Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/54

 DISCIPLINE

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DISCIPLINE

He died at Bethany, West Virginia, where he had es- tablished a seminary, -1 March, 1866.

According to their census prepared in 1906 the sect then had 6475 ministers, 11,633 churches, and a membership of 1,235,294. It is strongest in the West and South- West, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio having the largest bodies. J. H. Garrison, editor of their organ "The Christian Evangelist", out- lines ( 1906) the belief of his sect. According to their investigations of the New Testament the confession of faith made bySimon Peter, on which Jesus declared he would build His Chvu-ch, namely "Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God", was the creed of Christianity and the essential faith, and that all those who would make this confession from the heart, being penitent of their past sins, were to be admitted by baptism into the membership of the early Church ; that baptism in the early Church consisted of the burial of a penitent believer in water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and that only such were fit subjects for baptism; that the form of church govermnent was congregational; that each congregation had its deacons and elders or bishops, the former to look after the temporal and the latter the spiritual interests of the church. They practise weekly communion and consider it not as a sacrament but as a memorial feast. While they hold both New and Old Testaments to be equally inspired, both are not equally binding upon Christians. Accepting the Bible as an all-sufficient revelation of the Divine will, they repudiate all authoritative creeds and human groimds of fellowship.

CAMPBELL, Christian System (Cincinnati, lSo3); Errett, Our Position (Cincinnati, ISSo); Richardson. Life of Alexan- der Campbell (Philadelphia, 1868); Garrison, The Reformalion of Die Nineteenth Century (St. Louis. 1901).

James F. Loughun.

Discipline, Ecclesi.^stical. — Etymologically the word discipline signifies the formation of one who places himself at school and under the direction of a master. All Christians are the disciples of Christ, de- sirous to form themselves at His school and to be guided by His teachings and precepts. He called Himself, and we, too, call Him, Our Master. Such, then, is evangelical discipline. However, in ecclesi- astical language the word discipline has been invested with various meanings, which must here be eniuner- atcd and specified.

I. Meaning of Discipline. — All discipline may be considered first in its author, then in its subject, and finally in itself. In its author it is chiefly the method employed for the formation and adaptation of the pre- cepts and directions to the end to be attained, which is the perfect conduct of subjects; in this sense disci- pline is said to be severe or mild. In those who re- ceive it discipline is the more or less perfect conform- ity of acts to the directions and fonnation received; it is in this sense that discipline may be said to flourish in a monastery. Or, again, it is the obligation of sub- jects to conform their acts to precepts and directions, and is thus defined by Cardinal Cavagnis: Praxis fac- torum fidci consona — "conduct conforming itself to faith" (Inst. jur. publ. eccl., Bk. IV, n. 147). More frequently, however, discipline is considered objec- tively, that is, as being the precepts and measures for the practical guidance of subjects. Thus understood ecclesiastical discipline is the aggregate of laws and directions given by the Church to the faithful for their conduct both private and public. This is discipline in its widest acceptation, and includes natural and Di- vine as well as positive laws, and faith, worship, ami morals; in a word, all that affects the conduct of Christians. But if we eliminate laws merely formu- lated by the Church as the exponent of natural or Divine law, there remain the laws and directions laid down and formulated by ecclesiastical authority for the guidance of the faithful; this is the restricted and

more usual acceptation of the word discipline. Never- theless, it must be understood that this distinction, however justified, is not made for the purpose of sepa- rating ecclesiastical laws into two clearly di\"ided cate- gories in so far as practice is concerned; the Church does not always make known to what extent she speaks in the name of natural or of Divine law, and i\'ith this corresponds the obsen'ance of laws by her subjects.

II. Object of Discipline. — Since ecclesiastical dis- cipline should direct every Christian life, its object must differ according to the obligations incumbent on each individual. The first duty of a Christian is to believe; hence dogmatic discipline, by which the Church proposes what we should believe and so regu- lates our conduct that it shall not fail to assist our faith. Dogmatic discipline springs from the power of inngisterium, i. e. the teaching office, in the exercise of which power the Church can proceed only by declara- tion; therefore it is ecclesi;istical discipline only in a broad sense. The second duty of Christians is to ob- ser\e the Commandments, hence moral discipline (disciplina inorum). Strictly understood the latter does not depend much more upon the Church than does dogmatic discipline, as the natural law is anterior and superior to ecclesiastical law; however, the Church authoritatively proposes to us the moral law, she specifies and perfects it ; hence it is that we gener- ally call moral discipline whatsoever directs the Chris- tian in those acts that have a moral value, including the observance of positive laws, both ecclesiastical and secular. Among the chief duties of a Christian the worship of God must be assigned a place apart. The rules to be observed in this worship, especially public worship, constitute liturgical discipline. This cannot be said to depend absolutely upon the Church, as it derives the essential part of the Holy Sacrifice and the sacraments from Jesus Christ; however, for the greater part, liturgical discipline has been regulated by the Church and includes the rites of the Holy Sacrifice, the administration of the sacraments and of the sacra- mentals, and other ceremonies.

There still remain the obligations incumbent on the faithful considered individually, either on the members of different groups or classes of ecclesiastical society, or, finally, on those who are to any extent whatever depositaries of a portion of the authority. This is dis- cipline properly so called, exterior discipline, estab- lished by the free legislation of the Church (not, of course, in a way absolutely independent of natural or Di^^ne law, but outside of. yet akin to this law) for the good government of society and the sanctification of individuals. On individuals it imposes common pre- cepts (the Commandments of the Church) ; then it states their mutual obligations, in conjugal society by matrimonial discipline, in larger societies by determin- ing relations with ecclesiastical superiors, parish priests, bishops, etc. Special classes also have their own particular discipline, there being clerical disci- pline for the clergy and religious or monastic discipline for the religious. The government of Christian society is in the hands of prelates and superiors who are subject to a special discipline either for the conditions of their recruitment, for the determining of their privileges and duties, or for the manner in which they should ful- fil their functions. We may include here the rules for the administration of temporal goods. Finally, any authority from which emanate orders or prohibitions should have power to ratify the same by penal meas- ures applicable to all transgressors; hence, another object of discipline is the imposing and inflicting of disciplinary sanctions. It must be noted, however, that the object of these measures is to ensure observ- ance or to chastise infractions of the natural and Dir vine as well as of ecclesiastical laws.

III. Disciplinary Power of the Church. — It is evident, therefore, that the disciplinary power of the