2. Views of Apostolic Fathers

Although Pharisaical Jewish Christianity was so directly opposed by Paul as a perversion of a fundamental idea of the Gospel, yet the earliest works of the Apostolic. Fathers and of the apologists show the introduction of the merit idea into the church system. The sins of past life are forgiven in baptism (Hernias, Mandates,

Apostolic IV., iii.; Justin, 1 Apol., Lii.; Tertul- Fathers. lien, De bdPtismo, i.). In this and in the promise of future blessings the grace of God is exhausted (cf. Clement, L, vii. 4). The baptized has now the duty of avoiding sins and fulfilling God's commandments, observing the new law of Christ in order that in the retribution at the resurrection of the dead he may inherit eternal life (Hernias, Vision, L, iii. 4a; Clement II., viii. 4). Of course the condition of this is man's freedom of will by which he can choose the good and fulfil God's law (Hernias, Mandates XII., iii.-v.; Justin, 11 dpol,, vii, 14; Tequlllall, De AM, U1,), h

Hernias (Similitude, V.,iii. 3) the conception of merit also appears as an act going beyond what is commended: " If thou doest anything good outside of the commandments of God thou wilt gain for thyself more abundant glory and thou wilt be of more repute with God than thou Overt about to be." It was Tertullian who introduced the strict juristic conception of merit: " From the beginning he [God] sent into the world messengers endowed with the Holy Spirit . . . to preach that there is only one God . . . to declare the rules appointed by him for

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securing his favor, and what rewards he had destined for those who ignore, forsake, or keep them " (Apol. xviii.). Tertullian brought the whole of Christianity into a scheme of works and rewards that became characteristic of Occidental Catholicism. Cyprian follows closely in the steps of his teacher: " There is need of justice that any one may secure merit with God our judge: his precepts and warnings must be obeyed that our merits may receive reward" (De ecclesice unitate, xv.). Again, "What will be the glory of those whO work-how great and exalted the joy when the Lord will begin to number his people and distribute the promised rewards to our merits and works, giving heavenly things for earthly, eternal things for temporal, great things for small . . . A mighty and divine thing . . . a salutary operation . . . a thing placed in the power of him who acts . . . the true and greatest gift of God, necessary for the weak, glorious for the strong, by which the Christian who is aided shows a spiritual grace, deserves merit from Christ the judge, accounts God his debtor . . . The Lord will never fail to give a reward for our merits" (De opere et eleemos., xxvi.). The works of Christians deserving such merits are, in general, alms, fasting, celibacy, but particularly martyrdom. Occidental thought was not strictly logical, for both Cyprian and Ambrose state that the life marked by virtues is possible only through the Holy Spirit. Augustine was the first to cast aside this prevalent teaching of merit. He denied that the grounds of merit 3. Augus- lay in the freedom of the will (Enchi tine and ridion, xxxii.), holding that divine Others. grace calls forth a good will without any previous works of merit. The process is founded on the inspiration of love, which is synonymous with grace. This is needed not only for the beginning but in separate acts (De gestis Pel., lvi.). Related to the rejection of merit was Augustine's teaching of an absolute predes tination, of the irresistibility of God's grace, and of the gift of perseverance received by the elect. Yet he shows tendencies to relapse into the old teaching that God crowns man's merits, "but God does not crown thy merits as thy merits but rather as his gifts" (De grdtia et liberoarbitrio, VI., xv.; cf. Enehi ridion, evii.). Later on Catholic theological development by its adoption of a conditional instead of an absolute predestination ("For those whose merits he foresaw he predestined rewards," Ambrose, De fide, V., vi. 83) returned in principle to the older theory. Gregory the Great adheres to the Augus tinian predestination but recognizes merit: "Grace preceding and good will following, that which is of God becomes merit in us" (Hom . in Ezek., I., ix. 2). Grace is conceived of not as salvation but as clearing the ground for the successful operation of free will. The great scholastic philosophers of the Middle Ages systematically worked up this semi Augustinian tendency, Peter Lombard (q.v.) laying the foundation with his theory of the co operation of grace and will in the production of good works. He plainly declares that there is no merit in man that is not through free will, and makes the hope of future depend on God's grace and preceding merits, "For without merits to hope for anything can not be called hope but presumption" ("Sentences," IV., xxvi. 1).

Thomas Aquinas makes merit the end of religion, yet in appearance holds to the Augustinian teaching (cf. Summa, II., i. 109-114). He distinguishes two kinds of grace, one belonging to the sphere of salvation, the other extending over the whole field of God's activity. This second

4. Thomas type of grace does not give man's Aquinas. acts meritorious character, although through it he may love God above all things. To inherit eternal life man, who is not able to produce merits proportioned to it, requires a higher virtue, the virtue of grace. As his nature is corrupt it must be healed by grace. This grace is called operative, inasmuch as it heals or justifies the soul, and from the other point of view co operative, inasmuch as it marks the beginning of meritorious action which proceeds from free will. The merit produced by operative grace is the motion of free will by which we accede to God's righteousness in making us righteous. Strictly speaking, merit can not be predicated of man in relation to God, but according to the prearrangement of the divine ordinance so established that man may attain it from God through his own operation, a reward, as it were, for what God be stowed on him, viz., the virtue of acting. In relation to free will he distinguishes a congruous merit from the condign merit which comes from the grace of the Holy Spirit. Man can prepare himself to receive grace through the action of his free will, not, however, without the aid of God who moves it. Its action is imperfect compared with what it can do when it is infused with grace, but the infusion of grace necessarily follows this cooperation between man's free will and God's motion.

The nominalists criticized this theory of merit, yet the tendency has been since the Middle Ages to stress congruous merit and moreover to confer merit only on those works which have the stamp of churchliness, introducing as chief fao-

5. Later tors the sacraments of baptism and Roman the Eucharist. The scholastics also Catholic introduced the thought of the super Views. erogatory merits of the saints (see Supererogation, Works of). At the time of the Reformation the Roman Catholic position on merit was intensified through the conflict with Protestantism. This is seen in con fessional documents even before the time of the Council of Trent. Its decrees (Session VI.) laid down the position that through the righteousness of Christ all deserve the grace of justification. This is given to each individual. Justification comes through the sacraments and reward is given to good works, for God is so good to man that he wills that what are really his gifts should be their merits. Yet the essential spirit of merit remains. Bellarmine states plainly that the good works of the just are properly and truly merits and deserve eternal life (Disputationes, V., i. 6). Present-day Roman Catholic teaching distinguishes between auxiliary or actual grace and sanctifying or habitual grace. The first is imparted temporarily to man but is necessary to every good work. The second

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is given through the sacraments, baptism, penance, but is lost through mortal sin. A meritorious work requires the cooperation of both. Among good works especially meritorious are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The grace that is lost through deadly sin is restored by penance. The general idea is that the church system acts as a factor along with human free will in the attainment of salvation.