Chapter I: Object, History, Number, and Obligation of the Commandments of the Church

1. Opyect.—Among the many ecclesiastical precepts contained in the Canon Law a few are preéminently called Commandments of the Church (praecepta seu mandata Ecclesiae) because they bind every Catholic who has attained the age of discretion. These commandments are but corollaries drawn from the precepts of the natural and positive divine law,¹ determining more accurately the manner or time of their observance.²

¹ F. Suarez, De Legibus, l. IV, c. 1, n. 10: “These [precepts] for the universal Church . . . are only certain determinations of divine law morally necessary for men, as is plain concerning the precept of annual confession and Communion, fasts and feast days, and the payment of tithes.” (Opera Omnia, V, 330).

² St. Augustine, Epist., 36 (al. 86), c. 11, n. 25: “Revolving this in my mind in the evangelical and apostolic writings and in the whole instrument which is called the New Testament, I see that fasting has been commanded. But on what days one ought not to fast and on what days one ought to fast, I do not find determined by a precept of the Lord or of the apostles.” (Migne, P. L., XXXIII, 147).—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 147, art. 3: “Just as it pertains to secular princes to hand down legal precepts determining the natural law concerning those things which pertain to the common advantage in temporal matters, so also it pertains to ecclesiastical prelates to command by statutes those things which pertain to the common advantage of the faithful in spiritual goods. . . . It has been said [art. 1] that fasting is useful for the destruction and restraint of fault and for the elevation of the mind to spiritual things. But everyone is bound by natural reason to employ only so much fasting as is necessary for him for the aforesaid purposes. And therefore fasting in general falls under the precept of the natural law, but the determination of the time and manner of fasting according to the convenience and advantage of the Christian people falls under the precept of positive law instituted by the prelates of the Church; and this is the fast of the Church; the other is the fast of nature.”

As the worship of God by faith, hope, and charity cannot be left to the arbitrary judgment of the individual, the Church has formulated certain precepts for the purpose of inducing her children to obey the will of God and instructing them how to obey it. The character and purpose of these so-called Commandments of the Church is, therefore, essentially moral and ascetic. They refer partly to divine worship, partly to the reception of the Sacraments, and partly are directed against concupiscence and the pursuit of pleasure.

2. History.—The list of Commandments of the Church as it appears in our catechisms, is of comparatively recent origin. The Catechism of the Council of Trent does not even allude to them, though collections of these precepts had been compiled before that time. Three years before the appearance of the Catechismus Romanus, as it is generally called, the French Jesuit Edmund Auger published a Catéchisme et Sommaire de la Réligion Chrestienne, in which it is stated that, besides the Ten Commandments of God, there are five other ancient precepts which every Catholic must observe. These five “Commandments of the Holy Catholic Church” seem to have been transcribed from the Small Catechism of Bl. Peter Canisius, first published in Germany in 1556. The Summa Casuum. Conscientiae of Angelo de Clavasio, which appeared at Venice, in 1486, contains two separate and distinct lists of Church Commandments, which, though differing slightly from each other, are substantially identical with those now in force. Before Angelo de Clavasio these precepts had been catalogued by St. Antoninus, and consequently Villien is probably right when he dates the collection, as we have it, from the second third of the fifteenth century. Successive catechisms did not adhere closely to the earlier list, but since the second half of the seventeenth century catechisms everywhere give in a few precise numbers a summary of the obligations imposed by the Church on every Christian.³

³ A. Villien, A History of the Commandments of the Church, pp. 2 sqq., St. Louis 1915.

3. NUMBER.—Angelo de Clavasio’s Summa contains two lists of Church Commandments.

The first enumerates five precepts, referring to (1) the celebration of feasts; (2) the obligation of hearing Mass; (3) fasting during Lent and on the vigils of holydays; (4) the duty of confession; (5) the reception of the Holy Eucharist; (6) the paying of tithes; and (7) the obligation of avoiding excommunicated persons. This is the longest and most complete of the older lists so far as known. The second is even more detailed. St. Antoninus’s list runs as follows: (1) To observe the feast days; (2) to keep the fast on the days appointed by the Church, as throughout Lent; (3) to abstain from flesh meat every Friday; (4) to hear Mass on Sundays and holydays of obligation; (5) to go to confession at least once a year; (6) to communicate annually on Easter Sunday; (7) to pay the tithes; (8) to abstain from all acts prohibited under pain of excommunication; (9) to avoid excommunicated persons at divine worship and even at other times, in conversation, at table, etc., when association with them might be construed as contempt of the Church; (10) to stay away from Mass and divine office when celebrated by clerics who publicly live in concubinage.⁴

⁴ Villien, op. cit., pp. 9 sqq.

Later the number of these commandments was reduced to five, and this division is maintained up to the present day. These five commandments are enumerated as follows in the Catechism approved by Pope Pius X for the Province of Rome:

(1) To hear Mass on Sundays and all other holydays of obligation; (2) To fast during Lent, on Ember Days, and on the appointed vigils, and not to eat meat on forbidden days; (3) To confess at least once a year and to receive holy Communion at Easter time, each one in his own parish; (4) To pay tithes to the Church according to usage; (5) Not to celebrate weddings in prohibited seasons, that is, from the first Sunday of Advent to the feast of Epiphany, and from the first day of Lent to the octave of Easter. (This law has been modified by the new Code.)

To these general precepts some diocesan, provincial or national catechisms added one or more particular ones, imposed by local bishops or councils. Thus the German-English Catechism of Deharbe, edited for the United States of America, contains under number six the following precepts: Not to contract marriage without the presence of a priest and witnesses; not to solemnize weddings in forbidden times; not to espouse non-Catholics or those related within a prohibited degree, or to contract marriage in any way forbidden by the Church. Father Färber’s Catechism, which is also widely used in this country, gives under number four the prohibition of affiliating with condemned secret societies.

In French Canada the bishops, on whom it everywhere rests to decide what teaching is most necessary for the faithful of their respective dioceses, emphasize the precept of paying tithes. Certain American catechisms have adapted this precept to domestic conditions as follows: “Thou shalt contribute to the support of the Church and of the pastor according to thy means.”⁵

⁵ Villien, op. cit., pp. 20 sqq.

The catechism in common use in the Greek Catholic Church enumerates nine general precepts.

It has been contended that, from the moral point of view, it would be preferable to leave the observance of the precepts embodied in the so-called Commandments of the Church to the free-will of the faithful. This objection carries no weight if we consider the frailty of human nature after the fall. Even if every citizen knew what had to be done to protect the country against its enemies, it would still be necessary to have laws compelling all to do their duty. Human nature is weak and corrupt, and between knowing a thing to be right and doing it, there is a vast gulf, which the law endeavors to bridge by urging and, if necessary, compelling each individual to do what he perceives to be right. Even though every Catholic were firmly convinced that he must receive the Holy Eucharist at least once a year, in order to comply with our Saviour’s wish and the purpose for which He instituted this Sacrament, many would disobey if the Church did not enjoin annual communion as a strict duty. This statement applies with even greater force to practices of mortification. How many Catholics would do penance if the Church did not oblige them to? Thus the Commandments of the Church influence both the intellect and the will by convincing the former and moving the latter to act. In other words, the Church compels us, as it were, to perform our Christian duties.⁶

⁶ Wilmers, Lehrbuch der Religion, 6th ed., by Lehmkuhl, Vol. III, pp. 463 sq.

The Commandments of the Church are, and are intended to be, means of sanctification or instruments of perfection (media sanctificationis sive instrumenta perfectionis).

The Commandments of the Church oblige strictly, i. e., in conscience and under pain of mortal sin, unless the unimportance of the matter involved or inability or inadvertence excuses.⁷ To transgress any one of them, therefore, is a mortal sin, not only when it is done habitually, or in open contempt of ecclesiastical authority, or when accompanied by grave scandal, but as often as it is done without sufficient reason or legitimate excuse in an important matter.

⁷ Matt. XVIII, 17; Luke X, 16. Cfr. Conc. Trid., Sess. VI, can. 20; Sess. VII, De Bapt., can. 7–8.

A sufficient excuse is physical or moral impossibility arising from sickness or from notable danger to one’s health, honor, or temporal possessions.

That the Commandments of the Church entail a strict obligation appears (1) from the importance of their subject matter, (2) from the common teaching of theologians, (3) from the custom of faithful Catholics, and (4) from certain explicit decisions of the Roman authorities.⁸

⁸ Proposition condemned by Alexander VII, n. 23: “One who breaks the fast of the Church to which he is bound does not sin mortally unless he does this from contempt or disobedience, namely, because he does not wish to subject himself to the precept.” (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 1123).—Proposition condemned under Innocent XI, n. 52: “The precept of observing feast days does not bind under mortal sin, scandal set aside, if contempt is absent.” (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 1202).

The question, at what age the Commandments of the Church begin to bind, was long disputed among theologians. The Lateran Council declared that every faithful Catholic must confess and communicate “after he has arrived at the years of discretion.” This law has been adopted into the New Code of Canon Law.⁹ According to the common teaching of theologians the age of discretion is reached when reason is sufficiently developed to distinguish good from evil; which means, on the average, at seven years.¹⁰ The law of abstinence binds all who have completed the seventh year; the law of fasting, all who have completed the twenty-first and not yet entered upon the sixtieth year.¹¹

⁹ Can. 906; 859, § 1.

¹⁰ Villien, A History of the Commandments of the Church, p. 170.

¹¹ Can. 1254.

In the early days of Christianity the faithful began to fast as soon as they were able. Some fasted at the age of fifteen, while others waited until they were twenty-one. Alexander of Hales, for canonical and physiological reasons, fixed the beginning of the obligation at eighteen, which was the age designated by the Church for admission to the religious state. St. Thomas held that the juridical obligation of fasting began at the age of twenty-one, because at this age, which marks the end of the third septenary, bodily growth ceases and there is less need of food, as a rule.¹²

¹² Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 147, art. 4, ad 2; Villien, op. cit., pp. 267 sq.

READINGS.—St. Antoninus, Summa Theol., P. I, tit. xvii, p. 12.—Th. Tamburini, Tractatus Quinque in Quinque Ecclesiae Praecepta, Dillingen 1697.—A. Villien, A History of the Commandments of the Church, St. Louis 1915.—Th. Slater, S.J., A Manual of Moral Theology, Vol. I, pp. 563 sqq.—J. W. Melody in the Cath. Encyclopedia, Vol. IV, pp. 154 sq.—J. B. Ferreres, S.J., Comp. Theol. Mor., Vol. I, pp. 382 sqq.