Chapter I — The notion of sacrifice, and its necessity

I. QUESTION I. What is a sacrifice, and of how many kinds is it? ANSWER. Sacrifice in its ample signification comprehends every good work, whether internal or external, which is directed to the glory of God. The notion of sacrifice strictly taken is this: an external oblation, made to God alone, by which, in recognition of his supreme dominion, some sensible and permanent thing is consecrated by a lawful minister with a mystical rite. Oblation holds the place of the genus. It is called external or sensible, because it is an act of religion in which men come together. But they cannot come together save by sensible signs, by which they manifest that which inwardly they bear in mind. It is called a sacrifice of a sensible thing, that it may be distinguished from the sacrifice of a contrite heart. Made to God alone. For God alone is the founder and governor of men, the beginning and the end. In recognition of his supreme dominion. By this exterior sacrifice a man protests his servitude to God, and that he has received from him whatever of good he has. For the primary end of sacrifice is the worship exhibited to God. By a lawful minister the oblation must be immolated, namely by a person designated to this office.

II. Sacrifice is divided, first, by reason of the matter, which is either solid, as an animal, which was offered in the old law after a victory gained over the enemy: therefore it was called hostia, from a victim of victory. Solid things also are bread, salt, incense, ears of corn, and wheat. Another matter is liquid, as wine, oil, blood, and water, which were sometimes offered and were called a libation. Second, by reason of the form it is distributed into holocaust, and into a sacrifice or victim for sin, and a peace-offering. The most perfect of all sacrifices was the holocaust, which was wholly consumed. The sacrifice for sin was partly consumed, and part passed to the use of the priests. Third, by reason of the end it is divided into latreutic, eucharistic, impetratory, and propitiatory.

III. QUESTION II. Is it a dogma of faith that the Mass is a sacrifice? ANSWER. By various names the Sacrifice of the Mass is called. First, it is called Liturgy. Second, Synaxis, or the conjunction of the faithful with Christ. Third, Oblation, which is offered in expiation of sins. Fourth, Collect, or the congregation of the faithful people. Fifth, it is called Missa from the verb to send, either because Christ is the victim sent to us by God, or because the sacrifice was made from the gifts sent by the faithful people, or because, the sacrifice being performed, the people is sent away, the deacon singing: Go, it is the dismissal.

IV. By a threefold canon Trent defined, session 22, that the Eucharist is a true sacrifice. Canon 1: If anyone shall say that in the Mass there is not offered to God a true and proper sacrifice, and so forth, let him be anathema. Like things are had in canons 3 and 4. By these three canons Trent routed the errors of the innovators. There is added the perpetual tradition of the Church and the consent of the Fathers, whose testimonies I have given in Vol. VIII, Book 3, dissertation 2, chapter 2.

V. QUESTION III. Is the essence of the Sacrifice of the Mass set in the oblation? ANSWER. The oblation which precedes the consecration is a mere preparation for the sacrifice: for it is an oblation of bread and wine. But bread and wine are not the victim of the sacrifice; but the victim is Christ the Lord himself. The oblation which follows the sacrifice similarly does not pertain to the essence of the sacrifice, since it was not instituted by Christ but by the Church, as also was the first.

VI. The oblation made in the consecration constitutes the essence of the Sacrifice of the Mass. For a sacrifice consists in the oblation and immolation of a sensible victim. Further, it is certain that in the consecration there is a true oblation. Since indeed Christ by force of the consecration is placed upon the altar as a true lamb and victim under the species of bread and wine, and is constituted in a certain state of death, inasmuch as, through the spiritual sword of the words, under diverse and separated species he is immolated and offered to God the Father. But this mystical separation, which is made by force of the words, of the body and the blood, aptly represents the bloody separation of the blood from the body accomplished on the cross.

VII. The communion of the priest is at least an integral part of the Sacrifice of the Mass, as all confess. Some maintain that it is an essential part. Since the Sacrifice of the Mass is the most perfect of all, and obtains the character of a holocaust. Further, as in a holocaust the whole victim was consumed, so in the Sacrifice of the Mass by the communion of the priest the whole victim is consumed. But that disagreement is of small moment. For the consumption of the sacrifice is of divine right. Wherefore if a priest die after the consecration, another priest, even one not fasting, ought to consume the sacrifice. Therefore the consecration is essentially ordained to the consumption. Similarly the consecration of both species pertains to the essence of the sacrifice, as all theologians affirm. For in the consecration is made the representation of the Lord's passion. Therefore the body ought not to be consecrated without the blood. Hence if a priest die after the consecration of the bread, another priest is to be substituted who may complete the sacrifice begun.

VIII. If after the consecration poison be detected, it ought not to be taken, but ought to be preserved in a fit little vessel, and other wine to be consecrated and taken. If an animal should fall in, it ought cautiously to be taken and washed and burned, and together with the ashes sent into the sacrarium, as St. Thomas teaches, III, q. 83, art. 6, reply 3.