THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
tions with the Austrian government became strained and it was the opposition of that i)Ower which destroyed his chances of being chosen successor to Pius VII., whose death occurred Aug. 20, 1823. Upon the election of Leo XII. Consalvi went into retirement. During the height of his power after the Congress of Vienna he had been a patron of tlie arts, Canova and Thorwaldsen being among those who enjoyed his protection.
(F NlELSENf.)
Bibliography: Correspondance du . . Cotisalri avec . . Mettcrnich. 1816-Sd, ed. C. van Duerm, Louvain, 1899; N. P. S. Wiseman, Recollections of the Last Four Popes, London, 1S59; F. Nielsen, Geschichte des Papstthums im 19. Jahrhundert, vol. i., Gotha, 1880, Eng. transl.. New York, 1906; L. S^ch^, Les Origines du concordat, Paris, 1894; Mvinoires du Cardinal Consalvi, introduction par J. Cretineau-Joly, new ed., published by J. E. B. Drochon, ib. 1895; E. L. Fischer, Cardinal Consalvi, Lebensund Charakterbild, Mainz, 1899.
CONSCIENCE.
Origin of the Term (§1).
Paul's Use of it (§ 2).
The Fathers and Schoolmen (§3).
The Reformers (§ 4).
Modern Philosophers (§ 5).
Present-Day Problems (§ 6).
Intuitional and Evolutionary Views (§ 7).
The Enghsh word " conscience " is derived from the Latin conscientia, which is parallel in derivation and meaning to the New Testament syneidcsis (Attic Gk. syneidos); but in the classical authors the word denotes originally simply
1. Origin consciousness, without any ethical of the bearing. Its use in the modern sense Term. of " conscience," or the moral sense of
the individual applied to his own conduct, occurs not infrequently in Cicero and Seneca. The latter name especially has been taken to suggest that the ethical connotation came from the Stoic anthropology and legal doctrine; but the word does not occur in this sense in any Stoic writer except Seneca, and it is more probable that it acquired its later meaning gradually in the course of the process which led the ancient world from unthinking obedience to traditional custom up to the appeal to the inner tribunal of every man's heart. This inner \\-itness had, however, no religious connection. The daimon of Socrates expresses a confidence in higher guidance which has a religious coloring, the consciousness of his mission felt by the great man, but has nothing to do with the old syneidesis ; and the often-quoted passage (Epist., xli.) in which Seneca speaks of " the holy spirit that dwells within us " is merely the expression of the Stoic, and therefore not religious, pantheism.
The term is not found in the Old Testament or among the words of Jesus. It was introduced into the primitive Christian vocabulary by Paul, outside of whose letters it occurs in the
2. Paul's New Testament only in the Acts (in Use of it. Paul's mouth), in I Peter, and in
Hebrews. In his work Paul comes in contact with the general human conscience (II Cor. iv. 2), and appeals to it (Rom. ii. 15; xiii. 5, 6), or corrects deviations in it proceeding from remnants of heathen ideas (T ( '(jr. viii. 7; x. 215 scjq.). Otherwise it is the Christian conscience alone to which
appeal is made (Acts xxiii. 1; II Tim. i. 3); only the author of Hebrews (ix. 9) uses the conception, by this time accepted in Christian terminology, as a short expression for the critical standpoint of the new religion toward the condition of things under the old covenant. With Paul the pre-Christian conscience stands for the divine natural order of society (Rom. xiii. 4, 5) or more generally for the moral law whose commands are felt in the heart, in substantial agreement with the Jewish revealed law, and thus in a way taking its place for the Gentiles (Rom. ii. 14, 15). It makes them morally independent by a self-judgment which penetrates to the most hidden motives (Rom. ix. 1 ; II Cor. i. 12), coordinate with that of the Searcher of hearts; and it is capable also of passing judgment on others (II Cor. V. 11; iv. 2). But Paul nowhere hints at a recognized theonomy through the conscience, nor yet at a distinction between the pre-Christian and the Christian conscience. Again, the imperative conscience is nowhere mentioned in the New Testament. Paul recognizes the possibility of a conscience being weak, subject to other powers than the one God (I Cor. viii. 7, 12), and erroneous in its judgment. This leads him to the recognition of the individuality of conscience, its right of independent judgment, the denial of which would destroy moral personahty (I Cor. x. 29, viii. 10). By the blood of Christ the conscience is cleansed, and the Christian obtains a " good " conscience (Rom. ix. 1; II Cor. i. 12; Heb. ix. 14, x. 22); this wholly good conscience is connected (I Pet. iii. 21; Heb. X. 22) with the gift of grace in baptism. This good conscience is not the certainty of reconciliation, but the mirror of the moral condition. Hence its chief characteristic is its sincerity (II Cor. i. 12), which attests its purity (I Tim. iii. 9; II Tim. i. 3). Its opposite is a branded, defiled conscience (I Tim. iv. 2; Titus i. 15). The " faith unfeigned " stands or falls with a pure conscience (I Tini. i. 5, 19; iii. 9; iv. 1, 2).
But although Paul thus gave a definite sanction to the term, there is no evidence that it passed from him into the current speech of 3. The the early Church; it is seldom met Fathers with in the primitive literature, and and then first in exegetical writings. Schoolmen. Chrysostom, with his practical tendency, is the first to make much use of it, describing it as an independent source of moral insight and coordinating it with the created universe as a means of the knowledge of God. While he goes thus far beyond the pagan conception, Augustine and his opponent Pelagius are inclined to rest in the mere idea of a consciousness wliich attests and judges moral action. From Augustine the connection of conscience with the more general consciousness was handed on, sometimes, as with Abelard,in the form of the consciousness of obligation, sometimes, as with Bernard, in that of the incorruptible judgment, and served to emphasize the inner life in contrast with the extcrnali.sm of ecclesiastical theology. The scholastic theology followed Alexander of Hales rather closely throughout; the classical expression of it is found in Thomas Aquinas I (Summa, I. Ixxix.; II., part ii. xciv.). The pecu-