[See page image]
Page 143
143 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Sacrament
if possessing proper intention, may administer a valid sacrament. While there is danger that there may be, on the part of the minister, either a lack of intention or even an intention of acting contrary to the precept of the Church (both of which render the sacrament null and void), it is maintained by Roman Catholic dogmaticians (e.g., S. J. Hunter, Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, iii. 208-212, New York [1896]) that the chance of such invalidation is so small as to be negligible. The "defect of intention" (see the rubric on this topic in the preface to the missal), complicated by "defect of form," forms the basis of the condemnation of Anglican orders in the bull Apostolicte eurce of Leo XIII. (Sept. 13, 1896), the special ground of invalidity being sought in the failure of the Anglican ordinals to express the concept of the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist .* Intention finds a place, of course, in every sacrament; every Protestant who maintains any form of the reeeptivist theory of the Lord's Supper holds the doctrine of the necessity of intention, however unwittingly, and it is equally implied in such rites as the non-sacramental Protestant ordination, etc. Intention finds its most usual application, however, in the sacrifice of the mass in the Roman Catholic Church; and it should also be noted in this connection that in the High-church school of the Anglican Church Holy Communion is frequently celebrated "with intention," as for the promotion of the unity of Christendom or some other pious purpose.]
To the Schoolmen Sacraments are not all of equal necessity. Baptism alone is essential to salvation, and baptism and the Eucharist are the mightiest.
of the mark can not be effaced, nor can they Sacraments. be repeated.t The other four sacra-
ments are necessary to salvation as a horse is necessary to a journey. The Schoolmen were not agreed as to the author of all the sacra-
* " The Church does not judge about the mind and intention in so far as it is something by its nature internal; but in so far as it is manifested externally she is bound to judge concerning it. When any one has rightly and seriously made use of the due form and the matter requisite for effecting or conferring the sacrament he is considered by the very fact to do what the Church does. On this principle rests the doctrine that a sacrament is truly conferred by the ministry of one who is a heretic or unbaptized, provided the Catholic rite be employed. On the other hand, if the rite be changed, with the manifest intention of introducing another rite not approved by the Church and of rejecting what the Church does, and what by the institution of Christ belongs to the nature of the sacrament, then it is clear that not only is the necessary intention wanting to the sacrament, but that the intention is adverse to and destructive of the sacrament " (Apostoticte cures, tr. in The En cyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII., New York, 1903, pp. 403404).
t In both the Roman and Anglican churches provision is made for " conditional baptism if there is doubt whether a former baptism was valid, i.e., administered in the name of the Trinity. The Roman Catholic Church, not riz ing the validity of Anglican or Greek confirmation, requires the reconfirmation of all converts from those communions, and for similar reasons both the Anglican and Roman churches insist on the reordination of all clergy becoming converts to them and desiring to exercise priestly functions, the Anglican church accepting, however, the validity of Greek and Roman ordination, and hence not requiring its repetition.
merits. Peter Lombard expressly ascribed extreme unction to the apostles, while Alexander of Hales, Thomas Aquinas, and others held that they were all instituted by Christ. In regard to the precedent necessity of the sacraments, Hugo of St. Victor declared that God might have saved man without them, but now that they have been instituted, no man can be saved except through them. The history of the doctrines of the seven sacraments is given under BAPrism, LORD'S SOPPER, etc., but a general statement belongs here. Baptism is the door to the other sacraments and to the kingdom of God; confirmation completes what baptism has begun and confers the grace of ever-increasing strength; the Eucharist confers the food of spiritual life in the very body and blood of Christ; penance deletes the guilt of actual transgressions as baptism regenerates from the guilt of original sin; extreme unction heals the soul from sin not already remitted by penance, and is also intended to heal the body; ordination empowers persons to administer the sacraments; and marriage makes the union between two persons perpetual and in harmony with the union between Christ and the Church; or, to use the comparison employed by the Schoolmen, the sacraments furnish grace for the spiritual struggle and strengthen the Christian warrior at the various stages of the conflict. Baptism equips him on entering the conflict, confirmation strengthens him in his purpose, extreme unction helps him at the close of the struggle, the Eucharist and penance renew his strength, orders introduce new recruits into the ranks, and marriage prepares men to be recruits.
The first blow against the sacramental system of the medieval Church was given by Luther in his "Babylonish Captivity," in which he declared the
Lord's Supper, and was followed in this by all the Reformers of the continent and Great Britain. All the Protestant confessions demand active faith as a condition of the efficacy of the sacrament. Faith apprehends and appropriates the spiritual benefits accruing from them. The unanimity of the Reformers as to the number of the sacraments and the conditions of their efficacious reception did not, however, exclude differences of doctrine which became the occasion of bitter controversies that greatly injured the cause of Protestantism.
There was general harmony regarding baptism, except among the Anabaptists, who rejected infant baptism and later demanded immersion; but the doctrine of the Lord's Supper was the cause of a dispute which has retarded or prevented
cordial Christian cooperation until this day. The three main types of teaching on the Lord's Supper were those of Luther, who took the view of consubstantiation; of Zwingli, who made it a simple
memorial feast; and of Calvin, who insisted on the mystical presence of Christ and a spiritual feeding upon him. In England the views of Luther were first adopted, but were later replaced, generally