§ 104.2. Definition and Number of the Sacraments (§§ 58; 70, 2).—Radbert acknowledged only two: Baptism including confirmation, and the Lord’s Supper. Rabanus Maurus by separately enumerating the bread and the cup, and counting confirmation as well as baptism, made four. Hugo St. Victor again held them to be an indefinite number. But he distinguished three kinds: those on which salvation depends, Baptism, Confirmation, and the Supper; those not necessary and forming important aids to salvation, sprinkling with holy water, confession, extreme unction, marriage, etc.; those necessary for particular callings, the ordination of priests, sacred vestments. Yet he prepared the way for the final ecclesiastical conception of the sacraments, by placing its Elementa Corporalia under the threefold category as divinam gratiam ex similitudine repræsentantia, ex institutione significantia, and ex consecratione continentia. Peter the Lombard took practically the same view, but fixed the number of the Sacraments at seven: Baptism, Confirmation (§ 35, 4), the Supper, Penance, Extreme Unction, Marriage, and Ordination (§ 45, 1). This number was first officially sanctioned by the Florentine Council of A.D. 1439 (§ 67, 6). Alexander of Hales gave a special rank to Baptism and the Supper, as alone instituted by Christ, while Aquinas gave this rank to all the seven. All the ecclesiastical consecrations and benedictions were distinguished from the sacraments as Sacramentalia.—The Schoolmen distinguished the sacraments of the O.T., as ex opera operante, i.e. efficacious only through faith in a coming Redeemer, from the sacraments of the N.T. as ex opera operato, i.e. as efficacious by mere receiving without the exercise of positive faith on the part of all who had not committed a mortal sin.Against old sectaries (§§ 41, 3; 63, 1) and new (§§ [108, 7], [12]) the scholastic divines maintained that even unworthy and unbelieving priests could validly dispense the sacraments, if only there was the intentio to administer it in the form prescribed by the church.[309]
§ 104.3. The Sacrament of the Altar.—At the fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215 the doctrine of Transubstantiation was finally accepted (§ [101, 2]). The fear lest any of the blood of the Lord should be spilt led to the withholding from the 12th century of the cup from the laity, and its being given only to the priests. If not the cause, then the consequence, of this was that the priests were regarded as the only full and perfect partakers of the Lord’s table. Kings at their coronation and at the approach of death were sometimes by special favour allowed to partake of the cup. The withdrawal of the cup from the laity was dogmatically justified, specially by Alex. of Hales, by the doctrine of concomitantia, i.e. that in the body the blood was contained. Fear of losing any fragment also led to the substitution of wafers, the host, for the bread that should be broken.—A consecrated host is kept in the Tabernaculum, a niche in the wall on the right of the high altar, in the so-called liburium or Sanctissimum, i.e. a gold or silver casket, often ornamented with rich jewels. It is taken forth, touched only by the priests, and exhibited to the kneeling people during the service and in solemn processions.
§ 104.4. Penance.—Gratian’s decree (§ [99, 5]) left it to the individual believer’s decision whether the sinner could be reconciled to God by heart penitence without confession. But in accordance also with the teaching of the Lombard, confession of mortal sins (Gal. v. 19 ff. and Cor. v. 9 f.), or, in case that could not be, the desire at heart to make it, was declared indispensable. The forgiveness of sins was still, however, regarded as God’s exclusive prerogative, and the priest could bind and loose only in regard to the fellowship of the church and the enjoyment of the sacraments. Before him, however, Hugo St. Victor had begun to transcend these limits; for he, distinguishing between the guilt and the punishment of the sinner, ascribed indeed to God alone the absolution from the guilt of sin on the ground of sincere repentance, but ascribed to the exercise of the priestly function, the absolution from the punishment of eternal death, in accordance with Matthew xviii. 18 and John xx. 23.Richard St. Victor held that the punishment of eternal death, which all mortal sins as well as venial sins entail, can be commuted into temporal punishment by priestly absolution, atoned for by penances imposed by the priests, e.g. prayers, fastings, alms, etc.; whereas without such satisfaction they can be atoned for only by the pains of purgatory (§ 61, 4). Innocent III., at the fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215, had the obligation of confession of all sins raised into a dogma, and obliged all believers under threat of excommunication to make confession at least once a year, as preparation for the Easter communion. The Provincial Synod at Toulouse in A.D. 1229 (§ [109, 2]) insisted on compulsory confession and communion three times a year, at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. The three penitential requirements, enforced first by Hildebert of Tours, and adopted by the Lombard, Contritio cordis, Confessio oris, and Satisfactio operis continued henceforth in force. But Hugo’s and Richard’s theory of absolution displaced not only that of the Lombard, but, by an extension of the sacerdotal idea to the absolution of the sinner from guilt, led to the introduction of a full-blown theory of indulgence (§ [106, 2]). As the ground of the scientific construction given it by the Schoolmen of the 13th century, especially by Aquinas, the Catholic Church doctrine of penance received its final shape at the Council of Florence in A.D. 1439. Penance as the fourth sacrament consists of hearty repentance, auricular confession, and satisfaction; it takes form in the words of absolution, Ego te absolvo; and it is efficacious for the forgiveness of sins. Any breach of the secrecy of the confessional was visited by the fourth Lateran Council with excommunication, deposition, and lifelong confinement in a monastery. The exaction of a confessional fee, especially at the Easter confession, appears as an increment of the priest’s income in many mediæval documents. Its prohibition by several councils was caused by its simoniacal abuse. By the introduction of confessors, separate from the local clergy, the custom fell more and more into disuse.
§ 104.5. Extreme Unction.—Although as early as A.D. 416 Innocent I. had described anointing of the sick with holy oil (Mark vi. 13; Jas. v. 14) as a Genus Sacramenti (§ 61, 3), extreme unction as a sacrament made little progress till the 9th century. The Synod of Chalons in A.D. 813 calls it quite generally a means of grace for the weak of soul and body. The Lombard was the first to give it the fifth place among the seven sacraments as Unctio extrema and Sacramentum exeuntium, ascribing to it Peccatorum remissio et corporalis infirmitatio alleviatus. Original sin being atoned for by baptism, and actual sins by penance, Albert the Great and Aquinas describe it as the purifying from the Reliquiæ peccatorum which even after baptism and penance hinder the soul from entering into its perfect rest. Bodily healing is only a secondary aim, and is given only if thereby the primary end of spiritual healing is not hindered. It was long debated whether, in case of recovery, it should be repeated when death were found approaching, and it was at last declared to be admissible. The Council of Trent defines Extreme Unction as Sacr. pœnitentiæ totius vitæ consummativum. The form of its administration was finally determined to be the anointing of eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands, as well as (except in women) the feet and loins, with holy oil, consecrated by the bishop on Maundy Thursday. Confession and communion precede anointing. The three together constitute the Viaticum of the soul in its last journey. After receiving extreme unction recipients are forbidden again to touch the ground with their bare feet or to have marital intercourse.
§ 104.6. The Sacrament of Marriage (§ 89, 4).—When marriage came generally to be regarded as a sacrament in the proper sense, the laws of marriage were reconstructed and the administration of them committed to the church. It had long been insisted upon by the church with ever-increasing decidedness, that the priestly benediction must precede the marriage ceremonial, and that bridal communion must accompany the civil action. Hence marriage had to be performed in the immediate vicinity of a church, ante ostium ecclesiæ. As another than the father often gave away the bride, this position of sponsor was claimed by the church for the priest. Marriage thus lost its civil character, and the priest came to be regarded as performing it in his official capacity not in name of the family, but in name of the church. Christian marriage in the early times required only mutual consent of parties (§ 39, 1), but the Council of Trent demanded a solemn agreement between bride and bridegroom before the officiating priest and two or three witnesses. In order to determine more exactly hindrances to marriage (§ 61, 2) it was made a law at the second Lateran Council in A.D. 1139, and confirmed at the fourth in A.D. 1215, that the parties proposing to marry should be proclaimed in church. To each part of the sacrament the character indelibilis is ascribed, and so divorce was absolutely forbidden, even in the case of adultery (in spite of Matt. v. 32 and xix. 9), though separatio a mensa et toro was allowed. Innocent III. in A.D. 1215 reduced the prohibited degrees from the seventh to the fourth in the line of blood relationship (§ 61, 2).
§ 104.7. New Festivals.—The worship of Mary (§ 57, 2) received an impulse from the institution of the Feast of the Birth of Mary on 8th of September. To this was added in the south of France in the 12th century, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on the 8th December. Radbert (§ 91, 4) by his doctrine of Sanctificatio in utero gave basis to the theory of the Virgin’s freedom from original sin in her conception and bearing. Anselm of Canterbury, however, taught in Cur Deus Homo? ii. 16, that Mary was conceived and born in sin, and that she like all others had sinned in Adam. Certain canons of Lyons, in A.D. 1140, revived Radbert’s theory, but raised the Sanctif. in utero into the Immaculata conceptio. St. Bernard protested against the doctrine and the festival; sinless conception is a prerogative of the Redeemer alone. Mary like us all was conceived in sin, but was sanctified before the birth by Divine power, so that her whole life was faultless; if one imagines that Mary’s sinless conception of her Son had her own sinless conception as a necessary presupposition, this would need to be carried back ad infinitum, and to festivals of Immaculate Conceptions there would be no end. This view of a Sanctificatio in utero, with repudiation of the Conceptio immaculata, was also maintained by Alex. of Hales, Bonaventura, Albert the Great, and Aquinas. The feast of the Conception, with the predicate “immaculate” dropped, gradually came to be universally observed.The Franciscans adopted it in this limited sense at Pisa, in A.D. 1263, but when, beginning with Duns Scotus (§§ [113], [112]), the doctrine of the immaculate conception came to be regarded as a distinctive dogma of the order, the Dominicans felt called upon to offer it their most strenuous opposition.[310] (Continuation, § [112, 4].)—To the feast of All Saints, on 1st November, the Cluniacs added in A.D. 998, the feast of All Souls on 2nd November, for intercession of believers on behalf of the salvation of souls in purgatory. In the 12th century the Feast of the Trinity was introduced on the Sunday after Pentecost. Out of the transubstantiation doctrine arose the Corpus Christi Festival, on the Thursday after Trinity. A pious nun of Liège, Juliana, in A.D. 1261, saw in a vision the full moon with a halo around it, and an inward revelation interpreted this phenomenon to indicate that the festal cycle of the church still wanted a festival in honour of the eucharist. Urban IV. gave effect to this suggestion in A.D. 1264, avowedly in consequence of the miracle of the mass of Bolsena. A priest of Bolsena celebrating mass spilt a drop of consecrated wine, which left a blood-red stain on the corporal or pall (§ 60, 5), in the form of a host. The festival did not come into favour till Clement V. renewed its institution at the Council of Vienne, in A.D. 1311. The church, by order of John XXIII. in A.D. 1316, celebrated it by a magnificent procession, in which the liburium was carried with all pomp.
§ 104.8. The Veneration of Saints (§ 88, 4).—The numerous Canonizations, from the 12th century exclusively in the hands of the popes, gave an impulse to saint worship. It was the duty of Advocatus diaboli to try to disprove the reports of virtues and miracles attributed to candidates. The proofs of holiness adduced were generally derived from thoroughly fabulous sources. The introduction of the name of accepted candidates into the canon of the mass gave rise to the term canonization. Beatification was a lower degree of honour, often a preliminary to canonization at a later period. It carried with it the veneration not of the whole church, but of particular churches or districts. The Dominican Jacobus a Voragine, who died in A.D. 1298, in his Legenda aurea afforded a pattern for numerous late legends of the saints. A Parisian theologian who styled it Legenda ferrea, was publicly expelled from his office. The Veneration of Mary, to whom were rendered Hyperdoulia in contradistinction from the Doulia of the saints, not only among the people, but with the most cultured theologians, publicly and privately, literally and figuratively, in prose and poetry, was almost equal to the worship rendered to God, and indeed often overshadowed it. The angel’s salutation (Luke i. 28) was in every prayer. Its frequent repetition led to the use of the Rosary, a rose wreath for the most blessed of women. The great rosary attributed to St. Dominic has fifteen decades, or 150 smaller pearls of Mary, each of which represents an Ave Maria, and after every ten there is a greater Paternoster pearl. The small or common rosary has only five decades of beads of Mary with a Paternoster bead for each decade. Thrice repeated it forms the so-called Psalter of Mary. The first appearance of the rosary in devotion was with the monk Macarius in the 4th century, who took 300 stones in his lap, and after every Paternoster threw one away. The rosary devotion is also practised by Moslems and Buddhists. In cloisters, Saturday was usually dedicated to the Mother of God, and was begun by a special Officium S. Mariæ. May was called the month of Mary.—In the 11th century no further trace is found of the Frankish opposition to Image Worship (§ 92, 1). But this in no way hindered the growth of Relic Worship. Returning crusaders showered on the West innumerable relics, which notwithstanding many sceptics were received generally with superstitious reverence. Castles and estates were often bartered for pretended relics of a distinguished saint, and such treasures were frequently stolen at the risk of life. No story of a trafficker in relics was too absurd to be believed.—Pilgrimages, especially to Rome and Palestine, were no less in esteem among the Western Christians of the 10th century during the Roman pornocracy (§ [96, 1]) or the tyranny of the Seljuk dynasty in Palestine (§ [94]). The expectation of the approaching end of the world, rather gave them an impulse during this century, which reached its fullest expression in the crusades.—Continuation, § [115, 9].
§ 104.9. The earliest trace of a commemoration of St. Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins is met with in the 10th century. Excavations in the Ager Ursulanus near Cologne in A.D. 1155 led to the discovery of some thousand skeletons, several of them being those of males, with inscribed tablets, one of the fictitious inscriptions referring to an otherwise unknown pope Cyriæus. St. Elizabeth of Schönau (§ [107, 1]) at the same time had visions in which the Virgin gave her authentic account of their lives. Ursula, the fair daughter of a British king of the 3rd century, was to have married a pagan prince; she craved three years’ reprieve and got from her father eleven ships, each with an equipment of a thousand virgins, with which she sailed up the Rhine to Basel, and thence with her companions travelled on foot a pilgrimage to Rome. On her return, in accordance with the Divine instruction, Pope Cyriæus accompanied her, whose name was on this account struck out of the list by the offended cardinals; for as Martinus Polonus says, Credebant plerique eum non propter devotionem sed propter obtectamenta virginum papatum dimississe. Near Cologne they met the army of the Huns, by whom they were all massacred, at last even Ursula herself on her persistent refusal to marry the barbaric chief.—In the absence of any historical foundations for this legend, an explanation has been attempted by identifying Ursula with a goddess of the German mythology.An older suggestion is that perhaps an ancient inscription may have given rise to the legend.[311]
§ 104.10. Hymnology.—The Augustan age of scholasticism was that also of the composition of Latin hymns and sequences (§ 88, 2).The most distinguished sacred poets were Odo of Clugny, king Robert of France (Veni, sancte Spiritus, et emitte), Damiani, Abælard, Hildebert of Tours, St. Bernard, Adam of St. Victor,[312] Bonaventura, Aquinas, the Franciscan Thomas of Celano, A.D. 126O (Dies iræ), and Jacopone da Todi, † A.D. 1306 (Stabat mater dolorosa). The latter, an eccentric enthusiast and miracle-working saint, called himself “Stultus propter Christum.” Originally a wealthy advocate, living a life of revel and riot, he was led by the sudden death of his young wife to forsake the world. He courted the world’s scorn in the most literal manner, appearing in the public market bridled like a beast of burden and creeping on all fours, and at another time appearing naked, tarred and feathered at the marriage of a niece. But he glowed with fervent love for the Crucified and a fanatical veneration for the blessed Virgin. He also fearlessly raised his voice against the corruption of the clergy and the papacy, and vigorously denounced the ambition of Boniface VIII. For this he was imprisoned and fed on bread and water. When tauntingly asked, “When wilt thou come out?” he answered in words that were soon fulfilled, “So soon as thou shall come down.” Sacred Poetry in the vernacular was used only in extra-ecclesiastical devotions.The oldest German Easter hymn belongs to the 12th century.[313] The Minnesingers of the 13th century composed popular songs of a religious character, especially in praise of Mary; there were also sacred songs for travellers, sailors, soldiers, etc. Heretics separated from the church and its services spread their views by means of hymns. St. Francis wrote Italian hymns, and among his disciples Fra Pacifico, Bonaventura, Thomas of Celano, and Jacopone followed worthily in his footsteps.
§ 104.11. Church Music (§ 88, 2).—The Gregorian Cantus firmus soon fell into disfavour and disuetude. The rarity, costliness, and corruption of the antiphonaries, the difficulty of their notation and of their musical system, and the want of accurately trained singers, combined to bring this about. Singers too had often made arbitrary alterations. Hence alongside of the Cantus firmus there gradually grew up a Discantus or Cantus figuratus, and instead of singing in unison, singing in harmony was introduced. Rules of harmony, concord, and intervals were now elaborated by the monk Hucbald of Rheims about A.D. 900, while the German monk Reginus about A.D. 920 and the abbot Opo of Clugny did much for the theory and practice of music. In place of the intricate Gregorian notation the Tuscan Benedictine Guido of Arezzo, A.D. 1000-1050, introduced the notation that is still used, which made it possible to write the harmony along with the melody, counterpoint, i.e. punctum contra punctum. The discoverer of the measure of the notes was Franco of Cologne about A.D. 1200. The organ was commonly used in churches. The Germans were the greatest masters in its construction and in the playing of it.—Continuation, § [115, 8].