Adolf Harnack · 14 of 17

3. On the History of Ecclesiastical Science.. · Part 5

Baptism is absolutely necessary (baptism with blood a substitute), conveys a character, cannot be repeated, is valid when it is performed with water (materia) and with the words of institution (forma), and is regularly dispensed by the priest. Yet in an emergency a deacon, and even a layman, can baptise. The considerations regarding the sacramentalia which accompanied baptism do not belong to the history of dogma; just as little do the secondary consequences of baptism, as, e.g., spiritual affinity, etc.

As the Church had to contend, especially from the thirteenth century onwards, against sects and schools who, on different grounds (as a rule out of opposition to the prevailing sacramental system, here and there also from opposition to the sacramental system in general), disputed the rightfulness of infant baptism, or who denied the necessity of baptism altogether, an apologetic, polemical discussion of the Sacrament of Baptism was necessary. Yet there was never nearly so much fulness of statement here as in the account given of the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

2. Confirmation. This Sacrament obtained its independent existence simply through Western practice, inasmuch as only the bishop could administer it. Hence it naturally resulted, that it became dissociated from baptism, which, however, forms its presupposition, and with which it shares the quality, that it conveys a character, and therefore cannot be repeated. The material is the Chrisma consecrated by the bishop, the form the sacramental words: “consigno te, etc.” The effect, which, of course, as additional to that of baptism, either cannot be definitely expressed, or restricts the importance of the baptismal communication of grace, is power (robur) for growth, strength for conflict with enemies of the faith (military), the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or even — as a portion of the process of justification — the gratia gratum faciens (grace that renders well-pleasing). Doubts about this Sacrament, which, according to Thomas, “etiam a non jejunis dari vel accipi potest” (can be given or received even by those not fasting), never disappeared; Wyclif again gave emphatic expression to them; for a reliable proof from tradition could not be obtained. In the last resort Thomas is unable otherwise to defend the “conveniens” in the ritual than by the sentence: “it must be firmly held that the ordinances of the Church are directed according to the wisdom of Christ. And for this reason it ought to be certain that the ritual which the Church observes in this and in other Sacraments is fitting” (firmiter tenendum est, quod ordinationes ecclesiæ dirigantur secundum sapientiam Christi. Et propter hoc certum esse debet, ritus quod ecclesia observat in hoc et in aliis sacramentis esse convenientes). If we assume, not the dogmatic, but the practical pedagogic point of view, we cannot deny the serviceableness of this observance, especially when taken along with infant baptism, both as regards the plebs Christiana, and as regards the bishop, who in this way comes close to every member of his diocese.

3. The Eucharist. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, after the conflicts in the eleventh, and many uncertainties in the twelfth, the doctrine of transubstantiation, together with what was derived from it, or coheres with it, was substantially settled. The Lateran Council (see above, p. 53) of the year 1215 had brought the development to a conclusion, and had given to the Sacrament the highest conceivable place, as was shown by the deliverance regarding it being introduced into the Symbol. But the “heretical” opposition had made the deliverance necessary. This opposition never became silent; nay, in the circles of the Church theology itself, there were set forth in later times views of transubstantiation, that, strictly speaking, had the effect of cancelling it.

Here, also, it was Thomas whose view of the Sacrament became classic in Catholicism. The modifications which Nominalism allowed itself to adopt disappeared; the doctrine of Thomas remained. Thomas put an end to the uncertainties still betrayed by the Lombard at some points, and he applied in perfected form to the Sacrament the dialectic mode of treatment which had once occasioned so much offence. He could dispose of the Sacrament with confidence, for he was a Realist, and Duns Scotus could do so likewise (in some respects in a still more perfect form), because he also readily adopted a realistic theory of knowledge. But this confidence thereafter received a check; for it is only in a forced way, if at all, that the Nominalist mode of thought can come to terms with transubstantiation. It must either let it drop, or declare it an intensified miracle, by which two impossible things become actual.

In the Sacrament of the Supper and the doctrine regarding it, the Church gave expression to everything that it highly prized — its dogma, its mystical relation to Christ, the fellowship of believers, the priest, the sacrifice, the miraculous power which God had given to His Church, the satisfaction of the sensuous impulse in piety, etc., only not the faith which seeks for certainty and to which certainty is given. This appears very plainly from the description of the effects of the Eucharist as a Sacrament and as a sacrifice. The Sacrament was universally reverenced as the chiefest Sacrament, the sun among the Sacraments, etc., because here res and sacramentum coincide (the matter becomes itself Christ), because the incarnation and the death on the Cross are represented as operative in it, or are repeated in it, and because it embraces the past, the present, and the future. Yet the effects, which are summed up under the term nourishment of the spiritual life of the soul, and are detailed as incorporation into Christ, incorporation into the Church, communion of the members with each other, forgiveness of venial sins, perseverance in faith, strengthening of human weakness, refreshment, foretaste and fore-celebration of the heavenly blessedness, anticipation of eternal fellowship with God, etc., do not attain to the effect of the Sacrament of Penance. Just as little is specific importance attached to the Eucharist as a sacrifice; under this term, indeed, personal merit rather is strongly asserted. In the sacrifice of the Mass one testifies his obedience to God; like every sacrifice it is a performance which can claim a reward. Thus all effects here are at the same time dependent on the receiver. These effects appear to be estimated most highly; the sacrifice of the Mass, indeed, is a constant repetition of the death on the Cross; but this constant repetition has respect only to daily sins, to penal evils and bodily need. It extends, no doubt, in its effect, beyond the earthly life — in practice, the bearing of the sacrifice of the Mass on the penalties in purgatory was almost its most important bearing — yet there are also other means, which are really not less effectual than the Masses.

The materia of the Sacrament is wheaten bread and wine. The appropriateness of these, and, in particular, of this double form, is dealt with very minutely. The very ancient symbolic idea of the many grains which become one bread also reappears in the Schoolmen. The forma is the words of consecration, which are spoken in the name of Christ (not in the name of the minister). In connection therewith, Bonaventura explains the “hoc” as denoting the bread, Thomas as denoting the accidents of the bread (“hoc sub his specibus contentum,” i.e., that which is here presented is not bread, but my body). But the forma is not only an appeal to God (Bonaventura, Duns) that He will accomplish the transubstantiation, but an effectual power, as soon as the priest has the intention to work the mystery.

But the difficult question was now this, How is the transubstantiation to be thought of? Here there was, first, a rejection already by the Lombard of the idea of a new-creation of the body of Christ, for Christ’s body already exists; but, second, the opinion was also rejected by him that Christ makes the bread and wine into His body, so that they become the Sacrament, whether by assumptio or by consubstantiality; there must be believed in rather a conversio of such a kind that the substances of the elements pass into the substances of the body of Christ, while the accidents remain behind without a subject. What happens to the substance of the elements, whether it breaks up and is destroyed, the Lombard declared that he did not know. Alexander of Hales distinctly rejects consubstantiality and destruction, and speaks of a “passing over.” But he at once adds, that after the change, the whole Christ is present, inasmuch as the human soul and the deity of Christ always are concomitantly (per concomitantiam) where His flesh is. The continuance of the accidents without a subject he pronounced a miracle. Bonaventura attached weight to the conversio taking place both as regards the materia and the forma of the bread (it would otherwise be imperfect); yet we must not understand by the former the materia prima (matter as the potency [potentia] of all material substances). With regard to the first Eucharist celebration — the treatment of which is the hardest crux of the whole theory — it was universally held, indeed, that Christ partook of Himself in eating (as an example, and with a view to the enjoyment of love, not with a view to being perfected), but while Hales thought that Christ partook then already of His glorified body, Bonaventura taught (Thomas following him) that Christ partook of His mortal body, which, however, as Eucharistic was already present “impassibiliter” (in impassible form). All of them thought of the parallels in creation and incarnation, and sought to explain the mystery from these. Thomas now submitted to a final treatment the accidents, which, as the subject is wanting to them after the conversio, are maintained in existence by God as the first cause (causa prima) But at the same time, following Bonaventura, he laid the foundation for an extremely complicated doctrine of the form of all matter, which was afterwards spun out by Duns and the Nominalists. As the bread, that is to say, is changed as regards the material and the form, both changes must be demonstrated in the transubstantiated result. But as the soul of Christ (form) only appears present concomitantly (per concomitantiam), the body of Christ must have a form for itself. Thus Thomas is led to the idea of a “form of corporeity” (forma corporeitatis), which is identical neither with the soul nor with the outer shape, but appears as the ground of the qualities of the body. Further, in accordance with this, Thomas conceives of the conversio as a passing over in the strict sense of the term (no destruction = annihilatio of the elements). The miracle is identical with a miracle of creation in so far as in the case of both the two states are not united by a common subject (substance); for the continued existence of the accidents is no real bond. Duns pursued this line further, and came to the adoption of a plurality of forms in matter. He required this assumption, as he assailed St. Thomas with reflections arising from the hypothesis, that the Eucharist was conceivably celebrated during the time when Christ lay in the grave. The Thomist doctrine was not framed to meet this case, as it assumed a forma substantialis for the living body. Hence, according to Thomas, only an imperfect transubstantiation would then have taken place — that is, a transubstantiation only into the material of the dead body. Duns himself appealed more confidently to the divine omnipotence, placed in the foreground the general possibility that God can transform everything (even the material into the spiritual, and vice versa), affirmed the existence of a matter without quality which is capable of everything, and came very close to the view, that in transubstantiation one substance is annihilated and another is introduced. Above all, however, his thesis, that God Himself, as if on the ground of a contract, always works the conversio, so that the words of consecration only form the occasion, influenced all the Nominalists afterwards. But by a logical process there then followed also upon this view a modification of the way of understanding transubstantiation, in the direction of impanation and consubstantiality. For it became natural to assume, that if the divine working only accompanies the words of the priest (that is, the forma sacramenti), it only accompanies, also, the elements (the materia; a “moral” conjunction by the free will of Christ). This doctrine was first suggested as possible, and then asserted as possible. But when once the idea of the conversio was separated by a logical distinction into two acts — into annihilation, and entrance of the body of Christ into the place of the annihilated subject — the first act could also drop out. The miracle only becomes the greater when substance stands side by side with substance. At the same time the signal was now given for investigations into space in its relation to substance, investigations which, from the time of Scotus onwards, did not continue without fruit for the doctrine of space. Human thought does not advance without receiving a determining impulse from the practical sphere: from the doctrine of God there grew up the doctrines of thought and of will; from the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the Kosmos; from the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, the doctrine of space. If the question as to the relation of the body of Christ to the elements already led to inquiries into space, still greater was the impulse in that direction as soon as the question arose as to how the eucharistic body is related to the glorified body of Christ in heaven. The thorny discussions on this subject do not belong to dogma strictly speaking. As new-creation was excluded, the question was as to the presence in the Sacrament of the body that is already in heaven. And again, as the body as a whole appears at the same time in each of the independent particles of the consecrated bread, a space-less presence had necessarily to be taught. This Thomas began to do; but it was only the Nominalists who treated the question as virtuosi (especially Occam), though they did not come definitely to the doctrine of the ubiquity of the body of Christ. On the other hand, it was they, especially John of Paris and Occam, who anticipated the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence in the bread. An energetic opponent of the doctrine of transubstantiation was Wyclif (but even he did not get clearly beyond impanation, and if he was incensed by the idolatry that was practised with the host, yet it was by grounds of reason [the absurdity of accidents without substance] that he was moved to opposition.) By him not a few (but not Huss) were constrained to renounce the monstrous doctrine, and in the fifteenth century the opposition to it is met with not infrequently. Yet it remained the reigning view; the hostility of declared heretics could only be in its favour.

The consequences of the transubstantiation doctrine were manifold, and of radical importance; the following may be mentioned:

(1) The discontinuance of child communion.

(2) The augmentation of the dignity of the priests, by whom daily Christ was magically produced and offered up.

(3) The withholding of the cup. From the time of the Lombard it was a settled belief that the whole Christ is contained in each species, and that meant, too (according to the doctrine developed especially by Thomas), Christ concomitantly (per concomitantiam) in His body and soul as well as in His divinity. But that being so, it was permissible, safer indeed (that the wine might not be spilt, and the Sacrament thereby profaned), and, with a view to increasing the dignity of the priest, “conveniens,” that the layman should receive only in the form of the bread (sub specie panis), while the priest drank the cup in the name of all. At Constance this became fixed.

(4) The adoration of the elevated host (elevation is represented as having been already adopted in opposition to Berengar), the procession of the host, and the feast of Corpus Christi (1264. 1311): for the body of Christ is, of course, not present merely at the moment of enjoyment, but, when once produced by consecration, remains until the accidents are dissolved. Against this idolatry there arose in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries much opposition, which, however, continued to be lacking in vigour.

It was already pointed out above that as regards the idea of the Eucharist as a sacrifice, the Lombard was still influenced by the old ecclesiastical motive of recordatio (remembrance). But from ecclesiastical antiquity there was certainly taken over also the idea of the repetition of the sacrificial death of Christ (Gregory I.), and on the basis of the doctrine of transubstantiation this idea now necessarily became firmly established. The Roman Canon of the Mass, which did not originally contain the idea of the bloodless repetition of the death of Christ, and still bears traces to-day of not having contained it, has in its most recent portions the new idea. At the Lateran Council in 1215 the idea is presupposed, and brief note is taken of it, and the Schoolmen, although they do not here give elaborated doctrines, have no other thought than that the priest offers the body of the Lord. The Eucharist as a sacrifice, as it formed the central part of divine service, was for the people much more important than the Sacrament. Although, in strict theory, there were connected with it only slender results (see above), yet misdirected piety made this observance entirely its own, and saw in it its real defence in life and in death. The mischief of low masses and masses for souls was as much the consequence of violent importunity on the part of the laity for as many masses as possible, as of priestly self-importance; for in the Mass the priest, who is here not a minister but an originator (autor), appears in a very real sense as the mediator between God and men, and, as priest of the body of Christ (sacerdos corporis Christi), his dignity comes most distinctly to view. The Mass was assailed as unbiblical by Wyclif. On the part of others also opposition arose in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries against the low masses and masses for souls, which, however, was directed, as a rule, only against the abuse (abusus).

4. Penance. Although in theory baptism and the Eucharist were placed together and emphasised as the two principal Sacraments, yet, as a fact, the two chief closely connected Sacraments were baptism and penance (“second plank after ship-wreck” [secunda tabula post naufragium] — so first Tertullian, after him many teachers). But inasmuch as baptism is only administered once, while the Sacrament of Penance is administered repeatedly, and as almost every baptised person comes to be in a position for requiring this latter Sacrament, for which no other can be substituted, this Sacrament became practically the most important means of grace. Now, as the Church had completely saturated this Sacrament with its hierarchical spirit, and at the same time attached to it its enfeebled doctrines of sin, grace, and merit, the most important means of grace thus became subordinated to the meaner ecclesiastical tendencies.

The hierarchical practice, which the laity themselves demanded as a security for grace, preceded the theory by many centuries. In respect of theory there was a special shyness on this point, and an adhering to the evangelical line of thought, that the genuine contrition of the Christian is in itself “sacramental” (see above). In spite of the attempts of Hugo to define the Sacrament of Penance in a stricter ecclesiastical sense (the priest effects forgiveness; but Hugo still demands, on the other side, the perfect contritio), the Lombard as the disciple of Abelard, and Master Roland, too, adhered to the old ecclesiastical theory. Gratian placed the old and new views side by side, without coming to a decision himself.

The Lateran Council of 1215 laid here also the basis of a fixed doctrine. This doctrine appears in perfected form, not yet in Alexander of Hales, but certainly in Thomas. Thomas shows first (in Q. 84) that penance is a Sacrament. In the 1st Art. he starts the objections that there are no corporeal things (corporales res) present, that penance is not dispensed “by ministers of Christ,” but is inwardly wrought by God, and, finally, that we cannot distinguish between sacramentum, res, and res and sacramentum. But he sets aside these objections by pointing to the visible acts of the penitent and of the absolving priest, and by recognising in the former, which are completed by the latter, the materia sacramenti. In the 2nd Art. he shows that these acts are the materia proxima (proximate material), while the sins “to be detested and destroyed” (peccata detestenda et destruenda) are the materia remain (remote material). In the 3rd Art. there follows the fatal proof that the words, “I absolve thee” (ego te absolvo) are the form (forma) of the Sacrament, for “this Sacrament receives its full effect from those things which are spoken by the priest “ (hoc sacramentum perficitur per ea quæ sunt ex parte sacerdotis); but these words of the priest are by appointment of Christ (Matt. 16). Since the Sacraments “effect what they represent” (efficiunt quod figurant), it is not enough in the sacramental absolution to say, “May God have mercy on thee” (misereatur tui deus); “yet such language is also premised in the sacramental absolution, that the effect of the Sacrament may not be hindered on the side of the penitent” (præmittitur tamen etiam in sacramentali absolutione talis oratio, ne impediatur effectus sacramenti ex parte pænitentis). The general rule that God alone forgives sin is not violated by the priest’s absolution, for the priests are “authorised ministers” (this is a makeshift). In Art. 4 the laying on of the hand at confession is dealt with (it is not necessary, as what is contemplated is forgiveness of sins, not the obtaining of positive grace). In Art. 5 the necessity of sacramental penance for anyone guilty of mortal sin is shown: “the salvation of the sinner — that is, that his sin be removed from him — is not possible without the Sacrament of Penance, in which there operates the virtue of Christ’s passion, through absolution of the priest together with the work of the penitent, who co-operates with grace for the destruction of sin.” To this there is further added: “When once anyone has fallen into sin (ex quo aliquis peccatum incurrit), love, faith, and mercy do not deliver the man from sin without penitence (as if they could exist at all without penitence!); for love requires that a man grieve for the offence committed against his friend, and that a man be anxious to satisfy his friend; faith also requires that he seek to be justified from his sins through the virtue of the passion of Christ, which operates in the Sacraments of the Church; rightly directed mercy (misericordia ordinata) also requires that a man find a remedy in his repenting for the misery into which his sin has plunged him (ut homo subveniat pænitendo suæ miseriæ, quam per peccatum incurrit)” (but the necessity of sacramental penance has not thus been proved). In Art. 6 it is shown that penance is “the second plank after shipwreck.” In Art. 8 it is explained that the “pænitentia” does not need to last till the end of life, but only “for a time determined by the measure of the sin” (ad determinatum tempus pro mensura peccati); yet “penitence is twofold, viz., internal and external. That is internal penitence in which one grieves over sin committed, and such penitence ought to last till the close of life. . . . That is external penitence in which one shows external signs of grief, and verbally (verbo tenus) confesses his sins to the priest who absolves him, and makes satisfaction according to the priest’s judgment (juxta ejus arbitrium satisfacit); and such penitence does not need to continue till the end of life, but only for a time determined by the measure of the sin.” In Art. 9 it is shown that a penitence continuous in act (continua secundum actum) is impossible, but that a penitence continuous in habit (secundum habitum) is obligatory. In Art. 10 it is proved that sacramental penance can be repeated; love can be lost through free will; but God’s mercy seeks always to restore it. In Q. 85 there now follows a minute inquiry into penance as “virtue,” and in Q. 86 the effect of penance is dealt with “as regards the remission of mortal sins” (quoad mortalium peccatorum remissionem). Here it is explained in Art. 4 that with the forgiveness of guilt and the cancelling of eternal penalty all the “penal liability” (reatus pœnæ) is not blotted out (“potest remanere”). If sin, that is to say, is departure from God as the supreme good, and “a perverse turning to mutable good” (conversio inordinata ad commutabile bonum), then there follows from the former eternal, from the latter temporal guilt and penalty. Now, although penance takes the eternal guilt and penalty, as well as the temporal guilt, entirely away, yet the temporal penalty may remain; for “in baptism a man attains to (consequitur) a remission of his whole penal guilt (reatus totius pœnæ), but in penance he attains to the virtue of the passion of Christ according to the measure of his own acts (secundum modum propriorum actuum) (this, then, is the ultimate ground of the strange and objectionable view) which are the material of penance (qui sunt materia pænitentiæ); and so it is not always by the first act of penance, by which blame (culpa) is remitted, that liability to the whole penalty is cancelled, but by all the acts of penance when completed” (et ideo non statim per primum actum pænitentiae quo remittitur culpa, solvitur reatus totius pœnæ, sed completis omnibus pænitentiæ actibus). In Q. 87, in which the forgiveness of venial sins through penance is treated, it is shown that to one guilty of mortal sin no venial sins are forgiven, so long as the mortal sin is not blotted out (Art. 4). With Q. 90 begins the inquiry into the “parts of penance.”

As all these thoughts of Thomas were no doubt already common property in his day, so they continued also to be among the Schoolmen. The necessity of priestly absolution, hence also confession before the priest, and, still further, the idea of the effectual action of the priest in the Sacrament, were settled matters. The inner contrition was certainly regarded as res and sacramentum (the res sacramenti is the forgiveness of sins, the Sacrament is the external acts of the penitent and the priests, see Thomas III., Q. 84, Art. 1); but it is not enough, and just because it is not yet enough, the perverse opinion could easily creep in ex contrario, that perfect contrition is, indeed, essential to non-sacramental penitence, but that in the case of sacramental penitence the addition of the Sacrament completes the imperfect contrition. This opinion not merely crept in, it became actually dominant. But in the definition of the particular parts of penance (partes pænitentiæ) a general perversion of the worst kind made its appearance, of which the seeds, indeed, are to be found already in Thomas.

With respect to contrition, no other thought was entertained till the thirteenth century (see above, p. 221 ff.) than that what is alone of account before God is a perfect penitent disposition, i.e., a disposition prompted by love. Contrition as an inner spirit and habit was magnified as an essential Christian virtue, and as “virtue” received elaborate treatment. But it was already pointed out by Alexander of Hales that God has made entrance into the Church easier for man, and he distinguishes attritio (timor servilis [servile fear]) from contritio. This distinction Thomas adopted. He explains, however: “attrition, as is declared by all, is not a virtuous activity” (attritio, ut ab omnibus dicitur, non est actus virtutis). Yet he then defines it in the same article as “in spiritual matters a certain displeasure over sins committed, which, however, is not perfect, but is an approach to perfect contrition” (in spiritualibus quædum displicentia de peccatis commissis, sed non perfecta, [quæ est] accessus ad perfectam contritionem). Prior to him Bonaventura had already said: “For the Sacrament of Penance it is not necessary that he who comes to it has love, or an inclination to love that is sufficient when judged by the standard of truth, provided it be sufficient when judged by the standard of probability; but this disposition is attritio, which, by reason of superadded confession and absolution of the priest, frequently so receives form from grace (formatur per gratiam), that it becomes contritio, or that contritio follows upon it.” This thought Thomas did not adopt; he tacitly rejected it rather, and expressed himself altogether with strictness and earnestness regarding contritio and its necessity in Q. 1-5. Yet the considerations suggested by Alexander of Hales and Bonaventura continued to have their influence. It was especially Scotus who secured currency for the view, that attrition, in itself inadequate, is sufficient for the reception of the Sacrament of Penance, since the Sacrament itself makes the sorrow perfect by “infusion of grace.” On this point the decrees of Trent adopted — though, indeed, only conditionally — the side of the Scotists.

The theologian on confession (before the priest) is Thomas, the Lombard having previously, as Catholic scholars express it, thrown obscurity over the connection between confession and the Sacrament, and over the necessity of the former, an obscurity not yet entirely removed even by Halesius. In Q. 6 (P. III. Suppl.) Thomas has dealt at length with the necessity of confession. In Art. 1 its absolute necessity is proved from the nature of the case; in Art. 2 it is shown that confession is divinely enjoined (juris divini); in 3 it is pointed out that though, according to divine law, only those guilty of mortal sin are obliged to confess, yet according to positive law all Christians must confess at least once a year; in Art. 4 it is laid down that one may not confess sins of which he does not know himself to be guilty; in 5 it is declared that it is not necessary to salvation (de necessitate salutis) to confess sins at once, but that delay is not without danger, and that a regard to Church regulations (times of confession) is advisable; finally in 6 it is proved that a dispensation exempting from confession (for ever) can on no account whatever be given; even the Pope can as little be exempted from confession as he can declare that a man can be saved without baptism.