From the periods named above, scholasticism was busy in the vindication and explanation, by various ingenious methods, of the new dogma; while in prac- tice, the sacrifice of the mass became more than ever the centre of the Roman ritual. Nor is it easy for Protestants in the 19th century to understand how completely the combined infiiience of the decrees of the Church, the writings of the schoolmen, the ceremo- nies of the ritual, and the parade of festivals had blot- ted out of the jiulilic mind the simple scriptural idea of the eucharist, and substituted in its place a vague but blind superstition in reference to this now mutilated sacrament. The efforts made during successive centu-
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ries to give reality and imprcssiveness to the Roman doctrine of the sacraments, and especially tliat of the eucharist, had not been limited to traditional and pre- ceptive influences; stupendous miracles in demonstra- tion of it had been often and widely i)roclaimed. " He- sides, the very nature of the doctrine itself adajited it singularly to retain its hold on an ignorant and superstitious generation. The notion once impressed upon the multitude that, when they celebrated one of the sacraments of their Church, they actually swallow- ed the real bod}' and blood — the very person of their God — was too intensely exciting, too attractive to their imagination, too closely connected with their senses, to be abandoned without great reluctance. We might, indeed, wonder how it was found possible to obtain so general a credence for a dogma than which, in its pop- ular sense, no more audacious paradox was ever obtrud- ed on the credulity of man ; but, once received, once impressed on the belief, once embraced as an essential truth, it became so entirely essential, so predominant, so engrossing, as to take almost exclusive possession of the soul, and to throw a shade of comparative insignifi- cance over every other tenet. To be deprived of this conviction ; to be assured that the consecrated elements hitherto reverenced and adored as the very body of the Divinity were no more than bread and wine, unchanged by the sacerdotal consecration, either in substance or in accident, was, in the vidgar mind, to part with the por- tion of religion most nearly touching both feelings and practice. 'That they were robbed of their God' was the first impression produced upon ignorant devotees; and those who had nourished that ignorance, and found their profit in it — the chiefs and champions of the sys- tem to which that dogma was so essential — united in one great confederacy to propagate the cry" (Wadding- ton, History of the Reformation, ch. xxxi).
III. Roman Catholic View. — The full and authorita- tive statement of the Roman Catholic doctrine concern- ing the sacraments is given in the Decree of the Coun- cil of Trent, as embraced in the following extract of the preface and in thirteen consecutive canons :
"In order to complete the exposition of the wholesome doctrine of justification, publit^hed in the last session by the unanimous cou;^ent of the fathers, it hath been deem- ed proper to tieat of the holy sacraments of the Church, by which all true righteousness is at first imparted, then increased, and afterwards restored, if lost. For which cause the sacred, holy, oecumenical, and general Council of Trent, lawfully assembled, etc., abidingby the doctrine of the Sacred Scriptures, the tradition of the apostles, and the uniform consent of other councils and of the fathers, hath resolved to frame and decree these followini: »an- ons, in order to expel and extirpate the errors and here- sies respecting the most holy sacraments which have aj)- peared in these times— partly the revival of heresies long ago condemned by otu- ancestors, partly new inventions — and have proved highly detrimental to the iiurity of the Catholic Chinch and the salvation of souls. The remain- ing canons, necessary to the completion of the work, will be published hereafter, by the help of God.
" Caiuin 1. Whoever shall affirm that the sacrainents of the new law were not all institnted by Jesus Christ our Lord, or that they are more or fewer than seven — name- ly, baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony— or that any of iliese is not truly and properly a sacrament, let him be accursed.
"2. Whoever shall affirm that the sacraments of the new law only difler from those of the old law in that their ceremonies and external rites are different, let him be accursed.
"3. Whoever shall affirm that these seven sacraments are in such sense equal that no one of them is in any respect more lionorable than another, let him be ac- cursed.
"4. Whoever shall affirm that the sacraments of the new law are not necessary to salvation, but superfluous, or that men may obtain the grace of Justification by faith only, without these sacraments (although it is <;ranted that they are all not necessary to every individual), let him be accursed.
"5. Whoever shall affirm that the sacraments were in- stituted solely for the purpose of strengthening our faith, let him be accursed.
"C. Whoever shall affirm that the sacraments of the new law do not contain the grace which tliev si<rnifv, or that they do not confer that grace on those who place no obstacle in its way, as if they were only the external signs