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Breviloquium · Pars VI: De medicina sacramentali

Textus Latinus
p. 269

Capitulum V. De Sacramentorum dispensatione.

De dispensatione autem Sacramentorum hoc tenendum est, quod potestas dispensationis Sacramentorum regulariter spectat ad solum genus humanum. — In omnibus autem Sacramentis dispensandis necessaria est in dispensante intentio. — In aliquibus etiam necessario cum intentione requiritur ordo sacerdotalis3, vel pontificalis; pontificalis, inquam, necessarius est dispensationi confirmationis et ordinis; sacerdotalis vero dispensationi eucharistiae, poenitentiae et unctionis extremae. Baptismus autem et matrimonium, licet ad sacerdotes spectent, possunt tamen praeter ordinem sacerdotalem dispensari de facto, maxime in articulo necessitatis. — His autem existentibus, Sacramenta dispensari possunt a bonis et malis, a fidelibus et haereticis, intra Ecclesiam et extra, sed intra secundum veritatem et ad utilitatem, extra vero non ad utilitatem, licet dispensentur secundum veritatem4.

Ratio autem ad intelligentiam praedictorum haec est: quia reparativum principium nostrum, Verbum scilicet incarnatum, quia5 in quantum Deus et homo Sacramenta instituit ad salutem hominum, ordinavit, sicut et congruum fuit, ut hominibus dispensarentur per ministerium hominum propter servandam conformitatem dispensatoris ad salvatorem Christum et ad ipsum hominem salvandum. Quoniam ergo Christus salvator humanum genus salvavit, secundum quod exigebat aequitas iuris, dignitas ordinis et securitas salutis — operatus est enim salutem6 nostram modo recto, ordinato et certo — hinc est, quod secundum horum trium exigentiam Sacramenta commisit hominibus dispensanda. — Primo igitur, quia rectitudo iuris exigit, ut opera hominis, secundum quod homo, non fiant praecipitanter; et opera hominis ut ministri Christi aliquo modo referantur ad Christum; et opera hominis ut ministri salutis aliquo modo referantur ad salutem vel in generali, vel in speciali; et dispensatio Sacramentorum est opus hominis ut rationalis, ut ministri Christi et ut ministri salutis: hinc est, quod necesse est, quod fiat ex intentione; et ex intentione7, qua quis intendat facere quod Christus instituit ad humanam salutem, vel saltem facere quod facit Ecclesia, in quo clauditur in generali intentio praedicta, quia ipsa Ecclesia, sicut Sacramenta a Christo accepit, sic ad fidelium salutem dispensat.

Rursus, quia ordo dignitatis exigit, ut maiora maioribus, minora minoribus et media mediocribus8 committantur; et quaedam sunt Sacramenta, quae praecipue respiciunt excellentiam virtutis sive dignitatis, ut Sacramentum confirmationis et ordinis; quaedam, quae respiciunt indigentiam necessitatis, ut baptismus et matrimonium, quorum unum generat, alterum regenerat ad existentiam debitam; quaedam autem media, ut eucharistia, poenitentia et unctio extrema: hinc est, quod prima tanquam suprema p. 270 non possunt dispensari nisi ab episcopis et pontificibus, quantum est de iure communi; alia vero tanquam infima dispensari possunt a quibuscumque ordinibus et personis inferioribus, maxime in articulo necessitatis, quod dico ratione baptismi; media vero a solis sacerdotibus, qui inter episcopos et inferiores personas sunt quasi in medio constituti.

Postremo, quia securitas salutis exigit, ut res sic fiat, ut in dubium non cadat; et nullus est, qui certus sit de bonitate et credulitate dispensatoris, et idem ipse non est certus de se, utrum amore, an odio dignus sit1: ideo, si Sacramenta dispensari solum possent a bonis, nullus esset certus de susceptione Sacramenti; et sic oporteret semper iterari, et malitia unius praeiudicaret alienae saluti; nulla etiam esset stabilitas in gradibus hierarchiae Ecclesiae militantis, quae maxime consistit in Sacramentis dispensandis. Et ideo congruum fuit, ut Sacramentorum dispensatio committeretur homini non ratione sanctitatis, quae variatur secundum voluntatem, sed ratione auctoritatis, quae semper manet, quantum est de se; ac per hoc oportuit, quod se extenderet ad bonos et ad malos, ad eos qui sunt intra, et ad eos qui sunt extra Ecclesiam. — Verum, quia extra unitatem fidei et caritatis, quae facit nos filios Ecclesiae et membra, nullus potest salvari; ideo, si Sacramenta extra recipiantur, non ad salutem recipiuntur, quamvis vera sint Sacramenta; sed utilia possunt fieri, si quis redeat ad sanctam matrem Ecclesiam, unicam Christi sponsam, cuius filios tantum Christus sponsus reputat dignos hereditate aeterna. Unde Augustinus contra Donatistas2: « Ecclesia paradiso comparata indicat nobis, posse quidem baptismum eius homines etiam foris accipere, sed salutem beatitudinis extra eam neminem vel percipere vel tenere. Nam et flumina de fonte paradisi, sicut Scriptura testatur, etiam foras largiter manaverunt; nominatim quippe commemorantur et per quas terras fluant, et quod extra paradisum constituta sint, omnibus notum est; nec tamen in Mesopotamia vel in Aegypto, quo illa flumina pervenerunt, est felicitas vitae, quae in paradiso commemoratur. Ita fit, ut, cum paradisi aqua sit extra paradisum, beatitudo tamen non sit nisi intra paradisum. Sic ergo baptismus Ecclesiae potest esse extra Ecclesiam, munus autem beatae vitae non nisi intra Ecclesiam reperitur, quae super petram etiam fundata est, quae ligandi et solvendi claves accepit. Haec est una, quae tenet et possidet omnem sponsi sui et Domini potestatem, per quam coniugalem potestatem etiam de ancillis parere filios potest, qui, si non superbiant, in sortem hereditatis vocabuntur, si autem superbiant, extra remanebunt. Magis ergo, quia pro Ecclesiae honore atque unitate pugnamus, non tribuamus haereticis quidquid apud eos eius agnoscimus, sed eos arguentes doceamus, quod ex unitate habent nec valere ad salutem, nisi ad eandem venerint unitatem ».

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English Translation

Chapter V. On the dispensation of the Sacraments.

Concerning the dispensation of the Sacraments, moreover, this must be held: that the power of dispensing the Sacraments regularly pertains to the human race alone. — And in the dispensing of all the Sacraments an intention in the one dispensing is necessary. — In some, moreover, there is necessarily required, together with the intention, the priestly3 or the pontifical order; the pontifical, I say, is necessary for the dispensation of confirmation and of order, but the priestly for the dispensation of the eucharist, penance and extreme unction. Baptism, however, and marriage, although they pertain to priests, can nevertheless in fact be dispensed apart from the priestly order, most of all in the article of necessity. — And these things being so, the Sacraments can be dispensed by the good and by the wicked, by the faithful and by heretics, within the Church and without, but within according to truth and unto profit, without indeed not unto profit, although they be dispensed according to truth4.

Now the reason for the understanding of the foresaid is this: since our reparative principle, the Word namely incarnate, because5 inasmuch as he is God and man he instituted the Sacraments for the salvation of men, he ordained — as was also fitting — that they should be dispensed to men through the ministry of men, for the preserving of the conformity of the dispenser to Christ the savior and to the very man to be saved. Since therefore Christ the savior saved the human race according as the equity of right, the dignity of order and the security of salvation demanded — for he wrought our salvation6 in a manner right, ordered and certain — hence it is that according to the exigency of these three he committed the Sacraments to men to be dispensed. — First, therefore, because the rectitude of right demands that the works of a man, according as he is man, be not done precipitately; and that the works of a man as minister of Christ be in some manner referred to Christ; and that the works of a man as minister of salvation be in some manner referred to salvation, either in general or in particular; and the dispensation of the Sacraments is the work of a man as rational, as minister of Christ and as minister of salvation: hence it is that it is necessary that it be done from intention; and from that intention7 by which one intends to do what Christ instituted for human salvation, or at least to do what the Church does, in which the foresaid intention is included in general, because the Church herself, as she received the Sacraments from Christ, so dispenses them unto the salvation of the faithful.

Again, because the order of dignity demands that greater things be committed to the greater, lesser to the lesser and middling to the middling8; and some Sacraments there are which regard chiefly the excellence of power or of dignity, as the Sacrament of confirmation and of order; some which regard the indigence of necessity, as baptism and marriage, of which the one generates and the other regenerates unto the existence that is due; and some indeed middling, as the eucharist, penance and extreme unction: hence it is that the first, as supreme, p. 270 cannot be dispensed save by bishops and pontiffs, so far as pertains to the common law; the others indeed, as lowest, can be dispensed by any orders and inferior persons whatsoever, most of all in the article of necessity — which I say by reason of baptism; but the middling by priests alone, who between bishops and inferior persons are constituted as it were in the middle.

Lastly, because the security of salvation demands that the thing be so done that it fall not into doubt; and there is no one who is certain of the goodness and belief of the dispenser, and he himself is not certain concerning himself, whether he be worthy of love or of hatred1: therefore, if the Sacraments could be dispensed only by the good, no one would be certain of the reception of the Sacrament; and thus it would behove them always to be iterated, and the malice of one would prejudice another's salvation; nor would there be any stability in the grades of the hierarchy of the Church militant, which consists most of all in the dispensing of the Sacraments. And therefore it was fitting that the dispensation of the Sacraments should be committed to man not by reason of sanctity, which varies according to the will, but by reason of authority, which always remains, so far as pertains to itself; and through this it behoved that it should extend itself to the good and to the wicked, to those who are within, and to those who are without the Church. — Yet, because outside the unity of faith and charity, which makes us sons and members of the Church, no one can be saved; therefore, if the Sacraments be received outside, they are not received unto salvation, although they be true Sacraments; but they can be made profitable if one return to holy mother Church, the one bride of Christ, whose sons alone Christ the bridegroom accounts worthy of the eternal inheritance. Whence Augustine against the Donatists2: « The Church, compared to paradise, indicates to us that men can indeed receive her baptism even outside, but that no one outside her can either receive or hold the salvation of beatitude. For the rivers also from the fount of paradise, as Scripture testifies, flowed abundantly even outside; indeed they are expressly recorded, and through what lands they flow, and that they are set outside paradise is known to all; nor yet in Mesopotamia or in Egypt, whither those rivers came, is there the felicity of life which is recorded of paradise. Thus it comes about that, although the water of paradise is outside paradise, beatitude nevertheless is not save within paradise. So therefore the baptism of the Church can be outside the Church, but the gift of the blessed life is not found save within the Church, which is founded also upon the rock, which received the keys of binding and loosing. This is the one which holds and possesses all the power of her spouse and Lord, through which conjugal power she can even bear sons of handmaids, who, if they be not proud, shall be called into the lot of the inheritance, but if they be proud, shall remain outside. The more, therefore, since we fight for the honor and unity of the Church, let us not grant to heretics whatever of hers we recognize among them, but, refuting them, let us teach that what they have from unity avails them not unto salvation, unless they come to that same unity ».

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Apparatus Criticus
  1. 3
    A P Q et 2 addunt scilicet, nonnulli alii simul.
    A P Q and edition 2 add scilicet; some others simul.
  2. 4
    De hoc cap. cfr. IV. Sent. d. 6. p. II. a. 2, ubi de intentione; d. 5. a. 1. et 2, ubi de ministro baptismi (a. 1. q. 1. casus 1. ostenditur, non spiritum, sed hominem esse ministrum); d. 7. a. 1. q. 3. de ministro confirmationis; d. 13. a. 1. q. 1. seqq. de ministro eucharistiae; d. 17. p. III. a. 1. et d. 19. per totam de ministro poenitentiae; d. 23. a. 2. q. 1. de ministro extremae unctionis; d. 25. a. 1. de ministro ordinis; d. 27. a. 2. q. 1. et d. 28. q. 5. de ministro matrimonii. — Superius pro haereticis plures codd. infidelibus, B infidelibus et haereticis.
    On this chapter cf. IV Sent. d. 6, p. II, a. 2, where on the intention; d. 5, a. 1 and 2, where on the minister of baptism (in a. 1, q. 1, case 1 it is shown that the minister is not a spirit but a man); d. 7, a. 1, q. 3, on the minister of confirmation; d. 13, a. 1, q. 1 seqq., on the minister of the eucharist; d. 17, p. III, a. 1, and d. 19 throughout, on the minister of penance; d. 23, a. 2, q. 1, on the minister of extreme unction; d. 25, a. 1, on the minister of order; d. 27, a. 2, q. 1, and d. 28, q. 5, on the minister of marriage. — Above, for haereticis, several codices read infidelibus, B infidelibus et haereticis.
  3. 5
    Fide communissimae lectionis codd. et 2 adiecimus quia. Mox post instituit A et I addunt et, mutato subinde cum B sicut in sic.
    On the faith of the most common reading of the codices and of edition 2 we have added quia. Shortly after, following instituit, A and I add et, and then, with B, change sicut into sic.
  4. 6
    Psalm. 73, 12.
    Psalm 73, 12.
  5. 7
    Ex B I O P addidimus et ex intentione, D G et ex tali intentione. Infra pro in quo A L in qua.
    From B I O P we have added et ex intentione; D G read et ex tali intentione. Below, for in quo, A L read in qua.
  6. 8
    Vat., 1 et 3 mediis.
    The Vatican codex and editions 1 and 3 read mediis.
  7. 1
    Eccle. 9, 1. — Inferius pro alienae I K L O alterius.
    Eccles. 9, 1. — Below, for alienae, I K L O read alterius.
  8. 2
    Libr. IV. de Baptismo contra Donat. c. 1. et 2. Respicitur in ipso textu Gen. 2, 8. et 10. seqq.; Matth. 16, 18. seq. et Gal. 4, 22. seqq.
    Book IV of On Baptism, against the Donatists, cc. 1 and 2. In the text itself there is regard to Gen. 2, 8 and 10 seqq.; Matt. 16, 18 seq., and Gal. 4, 22 seqq. ---
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