GUILLON, gxxx, MARIE NICOLAS SYLVESTRE: French Roman Catholic, Bishop of Morocco in partibus infaWium; b. in Paris Jan. 1, 1760; d. at Montfermeil (19 m. n.e. of Paris) Oct. 16, 1847. He studied at the College du Plessis and at the College Louis-le-Grand and acquired great proficiency in medicine, as well as in theology. He became almoner and librarian to the Princess Lamballe, but fled to Sceaux after her execution in 1792 and practised medicine there, and at Meaux, for several years under the assumed name of Pastel. After the Revolution he was made honorary canon and librarian of the cathedral of Paris. He accompanied Cardinal Fesch to Rome, and on his return became professor of rhetoric at the Lycde Bonaparte, and shortly afterward professor of sacred eloquence at the Sorbonne. He also became almoner of the Coll6ge Louis-le-Grand, almoner to the Princess of Orléans, honorary canon of Saint Denis, bishop of Morocco (1833), dean of the theological faculty at the Sorbonne, and an officer of the Legion of Honor, He was a prolific writer, and some of his works are still of value, particularly his Colledion des brefa du Pope Pie VI. (2 vols., Paris, 1798); Bibliothkue choisie les pyres greea et lading (26 vols., 1822); and his excellent translation of Cyprian's works (2 vols., 1837).
Bibliography: Lichtenberger, ESR, v. 792-793.
GUILT: The state resulting from the violation of law. In Christianity the presuppositions of guilt are the Christian view of Sin (q.v.),' personal
96 |
Guilt thus appears in two relations-civil and
personal. In civil affairs one may come under
obligations to compensate for an action legally
defective, by the payment of money or other equivalent. By a
criminal act, in addition to the injury
done, the criminal has violated a social order for
which the only satisfaction is punishment; this,
while not repaying the injured party, compels a
recognition of the order violated. Here the relation
is no longer external, involving debt and things,
but personal, involving crime and persons. Thus
the necessity of punishment cleaves to the transgressor. According to the New Testament guilt
has the following relations: (1) to the object violated by the sin
(
Several theories have been proposed to account for the consciousness of guilt: (1) It is grounded in part in the participation of all men in Adam's sin, and in part in the corruption which is the punishment of that sin. (2) A blameworthy deed committed by each individual of the race in a prenatal state announces itself in the universal consciousness of guilt (Julius Müller). (3) The consciousness of guilt is an incident of human development; "in his direct and unformed condition, man is in a situation in which he ought not to be, and he must free himself. This is the meaning of the doctrine of original sin." This condition is therefore inevitable, but to be transcended, and with its disappearance guilt will also disappear (Hegel); or through the painful-guilty-consciousness of natural weakness as something that should not be, one becomes susceptible to redemption by which he attains perfection (Schleiermacher). (4) Guilt is a social phenomenon. All men are involved in the general consequences and sufferings caused by sin. This is the truth contained in the doctrine of origi-
nal sin. Men may be only in part aware of this state and later they may be awakened from their indifference and lethargy and be led to confess and forsake their blameworthy share in a general im moral and irreligious condition. So far at least as they consent to those social conditions which violate the ideal moral order they are guilty. But the line between individual and social guilt is hard to define. (5) Guilt attaches only to those actions and to that character which are self-originated and for which one is therefore responsible. He has freely identified himself with the moral conditions in which he is found. Accordingly he is out of tune with the moral order of the world, society, and his own better self. His acts become habitual, his choice cumulative, registered in a permanent alienation from God. And the wrong act has not only its outer, but its inner consequences, and these latter cleave to the sinner and he is answerable to God. This constitutes his guilt. The prophets, in their revolt from the earlier Hebrew notion of sin as derived from social solidarity, carried the idea of individual sin and guilt to the very breaking point (Jar. xxxi. 29, 30:Bibliography: The subject is treated in the treatises on systematic theology (see Dogma, Dogmatics); in the works on Biblical Theology (q.v.); and in the commentaries on the passages cited in the teat. Consult
also the literature under SIN; J. Miller, Die christlicha Ldrs con der Sands, 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1877, Eng. trahel., Edinburgh, 1877; DCG, i. 898-698.Calvin College. Last modified on 08/11/06. Contact the CCEL. |