Cyprian seems to have learned from his
' master ' to use the word sometimes in its classi. cal sense, sometimes with a vagueness which was possibly deliberate, sometimes quite definitely of baptism and the eucliarist. Of Christian martyrdoms he says : 0 quale illud fuit spec- taculum Domini, qvam sublime, quam magnum, quam Dei oculis sacrainento ac aevotione militia ejus acceptum (Ep. x. 2). So of a supposed be- trayal of the Christian faith, he says : divinie militiiE sacramenta solvantur, castrorum civlcs- tium signa dedantur (Ep. Ixxiv. 8). He calls the Passover a sacramentum (de C'ath. Ec.clcs. unit.). But it is not easy to define its meaning when he speaks of ccclesicB Veritas et evangclii ac sacra- menti unitas (Ep. liv. 1), or, again, of veritatis jura et sacramenta (Ep. Ixxiii. 2u). Couip. sacra- menta ccelestia (Ep. Ixxiv. 4), a phrase which he uses several times. He saj's that totum Jidei sacra- mentum in confessione Christi nominis esse digestum (Ep. XXX. 3) ; and that the Lord's Prayer contains many and great sacramenta (de Dom. Oral. 9) ; where ' doctrine ' seems to be the meaning. In baptism, water and the Spirit are each of them called a sacramentum ; and, as distinct from here- tical baptism, those who receive the Church's baptism utroque sacramento nascuntur (Ep. Ixxiii. 21). Immediately afterwards he uses baptismi sacramentum of the whole rite. So also of the eucharist he says : Item in sacerdote Melchisedech sacrifcii dominici sacramentum prcBJiguratum videmus (Ep. Ixiii. 3). He calls the consecrated wma sacramentum calicis * (deLapsis, xxv. ); and he appears to call the whole rite sacramentum crucis, wlien he says, de sacramento crucis et cibum sumis et potum (de Zelo et Livore, x vii. ). On Cyprian's use of sacramentum, see an important note by E. W. Watson in Studia Biblica, iv. p. 253.
Augustine says that the bread and wine idea dicuntur siicramenta, quia in eis aliud videtur, aliud intclligitur (Serm. 272). And again that Signa cum ad res divinas pertinent, sacramenta appelantur (Ep. cxxxviii.). But there must be re- semblance between the two : si cnim sacramenta guamdam similitudinem earum rerum quarum sacramenta s-unt non haberent, omnino sacra- menta non essent (Ep. xcviii.). Sacraments are verba visibilia, sacrosam-ta quidem, veruntamcn mutabilia et temporalia (con. Faustum, xi.K. 16). Accedit verbuin ad elementum et Jit sacramentum, etiam ips^im tanquam visibile verbum (in Joh. Tract. 80). In one place he enumerates baptism, unction, the euchanst, and imposition of liands as sacraments t (de Bapt. con. Don. v. 28); in another he asks, Quii novit Dei omnia sacramenta f Quid ait Apostolus f Si sciero omnia sacramenta, si habeam omnem prophctiam (Serm. ad Ccesar. eccles. plebem, 3). This last passage is specially interesting, because in Vulg. the word is not used [though Aug. testifies that Old Lat. read sacramenta] ; it has, si hahucro proplietiam et noverim mysteria outnia (1 Co 13'-).
The general outcome is on the whole this, that the word sacramentum had two main uses, one veiy vague, and the other fairly definite. On the one hand, it might be used of anything, whether word, statement, or fact, which expressed
• In harmony with this idea Rabanus Maunis (d* Cler. iniii- tutione, i. 24, 31 ; Jliifne, /'u(. Lai. cvii. 316) makes baptism, unction, the body, and the blood of the Lord to be four sacra- ments, exi>rcssly counting the body and the blood us two. Paschaaius Iladbertus is said to do tlie same ; but he speaks o( sacrajnentum (not -(a) corporis et eanguinia (de Corp. et Sang. Dom. iii. 2, 4 : Mijfne, cxx. 127.'>).
t Similarly m a passage which was quoted almost vn-hatim at the be^nningr ot Art. 28 (=25) in the Articles of 1563: .Sacra- vientU numero paucisnmU, observatione /acUthnie. gitjnifica- tiorif prtvstantusiinis, wcietatein nnvi popxdi coU'njavit [Cnris- tus], gimti e*rt baptismut Triniiatis nomine connecraixis. coin- municatio corporis et sanfjuinis ipsitu, et ei quid aliud in seripturis canonicis cmtvmendatur {Ep. 64 ; cf. de Doct. Chr. iii. 9).
SACRAMEXTS
SACRIFICE
329
or implied religious truth. On the other, it was apijlud to cerUiin Christian rites, not fixed in number, but understood to be few, of which the chief were baptism and the eucharist. No rit« had a better claim to be called a sacrament than these two, which fully realized the ideas connoted by the term, and were instituted by the Lord Uini3elf. Hut there were other rites, mentioned in Scripture and sanctioned by the Church, to which the term might rightly be given; and the lite which was commonly placed side by side with these two as being of almost equal rank was unction or chrism, which is generallj' ajiplicable to all Christians and has at least the authority of ajiostolic tradition.
The number three was no doubt attractive ; but still more so the number seven ; and it is remark- able that a list of seven sacraments does not seem to have been made earlier than the l'2th cent., when lirst Gregory of Bergamo {clc Euehar. 14), and then Peter Lombard (Sent. IV. ii. 1) fix on this limit. It was adopted by Thomas Aquinas and stereotyped by the Council of Trent. Hut it is neither scriptural nor logical. Our choice lies between two and an indelinite number.* Scripture plainly marks out two. They were instituted by Christ, and He Himself ordained the outward visible signs for them. In whatever sense Christ may be supposed to have instituted any of the other five, — conlirmation, penance, unction, orders, and matriniony, — He ordered no special sign for them ; and it is rash to say more than that they are among the more important of the many rites to which the name of sacrament may be given. t For a discussion of any one of the seven see the separate articles in the dictionaries. Hut with regard to matrimony it may be here pointed out that the Vulgate rendering of Eph 5'- s'lr.ramcn- tuin hoc mnr/num est, had considerable inlhience in causing marriage to be re";arded as a sacrament.