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 ORIHUELA

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ORIHUELA

the different members (St. Paul, I Cor., xii). Thus the multitude of men who receive their human nature from Adam is to be considered as a single community or rather as a single body. ... If the man, whose privation of original justice is due to Adam, is consid- ered as a private person, this privation is not his 'fault', for a fault is essentially voluntary. If, how- ever, we consider him as a member of the family of Adam, as if all men were only one man, then his priva- tion partakes of the nature of sin on account of its vol- untary origin, which is the actual sin of Adam" (De Malo, iv, 1). It is this law of solidarity, admitted by common sentiment, which attributes to children a part of the shame resulting from the father's crime. It is not a personal crime, objected the Pelagians. "No", answered St. Augustine, "but it is paternal crime' (Op. imperf., I, cxlviii). Being a distinct person I am not strictly responsible for the crime of another, the act is not mine. Yet, as a member of the human fam- ily, I am supposed to have acted with its head who represented it with regard to the conservation or the loss of grace. I am, therefore, responsible for my pri- vation of grace, taking responsibility in the largest sense of the word. This, however, is enough to make the state of privation of grace in a certain degree vol- untary, and, therefore, "without absurdity it may be said to be voluntary" (St. Augustine, "Retract.", I, xiii).

■Thus the principal difficulties of non-believers against the transmission of sin are answered. "Free will is essentially incommunicable." Physically, yes; morally, no ; the will of the father being considered as that of his children. " It is unjust to make us respon- sible for an act committed before our birth." Strictly responsible, yes; resiionsible in a wide sense of the word, no; the crime of a father brands his yet unborn children with shame, and entails upon them a share of his own responsibility. "Your dogma makes us strictly responsible for the fault of Adam." That is a misconception of our doctrine. Our dogma does not attribute to the children of Adam any properly so- called responsibility for the act of their father, nor do we say that original sin is voluntary in the strict sense of the word. It is true that, considered as " a moral de- formity ", "a separation from God", as "the death of the soul", original sin is a real sin which deprives the soul of sanctifying grace. It has the same claim to be a sin as has habitual sin, which is the state in which an adult is placed by a grave and personal fault, the "stain" which St. Thomas defines as " the privation of grace" (I-II, Q. cix. a. 7; III, Q. Ixxxvii, a. 2, ad 3""), and it is from this point of view that baptism, putting an end to the privation of grace, "takes away all that is really and properly sin", for concupiscence which remains "is not really and properly sin", although its transmission was equally voluntary (Council of Trent, Sess. V, can. v.). Considered precisely as voluntary, original sin is only the shadow of sin properly so-called. According to St. Thomas (In II Sent., dist. xxv, Q. i, a. 2, ad 2<™), it is not called "sin" in the same sense, but only in an analogous sense.

Several theologians of the seventeenth and eigh- teenth centuries, neglecting the importance of the pri- vation of grace in the explanation of original sin, and explaining it only by the participation we are sup- posed to have in the act of Ailam, exaggerate this par- ticipation. They exaggerate the idea of voluntary in original sin, thinking that it is the only way to explain how it is a sin properly so called. Their opinion, differing from that of St. Thomas, gave rise to un- called-for and insoluble difficulties. At present it is altogether abandoned.

For the Scriptcral proof: MacEvilly, An Exposition of the Epistles of SI. Paul. I (4th ed.. New York, 1891), 4.5; CoRNELT, Commentarius in epist. ad Rnmanos (Paris, 1896), 269; Corldt, Spicilegium dogmatica-hihlicum. I (Ghent, 1884). 228; Prat, La TMologie de S. Paul, I (Paris, 190S). 292. — For the doctrine of

St. Augustine: Augustine, Anti- Pelagian Works (London, 1880); ScHWANE, Dogmengeschichte. II (2nd ed., Freiburg im Br., 1894) ; PoRTALi^ in Diet, de theol. calh.. s. v. Augustin. — For the THEOLOGICAL EXPLANATION: St. Thomas, II-II, QQ. clxiii. clxiv; De Rubeis, De peecato oHginali (Wurzburg, 18o7) : Scheeben, Dogmatik, II (Freiburg im Br., 1880), clxxxvi; Mohler, Symr holism (London, 1894) ; Le Bachelet, Le peche originel (Paris, 1900); Lahousse, De Deo Creante (Bruges, 1904); Pesch, Pra-lectiones de Deo Creante (3rd ed., Freiburg im Breisgau, 1908). — For the rationalistic view: Tennant, The Sources of the doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin (Cambridge. 1903).

S. Harent.

Orihuela, Diocese op (Oriolensis, Oriol.\na), comprises all the civil Province of Alicante except the two townships (pueblos) of Caudete (Albaccte) and Ayora (Valencia). The city of Orihuela, with its sub- urbs, has a population of 24,364. The episcopal see was in ancient times at Bigastro or the place known as Cehegin. Jaime the Conqueror recovered Orihuela from the Moors in 126.5, giving it to his son-in-law Al- fonso X, the Wise, of Castile, and restoring the church, which came under the jurisdiction of the See of Carta- gena. When Orihuela was lost to the Castilian crown, in 1304, Martin of Aragon petitioned the pope to give it a bishop of its own. The first concession was made by the antipope Benedict XIII (Luna), who made the church of El Salvador a collegiate church. On the petition of Alfonso V, Martin V instituted a vicariate- general, independent of Murcia and Cartagena, for the portion of the diocese lying within the Kingdom of Aragon. No bishop was appointed until 1437, when it was given as its first, a scion of the House of Corella, who never took possession. Eugenius IV suppressed the new diocese; Jidius II accorded to the church of Orihuela the rank of cathedral (1510), but subject to the Bishop of Cartagena. Peace was secured only when Philip II, in the Cortes of Monz6n (1563), de- cided to separate the church of Orihuela from Carta- gena, and obtained from Pius IV, in 1564, the creation of a new bishopric.

The first bishop was a native of Burgos, Gregorio Gallo y Andrada, confessor to Queen Isabel of Valois. Among his successors, Jose Esteban added to the ca- thedral the chapter of St. Stephen, where he is buried. Juan Elias G6mez de Terdn built at his own expense (1743) the coneiliar seminary of La Purisima Concep- ci6n, the Seminary of St. Miguel, and the House of Mercy. He also caused to be erected the Chapel of the Holy Communion, the chapter house, and the archiniim. This bishop lies buried in the church of La Misericordia at Alicante. Jose de Rada y Aguirre was confessor to Ferdinand VI. Jos6 Tormo enlarged the seminary, rebuilt much of the episcopal jialace, erected episcopal residences at Cox and Klche, and the Chapel of the Holy Communion in the gre:it church of the latter city. Several works of public utility are due to him, such as the aqueduct of Flrh( . the bridge of Rojales, and a wall protecting the cultiv;itcd lands of Orihuela against inundation. .Vnother occupant of this see was Cardinal Dcspuig (1791). Francisco An- tonio Cebridn y Valda (1797) ruled the diocese eigh- teen years, afterwards becoming Patriiirch of the In- dies. The episcopate of Felix Ilcrrcro \';dvorde was long and fruitful; he improv(Ml the cathednil and other churi lies, LilMiiircd to rci):iir the dam:tgc done by the eartliiiii;iki' of Is'J'.l, and sulTcred a long exile in Italy after Ihrdialli <.f Fcniinaiid \II.

Conspicuou.s aiiKiiig the buildings of Orihuela is the Seminary of St. Miguel. situ:itrd upon it rocky emi- nence. Founded in 174:1. it possesses ;t good library, a hall of exercises (sulihi 'h (tria.-;} built by Bishop Pedro Mari;i('ubi'rc. ( Is.'i'.M. :ind the gencrid (/n'/i/r/i/w. of the diocese. It is divided into two colleges: that of the Aposliilir- Missiuiuuies, founded by Hishop 'I'erdn, and the episriip:d eiillegc. The most notable of the churches is the C:tthedral of the Transfiguration (El Salvador) : its style is a simple ogival of the fourteenth century. The principal door — the "Door of the Chains" — is Gothic; that of the Annunciation is Plat-