Treatise: On the Sacraments in General

St. Thomas III, q. 60, a. 1 and 2.

3. Sacrament according to the name etymologically signifies that which makes sacred, or a means of making sacred; whence it is denominated from order to something sacred and to sanctity. In Greek it is called mysterion, which signifies that which is hidden; but it sounds almost the same: for sacred or divine things are wont especially to be secret.

But because something sacred exists in many ways, and order to sanctity exists in many ways, the signification of sacrament is manifold. For just as healthy is said not only of the animal which properly has health, but also by analogy of the face or color which is a sign, and of medicine which is a cause of health, so sacraments are called not only those things which have in themselves some hidden sanctity, but all those things which have toward that sanctity either the order of a sign or of a cause, or any other relation whatever. Hence the word sacrament signifies in ecclesiastical speech:

a) divine truths, sacred in themselves, exceeding the light of reason,¹ and especially those which in the ancient Church were hidden from the non-initiated;

¹ Mt. XIII, 11: "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven"; Eph. I, 9: "that He might make known the sacrament of His will"; likewise III, 3, 9; Col. I, 27; I Tim. III, 16; Wis. II, 22; VI, 24; I Cor. XIII, 2.

b) figures, parables, similitudes, symbols by which supernatural realities are proposed to us;² in which sense St. Augustine often spoke;³

² Apoc. I, 20: "the sacrament of the seven stars"; XVII, 7: "I will show you the sacrament of the woman"; Eph. V, 32: "a great sacrament in Christ and in the Church"; Dan. II, 18, 30, 47.

³ De Civitate Dei, book X, 5: "A visible sacrifice is a sacrament, that is, a sacred sign, of an invisible sacrifice"; Contra Faustum, book XIX, 11, ceremonies of external worship, and book II On the Merits and Remission of Sins, rites imposed on catechumens are called sacraments; ep. to Marcellinus 138, n. 7: "signs, when they pertain to divine things, are called sacraments."

c) ceremonies or rites and signs instituted for the worship of God, by which man is sanctified with sanctity and initiated into sacred things.⁴

⁴ I Cor. IV, 1: "Let a man so account us as ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God."

In profane speech it is taken: a) for every secret, insofar as it is not to be violated but to be kept as if it were sacred: thus in Tob. XII, 7, it is read: to hide the sacrament of the king is good; b) for an oath, especially of soldiers toward the republic, because it is made by something sacred, and because it is not to be violated but is to be kept as something sacred; c) for the money of litigants deposited in a temple, because there it is kept as a sacred thing.

Now for many centuries, by the usage of theologians and of the Church, the word sacrament has become especially proper to sanctifying signs;⁵ whence in the present treatise it is taken in this sense: "properly," says St. Thomas, q. 60, a. 2, "a sacrament is said, according as we now speak of sacraments, to be that which is a sign of a sacred thing insofar as it is sanctifying men."

⁵ In the twelfth century Hugh of St. Victor says that the sacraments contain grace; the Summa Sententiarum, that they confer it; Peter Lombard, that they cause it. This doctrine was received by common usage and approved by the Council of Trent. And it has a positive foundation in the Fathers, although among them the sense of the word sacrament is very indeterminate. For they describe sanctifying signs, recalling a visible symbol in which there is the power of the Holy Spirit and invisible grace. Cf. Tertullian, On Baptism IV; Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit, I, 77; Augustine, Questions on the Heptateuch, III, 84.

4. Division of the treatise. - The treatise is divided into five parts: on the essence of the sacraments, on necessity or existence, on effects, on cause, and on number.

The first part is: On the essence of a sacrament: 1. on the notion and signification of the sacramental sign; 2. on the parts of the sacramental sign: a) on matter and form, b) on the union of matter and form; 3. on the determination of the sacramental sign: a) on the cause determining matter and form; b) on the change of matter and form.

The second part is: On the necessity of the sacraments in the present order, before original sin, before and after Christ.

The third part is: On the effects of the sacraments: A. on grace: 1. on grace caused by the sacraments: a) on habitual grace making one pleasing, b) on special or sacramental grace, c) on unequal grace caused; 2. on the mode by which grace is caused: a) on the efficient causality of the sacraments, b) on the instrumental causality of the sacraments, c) on the causative power of the sacraments, d) on the causality of the sacraments of the Old Law; 3. on the time at which grace is caused; B. on character: 1. on the existence of character; 2. on the essence of character; 3. on the sacraments imprinting character.

The fourth part is: On the cause of the sacraments: 1. on the instituting cause; 2. on the administering cause or minister: a) on the various ministers, b) on the faith and sanctity of the minister, c) on the intention of the minister, d) on those to whom the sacraments are to be administered; 3. on the receiving cause or subject: a) on the conditions of valid reception, b) on the conditions of licit reception.

The fifth part is: On the number of the sacraments: 1. on the sevenfold number; 2. on the order of the sacraments, or comparison with one another.

There follows an appendix: on the ceremonies of the sacraments and sacramentals.

The theory concerning the sacraments in general is not exhibited in the Scriptures or in the Fathers, but only doctrine concerning each one; nevertheless it has its foundation in St. Augustine; and it was built up by the Scholastics of the twelfth century, who began to consider all the sacraments after the manner of one.⁶

⁶ Concerning the Sacraments there can usefully be consulted: St. Thomas, in III, q. 60-65, with the commentaries of Cajetan, John of St. Thomas, Sylvius, the Salmanticenses, Nugno Cabezudo, Billuart; likewise Peter de Ledesma, Summa de Sacramentis; Drouin, De Re Sacramentaria; among the Jesuit scholastics, St. Robert Bellarmine, Suarez, and de Lugo; among recent dogmatic theologians, Franzelin, Billot, Heinrich-Gutberlet, Hugon, De Baets, Van Noort, Pohle, Diekamp, Del Val, Sasse; likewise Haine, Principia dogmatico-moralia universae theologiae sacramentalis; De Smet, Tractatus dogmatico-moralis de Sacramentis in genere; Chardon, Histoire des Sacrements; Hahn, Die Lehre von den Sakramenten in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung; Oswald, Die dogmatische Lehre von den h. Sakramenten; Probst, Sakramenten und Sakramentalien in die drei erste Jahrhunderten; Pourrat, La Theologie sacramentaire; Schanz, Die Lehre von den h. Sakramenten der Katholische Kirche; Gihr, Die h. Sakramente der Katholische Kirche; for practical questions, St. Alphonsus and modern manuals, such as Ballerini, Lehmkuhl, Marc, Aertnijs-Damen, Genicot-Salsmans, Noldin-Schmitt, Prummer, Tanquerey, Vermeersch; among canonists, Cappello, Tractatus canonico-moralis de Sacramentis, I; among orators, Monsabre, Les Sacrements.