Morsel (prop. TQ, a bit, especially of food, Ruth ii, 14, etc.; lipMtTKj, Heb. xii, IG; in the jilnr. crumbs, Lev. ii, G, etc.; and so of a piece of ice or hail, Psa. cxlvii, 17; once [1 Sam. ii, 3GJ incorrectly for 123, kikkar', a circle or "loaf' of bread, as elsewhere). See Bkeau.
Morta(i)gne, Walter of, a noted scholastic of the 12th century, who embraced the realistic views in philosophy, flourished as bishop of Laon, and died in 1174. He is best known as a logician, and is mentioned by John of Salisbury as the chief representative of the doctrine that " the same objects, according to the differ- ent condition (status) in which they are considered — i. e. according as our attention is desired to their differ- ences or to their likeness, to the indifferences or the consimile in them — were either individuals, or species, j or genera" (.Uetaloy. ii, 17). This doctrine is spoken j of by the same author as no longer maintained by any I one in his time. See Ueberweg, I/ijst. Philos. 1,387, 398.
Mortal (or Dkadly, as the Anglican theologians prefer to call it) sin is, according to Roman Catholicism, the worst form of sin, thus distinguishing in grade of sin, and recognising as moderate and pardonable sin, under the name of venial, all such acts of transgression as are not likely to bring eternal iJiniishment on the sinner. According to Peter Dens, the eminent Roman Catholic theologian, whose dicta the Church has accept- ed as authoritative, mortal sin (Lat. peccatum) is that which of itself brings spiritual death to the soul, inas- much as of itself it deprives the soul of sanctifying grace and charity, in which the spiritual life of the soul consists; and venial sin (Lat. ritium) that frhich does not bring spiritual death to the soul, or that which does not turn it away from its ultimate end, or which is only slightly repugnant to the order of right reason.
Protestants dissent from this view, and indeed visit it with their condemnation, on the ground that this dis- tinction respecting sins tends to immorality and laxity of life. That sins differ in magnitude they concede to be the doctrine of the Scriptures (e. g. Christ declared the sin of .Judas to be greater than that of Pilate. This appears also in the case of the sen-ant who knew the will of his master and did it not. This difference, indeed, is conspicuous in the judgment of the degrees and expressions of anger in calling men Raca, " vain," or fiwpf, "fool," and also in Christ's comparing some sins to gnats and others to camels; and in his mention of the "many stripes," and in the "greater condemna- tion" spoken of by James). Yet the Scriptures also declare that "the wages of sin is death." Therefore, though Protestants, like the Christians of the apostolic and patristic Church, distinguish between greater and less sins (yraviora et lerioi-a), and hold that a knowl- edge of this distinction is important in considering the discipline which the early Christians exercised, thcj^ yet hold that the early Church did not think any sins to be venial, but deemed all to be mortal (whenever we find the expressions venial and mortal applied to sins by Augustine and others, these appear to be simply a ref- erence to such sins as require j)enance and such as do not) ; and therefore now maintain on this question that all sins are pimishable as God may determine, even with everlasting destruction from the presence of (Jod and the glory of his power. They assign for such view the following reasons :
" (i.) Every sin is an offence against God's law. and therefore is deadly and damnable on account of the claims of divine justice; for though sins may be divid- ed into greater and less, yet their proportion to punish- ment is not varied by their temporal or eternal con- sequences, but by greater and less punisliments.
"(ii.) The law of (iod never threatens, nor does the justice of (iod iutlict, ])unishment on any except the transgressors of his law; but the smallest offences are not only threatened, but may be punished with death; therefore they arc transgressions of divine law.
" (iii.) Every sin. even that apparently insignificant, is against charity, which is tlie end of the commandment.
" (iv.) Wlicn (iod appointed exjiiatory sacrifices for sin, though thoy were sutKcicnt to show that there exist- ed a difference in the degree of it, yet, because ' ^vithout shedding of blood there is no remission,' all manner of sin has rentlered the offender guilty and liable to punish-
MORTALITY
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MORTAR
ment; for 'cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.' No sin was recognised as venial in the covenant which God entered into with our first parents, for there was no remission; and without the death of Christ there could be none afterwards ; therefore, if any sin be venial or pardonable, it is only through the death of Christ and the grace of God ; and as God pardons all upon the condition of faith and repentance, and none otherwise, it must follow that, although sins differ in degree, they vary not in their essential character. The man wlio commits sin at all must die, if he repent not ; and he who repents in time and effectually will be saved. ' The wages of sin is death ;' of sin indefinitely, and conse- quently of all sin." See Elliott, Delin. of Roman Catholi- cism, p. 229.