§ 117. PENANCE AND INDULGENCES. 731
The confusion of the New Testament idea and the Church's doctrine is evident enough from the twofold meaning Peter the Lombard and Thomas Aquinas give to the thing called penance. Baptism, they said, is a sacrament, but penance is both a sacrament and a virtuous state of the mind. In the New Testament the latter is intended. The theologians added all the mechanism of penance.1
At the close of the twelfth century a complete change was made in the doctrine of penance. The theory of the early Church, elaborated by Tertullian and other Church fathers, was that penance is efficient to remove sins com mitted after baptism, and that it consisted in certain peniten tial exercises such as prayer and alms. The first elements added by the mediaeval system were that confession to the priest and absolution by the priest are necessary conditions of pardon. Peter the Lombard did not make the mediation of the priest a requirement, but declared that confession to God was sufficient. In his time, he says, there was no agreement on three aspects of penance: first, whether contrition for sin was not all that was necessary for its remission; second, whether confession to the priest was essential; and third, whether confession to a lay man was insufficient. The opinions handed down from the Fathers, he asserts, were diverse, if not antagonis tic.2
Alexander of Hales marks a new era in the history of the doctrine. He was the first of the Schoolmen to answer clearly all these questions, and to him more than to any other single
1 Pcenitentia dicituret sacramentum et virtus mentis, Lombard XIV. 1, p. 869; Th. Aq., Migne, IV. 850 sqq. While we use two words, " repentance " and "penance," the Schoolmen use only the one word, pcenitentia, thus mystify ing the mind as if repentance of heart, or neravoia, did not include the entire meaning of the original word.
2 Sent., XVII. 1, Migne, p. 880. The finished sacramental theory of pen ance owed not a little to the tract de vera et falsa pcenitentia, composed per haps in the twelfth century and foisted upon Augustine. Gratian inserted nearly all of it in his Decretals, as did Peter the Lombard. According to Lea, 1. 210, the work was still quoted as Augustine's as late as the seventeenth century. Lea regards it as the composition of two authors of the fifth and twelfth centuries.
732 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
theologian does the Catholic Church owe its doctrine of penance. Thomas Aquinas confirmed what Alexander taught.1
In distinction from baptism, which is a regeneration, Thomas Aquinas declared penance to be a restoration to health and he and Bonaventura agreed that it is the effi cacious remedy for mortal sins. Thomas traced its institu tion back to Christ, who left word that "penance and remission of sins should be preached from Jerusalem," Luke 24 : 47. James had this institution in mind when he called upon Christians to confess their sins one to another.2 Penance may be repeated, for we may again and again lose our love to God.
Penance consists of four elements: contrition of heart, con fession with the mouth, satisfaction by works, and the priest's absolution. The first three are called the substance of pen ance and are the act of the offender. The priest's absolution is termed the form of penance.3
1. Contrition was defined as the sorrow of the soul for its sins, an aversion from them, and a determination not to com mit them again. The Lombard and Gratian taught that such contrition, being rooted in love, is adequate for the divine pardon without confession to a priest or priestly absolution.4
At the side of the doctrine of contrition the Schoolmen, beginning with Alexander Hales, placed the novel doctrine of attrition, which was most fully emphasized by Duns Scotus. Attrition is the negative element in contrition, a sort of half repentance, a dread of punishment, G-algenreue, "scaffold-
1 This is shown by Miiller's notable work, Der Umschwung, etc. Abselard's statement presenting the old view, and the statement of Thomas Aquinas representing the new view, are given in Kohler, pp. 11-18.
2 Summa, III. 84. 7 ; Supplem., VIII. 1, Migne, IV. 864, 943.
3 Lombard, XVI. 1, Migne, p. 877; Alb. Magnus, Borgnet's ed., XXIX. 536. Th. Aq., 90. 1, 2, Migne, IV. 912 sq., and Bonaventura, Brevil. VI. 10, Peltier's ed., VII. 323, also call the first three "the integral parts" of penance. So also Abselard, Ethica, 17-24.
4 See Schwane's strong condemnation of this opinion, which he declares to be beyond a doubt the Lombard's, p. 662.