Sacrament, in general a sign of a holy or sacred thing. See Sign.

This word comes from the Latin sacramentum , which means an oath , and especially among the ancients the oath which soldiers swore with their hands in the hands of their general, and about which Polybus has preserved for us this formula. Obtemporeaturus sum et facturus quidquid mandabitur ab imperatoribus juxta vires . I will obey my generals, I will carry out their orders to the best of my ability.

In a general sense, one can say with Saint Augustine that no religion, whether true or false, has been able to attract adherents without using material signs or sacraments . So the law of nature had its own, such as the offering of bread and wine, practiced by Melchizedek; and one finds in the law of Moses circumcision, the paschal lamb, acts of purification, the consecration of high priests. Paganism can also list among the number of its sacraments lustration celebrations [that is, every five years], expiations, the ceremonies of the Eleusinian mysteries and those of Samothrace, for all these were symbols and signs.

But in the New Law, the word sacrament means a material sign of a spiritual grace, instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ for the sanctification of men.

Socinius and his disciples teach that the sacraments are nothing but simple ceremonies, which serve at most only to unite the faithful together outwardly, and to distinguish them from the Jews and the Gentiles.

Protestants do not say much more about them, claiming that the sacraments are simply ceremonies instituted by God, to seal and confirm the promises of grace, in order to strength our faith and to encourage our piety. They generally admit to only two, baptism and the eucharist, or, as they call it, the Lord’s Supper ; Anglicans add confirmation.

Catholics, on the other hand, who believe that the sacraments themselves produce sanctifying grace, recognize seven according to tradition; namely, baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, holy orders, and marriage; we have treated each of these individually in their own entry. See Baptism, etc.

The sacraments are moral entities which are essentially composed of two parts, something material, and some words. The sacrament comes from the union of these two parts; audit verbum ad elementum [word joins thing], [1] Saint Augustine said, tract. 8 on John, et fit sacramentum [and it becomes a sacrament]. The scholastic theologians gave the name matter to the material things, and the name form to the words. See Matter and Form.

The Protestants contend that the words which enter essentially into the make-up of the sacraments , must contain an instruction or a promise. But both claims have no foundation in Scripture or in tradition, and moreover the immediate aim of the sacraments is not to instruct men, or to promise them grace, but to confer it upon them; thus these words are in fact consecratory, either by withdrawing from profane use the material thing which constitutes the matter, or by initiating into the divine mysteries, the person receiving the sacrament . But in addition to the form and matter, there is the added requirement that the minister conferring the sacrament have the intention to do what the Church intends . There is much scholarly dispute about the nature of this intention; namely, if it must be interior and present, or if an habitual or virtual or exterior intention is sufficient for the validity of the sacrament . See Intention.

Considered in general, the sacraments are divided into sacraments of the dead and sacraments of the living. By sacraments of the dead are meant those which give spiritual life, as baptism does to people who have not yet received such a life, or as penance does to those who once having been blessed with such a life have lost it. By sacraments of the living , one means those destined to fortify the just and to increase in them the spiritual life of grace; such are confirmation, the eucharist, etc. They are themselves divided into the sacraments which may be repeated, that is to say, received more than once, like penance, the eucharist, extreme unction, and marriage; and into sacraments which may not be received more than once, like baptism, confirmation, and holy orders. The reason for this difference is that these last three imprint a mark or character. See Character.

The sacraments of the new law produce grace by themselves, or, as the scholastics say, ex opere operato , that is to say by the very performance of the rite itself. But do they act at that time as a physical or as a moral cause? Theologians are divided on this question; the Thomists contend that the sacraments by themselves produce grace through a real influence acting immediately on the soul; the Scotists on the other hand claim that the external application and administration of the sacraments move God to bestow his grace, because he is committed in a fixed and invariable way to accord grace to those who receive the sacraments worthily. The second position seems the more likely, for it is difficult to conceive of how the sacraments , which are corporeal realities, can immediately act on the soul, which is a spiritual substance.

Although people generally agree that Jesus Christ instituted all the sacraments, because he alone could confer on material things the virtue of giving sanctifying grace, it is not equally certain that he himself instituted them all directly , or even indirectly , that is to say, through his apostles or through his Church. There is no problem concerning baptism and the eucharist. As for the others, the most widely-accepted position is that he himself instituted them directly, but this is not an article of faith, since the Thomists freely maintain the opposite opinion.

The sacraments are necessary for justification, but not all of them to the same degree. Certain ones, like baptism and penance, are necessary from a necessity of means, that is to say that without baptism or a desire for it neither children nor adults can be saved, no more than sinners can be justified without penance or perfect contrition which includes desire in case of need. The other sacraments are necessary from a necessity of precept; to neglect them or to disdain them, is to cut one’s self off willingly from the spiritual aids which Jesus Christ did not prepare in vain.

Finally, the administration of the sacraments supposes either essential or accidental ceremonies prescribed by the Church. The essential ones which are associated with the validity of the sacraments can in no case be omitted. The accidental ones can be omitted in case of necessity. See Ceremony.

Note

1. [Translation courtesy of Ruth Scodel, who points out that the original author has misquoted Augustine: for audit , read accedit . See Joh. tract. 80.3.]