II. The Ancient Greek Church. — The ancient writers of the Greek Church use the passage of James only for exegetical, not for dogmatical purposes. Origen, in the second homily on Levit. iv, quotes the words of James when he speaivs of the dift'erent ways which are given to the Christian for the remission of their sins. As the seventli way he mentions severe penance, in which he finds a compliance with the words of James: " If any be sick, let him call for the ehlers of the Church, and let them lay their hands on him, anoint- ing him with oil in the name of the Lord," etc. The connection shows that Origen applies the words to mental and physical sickness, and the laying on of hands, which he adds to the apostolic words, points to a local use of anointment in Alexandria at the recuncili- atii)n of the lapsi. Chrysostom {On the Priesthood, iii, lOO) quotes the words of James only as an argument that tlic priests have the ]iower of remitting sins. John of Damascus, iu.speaking of the mysteries of the
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Church, treats only of baptism and the Lord's Supper. The first Certain testimony for the use of tlie anoint- ment of the sick in the Greek Church is given by a Western writer about 798, Tlieodulf of Orleans.
III. The Ancient Latin Church. — In the Western Church, Irenoeus (i, 21, 5) states that tlie Gnostics, and in particular the Heracleonites, poured upon djang members a mixture of water and oil, amidst an invo- cation of praver, in order that their souls might be- come invisible and inaccessible to the hostile powers of the spiritual world. It is uncritical in the highest degree for Roman Catholic writers to infer from the ex- istence of a Gnostic rite the existence of a similar rite in the orthodox Church. Tertullian and Cyprian, to whom we are indebted for so full information of the ecclesiastical usages of the Western Church, know nothing of extreme unction as a sacrament. This si- lence can not be explained b}' a reference to the dis- ciplina arcanl, as the latter exclusively embraced bap- tism and the Lord's Supper, and as even these topics, notwithstanding the discipUna arcani, are frequently and fully discussed bj' the ecclesiastical writers. Many of the latter mention the frequent use of oil as a pecu- liar charisma for miraculous cures. Thus it is related by Tertullian that theimgan Severus, father of the em- peror Antoninus, was cured by the Christian Proclus bj' means of anointment. This certainly can have no reference to a sacrament for the use of Christians. (Many other examples of this use of oil may be found in Chemnitz, and in Binterira, Denkwimligkeiten, vol. vi, pt. iii, p. "289.) Superstition developed this usage, and it occurred, according to the testimony of Chrysos- tom, that the lamps burning in the churches were plun- dered for the purpose of using the oil as a preservative against possible, and, as a miraculous remed\', against actual diseases. It is easy to comprehend how this medicinal and miraculous anointment could become the basis and the origin of a sacrament (see on this point Marheineke, SymhoUk, i, 3, p. 258). The transi- tion is visible in an epistle from the Roman bishop In- nocent I to bisliop Decentius, of Eugubium, written in 41G. Innocent calls the anointment of tlie sick a ''kind of sacrament" (genus sacramenti) ; and while he reserves to the bishops the right of preparing the sacred oil, he states that botli priests and laymen may appl}' the oil (quod ab episcopo confectum non solum sacerdotibus sed omnibus uti Christianis licet in sua aut in suorum necessitate unguendum), which is entire- ly at variance with the present teaching of the Church of Rome, according to which the sacrament can be ad- ministered s>n\y b}' priests. From the beginning of the ninth centurj' the anointment of the sick is fre- quently mentioned in the acts of the Councils. Theo- dulf of Orleans (798), and the first Council of Mentz (8-17), place it b}' the side of penance and the Eucharist, but preceding the two latter. The recovery of the sick is alwaj's regarded as the chief object. Its use appears to have been considered necessary only for sinners ; for abbot Adelhard, of Corbie, was asked by the monks of the monastery whether ho desired to be anointed with the sacred oil, as they were certain that he was free from sins. The conception of the anoint- ment of the sick as an act of penance caused a discus- sion of the question whether it could be repeated. Ivo of Chartres, and Godfrey, abbot of Vendome (about IICO), denied that the rite could bo administered more than once, comparing it with the public penance ; and it was a popular belief that a person recovering from sickness after receiving the anointment must not touch the ground with bare feet, and abstain from marital in- tercourse and the eating of meat. It was in the course of the 12th century that the names sacramentum exeun- tium and extrema unrtio came first into use.
IV. Extreme Unction as a Sacrament in the Church of Rome. — A full dogmatical treatment of the anoint- ment of the sick, according to the teaching graduallj"^ developed in the Church, was first given by Hugo of