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 SANCHEZ

428

SANCTITY

until his death. His penitential zeal rivalled that of the early anchorites, and, according to his spiritual director, he carried his baptismal innocence to the grave. Luis de la Puente, then rector of the college of Granada and later declared "venerable", attests the holines.s of Sanchez in his letter to Francis Suarez, a translation of which ma^' be found in the Biblio- theque de Bourgogne at Brussels.

Sanchez belongs to those who are much abused on account of their works. The chief work of Sanchez, and the only one which he himself edited, is the "Dis- putationes de sancti matrimonii sacramento". The first edition is said to have appeared at Genoa in 1602; but this can have been only the first folio volume, for which permission to jirint was secured in 1599, as the two succeeding volumes contain both in their preface and the author's dedication the date 1603. The first complete edition was, according to Sommervogel, that of Madrid, 160.5; later followed a series of editions printed at different places both before and after the author's death. The last edition seems to have been issued at Venice in 1754. The work had an extraor- dinarj'- fate, inasmuch as some editions of the third volume have been placed on the Index of Prohibited Books, the grounds being not the doctrine of the author, but the perversion of the work and the sup- pression of what the author taught. Even in the earher editions of the Index as revised by Leo XIII, till his Constitution "Officiorum ac munerum", we may .still read: "Sanchez, Thom. Disputationum de Sacramento Matrimonii tom. III. ed. Venetiae, give aliarum, a quibus 1. 8 disp. 7 detractus est integer num. 4. Deer. 4 Febr. 1627". This number is omitted from the edition of Venice, 1614 ; it treats of the power of the pope to grant a valid legitimation of the off- spring of marriages invalid only through canon law through the so-called sanaiio in radicc. The author's mode of ex-pression shows a not always pleasing ver- bosity. As it deals with every possible point in the Bubject, it has often, quite unjustifiably, drawn upon Sanchez the charge of immorality.

Soon after the death of Sanchez a second work appeared, "Opus morale in pracepta Decalogi"; the first folio volume was prepared by the author him- self, but the second volume, as well as the whole of his third work, "Consilia moralia", had to be com- piled from manuscript notes. These works also went through a series of different editions, and likewise drew upon themselves the accusation of laxity, espe- cially with reference to the question of what is called "mental reservation" {rentriclio menlalis). It is true that we find in Sanchez (Op. mor. in pra-c. decalogi, III, vi, n. 15) the twenty-sixth thesis condemned by Innocent XI : "If anyone, by himself, or before others, whether under examination or of his own accord, whether for amu.sement or for any other purpose, should swear that he has not done something which he has really done, having in mind something else which he has not done, or some way of doing it other than the way he employed, or anything else that is true: he does not lie nor perjure himself." The thesis rests on a peculiar definition of a "lie", which indeed is none too easy to d(fin(, and has engaged the in- genuit}' of scholars from the time of St. Augustine to to-day. Sanchez did not regard every mental reserva- tion lis always pc-rmi.ssible, but was simply discussing tlie sinfulness of the lie (or oath) in itself; that some other sin — even grievous, according to the circum- stances — may have been involved in the action, he floes not deny.

According to Wemz (Jus decretalium, IV, n. 20), Sanchez's work " De matrimonio" is even to-day reckoned by the Roman Curia among the classical works on marriage.

.N'lKKKMBEFu;. VarontJi UuxtreH, VII (new ed., Bilbao, 1891); GllLHEKMT, Afinol'xje lie In C. ile J. fParw, 1002); Sommer- vooEi., Bihl. tif. l/t C. lie J. (Bri)MW!lM, 1H5»0); IIi-rtkh, Nomen- cUUor, III (3rd ed., Inmbruck, 1907). AUG. LeHMKUHL.

Sanchez de Arevalo, Rodriguez. See Arevalo. San Cristobal de Laguna. See Teneriffe, Diocese of.

San Cristobal de la Habana. See Havana,

Diocese of.

Sanctifying Grace. See Grace.

Sanction (Lat. sancire, same root as sanc(ns) signifies i^rimarily the authoritative act whereby the legislator sanctions a law, i. e. gives it value and binding force for its subjects. Hence, objectively, the law itself is called sanction inasmuch as it is imposed on the consciences and obedience of subjects; thus ecclesiastical laws are often called sanctiones cnnoniccE. In more modern language every measure is called a sanction which is intended to further the observation of the law by subjects, whether the re- ward to whomsoever fulfills it, or the i)enalty or chastisement inflicted or at least threatened for non- fulfilment, whether it relates to prescriptive laws which require something to be done, or to jirohibitive laws which require that sometliing be omitted. These sanctions in turn may result from the very nature of the law, which are internal sanctions like those of the natural law, or they may be added by a jjositive act of the legislator, and these are external sanctions. Hence sanction is called moral, psychological, legal, or penal, according to the origin or the nature of it. (SeeP^THics: Law; Punishmext.) A. Boudi-nhon.

Sanctity, Mark of the Church. — The term "sanctity" is employed in somewhat different senses in relation to God, to individual men, and to a cor- porate body. As applied to God it denotes that ab- solute moral perfection which is His by nature. In regard to men it signifies a close union with God, together with the moral perfection resulting from this union. Hence holiness is said to belong to God by essence, and to creatures only by participation. Whatever sanctity they possess comes to them as a Divine gift. As used of a society, the term means (1) that this society aims at producing holiness in its members, and is possessed of means capable of secur- ing that result, and (2) that the lives of its members correspond, at least in some measure, with the pur- po.se of the .society, and display a real, not a merely nominal holiness.

The Church has ever claimed that she, as a society, is holy in a transcendent degree. She teaches that this is one of the four "notes", viz., unity, catholicity, apostolicity, and sanctity, by which the society founded by Christ can be readily distingui.she(l from all human institutions. It is in virtue of her relation to the Person and work of Christ that this attribute belongs to the Church. She is (1) the fruit of the Passion — the kingdom of the redeemed. Those who remain outside her are the "world" which knows not God (I John, iii, 1). The object of the Passion was the redemption and sanctification of the Church: "Christ also loved the chur(jh, and delivered Himself up for it: that he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life" (Eph., v, 25, 26). Again (2) the Church is the body of Christ. He is the head of the my.stical body: and supernatural life — the life of Christ Him.self — is comnmnicatcd through the .sacraments to all His members. Ju.st as the Holy Ghost dwelt in the human body of Christ, so He now dwells in the Church: and His presence is so intimate and so efficacious that the; Apostle can even speak of Him as the soul of the mystical body: "One body and one Spirit" (Eph., iv, 4). Thus it follows as a necessary consequence from the nature of the Church and her relation to Christ, that a.s a society she must possess means capable of producing holiness: that her members must be characterized by holiness: andthat this endowment of sanctity will afford a ready means of distinguishing her from the world.