Part I Chapter I §3: The Seven Sacraments of the New Testament

§3: The Seven Sacraments of the New Testament

SECTION 3 THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT i. Heretical Errors vs. the Teaching of the Church. — After considerable wavering, Protestants finally adopted two Sacraments and two only, viz., Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Against this heretical error the Tridentine Council defined: “If anyone saith that the Sacraments of the New Law … are more or less than seven, to wit: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony, or even that any one of these seven is not truly and properly a Sacrament, let him be anathema.” 1 Hence it is of faith that there are seven Sacraments. Luther at first retained this dogma. But in 1520 he declared that there are but three Sacraments, Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist ; 2 in 1 523 he reduced the number to two, — Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. 1 Sess. VII, can. i : ” Si quis cramentum, anathema sit.” (Dendixerit, sacr amenta novae legis esse zinger-Bannwart, n. 844). plura vel pauciora quam septem, 2 De Captiv. Babyl.: ” Principio vid. baptismum, conftrmationem, neganda mihi sunt septem sacraEucharistiam, poenitentiam, extre- menta et tantum tria pro tempore mam unctionem, ordinem et matri- ponenda: baptismus, poenitentia, pamonium, aut etiam aliquod horum nis” septem non esse vere et proprie sa32 THE NUMBER SEVEN 33 Melanchthon was equally inconsistent. After asserting in the first edition of his Loci Theologici (1522), that there are two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, he later, in his Apologia (A. D. 1530), added ” Absolution ” and ” Ordination.” Zwingli and Calvin invented the two-sacrament theory, which has come to be generally accepted among modern Protestants.8 That there are exactly seven Sacraments, neither more nor less, can be demonstrated by a twofold method : first, by going through the several rites which the Council enumerates, proving that each of these answers the description of a Sacrament, and then showing that the same cannot be said of any other ceremonies. Second, by positively demonstrating that the Church has always believed in just seven Sacraments, neither more nor less. For pedagogical reasons we shall employ the latter method. The belief of the Church may be demonstrated both theologically and historically. 2. The Theological Argument. — For several centuries before the Protestant Reformation, the belief in seven Sacraments was universal throughout the Church. Now, universal belief in a doctrine of so great a theoretical and practical importance is certain proof of its Apostolic origin. Consequently, the belief in seven Sacraments is not a human invention but part and 8 Cfr. Bellarmine, De S act am., II, 23 ; Winer-Ewald, Komparative Darstellung des Lehrbegriffes der verschiedenen christlichen Kitchenparteien, 4th ed., pp. 171 sqq., Leipzig 1882. The Anglo-Catholic school in the Anglican Church believes in seven Sacraments, though the Thirty-nine Articles teach only two — Baptism and the Eucharist. (Cfr. the New Schaff-Herzog Ency elopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. X, p. 144). 34 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL parcel of the deposit of faith handed down by the Apostles. a) The minor premise of this syllogism is based on the infallibility of the Church, which in turn is guaranteed by the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost and our Saviour’s promise to remain with her unto the consummation of the world. Had the Catholic Church ever, even for a moment, deviated from the truth, she would no longer be the Church of Christ. St. Augustine enunciates this truth in the following words: “Whatever is held by the whole Church, and was not introduced by any council, but has always been maintained, is rightly held to rest on the authority of the Apostles.” 4 b) The major premise asserts an historical fact which is easily demonstrable from contemporary documents. a) There is some doubt as to who first drew up our present list of Sacraments. For a while this list was believed to be the work of Radulphus Ardens, who flourished towards the end of the eleventh century, but this assumption has been rendered improbable by the researches of Grabmann.5 Most probably the first traces of ” the Tridentine Seven ” will yet be discovered in the hitherto inedited Libri Sententiarum of the schools of William of Champeaux (d. 1120) and Anselm of Laon (d. 11 18). St. Otto, Bishop of Bamberg (ca. 1127), is reported by his biographer Herbord (d. 1168) to have left to his 4 St. Augustine, De Baptismo, IV, 24 : ” Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec concilUs institutum, sed semper retentum est, nonnisi auctorifate apostolicd traditum rectissime creditur.” 6 Geschichte der scholastischen Methode, Vol. I, p. 250, Freiburg 1909. THE NUMBER SEVEN 35 faithful flock a set of catechetical instructions, in which he speaks of “the seven Sacraments of the Church” and enumerates them just as we have them to-day, though in a somewhat different order.6 At about the same time the learned Bishop Gregory of Bergamo (1133-1146), in a treatise composed against Berengarius, gives the number of Sacraments instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ as seven.7 About the year 11 50, Master Roland, later Pope Alexander III, enumerates seven Sacraments in his Book of Sentences.8 The same number occurs in the statutes of Bishop Richard Poore, A. D. 1217, in the Statuta Edita 1222 of Archbishop Stephen Langton of Canterbury,9 and in the decrees of the provincial councils of Oxford (1222), Clairvaux (1268), London (1272), and Cologne (1280). The synodal constitutions of Odo of Paris, A. D. 11 97, give a detailed explanation of only six Sacraments, but the existence of a seventh (Holy Orders) is plainly demanded by the context.10 Of still greater importance are the doctrinal decisions of various popes and councils, such as the profession of faith prescribed by Innocent III for the Waldenses (A. D. 1210).11 eMigne, P. L., CLXXIII, 1358 sqq.: ” Discessurus a vobis trado vobis, quae tradita sunt nobis a Domino, arrham fidei sanctae inter vos et Deum, septem soil, sacramenta Ecclesiae, quasi septem significativa dona Spiritus Sancti. Ista igitur septem sacramenta, quae iterum vestri causa enumerate libet, i. e. baptismum, confirmationem, infirmorum unctionem, Eucharistiam, lapsorum reconciliationem, coniugium et ordines, per nos humiles suos paranymphos coelestis Sponsus in arrham vestrae dilectionis vobis Ecclesiae ac sponsae suae transmittere dignatus est.* Cfr. Bolland., Acta Sanctorum, t, I, 2 Iul., pp. 396 sqq.; Pertz, Monum. Germ. Hist., Script., XX, 732. 1 * Scire debemus, ea solum esse Ecclesiae sacramenta a Servatore nostro Iesu instituta, quae in medicinam nobis tributa fuere, et haec numero adimplentur septenario.” (Cfr. the Innsbruck Zeitschrift fiir hath. Theologie, 1878, p. 800). 8 Cfr. Gietl, Die Sentenzen Rolands, nachmals Papstes Alexander III., sum erstenmal herausgegeben, pp. 154 sqq., Freiburg 1891. 9 Cfr. Mansi, Concil., XXII, 1173. 10 Cfr. the Mayence Katholik, 19x0, II, pp. 481 sq. 11 Quoted in Denzinger-Bannwart’s Enchiridion, n. 424: ” Ap36 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL At the Council of Lyons, A. D. 1274, the Greek Emperor Michael Palaeologus submitted to Pope Gregory X a profession of faith, in which he acknowledged that ” the Holy Roman Church holds and teaches that there are seven Sacraments, namely Baptism, etc.” 12 The Council of Constance (1418), by order of Martin V,18 drew up a list of questions to be addressed to the followers of Wiclif and Hus, of which numbers 15 to 22 refer to the seven Sacraments as we have them.14 The Council of Florence (A. D. 1439), n &s Decretum pro Armenis, declares that ” there are seven Sacraments of the New Law, vis.: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penzance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.,, 15 ft) The official teaching of the Church was explained and scientifically defended by the Scholastic theologians of the twelfth century, not merely as a theoretical opinion, but as a dogma of the faith practically applied in every-day life. Hugh of St. Victor (1097-1141), in his treatise De Caerimoniis, Sacramentis, Officiis et Observationibus Ecclesiasticis,16 enumerates the seven Sacraments and describes them one by one. Peter Lombard, who flourished at about the same time,17 begins his treatise on the subject with these words: “Now let us enter upon the Sacraments of the New Law, which are : Baptism, Confirmation, the Blessing of Bread or Eucharist, probatnus ergo baptismum infantium, … confirmationem ab episcopo factum, etc.’ 12 Ibid., n. 465 : * Tenet etiam et docet Sancta Romana Ecclesia, sept em esse ecclesiastica sacramenta, unum scil. baptisma, etc.* 13 See the Bull ” Inter Cunctas.” 14 Cfr. Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 665 sqq. 15 ” Novae legis septem sunt sacramenta, vid. baptismus, confirmatio, Eucharistia, poenitentia, extrema unctio, ordo et matrimonium.” (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 695). On the enumeration and proper sequence of the Sacraments see Krawutzky, Zahlung und Ordnung der Sakramente, Breslau 1865. 16 The authorship of this treatise, however, is not quite certain; some ascribe it to Robert Pulleyn. 17 Died A. D. 1164. THE NUMBER SEVEN 37 Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony.” 11 The fact that up to the middle of the thirteenth century various writers, mostly commentators on the Canon Law of the Church, differed in giving the number of the Sacraments, was due partly to the prevailing vagueness in the use of the term ” Sacrament,” and partly to the compilatory character of their writings.10 The great Scholastics, headed by St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas of Aquin, unhesitatingly accepted the teaching of Peter Lombard and were at pains to show the congruity of the septenary number as afterwards defined by the Council of Trent. Thus Dominicus Soto writes : ” There is no question as to the certainty of the number [seven], since that is settled by ecclesiastical tradition and usage ; but we shall inquire into its congruity.” 20 This brief survey shows that the Tridentine definition was simply the solemn confirmation of a doctrine which had been in undisputed possession for at least four centuries before the Protestant Reformation. 3. The Historical Argument. — Any dogmatic truth that has been constantly held by the universal Church, rests on the authority of the Apostles, and consequently, of Christ.21 Now, it 18 Sent., IV, dist. 2, n. 2 : ” lam ad sacramenta novae legis accedamus, quae sunt: baptismus, conUrmatio, pants benedictio, i. e. Eucharistia, poenitentia, unctio extrema, ordo, coniugium.* 18 Cfr. the Katholik, 1909, II, PP. 182 sqq. 20 Comment, in Sent., IV, dist. i, qu. 6, art. 1: * Non quaeritur de numeri certitudine; ilia siquidem Ecclesiae traditione et usu extra disputationem constantissima est; sed de eius convenientid.* 21 Cfr. Tcrtullian, De Praescr., c. 28: * Ceterum quod apud multos unum invenitur, non est erratum, sed traditum.” V. St. Augustine, supra, p. 34, note 4. can be shown that the Church has at all times believed in and administered the seven Sacraments as we have them to-day, and that even the heretical sects which broke loose from Catholic unity in the early centuries, held the same doctrine regarding the number of the Sacraments as that later defined by the Council of Trent. a) It is an historical fact that “the Tridentine Seven” was in undisputed possession at the time of St. Otto of Bamberg, A. D. 1127.22 While the followers of Wiclif and Hus attacked the Catholic teaching with regard to the requisites of validity, claiming that a Sacrament cannot be validly administered by one who is in the state of mortal sin, they never denied that there are seven Sacraments, neither more nor less. b) Going three centuries further back we come to the Greek schism of Photius, A. D. 869. Though this learned heretic was constantly seeking for pretexts to justify the secession of the Greek Church from Rome, he never once accused the Latins of having abolished any of the traditional Sacraments or introduced new ones. Both Churches were so perfectly at one in their belief on this point, even after the schism, that no essential difference of opinion came to light in the repeated efforts for reunion made at Lyons (A. D. 1274) and Florence (A. D. 1439). Though the reunion patched up at Florence came to a bad end, the schismatic Greeks continued to believe in seven Sacraments, as the 22 V. supra, No. i, pp. 32 sq.

THE NUMBER SEVEN 39 Lutherans found to their sorrow when they tried to ” convert ” them. Jeremias, Patriarch of Constantinople, in I573t politely but firmly rejected the overtures of Martin Crusius and Jacob Andrea, of the theological faculty of Tubingen, and in a long letter refuted the Lutheran innovations point for point. He said inter alia: ” We solemnly affirm that the holy Fathers have handed down to us … seven divine Sacraments, viz.: Baptism, Anointment with Sacred Chrism, Holy Communion, Order, Matrimony, Penance, and the Oil of the last Unction, … neither more nor less… . And all these means of our salvation have been handed down to us by Christ Himself, our Lord God, and His Apostles.” 28 When, in 1581, the Tubingen divines again appealed to Jeremias, he bluntly told them to cease their fruitless efforts.24 Half a century later an attempt was made by a traitor to force the Protestant heresy on the Greek Church. Cyril Lucar, a Greek priest, who had espoused Calvinism and somehow managed to intrigue his way into the patriarchal see of Constantinople, in a Calvinistic confession of faith which he drew up in Latin, in 1629, and subsequently translated into Greek, asserted that there are but two Sacraments. The Greek Church at once took alarm, and Cyril was sent into exile ( 1634) . In 1637 he purchased his return by bribery 23 V. Arnaud, Perpetuity de la Foi, t. V, 1. 1, c. 3: ” Dicimus praeclare nobis sanctos tradidisse Patres, … septem divina sacrament a esse, baptismum scil., sacri chrismatis unctionem, sacram communion em, ordinem, matrimonium, poenitentiam et extremae unctionis oleum, … non plura nec pauciora esse… . Et haec quidem omnia sahitis nostrae remedia ipse Iesus Christus Deus et Dominus noster tradidit et sancti eius Apostoli” 24* Rogamus itaque vos, ne posthac labores nobis exhibeatis neque de iisdem scribatis et scripta mitt at is.* For further particulars concerning this remarkable correspondence between the Lutheran divines of Tubingen and the Patriarch of Constantinople, see Schelstrate, Acta Orient. Ecclesiae contra Lutheri Haeresim, I, 151 sqq., 202 sqq., 246 sqq., Rome 1739. and succeeded in having himself reinstated. Thereupon the indignation of both clergy and people against the man who dared to set his private opinion above the common belief of the faithful could no longer be restrained. The unworthy Patriarch was condemned by a council at Constantinople (A. D. 1638), and, being moreover suspected of favoring an invasion of the Turkish Empire by the Cossacks, was strangled by order of the Sultan and his body cast into the sea. His ” Confession of Faith ” was condemned and anathema passed upon him by a synod assembled at Constantinople in September, 1638.25 Four years later, at a council held under the presidency of Parthenius, who was a cordial hater of Rome, there was adopted a Confessio Fidei Orthodoxae drawn up by Peter Mogilas, metropolitan of Kieff , in which the Latin doctrine as to the number of Sacraments held a prominent place. This important symbol in the following year received the official signatures of all four Oriental patriarchs and of numerous bishops, and was solemnly approved by a council held at Jerusalem in 1672. These official declarations find their practical confirmation in the liturgical books of the Orthodox Church, both ancient and modern,26 and are not denied even by such radical schismatic theologians as Simon of Thessalonica (d. 1429), Gabriel of Philadelphia, Meletius Syrigus, Coresius, and his pupil Georgios Protosynkellos. Only a few years ago the Orthodox Provost Maltzew, of the Russian embassy in Berlin, wrote : ” While the Roman Church and all the heterodox Oriental churches are in perfect agreement with the Orthodox Catholic 25 Cfr. Alzog-Pabisch-Byrne, Man- 26 Cfr. Goar, Euchologium sive ual of Universal Church History, Rituale Graecorum, Paris 1647. Vol. Ill, 5th ed., pp. 465 sqq., Cincinnati 1899.

THE NUMBER SEVEN 41 Church of the East in regard to the doctrine that there are seven Sacraments, the sects based on the Protestant Reformation admit but two, and interpret even these in a different sense from the Orthodox Church.” 27 In view of the origin of the Greek schism and the great animosity existing between the two churches, it is impossible to assume that the doctrine of the seven Sacraments was borrowed by the West from the East, or vice versa; both churches must have derived it from a common source before the Orient severed its connection with the Latin Church. In other words, the Church of Christ had her seven Sacraments long before the time of Photius.28 c) Another step takes us back to that agitated period when the Nestorians and the Monophysites broke away from Catholic unity. a) Did these ancient heretics hold any other doctrine as to the number of Sacraments than that defined at Trent ? No. Their liturgical books contain the Catholic dogma in all its purity, and thus furnish clear and indisputable evidence that it antedates the fifth century, when these sects separated from the Church. P) This argument loses nothing of its force by the curious circumstance that, in the course of ecclesiastical history, a few individual writers belonging to these sects have rejected one or the other Sacrament and substi27 Maltzew, Die Sakramente der Sacraments among the Nestorians orthodox-katholischen Kirche des and Monophysites may be studied in Morgenlandes, p. C, Berlin 1898. Assemani’s Bibliotheca Orient,, vols. 28 The rites of the Copts, Syrians, II and III. Much valuable material and Armenians have been collected is also furnished by Arnaud in his and published by Denzinger, Ritus great work Perpetuite de la Foi, vol. Orientalium, 2 vols., Wurzburg III, 1. 8, c. 18 sqq. 1863 sqq. The administration of the

THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL tuted in its place some ceremony or rite which the Church has never acknowledged as sacramentary. The very fact that these innovators never deviated from the number seven, proves that there were seven Sacraments, neither more nor less, from the beginning. The Greek monks Job and Damascene of Thessalonica, e. g., after arbitrarily adding the monastic habit 29 to the list of Sacraments, restored the traditional number seven by contracting Penance and Extreme Unction into one (Job) or striking Penance entirely from the list (Damascene). Equally characteristic is the procedure of Vartanus, a thirteenthcentury Armenian of Monophysitic proclivities, who substituted the “burial service ” 80 to fill the vacancy he had created in the roster of Sacraments by fusing Penance with Extreme Unction. These authors got their new * Sacraments 99 from a misunderstood passage in the writings of Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, where the four * consecratory ” Sacraments — Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, and Holy Orders — are immediately followed by the rite for the blessing of altars, the monastic habit, benediction, and the funeral service. It is not so easy to explain how the Nestorian Ebed Jesu (d. 1318) came to deny the Sacraments of Matrimony and Extreme Unction and to replace them by the Sign of the Cross 81 and the ” Holy Ferment,” whatever that may have meant.82 Perhaps these and similar vagaries owed their origin to the ignorance of hermits who were far removed from the centres of ecclesiastical learning and deprived of even ordinary means of instruction.83 The genuine doctrine of these sects and their authentic practice must be studied in the liturgical books which 29 Habitus sacer s. monasticus, 82 Sacrum fermentum. Ka\oyopuci) % rb fiiya exit10” 88 °n the ignorance of the Copts 80 Funus super defunctos. cfr. the Bollandist P. Sollerius, S. 81 Signum vivificae cruris. J., Acta Sanctor., t. V, pp. 140 sqq.

THE NUMBER SEVEN 43 contain the primitive rites of the Sacraments, as stated under a).84 d) If the belief of the Church in regard to such an important dogma as the number of the Sacraments instituted by Christ, had undergone any essential change between the Apostolic age and the time of Nestorius, this change, whether slow or sudden, would necessarily have left its traces in history. The bishops and the faithful of the first four centuries jealously guarded the purity of the Apostolic deposit, especially in those matters which involved daily practice. The learned and zealous Fathers who did not hesitate to shed their blood in defense of the orthodox faith against the anti-Trinitarian and Christological heresies, would surely have sounded the alarm had anyone tried to tamper with the doctrine of the Sacraments. Even if, for argument’s sake, we were to grant that the primitive Church knew but two or three Sacraments, it would have been impossible, aside from her infallibility and indefectibility, for any innovator to introduce a complete set of new sacramental rites without incurring the determined opposition of bishops, priests, and people. Hence we may safely conclude with Father Hunter that ” the doctrine now held by all who reject the authority of the Tridentine Council, is certainly not Apostolic nor traditional; it is a novelty no older than the sixteenth century; it is therefore a freshly introduced doctrine, resting on the authority of Luther or some of his con84 Page 41, supra. For further information on this topic see Franzelin, De Sacram. in Genere, thes. 20. temporaries : it is therefore not to be received, unless the teacher produce his credentials as a divine messenger, and this he is unable to do.” 85 The Catholic doctrine that there are seven Sacraments is of Apostolic origin, and hence derived from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.86 4. Why There are Just Seven Sacraments. — As there ar£ reasons of congruity for the existence of Sacraments under the Christian dispensation,37 so there are reasons why there should be precisely seven, neither more nor less. a) The human intellect is not, of course, able to establish this number with mathematical certainty on a priori grounds. Absolutely speaking, God had it in His power to institute as many Sacraments as He pleased. But it is easy to see, a posteriori, that the septenary admirably corresponds to the practical needs of man’s composite nature. This was admitted even by Goethe, pagan though he was.88 We will not enter into useless 85 S. J. Hunter, S. J., Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, Vol. Ill, p. 178. 86 The argument from prescription for the septenary number of the Sacraments is very a)>ly set forth by Card. Bellarmine, De Sacratn., II, 23 sqq. The student will also profit by consulting Heinrich-Gutberlet, Dogmatische Theologie, Vol. IX, 9 soo. 37 V, supra, pp. 30 sq. 88 See the famous passage in his Autobiography, tr. by J. Oxenford, Vol. I, pp. 239 sqq., Philadelphia, 1882: “In moral and religious, as well as in physical and civil matters, man does not like to do anything on the spur of the moment; he needs a sequence from which results habit; what he is to love and to perform, he cannot represent to himself as single or isolated; and, if he is to repeat anything willingly} it must not have become strange to him. If the Protestant worship lacks fulness in general, so let it be investigated in detail, and it will be found that the Protestant has too few sacraments, — nay, indeed, he has only one in which he is himself an actor,— the Lord’s Supper; for baptism he sees only when it is performed on others, and is not greatly edified by it. The sacraments are the highest part of THE NUMBER SEVEN 45 speculations about the ” mystic number seven/’ but merely note that there is a remarkable analogy between the natural life of the body and the supernatural life of the soul, to both of which the Sacraments so wonderfully minister. religion, the symbols to our senses of an extraordinary divine favor and grace. In the Lord’s Supper earthly lips are to receive a divine Being embodied, and partake of a heavenly, under the form of an earthly nourishment. This import is the same in all kinds of Christian churches: whether the sacrament is taken with more or less submission to the mystery, with more or less accommodation as to that which is intelligible, it remains a great, holy thing, which in reality takes the place of the possible or the impossible, the place of that which man can neither attain nor do without. But such a sacrament should not stand alone: no Christian can partake of it with the true joy for which it is given, if the symbolical or sacramental sense is not fostered within him. He must be accustomed to regard the inner religion of the heart and that of the external church as perfectly one, as the great universal sacrament, which again divides itself into so many others, and communicates to these parts its holiness, indestructibility, and eternity. ” Here a youthful pair join hands, not for a passing salutation or for the dance: the priest pronounces his blessing upon them, and the bond is indissoluble. It is not long before this wedded pair bring a likeness to the threshold of the altar: it is purified with holy water, and so incorporated into the church, that it cannot forfeit this benefit but through the most monstrous apostasy. The child in the course of life goes on progressing in earthly things of his own accord, in heavenly things he must be instructed. Does it prove on examination that this has been fully done, he is now received into the bosom of the church as an actual citizen, as a true and voluntary professor, not without outward tokens of the weightiness of this act. Now, only, he is decidedly a Christian, now for the first time he knows his advantages and also his duties. But, in the mean time, a great deal that is strange has happened to him as a man: through instruction and affliction he has come to know how critical appears the state of his inner self, and there will constantly be a question of doctrines and of transgressions; but punishment shall no longer take place. For here, in the infinite con-, fusion in which he must entangle himself, amid the conflict of natural and religious claims, an admirable expedient is given him, in confiding his deeds and misdeeds, his infirmities and doubts, to a worthy man, appointed expressly for that purpose, who knows how to calm, to warn, to strengthen him, to chasten him likewise by symbolical punishments, and at last, by a complete washing away of his guilt, to render him happy, and to give him back, pure and cleansed, the tablet of his manhood. Thus prepared, and purely set at rest by several sacramental acts, which on closer examination branch forth again into minuter sacramental traits, he kneels down to receive the host; and, that the mystery of this high act may be 46 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL St. Thomas develops this thought in the third part of the Summa: ” The Sacraments of the Church were instituted for a twofold purpose: namely, in order to perfect man in still enhanced, he sees the chalice only in the distance: it is no common eating and drinking that satisfies, it is a heavenly feast, which makes him thirst after heavenly drink. M Yet let not the youth believe that this is all he has to do: let not even the man believe it. In earthly relations we are at last accustomed to depend on ourselves; and, even there, knowledge, understanding, and character will not always suffice: in heavenly things, on the contrary, we have never finished learning. The higher feeling within us, which often finds itself not even truly at home, is, besides, oppressed by so much from without, that our own power hardly administers all that is necessary for counsel, consolation, and help. But, to this end, that remedy is instituted for our whole life; and an intelligent, pious man is continually waiting to show the right way to the wanderers, and to relieve the distressed. ” And what has been so well tried through the whole life, is now to show forth all its healing power with tenfold activity at the gate of death. According to a trustful custom, inculcated from youth upwards, the dying man receives with fervor those symbolical, significant assurances; and there, where every earthly warranty fails, he is assured, by a heavenly one, of a blessed existence for all eternity. He feels perfectly convinced that neither a hostile element nor a malignant spirit can hinder him from clothing himself with a glorified body, so that, in immediate relation with the Godhead, he may partake of the boundless happiness which flows forth from Him. ” Then, in conclusion, that the whole man may be made holy, the feet also are anointed and blessed. They are to feel, even in the event of possible recovery, a repugnance to touching this earthly, hard, impenetrable soil. A wonderful elasticity is to be imparted to them, by which they spurn from under them the clod of earth which hitherto attracted them. And so, through a brilliant cycle of equally holy acts, the beauty of which we have only briefly hinted at, the cradle and the grave, however far asunder they may chance to be, are joined in one continuous circle. ” But all these spiritual wonders spring not, like other fruits, from the natural soil, where they can neither be sown nor planted nor cherished. We must supplicate for them from another region, — a thing which cannot be done by all persons nor at all times. Here we meet the highest of these symbols, derived from pious tradition. We are told that one man may be more favored, blessed, and sanctified from above than another. But, that this may not appear as a natural gift, this great boon, bound up with a heavy duty, must be communicated to others by one authorized person to another; and the greatest good that a man can attain, without his having to obtain it by his own wrestling and grasping, must be preserved and perpetuated on earth by spiritual THE NUMBER SEVEN things pertaining to the worship of God according to the Christian life, and to be a remedy against the defects caused by sin. And in either way it is becoming that there should be seven Sacraments. For spiritual life has a certain conformity with the life of the body: just as other corporeal things have a certain likeness to things spiritual. Now man attains perfection in the corporeal life in two ways : first, in regard to his own person ; secondly, in regard to the whole community of the society in which he lives, for man is by nature a social animal. With regard to himself man is perfected in the life of the body in two ways: first, directly {per se), i. e. by acquiring some vital perfection; secondly, indirectly {per accidens), i. e. by the removal of hindrances to life, such as ailments or the like. Now the life of the body is perfected directly, in three ways. First, by generation, whereby a man begins to be and to live : and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is Baptism, which is a spiritual regeneration… . Secondly, by growth, whereby a man is brought to perfect size and strength : and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is Confirmation, in which the Holy Ghost is given to inheritance. In the very ordination of the priest is comprehended all that is necessary for the effectual solemnizing of those holy acts by which the multitude receive grace, without any other activity being needful on their part than that of faith and implicit confidence. And thus the priest joins the line of his predecessors and successors, in the circle of those anointed with him, representing the highest source of blessings, so much the more gloriously, as it is not he, the priest, whom we reverence, but his office; it is not his nod to which we bow the knee, but the blessing which he imparts, and which seems the more holy, and to come the more immediately from heaven, because the earthly instrument cannot at all weaken or invalidate it by its own sinful, nay, wicked nature. “How is this truly spiritual conception shattered to pieces in Protestantism, by part of the above-mentioned symbols being declared apocryphal, and only a few canonical!— and how, by their indifference to one of these, will they prepare us for the high dignity of the others. ” 48 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL strengthen us… . Thirdly, by nourishment, whereby life and strength are preserved to man : and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is the Eucharist… . This would be enough for man if he had an impassible life, both corporally and spiritually ; but since man is liable at times to both corporal and spiritual infirmity, i. e. sin, he needs a cure for his infirmity. This ;cure is twofold. One is the healing that restores health: and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is Penance… . The other is the restoration of former vigor by means of suitable diet and exercise : and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is Extreme Unction, which removes the remainders of sin and prepares man for final glory. … In regard to the whole community, man is perfected in two ways. First, by receiving power to rule the community and to exercise public acts : and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is the Sacrament of Order… . Secondly, in regard to natural propagation. This is accomplished by Matrimony both in the corporal and in the spiritual life: since it is not only a Sacrament but also a function of nature. ” We may likewise gather the number of the Sacraments from their being instituted as a remedy against the defect caused by sin. For Baptism is intended as a remedy against the absence of spiritual life ; Confirmation, against the infirmity of soul found in those of recent birth ; the Eucharist, against the soul’s proneness to sin; Penance, against actual sin committed after Baptism; Extreme Unction, against the remainders of sins, — of those sins, namely, which are not sufficiently removed by Penance, whether through negligence or through ignorance ; Order, against divisions in the community ; Matrimony, as a remedy against concupiscence in the individ 

THE NUMBER SEVEN 49 ual, and against the decrease in numbers that results from death.” 89 This beautiful argument has been as it were officially approved and consecrated by the Church through its embodiment in the Decretum pro Armenis (1439) 40 an(l the Roman Catechism.41 b) The Scholastics, from Peter Lombard to Suarez, devoted much ingenuity to demonstrating the intrinsic fitness of the septenary number of the Sacraments. Perhaps the most original conception is that of St. Bonaventure, who argues from the vicissitudes to which every Christian is subject in his capacity as a soldier of Christ. ” Baptism/’ he says, ” is [the Sacrament] of those that enter the army ; Confirmation, that of the combatants engaged in actual battle ; the Eucharist, that of the soldiers regaining strength ; Penance, that of the fighters arising from defeat ; Extreme Unction, that of the departing ; Order, that of the officers charged with training new soldiers ; Matrimony, that of the men whose business it is to furnish recruits.” 42 He proves the same thesis from the functions of the different Sacraments as remedies for various diseases of the soul: “There are seven different 80 Sumtna Theol., 3a, qu. 65, art. 1. 40 Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 69s : “Novae legis sept em sunt sacramenta… . Horum quinque prima ad spiritnalem uniuscuiusque hominis in seipso perfectionem, duo ultima ad totius Ecclesiae regimen multiplicationemque ordinata sunt. Per baptismum enim spiritualiter renascimur; per confir,mationem augemur in gratia et roboramur in fide; renati autem et roborati nutrimur divinae Eucharistiae alimonid; quodsi per peccatum aegritudinem incurrimus animae, per poenitentiam spiritualiter sanamur; spiritualiter etiam et corporaliter, prout animae expedit, per extremam unctionem. Per ordinem vero Ecclesia gubernatur et multiplicatur spiritualiter; per matrimonium corporaliter augetur.” 41 P. II, c. 1, n. 18. 42 Breviloquium, P. VI, cap. 3: ” Baptismus est ingredientium, confirmatio pugnantium, Eucharistia vires resumentium, poenitentia resurgentium, extrema unctio exeuntium, ordo novos milites introduces tium, matrimonium novos milites praeparantium” 5o THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL kinds of diseases, three of guilt, viz. : original sin, mortal sin, and venial sin; and four of punishment, viz.: ignorance, malice, infirmity, and concupiscence… . Against each of these special remedies must be applied… . Baptism, against original sin ; Penance, against mortal sin ; Extreme Unction, against venial sin; Order, against ignorance ; the Eucharist, against malice ; Confirmation, against infirmity ; and Matrimony, against concupiscence.” 43 Combining the three theological with the four cardinal virtues into a series of seven, the Saint draws a parallel between them and the Sacraments, as follows : ” Baptism disposes for faith, Confirmation for hope, the Eucharist for charity, Penance for justice, Extreme Unction for perseverance, which is the complement and sum of fortitude, Holy Orders for prudence, and Matrimony for temperance.,, 44 c) To compare the seven Sacraments with the seven capital sins 45 or with the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, is rather far-fetched. The mythological interpretation of the number seven as the outward embodiment of the ” seven eyes of God,” i. e. the planets, may be explained by the fact that the coryphaei of Scholasticism were ignorant of the apocalyptic and cabalistic juggling at48 Ibid. : ” Morbus est septiformis: triplex culpabUis, scil. culpa originalis, mortalis et venialis, et quadruplex poenalis: scil. ignorantia, tnalitia, infirmitas et concupiscentia… . Hinc est quod oportuit adhiberi • . . contra originalem baptismum, contra mortalem poenitentiam, contra venialem unctionem extremam; contra ignorantiam ordinem, contra malitiam Eucharistiam, contra infirtnitatetn confirmationem et contra concupiscentiam matrimonium,” 44 Ibid. : ” Baptismus disponit ad fidem, confirtnatio ad spent, Eucharistia ad caritatem; poenitentia ad iustitiam, unctio extrema ad pet sever antiam, quae est fortitudinis completnentum et summa, ordo ad prudentiam, matrimonium ad temper antiam conservandom.” Cfr. P. Minges, O.F.M., Compendium Theol. Dogmat. Specialis, Vol. II, p. 12, Munich 1901. 45 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 65, art. 5. THE NUMBER SEVEN 51 tributed to them by modern writers on the history of comparative religion.46 5. Certain Patristic Difficulties Solved. — Though the Sacraments were in use from the beginning, and references to all of them occur in the writings of the Fathers, there is nowhere to be found in Patristic literature an express statement that there are exactly seven, neither more nor less. It may be asked : Why was the work of synthesis left to the Scholastics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries? Several reasons account for the silence of the Fathers on this head: (1) the conditions of the time, (2) the discipline of the secret, and (3) the fact that sacramental theology developed rather slowly. a) The silence of the Fathers with regard to the number of the Sacraments proves nothing against the ” Tridentine Seven.” One may own a lot of precious gems without making an inventory of them. We shall briefly explain the reasons why it never occurred to the writers of the Patristic period to draw up a formal list of the Sacraments. a) The circumstances of the time were not favorable to the double task of working out a scientific definition and applying it to the various rites in use. ” From the 46 The analogy between the seven Sacraments and the seven capital sins is very popular among the schismatic Greeks. On the whole subject of this subdivision cfr. Oswald, Die dogmatische Lehre von den Sakramenten, Vol. I, 5th ed., S 12, Munster 1884; N. Gihr, Die Sakramente der kath, Kirche, Vol, I, 2nd ed„ pp. 173 sqq., Freiburg 1902. beginning the Church has always lived by her Sacraments and has always had faith in their marvelous efficacy, … but she did not from the beginning consider them systematically, ranging them under the concept of efficacious symbols of grace. This was a work of synthesis accomplished only later by theological speculation.” 47 Hence we need not wonder that Tertullian mentions one class of Sacraments and passes over the others in silence,48 or that St. Cyril of Jerusalem treats of three or four without adverting to the existence of the rest.40 The Fathers in each case wrote from a strictly practical point of view, with the intention of satisfying actual needs, such as the instruction of the faithful or catechumens and the refutation of heretics.50 Usually it is the teaching of the Church on Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist that is briefly summarized for the benefit of neophytes.51 The general division that naturally suggested itself to the minds of those early writers was that into sacramenta consecratoria and sacramenta medicinalia. The sacrormenta consecratoria (Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, and Holy Orders) 62 claimed their main interest. In limiting their attention to this group, the Fathers by no means wished to deny the existence of the sacramenta medicinalia (Penance, Extreme Unction, and Matrimony).53 P) Another reason why no effort was made in the early days to determine the exact number of the Sacraments, 47 P. Pourrat, Theology of the Sacraments, p. 257, St. Louis 19 14. 48 De Resurrect. Carnis, c. 8. 49 Catech. Mystag. 60 Cfr. Pourrat, op. cit., p. 260. 51 St. Ambrose, De Myst. and De Sacram. 52 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 63, art. 6. 58 For a more detailed treatment see Pourrat, La ThSologie Sacramentaire, pp. 232 sqq., 4th ed., Paris 19 10 (English translation, pp. 259 sqq.); cfr. also J. Scheeben, Die Mysterien des Christentums, 3rd ed.# pp. 507 sqq., Freiburg 1912. THE NUMBER SEVEN 53 was the discipline* arcani, which enjoined secrecy with regard to sacramental rites. The sacred mysteries shrank from the broad daylight which at a later age enabled the Scholastics to analyze them minutely in public. The ” discipline of the secret ” was strictly enforced throughout the Patristic period. Every copy of St. Cyril’s Catecheses 64 bore a notice requesting the owner not to show it to catechumens and non-Christians generally, nor to allow copies to be made without prefixing a similar warning.65 In St. Cyril’s day the faithful were instructed never to speak of the mysteries of their religion in the presence of outsiders.66 The phrase ” norwnt initiati” occurs at least fifty times in the writings of St. Chrysostom. Where he speaks of Baptism he remarks : ” I should like to express myself freely on this subject, but cannot do so on account of the presence of some who are not initiated.* 67 In the West the disciplina arcani survived far into the fifth century. St. Augustine says : * Let not the sacraments of the faithful be revealed to the catechumens.” 68 Pope Innocent the First refused to divulge the formula of Confirmation.58 64 See apud Migne, P. G., XXXIII. 55 ” Catecheses istas illuminatorum iis quidem, qui ad baptismum accedunt et fidelibus qui lavacrum iam susceperunt exhibens, catechumenis et aliis quibuslibet, qui Christiani non sunt, tie dederis; et si harum exemplar transcripseris, per Dominum rogo, hoc monitum praefigas.” (Migne, /. c, 366). 56 St. Cyril, Catech., 6, n. 29: ” De mysteriis neque apud catechumenos palam verba jacimus.* (Migne, /. c, 590). 57 Horn, in 1 Cor., 40, n. 1 : * Volo quidem aperte hoc dicere, sed non possum propter non initiatos.” (Migne, P. G., LXI, 348). The relevant texts collated by Val. Schmitt, Die Verheissung der Eucharistie (Joh. Kap. 6) bei den Antiochenern, Cyrill von Jerusalem und Johannes Chrysostomus, pp. 47 sqq., Wur^burg 1903. 68 Tract, in loa.t 96, n. 3 : * Catechumenis sacramenta fidelium non prodantur* (Migne, P.. L., XXXV, 1857). 59 Apud Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 98: * Verba vero dicere non possum, ne magis prodere videar quam ad consult ationem respondere.* On the discipline of the secret cfr. Schelstrate, De Disciplina Arcani, Rome 1685. See also Dollinger, y) No doubt the development of the septenary number was impeded by the discipline of the secret. But even after that discipline had been abolished, a long time elapsed before the number became definitively fixed. No progress could be made in this direction until a precise definition had been worked out. “For that definition being the unit of the septenary number of the Sacraments, so long as it did not exist, the number could not be given.” 60 The work of synthesis remained for the speculative theologians of a later age. Nor was it an easy matter, because each Sacrament is a complete and independent unit. Thus the Eucharist has no intrinsic connection with Matrimony. Both were in use as efficacious symbols of grace from the very beginning. The double task of working out the generic definition of a Sacrament, and applying it to each of the seven symbols officially in use, proceeded rather slowly. ” Sacramental practice antedates the systematic elaboration of a sacramentary theology. This is to be expected, for the latter is but a scientific statement of the former: lex orandi, lex credendi” 91 Sacramental theology was elaborated in the course of a long process of theological speculation, and the Church did not define the septenary number as an article of faith until the Protestant Reformers had expressly denied it.62 b) A difficulty arises from the fact that St. Ambrose and St. Bernard apparently regarded the washing of feet on Holy Thursday 63 as a SacLehre von der Eucharistie in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, pp. 12 sqq., Mainz 1824; Theo. Harnack, Der christliche Gemeindegottesdienst im apostolischen Zeitalter, pp. 1 sqq., Erlangen 1854; Probst, Kirchliche Dissiplin in den ersten drei Jahrhun* derten, pp. 303 sqq., Tubingen 1873. 60 Pourrat, Theology of the Sacraments, p. 257. 61 Pourrat, /. c, p. 259. 62 Cfr. Franzelin, De Sacram. in Genere, thes. 19. 63 Cfr. John XIII, 8 sqq. THE NUMBER SEVEN 55 rament. That this ceremony is not a Sacrament cannot be convincingly demonstrated except in the light of ecclesiastical Tradition. The Mennonites recognize the lotto pedum as a true Sacrament. In rejecting this teaching modern Protestantism unwittingly employs the Catholic criterion of Tradition. a) St. Ambrose says in his De Mysteriis, VI, 32: ” Mundus erat Petrus, sed plantain lavare debebat; habebat enim primi parentis de successione peccatum, quando eum supplantavit serpens et persuasit errorem. Ideo planta eius abluitur, ut hereditaria peccata tollantur; nostra enim propria per baptismum relaxantur” 64 Does this mean that the washing of feet is a Sacrament ordained for the forgiveness of sins, like Baptism, or do the phrases primi parentis peccatum and hereditaria peccata merely signify concupiscence (fomes peccati) ? Evidently the latter, for St. Ambrose says in another passage : ” Lavemus et pedes, ut calcanei lubricum [that is, concupiscence] possimus auferre, quo fida statio possit esse virtutum! ‘65 More light is thrown on the Saint’s meaning by the anonymous author of the six books De Sacramentis, which is probably “not a later imitation or recension of the De Mysteriis, but the same work published indiscreetly and in an imperfect form by some disciple of Ambrose.” 66 We read there, III, 1,7: ” Qui lotus est, non indiget nisi ut pedes lavet. Quare hoc? Quia in baptismate omnis culpa diluitur. Recedit ergo culpa, sed quia Adam supplantatus est a diabolo et vene* 64 Migne, P. L., XVI, 398. 66 Bardenhewer-Shahan, Patrol65 In Ps., 48, n. 9 (Migne, P. L., ogy, p. 438. XIV, 1 159).

num [concupiscentia] ei effusum est supra pedes, ideo lavas pedes, ut in ea parte, in qua insidiatus est serpens, maius subsidium sanctificationis accedat, quo postea te supplantare non possit. Lavas ergo pedes, ut larves venenum serpentis!’ 67 St. Ambrose’s special interest in the ceremony probably grew out of the custom, in vogue at Milan, of washing the feet of neophytes after Baptism, — a practice unknown at Rome, as Ambrose himself tells us.68 Augustine distinctly asserts that this custom was peculiar to the Church of Milan and that it was rejected and discontinued in many places where it had been adopted.69 The fact thus reliably attested, that the lotio pedum was merely a local and transient practice, is sufficient proof that it was not a Sacrament, for a true Sacrament is universal both as regards time and place. P) In the light of this explanation it is easy to understand how St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) could refer to the lotio pedum as a Sacrament at a time when belief in the septenary number of the Sacraments was already wide-spread. He writes: ” Ut de remissione quotidianorum minime dubitemus, habemus eius sacramentum, pedum ablutionem… . Et unde scimus, quia ad diluenda peccata quae non sunt ad mortem [i. e. venialia] et a quibus plane cavere non possumus ante mortem, ablutio ista pertineat? Ex eo plane quod offerenti manus et caput pariter ad abluendum responsum est: Qui lotus 67 De Sacram., Ill, i, 7 (Migne, P. L., XVI, 433). 68 De Sacram., Ill, 1, 5. ” Ecclesia Romana hanc consuetudinem non habet, cuius typum in omnibus sequimur et formam… . In omnibus cupio sequi Ecclesiam Romanam; sed tamen et nos homines sensum habemus, ideo quod alibi rectius servatur et nos rectius custody mus.* 69 Cfr. St Augustine, Ep. 55 ad Ianuar., n. 33: Sed ne ad ipsum sacramentum baptismi videretur {lotio pedum} pertinere, multi hoc in consuetudine recipere noluerunt; nonnulli etiam de consuetudine auferri non dubitaverunt (Migne, P. L., XXXIII, 220). THE NUMBER SEVEN 57 est, etc.*70 In writing thus he cannot have meant to designate the annual ceremony of washing the feet on Holy Thursday as a true Sacrament. What benefit could the faithful derive from a Sacrament that, having been instituted for the remission of ” daily sins,” was administered only once a year ? Clearly St. Bernard employed the term Sacrament in the wider sense in which it was still used in his day. He regarded the lotto pedum as a ” sacramental.” 71 Readings: — Besides the current text-books on sacramental theology see Val. Grone, Sacramentum oder Begriff und Bedeutung von Sakrament in der alten Kirche bis zur Scholastik, Berlin 1853. — P. Schanz, Der Begriff des Sakramentes bet den Vatern, in the Theologische Quartalschrift of Tubingen, 1891. — P. Schmalzl, Die Sakramente des Alten Testamentes im allgemeinen nach der Lehre des hi. Thomas, Eichstatt 1883. On the number of the Sacraments cfr. H’ahn, Doctrinae Romae de Numero Sacramentorum Septenario Rationes Historicae, Breslau 1859 (Prot.), and against him, Bittner, De Numero Sacramentorum Septenario, Breslau 1859. — Jos. Bach, Die Siebenzahl der Sakramente, Ratisbon 1864. 70 Serm. in Coena Domini, n. 4 cram, in Genere, pp. 289 sqq., and (Migne, P. L., CLXXXIII, 271). Heinrich-Gutberlet, Dogmatische 71 For a fuller treatment of thi9 Theologie, Vol. IX, pp. 21 sqq. subject consult Franzelin, De So