehatur gratia quantitm ad omnes gratiae effectus, aliter ta- men qiiani in baptismo. Nam in baptismo confer tur gratia ex virtute ipsius baptismi, quam habet inquan- tum est instrument-urn passionis Christi iam perfectae; in circum-
cisione autem conferehatur gratia non ex virtute circumcisionis, sed ex virtute fidei passionis Christi, cuius signum erat circumcisio, ita scil. quod homo, qui accipiebat cir- cumcisioncm, profitebatur se sus- cipere talent fidem vel adultus pro se vel alius pro parvulis. Unde et Apostolus dicit (Rom. IV, 11) quod Abraham ' ace e pit signum circum- cisionis signaculum iustitiae fidei,' quia scil. iustitia erat ex fide signifi- cata, non ex circumcisione signiii- cante." For a fuller explanation of
PRE-CHRISTIAN SACRAMENTS 27
stituent of the legislation given to the Israelites on Mount Sinai shows that the Mosaic Law had at least one Sacrament. The teaching of the Fathers and councils permits us to infer that it had more than one.
The existence of several Sacraments is quite in ac- cordance with the spirit and character of the Mosaic economy. Being a special covenant of Yahweh with His Chosen People, and a type foreshadowing the "good things to come," the Mosaic Law not only needed to be more fully equipped with means of grace than the purely natural law, but also required to foreshadow more clearly the future Messianic dispensation. Its ceremonies and precepts were calculated to keep awake the desire for the promised " truth and reality " and to presage and prepare the "liberty of the children of God."^^
But the Mosaic Sacraments were far inferior in char- acter and efficacy to those of the Christian dispensa- tion, of which they were merely an intimation and a " shadow ; " ^^ and hence what we have said about circum- cision ^^ applies to all the Sacraments of the Old Testa- ment.
How many there were, it is impossible to ascertain. St. Thomas, with special reference to their character as types and patterns of the Sacraments of the New Testa- ment, divides them into four categories: (a) Circum- cision as the first and most necessary, and a pattern of Baptism; (b) Sacraments designed for the pres- ervation and perfection of righteousness and to serve
the theory discussed above see De 35 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol.,
Augustinis, Dc Re Sacrament., Vol. 3a, qu. 61, art. 3.
I, pp. SI sqq. 36 F. s^^pra, pp. 16 sq.
37 V. supra, No. 2, pp. 19 sqq.
28 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
as figures of the Holy Eucharist, e. g., the eating of the Paschal lamb,^® the consumption of the loaves of propo- sition,^^ and the so-called Eucharistic sacrifices, which were at the same time types of the Mass ; (c) Sacraments instituted for the expiation of sins and the cure of legal uncleanness, such as the various purifications prescribed for the laity, the washing of hands and feet imposed on the Levites,*° etc. These were types of the Sacrament of Penance, (d) A fourth and last group had for its ob- ject the perpetuation of the Levitic priesthood and con- sisted of certain consecratory rites *^ which typified the Sacrament of Holy Orders.*^
The only Christian Sacraments which have no counter- parts in the Mosaic Law are Confirmation, Extreme Unc- tion, and Matrimony. The reason is explained by St. Thomas as follows : " It is impossible that there should have been in the Old Law a Sacrament corresponding to Confirmation, which is the Sacrament of the fulness of grace, because the time of that fulness had not yet ar- rived, and the law had not brought anything to perfection (Heb. VII, 19). The same must be said of the Sacra- ment of Extreme Unction, which is a sort of immediate preparation for man's entrance into the state of glory; for this was not open in the Old Testament, as the price had not yet been paid. Matrimony existed in the Old Testament as a function of nature, but not as a Sacrament of Christ's union with His Church, which at that time had not yet been consummated. It was for this reason, too, that a husband under the Old Law could
38 Ex. XII, 26. 42 On the controverted question
30 Lev. XXIV, 9. whether the rite of consecration was
40 Cfr. Lev. XII sqq. ; Numb. administered only to Aaron and XIX sqq. the first generation of Jewish priests,
41 Cfr. Ex. XXIX; XXX, 30; Lev. or to all, see P. Scholz, Die hi. VIII. AltertUmer des Volkes Israel, Vol.
THE SACRAMENTS OF THE N. T. 29
give his wife a bill of divorce, which is repugnant to the nature of a Sacrament." *^
4. The Sacraments of the New Law. — The sanctity demanded by the New Law requires more perfect Sacraments than those available under the Mosaic dispensation.
Christ, in whom godhead and manhood are so inti- mately united, is as it were a living Sacrament — the personal and visible embodiment of uncreated grace. Similarly His Church, as the mystical image of the Hypostatic Union, is the visible medium of supernatural life, and therefore preeminently a sacramental institu- tion.**
Another a priori argument for the existence of Sacra- ments in the Christian economy is based on the nature of man as a compound of spirit and body, needing sensible signs for the communication of the higher spiritual life. " The state of the New Law," says St. Thomas, " is between the state of the Old Law, whose figures are fulfilled in the New, and the state of glory, in which all truth will be openly and perfectly revealed; wherefore
I, p. 52, Ratisbon 1868; P. Schegg, Vetera Lege, pretio nondum soluto. Biblische Archdologie, p. 550, Frei- Matrimoniuni autem fuit quidem in burg 1888. Vetere Lege, proict erat in officium 43 Summa Theol., la 2ae, qu. 102, naturae, non autem prout est sa- art. 5, ad 3: "Sacramento con- cramcntum coniuuctionis Christi et firmationis, quod est sacramentutn Ecclesiae, quae nondum erat facta; plenitudinis gratiae, non potest re- undc et in Vetere Lege dabatur spondere in Vetera Lege aliquod libellus repudii, quod est contra sa- sacramentum, quia nondum advene- cramenti rationem." On the Sacra- rat tempus plenitudinis, eo quod merits of the Mosaic Law the student ' neminem ad perfectum adduxit may profitably consult Schmalzl, lex' (Heb. VII, 19). Similiter an- Die Sakramcnte des Alten Testa- tern et sacramcnto extremae unc- vientes im allgemcinen nach der tionis, quod est quaedam immediata Lehre dcs hi. Thomas, Eichstatt praeparatio ad introitiim gloriae, 1883. cuius aditus nondum patebat in *i On this point see Scheeben,
30 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
then there will be no Sacraments. But now, so long as we know ' through a glass in a dark manner ' ( i Cor. XIII, 12), we need sensible signs in order to reach spir- itual things, and this is the province of the Sacra- ments." *^
A third argument for the necessity of Sacraments in the New Testament may be deduced from the circum- stance that sin, through concupiscence, affects both soul and body, and the remedy must consequently be ap- plicable to both ; that is to say, it must be partly spiritual and partly material.***
In asserting the existence of so-called parallels to the Christian Sacraments in the ethnic religions of antiquity, e. g. the cult of Mithras, the science of comparative religion merely furnishes another proof that the use of visible signs as pledges of invisible sancti^cation cor- responds to a deep-rooted need of the human soul.
The Roman Catechism gives seven distinct reasons for the fitness of Sacraments under the Christian dis- pensation. They are: (i) the need of visible signs, owing to the peculiar constitution of human nature, which makes the spiritual soul dependent on the senses; (2) the consoling assurance to be derived from the use of concrete pledges guaranteeing Grod's fidelity to His promises; (3) the need of healing medicines to recover or preserve the health of the soul ; (4) the desire of belonging to a visible society, knit, as it were, into one body by the bond of
Die Mysterien des Christentums, erunt sacramenta. Nunc auteni,
3rd ed., p. 536, Freiburg 1912. quamdiu per speculum et in aeni-
i5 Summa TheoL, 3a, qu. 61, art. gmate cognoscimus (i Cor. XIII,
4, ad i: "Status Novae Legis me- 12), oportct nos per aliqua sensibilia
dius est inter statuni Veteris Legis, signa in spiritualia devenire, quod
cuius figurae implentur Nova Lege, pertinet ad rationem sacramen-
et inter statum gloriae, in qua torum."
omnis nude et perfecte manifestabi- 46 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Tlieo-
tur Veritas, et idea tunc nulla logica, 3a, qu. 61, art, i.
THE SACRAMENTS OF THE N. T. 31
visible signs; (5) the necessity of an external profession of faith to distinguish Christians from infidels; (6) the advantage of having sacred mysteries to excite and exer- cise the faith; and (7) the repression of pride and the exercise of humility involved in availing oneself of sensible elements in obedience to God/''
While it is perfectly legitimate from these a priori considerations to infer the fitness of Chris- tian Sacraments, this fact does not dispense us from proving their actual existence from Revela- tion.
47 Cat. Rom., P. II, c. i, n. 9. dcr kath. Kirche, Vol. I, 2nd ed., On the Sacraments of the New Law pp. 34 sqq., Freiburg 1902, cfr. N. Gihr, Die hi. Sakramente
SECTION 3
THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
I. Heretical Errors vs. the Teaching of THE Church. — After considerable wavering, Protestants finally adopted two Sacraments and two only, viz., Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Against this heretical error the Tridentine Coun- cil defined: "If anyone saith that the Sacra- ments of the New Law . . . are more or less than seven, to wit: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony, or even that any one of these seven is not truly and properly a Sacrament, let him be anathema." ^ Hence it is an article of faith that there are seven Sacraments.
Luther at first retained this dogma. But in 1520 he de- clared that there are but three Sacraments, Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist ; ^ in 1523 he reduced the num- ber to two, — Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
1 Sess. VII, can. i : " Si qttis cramentum, anathema sit." (Den-
dixerit, sacramenta novae legis esse zinger-Bannwart, n. 844).
plura vel pauciora guam septem, 2 De Captiv. Babyl. : " Principio
vid. baptismum, confirmationem, neganda mihi sunt septem sacra-
Ettcharistiam, poenitentiam, extre- menta et tantum tria pro tempore
mam unctionem, ordincm et matri- ponenda: baptismus, poenitentia, pa-
monium, aut ctiam aliquod horum nis." septem non esse verc et proprie sa-
32
THE NUMBER SEVEN 33
Melanchthon was equally inconsistent. After assert- ing in the first edition of his Loci Theologici (1522), that there are two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, he later, in his Apologia (A. D. 1530), added ''Absolution" and "Ordination."
Zwingli and Calvin invented the two-sacrament theory, which has come to be generally accepted among modern Protestants.^
That there are exactly seven Sacraments, neither more nor less, can be demonstrated by a twofold method : first, by going through the several rites which the Council enumerates, proving that each of these answers the de- scription of a Sacrament, and then showing that the same cannot be said of any other ceremonies. Second, by posi- tively demonstrating that the Church has always beheved in just seven Sacraments, neither more nor less. For pedagogical reasons we shall employ the latter method.
The belief of the Church may be demonstrated both theologically and historically.
2. The Theological Argument. — For sev- eral centuries before the Protestant Reformation, the belief in seven Sacraments was universal throughout the Church. Nov^, universal belief in a doctrine of so great a theoretical and practi- cal importance is certain proof of its Apostolic origin. Consequently, the belief in seven Sacra- ments is not a human invention but part and
3 Cfr. Bellarmine, De Sacram., II, seven Sacraments, though the
23; Winer-Ewald, Komparative Thirty-nine Articles teach only two
Darstellung des Lehrbcgriffes der — Ra()tism and tlie Eucharist. (Cfr.
verschiedenen cliristlichen Kirchcn- tlie New Schaff-Hcrzog Encyclope-
parieicn, 4th ed., pp. 171 sqq., Leip- dia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. X,
zig 1882. The Anglo-Catholic school p. 144). in the Anglican Church believes in
34 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
parcel of the deposit of faith handed down by the Apostles.
a) The minor premise of this syllogism is based on the infallibility of the Church, which in turn is guaranteed by the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost and our Sa- viour's promise to remain with her unto the consumma- tion of the world. Had the Catholic Church ever, even for a moment, deviated from the truth, she would no longer be the Church of Christ.
St. Augustine enunciates this truth in the following words : " Whatever is held by the whole Church, and was not introduced by any council, but has always been maintained, is rightly held to rest on the authority of the Apostles." *
b) The major premise asserts an historical fact which is easily demonstrable from contem- porary documents.
a) There is some doubt as to who first drew up our present list of Sacraments. For a while this list was be- lieved to be the work of Radulphus Ardens, who flourished towards the end of the eleventh century, but this as- sumption has been rendered improbable by the researches of Grabmann.^ Most probably the first traces of " the Tridentine Seven " will yet be discovered in the hitherto inedited Libri Sententiarum of the schools of WilHam of Champeaux (d. 1120) and Anselm of Laon (d. 11 18). St. Otto, Bishop of Bamberg (ca. 1127), is reported by his biographer Herbord (d. 11 68) to have left to his
4 St. Augustine, De Baptismo, IV, tate apostoUca traditum rectissime 24: " Quod universa tenet Eccle- creditur."
sia nee conciliis institutum, sed 5 Geschichte der scholastischen
semper retentum est, nonnisi auctori- Methode, Vol. I, p. 250, Freiburg
1909.
THE NUMBER SEVEN
35
faithful flock a set of catechetical instructions, in which he speaks of " the seven Sacraments of the Church " and enumerates them just as we have them to-day, though in a somewhat different order." At about the same time the learned Bishop Gregory of Bergamo (1133-1146), in a treatise composed against Berengarius, gives the number of Sacraments instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ as seven/ About the year 1150, Master Roland, later Pope Alexander III, enumerates seven Sacraments in his Book of Sentences.® The same number occurs in the statutes of Bishop Richard Poore, A. D. 1217, in the Statuta Edita 1222 of Archbishop Stephen Langton of Canterbury," and in the decrees of the provincial councils of Oxford (1222), Clairvaux (1268), London (1272), and Cologne (1280). The synodal constitutions of Odo of Paris, A. D. 1197, give a detailed explanation of only six Sacraments, but the existence of a seventh (Holy Orders) is plainly demanded by the context.^" Of still greater importance are the doctrinal decisions of various popes and councils, such as the profession of faith pre- scribed by Innocent HI for the Waldenses (A. D. 1210)."
6 Migne, P. L.. CLXXIII, 1358 sqq. : " Discessurus a vobis trado vobis, quae tradita sunt nobis a Domino, arrham fidei sanctae inter vos et Deum, septem scil. sacramenta Ecclesiae, quasi septem significativa dona Spiritus Sancti. Ista igitur septem sacramenta, quae iterum ve- stri causa enumerare libet, i. e. bap- tismum, cottfirmationem, infirmorum unctionem, Eucharistiam, lapsorum reconciliationem, coniugium ct ordi- nes, per nos humiles suos paranym- phos coelcstis Sponsus in arrham vestrae ditectionis vobis Ecclesiae ac sponsae suae transmittere dignatus est." Cfr. Bolland., Acta Sanc- torum, t. I, 2 lul., pp. 396 sqq.;
Pertz, Monum. Germ. Hist., Script., XX, 732.
7 " Scire debemus, ea solum esse Ecclesiae sacramenta a Servatore nostra lesu instituta, quae in medi- cinam nobis tributa fuere, et haec numero adimplentur septenario." (Cfr. the Innsbruck Zeitschrift fiir kath. Theologie, 1878, p. 800).
8 Cfr. Gietl, Die Sentenzen Ro- lands, nachmals Papsles Alexander III., sum erstenmal herausgegeben, pp. 154 sqq., Freiburg 1891.
0 Cfr. Mansi, Concil., XXII, 11 73.
10 Cfr. the Maycnce Katholik, 1910, IT, pp. 481 sq.
11 Quoted in Denzinger-Bann- wart's Enchiridion, n. 424: " Ap-
36
THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
At the Council of Lyons, A. D. 1274, the Greek Em- peror Michael Palseologus submitted to Pope Gregory X a profession of faith, in which he acknowledged that " the Holy Roman Church holds and teaches that there are seven Sacraments, namely Baptism, etc." ^- The Council of Constance (1418), by order of Martin V,^^ drew up a list of questions to be addressed to the followers of Wiclif and Hus, of which numbers 15 to 22 refer to the seven Sacraments as we have them.^* The Council of Florence (A. D. 1439), in its Decretum pro Armenis, declares that " there are seven Sacraments of the New Law, vis.: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Pen- ance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony." ^^ /?) The offi-cial teaching of the Church was explained and scientifically defended by the Scholastic theologians of the twelfth century, not merely as a theoretical opin- ion, but as a dogma of the faith practically applied in every-day life. Hugh of St. Victor (1097-1141), in his treatise De Caerimoniis, Sacramentis, Offlciis et Obser- vationibus Ecclesiasticis,^^ enumerates the seven Sacra- ments and describes them one by one. Peter Lombard, who flourished at about the same time,^'^ begins his treatise on the subject with these words: "Now let us enter upon the Sacraments of the New Law, which are : Bap- tism, Confirmation, the Blessing of Bread or Eucharist,
probamus ergo baptismum infantium, . . . confirmationem ab episcopo fac- tarn, etc."
12 Ibid., n. 46s : " Tenet etiam et docet Sancta Romana Ecclesia, septem esse ecclesiastica sacramenta, unum scil. baptisma, etc."
13 See the Bull " Inter Cunctas."
14 Cfr. Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 665 sqq.
15 " Novae legis scptcni sunt sa- cramenta, vid. baptismus, confirma-
tio, Eiicharistia, poenitentia, ex- trema unctio, ordo et matrimonium." (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 69s). On the enumeration and proper se- quence of the Sacraments see Krawutzky, Zdlilung und Ordnung der Sakramente, Breslau 1865.
16 The authorship of this treatise, however, is not quite certain; some ascribe it to Robert Pulleyn.
17 Died A. D. 1 1 64.
THE NUMBER SEVEN 37
Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony." ^* The fact that up to the middle of the thirteenth century- various writers, mostly commentators on the Canon Law of the Church, differed in giving the number of the Sacra- ments, was due partly to the prevailing vagueness in the use of the term " Sacrament," and partly to the compila- tory character of their writings.^^ The great Scholas- tics, headed by St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas of Aquin, unhesitatingly accepted the teaching of Peter Lombard and were at pains to show the congruity of the septenary number as afterwards defined by the Coun- cil of Trent. Thus Dominicus Soto writes : " There is no question as to the certainty of the number [seven], since that is settled by ecclesiastical tradition and usage ; but we shall inquire into its congruity." -°
This brief survey shows that the Tridentine definition was simply the solemn confirmation of a doctrine which had been in undisputed posses- sion for at least four centuries before the Protes- tant Reformation.
3. The Historical Argument. — Any dog- matic truth that has been constantly held by the universal Church, rests on the authority of the Apostles, and consequently, of Christ.^^ Now, it
IS Sent., IV, dist. 2, n. 2: "lam numeri certiiudine; ilia siquidem
ad sacramenta novae legis accede- Ecclesiae traditione et usu citra dis-
mus, quae sunt: baptismus, con- putationem cotistantissima est; sed
firmatio, pants benedictio, i. e. Eu- de eius convenicntia."
charistia, poenitcntia, unctio ex- 21 Cfr. TertuUian, Dc Pracscr., c.
trema, ordo, coniugiitm." 28: " Cetentm quod apud mtittos
19 Cfr. the Katholik, 1909, II, pp. ■unum invenitur, non est erratum, 182 sqq. sed traditum." V. St. Augustine,
20 Comment, in Sent., IV, dist. 1, supra, p. 34, note 4. qu. 6, art. i : " Non quaerittir dc
38 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
can be shown that the Church has at all times be- lieved in and administered the seven Sacraments as we have them to-day, and that even the hereti- cal sects which broke loose from Catholic unity in the early centuries, held the same doctrine re- garding the number of the Sacraments as that later defined by the Council of Trent.
a) It is an historical fact that ''the Tridentine Seven" was in undisputed possession at the time of St. Otto of Bamberg, A. D. 1127.^^
While the followers of Wiclif and Hus attacked the Catholic teaching with regard to the requisites of valid- ity, claiming that a Sacrament cannot be validly ad- ministered by one who is in the state of mortal sin, they never denied that there are seven Sacraments, neither more nor less.
b) Going three centuries further back we come to the Greek schism of Photius, A. D. 869.
Though this learned heretic was constantly seeking for pretexts to justify the secession of the Greek Church from Rome, he never once accused the Latins of having abolished any of the traditional Sacraments or introduced new ones. Both Churches were so perfectly at one in their belief on this point, even after the schism, that no essential difference of opinion came to light in the repeated efforts for reunion made at Lyons (A. D. 1274) and Florence (A. D. 1439). Though the reunion patched up at Florence came to a bad end, the schismatic Greeks continued to believe in seven Sacraments, as the
22 V. supra, No. i, pp. 32 sq.
THE NUMBER SEVEN
39
Lutherans found to their sorrow when they tried to " convert " them. Jeremias, Patriarch of Constantinople, in 1573, poHtely but firmly rejected the overtures of Martin Crusius and Jacob Andrea, of the theological faculty of Tubingen, and in a long letter refuted the Lutheran innovations point for point. He said inter alia: " We solemnly affirm that the holy Fathers have handed down to us . . . seven divine Sacraments, w^.; Baptism, Anointment with Sacred Chrism, Holy Communion, Order, Matrimony, Penance, and the Oil of the last Unction, . . . neither more nor less. . . . And all these means of our salvation have been handed down to us by Christ Himself, our Lord God, and His Apostles." ^^ When, in 1581, the Tiibingen divines again appealed to Jeremias, he bluntly told them to cease their fruitless efforts.-* Half a century later an attempt was made by a traitor to force the Protestant heresy on the Greek Church. Cyrillus Lucaris, a Greek priest, who had es- poused Calvinism and somehow managed to intrigue his way into the patriarchal see of Constantinople, in a Calvinistic confession of faith which he drew up in Latin, in 1629, and subsequently translated into Greek, asserted that there are but two Sacraments. The Greek Church at once took alarm, and Cyril was sent into exile (1634). In 1637 he purchased his return by bribery
23 V. Arnaud, Perpetuite de la Foi, t. V, 1. 1, c. 3: " Dicimus praeclare nobis sanctos tradidisse Patres, . , . septem divina sacra- mcnta esse, baptismum scil., sacri chrisinatis unctioncm, sacram com- mnnioncm, ordincm, matrimonittm, pocnitcittiam ct extremae unctionis oleum, , . . non plura nee pauciora esse. . . . Et haec quidem omnia salutis nostrae remedia ipse Icsiis Christus Deits et Dominus noster
tradidit ct sancti cius Apostoli." 24 " Rogamus itaque vos, iic posthac labores nobis exhibeatis neque de iisdem scribatis et scripta mittatis." For further particulars concerning this remarkable corres- pondence between the Lutheran di- vines of Tubingen and the Patriarch of Constantinople, see Schelstrate, Acta Orient. Ecclesiae contra Lu- thcri Hacresim, I, 151 sqq., 202 sqq., 246 sqq., Rome 1739.
40 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
and succeeded in having himself reinstated. Thereupon the indignation of both clergy and people against the man who dared to set his private opinion above the com- mon belief of the faithful could no longer be restrained. The unw^orthy Patriarch was condemned by a council held at Constantinople (A. D. 1638), and, being moreover suspected of favoring an invasion of the Turkish Em- pire by the Cossacks, was strangled by order of the Sultan and his body cast into the sea. His " Confession of Faith " was condemned and anathema passed upon him by a synod held at Constantinople in September, 1638.^^
Four years later, at a council held under the presidency of Parthenius, who was a cordial hater of Rome, there was adopted a Confessio Fidei Orthodoxae drawn up by Peter Mogilas, metropolitan of Kieff, in which the Latin doctrine as to the number of Sacraments held a prominent place. This important symbol in the following year re- ceived the official signatures of all four Oriental patri- archs and of numerous bishops, and was solemnly ap- proved by a council held at Jerusalem in 1672.
These official declarations find their practical confirma- tion in the liturgical books of the Orthodox Church, both ancient and modern,"" and are not denied even by such radical schismatic theologians as Simon of Thessa- lonica (d. 1429), Gabriel of Philadelphia, Meletius Syri- gus, Coresius, and his pupil Georgios Protosynkellos. Only a few years ago the Orthodox Provost Maltzew, of the Russian embassy in Berlin, wrote : " While the Roman Church and all the heterodox Oriental churches are in perfect agreement with the Orthodox Catholic
25 Cfr. Alzog-Pabisch-Byrne, Man- 26 Cfr. Goar, Euchologium sive
ual of Universal Church History, Rituale Graecorum, Paris 1647. Vol. Ill, 5th ed., pp. 46s sqq., Cincinnati 1899,
THE NUMBER SEVEN 41
Church of the East in regard to the doctrine that there are seven Sacraments, the sects based on the Protestant Reformation admit but two, and interpret even these in a different sense from the Orthodox Church." ^^
In view of the origin of the Greek schism and the great animosity existing between the two churches, it is impos- sible to assume that the doctrine of the seven Sacraments was borrowed by the West from the East, or mce versa; both churches must have derived it from a common source before the Orient severed its connection with the Latin Church. In other words, the Church of Christ had her seven Sacraments long before tlie time of Pho- tius.^^
c) Another step takes us back to that agitated period when the Nestorians and the Monophysites broke away from Cathohc unity.
a) Did these ancient heretics hold any other doctrine as to the number of Sacraments than that defined at Trent ? No. Their liturgical books contain the Catholic dogma in all its purity, and thus furnish clear and in- disputable evidence that it antedates the fifth century, when these sects separated from the Church.
(3) This argument loses nothing of its force by the curious circumstance that, in the course of ecclesiastical history, a few individual writers belonging to these sects have rejected one or the other Sacrament and substi-
27 Maltzew, Die Sakramcntc dcr Sacraments among the Nestorians orthodox-katholischen Kirche des and Monophysites may be studied in Morgenlandes, p. C, Berlin 1898. Asseniani's Bibliotheca Orient., vols.
28 The rites of the Copts, Syrians, II and III. Much valuable material and Armenians have been collected is also furnished by Arnaud in his and published by Denzinger, Ritus great work Perpetuitc de la Foi, vol. Orientalium, 2 vols., Wiirzburg III, 1. 8, c. 18 sqq.
1863 sqq. The administration of the
42 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
tuted in its place some ceremony or rite which the Church has never acknowledged as sacramentary. The very fact that these innovators never deviated from the number seven, proves that there were seven Sacraments, neither more nor less, from the beginning. The Greek monks Job and Damascene of Thessalonica, e. g., after arbitrarily adding the monastic habit ^^ to the list of Sacraments, re- stored the traditional number seven by contracting Pen- ance and Extreme Unction into one (Job) or striking Penance entirely from the list (Damascene). Equally characteristic is the procedure of Vartanus, a thirteenth- century Armenian of Monophysitic proclivities, who sub- stituted the " burial service " ^° to fill the vacancy he had created in the roster of Sacraments by fusing Penance with Extreme Unction. These authors got their new " Sacraments " from a misunderstood passage in the writ- ings of Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, where the four " consecratory " Sacraments — Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, and Holy Orders — are immediately followed by the rite for the blessing of altars, the monastic habit, benediction, and the funeral service.
It is not so easy to explain how the Nestorian Ebed Jesu (d. 13 18) came to deny the Sacraments of Matri- mony and Extreme Unction and to replace them by the Sign of the Cross ^^ and the " Holy Ferment," whatever that may have meant.^- Perhaps these and similar vagaries owed their origin to the ignorance of hermits who were far removed from the centres of ecclesiastical learn- ing and deprived of even ordinary means of instruction.^^ The genuine doctrine of these sects and their authentic practice must be studied in the liturgical books which
29 Habitus saccr s. monasticus, 32 Sacrum fermentum, KaXoyopLKT] 7) TO fieya CXVI^^- ^^ '-'" ^^^ ignorance of the Copts
30 Funus super defunctos. cfr. the Bollandist P. Sollerius, S.
31 Signum vivificae cruets. j., Ada Sanctor,, t. V, pp. 140 sqq.
THE NUMBER SEVEN 43
contain the primitive rites of the Sacraments, as stated under a).^*
d) If the belief of the Church in regard to such an important dogma as the number of the Sac- raments instituted by Christ, had undergone any essential change between the Apostolic age and the time of Nestorius, this change, whether slow or sudden, would necessarily have left its traces in history.
The bishops and the faithful of the first four cen- turies jealously guarded the purity of the Apostolic de- posit, especially in those matters which involved daily practice. The learned and zealous Fathers who did not hesitate to shed their blood in defense of the orthodox faith against the anti-Trinitarian and Christological here- sies, would surely have sounded the alarm had anyone tried to tamper with the doctrine of the Sacraments. Even if, for argument's sake, we were to grant that the primitive Church knew but two or three Sacraments, it would have been impossible, aside from her infallibility and indefectibility, for any innovator to introduce a com- plete set of new sacramental rites without incurring the determined opposition of bishops, priests, and people. Hence we may safely conclude with Father Hunter that " the doctrine now held by all who reject the authority of the Tridentine Council, is certainly not Apostolic nor traditional ; it is a novelty no older than the sixteenth century ; it is therefore a freshly introduced doctrine, resting on the authority of Luther or some of his con-
84 Page 41, supra. For further information on this topic see Franze- lin, De Sacram. in Cenere, thes. 20.
44
THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
temporaries : it is therefore not to be received, unless the teacher produce his credentials as a divine messenger, and this he is unable to do." ^^ The Catholic doctrine of seven Sacraments is Apostolic in its origin, and hence de- rived from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.^®
4. Why There are Just Seven Sacraments. — As there are reasons of congruity for the ex- istence of Sacraments under the Christian dis- pensation,^^ so there are reasons why there should be precisely seven, neither more nor less.
a) The human intellect is not, of course, able to es- tablish this number with mathematical certainty on a priori grounds. Absolutely speaking, God had it in His power to institute as many Sacraments as He pleased. But it is easy to see, a posteriori, that the septenary ad- mirably corresponds to the practical needs of man's com- posite nature. This was admitted even by Goethe, modern pagan though he was.^^ We will not enter into useless
35 S. J. Hunter, S. J., Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, Vol. Ill, p. 178.
36 The argument from prescription for the septenary number of the Sacraments is very a.bly set forth by Card. Bellarmine, De Sacrain., II, 23 sqq. The student will also profit by consulting Heinrich-Gutber- let, Dogmatische Theologie, Vol. IX, S 500.
37 V. supra, pp. 30 sq.
38 See the famous passage in his Autobiography, tr. by J. Oxenford, Vol. I, pp. 239 sqq., Philadelphia, 1882: "In moral and religious, as well as in physical and civil matters, man does not like to do anything
on the spur of the moment; he needs a sequence from which results habit; what he is to love and to perform, he cannot represent to himself as single or isolated; and, if he is to repeat anything will- ingly, it must not have become strange to him. If the Protestant worship lacks fulness in general, so let it be investigated in detail, and it will be found that the Protestant has too few sacraments, — nay, in- deed, he has only one in which he is himself an actor, — ■ the Lord's Sup- per; for baptism he sees only when it is performed on others, and is not greatly edified by it. The sac- raments are the highest part of
THE NUMBER SEVEN
45
speculations about the " mystic number seven," but merely note that there is a remarkable analogy between the nat- ural life of the body and the supernatural life of the soul, to both of which the Sacraments so wonderfully minister.
religion, the symbols to our senses of an extraordinary divine favor and grace. In the Lord's Supper earthly lips are to receive a divine Being embodied, and partake of a heavenly, under the form of an earthly nourishment. This import is the same in all kinds of Chris- tian churches: whether the sacra- ment is taken with more or less submission to the mystery, with more or less accommodation as to that which is intelligible, it re- mains a great, holy thing, which in reality takes the place of the possible or the impossible, the place of that which man can neither at- tain nor do without. But such a sacrament should not stand alone: no Christian can partake of it with the true joy for which it is given, if the symbolical or sacramental sense is not fostered within him. He must be accustomed to regard the inner religion of the heart and that of the external church as per- fectly one, as the great universal sacrament, which again divides it- self into so many others, and com- municates to these parts its holiness, indestructibility, and eternity.
" Here a youthful pair join hands, not for a passing saluta- tion or for the dance: the priest pronounces his blessing upon them, and the bond is indissoluble. It is not long before this wedded pair bring a likeness to the threshold of the altar: it is purified with linly water, and so incorporated into tlie church, that it cannot forfeit this benefit but through the most monstrous apostasy. The child in the course of life goes on progress-
ing in earthly things of his own accord, in heavenly things he must be instructed. Does it prove on ex- amination that this has been fully done, he is now received into the bosom of the church as an actual citizen, as a true and voluntary professor, not without outward tok- ens of the weightiness of this act. Now, only, he is decidedly a Chris- tian, now for the first time he knows his advantages and also his duties. But, in the mean time, a great deal that is strange has hap- pened to him as a man: through instruction and affliction he has come to know how critical appears the state of his inner self, and there will constantly be a question of doctrines and of transgressions; but punishment shall no longer take place. For here, in the infinite con- fusion in which he must entangle himself, amid the conflict of nat- ural and religious claims, an ad- mirable expedient is given him, in confiding his deeds and misdeeds, his infirmities and doubts, to a worthy man, appointed expressly for that purpose, who knows how to calm, to warn, to strengthen him, to chasten him likewise by sym- bolical punishments, and at last, by a complete washing away of his guilt, to render him happy, and to give him back, pure and cleansed, the tablet of his man- hood. Thus prepared, and purely set at rest by several sacramental acts, which on closer examination branch forth again into minuter sacramental traits, he kneels down to receive the host; and, that the mystery of this high act may be
46
THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
St. Thomas develops this thought in the third part of the Summa:
" The Sacraments of the Church were instituted for a twofold purpose : namely, in order to perfect man in
still enhanced, he sees the chalice only in the distance: it is no com- mon eating and drinking that satis- fies, it is a heavenly feast, which makes him thirst after heavenly drink.
" Yet let not the youth believe that this is all he has to do: let not even the man believe it. In earthly relations we are at last ac- customed to depend on ourselves; and, even there, knowledge, under- standing, and character will not al- ways suffice: in heavenly things, on the contrary, we have never fin- ished learning. The higher feeling within us, which often finds itself not even truly at home, is, besides, oppressed by so much from with- out, that our own power hardly administers all that is necessary for counsel, consolation, and help. But, to this end, that remedy is instituted for our whole life; and an intelligent, pious man is con- tinually waiting to show the right way to the wanderers, and to re- lieve the distressed.
" And what has been so well tried through the whole life, is now to show forth all its healing power with tenfold activity at the gate of death. According to a trustful custom, inculcated from youth up- wards, the dying man receives with fervor those symbolical, significant assurances; and there, where every earthly warranty fails, he is as- sured, by a heavenly one, of a blessed existence for all eternity. He feels perfectly convinced that neither a hostile element nor a malignant spirit can hinder him from clothing himself with a glorified
body, so that, in immediate rela- tion with the Godhead, he may partake of the boundless happiness which flows forth from Him.
" Then, in conclusion, that the whole man may be made holy, the feet also are anointed and blessed. They are to feel, even in the event of possible recovery, a repugnance to touching this earthly, hard, im- penetrable soil. A wonderful elas- ticity is to be imparted to them, by which they spurn from under them the clod of earth which hitherto attracted them. And so, through a brilliant cycle of equally holy acts, the beauty of which we have only briefly hinted at, the cradle and the grave, however far asunder they may chance to be, are joined in one continuous circle.
" But all these spiritual wonders spring not, like other fruits, from the natural soil, where they can neither be sown nor planted nor cherished. We must supplicate for them from another region, — a thing which cannot be done by all per- sons nor at all times. Here we meet the highest of these symbols, derived from pious tradition. We are told that one man may be more favored, blessed, and sanctified from above than another. But, that this may not appear as a natural gift, this great boon, bound up with a heavy duty, must be com- municated to others by one author- ized person to another; and the greatest good that a man can at- tain, without his having to ob- tain it by his own wrestling and grasping, must be preserved and perpetuated on earth by spiritual
THE NUMBER SEVEN 47
things pertaining to the worship of God according to the Christian life, and to be a remedy against the defects caused by sin. And in either way it is becoming that there should be seven Sacraments. For spiritual life has a certain conformity with the life of the body: just as other corporeal things have a certain likeness to things spiritual. Now man attains perfection in the corporeal life in two ways : first, in regard to his own person ; sec- ondly, in regard to the whole community of the society in which he lives, for man is by nature a social animal. With regard to himself man is perfected in the life of the body in two ways: first, directly {per se), i. e. by acquiring some vital perfection ; secondly, indirectly {per accidens), i. e. by the removal of hindrances to life, such as ailments or the like. Now the life of the body is per- fected directly, in three ways. First, by generation, whereby a man begins to be and to live : and correspond- ing to this in the spiritual life there is Baptism, which is a spiritual regeneration. . . . Secondly, by growth, whereby a man is brought to perfect size and strength : and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is Confirmation, in which the Holy Ghost is given to
inheritance. In the very ordina- the knee, but the blessing which tion of the priest is comprehended he imparts, and which seems the all that is necessary for the effec- more holy, and to come the more tual solemnizing of those holy acts immediately from heaven, becauisC by which the multitude receive grace, the earthly instrument cannot at all without any other activity being weaken or invalidate it by its own needful on their part than that of sinful, nay, wicked nature, faith and implicit confidence. And " How is this truly spiritual con- thus the priest joins the line of ception shattered to pieces in Protes- his predecessors and successors, in tantism, by part of the above-men- the circle of those anointed with tioned symbols being declared liim, representing the highest source apocryphal, and only a few canoni- of blessings, so much the more glo- cal! — and how, by their indifference riously, as it is not he, the priest, to one of these, will they prepare whom we reverence, but his office; us for the high dignity of the it is not his nod to which we bow others. "
48 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
strengthen us. . . . Thirdly, by nourishment, whereby life and strength are preserved to man : and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is the Eucharist. . . . This would be enough for man if he had an impassible life, both corporally and spiritually ; but since man is lia- ble at times to both corporal and spiritual infirmity, i. e. sin, he needs a cure for his infirmity. This [cure is twofold. One is the healing that restores health: and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is Pen- ance. . . . The other is the restoration of former vigor by means of suitable diet and exercise: and correspond- ing to this in the spiritual life there is Extreme Unction, which removes the remainders of sin and prepares man for final glory. ... In regard to the whole community, man is perfected in two ways. First, by receiving power to rule the community and to exercise public acts : and cor- responding to this in the spiritual life there is the Sacra- ment of Order. . . . Secondly, in regard to natural propa- gation. This is accomplished by Matrimony both in the corporal and in the spiritual life: since it is not only a Sacrament but also a function of nature.
" We may likewise gather the number of the Sacra- ments from their being instituted as a remedy against the defect caused by sin. For Baptism is intended as a remedy against the absence of spiritual life ; Confirmation, against the infirmity of soul found in those of recent birth ; the Eucharist, against the soul's proneness to sin; Pen- ance, against actual sin committed after Baptism ; Ex- treme Unction, against the remainders of sins, — of those sins, namely, which are not sufficiently removed by Penance, whether through negligence or through ignor- ance ; Order, against divisions in the community ; Matri- mony, as a remedy against concupiscence in the individ-
THE NUMBER SEVEN 49
ual, and against the decrease in numbers that results from death." '^
This beautiful argument has been as it were officially approved and consecrated by the Church through its em- bodiment in the Decretum pro Armenis (1439) ^"^ ^^^ the Roman Catechism.*^
b) The Scholastics, from Peter Lombard to Suarez, devoted much ingenuity to demonstrating the intrinsic fitness of the septenary number of the Sacraments. Per- haps the most original conception is that of St. Bonaven- ture, who argues from the vicissitudes to which every Christian is subject in his capacity as a soldier of Christ. " Baptism," he says, " is [the Sacrament] of those that enter the army ; Confirmation, that of the combatants en- gaged in actual battle ; the Eucharist, that of the soldiers regaining strength ; Penance, that of the fighters arising from defeat ; Extreme Unction, that of the departing ; Or- der, that of the officers charged with training new soldiers ; Matrimony, that of the men whose business it is to fur- nish recruits." *" He proves the same thesis from the functions of the different Sacraments as remedies for vari- ous diseases of the soul : " There are seven different
39 Sttrnma Thcol., 3a, qu. 65, art. sanamur ; spiritualiter etiam et cor- I. poraliter, prout animae e.rpedit, per
40 Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 695: extremam unctionem. Per ordinem " Novae legis septem sunt sacra- vera Ecclesia gubernatur et multi- menia. . . . Horicm quinque prima plicatur spiritualiter; per matrimo- ad spiritualem uniuscuinsque hominis nium corporaliter augctur."
in seipso perfectionem, duo ultima 4i P. II, c. i, n. 18. ad totius Ecclesiae regimen multi- 42 Breviloquium, P. VI, cap. 3: plicationemque ordinata sunt. Per " Baptismus est ingredientium, con- baptismum enim spiritualiter rena- firmatio pugnantiiim, Eucharistia scimur ; per confirmationetn augemur vires resumentium, poenitentia re- in gratia et roboramur in fide; renati surgentium, extrema unctio excun- autem et roborati nutrimur divinae tium, ordo novos milites introducen- Eucharistiae alimonict; quodsi per tium, matrimonium novos milites peccatum aegritudiiiem incurrimus praeparantium," animae, per poenitentiam spiritualiter
50
THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
kinds of diseases, three of guilt, vi::;.: original sin, mortal sin, and venial sin; and four of punishment, vis.: igno- rance, malice, infirmity, and concupiscence. . . . Against each of these special remedies must be applied. . . . Bap- tism, against original sin ; Penance, against mortal sin ; Ex- treme Unction, against venial sin; Order, against igno- rance ; the Eucharist, against malice ; Confirmation, against infirmity ; and Matrimony, against concupiscence." *^ Combining the three theological with the four cardinal vir- tues into a series of seven, the Saint drav^s a parallel be- tween them and the Sacraments, as follows : " Bap- tism disposes for faith. Confirmation for hope, the Eu- charist for charity. Penance for justice, Extreme Unction for perseverance, which is the complement and sum of fortitude. Holy Orders for prudence, and Matrimony for temperance." ^*
c) To compare the seven Sacraments with the seven capital sins *^ or with the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, is rather far-fetched. The mythological interpretation of the number seven as the outward embodiment of the " seven eyes of God," i. e. the planets, may be explained by the fact that the coryphaei of Scholasticism were ignorant of the apocalyptic and cabalistic juggling at-
43 Ihid. : " Morbus est septi- formis: triplex culpabilis, scil. culpa originalis, mortalis et venialis, et quadruplex poenalis: scil. ignorantia, malitia, infirmitas et concupiscentia, . . . Hinc est quod oportuit adhiberi . . . contra originalem baptisniuin contra mortalem poenitentiam contra venialem unctionem extre- mam; contra ignorantiam ordinetn. contra malitiam Eucharistiam contra infirmitatem confirmationetn et contra concupiscentiam matri- monium."
44 Ibid. : " Baptismiis disponit ad fidem, confirmatio ad spent, Eu- charistia ad caritatem; poenitentia ad iustitiam, unctio extrema ad per sever antiam, quae est fortitudinis complementuni et sumnia, ordo ad prtidentiam, matrimoniutn ad tem- perantiam conservandam." Cfr. P. Minges, O.F.M., Compendium Theol, Dogmat. Specialis, Vol. II, p. 12, Munich 1901.
45 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 3a. qu. 65, art. 5.
THE NUMBER SEVEN 51
tributed to them by modern writers on the history of comparative religion/*^
5. Certain Patristic Difficulties Solved. — Though the Sacraments were in use from the beginning, and references to all of them occur in the writings of the Fathers, there is nowhere to be found in Patristic literature an express state- ment that there are exactly seven, neither more nor less. It may be asked : Why was the work of synthesis left to the Scholastics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries? Several reasons ac- count for the silence of the Fathers on this head: (i) the conditions of the time, (2) the discipline of the secret, and (3) the fact that sac- ramental theology developed rather slowly.
a) The silence of the Fathers with regard to the num- ber of the Sacraments proves nothing against the " Tri- dentine Seven." One may own a lot of precious gems without making an inventory of them. We shall briefly explain the reasons why it never occurred to the writers of the Patristic period to draw up a formal list of the Sac- raments.
a) The circumstances of the time were not favorable to the double task of working out a scientific definition and applying it to the various rites in use. " From the
46 The analogy between the seven den Sakramenten, Vol. I, 5th ed.,
Sacraments and the seven capital § 12, Miinster 1884; N. Gihr, Die
sins is very popular among the Sakramente der kath. Kirche, Vol.
schismatic Greeks. On the whole I, 2nd ed., pp. 173 sqq., Freiburg
subject of this subdivision cfr. Os- 1902. wald, Die dogmatische Lehre von
52 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
beginning the Church has always lived by her Sacraments and has always had faith in their marvelous efficacy, . . . but she did not from the beginning consider them system- atically, ranging them under the concept of efficacious symbols of grace. This was a work of synthesis ac- complished only later by theological speculation." ^"^ Hence we need not wonder that Tertullian mentions one class of Sacraments and passes over the others in si- lence,*^ or that St. Cyril of Jerusalem treats of three or four without adverting to the existence of the rest.*^ The Fathers in each case wrote from a strictly practical point of view, with the intention of satisfying actual needs, such as the instruction of the faithful or catechumens and the refutation of heretics. ^° Usually it is the teaching of the Church on Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist that is briefly summarized for the benefit of neophytes.^^ The general division that naturally suggested itself to the minds of those early writers was that into sacramenta consecratoria and sacramenta medicinalia. The sacra- menta consecratoria (Baptism, Confirmation, the Euchar- ist, and Holy Orders) ^- claimed their main interest. In limiting their attention to this group, the Fathers by no means wished to deny the existence of the sacramenta medicinalia (Penance, Extreme Unction, and Matri- mony).^^
^) Another reason why no effort was made in the early days to determine the exact number of the Sacraments,
47 P. Pourrat, Theology of the 53 For a more detailed treatment Sacraments, p. 257, St. Louis 1914. see Pourrat, La Theologie Sacra-
48 De Resurrect. Carnis, c. 8. tnentaire, pp. 232 sqq., 4th ed.,
49 Catech. Mystag. Paris 1910 (English translation, pp.
50 Cfr. Pourrat, op. cit., p. 260. 259 sqq.) ; cfr. also J. Scheeben, Bi St. Ambrose, De Myst. and De Die Mysterien des Christ entums,
Sacram. 3rd ed., pp. 507 sqq., Freiburg
52 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa 1912. TheoL, 3a, qu. 63, art. 6.
THE NUMBER SEVEN 53
was the disciplina arcani, which enjoined secrecy with regard to sacramental rites. The sacred mysteries shrank from the broad dayhght which at a later age enabled the Scholastics to analyze them minutely in public. The " discipline of the secret " was strictly enforced through- out the Patristic period. Every copy of St. Cyril's Ca- techeses ^* bore a notice requesting the owner not to show it to catechumens and non-Christians generally, nor to al- low copies to be made without prefixing a similar warn- ing.^^ In St. Cyril's day the faithful were instructed never to speak of the mysteries of their religion in the presence of outsiders.^*^ The phrase " norunt initiati " occurs at least fifty times in the writings of St. Chrysos- tom. Where he speaks of Baptism he remarks : " I should like to express myself freely on this subject, but cannot do so on account of the presence of some who are not initiated." ^^ In the West the disciplina arcani sur- vived far into the fifth century. St. Augustine says : " Let not the sacraments of the faithful be revealed to the catechumens." °^ Pope Innocent the First refused to di- vulge the formula of Confimiation.'^^
54 See apud Migne, P. G., (Migne, P. G., LXI, 348). The XXXIII. relevant texts collated by Val.
55 " Catecheses istas illuminatorum Schmitt, Die Verheissung der Eu- Us quidem, qui ad baptisinum acce- charistie iJoh. Kap. 6) bei den dunt et fidelibtts qui lavacruni iam Antiochenern, Cyrill von Jerusalem susceperunt exhihens, catechumenis und Johannes Chrysostomus, pp. et aliis quibuslibet, qui Christiani 47 sqq., Wursburg 1903.
non sunt, ne dedcris; et si hcrum 58 Tract, in loa., 96, n. 3:
exemplar transcripseris, per Domi- " Catechumenis sacramenta fidelium
num rogo, hoc monitum praefigas." non prodantur." (Migne, P. L.,
(Migne, /. c, 366). XXXV, 1857).
east. Cyril, Catech., 6, n. 29: ^9 Apud Denzinger-Bannwart, n.
" De mysteriis neque apud catechu- 98: "Verba vera dicere non pos-
menos palam verba facimus." sum, ne magis prodere videar quam
(Migne, /. c, 590). ad consultationem respondere." On
C7 Horn, in i Cor., 40, n. 1 : the discipline of the secret cfr.
" Volo quidem aperte hoc dicere, sed Schelstrate, De Disciplina Arcani,
non possum propter non initiatos." Rome 1685. See also Bollinger,
54 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
y) No donbt the development of the septenary num- ber was impeded by the discipHne of the secret. But even after that discipHne had been aboHshed, a long time elapsed before the number became definitively fixed. No progress could be made in this direction until a precise definition had been worked out. " For that definition being the unit of the septenary number of the Sacraments, so long as it did not exist, the number could not be given." ^'^ The work of synthesis remained for the speculative theologians of a later age. Nor was it an easy matter, because each Sacrament is a complete and independent unit. Thus the Eucharist has no intrinsic connection with Matrimony. Both were in use as efficacious symbols of grace from the very beginning. The double task of working out the generic definition of a Sacrament, and applying it to each of the seven symbols officially in use, proceeded rather slowly. " Sacramental practice antedates the systematic elaboration of a sacramentary theology. This is to be expected, for the latter is but a scientific statement of the former : lex orandi, lex credendi." ^^ Sacramental theology was elaborated in the course of a long process of theological speculation, and the Church did not define the septenary number as an article of faith until the Prot- estant Reformers had expressly denied it.°^
b) A difficulty arises from the fact that St. Ambrose and St. Bernard apparently regarded the washing of feet on Holy Thursday ^^ as a Sac-
Lehre von der Eucharistie in den derten, pp. 303 sqq., Tubingen 1873.
ersten drei Jahrhunderten, pp. 12 60 Pourrat, Theology of the Sac-
sqq., Mainz 1824; Theo. H'arnack, raments, p. 257.
Der christliche Genieindegottesdienst 01 Pourrat, /. c, p. 259.
im apostolischen Zeitalter, pp. i sqq., 62 Cfr. Franzelin, De Sacram. in
Erlangen 1854; Probst, Kirchliche Geneve, thes. 19.
Dissiplin in den ersten drei Jahrhun- 63 Cfr. John XIII, 8 sqq.
THE NUMBER SEVEN 55
rament. That this ceremony is not a Sacrament cannot be convincingly demonstrated except in the light of ecclesiastical Tradition. The Mennonites recognize the lotio pedum as a true Sacrament. In rejecting this teaching modern Protestantism unwittingly employs the Catholic criterion of Tra- dition.
a) St. Ambrose says in his De Mysteriis, VI, 32: " Miindus erat Petrus, sed plantam lavare debebat; habe- bat enim primi parentis de successione peccatum, quando eum supplantavit serpens et persuasit errorem. Ideo planta eins abluitur, ut hereditaria peccata tollantur; nostra enim propria per baptismum relaxantur." ^* Does this mean that the washing of feet is a Sacrament or- dained for the forgiveness of sins, like Baptism, or do the phrases primi parentis peccatum and hereditaria peccata merely signify concupiscence {fames peccati) ? Evidently the latter, for St. Ambrose says in another passage: " Lavemus et pedes, ut calcanei lubricum [that is, concupiscence] possimus auferre, quo fida statio possit esse virtiitum." ^^ More light is thrown on the Saint's meaning by the anonymous author of the six books De Sacramcntis, which is probably " not a later imitation or recension of the De Mysteriis, but the same work pub- lished indiscreetly and in an imperfect fonn by some disciple of Ambrose." ^^ We read there. III, 1,7: " Qui lotus est, non indiget nisi ut pedes lavet. Quare hoc? Quia in baptismate omnis culpa diluitur. Recedit ergo culpa, sed quia Adam supplantatns est a diabolo et vene^
64 Migne, P. L., XVI, 398. 06 Bardenhewer-Shahan, Patrol-
en In Ps., 48, n. 9 (Migne, P. L., ogy, p. 438. XIV, 1159).
56 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
num [concttpiscentia] ei effusum est supra pedes, ideo lavas pedes, ut in ea parte, in qua insidiatus est serpens, maius suhsidium sanctiUcationis accedat, quo postea te supplantare non possit. Lavas ergo pedes, ut laves ve- nenum serpentis." " St. Ambrose's special interest in the ceremony probably grew out of the custom, in vogue at Milan, of washing the feet of neophytes after Baptism, — a practice unknown at Rome, as Ambrose himself tells us.^^ Augustine distinctly asserts that this custom was peculiar to the Church of Milan and that it was rejected and discontinued in many places where it had been adopted.^'' The fact thus reliably attested, that the lotio pedum was merely a local and transient practice, is suf- ficient proof that it was not a Sacrament, for a true Sac- rament is universal both as regards time and place.
)S) In the light of this explanation it is easy to under- stand how St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) could re- fer to the lotio pedum as a Sacrament at a time when be- lief in the septenary number of the Sacraments was al- ready wide-spread. He writes : " Ut de remissione quotidianorum mimme duhitemus, habemus eius sacra- mentum, pedum ablutionem. . . . Et unde scimus, quia ad diluenda peccata quae non sunt ad mortem [i. e. venia- lia] et a quibus plane cavere non possumus ante mortem, ablutio ista pertineatf Ex eo plane quod offerenti manus et caput pariter ad abluendum responsum est: Qui lotus
67 De Sacrain., Ill, i, 7 (Migne, tius servatur et nos rectius custodi- P. L., XVI, 433). mus."
68 De Sacram., Ill, i, 5. " Ec- 69 Cfr. St. Augustine, Ep. 55 ad clesia Romana lianc consuetudinem lanuar., n. 33: " Scd ne ad ipsum non habet, cuius typum in omnibus sacramentum baptismi videretur [lo- sequimur ct formam. . . . In omni- tio pedum] pertinere, multi hoc in bus cupio sequi Ecclesiam Roma- consuetudine recipere noUierunt ; nam; sed tamen ei nos homines sen- nonnulli etiam de consuetudine ati- sum habemus, ideo quod alibi rec- ferri non dubitaverunt." (Migne,
P. L., XXXIII, 220).
THE NUMBER SEVEN 57
est, etc." ^° In writing thus he cannot have meant to designate the annual ceremony of washing the feet on Holy Thursday as a true Sacrament. The passage may be satisfactorily explained without such an unlikely as- sumption. What benefit could the faithful derive from a Sacrament that, having been instituted for the remission of "daily sins," was administered only once a year? Clearly St. Bernard employed the term Sacrament in the wider sense in which it was still used in his day. He regarded the lotio pedum as a " sacramental." "
Readings:— Besides the current text-books on sacramental theology see Val. Grone, Sacramentum oder Begriff und Bedeu- tiiiig von Sakramcnt in der altcn Kirche bis zur Scholastik, Ber- lin 1853. — P. Schanz, Der Begriff des Sakranientes hci den Vdtern, in the Theologische Quartalschrift of Tubingen, 1891.— P. Schmalzl, Die Sakramente des Alien Testamentes im all- gcmcincn nach der Lchre des hi. Thomas, Eichstatt 1883.
On the number of the Sacraments cfr. Hahn, Doctrinae Romae de Numero Sacramentorum Septenario Rationes Historicae, Bres- lau 1859 (Prot.), and against him, Bittner, De Numero Sacra- mentorum Septenario, Breslau 1859.— Jos. Bach, Die Siebcnzahl der Sakramente, Ratisbon 1864.
70 Serm. in Coena Domini, n. 4 cram, in Genere, pp. 289 sqq., and (Migne, P. L., CLXXXIII, 271). Heinrich-Gutberlet, Dogmatische
71 For a fuller treatment of this Thcologie, Vol. IX, pp. 21 sqq. subject consult Franzelin, De Sa-
CHAPTER II
THE THREE ESSENTIAL CONSTITUENTS OF A SACRAMENT
The three essential constituents of a sacrament are: (i) the visible sign, (2) invisible grace, and (3) di- vine institution.
58
SECTION I
THE VISIBLE SIGN, OR MATTER AND FORM
As a body is composed of two constituents, the one indeterminate and the other determining, so, too, a Sacrament has two elements, matter and form.^
Thesis I: The Sacraments of the New Testament are externally consummated by two elements, the one indeterminate (res), the other determining (verbum).
This proposition is Udei proxima.
Proof. For a full explanation of the concepts involved we must refer the student to that branch of philosophy called Cosmology.^ Both res (the element and its application or use, — technically, remote and proximate matter) and verbiim (the word, in the wider sense of any sign indicat- ing consent) are officially defined as essential con- stituents of a Sacrament in the statement of doctrine drawn up by Eugene IV for the Ar- menian delegates at the Council of Florence, where we read, inter alia: "Every Sacrament requires three constituents: — things for its mat-
1 Cfr. Wilhelm-Scannell, Manual 2 See, for instance, Haan, Philoso-
of Catholic Theology, Vol. H, pp. phia Naturalis. 361 sq.
59
6o THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
ter, words for its form, and the person of the minister conferring the Sacrament with the in- tention of doing what the Church does; if any one of these be wanting, there is no Sacrament." ^
As Pope Eugene IV did not intend to issue a dogmatic definition on the subject but merely to give an account of the common teaching and practice of the Western Church,^ some of the inferences drawn from his statement by Dominicus Soto ^ and other theologians are manifestly strained. We are not dealing here with an article of faith, so far as philosophical terminology is concerned. However, our thesis embodies the teaching of the Church and might be raised to the dignity of a dogma at any time.
a) That a Sacrament must contain an "ele- ment" and a "word" can be stringently proved from Holy Scripture only for the Sacrament of Baptism. Eph. V, 26: "By the laver of water in the word of life." ®
In regard to Confirmation,'^ the Holy Eucharist,^ and Extreme Unction,^ this is merely intimated. But Tradi- tion abundantly supplies what is lacking in Biblical teach- ing. The Fathers insist that both a res and a verbum
S Decretum pro Armenis: " Om- ^Comment, in Sent., IV, dist. i,
nia sacramenta tribus perficiuntur, qu. i, art. 6: " Fidei est catholi-
vid. rebus tamqiiam materia, verbis cae, sacramenta constare rebus et
tamquam forma, et persona ministri verbis, quod sine manifesta hae-
conferentis sacramentum cum in- rest ncgari non potest."
tentione faciendi, quod facil Ec- 6 Eph. V, 26 : " Lavacro aquae in
clesia; quorum si aliquid desit, non verba vitac."
perficitur sacramentum." (Denzin- 7 Acts VIII, 15 sqq.
ger-Bannwart, n. 695). 8 Matth. XXVI, 26.
4 Franzelin, De Traditione, p. 9 James V, 14, 120.
MATTER AND FORM
6i
enter into the constitution of a Sacrament. St. Au- gustine says : " Take away the word, and what is water but water? The word is added to the element, and there is a Sacrament." ^° This teaching has been preserved and handed down by the churches separated from Rome ^^ and is confirmed by the authority of the Scholastics.^-
b) As regards the Sacraments of the Old Testament (circumcision, the eating of the paschal lamb, certain lustrations, etc.), theologians hold that they did not consist of res et verbitm but merely of res et actio, because of St. Paul's reference to the Old Law as " having a shadow of the good things to come, [but] not the very im- age of the things." ^^ The occasional employment of words in connection with these rites was either unessen- tial or of purely human institution. St. Thomas ^* gives three reasons why it is fit that the Sacraments of the New Testament should be superior to those of the Old, not only in interior effect but also with regard to the external rite . ( I ) The analogy between the Sacraments and the Incar- nation. In the Sacraments, "the word is joined to the sensible sign, just as in the mystery of the Incarnation God is united to sensible flesh." (2) The conformity of the Sacraments to their human recipients, who are com- posed of soul and body. (3) The superior power of signification peculiar to a definite word over indefinite
10 Tract, in loa., 80, n. 3: " Detrahe verbum et quid est aqua nisi aqua? Accedit verbum ad ele- tnentum et fit sacramentum."
11 Cfr. Schelstrate, Acta Orient. Ecclcsiac, Vol. I, p. 505, Rome 1739; Dcnzinger, Rittis Orientalium, 2 vols., Wiirzburg 1863-64; Gass, Symbolik der griechischen Kirche, p. 233. Berlin 1872.
12 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Thco- logica, 3a, qu. 60, art. 6, ad 2:
" Ex verbis et rebus fit quodam- modo unum in sacramcntis sicut for- ma et materia, inquantum scilicet per verba perficitur significatio rerum."
13 Heb. X, i: " Umbram fu- turorum bonorum, non ipsam ima- ginem rerum."
14 Summa Thcol., 3a, qu. 60, art. 6. Cfr. Gihr, Die hi. Sakramente dcr kath. Kirche, Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 50 sqq., Freiburg 1902.
62 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
symbolical acts, such as those employed under the Old Law.
Thesis II: The "sensible element" in a Sacrament corresponds, in philosophical parlance, to "matter," the "word" to "form," and the two are related to each other as materia and forma in the Scholastic sense of these terms.
This proposition may be technically qualified as certa.
Proof. The use of the terms "matter" and "form" in the theology of the Sacraments can be traced to William of Auxerre (d. 1223).^^ It was adopted by the Church ^^ and received official sanction at the Council of Trent/^ To reject it, therefore, would be foolhardy.
a) The application to the theology of the Sac- raments of the famous Aristotelian distinction be- tween matter and form, is most appropriate and illuminating.
As matter and form coalesce into one whole, which is separate and distinct from each of its component parts, so res and verbum constitute one complete sign, which is neither a mere element nor a mere word.
Again, as matter, being undetermined, is generically de-
15 Several of the Fathers (e. g. ut supra, p. 60, n. 3 ; the Bull " Inter
St. Augustine, De Peccatorum cunctas " of Martin V (quoted in
Mentis et Remissione, I, 34) speak Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 672).
of a forma in connection with the 17 Cone. Trident., Sess. XVI, cap.
Sacraments; however, they mean by 2 and " De Extrema Unctione,"
it not the mere words of administra- Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 895 and
tion, but the entire external rite. 908.
10 Cfr. the Decretutn pro Armenis,
MATTER AND FORM 63
termined by the form, so is the res raised to the rank of a sacramental sign by the differentiating power of the verbiim.
Furthermore, as matter and form intrinsically supple- ment and perfect each other, so, too, do res and verhimi. However, since res and verhum do not represent a physi- cal but merely a moral totum {i. e. one depending on the free choice of Christ), the terms must be taken analogi- cally. The union of res and verhum in a Sacrament is not, therefore, a physical but a purely moral synthesis, which does not demand that the component parts co-exist. Thus a penitent who confesses his sins may be validly absolved a day later, because the " element " or act of confession, and the " word " which determines it, despite the inter- val between them, constitute one moral act. The place of the " word " which is to determine the " thing " cannot be taken by some symbolic act, as, e. g., washing a person with water instead of pronouncing the formula of Bap- tism. There are many ablutions with diverse symbolic meanings, and the action remains indeterminate so long as there is no forma in the shape of a determining word.
In some Sacraments, notably Penance and Matrimony, it is not easy to say precisely wherein matter and form consist, but this difficulty has not deterred theolo- gians from insisting that somewhere and somehow both must be present.
An exception is made by the Scotists and Vasquez in favor of the Holy Eucharist, which they regard as a " permanent Sacrament " and the only one not consti- tuted by a union of matter and form. But this theory is untenable in view of the Decretum pro Armenis, quoted above. Moreover, the Holy Eucharist demonstrably has both res and verhum, matter and form.^^
i8Cfr. Tepe, Instit. Thcol., Vol. IV, pp. 15 sqq., Paris 1896.
64 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
b) If "element" and "word" are related to each other as matter and form, it follows that every Sacrament must consist of matter and form.
Scotus and his followers admit that all the Sacraments, inchtding the Eucharist, Penance, and Matrimony, grow out of an " element " and a " word," but they deny that each is essentially composed of res and verbum as matter and form. And yet the latter proposition follows logic- ally from the former. That which originates from a union of matter and form, must necessarily consist of matter and form. Now, the Decretum pro Armenis says : " Omnia sacramenta perficiuntur rebus tamquam ma- teria, verbis tamquam forma," which is virtually the same as the teaching of the Roman Catechism that matter and form " are parts pertaining to the na- ture and substance of the Sacraments, and by which each Sacrament is necessarily constituted." ^^ Hence we maintain with St. Thomas that, since a Sacrament is divisible into matter and form as distinct parts of its es- sence, every Sacrament consists of an element and a word.2o
Cardinal Lugo holds ^^ that, as the Decretum, pro Ar- menis mentions the intention of the minister, this enters into the intrinsic constitution of a Sacrament quite as much as matter and form. But the opinion is untenable. A Sacrament is constituted by matter and form; the
19 p. II, cap. I, n. 15: " Haec 2: " Qnodlibct sacramentum di- igitur Iscil. materia et forma'] sunt stinguitur in materiam et formam partes, quae ad naturam et substan- siciit in partes esscntiae. Unde tiam sacramentorum pertinent et ex supra dictum est, quod sacramenta quibus unumquodquc sacramentum consistunt in rebus et verbis." necessario constituitur." 21 De Sacrament., disp. 2, sect.
20 Sumnia TheoL, 3a, qu. 90, art. 5.
MATTER AND FORM 65
intentio miwistri is merely a condition of valid adminis- tration.^-
22 On the materia and forma of cramentis Ecclesiae, Vol. I, sect. 3,
the Sacraments the student may Freiburg 1897; Heinrich-Gutberlet,
consult Franzelin, De Sacramentis Dogmatische Theologie, Vol. IX,
in Genere, thes. 4; Sasse, De Sa- § 482.
SECTION 2
INTERNAL GRACE, OR SACRAMENTAL EFFECTS
In this Section we have to consider, not the efficacy of the Sacraments, nor the manner in which they produce their effects (modus eifici- endi),^ but these effects themselves.
The Catholic Church teaches : ( i ) that through the Sacraments "all true justice either begins, or, when already begun, is increased, or having been lost, is repaired;"^ (2) that three Sacraments, vis.: Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, imprint an indelible mark upon the soul.
ARTICLE I
EFFECTS COMMON TO ALL THE SACRAMENTS
All the Sacraments confer sanctifying grace, but, in addition, each one confers a special grace pecuHar to its object. This is commonly called gratia sacramentalis. The amount of sanctifying and special grace bestowed by a Sacrament depends chiefly on the disposition of the recipient.
We shall demonstrate these statements in three distinct theses.
1 V. infra, Ch. Ill, pp. 121 sqq. vera iitstifia vel incipit vel coepta 3 Concilium Trident., Sess. VII, augetur vel amissa reparatur." Prooem.: "Per sacramcnta omnis
66
SACRAMENTAL EFFECTS 67
Thesis I: All the Sacraments confer sanctifying grace.
This proposition embodies an. article of faith.
Proof. The Tridentine Council defines: 'Tf anyone saith that grace, as far as God's part is concerned, is not given through the said Sacra- ments always and to all men, even though they receive them rightly, but [only] sometimes and to some persons, let him be anathema." ^ Hence all the Sacraments without exception infallibly confer sanctifying grace when they are worth- ily received.
a) This teaching can be demonstrated from Scripture and Tradition. Both the Bible and the Fathers designate "regeneration of God" as the principal effect of Baptism. "Regeneration" is identical with justification,^ which is produced by the infusion of sanctifying grace. Conse- quently, Baptism confers sanctifying grace. What is true of Baptism, must also be true of the other Sacraments, since they are essentially rites of the same nature.^ Besides grace, the Sac- raments impart the three divine virtues of faith, hope, and charity, the infused moral virtues, and the other concomitants of sanctifying grace.®
3 Cone. Trident., Scss. VII, can. anathema sit." (Denzinger-Bann-
7: "Si quis dixerit, non dari wart, n. 850).
gratiam per huiiismodi sacramcnta 4 See Pohle-Preuss, Grace, Actual
semper et omnibus, quantum est and Habitual, pp. 314 sq.
ex parte Dei, ctiamsi rite ea su- G V. supra, Ch. I, Sect. 2.
scipiant, sed aliquando et aliquibus, 0 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, op. cit., pp.
362 sqq.
68 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
The well-known division into Sacraments of the living and Sacraments of the dead is based on the distinction between first and second justifica- tion, with which we have dealt in our treatise on Grace/
The Sacraments of the living are : Confirma- tion, the Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. The Sacraments of the dead: Baptism and Penance. For further in- formation we must refer the reader to the spe- cial treatises to follow this introduction.
b) Although the Sacraments of the living can be worthily received only in the state of grace, theologians have raised the question whether, and under what conditions, these Sacraments may confer the iiistiflcatio prima, and thereby, at least indirectly {per accidens), produce the same efifects as the Sacraments of the dead.
It is certain that the Sacraments of the dead, when conferred on a person already justified by an act of per- fect contrition, increase sanctifying grace and conse- quently effect the iustificatio secunda. Similarly, it is probable that the Sacraments of the living, under cer- tain conditions, restore sanctifying grace, and conse- quently effect the iustificatio prima. St. Bonaventure and De Lugo deny this proposition, so far as the Holy Eucharist is concerned. But ranged against them are such eminent older theologians as Suarez, Viva, St. Thomas ^
7 Op. cit., pp. 388 sqq.
8 Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 72, art. 7, ad 2.
SACRAMENTAL EFFECTS 69
and his entire school, and nearly all modern authors. The controversy cannot be decided from Tradition, but there is a strong theological argument in favor of the Thomistic view. The Tridentine Council teaches : " If anyone saith that the Sacraments of the New Law . . . do not confer grace on those who do not place an obstacle thereunto, ... let him be anathema." ^ Now it may easily happen that a sinner, believing himself to be in the state of grace, receives a Sacrament of the liv- ing with only imperfect contrition. Are we to assume that in such a case the Sacrament is utterly ineffective? There is no obstacle placed in the way of grace, since the sinner is in good faith and truly sorry for his sins. Hence, if the Sacrament has any effect at all, it must be to establish the state of grace. This can be easily shown of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. St. Thomas expressly asserts it of the Sacrament of Con- firmation.^° It is equally true of Holy Orders and Matri- mony, where good faith and attrition conjointly preclude the possibility of sacrilege and remove the obex. Is the Eucharist alone to form an exception, as De Lugo con- tends ? St. Thomas emphatically denies it. " This Sac- rament," he says, " can effect the forgiveness of sin in two ways. First of all, by being received, not actually, but in desire . . . ; secondly, when received by one in mortal sin of which he is not conscious, and for which he has no attachment; for possibly he was not suffi- ciently contrite at first, but by approaching this Sacrament
0 Cone. Trident., Scss. VII, can. in pcceato c.ristcns, eiiius conscicn-
6: "Si quis dixerit, sacramenta tiam non habct, vel si etiam non
Novae Legis . . . gratiam ipsam non pcrfecte contritus [i. c. attritus]
poncntibus obicem non conferre, accedat, dummodo non fictus acce-
anathema sit." (Denzinger-Bann- dat, per gratiam collatam in hoc
warl, n. 849). Sacramento consequctur rcmissioncm
10 Stimma Theol., 3a, qu. 72, peccatorum." art. 7, ad 2: "Si aliquis adulttts
;o THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
devoutly and reverently, he obtains the grace of charity, which will perfect his [imperfect] contrition, and bring forgiveness of sin." "
Thesis II: Besides sanctifying grace, the Sacra- ments confer each a special, the so-called sacramental grace.
This proposition may be qualified technically as sententia communis.
Proof, (a) The existence of a special sacra- mental grace can be shown in three ways.
a) If the Sacraments produced no other effect than sanctifying grace, there would be no need of having seven of them. Yet the Church teaches that all seven are necessary unto salvation, though not for every individual. "If anyone saith that the Sacraments of the New Law are not neces- sary unto salvation, but superfluous, . . . though all are not indeed necessary for every individual, let him be anathema." ^^
P) If the Sacraments really "contain," i. e. effect, the grace which they "signify," as the
11 Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 79, art. missionem peccali." Cfr. De Au-
3: "Potest hoc sacramentum gustinis, De Re Sacramentaria, Vol.
operari remissionem peccati duplici- I, 2nd ed., pp. 275 sqq.; Heinrich-
ter : uno modo non pcrceptum actu, Gutberlet, Dogmatische Theologie,
sed voto . . .; alio modo etiani per- Vol. IV, § 493.
ceptum ah eo, qui est in peccato 12 Cone. Trident., Sess. VII, can.
mortali, cuius conscientiam et 4' " Si qiiis dixerit, sacramenta
affectum non habet. Forte enim Novae Legis non esse ad salutcm
primo non fuit sufRcienter contritus, ncccssaria, sed supeiHua, . . . licet
sed devote et revercntcr acccdcns omnia singulis ncccssaria non sint,
consequetur per hoc sacramentum anathema sit." (Denzinger-Bann-
gratiam caritatis, quae contritionem wart, n. 847). [scil. imperfcctam} pcrficiet, et re-
SACRAMENTAL EFFECTS 71
Council of Trent declares/^ the different signs must effect different graces, there must be as many different graces as there are signs, and hence the grace of Baptism cannot be identical with the grace of Confirmation/^ and so forth.
y) The Church teaches that the Sacraments differ in dignity and worth. "If anyone saith," defines the same Council, "that these seven Sac- raments are in such wise equal to each other as that one is not in any way worthier than another, let him be anathema." ^^ It would be difficult to conceive this inequality, if there were no difference in effect.^^
b) Regarding the exact nature of the sacra- mental grace theologians are at variance.
The majority hold that the sanctifying grace conferred by a Sacrament is of the same order and quality as that obtained by prayer, merit, and perfect charity. Aureolus, Paludanus, Eusebius Amort, and others have tried to ex- plain the difference in the effects of the various Sacra- ments by assuming the existence of habits specifically dis- tinct from sanctifying grace and its accompanying virtues. However, this assumption is gratuitous, ( i ) because sanc- tifying grace with its concomitant theological virtues pro- vides sufficiently for the habitual hfe of the soul, and (2)
13 Cfr. Cone. Trident., Sess. VII, nulla ratione aliud sit alio dignius, can. 6. ". . . continent gratiam, anathema sit." (Denzinger-Bann- quam significant." wart, n. 846).
14 Cfr. Acts VIII, 16 sqq. 16 For a more detailed treatment
15 Cone. Trident., Sess. VII, can. of this point cfr. Pescli, Praelect. 3: "Si quis dixerit, Itaec septem Dogmaticae, Vol. VI, 3rd ed., pp. sacramenta esse inter se paria, ut 54 sqq.
72 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
because there is no basis for any such assertion in Revela- tion.
How, then, are we to conceive the graces pecuHar to the different Sacraments?
Billuart ^^ and other Thomist theologians contend that sacramental grace consists in some mode of perfection which ordinary grace lacks. Suarez ^® thinks sacramental grace is a claim to those actual graces which correspond to the particular object of the Sacrament. In both hy- potheses sanctifying grace is the font and well-spring of the gratia sacramentalis. The same grace (justification) is conferred by all the Sacraments, but it exercises a dif- ferent function in each. In Baptism it effects regenera- tion, in Confirmation it confers spiritual manhood, in the Holy Eucharist it nourishes the soul, and so forth.^^
The majority of modern theologians prefer to hold with Suarez that the gratia sacramentalis is simply a moral claim to actual graces, which are not conferred all at once, but one by one, as they are needed, though al- ways with reference to the Sacrament of which they are the effects. However, there is nothing to prevent us from meeting Billuart halfway by defining sacramental grace as a permanent disposition or habit.""
n De Sacramentis, diss. 3, art. 5. St. Thomas; cfr. Sunima Theol., 3a,
isDe Sacramentis, disp. 7, sect. qu. 62, art. 2: " Sicut igitur vir-
3. tutes et dona addunt super gratiam
19 Decret. pro Armenis, in Den- communiter dictam quondam per- zinger-Bannwart, n„ 695. Cfr. St. fectionem determinate ordinatam ad Bonaventure, Comment, in Sent., proprios actus potentiarum [scil. IV, dist. I, p. I, qu. 6: " Gratia animae'], it a gratia sacramentalis sacramentalis est eadem per essen- addit super gratiam communiter tiam cum gratia virtutum [i. e. sane- dictam [i. e. habitualem'] et super tificante], licet gratia sacramentalis virtutes et dona quoddam divinum plures connotet effecttts." auxilium ad conseqiiendum sacra-
20 Cfr. Heinrich-Gutberlet, Dog- mcnti finem." See also De Augu- mat. Theol., Vol. IV, pp. 151 sqq. ; stinis, De Re Sacramentaria, Vol. I, Gihr, Die hi. Sakramente der kath. 2nd ed., pp. 278 sqq., and De Lugo, Kirche, Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 93 sqq. De Sacramentis, disp. 4, sect. 3. This teaching is based on that of
SACRAMENTAL EFFECTS 73
Thesis III: The amount of grace conferred by a Sacrament depends on the disposition of the re- cipient.
This thesis is also senfentia communis.
Proof. The Tridentine Council, speaking of the justification of adult sinners, teaches: ". . . and we are . . . just, receiving justice within us, each one according to his own measure, which the Holy Ghost distributes to every one as He wills, and according to each one's proper disposition and co-operation." ^^
That is to say, the amount of grace conferred by a Sacrament in each instance depends (i) on the eternal decree of God, who has endowed each Sacrament with a definite measure of grace, and (2) on the disposition and co-operation of the recipient. Note, however, that every Sacrament is efficacious e.v opere operato, and con- sequently the disposition of the recipient is not the cause of grace, but merely a condition of a richer outpouring of the same, just as the dryness of a stick of wood is not the cause of its burning, but a condition of its being more rapidly consumed by the flames.-^
a) The Tridentine teaching is in perfect con- formity with the mind of the Fathers.
St. Cyril admonishes his catechumens about to receive Baptism : " Cleanse thine vessel, that it may receive a
21 Cone. Trident., Sess. VI, cap. cundwn propriam cuiiisque dispositi-
7: "... iiistitiam in nobis recipi- oncm et cooperaiioncm." (Den-
entcs, unusquisque swam secundum zingcr-Bannwart, n. 799).
mcnsuram, quam Spiritus Sanctus 22 Cfr. Franzclin, De Sacramentis
Partitur singulis prout vtilt, et se- in Gencrc, thes, 6.
74
THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
greater measure of grace. Forgiveness of sins is granted to all alike, but the communication of the Holy Ghost is given to each according to the measure of his faith. H thine effort be but slight, thou wilt receive little; but if thou dost much, thine reward will be great." ^^ It is for this same reason that the Church constantly exhorts the faithful to serve God more ardently, in order that they may receive a richer reward. St. Thomas voices the conviction of the Schoolmen when he says : " All chil- dren are equally disposed to Baptism, ... all receive an equal effect in Baptism; whereas adults , . . are not equally disposed; for some approach with greater, some with less, devotion, and therefore some receive a greater, some a smaller share of the grace of renewal."
24
b) Revelation does not tell us whether or not Sacraments of a different order (e. g. Baptism and the Holy Eucharist), all other things being equal, confer an equal amount of grace.
Objectively the Holy Eucharist is the most perfect of the Sacraments, and consequently we may assume that from the nature of the case and regardless of the disposi- tion of the recipient, it confers a larger share of grace than the others. Those theologians who, in addition to the disposition and co-operation of the recipient mentioned by the Tridentine Council, postulate other external condi-
23 Catech., I, cap. 5 (Migne, P. C. XXXIII, 378). Other Pa- tristic texts in Suarez, De Sacram., disp. 7, sect. 5.
24 Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 69, art. 8: "... omnes pueri aequaliter se habent ad baptismtim, . . . omnes aequalem eff actum percipiunt in bap- tismo. Adulti vera . . . non ce-
qualiter se habent ad baptismum. Quidam enim cum maiore, quidarn cum minore devotione ad baptismum accednnt, et idea quidam plus, qui- dam ininus de gratia novitatis ac- cipiunt." Cfr. De Augustinis, De lie Sacrament., Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 294 sqq. ; Tepe, Inst. Theolog., Vol. IV, pp. 50 sqq.
SACRAMENTAL EFFECTS 75
tions, merely voice their private opinion and speak with- out sufficient warrant. Paludanus -^ engages in guess- work when he says that the amount of grace conferred by Baptism is unequal even in infants, because the number of human beings to be saved and the degree of happiness to be enjoyed by each in Heaven must correspond to the num- ber and beatitude of the Angels. Scotus -'' and Gabriel Biel hold that God increases the amount of grace con- ferred by the Sacraments in some cases according to His absolute decree of predestination, or by reason of a spe- cial application of the merits of Jesus Christ, or in con- sideration of the personal worthiness of the minister of the Sacrament and those who happen to be present during its administration. Such greater lavishness on the part of God in regard to certain persons is, of course, possible, but there is nothing to show that it actually takes place, and if it did, it would most assuredly be a special privilege outside the lex ordinaria.^'^ Cardinal Cajetan thinks that the amount of grace conferred by a Sacrament may be increased by personal sanctity and prayer on the part of the minister,-^ No doubt it makes a difference who ad- ministers a Sacrament, whether he be a pious priest or one imbued with a worldly spirit. A saintly minister by his prayers, merits, and spiritual influence may procure many actual graces for the recipient, thus disposing him better personally and making him more receptive. But there is no warrant for asserting that the amount of sanctifying grace conferred by a Sacrament depends on the worthiness of the minister.
25 Comment, in Sent., IV, dist. 4, borated by De Lugo, De Sacra- <iu. I. mentis, disp. 9, sect. 2.
26 Comment, in Sent., IV, dist. 4, 28 Comment, in S. TIteol., Ill, qu. 7. qu. 64, art. i.
27 This point is more fully cla-
•j^ THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
ARTICLE 2
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER PECULIAR TO BAPTISM, CONFIRMATION, AND HOLY ORDERS
Character^ in general signifies any mark or trait that distinguishes a person or an object from others. In Catholic theology it designates certain indelible spiritual marks imprinted on the soul by the Sacraments of Bap- tism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders.
I. The Existence of the Sacramental Character. — That there is such a thing as the sacramental character follows from the dogmat- ically defined truth that the Sacraments of Bap- tism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders each im- press a special, supernatural, and inefifaceable mark upon the soul of the recipient.
Wiclif claimed that this teaching cannot be substantiated from Revelation.^ The Protestant Reformers denied the existence of the sacramental character. Chemnitz asserted that the "char- acter" had been invented by Pope Innocent III (d. 1216).
The dogmatic teaching of the Church on this point is beyond cavil. The Council of Florence (A. D. 1439) declared: "Among these Sacra- ments there are three, i. e. Baptism, Confirma- tion, and Holy Orders, that indelibly imprint upon the soul a character, i. e. a kind of spiritual
X Signum, figura, j^apa/CTiJp. 2 Trial., IV, 15.
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER
71
mark, distinct from all others, and this is the rea- son why they cannot be administered more than once to the same person. The other four do not imprint a character and can be administered more than once." ^ This definition was solemnly re- iterated by the Council of Trent: "If anyone saith that in the three Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, there is not im- printed on the soul a character, that is, a certain spiritual and indelible sign, on account of which they cannot be repeated, let him be anathema." * Hence it is of faith that there is a sacramental character, and that because of this character the three Sacraments in question cannot be repeated, a) Though this teaching is not directly de- monstrable from Holy Scripture, it enables us to interpret satisfactorily certain passages in the Epistles of St. Paul which would remain obscure in any other hypothesis.
Thus, the Apostle says that God " hath sealed us, and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts." ^ And
3 Decretum pro Armenis: "Inter haec sacramenta tria sunt: bap- tismus, confinnatio et ordo, quae charactcrem, i. e. spirituale quod- dam signum a caeteris distinctivum, imprimunt in anima indelebile , unde in cadcm persona non reiterantur; rcliqua vera quatinor charactercm non imprimunt et reiterationcm ad- tnittunt." (Denzingcr-Bannwart, n.
695).
4 Cone. Trident., Sess. \'II, can. 9: "Si quis dixerit, in tribus
sacramentis, baplismo scil., confirma- tione et ordinc, non impruni aha- racterem in anima, hoc est signum quoddam spirituale et indelebile, unde ea iterari non possunt, ana- thema sit." (Denzinge'r-Bannwart, n. 852).
5 2 Cor. I, 21 sq.: ". . . qui tmxit nos Deus: qui et signavit nos (6 Kal acppayiaafievos 'fifj.ds) ft dcdit pignits Spiritus in cordibus nostris."
78 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
again: "In whom [i. e. Christ] . . . beheving, you were signed with the holy Spirit of promise," ^ And again: "Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption." ^ St. Paul here tells his hearers: (i) You are anointed, (2) you are sealed or signed, and (3) you have received the pledge of the Spirit. " You are anointed " is manifestly but another way of saying: You are justified {gratia creata). "You have received the pledge of the Holy Spirit " means : The Holy Spirit has descended upon you and dwells in you {gratia increata). That the sig- natio implied by the phrase " who hath sealed us " must refer to the Sacraments, appears (a) from the general economy of divine grace, in which internal grace is ordi- narily communicated through the instrumentality of ex- ternal signs, and (b) from the expression " unxit nos," which seems to imply an internal as well as an external unction; just as " ahhitio" in the writings of St. Paul im- plies both external and internal washing.^ This also ex- plains what the Apostle means when he says that to grieve the Spirit of God is to break the " seal of the Spirit," by which we are sealed unto redemption.
Sacred Scripture indicates quite unmistakably that Bap- tism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders can be received but once.®
Some theologians hold that the " pignus Spiritus " does not refer to the sacramental character, but to the " signum Met " ^^ or to the charisma.^^ But it is a noteworthy fact
6 Eph. I, 13: "... in quo [scil. 8 Cfr. i Cor. VI, ii; Hebr. X, 22. Christo] ct crcdentcs signati estis 9 For Baptism, cfr. Rom. VI, 10, (eff4)payi<T9r]r€) Spiritti promissionis Eph. IV, 5, Heb. VI, 4 sq. ; for Sancto." Confirmation, Acts XIX, i sqq. ;
7 Eph. IV, 30: " Nolite contri- for Holy Orders, 2 Tim. I, 6. stare Spiritum, Sanctum Dei, in quo 10 St. Thomas Aquinas. signati estis (iff(ppayicr6T]Te) in H Estius, Comely.
diem redemptionis."
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER
79
that the Church bases her traditional teaching of the char- acter precisely on the PauHne passages which we have quoted. It is from them that the Greeks drew their theory of the baptismal " sphragis," which was all but universally received in the second century/-
b) A convincing argument for the existence of the "character sacramentalis" can be derived from Tradition. St. Augustine defended it vig- orously as an essential part of the sacramental system of the Church.
In his Letter to Boniface ^^ he refers to the mark im- printed by Baptism as " character dominiciis," i. e. a mark belonging to Christ, the Chief Shepherd of the flock and Leader of the Christian army.^* In his treatise on Baptism against the Donatists he says : " Men put on Christ, sometimes so far as to receive the Sacrament, sometimes so much further as to receive holiness of life. And the first of these may be common to good and bad alike, but the second is peculiar to the good and pious." And again : " But which is worse, not to be baptized at all, or to be twice baptized, it is difficult to decide." ^^ Elsewhere St. Augustine compares the baptismal char-
12 Cfr. Pourrat, La Thaologie Sa- cramentaire, pp. 196 sqq. ; Eng- lish tr., pp. 217 sqq.
13 £/>., 98, n. 5: " Christianis haptismi sacramentum , . . etiam apud haereticos valet et suf- ficit ad consecrationem, quamvis ad vitae aeternae participationeni non sulTiciat ; quae consccratio rcuni quideni facit hacrcticiim extra Domini gregem habcntem Domini- cum charactercm, corrigendum tamen admonet sana doctrine, non iterum similiter consecrandum."
14 Cfr. Pourrat, Sacramental The- ology, p. 229.
15 De Baptismo contra Donati- stas, V, 24, 34: " Induunt homines Cliristum aliquando usque ad sa- cramenti perceptionem, aliquando et usque ad vitae sanctificationem. At que illud primum et bonis et malis potest esse commune, hoc au- tcm altcrum proprium est bonorum et piorum." — Op. cit., II, 14, 19: " Quid sit autem perniciosius, utrum omnino non baptizari an rcbaptizari, iudicare difficile est."
8o
THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
acter to the badge of a soldier and says that the same simile may be applied to Confirmation and Holy Orders.^® Thus, contrary to Harnack's claim/^ St. Augustine's theory of the sacramental character is not an artificial makeshift framed for the sake of expediency, but, in the words of Pourrat,^^ " a living development of the sac- ramental principles laid down by the practice of the early Church, a development quite homogeneous with its start- ing-point." ^°
St. Ambrose teaches : " Therefore we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, not by nature, but by God, because it is written : ' God hath anointed us and hath also sealed us.' We are sealed with the Spirit, in order that we may possess His splendor and image and grace, which is in- deed a spiritual seal." -°
St. Chrysostom says : " Thus it happens that if you leave the ranks [as a deserter], you can be easily recog- nized by all ; for the Jews employ circumcision as a sign ; we, the pledge of the Spirit." -^
St. Cyril of Jerusalem declares that the angels can tell
16 Contra Ep. Pannen., II, 13. 29: "An forte minus haerent sa-
cramenta Christiana qiiam corporalis haec nota [i. e. militum'], quiim videamus nee apostatas carere bap- tismate, quibus utique per poeni- tentiam redeuntibus non restitiiitur et idea amitti non posse iudica- iur."— Cfr. Contra Lit. Petit., II, 104, 239: "Quod [sacraincntnin chrisniatis] in genere visibilium si- gnaculorum sacrosanctum est, sicut et ipse baptismus; sed potest esse et in hominibus pessimis." — Contra Ep. Parmen., II, 13, 28: " Utrum- que [scil. baptismus et ordo'] sacra- mentum est et quadam consecrations vtrumque homini datur, illud quum baptisatiir, illud quum ordinatur;
ideoque in catholica ecclesia utrum- que non licet iterari."
17 Dogmengeschichte, Vol. Ill, 3rd ed., pp. 140 sqq., Freiburg 1896.
18 Op. cit., p. 231.
19 Cfr. Pourrat, op. cit., pp. 226 sqq.
20 De Spiritu Sancto, I, 6, 79: " Sancto igitur Spiritu signati sumus non natura, sed a Deo, quia scriptum est : ' Quia un.rit nos Deus et qui signavit nos.' Spiritu signamur, ut splendorem atque ima- gineni eius et gratiam tenere possir mus, quod est utique spirituale signaculum."
21 Horn, in 2 Cor., 3, n. 7.
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER 8i
a Christian by the sacramental character imprinted on his soul. " In battle," he writes, " the leaders distribute badges to the combatants, by which friends can recognize and help one another. . . . How is the Angel to recognize thee ? How is he to rescue thee from thine enemies, if he does not see thy badge ? How canst thou say : I belong to God, if thou dost not wear His sign and badge ? " ^^
St. Ephraem Syrus writes : " The Holy Ghost im- prints His sign upon His sheep with oil. As a sealing- ring imprints an image on wax, so the secret sign of the Holy Spirit is imprinted by means of oil on a person when he is anointed in Baptism." -^
c) For a better understanding of the sacra- mental character it will be well to study the ques- tion of its duration and the Scholastic distinction between sacramentum and res.
a) Does the sacramental character endure in the life beyond ? The Tridentine Council has defined that it out- lasts mortal sin, i. e. the loss of sanctifying grace, whence we must conclude that it lasts at least till death. Theo- logians regard it as certain that the sacramental character survives after death, especially in the souls of the elect. St. Cyril speaks of " a sign indelible for eter- nity," -° and St. Thomas teaches : " The [sacramen- tal] character remains after this life, both in the good as adding to their glory, and in the wicked as increasing their shame, just as the character of the military service remains in the soldiers after the victory, as the boast of the conquerors and the disgrace of the conquered." ^^
22 Procatech., n. 4. 2S Procatcch., n. 17: a4>payli
23 Assemani, Biblioth. Orient., I, dyefdXeiTrros els tovs alUvas-
95. 20 Suinma Thcol., 3a, qu. 63, art.
2i Pastor Hermae, Sim. VIII, 6. s, ad 3: "Post hanc vitam re-
82 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
The intrinsic reason for this indelibihty is that there is no contrary quality or entity which can destroy the sacramental character. God alone is able to destroy it by direct interposition ; but God destroys no positive entity except when compelled by a moral motive, as when grace is destroyed by mortal sin. There is no such motive imaginable in regard to the sacramental character, which can co-exist with mortal sin, and serves two further good purposes, — in Heaven to enhance the glory of God and the reward of the elect, and in hell to shame the reprobate sinners and make their punishment more se- vere.-^
13) The Scholastic distinction between sacramentiim and res arose in the twelfth century and is based on the circumstance that the sacramental character is a sign, like " matter and form," though invisible, while the latter are visible. The Schoolmen distinguish between '' sacra- mentum tantum," i. e. the external sign consisting of mat- ter and form; "res tantum," i. e. the internal grace effected by that sign ; ^^ and " res simul et sacr amentum," i. e. the character, which is both the result of a sign and itself the sign of something else. In other words : In every sacrament that imprints an indelible mark on the soul, there is ( i ) something which merely signifies but is not itself signified {id quod significat et non signiiicatur) , i. e. matter and form {sacramentiim tantum) ; (2) some- thing which is merely signified but does not itself signify anything {id quod significatur et non significat), i. e. in- ternal grace {res tantum) ; (3) something which is both signified and itself signifies {id quod significatur et signi-
manet character et in bonis ad vicerunt ad gloriam et in his qui eorum gloriam et in malis ad eorum sunt victi in poenam." ignominiam, siciU etiam militaris 27 Cfr. Billuart, De Sacram., diss.
character manet in militibus post 4, art. 2.
adeptam victoriam et in his qui 28 V. supra, pp. 59 sqq. and pp. 66
sqq.
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER 83
Heat), i. e. the sacramental character {res simiil et sa- cramentum). Considered as an effect of external grace the sacramental character, like sanctifying grace, is both signified and effected; considered as a spiritual mark, it merely signifies, but does not effect, the presence of sanc- tifying grace. Naturally {per se) the baptismal char-- acter postulates the grace of Baptism, the character of Confirmation postulates the grace conferred by that par- ticular Sacrament, and the sacerdotal character imprinted by Holy Orders postulates the grace bestowed by ordina- tion. Without sanctifying grace the sacramental char- acter would be incomplete, crying by its very existence and purpose for the spiritual life.^^
By way of analogy theologians have applied this dis- tinction to the other sacraments, which do not confer a character, trying to find in them something which could take the part of res simul et sacramentum. This was easy enough in the Holy Eucharist. For in this Sacra- ment the external species may be regarded as sacramentum tantum in so far as they merely signify without them- selves being signified, while the grace (produced by com- munion) is merely an effect but no sign, and hence there was no difficulty in designating the body of Our Lord, which both signifies (and effects) the internal grace, and is also signified by the species, as res simul et sacramen- tum. In the Sacrament of Matrimony the marriage bond may be called res simul et sacramentum, inasmuch as it is a passive sign, qua sacramental effect, and an active sign, qua symbol of Christ's union with His Church. The sacramentum tantum of Matrimony is its matter and form, while the res tantum coincides with the internal grace conferred by the Sacrament. The problem is some- what more difficult in the case of Extreme Unction.
29 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 66, art. i.
84 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
Suarez ^^ admits both views, i. e. that which regards the "internal anointment" {vis.: the strengthening of the soul) and that which considers the " alleviation of the body " as the res et sacramentum. Perhaps it will be best to combine these two effects into one. Penance, too, offers a problem to the theologian who tries to apply to it the Scholastic distinction of which we are treating. De Lugo, after a critical examination of various theories, gives it as his opinion that the res simul et sacramentum of Penance, viewed in the light of the Tridentine teach- ing,^^ is the " peace of mind " it effects.^-
2. In What the Sacramental Character Consists. — With the possible exception of St. Augustine, the Fathers did not discuss the ques- tion: In what does the sacramental character consist? The Scholastics tried to deduce some definite conclusions from Patristic teaching and conciliary definitions, but despite their ingenuity it must be admitted that it is much easier to tell in what the character does not consist, than in what it consists.
a) Durandus regarded the sacramental [character as a purely logical relation, resulting from a divine ordi- nance or contract.^^ But since the Tridentine Council has
ZODe Sacram., disp. 41, sect. 3. pp. 122 sqq., Freiburg 1895; Schee-
31 Cone. Trident., Sess. XIV, cap. ben, Die 'Mysterien dcs Christen- 3. turns, 3rd ed., § 83, Freiburg 1912;
32 For a more exhaustive treat- Heinrich-Gutberlet, Dogmatische The- ment of the topics dealt with in this ologie, Vol. IV, § 483, Mainz 1901. subdivision see Billot, De Ecclesiae 33 Comment, in Sent., IV, dist. Sacramentis, Vol. I, 4th ed., thes. 4, qu. i : "Character nan est nisi 6, Rome 1907; E. Lingens, Die in- relatio rationis ex ordinatione vel nere Schonheit des Christentums, pactione divina."
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER 85
defined the character to be " a spiritual and indehble sign imprinted on the soul," we are not permitted to treat it as a mere figment of the mind. Nor does this theory sufficiently safeguard the Catholic teaching against cer- tain heresies. There are few heretics who would not be willing to admit, for instance, that Baptism is the ground for a purely logical relation, inasmuch as one who has re- ceived this sacrament can never deny that he is " bap- tized."
Scotus and some of his followers have been accused of holding that the sacramental character is a real relation (relatio realis) or " relative form." In matter of fact Scotus himself treated this opinion merely as a hypothesis. His own idea was that the sacramental character is an " absolute form," and this teaching was espoused by his immediate followers. The opinion attributed to Scotus is untenable, because every real relation presupposes a foundation that is real, and consequently cannot be con- ceived without a forma absoluta. St. Thomas demon- strates this as follows : " The relation signified by the word ' sign ' must needs have some foundation. Now the relation implied in this sign which is a ' character,' cannot be founded immediately on the essence of the soul, because then it would belong to every soul naturally, [i. e. in that case all souls would have a character; Billuart]. Conse- quently, there must be something in the soul on which such a relation is founded ; and this is the character itself. Therefore it need not be in the genus relation, as some have held." ^^
34 Summa Tlieol., 3a, qu. 63, art. sentiam animae, quia sic conveniret
2, ad 3: "Relatio quae importatur omni animae naturaliter. Et idea
in nomine signi, oporlet quod super oportet aliquid poni in anitna, super
aliquid fundetur. Relatio autem quod fundctur talis relatio, et hoc
liuius signi, quod est character, non est essentia characteris. Unde non
potest fundari immediate super es- oportebit quod sit in gcncre rela-
86 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
b) From what we have said it follows that, like sanc- tifying grace,^^ the sacramental character must be con- ceived as a real entity, and consequently is either a sub- stance or an accident. It cannot be a substance, hence it must be an accident, and, since it is effected by a Sacrament and imprinted on the soul, it must be a supernatural accident. Such accidents belong to the cate- gory of "quality" (TroioxTys). Consequently, the sacra- mental character may be defined as a permanent quality of the soul, and, in this respect, resembles sanctify- ing grace.
The question, to which of the four Aristotelian species of quality the sacramental character belongs, has given rise to a variety of opinions.^*' Suarez says it is an in- fused habit and reckons it among the " first species " of quality." Others regard it as a spiritual " figure or form " belonging to the " fourth species." Neither theory is tenable. The sacramental character cannot be a figure or form, nor a habit, because, unlike sanctifying grace, it may be applied to both good and evil purposes. Some theologians ^^ are inclined to define the character as a " passihilis qmlitas" (the third species of quality), be- cause it is a sign or mark distinguishing certain men from others. But since the passible qualities are by nature transient^" and have their proper place in the material world, this explanation is equally unsatisfactory. The
tionis, siciit quidam posucrunt." Pohle-Preuss, Grace, Actual and
The history of this controversy can Habitual, pp. 332 sq.
be read in Pourrat, Theology of 37 De Sacram., disp. 6, sect. 3, n.
the Sacraments^ French ed., pp. 6.
223 sqq., English tr., pp. 204 sqq. 38 E. g., Pesch, Praelect. Dogmat.,
35 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Grace, Ac- Vol. VI, 3rd ed., p. 84.
tual and Habitual, pp. 328 sqq. 39 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa
3G Cfr. Lehmen, Lehrhuch der TheoL, 3a, qu. 63, art. 3: " Cha-
Philosophie auf aristotclisch-scho- ractcr nan est passio, quia passio cito
lastischer Grundlage, Vol. II, 2nd transit, character autem indelebilis
ed., pp. 398 sqq. Freiburg 1904; est."
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER 87
most acceptable theory is that of St. Thomas, who classes the sacramental character among the second species of quality. The sacramental character, he says, " is not a habit, because no habit is indifferent to acting well or ill, whereas a character is indifferent to either, since some use it well, some ill. Now this cannot occur with a habit, because no one abuses a habit of virtue or uses well an evil habit. It remains, therefore, that the character is a power." *° Note, however, that the sacramental char- acter does not confer a physical power. Those who are baptized, confirmed, and in Holy Orders can accomplish no more physically than others who have not received these three sacraments. The power which the character confers is, therefore, purely moral, and may be defined as a supernatural power ordained unto things pertaining to divine worship, according to the rite of the Christian religion, whether such worship (cult us) consist in re- ceiving divine gifts or in bestowing them upon others (Billuart). Thus, God does not bestow the grace of an- other Sacrament on any one who does not wear the bap- tismal character, and He does not change bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ except at the bid- ding of one who has the sacramental character of Or- ders.*^
Does the sacramental character reside in the substance of the soul or in some particular faculty thereof? This question also has given rise to a controversy. The Sco- tists, in accord with their general teaching, hold that the sacramental character resides in the will, while the Thoni-
40 L. c. : " [Characterl non est bus non cotitingit; nam habitu virtu- habitus, quia nullus habitus est, qui lis nullus utitur male et habitu se possii ad bene et male habere. malitiae nullus bene; ergo relinqui- Character autem ad utrumque se ttir quod character sit potcntia." habct; uliintur cnim eo quidam 41 Cfr. Billuart, De Sacram., diss. hetie, alii vera male, quod in liabiti- 4, art. 2,
88 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
ists assign it to the intellect. " A character needs to be in the soul's cognitive power, where also is faith," says St. Thomas.*^ Others *^ teach that the sacramental char- acter resides in the very substance of the soul, because the Tridentine Council employs the phrase, " imprinted in the soul." As it is neither necessary nor advisable to accept St, Thomas' radical distinction between the sub- stance of the soul and its faculties, (in the adoption of which the Angelic Doctor was perhaps unduly influenced by his opposition to Scotism and Nominalism), we shall probably do best if we assign the sacramental character primarily to the substance of the soul and secondarily to its faculties or powers, /. e. the intellect and the will. This seems all the more acceptable in view of the fact that the object of the character (which is, to confer the ability to perform religious acts of worship) involves both the intellect and the will.
3. The Object of the Sacramental Char- acter.— As God does nothing without a purpose, it is impossible to evade the question : For what purpose was the sacramental character instituted ? To avoid useless speculation, we shall limit our discussion to the data furnished by divine Reve- lation.
a) Recalling the passages previously quoted from St. Augustine,** we say that the sacramental character im- plies on the part of the recipient a sort of " consecra- tion " — in the sense of objective sanctification {saccr,
42 Summa ThcoL, 3a, qu. 63, art. 43 Notably Bellarmine, Suarez,
4, ad 3: " Oportet quod character sit and De Lugo.
in cognitiva potentia animae, in qua 44 V, supra, p. 79, notes 13, and
est fides." 15.
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER 89
oo-tos), not subjective holiness (sancHis, ayto?).'*^ St. Augustine, compelled by the Donatists to emphasize not only the distinction between, but the actual separability of, grace and character (sanctiftcatio and consecratio), in- sisted that heretics may receive and sinners retain the sac- ramental character without grace. St. Thomas went a long step farther by defining consecratio as deputatio ad divinum cult urn, i. e. a bestowal of the spiritual power necessary to perform acts of divine worship.'*'' This is plainly apparent in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. It is not so apparent in Baptism and Confirmation. But the passive receptivity which these Sacraments confer is really an active power, vis.: the power, through Baptism, to receive the other Sacraments, to participate in all the rights and duties of a child of the true Church, and to be a member of the mystic body of Christ ; and, through Confirmation, the power of professing the Catholic faith, if necessary at the risk of life, and of serving as a sol- dier in the army of the Lord. All these functions con- stitute necessary parts of Christian worship.
b) The very name character (xapaKx^p), and its de- scription as a stamp or seal (signaculmn, af^payi'?, o-^pa- yiaixa), indicate that it may be a threefold sign, viz.: (a) signum distinctivum or a mark discriminating various ob- jects; (2) signum obligativum, denoting a duty; (3)
46 The distinction between these aliquid certum deputatur, consuevit
two notions is explained in Pohle- ad illud consignari, sicut milites, qui
Preuss, God: His Knowability, Es- adscribcbantur ad militiam atitiqui-
sence, and Attributes, 2nd ed., pp. tus, solebant quibusdam characteri-
258 sq. bus corporalibus insigniri, eo quod
46 Cfr. Siunma TheoL, 3a, qu. 63, dcputabantur ad aliquid corporale. art. i: " Sacramenta Novae Legis Et ideo quum homines per sacra- ad duo ordinantur, vid. ad remedium mcnta deputentur ad aliquid spiritu- contra peccatnm et ad perficicndam ale pertinens ad cultnm Dei, conse- animam in his quae pertinent ad quens est quod per ea fideles aliquo cultuin Dei secundum ritum chri- spirituali charactere insigniantur." stianae vitae. Quicunque autem ad
90 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
signum configurativum, marking similarity. The im- press of a seal or stamp produces a triple effect : it renders an object recognizable, it marks the object as part of one's property, and it produces in it a likeness of the owner. The sacramental character exercises all these functions, and in addition to them a fourth, namely, to prepare the soul for grace. In this last-mentioned respect it is called signum dispositivum.
a) The sacramental character is, first, a signum di- stinctizmm or mark differentiating those who' are bap- tized, confirmed or ordained, from those who have not re- ceived these Sacraments. No one can belong to the ex- ternal organism or body of the Church except he wear the character of Baptism, and no one lacking the char- acter of Holy Orders can perform the functions of a priest. The character conferred by the Sacrament of Confirmation is similar to that of Baptism, only perfected and developed.
Though God and the angels require no sign to enable them to tell whether a man belongs to the true Church or to the priesthood, such a sign is by no means superfluous, since God not only appoints men to office, but also gives them the necessary interior qualification. An office that is to be actually exercised requires a real foundation, and it is this that the sacramental character supplies. But even for us, who are unable to perceive it, the character is not without meaning, because the visible reception of one of the three sacraments in question infallibly guarantees the possession of the invisible character.''^ The sacra- mental character, therefore, retains its value as a distinc-
47 Cfr. Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 63, sacramentum imprimitur; per hoc
art. I, ad 2: "Character animac enim scitur aliquis esse baptismali
impressus habet rationeni signi [di- charactere insignitus, quod est ablu-
stinctivi], inquantum per sensibile tus aqua sensibili."
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER 91
tive sign also in the world to come, where it will enhance the happiness of the elect and add to the confusion of the damned.
/3) The sacramental character is, secondly, a signum obligativum, in so far as it marks a man as the inalienable property of Jesus Christ, unites him indissolubly with the God-man, whose sign and livery he wears, and lays upon him the obligation of performing those acts of divine wor- ship which the Sacrament, by virtue of its character, im- poses as an official duty. By Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders respectively, the recipient is officially marked and charged with certain specific duties. Bap- tism imposes the duties of a subject ; Confirmation, those of a soldier; Holy Orders, those of a minister of Jesus Christ.*^
y) The sacramental character is, in the third place, a signum configurativiim, inasmuch as it constitutes the soul an image of God.*^ Not, of course, in the sense in which man is a natural likeness of the Creator; nor in the sense in which he is a supernatural image of God by sanctifying grace. The sacramental character may be in the soul without grace. St. Thomas Aquinas adopts the tech- nical definition of Peter Lombard : " Character est di- stinctio a Charactere aeterno [Christo] impressa animae rationali secundum imaginem consignans trinitatem crea- tam [anhnam] Trinitati creanti et recreanti." ^° This definition, however, can be accepted only with the reser- vation that every created effect (and the sacramental character is a created effect) reflects in some way the
48 Cfr. Farine, Der sakramentale 3: "Actus characteris, a quo
Charakter, pp. :8 sqq., Freiburg nomen accepit, et principalis est
1904. configurarc."
40 Cfr. St. Botiavcnture, Com- co Comment, in Sent., IV, dist.
ment. in Sent., IV, dist. 6, p. i, qu. 4, qu. i, art. 2, sol. 2.
92
THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
image of the Blessed Trinity.^^ In contradistinction to sanctifying grace, the supernatural configuratio or as- similatio conferred by the sacramental character estab- lishes a proper likeness to Christ, not indeed as if the soul participated in His Divine Sonship,^- but in the sense of sharing in His office of High Priest. By receiving the sacramental character, a man is designated, empowered, and placed under obligation to perform certain acts of worship which bear a special relation to our Divine Saviour's sacerdotal office.^^ Consequently, the sacra- mental character, considered as a signum configurativum, is not so much the character of the Holy Trinity, as that of Christ the High Priest. Hence such Patristic phrases as : character dominicus, ariyfia Xptarov, i. e. family mark of Christ.^'* It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that the God-man Himself is a high priest only by virtue of a character in which He permits those who receive the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders to share. Christ is our natural Mediator by virtue of the Hypostatic Union, and, consequently, a High Priest not by grace but by nature.^^ It is only in the light of this teaching that i Pet. II, 9 : " You are a chosen gen-
51 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God the Au- thor of Nature and the Supernat- ural, pp. 38 sqq.
52 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Grace, Ac- tual and Habitual, pp. 356 sqq.
53 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Soteriology, pp. 1 1 1 sqq.
5-t Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa TheoL, 3a, qu. 63, art. 3: " Depu- tatur quisque fidelis ad recipiendum vel tradenduin aliis ea quae perti- nent ad cultum Dei, et ad hoc proprie deputatur character sacra- mentalis. Totus autem ritus chri- stianae religionis dcrivatur a sacer- dotio Christi. Et idea manifestum
est quod character sacramentalis specialiter est character Christi, cu- ius sacerdotio configitrantur fideles secundum sacramentales characteres, qui nihil aliud sunt quam quacdam participationes sacerdotii Christi ab ipso Christ 0 derivatae."
55 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Soteriology, pp. 127 sqq. St. Thomas, Summa TheoL, 3a, qu. 63, art. 5: " Christo non competit habere characterem, sed potestas sacerdotii eius compa- ratur ad characterem, sicut id quod est plenum et pcrfectum ad aliquam sui participationem."
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER
93
eration, a kingly priesthood," can be fully understood. 8) The sacramental character is, lastly, a signum dis- positivum, a sign disposing the soul for the reception of, and thereby bestowing a claim to, grace. Grace, as we have shown in a previous treatise,^" is either sanctifying or actual. The sacramental character, as a signum dis- positivum for sanctifying grace, must not be conceived as a " physical predisposition " for, or a " preliminary stage" of, that grace (lumen semiplenum, diuiiniitum) ,^'^ because it is not a form of sanctification. The connec- tion between character and grace is purely moral, and may be described as a kind of affinity, inasmuch as the sacramental character, in view of its purpose, ought never to exist without sanctifying grace.^^ It is in this light that the Fathers who wrote before St. Augustine regarded the sacramental character, when they said that it has an intrinsic relation to adoptive sonship, the in- dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the soul of the just, and the beatific vision of God in Heaven. Furthermore, the sac- ramental character confers a moral claim to all actual graces necessary for the worthy fulfilment of the office or dignity conferred by the respective Sacrament.^^ De Lugo, following the Fathers, enumerates still another effect. The guardian angels, he says, watch with special solicitude over the bearer of this " spiritual seal," while the
56 Pohle-Preuss, Grace, Actual and Habitual. V. supra Sect. 2, Art. i, Theses I and II.
n? It is thus conceived by Alex- ander of Hales, St. Bonaventure, and the Franciscan school of theo- logians generally.
08 Cfr. St. Bonaventure, Com- ment, in Sent., IV, dist. 6, p. i, qu. 2, ad 3: " Character significat gratiam, et quod ibi non sit, hoc est ex defcctu suscipientis tantum,"
59 This is the teaching of St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 63, art. 3, ad i: "Character autem directe et propinquc disponit animam ad ea quae sunt divini cultus e.ve- quenda. Et quia haec idonee non fiunt sine au.vilio gratiae, . . . ex coiisequenii divina largitas rccipicn- tibtts charactcrem largitur gratiam, per quarn digne impleant ea, ad quae deptitantur."
94 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
demons are constrained to moderate their attacks upon him.«°
c) It remains to explain why only three of the Sacraments confer the character, while the other four do not.
In declaring that Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Or- ders confer the sacramental character, the Council of Trent plainly intimates that the other four Sacraments do not confer it. This is indeed the common teaching, which can also be inferred from the fact that, according to the Decretiim pro Armenis, the other four Sacraments can be received more than once, for the reason that they do not imprint the sacramental character.^^ But why do only Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders confer the character?
The sacramental character, as we have seen, is inti- mately related to Christ's office of High Priest. We know from Soteriology *'- that this office is inseparable from our Lord's other offices of Prophet and King, and that the three interpenetrate and limit each other. Now, as there are three offices of the Redeemer, so there are three offices among those whom He has redeemed. Each of these has its special mark or character. Baptism stamps the recipient a subject of Christ as King; Con- firmation marks him as a courageous pupil of Christ in His capacity of Prophet or Teacher; Holy Orders distin- guishes him as a minister of the God-man in His capacity of High Priest.
60 De Lugo, De Sacram., disp. mittunt." (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 6, sect. 3, n. 44. 695).
61 Decret. pro Armen. : " Reliqua 62 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Soteriology, vero quattuor characterem nan im- p. 158.
primunt et [idea] reiterationem ad-
THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER 95
The remaining four Sacraments do not thus empower those who receive them to perform acts of pubHc wor- ship. Penance and Extreme Unction are essentially medicinal ; the Holy Eucharist, though the most sublime of all the Sacraments, is rather a spiritual food and sig- nifies the mystic union of the soul with Christ; Matri- mony elevates to the sphere of grace, and thus sanctifies and ennobles, the natural union between male and fe- male. From a purely philosophical point of view there is no reason why this latter Sacrament should not confer a character. Like Holy Orders, it establishes a state of life and represents an important office in the Church, in- asmuch as it supplies those whom she is commissioned to raise to the rank of children of God and citi- zens of Heaven. Nevertheless, there is not between Matrimony and the three offices of the Redeemer that intimate connection which we have shown to exist be- tween those offices and the Sacraments of Baptism, Con- firmation, and Holy Orders. Hence there is no place in the external organization of the Church for such a thing as a sacramental character conferred by Matrimony.
03
Readings : — St. Thomas, Simma TheoL, 3a, qu. 63, art. 2. — Billuart, De Sacramentis in Communi, diss. 3, art. 3-5. — *De Lugo, De Sacram. in Genere, disp. 4, sect. 2-3. — *De Augiistinis, De Re Sacramentaria, Vol. I, 2'nd ed., pp. 273 sqq., 294 sqq., Rome 1889.— Tepe, Instit. TheoL, Vol. IV, pp. 50 sqq., Paris 1896. — Heinrich-Gutberlet, Dogmat. Theologie, Vol. IV, § 492 sq., Mainz 1901. — N. Gihr, Die hi. Sakramcnte der kath. Kirche, Vol. I, 2nd ed., § 14 sq., Freiburg 1902. — De Bellevue, La Grace Sacramcntelle, Paris 1900.
On the dogma of the character cfr. : St. Thomas, Summa TheoL, 3a, qu. 63, art. i. — Billuart, De Sacramentis in Communi,
68 On the questions dealt with in Kirche, Vol. I, and ed., pp. 109 sqq., this subdivision of our treatise cfr. Freiburg 1902. Gihr, Die hi. Sakramcnte dcr kath.
96 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
diss. 4, art. 1-3. — Bellarmine, De Sacram. in Genere, 1. II, cap. 18-20. — De Lugo, De Sacram. in Genere, disp. 6, sect. 1-4. — *Franzelin, Dc Sacram. in Genere, thes. 12 sq., Rome 1888. — De Augiistinis, De Re S acramentaria , Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 308 sqq. — P. Schanz, Die Lehre von den hi. Sakramenten, § 10, Frei- burg 1893. — *Lorinser, De Charactere Sacramentali, Oppolii 1844. — La Farine Der sakramentale Charakter, Freiburg 1904. — O. Laake, Der sakramentale Charakter, Miinster 1903. — F. Brom- mer, Die Lehre vom sakramentalen Charakter in- der Scholastik bis Thomas v. Aquin inklusive, Paderborn 1908. — Garrett Pierse, " The Origin of the Doctrine of the Sacramental Character," in the Irish Theological Quarterly, Vol. VI (1911), No. 2, pp. 196-
211.
SECTION 3
THE SACRAMENTS INSTITUTED BY JESUS CHRIST
External sign and interior grace constitute the two internal causes (materialis and formalis) of a Sacrament. Its external or efficient cause {causa efficiens) is its institution by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Christ is the author of the Sacraments in a threefold sense : ( i ) He has merited their sanc- tifying power by His passion and death; (2) He has personally instituted them; and (3) He has so determined the matter and form of each that the Church cannot alter their substance, though she is free to institute new ceremonies and sac- ramentals. We shall demonstrate this in four separate and distinct theses.
Thesis I: Christ Himself instituted all the Sacra- ments in the sense that He alone, by His passion and death, is their meritorious cause.
This proposition is de fide.
Proof. The Tridentine Council teaches : "If anyone saith that the Sacraments of the New Law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord,
97
98 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
... let him be anathema." * Hence the institu- tion of the Sacraments by Christ is an article of faith, at least in this sense that they derive their sanctifying power solely from the merits of the atonement, and, consequently, owe their ex- istence to the human will of our Lord.^
a) The principle underlying this thesis, (vis.: that in the present economy there is and can be no grace not derived from the merits of Christ), has been sufficiently demonstrated in Soteriology.^ If Christ is the meritorious cause of the Sacraments, He must also be their au- thor, inasmuch as against or without His will no grace can be bestowed on those whom He has re- deemed.* It follows that Christ is, either im- mediately or mediately, the author of all the Sac- raments.
b) From the speculative point of view the fol- lowing considerations are pertinent.
a) In regard to the institution of the Sacraments we may distinguish a threefold power: the divine potestas auctoritatis, the theandric potestas excellentiae, and the purely human potestas ministerii. The potestas auctori- tatis belongs to God alone, the potestas excellentiae to Christ in His human capacity, the potestas ministerii to His ministers or representatives on earth.
1 " Si quis dixerit, sacramenta 2 V. Thesis II, infra, pp. loi sqq.
Novae Legis non fuisse omnia a 3 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Sotcriology,
lesu Christ 0 Domino nostra insti- pp. 5 sqq., St. Louis, 19 14.
tufa, ... anathema sit." (Sess. 4 Cfr. Matth. XXVIII. 18 sq.;
VII, can. 1; Denzinger-Bannwart, n. John XX, 21 sqq.; Rom. VI, 3 sq.;
844). 1 Cor. I, 13; Eph. V, 26.
DIVINE INSTITUTION 99
As regards the potestas auctoritatis, evidently no one but God was able to attach internal grace to external signs and thus to institute real sacraments. Hence if such visible means of grace exist, they must owe their existence to Him.
The Sacraments derive their origin from, and owe their institution to, Christ, not only as God, but also as man. He was the natural mediator between God and man both in His divine and in His human nature. The graces which He merited for us, and which He distributes through the Sacraments, were merited in His human nature. Conse- quently, in the institution of the Sacraments, Christ acted not only with His divine but also with His human will. Although His human activity asserted itself only in- strumentally and ministerially, it was most excellent for the reason that His humanity, on account of the Hypo- static Union, must be considered as instrumentiim coniiinctum of the Divinity and on account of its dignity stands out as the causa ministerialis principalis. It fol- lows that the Sacraments, while they are truly instrumen- tal causes of interior sanctification, are merely instrumenta separata, and their human administrators, though min- isterial causes of the distribution of grace, are merely causae ministeriales suhordinatae. Consequently, the hu- man potestas nmiisterii mentioned above, is as far be- neath the potestas excellentiae of Christ qua man, as the potestas excellentiae is inferior to the divine potestas auctoritatis.^
P) The potestas excellentiae Christ i, which is so important a factor in the institution of the Sacraments, operates in a fourfold manner.
5 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., its, ita inquantum homo, habet pa-
3a, qu. 64, art. 3: " Et idco sicut testatcm ministerii principalis sive
Christus, inquantum Deus, habet potestatem excellentiae." potestatem auctoritatis in sacramen-
loo THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
( 1 ) The merits of Christ are the sole operative power of all the Sacraments. This truth is the very foundation and corner-stone of the Catholic doctrine of the Sacra- ments.^
(2) Christ's potestas excellentiae also manifests itself in the fact that there can be no Sacraments except those administered in His name and by His power. The ad- ministration and distribution of graces is entirely subject to Him who has merited and accumulated them.'^
(3) There can be no Sacrament that does not depend, either mediately or immediately, upon the human will of Christ as its author; for it is as man that Christ is our natural Mediator, the fount of grace, and the High Priest of humanity.^
(4) The potestas excellentiae also reveals itself in this that Christ, as man, is independent of the Sacraments, inasmuch as He can remit sins and impart graces without their instrumentality, — a prerogative denied to His human representatives.'^
6 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa TheoL, dammodo nobis coptilatur per sus-
3a, qu. 64, art. 5: "Principalis ■an- ceptioneni sacramentornm."
tern causa efficiens gratiae est ipse 7 Cfr. Acts II, 38, VIII, 12; i
Deus, ad quern comparatur huniani- Cor. I, 12 sq.
tas Cliristi sicut instrumentum con- 8 V. Soteriology.
iunctum, sacramentum autem sicut 9 Matth. IX, 2 sqq. Cfr. St.
instrumentum separatum. Et idea Thomas, Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 64,
oportet quod virtus salutifera a di- art. 3 : "... quae quidem [pote-
vinitate Christi per eius humanitatem stas excellentiae'] consistit in quat-
in ipsa sacramenta derivetur. . . • iuor: prima quidem in hoc quod
Manifcstum est autem ex his quae meritum et virtus passionis eius
supra dicta sunt {qu. 48, 49), quod operatur in sacramentis . . .; ideo
Christus liberavit nos a peccatis secundo ad potestatem excellentiae,
nostris praecipue per passionem, non quam Christus habet in sacramentis,
solum sufRcienter et meritorie, sed pertinet quod in eius nomine sa-
etiam satisfactorie. Similiter etiam cramenta sanctificentur. Et quia ex
per suam passionem initiavit ritum eius institutione sacramenta virtu-
christianae religionis. . . . Unde tem obtinent, inde est quod tertio
nianifestum est quod sacramenta ec- ad excellentiam potcstatis Christi
clesiae specialiter habent virtutem ex pertinet quod ipse, qui dedit virtu-
passione Christi, cuius virtus quo- tem sacramentis, potuit instituere
DIVINE INSTITUTION
lOI
Thesis II: The Sacraments of the Christian dis- pensation have been immediately and personally in- stituted by Christ.
This proposition may be technically qualified as propositio certa.
Proof. After showing that the Sacraments have Christ for their author, we have now to demonstrate that He instituted them immediately and personally, and not through the instrumen- tality of His Apostles or the Church.
Before the Tridentine Council some theologians held that Christ personally instituted most of the Sacraments, but not all. Hugh of St. Victor, Peter Lombard, and St. Bonaventure, for instance, thought that Confirmation and Extreme Unction were instituted by the Apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.^" Alexander of Hales even went so far as to maintain that Confirmation cannot be traced farther back than the Council of Meaux, A. D. 845. This was an egregious historical blunder, as the Council of Meaux passed only disciplinary regula- tions.^^
Since the Council of Trent Catholic theologians are so firmly convinced of the immediate institution of the Sac-
sacramenta. Et quia causa non de- pendet ab effcctu, sed potius e con- trario, idea quarto ad excellentiam potestatis pertinct quod ipse potuit effectum sacrament orum sine ex- teriori sacramento conferre." These four reasons in principle establish the institution of all the Sacraments by Christ. Cfr. De Augustinis, De Re Sacramentaria, Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 12$ sqq.; Gihr, Die hi. Sakra- tnente. Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 124 sq.
10 Cfr. St. Bonaventure, Com- ment, in Sent., IV, dist. 23, art. i, qu. 2: " Et idco probabilius alii dicunt et Magister videtur hoc sentire, imo aperte dicit, quod Spi- ritus Sanctus hoc sacramentum [ex- tremae uncfionis'\ per Apostolos inslifuit, sicut supra dictum est de sacramento confirmationis."
11 See Labbe, Concil,, t. VII, p. 1833-
102 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
raments by Christ that some of them ^- teach it as a dogma, while all without exception regard it as doctrina certa}^
Though the Tridentine Council, out of regard for the authority of such eminent theologians as St. Bonaventure, purposely refrained from defining the immediate institu- tion of the Sacraments by Jesus Christ as an article of faith, its teaching on the subject is quite unmistakable in its implications.
(i) Whenever a personal name is connected with the institution of a rite, the bearer of that name must mani- festly have personally instituted the rite. In the Trident- ine definition " Jesus " and " Christ " are thus connected with the institution of the Sacraments {v. supra, Thesis I), Moreover, the Council itself draws a sharp distinc- tion between the ceremonies ordained by the Church ^* and the Sacraments instituted by Christ.^^
(2) Wherever it speaks of the institution of those Sacraments that were undoubtedly instituted by our Di- vine Saviour in person, the Council employs precisely the same terms as in the canon just referred to ; '^^ conse- quently, that canon must be understood as inculcating the immediate institution of all the Sacraments by Christ.
(3) Had the Church received from her Divine Founder the power to institute Sacraments, she would also have the power of changing the substance of any Sacrament,
12 E. g., Bellarmine, Vasquez, Gonet, against Suarez, Billuart, Tournely, et al.
13 Cfr. Suarez, De Sacramentis, disp. 12, § i: " Christus Dominus immediate ac per se ipsum instituit omnia sacramenia Novae Legis. Conclusio est omnino certa ex de- finitione Concilii Tridentini (Sess. VII, can. 1): 'Si quis dixerit, sa-
cramenia Novae Legis non fuisse omnia a lesu Christo Domino nostra instituta, anathema sit.' "
14 Sess. VII, can. 13.
15 Sess. VII, can. i.
16 Cfr, Cone. Trid.. Sess. XIV cap. i; Sess. XXII, can. 2; Sess. XXIII, cap. i; Sess. XXIU prooem: "Ipse Christus venerabi Hum sacramentorum institiitor . ,
DIVINE INSTITUTION 103
both with regard to matter and form. But this is ex- pressly denied by the Council.^^
(4) The Council teaches in regard to Extreme Unc- tion, the Sacrament mainly in dispute, that it is " a Sacra- ment instituted by Christ our Lord and promulgated by the blessed Apostle James," ^* — a phrase which positively excludes the theory that this Sacrament may have been instituted by the Apostles or the Church.
In the light of these considerations the reader will be able to form his own opinion of the .contention of Loisy,^'' condemned in the so-called " Syllabus of Pius X," that Christ did not institute a single one of the traditional Sacraments, but that they were all introduced in course of time by the Church.-"^
a) Holy Writ furnishes direct evidence that at least two of the Sacraments were insti- tuted immediately by Christ, namely, Baptism (Matth. XXVIII, 19, John III, 5) and the Holy Eucharist (Matth. XXVI, 26 sqq., et passim). Besides these there is good scriptural reason to suppose that our Saviour personally instituted Penance (John XX, 2;^) and Holy Orders (Luke XXII, 19).
While we have no direct evidence concerning the other three Sacraments, we are justified in assuming that they derive their existence from the same divine origin.
17 Sess. XXI, cap. 2: " Praeterea 18 Sess. XIV, can. i: " Extre-
declarat, hanc potestatem perpctuo mam unctioncm esse . . • sacramen-
in Ecclesia fuissc, ut in sacramen- turn a Christo Domino nostro in-
torum dispensationc, salvd, illorum stitutum et a B. lacobo Apostolo
substantid, ea statucrct vel mutaret, promulgatum."
quae suscipicntium utililati sen 10 Autour d'un Petit Livrc, pp.
ipsorum sacramcntorum I'cncralioni 220 sqq., Paris 1903.
pro rerum, temporum et locorum 20 Denzingcr-Bannwart, Enchiri'
varietale magis expcdire iudicaret." dion, n. 2039 sqq.
104 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
Like Baptism, the Eucharist, Penance, and Holy Orders, — Confirmation, Extreme Unction, and Matrimony are veritable pillars of the Catholic religion. All three are plainly mentioned in Holy Scripture -^ and there- fore cannot possibly have been instituted in post- Apostolic times. That they are not of Apostolic origin may safely be inferred from the fact that the Apostles never appear as the authors but invariably as the adminis- trators of the Sacraments. Cfr. i Cor. IV, i : " Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the dis- pensers of the mysteries of God." i Cor. Ill, 4 sq. : " What then is Apollo ? and what is Paul ? The min- isters of him whom you have believed." ^^
b) The Fathers know of no distinction be- tween mediate and immediate institution in re- spect of the Sacraments.
Pseudo- Ambrose asks : " Who is the author of the Sac- raments if not the Lord Jesus? These Sacraments have come from heaven." -^ Special importance attaches, as Vasquez points out,^* to the testimony of St. Augustine, who says : " In the first place, therefore, I want you to hold . . . that the Lord Jesus Christ . . . subjected us to a light yoke and an easy burden. Hence He bound the society of the new people with Sacraments very few in number, easy of observance, eminent in signification, as, for instance. Baptism consecrated by the name of the
21 Confirmation, Acts VIII, 17, Paulus? Ministri (diOLKOPOt) eius, XIX, 6; Extreme Unction, Jas. V, cui credidistis."
14 sqq. ; Matrimony, Eph. V, 25 sqq. 23 D^ Sacram., IV, 4, 13: " Sa-
22 I Cor. IV, i: "Sic nos existi- cramentoruni auctor quis est nisi met homo ut ministros Christi et Dominus Jesus? De caelo ista sa- dispensatores (olnovofiovs) my- cramenta venerunt."
steriornm Dei." — i Cor. Ill, 4 sq.: 24 Comment, in S. Th., Ill, disp,
" Quid igitur est Apollo? quid vero 135, c. i, n. 9.
DIVINE INSTITUTION 105
Trinity, the communication of His own body and blood, and whatever else is commended in the canonical Scrip- tures." -^ Baptism and the Holy Eucharist are here as- cribed immediately to Christ, together with the other Sac- raments commended in the canonical Scripturbs, i. e. all seven as we know them. Where he speaks of the deeds of our Lord on earth, Augustine says : " In the time of servitude, under the Old Law, the people, bound by fear, were burdened with many sacraments. This was useful for them, that they might desire the grace of God which the prophets had predicted. When it came, the wisdom of God, through the assumption of the man by whom we were called to liberty, instituted a few highly useful Sacraments, which were to bind together the society of the Christian people, that is, of the multitude enjoy- ing freedom under the one God." ^"^ Augustine is well aware of the fact that Christ might have granted the faculty of instituting Sacraments to His Apostles, yet he says: " [Christ] did not wish this, in order that the hope of the baptized be in Him by whom they acknowl- edge their Baptism. . . . Therefore, lest there be said to be as many baptisms as [there are] ministers who bap- tize, having received the power to do so from the Lord, the Lord kept for Himself the power of baptizing, giving
25 St. Augustine, Ep. 54 ad la- 2G De Vera Religionc, c. 17, n. 33:
nuar., c. i: " Pri>no itaque tcnere " Populus timore constrictus tem-
te volo, . . . Dominum nostrum pore servitulis in Vetere Lege multis
lesum Chrisluin . . . levi iugo suo sacramentis onerabatur. Hoc enim
nos subdidissc ct sarcinae Icvi. talihus utile erat ad desidcrandam
Unde sacramentis numcro paucissi- gratiam Dei, quae per prophelas
mis, observationc facillimis, signifi- vcntura canebatur. Quae ubi venit,
catione praestantissiniis societatem ab ipsa Dei sapientia homine as-
novi populi colligavit, sicuti est bap- sumpto, a quo in libertatcm vocati
tismus Trinitatis nomine consecratus, sumus, pauca sacramcnta satuberrima
commutiicatio corporis et sanguinis constitula stint, quae societatem
ipsius et si quid aliud in Scripturis christiani populi, hoc est sub uno
canonicis commendatur." Deo liberae multitudinis continC'
rent."
io6 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
His servants [merely] the ministry." ^^ The latter part of this passage indicates the reason why Christ instituted the Sacraments immediately and personally. The idea is more fully developed by St. Thomas.^®
c) Theologians grant the abstract possibility of a me- diate institution of the Sacraments by the Apostles or by the Church, but they grant it only conditionally, that is in so far as it does not involve a denial of the doctrine set forth in our first thesis.-'' Though some ^" are unwilling to admit that Christ could have imparted His power to mere men, the common opinion is that, had He so willed. He could have empowered the Apostles and the Church to institute Sacraments at His behest. Of course, the dis- tinction between the divine potestas auctoritatis and the theandric potestas excellentiae must always be kept in mind. The former is incommunicable, while the latter may, to a certain limited extent, be bestowed upon crea- tures.^^
27 Tract, in loa., V, n. 7: "Hoc quae compctit ei secundum quod noluit ideo, ttt in illo spes esset hap- homo, et talent potestateni potuit tizatorum, a quo se baptisatos agno- ministris communicare, dando scil. scerent. . . . Ergo ne tot baptisma- eis tantam gratiae plenitudinem, ut ta dicerentur, quot essent sen'i eorum meritum operaretur ad sa- qui baptizarent accepta potcstate cr anient or um effcctus, ut ad invoca- a Domino, sibi tenuit Dominus tionem nominum ipsorutn sanctifica- bapticandi potestaiem, servis mini- rentur sacramenta, et ut ipsi possent sterium dedit." sacramenta institucre et sine ritu
28 Sunima Theol., 3a, qu. 64, art. sacramentorum cffectum sacramen- 4. See also Suarez, De Sacrani., torum conferre solo imperio. Potest disp. 12, sect. I. enim instriimcntuni coniunctuni [i.
29 V. supra, p. 97. e. humanitas Christi], quando fuerit
30 E. g., Durandus, Scotus, and fortius, tanto magis virtutem suam Vasquez. instrumento separata [i. e. ministro^
31 Cfr. St. Thomas, Sunima Theol., tribuere, sicut manus baculo." To 3a, qu. 64, art. 4: " Christus in the objection that such a (hypo- sacramentis habuit duplicem pate- thetic) plenipotentiary, by the posses- statem: unam auctoritatis, quae com- sion of such incredible privileges, petit ei secundum quod Deus, et talis would eo ipso be the caput gratiae potestas nulli creatiirae potuit com- of humanity, St. Thomas replies with municari, sicut nee divina essentia. a distinction: "Si tamen iChristusJ Aliam potestateni habuit excellentiae, communicasset, ipse esset caput
DIVINE INSTITUTION 107
Thesis III : Christ determined the matter and form of each Sacrament so that they are immutable for all time.
This proposition embodies a sententia commu- nis.
Proof. The matter and form of a Sacrament may be determined individually, specifically, or generically.
They are determined individually if everything is mi- nutely regulated in detail, as, for instance, the exact method of pouring out the water and the precise words to be pronounced by the minister in Baptism. The history and practice of the Greek Church furnish ample evi- dence that our Lord did not thus determine the matter and form of the Sacraments in individuo.
By specific determination we understand a designa- tion of matter and form in infima specie. Theologians are agreed that Christ specifically determined the matter and form of some of the Sacraments {e. g., Baptism and the Eucharist), but not of all (especially Confirma- tion and Holy Orders ).^-
Generic determination is a designation of matter and form only quoad genus. Some theologians ^^ assert that Christ determined the rite of ordination in such a general way, leaving the choice of a specific sign to His Church. This would account for the dififerences existing in the Eastern and the Western Churches. We admit that this theory enables us to explain more satisfactorily, from the
principalitcr, alii vero secundaria." point we must refer the student
(L. c, ad 2). Cfr. De Lugo, De to the separate treatises on the
Sacram., disp. 7, sect. 1-2; Franze- Sacraments.
lin, Dc Sacram. in Ccucre, thes. 14. 33 E. g., De Lugo {De Sacram.,
32 for further details on this disp. 2, sect. 5).
io8 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
historic point of view, the differences in the administra- tion of other Sacraments that have developed in the course of centuries (e. g., Confirmation and Penance). According to the unanimous teaching of theologians, the term " matter and form " comprises all those ele- ments, and those elements only, which Christ Himself instituted either in specie, or at least in genere, and over these the Church has no power.
Nevertheless, solid arguments can be adduced in support of the proposition that Christ Himself so determined both the matter and the form of all the Sacraments, not only in genere, but like- wise in specie, that the Church has never made any essential change in regard thereto, and could not make such a change if she would.
a) One of these arguments may be formulated as fol- lows : Christ immediately and personally instituted all the Sacraments.^* Now every Sacrament consists essentially of matter and form.^^ Consequently, He who instituted the Sacraments must have determined their matter and form. If the Apostles or the Church had determined the matter or the form of any Sacrament, they would have mediately instituted that Sacrament. And if it were true, as some theologians assert, that for the Sacra- ment of Holy Orders the Church undertook the speci- fication of matter and form and carried it out differ- ently in the East and in the West, it would have to be admitted that she has changed the Sacrament essen- tially. For whoever changes the matter and form of a Sacrament, changes the Sacrament itself. Moreover, if the Church had at any time in the past possessed the power
34 V. Thesis II, supra. 35 V. supra, Ch. II, Sect. i.
DIVINE INSTITUTION 109
to determine the matter and form of a Sacrament, she would have the same power to-day, in accordance with Toletus' principle : " Cuius est facere, est etiam mu- tare." ^^ But the Church herself expressly denies that she has any such power,^'^ Consequently, the matter and form of all the Sacraments — including Confirma- tion, Holy Orders, and Matrimony — have been specific- ally determined by Christ Himself.
Tradition affords no evidence that the Church ever in- troduced any particular sign as the matter and form of a Sacrament, or that she substituted any new sign for one already in use. Pope Benedict XIV, who firmly held the theory just expounded, boldly challenged his oppo- nents to produce any evidence in support of their claim. " Let them tell us," he says, " where, when, by what coun- cil or pope such a change was made," and adds : " The contrary seems to be evident from the Tridentine Coun- cil,^^ which declares that Christ gave His Church the power to ordain or change whatsoever she may judge ex- pedient in the dispensation of the Sacraments, their sub- stance remaining untouched ; a change of matter and form would touch, not the rite and dispensation, but the substance." ^^ Well-nigh the only reason why some theo- logians incline to the opposite opinion, is the difference existing between the rite of ordination in the Eastern and the Western Church. In the Orient, the matter of this Sacrament is the imposition of hands, in the Occident,
86 Toletus, Comment, in S. TheoL, evinci ex Tridcntino, ubi dcclarat, III, c|u. 64, art. 2. o Christo rclictam esse Ecclcsiac po- 37 V. supra., p. 103. testatem mutaudi quae sacramcn- 88 Sess. XXI, cap. 2. torum dispensationem respiciunt, 30 Benedict XIV, De Synodo salva illorum substantia; viutatio Dioecesana, VIII, 10, 10: " Dicant vera matcriae ct forinae non ad enim, ubi, quando, in quo concilio, a ritinn ct dispensationem, sed ad sub- quo pontifice facta sit ciusmodi mu- stantiam pertinet," tatio," " Jmo oppositum videtur
no THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
the traditio instrumentorum. This difference, however, as we shall show in our treatise on Holy Orders, does not affect the essence of the Sacrament.^°
b) The determination of matter and form is not equally specific in the different Sacraments. In the case of Bap- tism, for instance, the " ablution," which represents the matter, both proximate and remote, of the Sacrament, may be carried out in three different ways — by immersion, by effusion, or by aspersion, while the words constituting the form may be pronounced either in Latin or in Greek or in the vernacular, and may be indicative or deprecatory. The underlying principle may be briefly stated as follows : The matter of a Sacrament remains within the sphere of its determined species as long as it retains, in the popular estimation, its peculiar properties, while the form remains specifically unchanged as long as the logical and theological sense of the formula is preserved intact. Alterations, ad- ditions or omissions which do not run counter to this prin- ciple are to be regarded as merely accidental changes. Certain doubtful instances will be treated later in con- nection with the several Sacraments. It should be noted, however, that the validity of a sacramental form may also depend on the intention of the minister, who has it in his power, either through mere ignorance or pur- posely, to corrupt the form. If a mistake is made through ignorance, the Sacrament is valid so long as the wrongly pronounced formula may be morally held to retain the ob- jective sense which Christ wished to connect with it. If the corruption is intentional, the form retains its specific integrity only on condition that its objective sense is not
40 For a more detailed treatment Franzelin, De Sacram. in Gen., thes. consult De Augustinis, Dc Re Sa- 5; G. M. Van Rossum, Dc Essentia cram.. Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 168 sqq.; Sacramenti Ordinis, Rome 1914.
SACRAMENTALS in
essentially altered or the intention to do what the Church wishes to do is not positively excluded. Should the min- ister of a Sacrament be led by a desire for novelty pur- posely to render the meaning of a prescribed form am- biguous, or heretically to exclude the right intention, it is evident that he desires to employ another form than that instituted by Christ, and the Sacrament consequently be- comes invalid.
Thesis IV : Though the Church has no right to in- stitute Sacraments, she possesses the power to insti- tute sacramentals.
This proposition may be qualified as " certa."
Proof. In the three preceding theses we have ex- plained what the Church cannot do in regard to the Sacraments. The present one defines what she can do.
There are two kinds of sacramentals: (i) such as ac- company the administration of the Sacraments (e. g. the exorcisms pronounced in Baptism, the use of salt, the anointing of the forehead), and (2) such as may be used independently of the Sacraments and have a quasi mat- ter and form of their own (e. g. the different ecclesias- tical blessings). The former are called sacramental cere- monies, the latter sacramentals in the strict sense of the term.
I. That the Church has power to institute sacramental ceremonies or rites, is clear from the following declara- tion of the Tridentine Council : " If anyone saith that the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church, wont to be used in the solemn administration of the Sac- raments, may be contemned, or without sin be omitted at pleasure by the ministers, or be changed by every pastor
112 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL
of the churches into other new ones, let him be anath- ema." *^
a) In proof of this dogma the Holy Synod adduces the example of St. Paul, who concludes his remarks on the Eucharist with these words : " And the rest I will set in order, when I come." *^ There is abundant Patristic evidence for the antiquity of the sacramental ceremonies employed by the Church. Most of those now in use can be traced far beyond the ninth century, as a glance at the Sacramentary of Gregory the Great and