§ 121. The Future State.
§ 121. The Future State.
The unseen world of spirits was divided by the mediaeval theology into five distinct regions or abodes,—receptacula animarum,—as Thomas Aquinas calls them—heaven, hell, purgatory, the limbus patrum, or the temporary abode of the Old Testament saints, and the limbus infantum, or the abode of children who die without being baptized.
Hell, the place of punishment or eternal dolors,1816 is the lake of sulphur and fire in which lost men and demons suffer eternal torment. It is a region of jet darkness, a deep prison as compared with heaven, into which the demons are thrust down.1817 The longings and passions of those confined there go on continually burning and are never satisfied. Its fires burn but do not consume. No other heat can compare with its heat.1818 The Schoolmen are agreed that the passages of Scripture, bearing on the fire of hell, are not figurative. The fire is material fire which afflicts both the spirits and bodies of the lost.1819 The degree of torture is according to the desert.
The limbus patrum corresponds to Abraham’s bosom in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, the place where the worthies of the Old Testament dwelt till Christ descended into hades and released them. Before that time they enjoyed exemption from pain. Since then they have enjoyed heavenly bliss. Circumcision released them from original sin. Hell and this locality are probably in the same region or, at any rate, contiguous.1820 The view, that the patriarchs remained in hades till Christ’s death, goes back to Hermas and Clement of Alexandria.
The limbus puerorum or infantum is the abode of children dying in infancy without having been baptized. They are there for original sin which only baptism can wash away.1821 According to Thomas Aquinas, this region is probably a little lower than the limbus patrum. These children are free from pain, but are like the lost in being deprived of the vision of God and physical light. Theirs is the punishment of eternal death,—supplicium mortis aeternae,—but their damnation is the lightest of all—omnium levissima. They have no hope of beatitude. God, in His justice, provides that they never make any advance nor go back, that they neither have joy nor grief. They remain forever unchanged.1822 Such is the hopeless doom to which the great Dominican and the great Franciscan theologians of the Middle Ages consigned all children dying unbaptized. Strange that the Schoolmen, in the interest of a more merciful doctrine, did not use Christ’s blessed words, "Suffer the little children to come unto me for of such is the kingdom of God." But they did not. The doctrine of original sin and the doctrine of the necessity of water baptism for salvation were carried to their extreme logical conclusions without regard for the superabounding grace of God. So also Augustine had taught and so most of the Reformers taught at a later time.
Christ’s descent into hades was carefully discussed by the Schoolmen. It occurred as soon as his soul was separated from the body at his death. He was in the infernal regions during the three days of his burial, but did not assume their pains. The reason for this visit was twofold, says Bonaventura, —to release the Old Testament saints and to confound the adversaries of the Gospel, the demons.1823 Thomas Aquinas tried to show that, when Job said, Job 17:16, "my hope shall go down to the bars of Sheol," or into the "deepest hell," as the Vulgate puts it, he meant that he went no farther than the limbus patrum and not to the abode of the lost.1824 Christ descended into hades, according to Thomas,1825 for a threefold purpose, to deliver us from the necessity of going there ourselves; to release the Hebrew saints by breaking the bars of hell—vectes inferni,—that is, by "spoiling principalities and powers," Col. 2:15; and third, to make show of his divinity—manifestatio divinitatis — to the demons by preaching, 1 Pet. 3:19, and by enlightening those dark spaces with his presence, as it is said, Ps. 24:7, "Lift up your doors, O ye princes, and the king of glory shall come in." Here again the Vulgate is responsible for a mistake, the word "gates" being translated "princes."1826 Christ’s descent into hades did not help the unbaptized children. After this life it is too late to acquire grace.1827
Purgatory is a sort of reformatory school for baptized Catholics who are not good enough at death to go directly to heaven. They are there in that intermediate region for actual transgressions,1828 whose guilt the sacrament of penance and extreme unction had not fully removed. The existence of purgatory is based mainly upon 2 Mac. 12:40 and the universal teaching of the Church.1829 Its inhabitants belong to the communion of saints and are within the reach of human intercession. Masses for the dead are instituted to meet their case. For infants in the limbus puerorum, such intercessory works are of no avail. But one who has been baptized in infancy or manhood, no matter how flagitious or criminal his career may have been, for him there is hope, nay there is certainty, that in time he will pass out of purgatory into the company of the blessed.
Heaven includes three kinds of rewards, said Bonaventura: the substantial reward or the vision of God; the consubstantial or the glorification of the body to which belong the qualities of transpicuity, lightness, agility, and impassibility which are granted in the degree we exercise love here on earth;1830 and the accidental reward or the ornament of the aureole given for preaching and leading others to salvation, for virginal purity and martyrdom.
The bliss of heaven, said Thomas Aquinas, consists in the immediate vision of God.1831 It is a state from which there will be no lapse. The beatified know what is occurring on earth, hear the prayers that ascend to them, and by their merits intercede for their brethren here. St. Bernard, in his homilies on the Canticles,1832 and Anselm1833 give us lofty descriptions of the blessedness of the heavenly estate. And the satisfaction and glory of the soul in heaven has never been quite so well portrayed as in the poem of Bernard of Cluny:—
O sweet and blessed country, the home of God’s elect,
O sweet and blessed country, that eager hearts expect;
Jesus in mercy bring us to that sweet land of rest,
To be with God the Father and Spirit ever blest.
It remained for Dante to give to the chilling scholastic doctrines of purgatory and the lower regions a terrible reality in poetical form and imagery and also to describe the beatific vision of paradise.
The remarkable vision which a certain Englishman, Turchill, had of the future world, as related at length by Roger of Wendover1834 and others, reveals the crass popular ideas of the future state. St. Julian appeared to this honest laborer, and took him off to "the middle of the world," where they entered a church which, as Turchill was told, received the souls of all those who had recently died. Mary, through her intercession, had brought it about that all souls born again should, as soon as they left the body, be taken to this church and so be freed from the attacks of demons. Near one of the church walls was the entrance to hell through which came a most foul stench. Stretching from another wall was the great lake of purgatorial fire in which souls were immersed, some to their knees, some to their necks. And above the lake was a bridge, paved with thorns and stakes, over which all had to pass before they could arrive at the mount of joy. Those who were not assisted by special masses walked over the bridge very slowly and with excruciating pain. On the mount was a great and most wonderful church which seemed to be large enough to contain all the inhabitants of the world. St. Nicolas, St. James, and other saints had charge of the church of Mary and the purgatorial lake and bridge. Turchill also saw St. Peter in the church of Mary and before him the souls were brought to receive sentence. The devil and his angels were there to hurry off to the infernal regions those whose evil deeds tipped the balances. Turchill was also taken by a certain St. Domninus to behold the sports the devils indulge in. Coming to the infernal realm, they found iron seats, heated to a white heat and with nails driven in them, on which an innumerable multitude was sitting. Devils were sitting around against the walls poking fun at the unfortunate beings for the evils they had been guilty of in this life. Men of different occupations and criminal practices, the soldier, tradesman, priest, the adulterer, thief, and usurer, were then brought forth and made to enact over again their wicked deeds, after which their flesh was fiercely torn by the demons and burnt, but again restored. Such are the popular pictures which form the vestibule of Dante’s Inferno.
Of all the gruesome religious tales of the Middle Ages, the tales representing the devil as torturing the naked soul were among the most gruesome. The common belief was that the soul, an entity with form as the Schoolmen defined it, is at death separated from the body. Caesar of Heisterbach tells of an abbot of Morimond with whose soul the demons played ball, rolling it from hill to hill, across the valley between, until God allowed the soul to enter the body again. This was before the abbot became a monk.
Another of these stories, told by Caesar of Heisterbach,1835 concerned a student to whom the devil gave a stone. As long as the student held it in his hand, he had supernatural knowledge. When he died, his body was taken to the church, and while his fellow-students stood around it singing, the devil carried his soul to hell. There the demons played ball with it. Their sharp claws stuck deep into it and gave it unspeakable pain. But, at the intercession of the saints, the Lord rescued the soul and reunited it with the body and the young man suddenly arose from his bier. In 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.1836
The severity of the purgatorial pains is vouched for in this story by Thomas of Chantimpré,1837 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.
Such stories are numerous and reveal the coarse theology which was current in convent and among the people.
Some idea of the importance attached to the subject of the sacraments may be derived from the space given by the Schoolmen to their treatment. Hugo of St. Victor gives 440 columns, Migne’s ed., 176. 183-617, the Lombard 90 columns out of the 462 of his Sentences, Bonaventura 1003 pages out of 3875 of his System of Theology, Peltier’s ed. and Thomas Aquinas 670 columns out of 4854 of his Summa, Migne, IV. 543-1217. Dr. Charles Hodge’s System. Theol. devotes 207 pages out of its 2260 to the sacraments, Dr. Shedd’s Dogm. Theol. 25 pages out of 1348, Dr. E. V. Gerhart’s Institutes 84 pages out of 1666, and Dr. A. H. Strong’s Sys. Theol. 30 out of 600 pages.
Others about the time of Peter the Lombard had given the number as seven, as Rolandus (afterwards Alexander III.) in his Sentences and Otto of Bamberg in a sermon, 1158, reported by his biographer Herbord.
Migne, 176. 127 sqq. Hugo follows up the treatment of the five sacraments with a treatment of marriage, but I do not see that he calls it a sacrament.
De sacr., II. 9, Migne, 176. 473. The aqua aspersionis, or water of sprinkling mixed with salt, Hugo derived from Alexander, fifth pope from Peter. The sprinkling of ashes on the head, susceptio cineris, he placed under "the minor sacraments," but in his definition calls it an "ecclesiastical rite," as he does also the use of palm branches on Palm Sunday; Migne, 176. 423.
Migne, IV. 597, 1025.
Hergenröther, Kathol. Kirchenrecht., pp. 667 sq.
Alb. Magnus has a long treatment, Cur sint sacr. septem, In IV. Sent., I. 2, vol. XXIX. 6-11.
SeeBonaventura, Brevil., Vl. 3, Peltier’s ed., VII. 314; Thomas Aq.,Summa, Migne’s ed., IV. 594. sq.
Bonaventura, Brevil., VI. 3; Th. Aq., Summa, III. 63. 1, Migne’s ed., IV. 571.
Th. Aq., Summa, III. 62. 6, Migne, IV. 569, Sacramenta veteris legis non habebant in se aliquam virtutem qua operarentur ad conferendam gratiam justificantem. See for quotations from the Sentences of Thomas, Loofs, p. 301.
In IV. Sent., I. 21, vol. XXIX. 37.
Abaelard, Introd. ad Theol., Migne’s ed., p. 984, had quoted this definition. Albertus Magnus and other Schoolmen subsequent to Hugo, after quoting Augustine, usually quote Hugo, e.g. Peter the Lombard and Th. Aq, III. 66. 1.
De sacr., I. 9. 4, Migne, 176. 325.
Brevil., VI., Peltier’s ed., VII. 311-330. The Lombard, Alb. Magnus, Th. Aquinas, etc., also use the illustration of medicine.
Interiorem sacramentorum effectum operatur Christus, III. 64. 3, Migne, IV. 583.
Sacr. justificant et gratiam conferunt ex opere operato. See references in Schwane, p 581.
Summa, III. 62. 1, Migne, IV. 562, causa vero instrumentalis non agit per virtutem suae formae sed solum per motum quo movetur a principali agente.
Migne, IV. 568 sq. Virtus passionis Christi copulatur nobis per fidem et sacramenta.
Ecclesia sicut sacramenta a Christo accepit sic ad fidelium salutem dispensat. Breviloq., VI. 5, Peltier’s ed., VII. 316.
See Seeberg, Duns Scotus, pp. 356-358.
Non requiritur bonus motus qui mereatur gratiam sed sufficit quod suscipiens non ponat obicem. In Sent., IV. 1. 6, quoted by Schwane, p. 581. Nisi impediat indispositio, quoted by Seeberg, p. 343.
Susceptio est dispositio sufficiens ad gratiam. Seeberg, p. 349. For the differences between the Thomists and Scotists on the sacraments, see also Harnack, II. 483
Ministri ecclesiae possunt sacramenta conferre etiamsi sint mali. Th. Aq., Migne’s ed., IV. 586. 821, 824.
Ministri non gratiam conferunt sua virtute, sed hoc facit Christus sua potestate per eos sicut per quaedam instrumenta. Th. Aq., III. 64. 5, Migne, IV. 586.
Seeberg, p. 350.
Brevil., Peltier’s ed., p. 317. The illustration is carried out at length and is very interesting as an example of pious mediaeval homiletics.
Th. Aq., III. 65. 4, Migne, IV. 601.
See also Duns Scotus, see Seeberg, p. 338.
De sacr., II. 9, 5, Migne, 176. 325. potuit Deus hominem salvare si ista non instituisset, sed homo nullatenus salvari posset si ista contemneret.
Janua omnium aliorum sacramentorum. Bonavent., Brevil. VII., Peltier’s ed., p. 318; Th. Aq., Summa, III. 62. 6, Migne, IV. 569; Supplem. XXXV. 1, Migne, IV. 1047.
Baptismus qui est regeneratio hominis in vitam spiritualem. Th. Aq., III. 66. 9; 67. 3; 68. 9; 72. 1, Migne, IV. 617, 626, 646, 678.
Omne peccatum per baptismum tollitur. Th. Aq., 69. 1, Migne, p. 652. Baptismus institutus est contra vulnus originalis peccati. Alanus ab Insulis cont. haer., I. 39, 43, Migne, 210. 345, 347.
Brevil. VI., Peltier’s ed., p. 318; Th. Aq., III. 66. 6, Migne, p. 611, quicquid desit ad plenam invocationem trinitatis tollit integritatem baptismi.
They were allowed to use the vernacular in the ceremony. Synods of Treves, 1227, Mainz, 1233. And priests were instructed to teach laymen the baptismal ceremony in the vulgar tongue that they might use it if the exigency arose. Fritzlar, 1243, Hefele, V. 1099. A child taken from its mother after her death, and itself dead, was to be buried unbaptized in unconsecrated ground Treves, 1310.
Th. Aq., III. 67. 4 sq., Migne, IV. 628 sq.
Pueri non se ipsos sed per actum eccl. salutem suscipiunt. Th. Aq., III. 68. 9, Migne, 646; Bonavent., Brevil. VII. Peltier’s ed., VII. 320; Duns Scotus, see Seeberg, p. 360.
P. Lomb., IV. 6. 2, Migne, II. 853. Th. Aq., Migne, IV. 649, and Duns Scotus (Seeberg, p. 360) agree that if the head of the infant protrude from the womb, it may be baptized, for the head is the seat of the immortal agent.
Th. Aq., Migne, IV. 648. One reason Duns gives is that the children of such Jews, if they are well educated, turn out to be good Christians (vere fideles) in the third and fourth generations. Seeberg, p. 364.
Summa, V. 6, Migne, 176. 132.
In Sent., IV. 4, 3. 3, Paris ed., XVI. 406, 410.
Seeberg p. 359, Summa, III. 66. 7, Migne, IV. 613 sq.; P. Lomb., IV. 3, 8, Migne, II. 845; Bonav., Brevil. VII., Peltier’s ed., p. 319, Duns Scotus. In IV. Sent., vol. XVI. 272. Gregory IX., on being asked by the archbishop of Drontheim whether a certain baptism administered with beer was valid, water not being at hand, replied in the negative. Potthast, 11,048. The synod of Aurillac, 1278, pronouced sweet, salt, or melted snow water proper material.
Quamvis tutius sit baptizare per modum immersionis, potest tamen fieri baptismus per modum aspersionis vel etiam per modum effusionis.
Confirmatio est quasi ultima consummatio baptismi. Th. Aq., III. 72. 11, Migne, IV. 693
Th. Aq., III. 73. 9, quotes Ezek. 3:8, "I have made thy forehead hard against their foreheads." He commends the custom whereby the candidate for confirmation is supported by another, for "though he be an adult in body he is not yet an adult spiritually."
Quasi omnis devotio in ecclesia est in ordine ad illud sacramentum. Duns Scotus as quoted by Seeberg, Dogmengesch., II. 113.
See Schaff’s Christ in Song, pp. 465 sqq. The verse, depicting the doctrine of transubstantiation, runs:—
Verbum caro, panem verum verbo carnem efficit
Fitque sanguis Christi merum; etsi sensus deficit
Ad firmandum cor sincerum sola fides sufficit.
Corpus et sanguis in sacramento altaris sub speciebus panis et vini veraciter continentur, transubstantiatis pane in corpore et vino in sanguinem potestate divina.
Migne, 171. 776.
See Schwane, p. 656.
Schwane, p. 641, and Rocholl under Rupert in Herzog, XV. 229 sqq
Th. Aq., III. 73. 4, Migne, IV. 701; Bonaventura, Brev. VI. 9, Peltier’s ed., 322, eucharistiae dedit in sacrificium oblationis, et sacramentum communionis et viaticum refectionis.
Hostia salutaris. Eph. 5:2, is quoted where the word hostia is used in the Vulgate for Christ’s sacrifice.
De euchar. vol. XIII. 668. Th. Aquinas, III. 74. 1, Migne, IV. 705, speaks of the Cataphrygae and Pepuziani as mixing with the dough of the sacramental bread the blood of children gotten by pricking their bodies, and also of the Aquarii who, from considerations of temperance, used only water.
He defined transubstantiation as transitus totalis substantiae in substantiam. Seeberg, p. 378.
Th. Aq., III. 75. 1, Migne, IV. 716, neque sensu, neque intellectu deprehendi potest sed sola fide. Bonaventura says, Brevil. VI 9, in specierum utraque continetur totaliter, non circumscriptibiliter, nec localiter sed sacramentaliter totus Christus.
Quamvis non sint substantia, habent virtutem substantiae. Th. Aq., III. 77. 6, Migne, IV. 755.
Th. Aq., III. 77. 7, Migne, IV. 756; Bonaventura, Brevil., 322.
Non solum caro sed totum corpus Christi, scilicet ossa, nervi et alia hujusmodi. Th. Aq., 76. 1, Migne, IV. 732. He lays stress upon the word "body," which is made up of constituent parts, and the "flesh" of John 6:56, he explains as standing for the body. Following the Aristotelian distinction of substance and form, Thomas Aquinas, Migne, IV. 726, and the other Schoolmen (see Schwane, p. 648) declared that the form of the bread and wine is also changed into the body and blood of Christ. The words forma and species are distinguished. The species of bread and wine remain, the forma disappears. Duns Scotus devoted much space to proving that a substance may have a variety of forms.
Sub utraque specie sacramenti totus est Christus. Th. Aq., 76. 2, Migne, 733. Sub utraque specie est unus Christus et totus et indivisus, scilicet corpus, et anima, et Deus. Bonaventura, Brevil. Vl. 9, Peltier’s ed., VII. 322.
In acceptatione sanguinis totum Christum, Deum et hominem, et in acceptatione corporis similiter totum accipimus. Ep. 4:107, Migne, vol. 159 p. 255. Anselm was making a distinction between the body and spirit of Christ, the spirit being represented by the blood and wine, and the body by the bread and flesh.
Summa, II. VIII., Migne, 176. 462, ego in ejusmodi divina secreta magis venerenda quam discutienda cerneo.
Summa, 81. 3, Migne, IV. 810-813. Anselm used the same words. Migne, 159. 255. Schwane agrees that this conception, that Christ ate His own body, was general among the Schoolmen, p. 645.
Rex sedet in coena turba, cinctus duodena
Se tenet in manibus et cibat ipse cibus.
So Hugo, II, 8. 4; the Lombard, XI. 8; Thomas Aquinas, 81. 2, Migne. pp. 811 sq. The delusion is called a fictio and also "Judas’communion." Synod of London, 1175. The argument is in clear contradiction to the meaning of the Gospel narratives on their face.
For this theological and metaphysical curiosity, see Th. Aq., 80. 3, Migne, 789, non tangit mus ipsum corpus Christi, secundum propriam speciem sed solum secundum species sacramentales … nec tamen animal brutum sacramentaliter corpus Christi manducat quia non est natum uti eo ut sacramento, unde non sacramentaliter sed per accidens corpus Christi manducat, etc. Alb. Magnus, In Sent., IV. 13. 38. Borgnet’s ed., XXIX. 397, Bonaventura, Sent., IV. 13. 2. 1, Peltier’s ed., V. 550.
Seeberg, p. 360.
The priest being the mediator. Summa, Migne, 176. 472.
Sacerdos gerit imaginem Christi, Th. Aq., III. 83. 1, Migne, IV. 830.
Th. Aq., Supplem. 37. 5, Migne, IV. 1062.
Ex seipso virtutem habet gratiam conferendi. Th. Aq., III. 79. 1, Migne, IV. 774.
Th. Aq., 79. 7, Supplem. III. 71. 10, Migne, IV. 782, 1246 sq.; Al. Magnus, I. 4, extended the benefits of the mass also to the glorified pro salute vivorum, pro requie defunctorum, pro gloria beatorum.
Summa, III. 83. 5 sq., Migne, IV. 844-853.
Th. Aq., III. 83. 5, Migne, IV. 850.
Non ex hoc desinit aliquis minister esse Christi quod est malus, Th. Aq., 82. 5, 7, Migne, IV. 821, 824; Anselm, ep. IV. 107, Migne, 159. 257, had said the same thing, nec a bono sacerdote majus, etc.
Th. Aq., III. 80. 12, Migne, IV. 809. Perfectio hujus sacramenti non est in usu fidelium sed in consecratione materiae.
Requiritur ut cum magna devotione et reverentia ad, hoc sacramentum accedat .... Eucharistia exigit actualem devotionem in suscipiente, Th. Aq., III. 80. 10, Supplem. III, 32. 4, Migne, IV. 805, 1038.
We cannot help feeling strongly with Harnack when he exclaims, "In its doctrine of the eucharist, the Church gave expression to all that she held dear,—her theology, her mystical relation to Christ, the communion of believers, the priesthood, sacrifice, not to that faith which seeks assurance and to which assurance is given,"Dogmengesch., II. 489 sq
Populus indiget medio ad Deum qui per seipsum accedere ad deum non potest., Th. Aq., III. 22. 4, Migne, IV. 219.
De euchar. VI. 3.
Councils of Würzburg, 1287, Paris, 1212, etc. See Hefele, V. 866
See artt. Fronleichnamsfest in Wetzer-Welte, IV. 2061 sqq., and Herzog, VI. 297 sqq. It was one of the first observances to call forth Luther’s protest. Köstlin, Leben Luthers, I. 560.
Ep., 535, Migne, 163. 442, qui panem absorbere non possunt, etc., quoted in Herzog under Kinderkommunion, X. 289.
Suppl., XXXII. 4, Migne, IV. 1038. The council of Trent anathematized those who hold the communion of children to be necessary.
Migne, 163. 142. See Smend, p. 7, for other witnesses. Smend’s book is a most thorough piece of work and is indispensable in the study of the subject. With the exception of some quotations, I depend upon him for the contents of these paragraphs.
Called intinctio. Hugo of St. Victor and Peter the Lombard were among the first to condemn the practice. Also the synod of London, 1175, Hefele, V. 688. See also V. 224 for the action of the synod of Clermont, 1095.
Albertus makes no mention of the matter in his De eucharistia and Com. on the Sentences. Peter Rokyzana, at the council of Basel in the fifteenth century, appealed to him in his argument for giving the cup to the laity.
Th. Aq., III. 80. 12, Migne, IV. 808 sq., nihil derogat perfectioni hujus sacr., si populus sumat corpus sine sanguine dummodo sacerdos consecrans sumat utrumque. So also Bonaventura, Sent., IV. 11. 2.
The synod of Lambeth, 1281, seems to have forbidden the cup to the laity; the synod of Exeter, 1287, to have positively enjoined it.
See Migne, 89. 525. For an interesting account of the different shapes of the chalice, see Enc. Brit., XIX. 185 sq. The earlier chalices had two handles and a small base, those of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries no handles and a broad base. Some of the later chalices were very capacious.
See the interesting details given by Smend, pp. 18 sqq.
Vinum purum ... ut facilius sacrum corpus glutiat. Smend, who `gives elaborate details, pp. 43-75.
The object was to prevent the loss of any of the sacred element by expectoration or vomiting, per sputum vel vomitum. Chrysostom made a recommendation of this sort, Smend, 44.
Sent., IV. 11, 2, 2, Peltier’s ed., V. 496.
Caesar of Heisterb., Dial., IV. 16.
Dial., IX. 29, Strange’s ed., II. 186.
IX. 3.
IX. 35, Strange’s ed., II. 191.
Dial., IX. 15.
See Kaufmann, trans. of Caesar, II. 208-210.
De la Marche’s ed., pp. 266 sq.
Duns Scotus had spoken of the "satisfaction which is the doing of a laborious work," quae est executio operis laboriosi. Report IV. 16. 1, quoted by Schwane, p. 669.
Tertullian, de Poen, XII. So also Jerome. See the Lombard, Sent., XIV. 1, Migne, 868; Bonaventura, Sent., XIV. 1, Peltier’s ed., V. 553; Brevil., VI. 10, VII. 323; Th. Aq., III. 84. 6, Migne, IV. 862; Supplem., VI. 3. 936; Alb. Magnus, In Sent., Borgnet’s ed., XXIX. 404 sq.
The Lombard devotes two and a half times the space to penance that he does to the eucharist; Migne’s ed., pp. 868-899, as against pp. 856-868 on the eucharist; Hugo of St. Victor, Migne’s ed., 550-578, as against 462-471 on the eucharist; Th. Aquinas, Migne’s ed., 852-1023, as against 695-852 on the eucharist, and Bonaventura nearly four times as much space devoting to penance, Peltier’s ed., vol. V. 533-709, vol. VI. 1-129, and to the eucharist, vol. V. 415-533.
Absolvitur homo a peccato, et reunitur ecclesiae et reconciliatur Christo, mediante clavi sacerdotali, Bonaventura, Brevil., VI. 10, Peltier’s ed., VII. 323.
The Rheims Version translates the word "do penance," though not uniformly, thereby utterly confusing the English reader who involuntarily puts into the New Testament word the Church’s sacramental invention.
Poenitentia dicitur et sacramentum et virtus mentis, Lombard XIV. l, p. 869; Th. Aq., Migne, IV. 850 sqq. While we use two words, "repentance" and "penance," the Schoolmen use only the one word, poenitentia, thus mystifying the mind as if repentance of heart, or metanoiva, did not include the entire meaning of the original word.
Sent., XVII. 1, Migne, p. 880. The finished sacramental theory of penance owed not a little to the tract de vera et falsa poenitentia, composed perhaps in the twelfth century and foisted upon Augustine. Gratian inserted nearly all of it in his Decretals, as did Peter the Lombard. According to Lea, I. 210, the work was still quoted as Augustine’s as late as the seventeenth century. Lea regards it as the composition of two authors of the fifth and twelfth centuries.
This is shown by Müller’s notable work,Der Umschwung, etc. Abaelard’s statement presenting the old view, and the statement of Thomas Aquinas representing the new view, are given in Köhler, pp. 11-18.
Summa, III. 84. 7; Supplem., VIII. 1, Migne, IV. 864, 943.
Lombard, XVI. 1, Migne, p. 877; Alb. Magnus, Borgnet’s ed., XXIX. 536. Th. Aq., 90. 1, 2, Migne, IV. 912 sq., and Bonaventura, Brevil., VI.10, Peltier’s ed., VII. 323, also call the first three "the integral parts" of penance. So also Abaelard, Ethica, 17-24.
See Schwane’s strong condemnation of this opinion, which he declares to be beyond a doubt the Lombard’s, p. 662.
Timor servilis principium est attritionis, Alex. of Hales quoted by Schwane, p. 664. Th. Aquinas, Supplem., I. 2, Migne, IV. 919, is much more moderate than Alexander, Bonaventura, and Duns. Caesar of Heisterbach calls "servile fear a gift of God," Koeniger, p. 31. At the close of the Middle Ages, Gabriel Biel took the position that attrition is changed by confession and absolution into contrition. See Seeberg, Dogmengesch., II. 121.
See Hahn, p. 413; Schwane, p. 666. The council of Trent, XIV. 4 (Schaff’s Creeds, II. 145 sq.), adopted the word "attrition" and defined it as an imperfect contrition. The doctrine of attritio formed a centre of discussion in the warm debate over indulgences started by Janssen’s work and participated in by Kolde, Kawerau, Dieckhoff, etc. Harnmack is very severe upon the doctrine as the dry rot in the Catholic system, Dogmengesch., II. 482, 504 sqq.
Aquinas quotes Augustine’s definition, Supplem., VII.1, IX. 3, Migne, IV. 940, 954.
Migne, IV. 939.
Th. Aq., III. 87. 1, Migne, IV. 890; Supplem., VI. 1, 3, VIII. 3, Migne, IV. 934, 936, 945. With characteristic exhaustiveness, Thomas goes into the question whether a man can confess sins he has never committed, Migne IV. 936.
In Sent., IV. 17. 2, Peltier’s ed., V. 674, ante hanc determinationem hoc non erat heresis, etc. Albertus Magnus also declared it was not sufficient to confess to God only, Borgnet’s ed. XXIX. 603.
Th. Aq., Supplem., VII. 1, 2, Migne, IV. 943 sq.; Bonaventura, Sent., XVII. 3. 1, Peltier’s ed., V. 695. Caesar of Heisterbach speaks of confession to an unbeliever as efficacious in the article of death, provided the unbeliever does not ridicule the sacrament, Koeniger, p. 73.
Fourth Lat., can. 21, synods of Treves, 1227, Canterbury, 1236, etc.
See Hefele, VI, 30.
Supplem., XV. 3, Migne, IV. 978. Duns Scotus (quoted by Seeberg, 412) says, satisfaction is the voluntary return of an equivalent redditio voluntaria aequivalentis.
Schwane, p. 670.
Potestas solvendi et ligandi, i.e.ostendendi homines ligatos vel solutos, etc. IV. 18, 6, Migne, p. 887.
See the form used by Honorius of Autun about 1130, indulgentiam et absolutionem de omnibus ... tribuat vobis Pater et Filius et Sp. Sanctus et custodiet vos a peccatis et ab omnibus malis et post hanc vitam perducat vos in consortium omnium sanctorum. Lea, I. 206.
Summa, III. 84, 3, Migne, IV. 857. It was not sufficient to say, "The onmipotent God absolve thee," or "God bestow on thee absolution," etc.
De sacr., II. 14, 8, Migne, 176. 568 .... De potestate ligandi et solvendi.
So the synods of Treves 1227, Canterbury 1236, London 1237, etc. The unchastity of nuns came under the bishop’s jurisdiction.
Si non potest remittere quantum ad poenam temporalem, nullo modo remittere potest quod omnino contrarium dictus evangelii. Supplem., VIII. 2, Migne, IV. 988; Sent., IV. 20, 1, 1-5.
Beringer-Schneider, the chief Rom. Cath. writer on Indulgences, p. 2, defines an indulgence "as an act of mercy and goodness, a salvation by the order of the Church, an act of grace and forgiveness."
Kreuzablass, etc., pp. 10 sqq. Gottlob, p. xv, says indulgences occupy a central place in the political and religious life of the last three centuries of the Middle Ages.
Supplem., xxv-xxvii, Migne, IV. 1013 sqq. Lea devotes the entire third volume of his Hist. of Confession to a noteworthy discussion of indulgences.
See for the text Köhler, pp. 5 sq.
relaxatio, remissio, indulgentia de injuncta poenitentia, etc. See Brieger for these expressions, and Brieger and Lea for numerous examples of papal indulgences of this sort.
Ethica, XL. See Köhler, p. 8.
Potthast, 3799, 12938, 14122.
Luard’s ed., IV. 90, 643.
See Jusseraud, Engl. Wayfaring Life in the M. Ages, London, 1890, pp. 41 sqq., for many cases of indulgence for building bridges.
Sabatier, F. Bartholi de Assisio tractatus de indulgentia S. Mariae de Portiuncula, 1900.
See p. 366, Lea, III. 270 sqq., and Wetzer-Welte, Sabbatina.
Summa, IV. 83.1, relaxatio poenae debitae pro peccato, quoted by Brieger.
Th. Aq., Summa, III. 83, 1. quorum meritorum tanta est copia quod omnem poenam debitam nunc viventibus excedunt. See Gottlob, pp. 271 sqq.
Quanto plures ex ejus applicatione trahuntur ad justitiam, tanto magis accresit ipsorum cumulus meritorum. See Friedberg, Corp. Jur. can., II. 1304 sq.
Vere poenitentibus et confessis was the common formula.
Dr. Lea, III. 63, has shown the significance of this document.
Köhler, p. 27, quae securam et mundatam animam ab omni culpa et poena fecerunt.
See Sabatier, Fr. F. Bartholi, etc., in part reprinted by Köhler, pp. 27 sqq.
See a number of instances in Brieger and especially Lea, III. 55-80. Lea quotes Piers the Ploughman’s Crede to show that this expressed the popular belief.
The power of the Apostells they posen in speche
For to sellen the synnes for silver other mede
And pulchye a pena the purple assoileth
And a culpa also, that they may cachen
Money other money wothe and mede to fonge.
One of the most striking instances of this form of indulgence is the absolutio plenaria a poena et culpa issued by Alexander V. to the members of the council of Pisa, Von der Hardt, Conc. Const. III. 688.
In contrast to de fore dei, God’s tribunal. See Lea, II. 296-371, and Brieger.
Lea, III. 595 sq., and the instructions of Albert, abp. of Mainz, quoted by Brieger, nec opus est, quod contribuentes pro animabus in capsam sint corde contriti et ore confessi.
Schaff, Creeds, II. 205. Harnack, Hist. of Doctr., II. 511 sqq., expresses his moral indignation over the mediaeval theory of penance. Of attritio, sacramentum poenitentiae, and indulgentia, he exclaims, das ist die katholische Trias! "That is the Catholic triad!"
Legenda aurea, under All Souls and Francis d’Assisi. Temple Classics ed, VI. 113, V. 231.
Supplem., XXIX. 3, Migne, IV. 1027.
Th. Aq., Supplem., XXXII. 4, Migne. IV. 1038; Bonaventura, Brevil., VI. 11, Peltier’s ed., VII. 326.
Cologne, 1279; Lambeth, 1330, etc.
P. Lombardus, Sent., IV. XXIV. 9; Hugo of St. Victor, De sacr., II. 2, 5; Th. Aq., Supplem., XXXVII. 2, Migne, IV. 1056; Bonavent., Brevil., VI. 12.
Per modum complementi superponitur episcopatus, etc., Bonavent., Brevil., VI. 12. P. Lombardus, Sent., XXIV. 9, Migne, p. 904, speaks of a fourfold rank of bishops, viz. patriarchs, archbishops, metropolitans, and bishops. These, he says, are not orders but "the names of dignities and offices." The teaching of Duns Scotus is uncertain. In one place he asserts the episcopate must be a distinct order, the eighth, because the bishop alone can administer several of the sacraments. See Seeberg, p. 441. On the other hand, he quotes Jerome to show that the episcopate was instituted by the Church and is not a matter of divine law. See Schwane, p. 684. It is still unsettled by canon law whether the episcopate is a separate order or not. See Friedberg, Kirchenrecht, p. 150. The council of Trent did not formally decide the question, though it speaks of the hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons. See Schaff, Creeds, II. 186 sqq. Innocent III. placed the subdeacon among the major orders. Friedberg, p. 150. According to Philip Hergenröther, Kathol. Kirchenrecht, pp. 208 sq., the episcopate is at the present time universally regarded in the Rom. Cath. Church as a distinct clerical order.
Th. Aq., Supplem., XL. 1, Migne, 1071; Bonaventura, Brevil., VI. 12, Peltier’s ed., 327. The synods of London 1102, Soissons 1078, Rouen 1190, Fourth Lateran 1215, etc., decreed the tonsure must not be concealed.
Th. Aq., Supplem., XXXIV. 4, 5, Migne, 1045 sq., efficacia principaliter residet penes eum qui sacramentum dispensat.
Schwane, p. 681, says there was no development in the ritual of ordination during the Middle Ages. Thomas Aquinas refers to the imposition of hands only incidentally in his chapters on penance. Summa, III. 84, 3, Migne, IV. 850. The council of Florence, 1438, enjoined that the chalice and paten should be given at the consecration to some of the orders.
Th. Aq., Supplem., XXXVI. I, Migne, IV. 1051, si malus ordinatur nihilominus ordinationem habet.
For example the 9th (Hefele, V. 380) and 11th oecumenical Councils pronounced such judgment, naming the anti-popes. So also the synod of Piacenza, 1095, which declared invalid the ordinations of Wibert and other bishops.
Th. Aq., Supplem., XXXIX. 2, Migne, 1065. Episcopus in haeresin lapsus ... non amisit potestatem quam habebat ordines conferendi. Thomas is most emphatic on this question and goes on: Omnis protestas quae datur cum aliqua consecratione, nulla casu contingente tolli protest, etc .... Unde cum episcopalisprotestas cum quadam consecratione detur, oportet quod perpetuo maneat quantumcumque aliquis peccet, vel ab ecclesia praecidatur.
Th. Aq., Summa, III. 65, 2, Migne, IV. 598, quia minimum habet de spiritualitate.
Abaelard, Theol Christ., 31, conjugium non confert aliquod donum sicut cetera sacramenta faciunt sed tamen mali remedium est ... datur propter incontinentiam refraenendam. Hugo of St. Vict., De sacr., II. 11. 3, Migne, p.481, conjugium ante peccatum ad officium, post peccatum ad remedium. Alanus ab Insulis, Reg. Theol., 114, Migne’s ed., p. 681, conjugium sacramentum remedii contra incontinentiam. So also, Bonaventura, Brevil., Vl. 13; Th. Aq., Supplem., XLII. 2, Migne, IV. 1084; Summa, LXI. 2, Migne, p. 558.
Th. Aq., Supplem., XLII. 1, Migne, IV. 1083, benedictio sacerdotis quae est quoddam sacramentale.
These were supposed to be the "years of discretion." Supplem., LVIII. 5, Migne, IV. 1165. The synod of Nismes, 1096, forbade the marriage of girls under twelve. For cases of the marriage of princesses under twelve, see Eicken, pp. 448 sq.
"Just as the offspring of animals follow the nature of the mother. " Thomas instances the mule, Supplem., LII. 4, Migne, 1127.
This refers to a marriage in which one party is a Catholic and the other a heretic, Jew, or infidel.
Synods of London 1102, 1125, 1200, Fourth Lateran 1215, Treves 1227, Magdeburg 1261, etc. The synod of London, 1200, forbade either man or wife taking a long journey without the other’s consent. Thomas Aquinas took the position that marriages between a believer and an unbeliever are not to be allowed because they prevent the education and training of children in the worship of God, which is one of the chief objects of the sacrament. Supplem., LIX. 1, Migne, IV. 1167.
Th. Aq., Supplem., LXI. 2, Migne, IV. 1177. Thomas asserts that, before the carnalis copula takes place, the bond is a spiritual one and it may be broken by either party becoming spiritually dead, dying to the world and living unto God in a convent. After copulation the bond between man and wife is a carnal tie—vinculum carnale —and can be broken only by the death of the body.
Th. Aq., Supplem., LXII. 5, Migne, IV. 1184, non licet uni, altero vivente, ad aliam copulam transire. Either party may, however, enter a convent without seeking the consent of the other.
Carnalibus appetitis infecta, de conceptu. II. Migne, 158. 434
vitium concupiscentiae, quod est originale peccatum.
Post peccatum non valet fieri carnalis copula absque libidinosa concupiscentia quae semper vitium est et etiam culpa. P. Lomb., Sent., II. 31, 3.
Etsi anima non traducatur, quia virtus seminis non potest causare animam rationalem. Th. Aquinas, Summa, II. 81, 1, Migne, II. 629.
Carentia ... defectus originalis justitiae estoriginal peccatum. Schwane, p. 401; Th. Aq., Summa, II. 81, 5.
Spoliatio in gratuitis et vulneratio in naturalibus.
Summa, II. 82, 3, materialiter quidem est concupiscentia, formaliter vero est defectus orig. just. Vitium and corruptio are the words most frequently used for the moral character of sin. Hugo of St. Victor, De sacr., I. 28, Migne, 176. 299.
Peccatum orig. non contrahitur a matre sed a patre, etc. Summa, II. 81, 5.
P. Lomb., II. 42, 9; Alb. Magnus, Borgnet’s ed., XXVII. 663 sqq., etc.
P. Lomb., II. 42, enumerates them as inanis gloria, ira, invidia, acedia vel tristitia, avaritia, gastrimargia, luxuria. Albertus Magnus skilfully discusses whether there could be any more than seven. In Sent., II. 42, Borgnet’s ed., XXVII. 662 sqq.
Utrum aequalis fieret multiplicatio virorum et mulierum. In Sent., II. 20, 2, Peltier’s ed., III. 85. The three reasons which Bonaventura adduces to account for the differences in sex will have to be read in the original. He enters into the subject with the precision of statement and detail which is a characteristic of scholastic discussion. It is fair to say that he pronounced the question a difficult one and one upon which the physicians and natural philosophers of his day were much divided.
Sed dolo illo serpentino quo mulier seducta est, nullo modo arbitror illum potuisse seduci.
De sacr., I. 7, Migne, 176. 290.
In Sent. II. 22, E. Borgnet’s ed., XXVII. 377.
In Sent., II. 22, I. 3, Peltier’s ed., III. 123.
Man hatte Augustinische Formeln und gregorianische Gedanken. Loofs, p. 291. Schwane, p. 455, praises Thomas’ clear treatment of the doctrines of grace, and says he taught them as they are taught in the Catholic systems of dogmatics to-day. Loofs, Harnack, and Seeberg seem to me to go too far in ascribing to Thomas a de-Augustinianizing tendency. His plain statements of the necessity of divine grace and human inability are Augustinian enough. Passing from the study of Thomas’ theory of the sacraments, it is easy to put upon the statements about grace a Pelagian interpretation. The fairer way is to interpret his theory of the sacraments in the light of his teachings on the doctrine of grace.
meritum apud deum esse non potest, nisisecundum praesuppositionem divinae ordinationis. Summa, II. 114, I. Migne, II. 960.
Verum non potest cognosecre sine auxilio divino. Summa, II. 109, 2, 6, 7, Migne, II. 907 sqq.
Sanguis qui est pretium nostrae redemptionis non dicitur obtulisse diabolo sed deo. Summa, III. 48, 4, Migne, III. 44.
Mors Christi nos justificat, dum per eam charitas excitatur in cordibus nostris. Sent., III. 19, 1.
Per passionem Christi homo cognoscit quantum deus hominem diligat et per hoc provocatur ad eumdiligendum. Summa, III. 46, 3, Migne, III. 417.
In Sent., III. 20, Peltier’s ed., IV. 439. He attempts to show that he is not out of accord with Anselm, but he makes poor work of it. Anselm’s statement is absolute. Cur deus homo, II. 10.
Peltier’s ed., IV. 474 sqq.
De divisione gratiae. Summa, Migne, II. 927-960.
Tota justificatio impii consistit in infusione gratiae ... justif. fit, deo movente hominem ad justitiam. Summa, II. 113, 3, 7, Migne, II. 946. 952.
Hugo of St. Victor, Desacr. I. 10, 9, Migne, 176. 341 sqq.; P. Lombardus, Sent., III. 23, 24, Migne, pp. 295 sqq.; Bonavent., In Sent., III. 23, 24, Peltier’s ed., IV. 475 sqq.; Th. Aquinas, IV. 1-5, Migne, IV. 12 sqq; Alb. Magnus, In Sent., III. 23, 24, Borgnet’s ed., XXVIII. 408 sqq.
Aliud credere deo, aliud credere deum, aliud credere in deum. P. Lomb., III. 23, 4.
Spec. eccles., Migne, 172. 823.
Summa, IV. 4, 2, Migne, IV. 14, quoting 1 Cor. 13:12.
Charitas dicitur forma fidei, etc., IV. 4, 3. Such faith which is without love fides informis.
P. Lomb., III. 25, 3, Migne, p. 300.
Fides non remanet in homine postquam discredit unum articulum fidei. Summa, IV. 5. 3, I. 7 sqq., Migne, III. 63 sq.
In heretico discredente unum articulum fidei, non manet fides neque formata neque informis. IV. 5, 3, Migne, p. 63.
Summa, II. 113, 4, Migne, II. 948.
This is one of the charges brought with great vehemence against Luther and the Reformation by Denifle, Luther und Lutherthum, I. 374-456. He misunderstood or willfully misrepresented Luther, who never intended to detach a life of good works from faith as its necessary consequence.
1816 Thomas Aquinas calls it locus dolorum and infernum damnatorum.
1817 Profundus carcer respectu amoenitatis coeli et est aer iste caliginosus in quem detrusi sunt demones, etc. Alb. Magnus, In Sent., III. 22, C, 4, Borgnet’s ed., XXVIII. 393.
1818 Ignis est in fortissima calididate ... cui nil est comparabile. Alb. Magnus, Borgnet’s ed., XXX. 597.
1819 Gehenna illa quae stagnum ignis et sulphuris dicta est, corporeus ignis erit et cruciabit damnatorum corpora vel hominum vel daemonum. P. Lomb., Sent., IV. 44, 6. Absque dubietate corporeus ignis cruciat, etc. Alb. Mag., In Sent., Borgnet’s ed., XXX. 393. Ignis corporalis qui concremabit et affliget spiritus et etiam corpora ... sed semper affliget, alios plus alios minus, secundum exigentiam meritorum. Bonavent., Brev., VII. 6.
1820 Probabile est, quod idem locus vel quasi continuus, sit infernus et limbus. Th. Aq., Migne, IV. 1222. Thomas calls the infernal regions interchangeably infernus and inferni. Alb. Magnus uses the neuter plural inferna. In Sent., III, 26, C. 392.
1821 Th. Aq., Summa, III. 69, 6, originali peccato debebatur poena aeterna in limbo puerorum. Limbus means edge or border. Alb. Magnus also calls it limbus parvulorum, the region of the little ones. Borgnet’s ed., XXVIII. 392.
1822 Pueris non adest spes beatae vitae, etc. Th. Aq., Supplem., p. 1223. divinae justitiae aequitas perpetualiter eos consolidat, ut nec proficiant, nec deficiant, nec laetentur, nec tristentur; sed semper per sic uniformiter maneant, etc. Bonavent., In Sent., II. 33, 2, 3, Peltier’s ed., III. 419.
1823 In Sent., III. 22, I. 4 sqq., Peltier’s ed., IV. 467.
1824 Suppl., Migne, III. 1222. The deepest hell—profundissimus infernus —is the place of the lost. Bonavent., Brevil., VII. 6, Peltier’s ed., VII. 339.
1825 Summa, III. 52, 1, Migne, IV. 476.
1826 Attolite portas, principes, vestras.
1827 Post hanc vitam non est tempus gratiam acquirendi. Th. Aq., Summa, III. 52, 7; Suppl., Migne, IV. 1244.
1828 Poena purgatorii est in supplementum satisfactionis quae non fuerat plene in corpore consummata. Th. Aq., Suppl., 71, 6 Migne, IV. 1242.
1829 Th. Aq., Migne, IV. 1239.
1830 Claritas, subtilitas, agilitas, et impossibilitas quae ... secundum majoritatem et minoritatem prius habitae charitatis. Brevil., VII. 7, Peltier’s ed, VII. 340
1831 Deum per essentiam videre in quo consistit perfecta hominis beatitudo. Summa, III. 52, 5, Migne, IV. 482.
1832 Serm., XI.
1833 Proslog., XXIV. sqq.
1834 An. 1206, Luard’s ed. of M. Paris, II. 497-512.
1835 Dial, I. 32, Strange’s ed., I. 36-39.
1836 See Walter, Die ersten Wanderprediger, etc., p. 49.
1837 See Kaufmann, Thos. von Chantimpré, pp. 117 sq.