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 SANCTORUM

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SANCTORUM

It is further manifest that the Church's hoUness must be of an entirely supernatural character^ something altogether beyond the power of unassisted human nature. And such is in fact the type of sanctity which Christ and His Apostles require on the part of members of the Church. (1) The virtues which in the Christian ideal are the most fundamental of all, lie altogether outside the scope of the highest pagan ethics. Christian charity, humility, and chastity are instances in point. The charity which Christ sets forth in the Sermon on the Mount and in the parable of the Good Samaritan — a charity which knows no limits and which embraces enemies as well as friends— exceeds all that moralists had deemed possible for men. And this charity Christ requires not of a chosen few, but of all His followers. Humil- ity, which in the Christian scheme is the necessary groundwork of all sanctity (Matt., xviii, 3), was pre- viously to His teaching an unknown virtue. The sense of personal unworthiness in which it consists, is repugnant to all the impulses of unregenerate nature. Moreover, the humility which Christ demands, supposes as its foundation a dear knowledge of the guilt of sin, and of the mercy of God. Without these it cannot exist. And these doctrines are sought in vain in other religions than the Christian. In regard to chastity Christ not merely warned His followers that to violate this virtue even by a thought, was a grievous sin. He went yet further. He ex- horted those of His followers to whom the grace should be given, to live the life of virginity that there- by they might draw nearer to God (Alatt., xix, 12).

(2) Another characteristic of holiness according to th(! Christian ideal is love of suffering; not as though i)leasure were evil in itself, but because suf- fering is the great means by which our love of God is intensified and purified. All those who have at- tained a high degree of holiness have learnt to re- joice in suffering, because by it their love to God was freed from every element of self-seeking, and their lives conformed to that of their Master. Those who have not grasped this principle may call them- selves by the name of Christian, but they have not understood the meaning of the Cross. (3) It has ever been held that holiness when it reaches a sublime degree is accompanied by miraculous powers. And Christ promised that this sign should not be lack- ing to His Church. The miracles, which His followers should work, would. He declared, be no whit less stu- pendous than those wrought by Himself during His mortal life (Mark, xvi, 17, 18; John, xiv, 12).

Such in brief outline is the sanctity with which Christ endowed His Church, and which is to be the distinguishing mark of her children. It is, however, to he noted that He said nothing to suggest that all His followers would make u.se of the oi)i)ort unities thus afforded them. On the contrary. He expressly taught that His flock would contain many unworthy m(!mbers (Matt., xiii, 30, 4<S). And we may be sure that as within the Church the lights are brightest, so there too the shadows will be darkest — corruptio oplimi pessima. An unworthy Catholic will fall lower than an unworthy pagan. To show that the Church possesses the note of holiness it suffices to establish that her teaching is holy: that she is en- dowed with the means of producing supernatural holi- ness in her children: that, notwithstanding the unfaithfulness of many members, a vast number do in fact cultivate a sanctity beyond anything that can be found elsewhere: and that in certain cases this sanctity attains so high a degree that God honours it with miraculous powers.

It is not difficult to show that the Catholic and Roman Church, and she alone, fulfils these condi- tions. In regard to h(>r doctrines, it is manifest that the moral law which she proposes as of Divine obli- gation, is more lofty arid more exacting than that

which any of the sects has ventured to require. Her vindication of the indissolubility of marriage in the face of a licentious world affords the most conspicuous instance of this. She alone maintains in its integ- rity her Master's tea(hing on marriage. Every other religious body without exception has given place to the demands of human passion. In regard to the means of holiness, she, through h(>r seven sacraments, applies to h(>r members Wv, fruits of the Atonement. She pardons the guilt of sin, and nourishes the faithful on the Body and Blood of Christ. Nor is the justice of her claims less mani- fest when we consider the result of her work. In the Catholic Church is found a marvellous succc^ssion of saints whose lives are as beacon-lights in the his- tory of mankind. In sanctity the supremacy of Bernard, of Dominic, of Francis, of Ignatius, of Theresa, is as unquestioned as is that of Alexander and of Ca;sar in the art of war. Outside the Catholic Church the world has nothing to show which can in any degree compare with them. Within the Church the succession never fails.

Nor do the saints stand alone. In proportion to the practical influence of Catholic teatihing, the supernatural virtues of which we have spoken above, are found also among the rest of the faithful. These virtues mark a special type of character which the Church seeks to realize in her children, and which finds little favour among other claimants to the Christian name. Outside the Catholic Churtih the life of virginity is contemned; love of suffering is viewed as a medieval superstition; and humility is regarded as a passive virtue ill-suited to an active and pushing age. Of course it is not meant that we do not find many individual instances of holiness outside the Church. God's grace is universal in its range. But it seems beyond question that the .sui)ernatural sanctity whose main features we have indicated, is recognized by all as belonging specifically to the Church, while in her alone does it reach that sublime degree which we see in the saints. In the Church too we see fulfilled Christ's promise that the gift of miracles shall not be wanting to His followers. Miracles, it is true, are not sanctity. But they are the aura in which the highest sanctity moves. And from the time of the Apostles to the nineteenth cen- tury the lives of the saints show us that the laws of nature have been suspended at their prayers. In numberless cases the evidence for these events is so ami)le that nothing but the exigencies of controversy can explain the refusal of anti-Catholic writers to admit their occurrence.

The proof api)ears to be complete. There can be as little doubt which Church displays the note of sanctity, as there is in regard to the notes of unity, catholicity and apostolitiity. The Church in com- munion with the See of Rome and it alone pos- 8es.ses that holiness which the words of Christ and His Apostles demand.

McRRAY, De ecclesia Christi, II (Dublin, 1862) ; Bellarmine, De cone, et ecclesia, IV, xi-xv; Tanqderey, Synopsis theol. (logmatica:, I (Paris, 1900); Benson in Ecclesia edited by Matthew (London, 1900). For modern anti-Catholic polemics on this subject, see Martineau, Seat of Authority in Religion (London, 1890); Palmer, Treatise of the Church (London, 1842),

I. vi, X, xi. G. H. Joyce.

Sanctorum Mentis, the hymn at First and Second Vespers in the Common of the Martyrs in the Roman Breviary. Its authorship is often attributed to Rabanus Maurus (d. S.^G), Archbishop of Mainz — e. g. by Blume (cf. Hymnody, V, 2), who thinks his hymns show originality and "no small poetic power". Dreves also (Analecta hymnica, XL, 204) favours the ascription. The stanza, in classical prosody, com- prises three Asclepiadic lines and one Glyconic. In Horace such a stanza indicates a grave and thought- ful frame of mind; but the breviary hymns using the stanza are usually suggestive of triumphant joy—