RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Conseience Consilia Evang-elica
Even as early as the fourth century the churches on Golgotha and the site of the Resurrection were thronged on occasion of the " encsenia," or anniversary of the church dedication (cf. the " Pilgrimao-e " of Silvia of Aquitaine, Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society transl., pp. 76-77). Isidore of Seville (De of[iciis, i. 35) explains the anniversary festival as a revival of the Jewish encsenia. The lessons Rev. xxi. 1-5 and Luke xix. 1-10 were transferred to the Lutheran pericopes from the medieval lectionary which was in use in Germany. Luther, however, was not partial to the church dedication festival, observing (An den chrisflichen Adel), " Church dedications ought to be abolished altogether, seeing they have become naught else than very taverns, yearly fairs, and playhouses." Nevertheless, the festival of church dedication persisted, and it may be that the attendant excesses conspired to maintain it. These excesses perhaps resulted from the fact that the day of church dedication was to be preceded by abstinence, while the day itself was to be regarded as a feast of joyousness. For Protestants the anniversary festival of church dedication can have no other significance than that of a thanksgiving feast for the blessings of a well-regulated ecclesiastical status. W- Caspari.
Bibliography: Bingham, Origines, book viii., chap, ix.; M. Gerbert, Monumenta veteris liturgiw Alemanios, disquisition vi., chap, i., San Bias, 1758; E. C. Harrington, The Object . . of the Rite of Consecration of Churches, London, 1844; H. A. Daniel, Codex liturgicus, 4 vols., Leipsic, 1847-S3.
CONSILIA EVANGELICA ("Evangelical counsels"): The name given in the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church to a class of norms of moral conduct authorized in the New Testament. The term is used in distinction from prcecepta (" commands " ; i.e., injunctions which may not be disregarded, and thus fall within the sphere of imperative duty). The distinction dates back to Tertullian, who repeats the words of Origin and I Cor. vii. 25, " I have no command- Early De- ment of the Lord; yet I give my judgvelopment. ment," in De exhortatione castitatis, iv., and makes it in five other places, and it occurs in the Vulgate rendering of the passage mentioned (prmceptum domini non habeo, consilium autem do). Two of the ideas which gave Tertullian occasion to expound the distinction came in time to have great significance: namely, " what one may disregard is advised rather than commanded; " and that a merely advised renunciation of something in itself permitted (e.g., marriage) constitutes merit. This is repeated by Cyprian (De habitu virginum, xxiii.), and the same doctrine had been already conveyed in the Shepherd of Hermas (mand. IV iv. 2; sim. V. iii. 3). The opinion therefore seems well founded that it was Ambrose who first expressly formulated the distinction between proecepta and consilia (De viduis, xii.). After him it appears in Optatus, Jerome, notably in Pelagius [ad Demetrium, ix.-x.), .and also in Augustine. With reference to the latter's doctrine, H. Renter [Augustinische Studien, Gotha, 1S87, pp. 399-403, 426-427, 476) has noted a conflict between two tendencies. On the one hand, the external and
literal observance of the counsels (as of poverty and virginity) is commended as a higher standard of morahty, procuring a higher order of merit. On the other hand, it becomes precarious to measure by this test the ultramoral, in so far as all conduct is viewed in the light of the inner moral intention.
Between Augustine and Aquinas the doctrine of the counsels gives ever greater and greater weight to the first tendency, upholding or exalting monasticism as the state of perfection. In St. Thomas, however, the other tendency also comes forward. According to his Summa (II. i., qu. 108, art. 4), the commandments are given " concerning those things which are necessary to attain the end of eternal felicity"; but the counsels, " concerning those by means of which one can attain the end aforesaid better and more quickly." Man stands between the things of this world and spiritual Thomistic goods. To cleave altogether to the and former is forbidden by the command- Medieval ments, but it is not necessary to cast Teaching, them absolutely away to reach eternal blessedness; " nevertheless one will come to it more quickly by rejecting entirely the goods of this world, and therefore the Evangelical counsels are given about this." They fall under these three general heads: poverty, chastity, and obedience; to which also the various particular specifications may all be referred. Secunda secundce treats of the counsels under " the state of perfection." Query 184, art. 3, teaches that perfection consists essentialiter in the command of love, but instrumentaliter depends on the counsels. They are " so to speak, instruments for attaining to perfection " ; they remove obstacles to the higher degrees of love, so long as love holds any commandments for whoever professes even the least degree of it. In the Middle Ages twelve counsels were commonly enumerated, which were found especially in the Sermon on the Mount; and after the aforesaid three general heads, which concerned the religious orders, there were recommended, for instance, the injunctions " love your enemies " (Matt. v. 44), " resist not evil " (Matt. v. 39-41), etc.
Luther contested the idea of St. Thomas that the higher degrees of love are not commanded. He condemned every infraction of the law, on the ground that it commands absolute fulfilment; inferior " perfection " is not allowed, but is Protestant a sin, which, however, God forgives Teaching, on condition of faith with daily repentance and moral amendment. The Lutheran confessions oppose the Roman doctrine as to the counsels, because it sets up merita supererogationis (Augs. Con., xxvii. 12; Apol., xxvii. 24-25, 39); because it constructively permits private revenge (Augs. Con., xxvii. 54; Apol., xvi. 59), and casts doubt upon the civil commonwealth (Augs. Con., xxvii. 55; Apol., xvi. 56; cf. also Augs. Con., xxvii. 61; Apol., xxvii. 9). It can not, of course, be disputed that among the moral norms which concern Christendom at large there exist, side by side with " commandments of God || (I Cor. vii. 19), " commandments of the Lord ' (vs. 25, 10), also the " judgments " of Paul. Paul's
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