Article I: On the Matter and Form of the Sacraments

St. Thomas III, q. 60, a. 4 and 6.

9. Notions. - A sign is that through which someone comes to the knowledge of another thing. For this three conditions are required: that it be manifestative, that it express an order to another distinct thing, and that it be known first.

A sign is divided into natural and conventional, according as it leads to the knowledge of another thing by its own nature, as smoke signifies fire and a footprint an animal, or because of a connection arising from positive institution, as an olive branch indicates peace. The conventional sign is twofold: a) arbitrary or at pleasure, which of its nature is wholly indifferent to signifying something: such signs are words, for what we call a house could be called a stone, and vice versa; b) symbolic, which of its nature, independently of positive institution, does not indeed signify another thing, yet of its own nature has an aptitude for signifying this rather than that, on account of some likeness, agreement, or analogy which it has of itself with the thing signified. Thus bodily washing or eating of its own nature has an aptitude for signifying the purification or refreshment of the soul.

10. Principle I. The sacraments, both of the Old and of the New Law, are not natural signs, nor merely arbitrary signs, but for them there are required things which signify symbolically.

It is proved: a) They are not natural signs, because between corporeal and spiritual things there is no natural connection; therefore they are conventional signs from positive institution.

b) They are not merely arbitrary signs but symbolic signs: It is connatural to man that through likenesses of sensible things he come to the knowledge of spiritual things; but the sacred things which are signified through the sacraments are certain spiritual goods by which man is sanctified; therefore it is connatural to man that sensible things be taken as sacraments. But the wisdom of God provides for each thing according to its nature. Therefore it is fitting that the wisdom of God take as sacraments sensible things which have a certain likeness with sacred things. Whence Augustine, ep. 98 to Boniface, n. 9: "If sacraments did not have some likeness to those things of which they are sacraments, they would not be sacraments at all."

11. Principle II. For the perfection of the New Law it is required that the sacraments consist of symbolic things and at the same time of words. - This is certain and belongs to Catholic doctrine.¹

¹ This manner of speaking is already employed by Peter Lombard, IV Sentences, d. 1, under D.

It is proved: a) From the Scriptures, for Baptism (Eph. V, 26; John III, 5 and Mt. XXVIII, 19), the Eucharist (Mt. XXVI, 26; Mk. XIV, 22; Lk. XXII, 19), and Extreme Unction (Jas. V, 14, 15); it is perhaps indicated for Order (Acts VI, 6; XIII, 3) and for Confirmation (Acts VIII, 15).

b) From Tradition, whose witnesses are both the Fathers, as for Baptism: Didache, c. 7; Justin, Apology I, 61; Tertullian, Against Praxeas 26; On Baptism 13; Origen, on Romans V, 8; for the Eucharist: Justin, Apology I, 66; Irenaeus, Against Heresies IV, 18, 5; V, 2, 3; Origen, on Matthew XI, 14; for these sacraments and certain others, such as for Confirmation and Order, commonly from the fourth and fifth century, for example Gregory of Nyssa, oration on the Baptism of Christ; especially Augustine, on John tr. 15, n. 4; tr. 80, n. 3; - and all liturgical texts and Rituals, which already exist from the fourth and fifth century and by which it is established that the individual sacraments are composed of things and words; - and Councils, such as the Florentine, decree for the Armenians.

c) By reason of most fitting congruity: The sacraments of the New Law can be considered in a threefold way: 1. on the part of the sanctifying cause, which is the Incarnate Word, to which the sacrament is conformed in a certain way in this, that a word is applied to a sensible thing, just as the Word of God is united to sensible flesh; 2. on the part of the sanctified man, who is composed of soul and body, to whom the sacramental medicine is proportioned, which through the visible thing touches the body and senses, and through the word is believed by the soul; 3. on the part of the sacramental signification itself: words, says Augustine, On Christian Doctrine II, 3, have obtained the primacy of signifying among men, because through words we can express more distinctly what we have conceived in the mind, and therefore for the perfection of sacramental signification it was fitting that the signification of sensible things be determined through some words. For water can signify both washing, because of its humidity, and refreshment, because of its coldness; but when it is said: I baptize thee, it is made manifest that we use water in Baptism for signifying spiritual cleansing.

The aforesaid difference of the sacraments corresponds to the difference of the economy itself of the Old and New Law:

1. The former was less expressed, the latter of clearer signification, according to the Apostle, Heb. X, 1, distinguishing the shadow of heavenly things in the Old Testament, the image of heavenly things in the New, and the heavenly things themselves in glory; whence in the sacraments of the Old Law things sufficed which signified heavenly things rather obscurely and as through a shadow; on the contrary in the New Law a clearer signification as through an image was required, and therefore the sacraments consist of things and words.

2. The signs of a present thing ought to be clearer than the signs of a future thing; but the sacraments of the Old Law were announcements beforehand of Christ as about to come, and therefore they did not so expressly signify Christ, but by things alone, as do the sacraments of the New Law, which proceed from Him and have in themselves a certain likeness of Him, as consisting not of things alone but also of words.² Cf. Augustine, Against Faustus, book 19, cc. 16 and 17.

² In the Old Law words were sometimes employed, but they were merely ceremonial, not sacramental.

12. Principle III. The sacraments of the New Law consist of things and words as of matter and form. - This manner of speaking belongs to the usage received by the Church from the thirteenth century onward,³ which it would not be lawful to disapprove.

³ They generally say that William of Auxerre (d. 1231) first spoke thus in the Summa aurea, composed between 1215 and 1220. Others assign Stephen Langton (d. 1228), as Gillmann, who in Taufe in nomen Jesu and Sakramentenlehre vindicates this against Schanz.

It is proved: The things and words of which the sacraments consist are rightly called matter and form by analogy. For just as corporeal things consist of two really distinct principles, of which 1) one, matter, is indeterminate and imperfect potency (prime matter, - marble), the other, form, is act determining matter to such or such an existence and perfecting it (soul, - the form of the statue); 2) matter is presupposed, form accedes; and thus 3) by the union of these one being is constituted (one living thing, - one statue): so the sacraments consist of two things: 1) of things which signify more confusedly, indeterminately and imperfectly, and of words which signify more distinctly, determinately, perfectly, and which therefore determine the things to some determinate signification, as was declared in the preceding number; 2) the things are presupposed to the words, according to that saying of Augustine, tr. 80 on John, n. 3: "Baptism is consecrated by the word: take away the word and what is water except water? The word accedes to the element and it becomes a sacrament"; 3) by the union of these there is constituted one sacramental sign having one signification.

But since by this formula the very composition of the sacramental sign is indicated at once so aptly and concisely, by the usage of the universal Church, both Greek and Latin, and by the Councils of Constance, art. 22 against Wycliffe and Hus, Florence, decree for the Armenians, and Trent, sess. 14 on penance, c. 2 and 3; on extreme unction, c. 1, it was consecrated.

13. Observations. - 1. Matter and form here are understood as real parts of the sacrament; besides them, metaphysical or logical parts can be assigned, namely: on the one side, the whole sensible thing, consisting of things and words, which is the sign; on the other side, its signification through which it is a sign, which is the metaphysical form of the sacrament, as humanity is in man.

2. From the fact that a sacrament is defined as a conventional sign, it would be badly concluded that it is a mere being of reason, which does not exist except while it is known. It is not indeed a physical being which has its own existence, but a moral and juridical being. Such are obligations, jurisdictions, titles, dignities, deputations, conventional signs: these do not exist except dependently on the ordination of some practical intellect; but that ordination, as long as it is not revoked, remains affixed to the subject. Hence in the things and words of a sacrament together with institution there is present a real foundation, so that it may be conceived as a sign. Therefore although the signification itself is some relation of reason, nevertheless the foundation of this is real, and therefore the sacrament also exists while it is not conceived. In the same way the relation of creator in God is of reason, but in Him and in creatures there is present the foundation that God be called creator, and this foundation is real, for God remains creator even if He is not conceived as such.

3. The things which are the matter of the sacrament are understood not only as exterior things, such as water, chrism, etc., but also sacred rites or sensible human actions, such as washing, anointing, imposition of the hand, confession, etc., because in these there is the same indeterminate ratio of signifying as in things; likewise the words of the form, although regularly they are voices, can be those things which are equivalent to them, as the signs by which a mute person enters marriage.

In particular, the matter and form are: in Baptism, the washing of a man by water, and: I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; in Confirmation, the chrismation of a man on the forehead, and the words: I sign thee with the sign of the cross and confirm thee with the chrism of salvation... or other equivalent words; in the Eucharist, the accidents of bread and wine, and: This is My body, this is My blood, etc.; in Penance, the acts of the penitent: contrition, confession, satisfaction, and the absolution of the priest: I absolve thee...; in Extreme Unction: the multiple anointing, and: May the Lord forgive thee whatever thou hast committed; in Order: imposition of hands or handing over of the instruments, with the appropriate words; in Matrimony, the handing over of bodies and acceptance expressed by words or signs.

4. From the matter out of which the sacramental sign is intrinsically constituted or composed, there must be distinguished, in three sacraments, the extrinsic matter about which the sacrament merely turns: the former is called proximate matter, the latter remote matter. Such is the substance of bread and wine in the Eucharist, sins in Penance, bodies in Matrimony: for although they are prerequired for the sacrament, nevertheless they do not enter into the sensible sign. - In the other sacraments, because they consist in the application or use of a sensible thing, the matter out of which is called remote, namely the thing itself which is applied, for example water, oil; the proximate matter is the application or use of it, for example washing, anointing.

5. From the Council of Florence, teaching in the decree for the Armenians that "the sacraments are perfected," that is, confected, "by things as matter, by words as form, and by the person of the minister with the intention of doing what the Church does," do not conclude that the sacraments are not composed of matter and form: for the Council uses the verb to perfect, because the intention of the minister, which is necessary for effecting the sacrament, does not enter into the composition of the sacramental sign. But if things and words did not compose, they would not stand to each other as matter and form; nor, as Trent says, sess. 14, c. 3, would they be parts of the sacrament, required for its integrity.