CHAPTER LXXVI~Oftt>e Episcopal Dignity, and that therein one Bishop is Supreme THERE must be some power of higher ministry in the Church to administer the Sacrament of Order; and this is the episcopal power,! which, though not exceeding the power of the simple priest in the consecration of the Body of Christ, exceeds it in its dealings with the faith- ful. The presbyter's power is derived from the episcopal; and whenever any a6tion, rising above what is common and usual, has to be done upon the • These three Orders, though still given, have X The episcopate is established by positive indelong ceased to be exercised by their immediate reci- feasible institution; and there are reasons why it pients. Their functions are now virtually discharged should be: yet who shall pretend that presbyterian by priests in the various occupations of their ministry, government, and ordination by an assembly of pres- — e.g., by care of Church property, or by refusal to byters, is, absolutely speaking, an intrinsic absurdity?
receive into the Church ill-prepared converts; by or that it could not have been instituted by Christ, lecturing and writing on behalf of the faith; by argu- had He so willed? Here, as repeatedly in this work, ing, entreating, rebuking members of the flock who St Thomas's necesse est is no argument of antecedent lie under some diabolical infatuation. necessity, but of mere congruentia post factum.
t The other four are the Minor Orders.
faithful people, that is reserved to bishops; and it is by episcopal authority that presbyters do what is committed to them; and in their ministry they make use of things consecrated by bishops, as in the Eucharist the chalice, altar-stone and palls.* 1. Though populations are different in different dioceses and cities, still, as there is one Church, there must be one Christian people. As then in the spiritual people of one Church there is required one Bishop, who is Head of all that people; so in the whole Christian people it is requisite that there be one Head of the whole Church.f 2. One requisite of the unity, of the Church is the agreement of all the faithful in faith. When questions of faith arise, the Church would be rent by diversity of judgements, were it not preserved in unity by the judgement of one. But in things necessary Christ is not wanting to His Church, which He has loved, and has shed His blood for it: since even of the Synagogue the Lord says: What is there that I ought further to have done for my vineyard, and have not done it? (Isai. v, 4.) We cannot doubt then that by the ordi- nance of Christ one man presides over the whole Church.
3. None can doubt that the government of the Church is excellently well arranged, arranged as it is by Him through whom kings reign and law- givers enaft just things (Prov. viii, 15). But the best form of government for a multitude is to be governed by one: for the end of government is the peace and unity of its subjects: and one man is a more apt source of unity than many together.!
But if any will have it that the one Head and one Shepherd is Christ, as being the one Spouse of the one Church, his view is inadequate to the fa<5ls. For though clearly Christ Himself gives effect to the Sacraments of the Church, — He it is who baptises, He forgives sins, He is the true Priest who has offered Himself on the altar of the cross, and by His power His Body is daily consecrated at our altars, — nevertheless, because He was not to be present in bodily shape with all His faithful, He chose ministers and would dispense His gifts to His faithful people through their hands. And by reason of the same future absence it was needful for Him to issue His com- mission to some one to take care of this universal Church in His stead.§ Hence He said to Peter before His Ascension, Feed my sheep (John xxi, 17); and before His Passion, Thou in thy turn confirm thy brethren (Luke xxii, 32); and to him alone He made the promise, To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of beaten (Matt, xvi, 19). Nor can it be said that although He gave * Pallis. The palla now is a small square of linen value of the argument, cf. note, p. 399. The conclusion used to cover the chalice. But in St Thomas's time the is finally evinced a posteriori by documents and facts palla was what is now called corporate, the linen cloth of history.
on which the consecrated elements are laid. The ends X The arguments for monarchy are stronger in of it used to be turned up so as to cover the chalice. a State that is organised for war. A board of generals Both corporate and palla are now blessed by a simple is never a success: an army in the field requires a per- priest with the bishop's leave. petual dictatorship. Now the Church on earth, as t The argument is this. — The Church is one mentioned in the next argument, is the Church society, as it is one Church, cf. Ephesians iv, 4-6: Militant, ever at war, and therefore needing the v, 23-31: John x, 16). But there is one society only strictest unity in its own organisation, where there is one government; and one government § In the little society of Christ and His disciples means one sovereign authority (this is an axiom of everything centred in the person of the Master. The political science). Is that authority vested in many smiting of the shepherd was the scattering of the flock persons collectively or in one person? We may sup- (Matt, xxvi, 31). It remained, one fold, or one flock, so pose that the government of the whole Church is long as it had in Him one Shepherd (John x, 1 6). Then analogous to the government of those local Churches, we ask whether so essential a feature of the infant which are called dioceses. But a diocese is governed by Church ought not somehow to reappear and be con- one person, the Bishop: therefore the whole Church spicuous in the Church grown great and filling the by one Bishop, supreme over other Bishops. For the world.
this dignity to Peter, it does not pass from Peter to others. For Christ insti- tuted His Church to last to the end of the world, according to the text: He shall sit upon the throne of David and in his kingdom, to confirm and strengthen it in justice and judgement from henceforth, now, and for eJ>er (Isai. ix, 7). There- fore, in constituting His ministers for the time, He intended their power to pass to posterity for the benefit of His Church to the end of the world, as He Himself says: Lo, I am with you to the end of the world (Matt, xxviii, 20).
Hereby is cast out the presumptuous error of some, who endeavour to withdraw themselves from obedience and subjection to Peter, not recognising his successor, the Roman Pontiff, for the pastor of the Universal Church.
CHAPTER LXXVII-That Sacraments can be administered even by Wicked ^Ministers NO agent can do anything in what is beyond his competence, unless he gets power from elsewhere: thus the mayor * cannot put restraint upon the citizens except in virtue of the power that he receives from the king. But what is done in the Sacraments exceeds human competence. Therefore no one can administer the Sacraments, however good he may be, unless he receives power so to do. But the opposite of goodness is wicked- ness and sin. Therefore neither by sin is he hindered from the administration of the Sacraments, who has received power to do so.f 5. One man cannot judge of the goodness or wickedness of another man: that is proper to God alone, who searches the secrets of hearts. If then the wickedness of the minister could hinder the effect of the Sacrament, it would be impossible for a man to have a sure confidence of his salvation: J his con- science would not remain free from the sense of sin. But it is irrational for any one to have to rest the hope of his salvation on the goodness of a mere man: for it said, Cursed is the man who puts his trust in man (Jer. xvii, 5). In order then that we may rest the hope of our salvation on Christ, who is God and man, we must allow that the Sacraments work salvation in the power of Christ, whether they be administered by good or evil ministers.
Hence the Lord says: The Scribes and Pharisees have come to sit in the chair of Moses: whatever things therefore they say to you, observe and do: but according to their worlds do ye not (Matt, xxiii, 2).
Hereby is cast out the error of those who say that all good men can administer the Sacraments, and no bad men.§ * Baliyus, the Scotch Baifo, a common term also X Fiduciam certam de sua salute, that is, a reasonable in England when St Thomas wrote, or a little after, assurance of his being validly absolved and now in The privileges of the mediaeval towns originated in the state of grace.
charters granted them by the king or some feudal $ This was one of the tenets of the then rising lord. In all these matters of positive institution, the sect of the Fraticelli (Denziger, Enchiridion, nn. 413, appointment gives the authority, not the personal 414), repeated by Wycliffe: "If bishop or priest be character of the functionary, be he mayor or be he in mortal sin, he neither ordains nor consecrates nor priest. baptises" (ib. n. 480). It would be as wise to hold t Holiness does not make the priest, nor does that all good men can sign cheques, and no bad men.
wickedness unmake him: for cmtrariorum eadem est To this day that notion is not uncommon in England ratto. By 'administration' here is meant 'valid ad- that a Romish priest claims to absolve from sin in ministration,' not ' licit.' It is a mortal sin to administer virtue of his own superabundant personal sanctity, a Sacrament, being oneself in mortal sin. But that is the affair of the minister, not of the recipient.
CHAPTER LXXVIII-OftAe Sacrament of Matrimony THOUGH by the Sacraments men are restored to grace, they are not immediately restored to immortality. Since then the faithful people needs to be perpetuated to the end of the world, this has to be done by generation. Now generation works to many ends: to the perpetuity of the species, to the perpetuity of the political commonwealth, and to the perpe- tuity of the Church. Hence it comes to be ruled and guided by different powers. As it works to the good of nature in the perpetuity of the species, it is guided to that end by nature so inclining; and in that respedt it is called ' a funftion of nature.' As it works to social and political good, it is subjeft to the ordinance of the civil law. As it works to the good of the Church, it must be subjeft to Church government. But the things that are administered to the people by the ministers of the Church, are called Sacraments.* Matri- mony then, as consisting in the union of male and female, intending to beget and educate offspring to the worship of God, is a Sacrament of the Church. Hence a blessing is pronounced upon it by the ministers of the Church. And as in other Sacraments something spiritual is prefigured by external a6ls, so in this Sacrament, by the union of male and female, there is figuratively represented the union of Christ with His Church, according to the text of the Apostle (Eph. v, 32). And because the Sacraments effedt what they repre- sent (sacramenta effciunt quod figurant), we must believe that grace is bestowed by this Sacrament on persons marrying, to enable them to have their part in the union of Christ with His Church; and this aid is very necessary for them, that in their application to fleshly and carnal things they may not be sepa- rated from Christ and the Church.
Now the figure must correspond to the reality which it signifies. But the union of Christ with His Church is of one Bridegroom with one Bride to be kept for ever. For of the Church it is said: One is my beloved, my perfeSi one (Cant, vi, 8): nor ever shall Christ be parted from His Church: for so He says Himself, Lo, I am with you eten to the end of the world (Matt, xxviii, 20); and so the Apostle, We shall be for e^er with the Lord (1 Thess. iv, 16). Matrimony therefore, as a Sacrament of the Church, must be of one husband with one wife, to continue without separation: this is meant by the faith (or troth), whereby husband and wife are bound to one another. So then there are three goods of matrimony, as it is a Sacrament of the Church: offspring, to be reared and educated to the worship of God: faith, whereby one husband is tied to one wife: and sacramental signification by the indivisible union of the matrimonial connexion, making it a sacred sign of the union of Christ with His Church.
* Again, rather a wide definition of a Sacrament, is necessary to the ecclesiastical validity of the contract It must be borne in mind that the priest is not the and therefore of the Sacrament. The proof that Matri- minister of the Sacrament of Matrimony. The Sacra- mony is a Sacrament, rests on a close study of Ephe- ment is the contract of baptised man with baptised sians v, 22-33, joined with the declarations of the woman; and the contracting parties administer the Council of Trent. I hardly need say that the proof Sacrament to one another in their agreement to live is not complete in the one word sacramtntum, together perpetually as man and wife. Where the law fivarrjpioy9 (verse 32). of Trent is promulgated, the presence of the parish priest CHAPTER LXXIX-That through Christ the Resurre&ion of our Bodies will take place AS we have been delivered by Christ from the penalties incurred by the death of the first man; and as by the sin of the first man there has been bequeathed to us not only sin, but also death, which is the punishment of sin; we must by Christ be delivered from both these conse- quences, both from guilt and from sin (Rom. iv, 12, 17). To show to us both effedts in Himself, He chose both to die and to rise again; to die, to deliver us from sin (Heb. ix, 28); to rise again, to deliver us from death (1 Cor. xv, 20) [cf. Rom. iv, 25]. We gather the effeft of Christ's death in the Sacraments so far as remission of guilt goes: at the end of the world we shall gain the effect of Christ's resurrection in our deliverance from death.
But some do not believe in the resurre&ion of the body; and what is said in Scripture on that subjedt they perversely understand of a spiritual resurredtion from the death of sin to grace: which error is reproved by the Apostle in Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Tim. ii, 16). Moreover the Lord promises both resurrections, when He says: The hour cometh^ and non />, *tohen the dead shall hear the J>oice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall Ifoe: which refers to the resurrection of souls, then beginning by men beginning to adhere to Christ by faith. But presently He makes explicit promise of a bodily resurrection: The hour cometh in which all Tfiho are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God: for manifestly not souls are in the tombs, but bodies.* Cf. Job xix, 25.
Reason too gives evident support to the resurrection of the flesh. — 1. The souls of men are immortal (B. II, Chap. LXXIX). But the soul is naturally united with the body, being essentially the form of the body (B. II, Chap. LVII). Therefore it is against the nature of the soul to be without the body. But nothing that is against nature can be lasting. Therefore the soul will not be for ever without the body. Thus the immortality of the soul seems to require the resurrection of the body.
2. The natural desire of man tends to happiness, or final perfection (B. Ill, Chap. XXIV). Whoever is wanting in any point proper to his perfeCt well-being, has not yet attained to perfeCt happiness: his desire is not yet perfectly laid to rest. Now the soul separate from the body is in a sense imperfeCt, as is every part away from its whole, for the soul is part of human nature.
3. Reward and punishment are due to men both in soul and in body. But in this life they cannot attain to the reward of final happiness (B. Ill, • Sec the context, John v, 25-29, which quite appeals publicly to the fact in Jerusalem a few weeks bears out St Thomas. after, and says that Christ's flesh did not see corruption The great proof of our corporeal resurrection is (Acts ii, 24-32). The Jews, Annas the high priest and the corporeal resurrection of Christ: the first fruits, Caiphas and John and Alexander, and all that were of Christ, then they that are fy™?5 at coming, 1 Cor. the high priests kin (Acts iv, 6), had every interest in xv, 23. If the Christ seen by His disciples after producing the body of the Man, whose resurrection His death was a mere wraith, or ghost, then was proclaimed (Acts iv, 10), and whose blood was there is no resurrection of the body awaiting us. being brought upon their heads (Acts v, 28). They I take it some ghost stories are true statements of an did not produce it, they were unable to trace it. All objective reality seen. But the appearance of the ghost that they could produce was the lame story of the is not the removal of the body from the grave. The ' sleeping witnesses' (Matt, xxviii, 1 1-1 5). The'wraith corpse lies still where it was laid, even while the ghost theory' is a direct contradiction of the witness of the walks. Now, Holy Scripture assures us, this is pre- Apostles (Acts iv, 33). It tranforms the upper chamber cisely what did not happen in the case of Christ. (Acts i, 1 3), where the spirit of truth descended (John The body was not in the tomb (Matt, xxviii, 6: xvi, 13: Acts ii, 4) into a den of thieves (Mark xi, 17).
Mark xvi, 6: Luke xxiv, 3: John xx, 2). St Peter A Christian at least will beware of such a theory.
GOD & HIS CREATURES BOOK IV Chap. XLVIII); and sins often go unpunished in this life: nay, here the Voic\ed lh>ey and are comforted and set up with riches (Job xxi, 7). There must then be a second union of soul with body, that man may be rewarded and punished in body and in soul.* CHAPTER LXXXlSome Points of Reply to Difficulties on the Resurre&ion IN the first creation of human nature God endowed the human body with an attribute over and above what was due to it by the natural principles of its constitution, namely, with a certain imperishability, to adapt it to its form, that as the life of the soul is perpetual, so the body might perpetually live by the soul. Granting that this imperishability was not natural in regard of the active principle,! still it may be called natural in regard of the end, taking the end of matter to be proportioned to its natural form. When then, contrary to the order of its nature, the soul turned away from God, there was withdrawn from the body that God-given constitution which made it proportionate to the soul; and death ensued. Considering then how human nature adtually was constituted to begin with, we may say that death is something which has accidentally supervened upon man through sin. This accident has been removed by Christ, who by the merit of His passion and death has destroyed death. Consequently that same divine power, which originally endowed the body with incorruption, will restore the body again from death to life.
None of the essential elements in man is altogether annihilated in death. The rational soul, the ' form ' of man, remains after death. The matter also remains, which was subject to that form. So by the union of numerically the same soul with numerically the same matter, numerically the same man will be restored. J • Many of us remain quite unconvinced by these a priori reasons. We believe in the resurrection of the body as a revealed doctrine. But we look upon it as not susceptible of a priori proof: in other words not like the immortality of the soul, a property incident to human nature as such. The body will rise again, because God has been pleased to place man in a super- natural state, and in Christ to renew the privileges of that state, one of those privileges being, as St Thomas points out, the final deliverance of the body from death. Of the three arguments last given in the text, the first two rest upon the assumption that the soul, which is the 'form' of the body in man's mortal life, becomes after death a nude 'form' crying for its 'matter.' The assumption is not incontrovertible. After death, the change of the soul lifewards can scarcely be less than the change of the body deathwards. The disembodied spirit must be mightily translated to higher existence, if, bereft of its senses, it still lives and energises and understands, and does not lie stunned and dormant, as in a trance, a supposition which no Catholic theologian will allow (see Chap. XCI). Who shall define this higher existence? Who knows and can tell us that such elevation does not mean a fulness of spiritual nature, independent henceforth of matter and organs of sense? But if so independent, how shall the soul ever return to be the form of a body? It shall not return to be the form of an animal body, but of a spiritual body ( i Cor. xv, 44), that is, of a body entirely subservient to the soul, and no hindrance to its spiritual functions, as St Thomas pre- sently explains (Chap. LXXXVI).
Of the two philosophies that have most affected Christian thought, Platonism makes for the immor- tality of the soul, but against the resurrection of the body. Aristotelianism raises a difficulty against the immortality of the soul: how shall the 'form ' continue when the 'matter' is gone? But that obstacle sur- mounted, Aristotelianism favours the resurrection, as St Thomas's arguments show. Cf. II, Chap. LXXXI.
t By the 'active principle' he means what we should call the 'organism' of the human body. Of no animal body is the organism ever so perfect as to involve its living for ever, apart from special divine protection and sustenance. St Thomas was not blind to that fact, neither was St Augustine.
X I add by way of note the sequel in the text. The refinements of scholasticism have their place in the history of human thought.
" Corporeity may be taken in two senses. In one way as it is the substantial form of a body, according as that body has its place in the genus of substance. Taken thus, the corporeity of any body is nothing else than its substantial form, in respect of which the body is classified according to genus and species: by virtue of this substantial form it is due to a bodily thing to exist in three dimensions. For there are not different substantial forms in one and the same thing; one form, to place it in the highest genus, say, of ' substance '; and another to place it in the proximate What does not bar numerical unity in a man while he lives on uninter- ruptedly, clearly can be no bar to the identity of the risen man with the man that was. In a man's body while he lives, there are not always the same parts in respe<5t of matter, but only in respeft of species. In respe<5t of matter there is a flux and reflux of parts: still that fa6t does not bar the man's numerical unity from the beginning to the end of his life. We have an example in a fire, which, while it goes on burning, is called numerically one, because its species remains, though the wood is burnt out and fresh wood supplied. So it is in the human body: for the form and species (kind) of the several parts continues unbroken throughout life, but the matter of the parts is dissolved by the natural heat, and new matter accrues by nourishment. But the man is not numerically different by the difference of his component parts at different ages, although it is true that the material composition of the man at one stage of his life is not his material composi- tion at another. So then, for numerically the same man to rise again, it is not requisite for all the material that ever entered into his composition throughout the whole course of his life to be gathered together and resumed, but just so much of it as suffices to make up his proper bulk and stature. We may expert that to be resumed by preference, which was more perfect in the species and form of humanity.* If anything was wanting to his due stature, either through untimely death or mutilation, divine power will supply that from elsewhere. Nor will this supplementary matter mar the personal identity of the risen body: for even in the workmanship of nature addition is made from without to the stature of a boy without prejudice to his iden- tity: for the boy and the adult is numerically the same man.f The resurrection is natural in respedt of its end and term, inasmuch as it is natural to the soul to be united to the body: but its efficient cause is not any agency of nature, but the divine power alone.
All men will rise again, though not all have adhered by faith to Christ, or have received His Sacraments. For the Son of God assumed human nature, in order to restore it: the defeat of nature then shall be made good in all, inasmuch as all shall return from death to life: but the defedl shall not be perfe&ly made good except in such as have adhered to Christ, either by their own a<5t believing in Him, or at least by the Sacrament of faith. \