St Thomas concludes the chapter thus: "The text 1 John iii, 6, 9, means that any one who is adopted as a son, or born again as a son of God, receives gifts of the Holy Ghost, which of themselves are powerful enough to keep the man from sin, nor can he sin so long as he lives according to them: he may however act contrary to them, and by sinning depart from them. He that is born of (£od, cannot sin, in the same way that 4 warm water cannot chill one,' or 4 the just man never acts unjustly,' to wit, in so far as he is just." In other words, the text holds good in sensu composito, not in sensu diviso.
CHAPTER LXXl-That a man who sins after the Qrace of the Sacraments may be converted to Grace * HEREBY is excluded the error of the Novatians, who denied pardon to sinners after baptism, t They took occasion of their error from the text: 7/ is impossible jor those who have been once enlightened [f*m<r- «tVroc, baptised], and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost...and have fallen, to be again renewed [Ava*uW{civ, renovari, Vulg.] unto penance (Heb. vi, 4, 6). But the sense is plain from the imme- diate context: crucifying to themselves again the Son of God, and making him a mockery. There is denied to them then that renewal unto penance, whereby a man is crucified along with Christ, which is by baptism: for as many of us as hate been baptised in Christ Jesus, have been baptised in his death (Rom. vi, 3, 6: Gal. ii, 19, 20: v, 24). As then Christ is not to be crucified again, so he who sins after baptism is not to be baptised again. Hence the Apostle does not say that it is impossible for such persons to be reclaimed, or concerted, to penance, but that it is impossible for them to bcrenewea [tWaiWfri*'], renovation being the effedt usually ascribed to baptism, which is called the la^er of regeneration and renewal [<ba«uwj<rc«*] (Titus iii, 5).
CHAPTER LXXII-Ofthe need of the Sacrament of Penance, and of the Parts thereof THE Sacrament of Penance is a spiritual cure. As sick men are healed, not by being born again, but by some readtion (alteratio) set up in their system; so, of sins committed after baptism, men are healed by the spiritual reaction of Penance, not by repetition of the spiritual regenera- tion of Baptism. Now a bodily cure is sometimes worked entirely from within by the mere effort of nature; sometimes from within and from without at the same time, when nature is aided by the benefit of medicine. But the cure is never wrought entirely from without: there still remain in the patient cer- tain elements of life, which go to cause health in him. J A spiritual cure cannot possibly be altogether from within, for man cannot be set free from guilt but by the aid of grace (B. Ill, Chap. CLVII). Nor can such a cure be altogether from without, for the restoration of mental health involves the setting up of orderly motions in the will. Therefore the spiritual restoration, effected in the Sacrament of Penance, must be wrought both from within and from without. And that happens in this way.
The first loss that man sustains by sin is a wrong bent given to his mind, whereby it is turned away from the unchangeable good, which is God, and turned to sin.§ The second is the incurred liability to punishment (B. Ill, * This is proved here by seven arguments, having will not co-operate towards receiving it, is a spiritual been already argued in B. Ill, Chap. CLVII. incurable.
t Socrates, Hist. Eccl. iv, 28, quotes the Nova- § Cf. Aquinas Ethicus I, pp. 209, 2139256,346, tians as saying: " It is forbidden to admit to Com- 347: II, 367. As we speak of the 'orientation' of munion him who has denied Christ. He should be churches, we might call this deordinatio mentis a exhorted to repent, but must look for his pardon from 'deorientation,' the soul no longer looking towards God, who alone is competent to give it." its First Beginning. Under this head, as will be seen, X The lack of these ' elements of life ' makes the St Thomas includes the privation of charity, which is class of ' incurables.' The sinner who, having open the principal loss incurred by mortal sin. Throughout access to the Sacrament of Penance, disdains it, or this chapter the sin spoken of is mortal sin.
Chapp. CXLI-CXLVI). The third is a weakening of natural goodness, rendering the soul more prone to sin and more reluctant to do good. The first requisite then of the Sacrament of Penance is a right ordering, or orien- tation of mind, turning it to God and away from sin, making it grieve for sin committed, and purposing not to commit it in future. All these things are of the essence of Contrition. This re-ordering of the mind cannot take place without charity, and charity cannot be had without grace (B. Ill, Chap. CLI). Thus then Contrition takes away the offence of God, and de- livers from the liability of eternal punishment, as that liability cannot stand with grace and charity: for eternal punishment is in separation from God, with whom man is united by grace and charity.* This re-ordering of the mind, which consists in Contrition, comes from within, from free will aided by divine grace. But because the merit of Christ, suffering for mankind, is the operative principle in the expiation of all sins (Chap. LV), a man who would be delivered from sin must not only adhere in mind to God, but also to the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (i Tim. ii, 5), in whom is given remission of all sins. For spiritual health consists in the turning of the mind and heart to God; which health we cannot gain otherwise than through the physician of our souls Jesus Christ, who saves his people from their sins (Matt, i, 21); whose merit is suffi- cient for the entire taking away of all sins, since He it is that taketh away the sins of the world (John i, 29). Not all penitents however perfectly gain the effect of remission; but each one gains it in so much as he is united with Christ suffer- ing for sins. Our union with Christ in baptism comes not of any activity of our own, as from within, because nothing begets itself into being; it is all of Christ, who hath regenerated us unto lilting hope (1 Peter i, 3): consequently the remission of sins in baptism is by the power of Christ, uniting us to Himself perfectly and entirely; the result being that not only is the impurity of sin taken away, but also all liability to sin is entirely cancelled, — always excepting the accidental case of those who gain not the effeft of the Sacra- ment, because they are not sincere in approaching it.f But in this spiritual cure (the Sacrament of Penance), it is our own aft, informed with divine grace, that unites us with Christ. Hence the effedt of remission is not always gained totally by this union, nor do all gain it equally. The turning of mind and heart to God and to detestation of sin may be so vehement as to gain for the penitent a perfett remission of sin, including at once purification from guilt and a discharge of the entire debt of punishment. But this does not always occur. Sometimes, though the guilt is taken away and the debt of eternal punishment cancelled, there still remains some obligation of temporal punish- ment, to save the justice of God, which redresses fault by punishment.
But since the infliction of punishment for fault requires a trial, the peni- • Reading this passage, any instructed Catholic a person at confession receiving grace and forgiveness will see that St Thomas is speaking of that contrition of the guilt of sin by the power of the keys in the which is called ' perfect,' as being founded on the very instant of absolution," i.e., not before then, love of God for His own sake above all things. An t St Thomas is thinking of the case of an adult a& of such contrition delivers the soul from mortal coming to baptism without any intention of leading sin at once, before absolution is pronounced, not a good life. The conditions of the baptism of John however without a purpose (in the instructed Catho- (Luke iii, 10-14) hold likewise of Christ's baptism: lie) of confession and absolution to follow in due so St Peter, fierayoijaare kcu flcnrrioOriTw ckchjtoc time. The Catholic also knows that an inferior super- (A£ls ii, 38). But these are preliminaries, not parts of natural sorrow, called 'attrition' — not mentioned in baptism; whereas the contrition and confession of the the Contra Gentiles — is enough, when conjoined with penitent are as true sacramental parts of the Sacra- absolution; and to such a case St Thomas tacitly alludes, ment of Penance as the absolution of the priest, when he says below: "The case is quite possible of tent who has committed himself to Christ for his cure must await the judge- ment of Christ in the assessment of his punishment. This judgement Christ exercises through His ministers, as in the other Sacraments. No one can give judgement upon faults that he is ignorant of. Therefore a second part of this Sacrament is the practice of Confession, the obje<5t of which is to make the penitent's fault known to Christ's minister. The minister then, to whom Confession is made, must have judicial power as vicegerent of Christ, who is appointed judge of the living and of the dead (A<5ts x, 42). There are two requi- sites of judicial power, authority to investigate the offence, and power to acquit (potestas absolvendi) or condemn. This science of discerning and this power of binding or loosing are the two keys of the Church, which the Lord com- mitted to Peter (Matt, xvi, 1 9). He is not to be understood to have committed them to Peter for Peter to hold them alone, but that through him they might be transmitted to others; or else the salvation of the faithful would not be sufficiently provided for. These keys have their efficacy from the Passion of Christ, whereby Christ has opened to us the gate of the heavenly kingdom.
As then without Baptism, in which the Passion of Christ works, there can be no salvation for men, — whether the Baptism be actually received, or pur- posed in desire, when necessity, not contempt, sets the Sacrament aside; so for sinners after Baptism there can be no salvation unless they submit them- selves to the keys of the Church either by actual Confession and undergoing of the judgement of the ministers of the Church, or at least by purposing so to do with a purpose to be fulfilled in seasonable time: because there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we are to be sa^ed (A6ls iv, 12).* Hereby is excluded the error of certain persons, who said that a man could obtain pardon of his sins without confession and purpose of confession; or that the prelates of the Church could dispense a sinner from the obliga- tion of confession. The prelates of the Church have no power to frustrate the keys of the Church, in which their whole power is contained; nor to enable a man to obtain forgiveness of his sins without the Sacrament which has its efficacy from the Passion of Christ: only Christ, the institutor and author of the Sacraments, can do that. The prelates of the Church can no more dispense a man from confession and absolution in order to remission of sin than they can dispense him from baptism in order to salvation.
But this is a point to observe. Baptism may be efficacious to the remission of sin before it is a6lually received, while one purposes to receive it: though afterwards it takes fuller effe<5t in the gaining of grace and the remission of guilt, when it actually is received. And sometimes f the very instant of bap- tism is the instant of the bestowal of grace andithe remission of guilt where it was not remitted before. So the keys of the^Church work their effeft in some cases before the penitent actually places himself under them, provided he have the purpose of placing himself under them. But he gains a fuller grace and a fuller remission, when he adlually submits himself to the keys by confessing and receiving absolution. And the case is quite possible {nihil prohibet) of a person at confession receiving grace and the forgiveness of the guilt of sin by the power of the keys in the very instant of absolution [i.e., not before then]. J Since then in the very a<5t of confession and absolution a fuller effect of grace and forgiveness is conferred on him who by his good purpose had obtained grace and remission already, we clearly see that by the # The sinner who will not confess is guilty of a t In the case of infant baptism, always, sort of contempt of court, despising the summons of X The case is not only quite possible, but proba- his Judge and the name of his Sariour. bly occurs daily.
power of the keys the minister of the Church in absolving remits something of the temporal punishment which the penitent still continued to owe after his a<5t of contrition. He binds the penitent by his injunftion to pay the rest.* The fulfilment of this injundtion is called Satisfa6tion, which is the third part of Penance, whereby a man is totally discharged from the debt of punishment, provided he pays the full penalty due. Further than this, his weakness in spiritual good is cured by his abstaining from evil things and accustoming himself to good deeds, subduing the flesh by fasting, and im- proving his relations with his neighbour by the bestowal of alms upon those neighbours from whom he had been culpably estranged.
Thus it is clear that the minister of the Church in the use of the keys exercises judicial funftions. But to none is judgement committed except over persons subject to his court. Hence it is not any and every priest that can absolve any and every subjedt from sinrf a priest can absolve that subjeft only over whom he is given authority.
CHAPTER LXXlll-Ofthe Sacrament of Extreme UnSHon BY dispensation of divine justice, the sickness of the soul, which is sin, sometimes passes to the body. J Such bodily sickness is sometimes con- ducive to the health of the soul, where it is borne humbly and patiently and as a penance whereby one may make satisfaction for sin. Sometimes again sickness injures spiritual well-being by hindering the exercise of virtues. It was fitting therefore to have a spiritual remedy, applicable to sin precisely in this connexion of bodily sickness being a consequence of sin. By this spiritual remedy bodily sickness is sometimes cured, when it is expedient for salvation. This is the purpose of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, of which St James speaks (James v, 14, 15). Nor is the Sacrament useless, even though bodily health does not ensue upon its reception: for it is directed against other con- sequences of sin, as proneness to evil and difficulty in doing good, infirmities of soul which have a closer connexion with sin than bodily infirmity. Negli- gence, the various occupations of life, and the shortness of time, prevent a man from perfectly remedying the above defedts by penance. Thus this Sacrament is a wholesome provision tor completing the sinner's cure, deliver- ing him from his debt of temporal punishment, and leaving nothing in him at the departure of his soul from his body to hinder his reception into glory.
This Sacrament is not to be given to all sick persons, but only to such as seem to be near to death from sickness. If they recover, this Sacrament may be administered to them again, if they are again reduced to the like state. For the unction of this Sacrament is not an unction of consecration, like the unction of Confirmation, the ablution of Baptism, and certain other unctions, which are never repeated, because the consecration always remains so long as the thing consecrated lasts: but theanointingin this Sacrament is for healing, # It is not the present practice for the confessor dm finds next time that the penance has not been regularly to impose a penance such as he reckons performed, nor is going to be.
adequate to all the debt of temporal punishment still t Ut qutdam mentiuutur, is St Thomas's insertion owing for the sins confessed. Penances comparatively here. To absolve, you require not only Order, but light and easy are imposed for grievous sins: for the also Jurisdiction.
rest, the penitent is left to his own penitential efforts, X As may be witnessed in many cases in hospitals, to the gaining of indulgences, and to the justice of asylums, homes for inebriates, etc., Morality and God. When confessariw primus has imposed a penance Medicine are neighbours, smacking of the old canonical rigour, conjessarius secun- OF GOD IN HIS REVELATION and a healing medicine ought to be given again and again as often as the sick- ness recurs.
Though some are in a state near to death without sickness, as are persons condemned to death, and they would need the spiritual effedts of this Sacra- ment, still this Sacrament is not to be given to them, but only to the sick, since it is given under the form of bodily medicine, and bodily medicine is not proper except for one bodily sick. For in the administration of Sacraments their signification must be observed.* Oil is the special matter of this Sacrament, because it is of efficacy for bodily healing by mitigation of pains, as water, which washes bodies, is the matter of the Sacrament in which spiritual cleansing is performed. And as bodily healing must go to the root of the malady, so this unftion is applied to those parts of the body from which the malady of sin proceeds, as are the organs of sense.
And because through this Sacrament sins are forgiven, and sin is not for- given except through grace, clearly grace is conferred in this Sacrament. Nor is a bishop necessary to give this Sacrament, since the Sacrament does not bestow any excellence of state, as do those Sacraments in which a bishop is the minister.! Since however a great abundance of grace, proper to effe6t a perfect cure, is required in this Sacrament, it is right that many priests should take part in the rite, J and that the prayer of the whole Church should help out the effedt of this Sacrament: hence James says: Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and the prayer of faith shall sa^e the sic{ man. If however only one priest be present, he is understood to confer the Sacrament in the power of the whole Church, whose minister he is, and whose person he bears. As in other Sacraments, the effedt of this Sacrament may be hindered by the insincerity {ftlionem) of the recipient.
CHAPTER LXXlV-Ofthe Sacrament of Order SINCE Christ intended to withdraw His bodily presence from the Church, He needed to institute other men as ministers to Himself, who should dispense the Sacraments to the faithful. Hence He committed to His disciples the consecration of His Body and Blood, saying: Do this in memory of me (Luke xxii, 19). He gave them the power of forgiving sins, according to the text: Whose sins ye shall forghe, they are forgiven them (John xx, 23).§ He enjoined on them the function of baptising: Go, teach all nations, baptising them (Matt, xxviii, 19). Now a minister stands to his master as an instrument to a prime agent. An instrument must be proportionate to the agent: there- fore the ministers of Christ must be conformable to Him. But Christ, our Lord and Master, by His own power and might worked out our salvation, inasmuch as He was both God and man. As man, He suffered for our re- demption: as He was God, His suffering brought salvation to us. The minis- ters of Christ then must be men, and at the same time have some share in • Oportet enim in sacrammtis significationem servari. % A custom fallen into disuse in the Western A sentence to print on the fly-leaf of any Order for Church. 'The prayer of the whole Church' is invited the administration of Sacraments. by reading from the pulpit every Sunday the names t Confirmation and Order, but what of Baptism? of the sick.
It may be answered that Baptism raises to the initial, § Interpreted of the Sacrament of Penance by the but Confirmation to the perfect state of a Christian Council of Trent, Sess. 14, can. 3. man. The oil used in Extreme Unction must be blessed by a bishop.
the Divinity {a liquid divinitatis par ticipare) in point of spiritual power: for an instrument too has some share in the power of the prime agent.* Nor can it be said that this power was given to the disciples of Christ not to be transmitted to others. It was gfoen unto edification (2 Cor. xiii, 10), to the building up of the Church, and must be perpetuated so long as the Church needs building up, that is, to the end of the world (Matt, xxviii, 20). And since spiritual effects are transmitted to us from Christ under sensible signs, this power had to be delivered to men under some such signs,— certain forms of words, definite a<5ts, as imposition of hands, anointing, the delivery of a book or chalice, and the like.f Whenever anything spiritual is delivered under a corporeal sign, that is called a Sacrament. J Thus in the conferring of spiritual power a Sacrament is wrought, which is called the Sacrament of Order. Now it is a point of divine liberality that the bestowal of power should be accompanied with the means of duly exercising that power. But the spiritual power of administering the Sacraments requires divine grace for its convenient exercise: therefore in this Sacrament, as in other Sacra- ments, grace is bestowed.
Among Sacraments the noblest, and that which sets the crown on the rest, is the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Therefore the power of Order must be considered chiefly in relation to this Sacrament: for everything is ruled by the end for which it is made. Now the power that gives perfection, also prepares the matter to receive it.§ Since then the power of Order extends to the consecration of the Body of Christ and the administration of the same to the faithful, it must further extend to the rendering of the faithful fit and worthy for the reception of that Sacrament. But the believer is rendered fit and worthy by being free from sin: otherwise he cannot be united with Christ spiritually, with whom he is sacramentally united in the reception of this Sacrament. || The power of Order therefore must extend to the remission of sins by the administration of those Sacraments which are diredted to that purpose, Baptism and Penance. ^[ * When the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland knJghts ordinance may have been more or less indeterminate, a man, he may be said to ' act as King/ i.e., for the e.g., the imposition of hands in Ordination, an inde- xing. Similarly St Thomas says that what a priest terminate prescription afterwards determined by the knows by the confessional, he * knows as God* (sett ut Church, adding rites and formularies, which it would *Deus, Sum. Theol. Suppkm. q. 1 1, art. 5). The Chris- be unsafe now to set aside as unessential because not tian Priesthood is a development of the Incarnation, primitive.
To rail at the former is to forget the latter. Clear your § Thus the Romans legislated where they had mind of Nestorianism ere you attack Sacerdotalism, first conquered. The sword prepared for the code.
t One could have wished St Thomas here to have The Code Napoleon followed the wars of the Revo- told us what he knew of any variation of Ordinal in lution.
local churches of his time; what ceremonies were II The deniers of the Objective Presence deny that comparatively recent, and what mdre ancient and there is any sacramental union where, owing to sin, primitive. Had any one in Paris, Rome, or Naples, there is no spiritual union. According to them, Christ an old Sacramentary or Pontifical that St Thomas is not except where He is received with faith and love; could have looked into, and compared its formularies and an unworthy Communion is no Communion at with those by which he himself was ordained? But all. In the theology of the Catholic Church, the one the spirit of documentary research slumbered in the Sacrament which is invalidated by an ilTtcit reception thirteenth century, except for the quest (or invention) is the Sacrament of Penance, of which the a6b of the of charters and bulls of privilege. penitent are a constituent part.
X Rather a wide definition, as it might be taken U The economy of the Sacraments belongs to the to include the institution of a clergyman to a benefice, positive law of Christ; and a positive law cannot be It is usually insisted upon, as an essential note of a argued a priori. A priori perhaps the power of Order Sacrament, that the corporeal sign must have been should be an essential prerequisite in the minister of 'ordained by Christ,' — tx instiiutione ipsius Christi, as Baptism: in point of fact any human being can validly St Thomas himself says (Chap. LVI ad fin.) Christ's baptize.
CHAPTER LXXV-Ofthe T>istinEHon of Orders SINCE the power of Order is principally dire&ed to the consecration of the Body of Christ, and its administration to the faithful, and the cleansing of the faithful from sin, there must be some chief Order, the power of which extends chiefly to these objefts; and that is the Order of Priesthood. There must be other Orders to serve the chief Order by one way or another preparing its matter; and these are the Orders of Ministers. The power of Priesthood extending to two obje6ls, the consecration of the Body of Christ, and the rendering the faithful by absolution from sin fit to receive the Eucharist, the lower Orders must serve the Priesthood either in both or in one of these respe6ls. The lower Orders serve the Priesthood only in preparing the people [for the Eucharist]. This the Doorkeepers do by shutting out unbelievers from the company of the faithful: the Ledtors by instru6ling the catechumens in the rudiments of the faith, — hence the Scripture of the Old Testament is committed to their reading: the Exorcists by cleansing those who are already instrufted, if in any way they are hin- dered by the devil from the reception of the Sacraments.* The higher Orders serve the priestly Order both in the preparation of the people and in the consummation of the Sacrament. Thus the Acolyths have a ministry to exercise over the vessels, other than sacred, in which the matter of the Sacrament is prepared: hence the altar-cruets are delivered to them at their ordination. The Subdeacons have a ministry to exercise over the sacred vessels, and over the arrangement of the matter not yet consecrated. The Deacons have a further ministry over the matter already consecrated, as the deacon administers the Blood of Christ to the faithful. These three Orders of Priests, Deacons and Subdeacons, are called Sacred Orders, because they receive a ministry over sacred things. t The higher Orders also serve for the preparation of the people: for to Deacons is committed the publishing of the do&rine of the Gospel to the people: to Subdeacons that of the Apostles: while Acolyths render to both the attendance which conduces to solemnity of teaching, by carrying candles and otherwise serving.