H

Duns Scotus was adverse to the idea of confessing to any one but a priest. Confession, to be valid, was required to include all mortal sins that could be recalled. (Aquinas, Ibid., 9. 2.) Respecting venial sins, the more general view was that they are not to be confessed; but Thomas Aquinas argued, that, inasmuch as the Church (at the Lateran council under Innocent III.) made it obligatory upon all Christians of suitable age to confess once a year, it followed, even if one had committed no mortal sins, that he should confess. Wycliffe was of opinion that it would be better for the Church if private confession to a priest were not required at all.

According to the teaching of the scholastics generally, contrition, confession, and the priestly absolution occasion the removal of the guilt of sin and the eternal penalty due to the same, but still leave a temporal penalty. This, unless cancelled by works of satisfaction or by indulgences, must be endured in purgatory. Hence satisfaction was enumerated with contrition and confession, as antecedent to the complete remission of sins (committed after baptism.) That indulgences cannot reach further than the temporal penalty was the accepted theory of theologians; but, on the other hand, the decrees of the Popes were so worded, in some instances, as to foster the impression that indulgences have efficacy to cancel the eternal as well as the temporal penalty.

5. EXTREME UNCTION. According to Bonaventura, the integrity of this sacrament requires consecrated oil, vocal prayer, and the anointing of the sick in seven parts; namely, the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the lips, the hands, the feet, and the loins. He says, also, that the sacrament is not to be administered except to adults and those who in the belief that death is at hand request it, and only by the ministry of a priest. (Brevil., VI. 11. Compare Aquinas, Sum. Theol., III. Sup. 30-33.) Among the spiritual benefits attributed to the rite was the cancelling

of venial sins. It was regarded also as an instrument of bodily alleviation, where this might be consistent with spiritual welfare. The repetition of the sacrament, in case of the recovery of the sick, was declared admissible by Thomas Aquinas.

6. HOLY ORDERS. This sacrament was regarded as transferring its recipient across the wide interval, which, according to the hierarchical scheme, lies between the layman and the priest. Among clerical orders the priestly was ranked as the highest, ecclesiastical dignities above this not being accounted distinct orders. Seven different orders were distinguished, of which Peter Lombard gives the list as follows: "ostiarii, lectores, exorcistæ, acolyti, diaconi, subdiaconi, sacerdotes." (Sent., IV. 24.) Among impediments to receiving holy orders, Thomas Aquinas places female sex, condition of slavery, guilt of manslaughter, and illegitimate birth. (Sum. Theol., III. Sup. 39.) Not all of these, however, were regarded as strictly insuperable.

7. MARRIAGE. The analysis of this sacrament afforded the scholastics great difficulty. They were faithful heirs of the opinion that the state of virginal purity is superior to that of marriage. To reconcile this with the sacramental character of the matrimonial union was not easy, to say nothing about the difficulty of harmonizing such union with the definition of a sacrament in general. The best they could do was to assign an inferior rank to marriage, as compared with the other sacraments. (Abelard, Epit. Theol. Christ., XXXI.; Aquinas, Sum. Theol., III. 65. 2.) Durandus took the exceptional position that marriage is not so strictly and properly a sacrament as are the others, and only in a general sense (largo modo) can be so named. (Sent., IV. 27. 2.) The bond established by marriage was declared to be indissoluble, so long as both parties continue to live. (Lombard, Sent., IV. 31. 2; Aquinas, Sum. Theol., III. Sup. 62. 5; Bonaventura, Brevil., VI. 13.)

Evidently, from the Protestant point of view, the mediaval doctrines respecting the sacraments include some of the most objectionable features of the scholastic theology. To say nothing about such astounding particulars as the assumed change of a piece of bread into the body of Christ, the scholastic teaching, by its immense emphasis upon the value of the sacraments, and upon the prerogatives of the priest in ministering the same, lays strong and deep the foundations at once of an exaggerated ceremonialism and of spiritual despotism. It urges the individual to look to the sacraments for every grace, and yet gives him valid assurance of no grace, since the bare intention of the priest is able to nullify a sacrament.

CHAPTER VI.

ESCHATOLOGY.

1. CHILIASM.-Scarcely any place was given to chiliasm proper in mediæval thought. There was, indeed, in the tenth century, a wide-spread reference to a thousand years' reign of Christ. But the thousand years were regarded as dating from the beginning of the Christian era. The belief entertained, therefore, was quite unlike the chiliastic theory of a visible reign of Christ upon earth; it was simply a popular conviction that the year 1000 would witness the end of the world. In general the medieval mind seems to have imitated Augustine in looking to the past, rather than to the future, for the beginning of the millennial reign.

2. CONDITION BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION. The standard view upon this subject was substantially that which had already been advanced by Gregory the Great. Hell was regarded as receiving at once every departed soul not included among the heirs of salvation. Of the heirs of salvation, those free from all stain of sin were believed to pass at once into the enjoyment of the blessedness of heaven. (Aquinas, Sum. Theol., II. 1. 4. 5, III. 59. 5.) At least, this was the thoroughly dominant view, as the Avignon Pope, John XXII., discovered when he attempted to propagate the opposite opinion, namely, that the righteous are not favored with the beatific vision till after the resurrection. Those in need of purification, as was taught, are detained in purgatory, - which Dante describes as a mountain, rising on the opposite side of the earth through a

succession of stages or terraces, and crowned with the earthly Paradise. One factor in the work of purgation is corporcal fire. (Bonaventura, Brevil., VII: 2.) The pains of purgatory, though less than those of hell, are greater than any endured in this world. (Bonaventura, Ibid.; Peter Lombard, Sent., IV. 20. 1.) The length of the purgatorial process depends upon the amount of the corruption to be purged away, and also upon the amount of assistance which is rendered through the sacrifices, alms, prayers, etc., of the living. As the rich can provide more abundant means of this kind, it would appear to follow logically that they have a certain advantage over the poor in the next world, as well as in this. And we find actually with Peter Lombard an open suggestion that this is the case; for he seems to favor the view that the rich man, having both the general and the special aids of the Church, while the poor man has only the general, is in a condition to obtain a more speedy, though not a more complete absolution,- "celiorem absolutionem, non pleniorem." (Sent., IV. 45. 4.) Naturally, men like Wycliffe, who were disgusted with the practical abuses connected with the subject, were averse also to the theory of purgatory. The council of Florence gave the authoritative decision upon the general question. It decreed that those who die free from all stain of sin are received at once into heaven, and enjoy the vision of God in proportion to their merits; while those who die in mortal sin, actual or original, descend to different degrees of punishment in hell. Others are sent for a longer or shorter period to purgatory. Respecting these, the council defined as follows: "Si vere pœnitentes in Dei caritate decesserint, antequam dignis pœnitentiæ fructibus de commissis satisfacerint et omissis, eorum animas pœnis purgatoriis post mortem purgari, et ut a pœnis hujusmodi releventur prodesse eis fidelium virorum suffragia, missarum scilicet sacrificia, orationes, et eleemosynas, et alia pietatis officia." (Concil. Collect., Mansi.)