a Grace Notes course

History of the Christian Church

VOLUME 5. The Middle Ages, the Papal Theocracy in Conflict with the Secular Power from Gregory VII to Boniface VIII, AD 1049 to 1294

By Philip Schaff

CH514

Chapter 14: The Sacramental System

History of the Christian Church Volume 5 The Middle Ages, the Papal Theocracy in Conflict with the Secular Power from Gregory VII to Boniface VIII, AD 1049 to 1294

CH514 Table of Contents

Chapter 14. The Sacramental System ...... 2 5.112. Literature on the Sacraments ...... 2 5.113. The Seven Sacraments ...... 3 5.114. Baptism and Confirmation ...... 6 5.115. The Eucharist ...... 8 5.116. Eucharistic Practice and Superstition ...... 11 5.117. Penance and ...... 15 5.118. Penance and Indulgences ...... 17 5.119. Extreme Unction, Ordination, and Marriage ...... 20 5.120. Sin and Grace ...... 22 5.121. The Future State ...... 26

Messopfer-Begriffs, etc., 1st vol., Alterthum

Chapter 14. The Sacramental System und Mittelalter, Munich, 1901.—J. SMEND: 5.112. Literature on the Sacraments Kelchversagung und Kelchspendung in d. abendlaend. Kirche, Goetting., 1898.—A. FRANZ: LITERATURE:—GENERAL WORKS: The Writings of D. Messe im deutschen Mittelalter, Freib., Abelard, Hugo of St. Victor, Peter Lombard, Alb. 1902.—Artt. Communion, Messe, Magnus, Th. Aquinas, Bonaventura, Duns Transubstantiation in Wetzer-Welte and Scotus, and other Schoolmen.—G. L. HAHN: Abendmahl and Kindercommunion in Herzog. Lehre von d. Sakramenten, Breslau, 1864.—*J. ON PENANCE AND INDULGENCES, §5.117, 118: JOAN CHWANE S : Dogmengesch. der mittleren Zeit, MORINUS: Comment. hist. de disciplina in 787–1517, Frei b. 1882, pp. 579–693.—J. H. administratione sacr. poenitentiae, Paris, SWALD O : D. dogmatische Lehre von d. hl. 1651.—F. BERINGER, S. J., transl. fr. the French Sakramenten d. kathol. Kirche, 5th ed., Munich, by J. SCHNEIDER: D. Ablaesse, ihr Wesen und 1894. The Histories of Christ. Doctr. of FISHER, Gebrauch, 12th ed., Paderb., 1900.—*K. ARNACK OOFS pp. 254–263; H , II. 462–562; L , pp. MUELLER: D. Umschwung in der Lehre von d. 298–304; SEEBERG, II. 107 sqq.— Busse waehrend d. 12ten Jahrhunderts, Freib., ERGENROETHER IRSCH H -K : Kirchengesch., II. 682– 1892.—H. C. LEA: A Formulary of the Papal INSCHIUS 701. The works on Law of H ; P. Penitentiary in the 13th Century, PHIL., 1892; HERGENROETHER (Rom. Cath.), pp. 667–684; *A Hist. of Auricular Confession and RIEDBERG EFELE NÖEPFLER F , pp. 374–495.—H -K , V. Indulgences, 3 vols. PHIL., 1896.—* TH. VI.—The art. Sakrament in Wetzer-Welte and BRIEGER: D. Wesen des Ablasses am Ausgange CHAFF Herzog.—D. S. S : The Sacramental Theory des Mittelalters, Leipzig., 1897.—A. KURTZ: D. of the Med. Ch. in “Princeton Rev.,” 1906, pp. kathol. Lehre vom Ablass vor und nach dem 206–236. Auftreten Luthers, Paderb., 1900.—C. M. ON THE EUCHARIST, §5.115, 116: DALGAIRNS: The ROBERTS: Hist. of Confession until it developed Holy Communion, its Philos., Theol., and into Auric. Conf. A.D. 1215, London, 1901.—* Practice, Dublin, 1861.—F. S. RENZ: D. Gesch. d. W. KOEHLER: Dokumente zum Ablassstreit vom

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 3 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course

1517, Tuebing., 1902. Very convenient, sacramentis. Thomas Aquinas did little more containing thirty-two of the most important than to reformulate in clear statement the documents on the subject and including Jacob views propounded by Hugo, Peter the von Juterbocks, Tract. de indulgentiis, c. 1451, Lombard, and especially by Alexander of and excerpts from the Coelifodina, 1502.—* A. Hales, and with him the development comes GOTTLOB: Kreuzablass u. Almosenablass, to an end. The substance of his statement was Stuttg., 1906.—A. M. KOENINGER: D. Beicht nach Caesarius von Heisterbach, Mun., 1906.—Artt. adopted by the councils of Ferrara, 1439, and Ablass, *Bussdisciplin by FUNK,II. 1562–1590. Trent, 1560. and Busse, II. 1590–1614, in Wetzer-Welte and Through the influence of Peter the Lombard *Indulgenzen by TH. BRIEGER in Herzog, IX. 76– and Thomas Aquinas, the number of the 94. For other Lit. see Brieger’s art. in Herzog sacraments was fixed at seven,—baptism, ON EXTREME UNCTION, ETC., 5.119: See artt. confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, extreme Oelung and Ordo in Wetzer-Welte, IX. 716 sqq., unction, ordination, marriage. Bernard had 1027 sqq., and Oelung by KATTENBUSCH and spoken of many sacraments and enumerated Priesterweihe in Herzog, XIV. 304 sqq., XVI. 47 sqq. For marriage, the works on Christian ten, including foot washing and the Ethics.—VON EICKEN: Gesch. u. System der investiture of bishops and abbots. Abelard mittelalterl. Weltanschauung, pp. 437–487, had named five,—baptism, confirmation, the Stuttg., 1887.—The artt. Ehe in Herzog, V. 182 Eucharist, marriage, and extreme unction. sqq. and Wetzer-Welte, IV. 142–231 (including Hugo de St. Victor in his Summa also seems to a number of subjects pertaining to marriage). recognize only five,—baptism, confirmation, ON GRACE AND THE FUTURE STATE, §5.120, 121: Eucharist, penance, and extreme unction, but ANSELM: De conceptu virginali et originale in his work on the Sacraments, in which he peccato, Migne, 168. 431–467.—P. LOMBARDUS: brought together all he had said on the Sent., II. 31, etc.—H. OF ST. VICTOR: De subjects in other writings, he enumerated sacramentis, I. 7, Migne, 176. 287–306.—ALB. thirty. Here, evidently, the word is taken in a MAGNUS: In Sent., II. 31 sqq., etc., Borgnet’s ed., XXVII.—BONAVENTURA: In Sent., II., etc.; Peltier’s wide meaning and is almost synonymous ed., III.—TH. AQUINAS: Summa, II. 71–90, III. 52 with a religious rite. Hugo divided the sqq.; Supplem., LXIX. sqq., Migne, IV. 1215– sacraments into three classes,—sacraments 1459—DUNS SCOTUS: Reportata. XXIV.–XXVI., which are necessary to salvation, baptism and etc. The Histories of Doctrine of SCHWANE, pp. the Eucharist, those which have a sanctifying 393–493, HARNACK, LOOFS, SEEBERG. SHELDON. effect such as holy water and the use of ashes 5.113. The Seven Sacraments on Ash Wednesday, and a third class which prepares for the other sacraments. He called As the doctrines of the Trinity and the person the sprinkling with water a sacrament. of Christ were wrought out in the Nicene and Thomas Aquinas also ascribed a quasi- post-Nicene periods, so the Schoolmen of the sacramental character to such rites, quaedam twelfth and thirteenth centuries wrought out sacramentalia. the Catholic doctrine of the sacraments. At no The uncertainty concerning the number of point were the medieval theologians more the sacraments was a heritage from the industrious or did they put forth keener Fathers. Augustine defined any sacred rite a speculative force. For the Roman Catholic sacrament. The Third Lateran, 1179, used the communion, the results of this speculation term in a wide sense and included the continue to be of binding authority. The investiture of bishops and burial among the theologians most prominent in developing sacraments. The today makes the sacramental system were Hugo of St. a distinction between certain sacred rites, Victor, Peter the Lombard, Alexander of called sacramentalia, and the seven Hales, and Thomas Aquinas. Hugo wrote the sacraments. Thomas gave as the reason for first treatise on the sacraments, De this number seven—that three is the number

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 4 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course of the Deity, four of creation, and seven Schoolmen it was a favorite question why represents the union of God and man. woman was not circumcised. Ingenious and elaborate attempts were made In defining what a sacrament is—quid est to correlate the seven sacraments to all of sacramentum—the Schoolmen started with man’s spiritual maladies and to show their Augustine’s definition that a sacrament is a “congruity” or adaptation to meet all the visible sign of an invisible grace, but went requirements of fallen and redeemed human beyond him in the degree of efficiency they nature. Baptism corresponds to the defect of ascribe to it. Beginning with Hugo, they assert spiritual life, confirmation to mental in unmistakable language that the weakness found in those recently born, the sacraments, or outward symbols, contain and Eucharist to the temptation to fall into sin,— confer grace,—continere et conferre labilitas animi ad peccandum,—penance to gratiam,—the language afterwards used by sins committed after baptism, extreme the . They have a virtue unction to the remainders of sin not cleared inherent in themselves. The favorite figure for away by penance, ordination to the lost describing their operation is medicine. Hugo condition of mankind, matrimony to said, God is the physician, man is the invalid, concupiscence, and the liability of mankind to the priest is the minister or messenger, grace become extinct by natural death. is the antidote, the sacrament is the vase. The The number seven also corresponds to the physician gives, the minister dispenses, the seven virtues,—baptism, extreme unction, vase contains, the spiritual medicine which and the Eucharist to faith, hope, and love, cures the invalid. If, therefore, the sacraments ordination to enlightenment, penance to are the vases of spiritual grace, they do not righteousness, marriage to continence, and cure of themselves. Not the bottle, but the confirmation to endurance. Bonaventura medicine, cures the sick. Bonaventura elaborates at length a stimulating comparison entitled his chapters on the sacraments to a military career. The sacraments furnish “Sacramental Medicine.” grace for the spiritual struggle and strengthen The sacraments are remedies which the great the warrior on the various stages of his Samaritan brought for the wounds of original conflict. Baptism equips him on entering the and actual sin. They are more than visible conflict, confirmation encourages him in its signs and channels of grace. They do more progress, extreme unction helps him at the than signify. They sanctify. They are the finish, the Eucharist and penance renew his efficient cause of gracious operations in the strength, orders introduce new recruits into recipient. The interior effects, Thomas the ranks, and marriage prepares men to be Aquinas says, are due to Christ, or, as he says recruits. Augustine had compared the in another place, to the blessing of Christ and sacraments to the badges and rank conferred the administration of the priest conjoined. upon the soldier, a comparison Thomas The mode of this efficacy is . Aquinas took up. This expression, used by William of Auxerre The sacraments were not needed in man’s and Alexander of Hales, Thomas adopted and estate of innocence. Marriage which was then says again and again that the sacraments instituted was a “function of nature” and make righteous and confer grace, ex opere nothing more. There were sacraments under operato, that is by a virtue inherent in the old covenant as well as under the new. themselves. The Schoolmen follow Augustine in declaring By this, Thomas Aquinas does not mean that that the former prefigure the grace to come the religious condition of the recipient is a and the sacraments of the New Testament matter of indifference, but that the sacrament confer grace. With Albertus Magnus and other imparts its virtue, if need be, without the

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 5 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course operation of an active faith. The tendency of To use the medieval illustration, pure water Protestant writers has been to represent the may be conveyed through a leaden pipe as Schoolmen as ascribing a magical virtue to truly as through a silver pipe. Even if the the visible sacramental symbol, if not intention of conferring grace is absent from irrespective of the divine appointment, then the mind of the officiating priest, the efficacy certainly irrespective of the attitude of the of the sacrament is not destroyed. The priest recipient. Such is not the view of the acts in the name of the Church, and in Schoolmen. uttering the words of sacramental Thomas Aquinas distinguishes between the appointment he gives voice to the intention of original cause of grace, which is God, and the the Church. This intention is sufficient for the instrumental cause, which is the sacrament. perfection of the sacrament in any given case. The virtue of the latter depends upon God’s Ultimately, it is Christ who works the effect of appointment and operation. The benefits of the sacrament and not the priest through any Christ’s atonement pass over to the faithful virtue of his own. Here, too, Thomas followed through faith and the sacraments. The Augustine. Church, said Bonaventura, received the On this point also, Duns differed from the sacraments from Christ and dispenses them great Dominican by declaring that “a virtual to the salvation of the faithful. The intention” on the part of the celebrant is sacraments are efficacious only to those who essential to the efficacy of the sacrament. He are of a religious disposition. illustrates his position by a pilgrim on the Duns Scotus, whose opinions were set aside way to the shrine of St. James. The pilgrim at the council of Ferrara for those of Thomas may not think of St. James during the whole Aquinas, insisted that God can confer grace progress of his journey, but he starts out with apart from the sacraments, and their efficacy “a virtual intention” to go to his shrine and is dependent upon an action of the will. They keeps on the way. So a priest, during the act indirectly, not directly. Duns controverted progress of the sacramental celebration, may Thomas’ view that the sacrament is a visible allow his mind to wander and forget what he sign containing supernatural virtue in itself is doing, but he has the virtual intention of absolutely. The sacraments involve a performing the rite. psychological process in the soul. As symbols, The sacraments may be “useful,” said they remind the soul of God’s grace and Bonaventura, if performed outside of the attract it. A good state of the heart, however, Church, provided the recipient afterwards is not a meritorious cause of their efficacy. enter “holy mother Church.” This he For their reception, it is sufficient if there be illustrates by Augustine’s comparison of the no moral impediment, obex, that is, no sacraments to the four rivers of paradise. The impeding indisposition. It is the excellency of rivers flowed into different lands. But neither the sacraments of the new law, Duns says, to Mesopotamia nor Egypt did they carry the that the very reception of them is a sufficient felicity of life, though they were useful. So it is disposition to grace. with the sacraments when administered The relation the priest sustains to the outside of the pale of the true Church. sacraments is a vital one, and except in The sacraments are not all of equal necessity. extraordinary cases his ministration is Baptism alone is indispensable to eternal life. essential. Their efficacy does not depend Baptism and the Eucharist are the mightiest, upon the priest’s personal character, but of all the most mighty is the Eucharist, provided only he administer according to the and for three reasons: 1. It contains Christ rite of the Church. An immoral priest may himself after a substantial manner. 2. The confer sacramental grace. other sacraments are preparatory to it. 3. All

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 6 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course the faithful partake of it—adults who are regenerated by water and the Holy Spirit is baptized, as well as those who are in orders. certain evidence that the heart is already Three sacraments have an indelible regenerated. For the necessity of baptism, character,—baptism, ordination, and Thomas Aquinas and the other Schoolmen confirmation. Their mark cannot be effaced rely upon John 3:3, “Except a man be born of nor may they be repeated. They are related to water and the Spirit, he cannot see the salvation as food is related to life. The other kingdom of God.” Of all the sacraments the four sacraments are necessary to salvation most necessary, baptism effects regeneration, only in the way a horse is necessary to a nay, it is regeneration itself. It removes the journey. guilt and the punishment due original sin and The Schoolmen were not fully agreed as to all sins actually committed. The ablution of the author of some of the sacraments. Peter water signifies the ablution from guilt, and the Lombard expressly said that extreme the freezing of water, to use the strange figure unction was instituted by the Apostles. of Thomas Aquinas, the subtraction of all Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, and punishment. Baptism also has the positive Thomas Aquinas held they were all instituted effect of conferring grace, an effect which is by Christ. symbolized by the clearness of water. Hugo of St. Victor said, God might have saved The validity of the sacrament requires the full man without the sacraments but no man can use of the threefold name of the Trinity. Hugo be saved who rejects them. They were to the of St. Victor differs from the later Schoolmen medieval mind the essential food of the on this point, although in doubt whether the religious life, and, in building up the use of the name of Christ alone or the name of sacramental system, the medieval theologian God alone be not sufficient. Bernard had felt he was fortifying the very fabric of the allowed the use of the formula “I baptize thee Church. In the authority to administer them in the name of the Father and of the true and lay the power of the priesthood to open and holy cross.” These men wrote before the shut the kingdom of heaven, to pass the Fourth Lateran Council. Bonaventura and judgment of bliss or woe for this life and for Thomas acknowledged that, in early times, the life to come. This sacramental theory, the Church had often been satisfied with based now upon a false now upon a one-sided baptism into the name of Christ, the Trinity interpretation of Scripture, and compactly being, in such cases, understood. But since the knit by argumentation, substituted the deliverance of the Fourth Lateran, the mechanical efficiency of sacramental grace omission of a single syllable from the trine for the Saviour into whose immediate formula invalidated baptism. presence the soul has a right to approach Exorcism, unction with oil, and the giving of through penitence of heart and prayer. The salt were prescribed to be used in the sacramental system became the Church’s solemnization of the rite. Exorcism expelled Babylonian captivity, as Luther called it in his demons and prevented them from impeding famous tract, in which the rights and liberty the recipient’s salvation. Salt, put into the of the Christian believer are fettered by the ears, signified the reception of the new traditions of men. doctrine, into the nostrils, its approbation, and into the mouth, confession. Oil signified 5.114. Baptism and Confirmation the fitting of the recipient to fight demons. Baptism is the door to the other sacraments The proper administrator of baptism is the and to the kingdom of heaven. It is essential priest, but, in cases of necessity, laymen may to salvation, except for persons who desire to baptize, male or female, and parents may be baptized and have not the opportunity to baptize their own children. For in the receive the rite. The desire on their part to be

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 7 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course kingdom of heaven there is neither male nor theologians, as a relief from the agonizing female. But a woman must administer the rite thought that the children of non-Christian privately, even as she is not allowed to speak parents dying in infancy are lost and suffer in public. Yea, Thomas Aquinas went so far as conscious torment, elaborated the view that to say that an unbaptized man may, in case of they are annihilated. It remained for a still necessity, lawfully administer baptism, for later Protestant period to pronounce in favor Christ is free to use the agent he pleases, and of the salvation of all such children in view of it is he who baptizes inwardly, John 1:33. The the super-abounding fullness of the main reason for allowing such baptism is to atonement and our Lord’s words, “for of such extend the limits of salvation as far as is the kingdom of heaven.” possible. Water is essential to baptism. The Schoolmen Children are proper subjects of baptism agreed that wine, oil, or other liquid will not because they are under the curse of Adam. As do. Duns Scotus said in regard to baptism in the mother nourishes her offspring in the beer that its validity would depend upon a womb before it can nourish itself, so in the scientific test whether the beer continued to bosom of mother Church infants are be a species of water or not. The Lombard nourished, and they receive salvation through declared without qualification for immersion the act of the Church. A child cannot be as the proper mode. Thomas Aquinas refers baptized before it is born; it is of the essence to it as the more general practice of his day of baptism that water be applied to the body. and prefers it as the safer mode, as did also It was the view of Thomas Aquinas and most Bonaventura and Duns Scotus. of the Schoolmen that it is unlawful to baptize At any rate, the water must be applied to the the children of Jews and pagans without the head, for this is the most important part of consent of the parents. Duns Scotus was an man, standing as it does for the immortal exception and permitted the forcible baptism agent. Both trine immersion, the custom of of the children of Jews, yea of adult Jews. the Greek Church, and single immersion are The definition of baptism excludes all valid. Trine immersion symbolizes the three unbaptized children, dying in infancy, from persons of the Trinity and the three days of heaven. The question is discussed by that the Lord’s burial; single immersion the unity mystic and lovable divine, Hugo of St. Victor, of the Deity and the uniqueness of Christ’s whether the children of Christian parents death. Synods, as late as the synod of may be saved who happen to be put to death Tarragona, 1391, spoke of the submersion of in a city besieged by pagans and die children in baptism. unbaptized. He leaves it unanswered, The sacrament of confirmation corresponds remarking that there is “no authority for to the adult period as baptism does to the saying what will become of them.” child period (1 Cor. 13:11). It completes, as it Duns Scotus makes it plain that children yet were, the earlier and confers the unborn are under the law of sin, not because graces of strength and hardihood. The they are connected with the bodies of their baptized thus become full Christians. The mothers, but because of their own bodies. He Schoolmen differed as to whether the mercifully excepts from the law of perdition sacrament was instituted immediately by unborn infants whose mothers suffer Christ or by the Apostles or by the councils of martyrdom or blood baptism. The Reformers, the Church. Thomas Aquinas took the view Zwingli excepted, shared the views of the that it was founded by Christ, being implied in medieval theology that unbaptized children the promise of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). dying in infancy are lost. At a later date, about The rite is performed by the bishop, who is 1740, Isaac Watts and other Protestant the successor of the Apostles, who uses the

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 8 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course words, “I sign thee with the sign of the cross, I Pange lingua gloriosi corporis mysterium. confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in Sing my tongue the mystery telling. the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of The culminating point in the history of the the Holy Ghost.” Chrism, or sacred oil, which medieval doctrine of the Eucharist was the is the symbol of the Spirit, is applied, and the dogmatic definition of transubstantiation by cross is signed upon the forehead, the most the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215. prominent part of the body. It is there shame Thenceforth it was heresy to believe anything shows itself when young Christians lack the else. The definition ran that “the body and courage to acknowledge their profession. blood of Christ are truly contained in the sacrament of the under the forms of 5.115. The Eucharist bread and wine, the bread being The Eucharist, called by the Schoolmen the transubstantiated into the body and the wine crown of the sacraments and the sacrament into the blood by divine power.” The council of the altar, was pronounced both a did not foist upon the Church a new doctrine. sacrament and a sacrifice. In the elaboration It simply formulated the prevailing belief. of the doctrine, scholastic theology reached The word “transubstantiation” is not used by the highest point of its speculation. Albertus Hugo of St. Victor and the earlier Schoolmen. Magnus devoted to it a distinct treatise and They used “transition” and “conversion,” the Thomas Aquinas nearly four hundred latter being the favorite term. The word columns of his Summa. In practice, the “transubstantiation” seems to have been first celebration of this sacrament became the used by Hildebert of Tours, d. 1134. chief religious function of the Church. The According to Duns Scotus, the doctrine cannot festival of Corpus Christi, commemorating it, be proved with certainty from the Scriptures was celebrated with great solemnity. The and must be accepted upon the basis of the theory of the transmutation of the elements decision of the Church. The passages, chiefly and the withdrawal of the cup from the laity relied upon for proving the doctrine, are John were among the chief objects of the attacks of 6 and the words of institution, “this is my the Reformers. body,” in which the verb is taken in its literal The fullest and clearest presentation of the sense. Rupert of Deutz is the only Schoolman Eucharist was made by Thomas Aquinas. He of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries who discussed it in every possible aspect. Where dissented from it. He seems to have taught Scripture is silent and Augustine uncertain, the theory of impanation. the Schoolman’s speculative ability, though Three names, applied to the Eucharist, had often put to a severe test, is never at a loss. special significance. It is a sacrifice because it The Church accepted the doctrines of repeats Christ’s oblation on the cross. It is a transubstantiation and the sacrificial meaning communion because it presents the unity of of the sacrament, and it fell to the Schoolmen the Church. It is a viaticum because it is to confirm these doctrines by all the heavenly manna for pilgrims on their way to metaphysical weapons at their command. heaven. Thomas Aquinas also uses the term of And even where we are forced by the silence John of Damascus, assumption, because the or clear meaning of Scripture to regard their sacrament lifts us up into the Deity of Christ, discussion as a vain display of intellectual and calls it hostia, or the host, because it ingenuity, we may still recognize the solemn contains Christ himself, who is the oblation of religious purpose by which they were moved. our salvation. It was also called the mass. Who would venture to deny this who has read the devotional hymn of Thomas Aquinas The elements to be used are wheaten bread, which presents the outgoings of his soul to either leavened or unleavened. Water is to be the sacrificial oblation of the altar? mixed with the wine as Christ probably mixed

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 9 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course them, following the custom in Palestine. power, and how it is possible to think of Water symbolizes the people, and the wine bread without those qualities which make it symbolizes Christ, and their combination the bread to us, the practical mind cannot union of the people with Christ. The mixture understand. Scholastic dialectics professed to likewise represents the scene of the passion. understand it, but the statements are nothing Thomas Aquinas also finds in the water more than a fabric of mystifying terms and flowing in the desert, 1 Cor. 10:4, a type of gratuitous assumptions. Wycliffefefe this custom. He relied much, as did Albertus thoroughly exposed the fallacious reasoning. Magnus before him, upon the words of Prov. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to declare 9:5, Come eat of my bread and drink of the that, though the substance of bread and wine wine which I have mingled for you. But the disappears, these elements continue to admixture of the two elements is not preserve the virtue of their substance. Luther essential. The synods of Cologne, 1279, said the Schoolmen might as well have set up Lambeth, 1281, etc., prescribed two or three a theory of transaccidentation as of drops of water as sufficient. transubstantiation. Thomas Aquinas At the moment of priestly consecration, the anticipated his objection and argued that by a elements of bread and wine are converted providential arrangement this was not so for into the very body and blood of Christ. The three reasons: 1. It is not the custom for men substance of the bread and wine disappears. to eat human flesh and drink human blood, The “accidents”—species sensibiles—remain, and we would revolt from eating Christ’s such as taste, color, dimensions, and weight. blood and flesh under the form of bread and What becomes of the substance of the two wine. 2. The sacrament would become a elements? asks Peter the Lombard. There are laughing stock to infidels if Christ were eaten three possible answers. First, the substance in his own form. 3. Faith is called forth by the passes into the four original elements or into veiling of the Lord within the forms of bread the body and blood of Christ. Second, it is and wine. The body of Christ is not broken or annihilated. Third, it remains in part or in divided by the teeth except in a sacramental whole. Duns Scotus adopted the second way. Creation, said this great Schoolman, is explanation, the substance is annihilated. The easier to understand than transubstantiation, Lombard, Bonaventura, and Thomas Aquinas for creation is out of nothing, but in the adopted the view that the substance is sacrament the substance of bread and wine converted into the body and blood of Christ. disappear while the accidents remain. Against the theory of annihilation Thomas A second statement elaborated by the used the illustration that it does not follow Schoolmen is that the whole Christ is in the because air, from which fire is generated, is sacrament, divinity and humanity,—flesh, not here nor there, that it has been bones, nerves, and other constituents,—and annihilated. The change on the altar is yet the body of Christ is not there locally or in altogether supernatural. The body of Christ is its dimensions. in the sacrament not quantitatively, per This is the so-called doctrine of concomitance, modum quantitatis, but in substance; not in its elaborated by Alexander of Hales, Thomas dimensions, but by a sacramental virtue, ex vi Aquinas, and other Schoolmen with great sacramenti, in a way peculiar to this subtlety. According to this doctrine the sacrament. It is on the altar and is divinity of Christ and his body are never apprehended by faith only. separated. Wherever the body is, there is also Upon the basis of the separate existence of the divinity, whether it be in heaven or on the substance and “accidents” the Schoolmen altar. The determination of this point was of proceeded to perfect their theory. What the substance of bread is, if it is not its nutritive

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 10 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course importance because the words of institution that the sop, or immersed morsel, was mention only Christ’s body. delusive. Judas was deceived. A third integral part of the scholastic Another curious but far-reaching question treatment of the Eucharist was the assertion occupied the minds of Albertus Magnus, that the whole Christ is in each of the Bonaventura, Thomas Aquinas, and other elements, a view which offered full Schoolmen. Does a mouse, in eating the justification for the withdrawal of the cup consecrated host, actually partake of its from the laity. Anselm had taken this view, consecrated substance? Thomas argued in that the entire Christ is in each element, but this way: the body and blood of Christ would he was having no reference to the withdrawal not be withdrawn, if the consecrated host of the cup. should be cast into the mire, for God allowed Two serious questions grew out of this Christ’s body even to be crucified. As for mice, definition; namely, whether the elements they were not created to use the bread as a which our Lord blessed on the night of his sacrament, and so they cannot eat Christ’s betrayal were his own body and blood and body after a sacramental manner, but only what it was the disciples ate when they the accidents of the elements, just as a man partook of the Eucharist during the time of would eat who took the consecrated host but our Lord’s burial. To the second question the did not know it was consecrated. reply was given that, if the disciples partook Bonaventura, quoting Innocent III., took the of the Eucharist in that period, they partook more reasonable view that the body of Christ of the real body. Here Duns Scotus brought to is withdrawn under such circumstances. bear his theory that a thing may have a Peter the Lombard had said that an animal number of forms and that God can do what to does not take the body of Christ in eating the us seems to be most unreasonable. bread. But what it does take and eat, God alone knows. Duns Scotus took up the similar As for the first question, Hugo of St. Victor question, what occurs to an ass drinking the shrank from discussing it on the sensible water consecrated for baptism and sensibly ground that such divine mysteries were to be called it a subtilitas asinina, an asinine venerated rather than discussed. The other refinement, for the virtue of ablution inhering Schoolmen boldly affirmed that Christ in such water an ass could not drink. To the partook of his own body and blood and gave theory of transubstantiation, Rupert of Deutz them to the disciples. “He had them in His has been referred to as an exception. John of hands and in His mouth.” This body, Paris was deprived of his chair at the according to Thomas, was “immortal and not University of Paris for likening the union of subject to pain.” Thomas quoted with Christ’s body and the bread to the coexistence approval the lines:— of the divine and human natures in Christ’s The King, seated with the twelve at the table, person. He died, 1306, while his case was Holds Himself in His hands. He, the Food, feeds being tried at Rome. Occam tentatively upon Himself. developed the theory of impanation whereby This monstrous conception involved a further Christ’s body and the bread are united in one question. Did Judas partake of the true body substance, but he expressed his readiness to and blood of the Lord? This the Schoolmen yield to the dogma of the Church. answered in the negative. The traitor took The sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist was no only natural and unblessed bread. Leaning less fully developed. In Hugo of St. Victor we upon St. Augustine, they make the assertion, hear nothing of a repetition of the sacrifice on upon a manipulation of Luke 22 and John 13 the cross. He speaks of the mass as being a according to which Christ distributed the transmission of our prayers, vows, and bread and the wine before Judas took the sop, offerings to God. Peter the Lombard said the

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 11 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course sacrifice on the altar is of a different nature sacraments because it contains the whole from the sacrifice on the cross, nevertheless it mystery of our salvation. He gives the is a true sacrifice. The later Schoolmen, meaning of the various ceremonies, such as following Alexander of Hales, laid stress on the signing with the cross, the priest’s turning the sacrificial element. The Eucharist is an his face to the people a certain number of unbloody but “real immolation” performed by times with reference to Christ’s appearances the priest. after the resurrection, the use of incense, the The altar represents the cross, the priest stretching forth of the priest’s arms, the represents Christ in whose person and power breaking of the bread, and the rinsing of the he pronounces the words of consecration, and mouth after the wine has been taken. How the celebration represents the passion on the important the prescriptions were considered cross. The priest’s chief function is to to be, may be inferred from the careful consecrate the body and blood of Christ. attention this great Schoolman gives to them. If a fly, he says, or a spider, be found in the The sacrifice may be offered daily, just as we wine after consecration, the insect must be stand daily in need of the fruits of Christ’s taken out, carefully washed and burnt, and death and as we pray for daily food. And then the water, mingled with ashes, must be because Christ was on the cross from nine till thrown into the sacrary. If poison be found in three o’clock, it is proper that it should be the consecrated wine, the contents of the cup offered between those hours, at any rate are to be poured out and kept in a vessel during the daytime and not in the night, for among the relics. Christ said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: for the night The priest’s fitness to consecrate the cometh, when no man can work,” John 9:4. elements lies in the sacerdotal power conferred upon him at his ordination. He To the discussion of the twofold effect of the consecrates the elements not in his own name Eucharist as a sacrament and as a sacrifice, but as the minister of Christ, and he does not the Schoolmen also give much attention. Like cease to be a minister by being bad. He alone the other sacraments, the Eucharist has the is the mediator between God and the people, virtue of conferring grace of itself. As a so that it lies not within the power of a sacrament it inures to our nourishment and layman to administer the Eucharist. The perfection in Christ; as a sacrifice to the Angelic doctor declares that, while in the removal of sins venial and mortal. As a other sacraments the benefits accrue through sacrament it benefits those who partake; as a the use of the elements, in the Eucharist the sacrifice its benefits accrue also to persons benefit consists in the consecration of the who do not partake, living and dead. For this elements by the priest and not in their use by position Thomas Aquinas quotes side by side the people. the words of our Lord, Luke 22 and Matt. 26, “which is shed for you” and “which is shed for Ecclesiastical analysis and definition could go many for the remission of sins,” the latter no farther in divesting the simple memorial passage being taken to include parties not meal instituted by our Lord of the element of present in the benefits of the sacrifice on the immediate communion between the believer altar. and the Saviour, and changing it as it were into a magical talisman. It would be 5.116. Eucharistic Practice and Superstition disingenuous to ignore that with the The celebration of the Eucharist is the central Schoolmen the devotional element has a most part of the service of the . prominent place in their treatment of the Thomas Aquinas said it is to be celebrated Eucharist. Especially when they are treating it with greater solemnity than the other as a sacrifice is emphasis laid upon devotion on the part of the participants. But, after this

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 12 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course is said, the Protestant Christian still feels that burnt and the ashes thrown into the sacrary. they did not appreciate in any adequate And if the corporale, the linen cover degree, the place of faith as the necessary prescribed for the altar, should be wet in the organ of receiving the divine grace extended blood, it was to be washed out three times through this sacred ordinance. The definition and the water drunk by a priest. If a drop which the medieval theologians gave to the happened to fall on a stone or a piece of wood Church and the mediatorial power they or hard earth, the priest or some pious person associated with the priesthood precluded was to lick it up. them from estimating faith at its true worth. The festival of the Eucharist, Corpus Christi, The theory of the sacrificial efficacy of the celebrated the first Thursday after Trinity mass encouraged superstition. It exalted the Sunday, had its origin in the vision of Juliana, sacerdotal prerogative of the priest who had a nun of Liege, who saw the full moon, it in his power to withhold or give this representing the church year, with one spot viaticum, the spiritual food for pilgrims on its surface. This spot indicated the looking forward to heaven. The people came Church’s neglect to properly honor the real to look to him rather than to Christ, for could presence. She made her vision known to the he not by the utterance of his voice effect the bishop of Liege and the archdeacon, James repetition of the awful sacrifice of the cross! Pantaleon. A celebration was appointed for The frequent repetition of the mass became a the , and when James became , matter of complaint. Albertus Magnus speaks under the name of Urban IV., he prescribed, in of women attending mass every day from 1264, the general observance of the festival. levity and not in a spirit of devotion who John XXII. inaugurated the procession deserved rebuke. Councils again and again wherein, on Corpus Christi day, the host was forbade its being celebrated more than once a carried about the streets with great day by the same priest, except on Christmas solemnities. The liturgical service used on and Easter, and in case of burial. Masses had Corpus Christi was prepared by Thomas their price and priests there were who knew Aquinas at the appointment of Urban IV. Two how to sell them and to frighten people into important changes occurred in this period in making provision for them in their wills. the distribution of the elements,—the abandonment of the communion of children The elevation and adoration of the host were and the withdrawal of the cup from the laity. practised in the Latin Church as early as the twelfth century. Honorius III., 1217, made The communion of children practised in the obligatory the ringing of a bell at the moment early Church, and attested by Augustine and the words of institution were uttered that the still practised in the Greek Church, seems to worshippers might fall on their knees and have been general as late as the reign of adore the host. The Lambeth synod of 1281 Pascal II. Writing in 1118, Pascal said it was ordered the church bells to be rung at the sufficient to give the wine to children and the moment of consecration so that the laboring very sick, as they are not able to assimilate man on the field and the woman engaged in the bread. In their case the bread was to be her domestic work might bow down and dipped into the wine. Just how the change worship. Synods prescribed that the pyx, the took place is unknown. Odo, bishop of Paris, receptacle for the host, be made of gold, 1175, forbade the communion of children. silver, ivory, or, at least, of polished copper. The synod of Treves, 1227, denied to them the bread, and the synod of Bordeaux, 1255, A light was kept burning before it perpetually. the wine as well as the bread. The greater In case a crumb of the bread or a drop of the Schoolmen do not treat the subject. The wine fell upon the cloth or the priest’s Supplement of Thomas Aquinas’ Theology garments, the part was to be cut out and says that the extreme unction and the

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Eucharist were not administered to children wine to the laity. It spoke of many “perils and because both sacraments required real scandals” attending the distribution of the devotion in the recipients. wine. Gerson, who voted for the enactment, The denial of the cup to the laity, the present urged the danger of spilling the wine, of custom of the Roman Catholic Church, defilement to the sacred vessels from their became common in the thirteenth century. It contact with laymen’s hands and lips, the long was at first due to the fear of profanation by beards of laymen, the possibility of the wine’s spilling the consecrated blood of Christ. At the turning to vinegar while it was being carried same time the restriction to the bread was to the sick, or being corrupted by flies, or regarded as a wholesome way of teaching the frozen by the cold, the difficulty of always people that the whole Christ is present in purchasing wine, and the impossibility of each of the elements. Among other witnesses providing cups for ten thousand or twenty in the twelfth century to the distribution of thousand communicants on Easter. The both the bread and the wine to the laity are council of Trent reaffirmed the withdrawal of Rupert of Deutz and pope Pascal II. Pascal the cup as an enactment the Church was urged that this custom be forever preserved. justified in making. Gregory II. had But it is evident that there was already at that commanded the use of a single chalice at time divergence of practice. The Englishman, communion. Robert Pullen, d. ab. 1150, refers to it and Some strange customs came into vogue in the condemned the dipping of the host into the distribution of the wine, such as the use of a wine as a Judas communion, with reference to reed or straw, which were due to veneration John 13:26. for the sacred element. Many names were By the middle of the thirteenth century the given to this instrument, such as fistula, tuba, feeling had grown strong enough for a great canna, siphon, pipa, calamus. The liturgical authority, Alexander of Hales, to condemn the directions required the pope to drink through giving of the cup to the laity and on the a fistula on Maundy Thursday and Good doctrinal ground that the whole Christ is in Friday. He still follows this custom at the each of the elements. As a means of public mass. The practice maintained itself in instructing the people in this doctrine he some parts of the Lutheran Church as in urged that the cup be denied. But Albertus Hamburg and vicinity, and Brandenburg Magnus, his contemporary, has no hint down to the eighteenth century. justifying the practice. Thomas Aquinas Another custom was the practice of cleaning followed Alexander, giving as his chief reason the mouth with a rinsing cup of the danger of profanation by spilling the unconsecrated wine, after one or both the sacred contents of the chalice. It is sufficient, elements had been received, and called in he said, for the priest to partake of the cup, German the Spuelkelch. A synod of Soissons for the full benefit accrues by the of the twelfth century enjoined all to rinse participation of a single element. Christ their mouths after partaking of the elements. distributed bread only and not drink to the Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury, 1281, five thousand. enjoined priests to instruct the people that in The usage gradually spread. The chapter of partaking of the bread they were partaking of the Cistercians in 1261 forbade monks, nuns, the whole Christ, and that what was given and lay brethren of the order to take the cup. them in the cup was only wine, given that The few Councils which expressed they might the more easily swallow the themselves on the subject were divided. sacred body. The custom of taking a meal immediately after the sacrament, dating back The council of Constance threatened with to the fifth century, is also found in this excommunication all who distributed the period.

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This treatment of the medieval theory of the people were then put out of the building and Eucharist would be incomplete without every corner was searched till at last the giving some of the marvelous stories which hosts were found on a ledge in the wall where bear witness to the excessive reverence for the angel had placed them. the sacred host and blood. One of the most Perhaps the most remarkable case related by famous, the story of the monk, who was cured the chronicler of Heisterbach is that of the of doubts by seeing the host exude blood, is bloody host of St. Trond, Belgium. This he had told by Alexander of Hales, Bonaventura, and himself seen, and he speaks of it as a miracle others. Cases when real blood was seen in the which should be recorded for the benefit of chalice were not infrequent. The host many after generations. In 1223 a woman in sometimes remained uninjured amid the Harbais, in the diocese of Liège, kissed her ashes of a burnt church. Caesar of lover with the host in her mouth, in the hope Heisterbach relates several cases when a that it would inflame his love for her. She snow-white dove was seen sitting near the then found she could not swallow the host chalice at the celebration of the mass and a and carefully wrapped it up in a napkin. In number of cases of the appearance of Christ her agony, she finally revealed her experience in visible form in the very hands of the to a priest who called in the bishop of Livland consecrating priest. who happened to be in the town. Together Thus one of the monks, present when the they went to the place where the host was mass was being said by Herman, abbot of concealed and lo! there were three drops of Himmelrode, saw after the consecration of fresh blood on the cloth. the host the Christ as a child in the abbot’s The abbot of Trond was called in and it was hands. The child rose to the height of the then found that half of the host was flesh and cross and then was reduced again in size to half bread. The bishop thought so highly of the dimensions of the host, which was eaten the relic that he attempted to carry off two of by the abbot. The same writer narrates that a the drops of blood, but sixty armed men certain monk, Adolf, of the Netherlands, after interfered. The sacred blood was then put in a consecrating the host, saw in his hands the vase and deposited among the relics of the virgin carrying the child, Christ, in her arms. church of St. Trond. This case was fully Turning the host, he saw on the other side a believed by Caesar, and he expresses no lamb. Turning it back again, he saw Christ on doubt about the many other cases he reports. the cross. Then there was nothing left but the Another case related by Etienne of Bourbon is visible form of the bread, which the pious of a farmer who, wanting to be rich, followed monk ate. the advice of a friend and placed the host in The writer goes on to say that Adolf did not one of his beehives. The bees with great feel full joy over this vision, for he kept a reverence made a miniature church, concubine. A Fleming woman of the town of containing an altar, on which they placed the Thorembais, who had been refused the sacred morsel. All the bees from the sacrament by a priest, was visited the same neighborhood were attracted and sang night by Christ himself, who gave her the host beautiful melodies. The rustic went out, with his own hands. expecting to find the hives overflowing with At a church dedication in Anrode, the invited honey but, to his amazement, found them all priests engaged in conviviality and while they empty except the one in which the host had were dancing around the altar, the pyx was been deposited. The bees attacked him overthrown and the five hosts it contained fiercely. He repaired to the priest, who, after scattered. The music was at once stopped and consulting with the bishop, went in search was made but without result. The procession to the hive and found the

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 15 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course miniature church with the altar and carried it Two perversions of Scripture were the largest back to the village church while the bees, factors in developing the theory of singing songs, flew away. meritorious penance. The first was the false These stories, which might be greatly interpretation of John 20:23, “Whosoever sins multiplied, attest the profound veneration in ye forgive they are forgiven, and whosoever which the host was held and the crude sins ye retain they are retained.” The passage superstitions which grew up around it in the was interpreted to mean that Christ convent and among the people. The simple conferred upon the Apostles and the Church and edifying communion meal of the New judicial authority to forgive sins. The Testament was set aside by medieval Protestant theory is that this authority is theology and practice for an unreasonable declarative. The second factor was the ecclesiastical prodigy. Vulgate’s translation of the New Testament for the word “repent,” “do penance,” as if 5.117. Penance and Indulgences repentance were a meritorious external The was placed in close exercise, and not a change of disposition, connection with baptism by the Schoolmen, which is the plain meaning of the Greek word as it was later by the council of Trent, which μετανοέω, “to change your mind.” called it a “sort of laborious baptism.” The confusion of the New Testament idea and Baptism serves for the deletion of original sin; the Church’s doctrine is evident enough from penance for the deletion of mortal sins the twofold meaning Peter the Lombard and committed after baptism. Using Tertullian’s Thomas Aquinas give to the thing called illustration, the Schoolmen designated penance. Baptism, they said, is a sacrament, penance the second plank thrown out to the but penance is both a sacrament and a sinner after shipwreck as baptism is the first. virtuous state of the mind. In the New In daily religious life, penance became the Testament the latter is intended. The chief concern of the people and also the chief theologians added all the mechanism of instrumentality of the priesthood in securing penance. and strengthening its authority. The At the close of the twelfth century a complete treatment given to it by the Schoolmen is change was made in the doctrine of penance. even more elaborate than the treatment they The theory of the early Church, elaborated by give to the Eucharist. Tertullian and other Church fathers, was that One feature in which this sacrament differs penance is efficient to remove sins committed from the others is the amount of positive after baptism, and that it consisted in certain activity it requires from those who seek the penitential exercises such as prayer and alms. grace involved in it. Contrition, confession to The first elements added by the medieval the priest, and the performance of good system were that confession to the priest and works prescribed by the priest were the absolution by the priest are necessary conditions of receiving this grace. Everything conditions of pardon. Peter the Lombard did depends upon God, and yet everything not make the mediation of the priest a depends upon the subjection of the penitent requirement, but declared that confession to to the priest and his act of absolution. It is in God was sufficient. In his time, he says, there connection with this sacrament that the was no agreement on three aspects of doctrine of the keys comes to its full rights. penance: first, whether contrition for sin was Here a man is absolved from sin and reunited not all that was necessary for its remission; with the Church, and reconciled to Christ second, whether confession to the priest was through the mediation of the sacerdotal key. essential; and third, whether confession to a layman was insufficient. The opinions handed

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 16 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course down from the Fathers, he asserts, were him. According to this doctrine, a man may be diverse, if not antagonistic. forgiven and saved who is actuated simply by Alexander of Hales marks a new era in the the fear of hell and punishment and has history of the doctrine. He was the first of the neither faith nor filial love in his heart. All he Schoolmen to answer clearly all these is required to do is to diligently go through questions, and to him more than to any other the other steps of the process of penance, and single theologian does the Catholic Church the priest’s pardon will be forthcoming. owe its doctrine of penance. Thomas Aquinas 2. Confession to the priest, the second confirmed what Alexander taught. element in penance, is defined by Thomas In distinction from baptism, which is a Aquinas as the making-known of the hidden regeneration, Thomas Aquinas declared disease of sin in the hope of getting pardon. penance to be a restoration to health and he Not even the pope has the right to grant a and Bonaventura agreed that it is the dispensation from it any more than he may efficacious remedy for mortal sins. Thomas offer salvation from original sin without traced its institution back to Christ, who left baptism. It covers mortal sins. For the word that “penance and remission of sins remission of venial sins, confession is not should be preached from Jerusalem,” Luke necessary. The Church makes daily 24:47. James had this institution in mind supplication for such offences and that is when he called upon Christians to confess sufficient. They do not separate the soul their sins one to another. Penance may be either from God or the Church. They are repeated, for we may again and again lose our simply a sluggish movement of the affections love to God. toward God, not an aversion to Him. They are removed by holy water and other minor rites. Penance consists of four elements: contrition of heart, confession with the mouth, By the action of the Fourth Lateran, 1215, satisfaction by works, and the priest’s confession to the priest at least once a year absolution. The first three are called the was made a test of orthodoxy. Beginning with substance of penance and are the act of the Alexander of Hales, the Schoolmen vindicate offender. The priest’s absolution is termed the positions that confession, to be the form of penance. efficacious, must be made to the priest, and that absolution by the priest is an essential 1. Contrition was defined as the sorrow of the condition of the sinner’s pardon. soul for its sins, an aversion from them, and a Bonaventura, after devoting much time to the determination not to commit them again. The question, “Whether it is sufficient to confess Lombard and Gratian taught that such our sins to God,” answered it in the negative. contrition, being rooted in love, is adequate At greater length than Peter the Lombard had for the divine pardon without confession to a done, he quoted the Fathers to show that priest or priestly absolution. there was no unanimity among them on the At the side of the doctrine of contrition the question. But he declared that, since the Schoolmen, beginning with Alexander Hales, decision of the Fourth Lateran, all are to be placed the novel doctrine of attrition, which adjudged heretics who deny that confession was most fully emphasized by Duns Scotus. to the priest is essential. Before that decision, Attrition is the negative element in contrition, such denial was not heresy. a sort of half repentance, a dread of Confession must be made to the priest as punishment, Galgenreue, “scaffold- Christ’s vicar. In case of necessity, no priest repentance,” as the Germans call it. This state being available, a layman may also hear of the heart the Schoolmen found represented confession. By such confession the offender in the experience of the prodigal at the may be reconciled to God but not to the moment when the father went out to meet

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Church, and in order to be so reconciled and the Lombard represented the prevailing view admitted to the other sacraments he must of the earlier period when he pronounced the also, as opportunity offers, confess again to absolution, a declarative announcement. the priest. Alexander of Hales represented the later Priests were forbidden to look at the face of a period, when he pronounced it a judicial woman at the confessional, and severe sentence. According to Peter, God alone punishments were prescribed for betraying remits sins. It was the Lord who restored the its secrets, even to degradation from office lepers to health, not the priests to whom he and life-long confinement in a convent. The sent them. They did nothing more than bear mendicant monks were confirmed by witness to the healthy condition of the lepers. Clement IV. and Martin IV. in their right to The priest’s prerogative is ended when he shrive everywhere. A contemporary declared “shows or declares those who are bound and that the whole of the Jordan ran into their those who are loosed.” This view of the mouths. Master of Sentences the later theology set aside. 3. Satisfaction, the third element in penance, is imposed by the priest as the minister of before the end of the thirteenth century, the God and consists of prayer, pilgrimages, petitional form of absolution was in general, fastings, payments of money, and other good though not exclusive, use and the priest made works. These penal acts are medicines for intercession for the grace of forgiveness upon spiritual wounds and a compensation to God the offender. After that, the positive forensic for offences against Him, as Thomas Aquinas, form was substituted, “I absolve thee in the following Anselm, taught. The priest is the name of the Father and of the Son and of the judge of what the act of satisfaction shall be. Holy Ghost,” the form which Thomas Aquinas Among the more notable cases of public vindicated against all others. Hugo of St. penance were those of Henry II. after Becket’s Victor had advocated this form and death, Philip I. of France, and Raymund of pronounced the contrary form more Toulouse. laughable and frivolous than worthy of refutation. He was followed by Richard of St. Satisfaction differs from contrition and Victor who emphasized the distinction confession in the very important particular between the priest’s right to remit the that one person can perform it for another. To punishment of sin and God’s prerogative prove this point, Thomas Aquinas used the which is to forgive the guilt of sin. The priest’s words of the Apostle when he said, “Bear ye absolution effects the deletion of sin. He acts one another’s burdens.” Gal. 6:2. towards the sinner as Christ did toward 4. The fourth element in the sacrament of Lazarus when he said, “Loose him and let him penance was the formal sentence of go.” absolution pronounced by the priest. This The absolution from certain offences was function, which Schwane calls the main part reserved to the bishops, such as murder, of the sacrament of penance, or the power of sacrilege in the use of the Eucharist or the the keys, belongs primarily and in its fullness baptismal water, perjury, poisoning, and to the pope and then, by distribution, to letting children die without being baptized. bishops and priests. Its use opens and shuts Other offences came under the exclusive the kingdom of heaven to immortal souls. jurisdiction of the papal chair, such as the 5.118. Penance and Indulgences abuse of the person of a priest or monk, the The year 1200 marks the dividing line burning of church buildings, and falsifying of between opinions differing most widely on papal documents. the meaning of the priest’s absolution. Peter

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In the article of death, the sacrament of justification of this method of remission absolution is in no case to be refused. At such found positive expression before the practice times works of satisfaction cannot be became general. Alexander of Hales here required, even as they were not required of again has the distinction of being the first to the thief on the cross. give it careful definition and unequivocal The extent to which absolution is efficacious emphasis. Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, and called forth careful discussion and statement. the other Schoolmen follow him closely and Does it cover guilt as well as punishment and add little. Thomas Aquinas declared it does it extend to the punishments of impious to say the Church might not dispense purgatory? The answer to these questions indulgences. also was positive and distinct from the time of The first known case occurred about 1016 Alexander of Hales. Peter the Lombard was when the archbishop of Arles gave an the last of the prominent Schoolmen to of a year to those participating in declare that the priest did not give absolution the erection of a church building. The for guilt. The later Schoolmen with one Crusades furnished the the occasion to consent oppose him at this point and teach issue indulgences on a magnificent scale. that the priest absolves both from the guilt Urban II,’s indulgence, 1095, granting plenary and the punishments of sin in this world and absolution to all taking the journey to in purgatory. Thomas Aquinas asserted that, Jerusalem was the first of a long series of such “if the priest cannot remit these temporal papal franchises. That journey, Urban said, punishments,—for the punishments of should be taken as a substitute for all purgatory are temporal,—then he cannot penance. remit at all and this is contrary to the words Granted at first to warriors fighting against of the Gospel to Peter that whatsoever he the infidel in the Holy Land, they were should loose on earth should be loosed in extended so as to include those who fought heaven.” against the Slavs, as by Eugenius III., 1147, The ultimate and, as it proved, a most vicious against the Stedinger, Albigenses, and the form of priestly absolution was the Hussites, 1425, and against all enemies indulgence. An indulgence is a remission of whatsoever of the papacy, such as Frederick the guilt and punishment of sin by a II. and Manfred. Innocent II., in 1135, mitigation or complete setting aside of the promised full remission to those who fought works of satisfaction which would otherwise the battle of the papal chair against Roger of be required. A lighter penalty was substituted Sicily, and the anti-pope, Anacletus II. In these for a severer one. Gottlob has recently divided cases such expressions are used as “remission indulgences into three classes: (1) and indulgence of penances,” “relaxation or indulgences which are secured by going on a remission from the imposed penance,” “the crusade; (2) such as are secured by the relaxation of the imposed satisfaction,” and payment of money for some good church also “a lightening or remission of sins.” cause, and (3) such as are secured by the The free-handed liberality with which these visiting of certain churches. franchises were dispensed by bishops Towards the close of this period this became so much of a scandal that the Lateran substitution usually took the form of a council of 1215 issued a sharp to money-payment. For a lump sum absolution check it. More than half a century before, in for the worst offences might be secured. It 1140, Abelard had condemned the abuse of became a tempting source of gain to churches this prerogative by bishops and priests who and the Roman , which they were quick were governed in its lavish exercise by to take advantage of. The dogmatic motives of sordid cupidity.

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The construction of bridges over rivers, the saints and of Christ are so abundant that they building of churches, and the visiting of would more than suffice to pay off the debts shrines were favorite and meritorious of all the living. Together they constitute the grounds for the gifts of indulgence. Innocent thesaurus meritorum, or fund of merits; and III., 1209, granted full remission for the this is at the disposal of the Church by virtue building of a bridge over the Rhone; Innocent of her nuptial union with Christ, Col. 1:24. IV. for rebuilding the cathedrals of Cologne, This fund is a sort of bank account, upon 1248, and Upsala, 1250, which had suffered which the Church may draw at pleasure. from fire. According to Matthew Paris, Christ relaxed the punishment due the Gregory IX., in 1241, granted an indulgence of woman taken in adultery, not requiring her to forty days to all worshipping the crown of do the works of satisfaction which her thorns and the cross in the chapel at Paris offences would, under ordinary and, in 1247, the bishop of Norwich, speaking circumstances, have called for. So, likewise, for the English prelates, announced a may the pope, who is Christ’s viceregent, remission of all penances for six years and release from sin by drawing upon the fund of one hundred and forty days to those who merit. Thus the indulgence takes the place of would worship the Holy Blood at the third element of penance, works of Westminster. Indulgences for building satisfaction. bridges and roads were common in England. These statements of the Schoolmen received To the next period belongs the first cases of explicit papal confirmation at the hands of indulgence granted in connection with the Clement VI. in 1343. This pontiff not only Jubilee Year by Boniface VIII., 1300. Among declared that this “heap of treasure,”— the more famous indulgences granted to cumulus thesauri,—consisting of the merits of private parties and localities was the “the blessed mother of God and the saints,” is Portiuncula indulgence giving remission to all at the disposal of the successors of Peter, but visiting the famous Franciscan shrine at he made, if possible, the more astounding Assisi on a certain day of the year, and the assertion that the more this storehouse is Sabbatina, granting to all entering the drawn upon, the more it grows. Like the Carmelite order or wearing the scapulary wood of the true cross, it has the power of deliverance from purgatory the Saturday infinite self-expansion. It is, however, fair to after their death. say that the papal briefs granting this saving The practice of dispensing indulgences grew grace almost invariably gave it on condition enormously. Innocent III. dispensed five of contrition and confession of the recipient. during his pontificate. Less than one hundred Down to the latter part of the thirteenth years later, Nicolas IV., in his reign of two century, the theory prevailed that an years, 1288–1290, dispensed no less than indulgence dispensed with the usual works of four hundred. By that time they had become a penance by substituting some other act. regular item of the papal exchequer. Before the fourteenth century, another step On what grounds did the Church claim the was taken, and the indulgence was regarded right to remit the works of penance due for as directly absolving from the guilt and sins or, as Alexander of Hales put it, grant punishment of sins. It was no longer a abatement of the punishment due sin? The mitigation or abatement of imposed penance. statement was this: Christ’s passion is of It immediately set aside or remitted that infinite merit. Mary and the saints also by which acts of penance had been designed to their works of patience laid up merit beyond remove; namely, guilt and penalty. It is what was required from them for heaven. sufficient for the Church to pronounce These supererogatory works or merits of the offences remitted. Wycliffe made a bold attack against the indulgence “from guilt and

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 20 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course punishment,” in his Cruciata. Now that it is no persons on earth may redeem their kindred longer possible to maintain the spuriousness in purgatory. Thus for gold and silver the of such papal indulgences, some Roman most inveterate criminal might secure the Catholic writers construe the offensive phrase deliverance of a father or mother from to mean “from the penalty of guilt.”. purgatorial pain, and neither contrition nor Such was the general indulgence given by confession were required in the transaction. pope Celestine V., 1294, to all who should on Such was the ultimate conclusion of the a certain day of the year enter the church of sacramental doctrine of penance, the St. Mary de Collemayo in which he had been sacrament to whose treatment the Schoolmen consecrated. This view had been stated devoted most time and labor. The council of almost thirty years before by Thomas of Trent reasserted the Church’s right to grant Chantimpré. And, about 1280, Peter of Olivi indulgences. But what could seem to be more declared the indulgence granted to the agreeable to the plain statements of Scripture Portiuncula church to be an “indulgence for than that men have the right of immediate all sins and from all guilt and penalty.” It is access to Christ, who said, “Him that cometh evident from these documents that, at the unto me, I will in no wise cast out,” and what close of the thirteenth century, “from guilt more repugnant to its plain teachings than to and punishment,” was quite familiar. make confession to a priest and the priest’s absolution conditions of receiving pardon! Boniface VIII. probably included the guilt of sin when he announced “full pardon for all The superstitious, practical extravagances, sins,” and succeeding popes used the form which grew out of this most unbiblical constantly. John XXIII., at the beginning of the penitential theory of the Middle Ages, are fifteenth century, was especially prodigal in reported in the pages of the popular writers the distribution of this kind of indulgence and of the age, such as Caesar of Heisterbach and in vain did the council of Constance attempt De Voragine, who express no dissent as they to put some check upon the practice. Tetzel relate the morbid tales. Here are two of them was following the custom of two centuries as told by De Voragine which are to be taken when he offered “remission and indulgence of as samples of a large body of similar guilt and penalty.” literature. A bishop, by celebrating thirty masses, helped out of purgatory a poor soul As for the application of the sacrament of who was frozen in a block of ice. In the penance to souls in purgatory, Alexander of second case, a woman who had neglected, Hales argued that, if the sacrament did not before dying, to make a confession to the avail for them, then the Church prays in vain priest, was raised from her bier by the prayer for the dead. Such souls are still under the of St. Francis d’Assisi. She went and confessed cognizance of the Church, that is, subject to its to the priest and then had the satisfaction of tribunal,—de foro ecclesiae. Altars and lying down in peace and dying over again. chapels, called in England chantries, were built and endowed by persons for the 5.119. Extreme Unction, Ordination, and maintenance of a priest, in whole or in part, to Marriage pray and offer up masses for their souls after EXTREME UNCTION,—unctio infirmorum,—the their departure from this life. The further fifth in the list of the sacraments, is treatment of the subject belongs properly to administered to those who are in peril of the period just preceding the Reformation. death, and is supposed to be referred to by It is sufficient to say here, that Sixtus IV., in James 5:14. “Is any among you sick? let him 1476, definitely connected the payment of call for the elders of the church; and let them money with indulgences, and legislated that, pray over him, anointing him with oil in the by fixed sums paid to the papal collectors, name of the Lord.” The earlier view,

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 21 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course represented by Hugo of St. Victor, Peter the the other six sacred ordinances, for Lombard, and also by Bonaventura, was that ordination confers the power of the sacrament is of Apostolic institution. administering the others. Its efficacious Thomas Aquinas traced it directly to Christ. potency resides chiefly with the person Many things, he said, were spoken by Christ dispensing the sacrament. From him grace is to the Apostles which are not contained in the transmitted. The form or the symbols, used in Gospels. the ceremony, are of subordinate or little Thomas was followed by Duns Scotus and the importance. In fact, the symbols are scarcely council of Trent. The effect of the sacrament referred to by Councils or Schoolmen in this is to remit venial sins and the remainders of period. sin left after penance, and to heal the body. It Ordination confers an indelible character may be repeated. Extreme unction as well as upon those admitted to any of the orders. Its the Eucharist is to be denied to children on virtue is not affected by the character of the the ground that their bodily diseases are not person ordained. caused by sin. Some Councils restricted it to As for the validity of the sacramental acts of those over fourteen. The element used is oil, heretic and schismatic clergymen, great consecrated by the bishop, and it is to be difference of opinion existed. The problem touched to the eyes, ears, nostrils, lips, hands, was so difficult as to appear to Gratian and feet, and loins. Peter the Lombard insoluble or almost so. ORDINATION conveys sacramental grace to The difficulty was increased by the acts of seven orders of the ministry: presbyters, Councils, condemning as invalid the deacons, subdeacons, acolytes, exorcists, ordinations of anti-popes and the ordinations lectors, and ostiarii or door-keepers. These performed by bishops whom anti-popes had seven correspond to the seven graces of the appointed. The statements of Thomas Spirit mentioned in 1 Cor. 12. The first three Aquinas are difficult to understand. He made orders were instituted by Christ; the last four a distinction between the power—potestas— by the Church. The bishops do not constitute of ordination and the jurisdiction to perform a distinct order, but are of the order of the the sacrament. Schismatic or heretic bishops priesthood. The episcopate is an office, a retain the power; otherwise when such a function; and as Peter Lombardus and bishop is reconciled to the Church, he would Thomas Aquinas say again and again, it is not be ordained over again, which is not the case. an order. Consecration to it has no But they have not the jurisdiction. As the sacramental character. The Schoolmen do not bishop by his promotion to the episcopate fail to insist upon the superior dignity of the receives no sacramental grace, so, as bishop, bishop, but sacramental grace is exhibited in he possesses no indelible character. He is its highest form in empowering the priest to ordained not directly for God but for the celebrate the mass. For the sake of “fullness” mystical body of Christ. And those whom a there are placed above the priesthood, the schismatic bishop ordains do not in reality episcopate, patriarchate, and papacy. receive ordination, for they are ordained in The tonsure, a requirement for admittance to the face of the prohibition of the Church. orders, is a sign of rule and perfection, for it is As far as we can understand the Angelic made in a circle. It also indicates that the doctor’s position it is: the Church may mind is withdrawn from temporal things and withdraw from a bishop his right to confer fixed upon the contemplation of divine things. orders while at the same time he retains the According to Thomas Aquinas, there is more episcopal power to confer them. He insisted reason for regarding ordination a sacrament most strenuously on the permanence of the than for ascribing a sacramental character to “bishop’s power” received at consecration.

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The solution of the problem is of far-reaching Councils of the thirteenth and fourteenth importance, for it has a bearing on the centuries give frequent rules for marriage. sacramental efficacy of the acts of many They were to be performed before the Church priests who have been cut off from the Latin and only after public announcement. The Church and the ecclesiastical titles of children of parties marrying unbelievers and schismatic bodies, such as the Old-Catholics the offspring of clandestine marriages were and the Jansenist Church of Holland. made illegitimate. MARRIAGE has the last place among the Death dissolves marriage and the surviving sacraments because it has the least of party has the right to marry again to the spirituality connected with it. At first, the bed fourth time or even more often. Otherwise the was undefiled, conception was without marriage bond is perpetual—vinculum passion, and parturition without pain. Since matrimonii est perpetuum. This follows from the fall, marriage has become a remedy two considerations: marriage involves the against lust and a medicine for unholy desire. training of the children and is a symbol of the At first it signified the union of the soul with union between Christ and the Church. God. Since it became a sacrament, it signifies, Matrimony becomes absolutely binding only in addition, the union of Christ and the upon copulation. Before that has taken place, Church and the union of two natures in one one party or the other may go into an order person. The Vulgate’s false translation of and in this case the other party has the right Ephes. 5:31, “this is a great sacrament,” to marry again. confirmed the Schoolmen in placing Divorce was allowed for one cause only, matrimony among the sacraments. That fornication. The Schoolmen supported this which constitutes the sacramental element is position from the words of Christ. Divorce, the verbal consent of the parties, and also, as however, is a separation, not a release with Thomas Aquinas thought, the priest’s license to marry again. Marriage can never be Benediction. annulled by the act of man. What God hath Thomas was inclined to permit marriage for joined together, no man can put asunder. boys after the age of fourteen and girls after Only after the death of the offending party the age of twelve. According to the same may the innocent party enter again into a authority, children are to follow the social marriage contract. The second and condition of the mother. The impediments to subsequent marriages are a sacrament as the marriage were carefully catalogued and first marriage is. discussed. Their number was put at twelve, such as kinship, mistake, vows, and 5.120. Sin and Grace misrepresentation, and couched in the lines SIN.—The Schoolmen are unanimous in which Bonaventura and Thomas Aquinas affirming that the infection of original sin has quote:— passed down upon all Adam’s descendants error, conditio, votum, cognatio crimen, and involved them all in guilt and eternal cultus disparitas, vis, ordo, ligamen, honestas, death. Following Augustine, Anselm called the si sis affinis, si forte coire nequibis race a sinning mass. By the Fall, man’s body, haec socianda vetant connubia, facta retractant. or flesh, was made, like the beast, subject to carnal appetites and the mind, in turn, The Fourth Lateran modified some of the became infected with these appetites. If man more severe restrictions of marriage within had not sinned, his nature would have been the limits of , but declared propagated as it was originally created by children illegitimate whose parents were God. In condemning Abelard, the synod of within the forbidden limits, even though the Sens, 1141, condemned the heresy that ceremony were performed in the church. The

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Adam’s guilt does not pass down to his question as to whether there would have posterity. been any admixture of the sexes if Adam had Man does not secure his sinful nature by not sinned was answered in the affirmative, imitation of Adam, but by inheritance through in view of the command to be fruitful and to generation from Adam. The flesh is tainted, replenish the earth. Bonaventura also being conceived in concupiscence, and elaborately discussed the question whether concupiscence is both a taint and guilt. Nay, it the number of male and female descendants is original sin, as the Lombard says. Before would have been equal had man not sinned. the first sin, the man and the woman came This he also answered in the affirmative, together without the passion of partly on the ground that no woman would concupiscence and the bed was undefiled; have been without a husband and no husband but, after the Fall, they could not join in without a wife, for in paradise there would be marital intercourse without libidinous lust. neither or polyandry. He also based These are the views of all the Schoolmen, yet his conclusion upon Aristotle’s reason for the they agree in rejecting the doctrine of unequal conception of male and female traducianism. The flesh only is carried down children which is now due to some weakness from parent to child, not the spirit. or other peculiarity on the part of one of the parents. The ultimate purpose in the birth of Original sin is defined by Alexander of Hales children, had our first parents remained and by Thomas Aquinas as the want or the innocent, was that they might fill up the “deficiency of original righteousness.” It number of the elect angels. involves the loss of superadded grace and a wounding of the natural powers. This wound, Another question which was discussed with or original sin, is a lasting quality or condition much warmth was which of the two sinned of depravity—a habitus corruptionis or the more grievously, Adam or Eve, a question vitium—like a bodily disease. It is not merely Hugo of St. Victor, Peter the Lombard, a defect. It is a depraved tendency. In another Albertus Magnus, Bonaventura, and other place, Thomas defines original sin to be in great Schoolmen united in attempting to substance concupiscence or lust and in form a solve—a question which arose quite naturally defect of original righteousness. God cannot from Paul’s statement, 1 Tim. 2:14, that the be the author of sin because sin is an offence woman was beguiled and not the man. The against order. conclusion reached was that the preponderance of guilt was with Eve. The Thomas taught that the taint of original sin is Lombard is inclined to be lenient with Adam inherited not from the mother but from the and makes out that when he yielded to the father who is the active agent in generation. If persuasions of his wife, he was actuated by Eve only had sinned and not Adam, the sympathy and was unwilling to give her pain children would not have inherited the taint. by refusing her request. He was On the other hand, if Adam had sinned and inexperienced in the divine severity and his Eve remained innocent, their descendants sin was a venial, not a mortal fault. In fact this would have inherited original sin. According theologian distinctly gives it as his belief that to Peter the Lombard, Albertus Magnus, and Adam would not have given way to the others, pride was the original root of sin. temptation of the devil. Eve sinned by pride, At much length, the Schoolmen elaborate desiring to be equal with God. Adam was not upon the sin against the Holy Ghost and the seduced by the devil at all and had in mind seven “capital or principal” offences, the the mercy of God and intended later to make number of which they base on Proverbs 6:16, confession of his sin, and secure absolution. “These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, Eve’s sin was the more grievous for she seven are an abomination unto Him.” The sinned against herself, against God, and

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 24 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course against her neighbor. Adam sinned against voluntas. The number of the elect is fixed himself and God, but not against his neighbor. even to the persons of the saved, and Hugo of St. Victor said that the woman persevering grace is given to those who believed that God was moved by envy in remain steadfast to the end. Man cannot even forbidding them to eat the fruit of the tree. know the truth without help from above. Adam knew this to be false. His sin was in Thomas distinguished two kinds of merit or consenting to his wife and not correcting her. meritorious works: the merit which comes by Albertus Magnus seems inclined to draw a the proper use of our natural gifts,—meritum more even balance. In that which pertained to de congruo,—and the merit which comes the essence of sin, he said, Eve was the from the proper use of the gifts of grace,— greater offender, but if we look at Adam’s meritum de condigno. In his original state, endowment and at other circumstances, man was enabled by the superadded gift of Adam was the greater offender. Bonaventura grace to love God above all things. In the laid down the proposition that the gravity of fallen state, grace is required to restore this sin depends upon three things: ingratitude, ability, and no works of this second sort can lust, and the corruption which follows the be done without the assistance of the Holy sinful act. Applying these rules to the Fall, he Spirit. Such statements as these could be declared that, so far as ingratitude goes, multiplied almost indefinitely. There is, Adam’s sin was the greater and, so far as lust however, notwithstanding these clear goes, the woman’s sin was the greater. As for statements, a tone in Thomas’ treatment the evil consequences flowing from the sin, which makes the impression that he modified Adam sinned the more grievously as the strict Augustinianism and made a place for cause of damnation to his posterity and Eve the real merit of works, and in this the the more grievously as the occasion of such Catholic Church follows him. damnation. But as Eve was also the occasion As for the satisfaction of Christ, Thomas of Adam’s sinning, her sin and guilt must be Aquinas followed Anselm in holding that pronounced the greater. Christ’s death was not a price paid to the GRACE.—In the doctrine of grace, the medieval devil. He did not lay down a very exact theology used the terminology of Augustine definition of the mode in which the but makes the impression of departing from atonement was made efficacious; but he laid him in the direction of semi-Pelagianism. The stress upon the merit which Christ won by treatment which Thomas Aquinas gave to two the assent of his own will to the will of God. elements he found in the African father, He does not speak of the propitiation of Christ namely, freewill which man preserves after in the way Abelard and Peter the Lombard the Fall, and the doctrine of merit, has the did as an exercise of love drawing man to appearance of a de-Augustinianizing God. The love and obedience of Christ are tendency. In reality Thomas taught that all efficient, through the sufferings he endured that is good in man is from God and he can on the cross, in reconciling man to God and have no merit before God except by the redeeming man from the power of the devil. prearrangement of a divine decree. In no Thomas very clearly states the consequences other sense is an act of righteousness—that of Christ’s atonement. The first is that thereby is, the doing of what we owe—to be called a man comes to know how great the love of God meritorious act. Without the grace of the Holy is, and is provoked to love God in return. By Spirit it is not possible to merit eternal life. the cross Christ set an example of humility, Man is not even able to make the preparation righteousness, and other virtues. He also necessary to receive the light of grace. taught men the necessity of keeping free from Prevenient grace is essential to beget in him sin, overcoming the devil, and conquering the disposition to holiness,—interior

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 25 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course death by dying to sin and the world. God back upon one place and receding from it, might have pardoned man without the reaches another place, so in justification the satisfaction of the cross, for all things are will made free at once hates sin and turns possible with Him. This was in opposition to itself to God. Anselm’s position that God could have Setting aside the distinction between redeemed man in no other way than by the justification and sanctification, there seems to cross. be complete religious accord between Bonaventura went further in opposition to Thomas Aquinas, the prince of the Anselm and distinctly asserted that God could Schoolmen, and our Protestant view of have liberated and saved the race otherwise redeeming grace as being from beginning to than He did. He might have saved it by the end the gracious act of God in view of the way of pity—per viam misericordiae—in death of Christ. His theory of the sacraments, distinction from the way of justice. And in it is true, seems to modify this position. But choosing this way he would have done no this is an appearance rather than a reality. injury to the claims of justice. His chapter on For the sacraments have their efficacious this subject he closes with the words, “It virtue by reason of God’s prior and gracious would be dangerous for me to put a limit on enactment attaching efficacy to them. God’s power to redeem, for He is able to do FAITH.—In its definition of faith, the medieval above what we are able to think.” theology came far short of the definition No distinction was made by the medieval given by the Reformers. The Schoolmen begin theologians between the doctrine of their discussion with the words of the Epistle justification and the doctrine of sanctification, to the Hebrews 11:1, that faith is the such as is made by Protestant theologians. substance of things hoped for, and define Justification was treated as a part of the faith as the grace by which things which are process of making the sinner righteous, and not seen are believed. And they scarcely get not as a judicial sentence by which he was beyond this definition. Although several of declared to be righteous. Sanctification was Paul’s statements in the Epistle to the so thoroughly involved in the sacramental Romans are quoted by Thomas Aquinas, system that we must look for its treatment in neither he nor the other Schoolmen rise to the chapters on the seven sacraments, the the idea that it is upon the basis of faith that a instrumentalities of sanctification; or under man is justified. Faith is a virtue, not a the head of the Christian virtues, faith, hope, justifying principle, and is treated at the side and love, as in Bonaventura’s treatment. of hope and love. These are called the Thomas Aquinas discusses it under the head “theological virtues” because they relate of the atonement and in special chapters immediately to God and are founded entitled “the division of grace,” by which he ultimately upon the testimony of His Word means the distinction between prevenient, or alone. Christian faith works by love and is not preparatory, and cooperant grace,—gratia a grace unless it be conjoined with love. The gratis data, or the grace which is given freely, devils have intellectual faith without love, for and the gratis gratum faciens, or the grace they believe and tremble. which makes righteous. Faith manifests itself in three ways, in Justification, says Thomas, is an infusion of believing God, in trusting God, and believing grace. Four things are required for the in God. To believe God is to believe that He is. justification of the sinner: the infusion of To trust God is to accept what He says as true. grace, the movement of the freewill to God in These two kinds of faith the devils have. To faith, the act of the freewill against sin, and believe in God is to love God in believing, to the remission of sins. As a person, turning his go to Him believing, to be devoted to Him in

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 26 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course believing, and to be incorporated with His and dangerous theory of sacramental grace members. This knowledge of faith is more which led to the substitution of a series of certain than other knowledge because it is outward exercises, recommended by the based upon God’s Word and is enlightened by priest, for simple trust in Christ’s free grace. the light which proceeds from the Word. 5.121. The Future State The Schoolmen insist that without faith it is impossible to please God, and preachers, like The unseen world of spirits was divided by Honorius of Autun, declared that as a fish the medieval theology into five distinct cannot live without water, so no one can be regions or abodes,—receptacula saved without faith. And yet Thomas Aquinas animarum,—as Thomas Aquinas calls them— scarcely gets beyond the definition that faith heaven, hell, purgatory, the limbus patrum, or is an assent of the intellect, assensus the temporary abode of the Old Testament intellectus. However, love and faith, he says, saints, and the limbus infantum, or the abode are so closely conjoined that love may be of children who die without being baptized. called a form of faith, a mode of its Hell, the place of punishment or eternal expression, and without love faith is dead. A dolors, is the lake of sulphur and fire in which sufficient faith in Christ demands four things, lost men and demons suffer eternal torment. said the Lombard: assent to his nativity, his It is a region of jet darkness, a deep prison as death, his resurrection, and his coming again compared with heaven, into which the for judgment. Thomas requires an explicit demons are thrust down. The longings and acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity even passions of those confined there go on by the Old Testament saints, for the Trinity continually burning and are never satisfied. was revealed in the beginning when God said, Its fires burn but do not consume. No other “Let us make man in our own image.” There heat can compare with its heat. The can be no belief in the incarnation without Schoolmen are agreed that the passages of belief in the Trinity. Faith ceases when the Scripture, bearing on the fire of hell, are not mind disbelieves a single article of the faith. figurative. The fire is material fire which He who disbelieves a single one of the articles afflicts both the spirits and bodies of the lost. of the Apostles’ Creed has no faith at all. After The degree of torture is according to the quoting Rom. 4:5, this great theologian stops desert. with saying, that, in justification, an act of The limbus patrum corresponds to Abraham’s faith is required to the extent that a man bosom in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, believe that God is the justifier of men the place where the worthies of the Old through the atonement of Christ. Testament dwelt till Christ descended into The Schoolmen did not understand Paul. The hades and released them. Before that time Reformers were obliged to re-proclaim the they enjoyed exemption from pain. Since then doctrine of justifying faith as taught in the they have enjoyed heavenly bliss. epistles to the Romans and the Galatians. On Circumcision released them from original sin. the other hand, it is the merit of the Hell and this locality are probably in the same Schoolmen that they emphasize the principle, region or, at any rate, contiguous. The view, that true faith worketh by love and that all that the patriarchs remained in hades till other faith is vain, inanis. The failure of Christ’s death, goes back to Hermas and Protestant theologians always to set this forth Clement of Alexandria. distinctly has exposed the Protestant doctrine The limbus puerorum or infantum is the to the charge that faith is sufficient, even if it abode of children dying in infancy without be unaccompanied by good works, or works having been baptized. They are there for of love towards God and man. The fault of the original sin which only baptism can wash Schoolmen lay chiefly in their unscriptural

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 27 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course away. According to Thomas Aquinas, this show of his divinity—manifestatio region is probably a little lower than the divinitatis—to the demons by preaching, 1 limbus patrum. These children are free from Pet. 3:19, and by enlightening those dark pain, but are like the lost in being deprived of spaces with his presence, as it is said, Ps. 24:7, the vision of God and physical light. Theirs is “Lift up your doors, O ye princes, and the king the punishment of eternal death,— of glory shall come in.” Here again the Vulgate supplicium mortis aeternae,—but their is responsible for a mistake, the word “gates” damnation is the lightest of all—omnium being translated “princes.” Christ’s descent levissima. They have no hope of beatitude. into hades did not help the unbaptized God, in His justice, provides that they never children. After this life it is too late to acquire make any advance nor go back, that they grace. neither have joy nor grief. They remain Purgatory is a sort of reformatory school for forever unchanged. Such is the hopeless baptized Catholics who are not good enough doom to which the great Dominican and the at death to go directly to heaven. They are great Franciscan theologians of the Middle there in that intermediate region for actual Ages consigned all children dying unbaptized. transgressions, whose guilt the sacrament of Strange that the Schoolmen, in the interest of penance and extreme unction had not fully a more merciful doctrine, did not use Christ’s removed. The existence of purgatory is based blessed words, “Suffer the little children to mainly upon 2 Mac. 12:40 and the universal come unto me for of such is the kingdom of teaching of the Church. Its inhabitants belong God.” But they did not. The doctrine of to the communion of saints and are within the original sin and the doctrine of the necessity reach of human intercession. Masses for the of water baptism for salvation were carried to dead are instituted to meet their case. For their extreme logical conclusions without infants in the limbus puerorum, such regard for the superabounding grace of God. intercessory works are of no avail. But one So also Augustine had taught and so most of who has been baptized in infancy or the Reformers taught at a later time. manhood, no matter how flagitious or Christ’s descent into hades was carefully criminal his career may have been, for him discussed by the Schoolmen. It occurred as there is hope, nay there is certainty, that in soon as his soul was separated from the body time he will pass out of purgatory into the at his death. He was in the infernal regions company of the blessed. during the three days of his burial, but did not Heaven includes three kinds of rewards, said assume their pains. The reason for this visit Bonaventura: the substantial reward or the was twofold, says Bonaventura,—to release vision of God; the consubstantial or the the Old Testament saints and to confound the glorification of the body to which belong the adversaries of the Gospel, the demons. qualities of transpicuity, lightness, agility, and Thomas Aquinas tried to show that, when Job impassibility which are granted in the degree said, Job 17:16, “my hope shall go down to the we exercise love here on earth; and the bars of Sheol,” or into the “deepest hell,” as accidental reward or the ornament of the the Vulgate puts it, he meant that he went no aureole given for preaching and leading farther than the limbus patrum and not to the others to salvation, for virginal purity and abode of the lost. Christ descended into martyrdom. hades, according to Thomas, for a threefold The bliss of heaven, said Thomas Aquinas, purpose, to deliver us from the necessity of consists in the immediate vision of God. It is a going there ourselves; to release the Hebrew state from which there will be no lapse. The saints by breaking the bars of hell—vectes beatified know what is occurring on earth, inferni,—that is, by “spoiling principalities hear the prayers that ascend to them, and by and powers,” Col. 2:15; and third, to make

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 28 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course their merits intercede for their brethren here. purgatorial lake and bridge. Turchill also saw St. Bernard, in his homilies on the Canticles, St. Peter in the church of Mary and before him and Anselm give us lofty descriptions of the the souls were brought to receive sentence. blessedness of the heavenly estate. And the The devil and his angels were there to hurry satisfaction and glory of the soul in heaven off to the infernal regions those whose evil has never been quite so well portrayed as in deeds tipped the balances. Turchill was also the poem of Bernard of Cluny:— taken by a certain St. Domninus to behold the O sweet and blessed country, the home of sports the devils indulge in. Coming to the God’s elect, infernal realm, they found iron seats, heated O sweet and blessed country, that eager hearts to a white heat and with nails driven in them, expect; on which an innumerable multitude was Jesus in mercy bring us to that sweet land of sitting. Devils were sitting around against the rest, walls poking fun at the unfortunate beings for To be with God the Father and Spirit ever blest. the evils they had been guilty of in this life. It remained for Dante to give to the chilling Men of different occupations and criminal scholastic doctrines of purgatory and the practices, the soldier, tradesman, priest, the lower regions a terrible reality in poetical adulterer, thief, and usurer, were then form and imagery and also to describe the brought forth and made to enact over again beatific vision of paradise. their wicked deeds, after which their flesh The remarkable vision which a certain was fiercely torn by the demons and burnt, Englishman, Turchill, had of the future world, but again restored. Such are the popular as related at length by Roger of Wendover pictures which form the vestibule of Dante’s and others, reveals the crass popular ideas of Inferno. the future state. St. Julian appeared to this Of all the gruesome religious tales of the honest laborer, and took him off to “the Middle Ages, the tales representing the devil middle of the world,” where they entered a as torturing the naked soul were among the church which, as Turchill was told, received most gruesome. The common belief was that the souls of all those who had recently died. the soul, an entity with form as the Mary, through her intercession, had brought Schoolmen defined it, is at death separated it about that all souls born again should, as from the body. Caesar of Heisterbach tells of soon as they left the body, be taken to this an abbot of Morimond with whose soul the church and so be freed from the attacks of demons played ball, rolling it from hill to hill, demons. Near one of the church walls was the across the valley between, until God allowed entrance to hell through which came a most the soul to enter the body again. This was foul stench. Stretching from another wall was before the abbot became a monk. the great lake of purgatorial fire in which Another of these stories, told by Caesar of souls were immersed, some to their knees, Heisterbach, concerned a student to whom some to their necks. And above the lake was a the devil gave a stone. As long as the student bridge, paved with thorns and stakes, over held it in his hand, he had supernatural which all had to pass before they could arrive knowledge. When he died, his body was taken at the mount of joy. Those who were not to the church, and while his fellow-students assisted by special masses walked over the stood around it singing, the devil carried his bridge very slowly and with excruciating soul to hell. There the demons played ball pain. On the mount was a great and most with it. Their sharp claws stuck deep into it wonderful church which seemed to be large and gave it unspeakable pain. But, at the enough to contain all the inhabitants of the intercession of the saints, the Lord rescued world. St. Nicolas, St. James, and other saints the soul and reunited it with the body and the had charge of the church of Mary and the young man suddenly arose from his bier. In

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 29 CH514: Volume 5, Chapter 14 a Grace Notes course telling his experience he related that his soul had been like a round piece of glass through which he could see on every side. Fortunately, the fellow was scared badly enough to go to a convent and do sound penance. Bernard of Thiron bore witness that he saw the devils carry an unfaithful monk’s soul out of the window. The severity of the purgatorial pains is vouched for in this story by Thomas of Chantimpré, for which he quotes Albertus Magnus. A good man, after suffering from a severe sickness for a year, had this alternative offered him by an angel: to go to purgatory and suffer for three days or endure for a year longer his sickness and then go directly to glory. He chose the first. So his soul took its departure, but the purgatorial agony of a day seemed like the pains of ages and the sufferer was glad to have the opportunity of returning to his body, which was still unburied, and endure his sickness for another year.