The lirst ajipearance of the word sacrnmentmn in connexion with Christianity may be called acci- dental. It occurs in a familiar passage in the frequently quoted letter (Ep. 96) of the younger I'liny to the Em))eror Trajan. It was stated of the Bithynian Christians quod essent soliti .stato die ante lucem convcnire carmettque Christo quasi dco diccre secnm inrircm, scque Sacramento non in scelu-'! aliquod obstringere. There is not much doubt that the witnesses whom Pliny quotes referred to the obligation under which every Christian lies to renounce the devil and all his works, and of whicli the public service of the Church reminds him. Possibly the service to which allusion is made contained an express re- newal of the baptismal pledge. That Pliny uses the word sacramentum to express this obligation or pledge is no more than an interesting coinci- dence. It was a natural word to use ; and neither ju.ijurandum nor promiss^im would have expressed the meaning better. Yet Lightfoot is inclined to think that it means 'sacrament ' in the Christian sense, and that Pliny has here 'confused the two sacraments,' the wording pointing to the baptismal pledge, while the context about the early hour and the stated day points to the eucharist (Epp. of S. Iqtiatius, vol. i. p. 52). It may be doubted whether tlie word sacrami'ntum had as yet acquired amonjj Christians any specially Christian meaning; and it is improbable that the Bithynian Christians used the word in a technical sense, or that Pliny uses the word because they had done so. The word is his, not theirs ; and he employs it in the ordinary classical sense.
As a Christian term, sacramentum makes its lirst api)eaiaiice in the Old Latin and in Tertullian. Both in Lat;Vet. and Vulg. it is sometimes used to translate /luimjmoi'. Cod. Bob. (k) has it Mt 13" ; Cod. Palat. (e) Lk 8'" ; Cod. Clar. (h) Eph 1" 3»- » 5", 1 Ti 3»- '», Ro 16" ; Vulg. has it Eph 1» 3» (not ') » 5", Col 1" (not "), 1 Ti 3" (not »), Rev l*" 17' (not »).
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SACKAMENTS
SACRAMENTS
But the more common rendering of /ivtrrripiov is mystermm ; and sometimes in consecutive verses first one word is used and then tlie otlier. In OT sacrament um occurs Dn 2'*- ""• ■" 4*, To 12', \\is 2^^ 6-'', in all which places LXX has imffrripiov. But Mi/steHum is also found, sometimes siile by side with sacratnc7Umn (Dn 2"- '^' ^' *"), even in the same verse (*'). Tertullian uses sacramenttim as the rendering of ixvaTi^piov in passages where Vulg. has inysteriuin (1 Co 13'^, lies. 23; 1 Co 14^, adv. Marc. V. 15 ; Eph 6'», adv. Marc. v. 18). It is his usual word.
Three elements seem to have been at work in determining the Christian use of the word : (1) the original passive sense, ' a thing set apart as sacred ' ; (2) the active sense, ' that which sets apart, ' especially an oath or pledge of fidelity ; (3) the Greek term ixuariipiov, to which it was regarded as equivalent. It is obvious that all these ideas coalesce very well respecting those rites which have been called sacraments, especially baptism and the eucharist.
But in the first instance the use of the term was very much wider. It was used to designate not only religious rites, but doctrines and facts. Almost any external form, wliether of word or action, which conveyed or symbolized a religious meaning might be called a sacramentum. It will be worth while to examine some of the passages in which the word occurs in Tertullian and Cyprian.
Tertullian, after pointing out that even the heathen recognize avoidance of the public shows as the mark of a Christian, remarks that the man who puts aside the mark of the faith plainly denies the faith. Nemo in castra hostlum transit . . . nisi dcstitutis signis et sacramentis principis sui {de Sjyect. xxiv.). Again, with regard to God 'a prohiliition of idolatry, he says : Huic Sacramento militrtns ab hostibns provocor. Par s^im illis, si illis maniis dedero. Hoc defcndendo depugno in acie, ciUneror, concidor, occidor. Quis nunc militi suo exitum voluit, nisi qui tali Sacramento cum consiij- navit (Scorp. iv.) ? In both these passages we have little more than the Roman military oath used metaphorically of the Christian's allegiance to Gcd. In Apul. vii. we get a stage further, when he calls the horrible rite, of which Christians were often accused, in which a child was killed and eaten, sacramentum infantiridii. It is in this treatise that the use of the word is specially frequent. In contending that Judaism, and therefore Christianity, is far more ancient than heathenism, he says : ipsa ternpla et oracula et snera unius interim priiphetw scrinium sceculis vincit, in quo videtur thesaurus collomtus totius Judaici sacrainenti et inde jam nustri (xix.) ; where sacramentum seems to mean ' revelation,' or 'religion,' or 'dispensation.' It has a similarly indefinite meaning in the challenge respecting Christian abstention from heathen temples and nocturnal rites : omnem hinc sacramenti nostri ordincm hnurite, rejierrussis ante tamen opinioni- bus falsis (xv.). In tlie plural the word is used of the doctrines of the Christian faith. Whence, he asks, did pagan philosophy get its doctrine of future rewards and punishments? Nonnisi de nostri) sacramentis (xlvii.). OT types he calls fiqurarum sacramenta {adv. Marc. v. 1). In the treatise de Baptismo we reach the more definite use of the term. It opens with the words, Felix sacramentum aquce nostrce, quia ablutis delictis pristincB cmcitotis in vitam ceternam liberamur. And so also of the eucharist : Proinde panis et calicis sarramento jam in evangelio probavimus corporis et sanguinis dominici veritatem adversus phantasma Marcionis (adv. Marc. v. 8). And again of both sacraments : ad sacramentum baptis- matis et euchnristite admittens (ib. iv. 34).