Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/649

 CHARACTER

587

CHARACTER

tration has been valid, then it may be administered in a conditional form. But if they really have been validly administered, they cannot again, without sacrilege, be conferred upon the same person. The character imparted by these sacraments is something distinct from the grace imparted by them. In com- mon with the other sacraments, they are channels of sanctifying grace. But these three have the special prerogative of conferring both grace and a character. In consequence of the distinction between the sacra- mental grace and the sacramental character, it may even happen, in the reception of these sacraments, that the character is imparted and the grace with- held; the lack of proper dispositions which is suffi- cient to prevent the reception of the grace may not prevent the reception of the character. Thus, an adult who receives baptism without right faith and repentance but with a real intention of receiving the sacrament, obtains the character without the grace. The sacramental character, then, is not in itself a sanctifying gift; it is of a legal and official, rather than of a moral, nature. Nevertheless, normally, the character has a connexion with grace. It is only accidentally, by reason of some faulty disposi- tion in the recipient of the sacrament, that the association between the character and the grace is broken. In the Divine intention, and in the efficacy of the sacraments, the grace and the character go together: and the grace is proportioned to thespecial function which the character indicates. So that the character is sometimes called a sign, or mark, of grace.

The sacramental character, as we have said, is ineffaceable from the soul. This means, not that the effacement <>f this spiritual mark is an absolute metaphysical impossibility, but that in the estab- lished order of Divine Providence there is no cause which can destroy it in this life — neither sin, nor degradation from the ecclesiastical state, nor apos- tasy. This is of faith; and it is a theological opinion of great probability that the character is not effaced from the souls of the blessed in Heaven; while it is an opinion of some probability, that it is not effaced from the souls of the lost. Theology further tells us that character is a mark. sign, or badge by which the recipient is devoted to the work of worshipping God according to the ordinances of the Christian religion and Christian life; and that this is the reason why a character should be impressed by the Sacra- ments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy orders rather than by the others. Not all of the sacraments are directly and immediately ordained for the work of Divine worship; e. g. the Sacrament of Penance only absolves from sin, restoring the sinner to his former state, but not conferring on him any special privilege or faculty. Again, among the sacraments immediately connected with the worship of God, we may distinguish between the sacrament which con- stitutes the very act of worship (that is the Eucha- rist), and those sacraments which qualify a person to take part, as an agent or recipient, in the worship. Now these last are Bapt ism. Confirmation, and Holy orders. I he Sacrament of ( trders consecrates a man to the work of Divine worship as an agent, i. e. for the conferring of the sacraments upon other persons; baptism dedicates a person to Divine worship by qualifying him to receive the other sacraments; and confirmation, which confers spiritual manhood (as distinguished from the new birth of baptism), quali- fies the recipient for the duty of honouring God by professing the Christian Faith before its enemies. The sacramental character is compared by theolo- gians to a military badge, or the insignia of an order of knighthood. Scotus illustrates it by an argument drawn from the analogy of civil society, in which he names three official ranks: (1) the royal household, or that of the chief magistrate, by whatever name

he may be called; (2) the public service, e. g. the army; (3) the officers of the army. By baptism, he says, we are enrolled in the household of Christ; by confirmation, we are made soldiers of Christ; by Holy orders, we are made officers. And as these ranks have their distinctive badges in civil society, so in the spiritual society, or Church, the ranks are dis- tinguished in the sight of God and His angels by spiritual badges, marks, or sacramental characters.

All theologians affirm that the sacramental char- acter is not a mere external denomination; and prac- tically all are agreed that it is a sort of quality or state made inherent in the soul. Those, such as Scotus, who say that it is a relation (to Christ') mean that it is a relation with a real fundamentum, or ground, and whether we say that it is a relation having a ground in the sold, or a state or quality involving a relation, seems to signify quite the same thing, the difference being only in the expression. The category of quality being divided by Aristo- telean and Scholastic philosophers into four kinds, theologians for the most part classify the sacra- mental character as something akin to the genus of quality called power. Theologians also tell us that the character inheres not in tin' very substance of the soul but in one of the rational faculties; but it is a question in dispute wdiether the faculty in which the character inheres as its subject be tin- will or the practical reason (the Scotists holding that it is the will; the Thomists, that if is the practical reason). The sacramental character or mark is the character or mark of Christ, not of the Holy Spirit, and as the Redeemer has three prerogatives, as Pro'ihet, Priest, and King, this mark is the mark of Christ as Priest. It is a participation in His priesthood and an assimi- lation to it. Now, every created perfection is a shadow of some perfection of the Deity, and there- fore assimilation to Christ even in His human nature is assimilation to God. And as the Son is described in the Epistle to the Hebrews as "the Character of the Father's substance", hence the sacramental char- acter has been defined as "a distinction impressed by the Eternal Character [the Son] upon the created trinity [i. e. the soul with the intellect and the will] sealing it into a likeness (secundum imaginem con- signans) unto the Trinity which creates and anew- creates (Trinitati creanti et recreanti)." For theol- ogy distinguishes in the soul (1) the natural image and likeness of God; (2) the likeness produced by sanctifying grace and faith, hope, and charity; (3) the likeness not moral, but, so to say, legal and offi- cial, produced by the sacramental character.

The doctrine of the sacramental character is one of those which have been developed, and its history is traceable with sufficient clearness. It is to be observed, however, that the doctrine rests upon the authority of the Council of Trent, and that the his- tory is given as history, not for the purpose of in- voking the authority of the primitive Church. Though first solemnly defined by the Council of Trent, it had already been officially declared in the Council of Florence; and it was the unanimous opin- ion of all theologians, long before the time of Wyclif, who questioned it. It was set forth with the utmost explicitness by St. Augustine in the controversies of the fifth century, lb- points out that all who favoured rebaptism did so because they failed to distinguish between two effects of the sacrament, that is between the sanctifying gift of grace and the

Holy Spirit, on tl ne hand, and the gift, on the

other hand, which was not in itself sanctifying but which was a mark dedicating the recipient fcf. Contra Ep. Parm.. II. n. 28. with Ep. xcviii ad. Bonifac). In this controversy the doctrine of the sacramental character was but asserting itself with greater em- phasis because it was (constructively) attacked. The Church was but bringing out into distinctness