Sacraments. 71
ended ere the station do begin, which is still celebrated after meat.
Look at Ambrose's 25th sermon.
8. Concerning the fastings upon the evens of great feasts, Bernard was the first that ever mentioned them (Ser. de vigil. S. Andr.), and after him Innocentius III (De observ. jeju., cap. 1 and 22).
9. That the fasting of Ember weeks is a tradition of the apostles, Leo testifies in two several places (De jejun 7 mons., Serm. 8 and 2, de
Pent.). But how uncertain this is, hereby appears, because Pope Calixtus I, in his epistle unto Benedict, affirms that he did institute the fast of Ember week. And Tertullian (de jejun.) testifies that the Catholics of his time did aver that the apostles did impose no burden of fasting upon them, but only the paschal fast. And Ambrose, in his
34th sermon, affirms all fasts but the Lent fast to be voluntary and at free choice. "They are of free choice," says he, "this is the law: unto them we are stirred up, but unto this we are compelled."
10. To fast upon Saturday is expressly forbidden by the canon of the apostles (can. 65), and by Ignatius in his epistle to the Philippians, wherein he is called a murderer of Christ that fasts upon Saturday or Sunday. Yet the Roman Church now observes this fast.
11. Pope Agapete (de consecrat. 1, distinct. 1), in the year 533, did first ordain processions upon Sundays, as Caranza also testifies. And the Arians of Constantinople had done the same before, which Chrysostom both imitated and augmented in number and solemnity.
So Sozomene affirms (Hist. eccl., lib. 8, cap. 8).
Sacraments
1. That there are seven sacraments of the New Testament properly and truly so called, no father for a thousand years either affirms or acknowledges. "The sacraments," says Isidore (that lived 600 years after Christ) (lib. origin. 6, cap. 19), "are baptism and Chrism, and the body and blood of Christ." Pasca. (de caena), about the year 900, says "The sacraments of Christ in the Catholic Church are baptism and the body and blood of our Lord." Hugo de Sancto Victore, in his book of the sacraments, sets down seven of them: but he excludes penance and takes in holy water for one. Nay, some of the fathers do expressly affirm that washing of the feet is a sacrament. So holds
Cyprian (de ablu. pedum.); Ambrose (lib. 3, de Sacram. cap. 1); and Bernard (Serm. de caena. Dom.). Lumbard, and his succeeding train of schoolmen, were the first that ever directly affirmed that there were seven sacraments.
2. The fathers, though they do sometimes give the name of sacrament unto other ceremonies, yet do acknowledge baptism and the Lord's Supper to be the true sacraments, and the chief. Indeed, they do call other things sacraments, but not in that respect and value that they call these two. So Augustine, de Symb. ad Catechu., lib. 2, cap. 6, says that the two sacraments of the church flowed out of the side of Christ. And in Epist. 118, he says that the sacraments are in number most few. And Rupertus Tuitiensis, De victoria verb.
Dei, lib. 12, cap. 11, asks this question: "What are the chiefest sacraments of our salvation?" And he answers, "Sacred baptism and the holy Eucharist of Christ's body and blood, the double gift of the Holy Ghost, the one given for remission of sins and the other for the dividing of the divers and multiplied graces." "There are some sacraments," says Hugo de Sanct. Victor., lib. de sacr., part. 9, cap.
6, "wherein our salvation principally consists, and is conceived. Such are the water of baptism, and the receiving of Christ's body and blood. There are others, which though they be not necessary unto
salvation (because that may be had without them), yet they are helpful unto sanctification." Matthew of Paris in his chronicle writing of William the Conqueror, says that it was the opinion of the fathers, and they had written that the sacraments which are used in the church, namely, baptism, Chrism, and the Lord's Eucharist, have their effect "by the cooperation of the Spirit invisible." Alexander
Hales, part. 4, q. 8, art. 2, avers plainly that Christ did by Himself ordain but only two sacraments, baptism and the Eucharist, and he proves it by the flowing of water and blood out of the side of Christ.
3. The name of sacrament in the fathers is sometimes taken largely for any mystery, sign, or figure of some holy and spiritual thing.
Augustine, in his 5th epistle, says, "Every sign of a holy thing is a sacrament." In this sense, to Alex. I, epist. 1, holy water is a sacrament, as also, in Augustine, lib. 2, de peccat. merit. & remiss c.
26, holy bread, and in Augustine, lib. 19, cont. Faust. c. 14, the sign of the cross, etc. To speak all in a word, in this sense there are rather seventy sacraments than seven. But sometimes the word (sacrament) is taken properly for the visible sign and seal of the covenant of grace. And in this sense, there are not seven, but two sacraments in the church. This double understanding of the word (sacrament),
Bellarmine himself acknowledges.
4. Neither do all the schoolmen and canonists acknowledge seven sacraments of the New Testament called properly sacraments. For Durandus, in his first edition of his work upon the sentences, 4 dist.
26, denied matrimony to be a sacrament, as Capreolus testifies, in 4 dist. 26. But afterwards in the same distinction, quest. 3, he mitigated his opinion, and put down that matrimony is not a sacrament properly called so, and univocally as the rest of the sacraments are. And so also holds Lombard himself, 4 dist. 26 (as Thomas, 4 dist. 26, quest. 2 ad 4, testifies). And so also holds
Hostiensis, in Summa lib. 1, titulo de sacram. noniterran; Bernard's gloss, cap. cum in ecclesia, de Sim. & cap. honora. 32, qu. 2; and Paludane, who avers this to be the common opinion of the canonists, in 4 dist. 26, qu. 1. Some do also deny that matrimony lawfully contracted between Christians is a sacrament. So does Cajetane, in a little work of his concerning matrimony, qu. 1, and Melchior Canus, in his election of penitence, part. 5, and at large, locor com., lib. 8, c.
5, where for his opinion he quotes many testimonies out of the decretal epistles, councils, fathers, and schoolmen. Of this opinion is
Francis à Victoria, in his sum de sacram, numer. 244, and Martinus Ledesma, in 2 tom. 4, dist. 41, art. 8. Now many do hold that matrimony is not only a sacrament of the New Testament (as the Council of Trent (Sess. 8, can. 1) will honor it, but that it is also a sacrament of the Old Testament. So will Hales (4 dist. 26, art. 1 & 5) have it, and Bonaventure also (4 dist. 26, qu. 2), and (one that lived before the schoolmen) H. de S. Victore (l. 1, de Sacr., part. 8, cap. 13, and lib. 3, part. 11, cap. 1). And of this mind are many of the later writers, as Roffensis, Hosius (in confess. Petric., cap. 55), Pighius (in Controv. 10), and Alphonsus à Castro (in the word nuptia, haeres. 3), who defends this as the common opinion of the divines. As also
Petrus à Sota (lect. 2, de Matrim.), Catherinus (in the question of matrimony) expounds the word sacrament (Ephesians 5) either of the incarnation of Christ, or of the first marriage of Adam and Eve, and adds, "By these opposite questions (to confess the truth), it is not so apparent by the Scriptures that matrimony is a sacrament in that sense that the other six are called." But he adjoins, "Because of the universal consent of the church, we confess matrimony to be a sacrament, and not only because of that law, which commands us to captivate our understanding unto the obeisance of faith, but also because they do infer reasons for it."
Ordination of bishops is not truly and properly a sacrament, says Lombard (4 distinct. 24), and so does Alexander Hales, Thomas, and Bonaventure. To whom, of the later sort agree Dominicus Soto (in 4 distinct. 24, quest. 2, artic. 3, and de jure & justitia, libr. 10, quest. 1, artic. 2) and Josephus Angles (in 4 distinct. 24, artic. 11). There are some also that deny deaconship, and the other lower orders to be sacraments properly. Of which sort Durandus is (in 4 distinct. 24, quest. 2), who alleges many reasons on this side. And Cajetane (in tom. 1 opusc. tra. 11, intreating of the manner of giving and receiving orders, and in 3 part Thom., quest. 64, artic. 4, ad 1), with Francis à
Victoria (who num. 226 testifies that this opinion of theirs is most probable). Lombard himself (4 distinct. 24, lit. 1) says that "The church in process of time ordains herself subdeacons and acolytes."
Look at Francis à Victoria (in his Summa, num. 226). Thomas (upon the fourth of the Sentences, distinct. 23, quest. 1, artic. 4) says that the form of baptism and the Eucharist are extant in the Scripture, but the forms of the other sacraments are not so.
5. Our sacraments are said to be of greater virtue than the sacraments of the old law, not because these did but signify and prefigure grace, and the other do confer and bestow it, but because the doctrine whereunto they belong, and the manner of revelation, is more apparent, and because they concern Christ already given up for us. Look at Augustine (against the Manichee Faustus, lib. 19, c. 14 and 16). And for the schoolmen: Hales (part. 4, q. 7, art. 4, m. 7),
Bonaventure, Scotus, Durandus, Richardus, and Biel (in 4 dist. 1).
These affirm that circumcision did give grace ex opere operato, by the works wrought. And among the later writers, Joseph Angles (In 4 distinct. 1, art. 5) holds the same. And so does Francis à Victoria (De sacr. num. 2), adding furthermore that this is the doctrine of all the doctors.