RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Wessel
tional’ and “full of blasphemy.” Councils are not infallible organs of the Spirit, and their findings are subject to the judgment of the laity. Wessel anticipated the Reformation in that he based his position on the authority of Scripture, though he conceded a certain authority to the Church even when it did not fall in with the Spirit as operative in the Word. Alongside of the inner priesthood there is an external, sacramental priesthood. He grants the rights of papal jurisdiction and of legislation relating to the outer peace and safety of the Church; but this has the nature of a contract. A transgression of the common rights by the ecclesiastical authority might as in the case of civil superiors be met with deposition. Wessel refused any especial efficacy to the priesthood. The claim that salvation was dependent upon the sacraments and that the priests imparted the sacraments, was disposed of by discounting the value of the latter. That Wessel did not expressly dispute the seven sacraments was because he saw no particular significance in them. He did not regard baptism as having power to cleanse from sin, or participation in the communion as a means of receiving the Spirit. In the mass neither the “intention” of the celebrant nor the ‘ judgment” of him for whom the mass was celebrated had any worth; everything depends upon the soul within, on love and internal character and longing, on spiritual hunger and thirst. Wessel sharply criticized the medieval doctrine of Penance (q.v.). He was not able to see how there could be punishment after forgiveness; 7. Penance, imputation [of sin] comes to expression Confession, only in punishment, and when impu- Absolution. tation ceases, there can be no punishment. If God remits eternal punishment, why should he not remit the temporal also? It would be the greatest obstacle to piety if the pious had to carry constantly with them the thought of their own baseness. Corporal “ contrition, affliction, chastisement, mortification,’ involved no more than a contrite body, not a contrite heart. The only real “satisfaction” (in the theological sense) is conversion. No duty can be imposed upon the converted other than that he sin no more, and that he love God with a pure affection. Similarly, confession is the consequence and not the condition of justification; it signifies hatred of sin. Indeed, it is better to praise God than to confess one’s sins, Absolution is not within the power of the father confessor; it depends upon the inner disposition, which is unknown to the priest in the confessional. Absolution is an accompaniment, not the essence, of justification. It comes with the awakening of love. God alone can act upon the inner’ soul of man. Human efficacy, whether of priest or holy person, is excluded. The reception of the believer into the community of the saints is but the recognition of an already accomplished divine act. The activity of the priest in the sacrament is therefore merely ministerial. Penitenceremains a purely ecclesiastical institution, and as such is not rejected by Wessel, but it is accompanied by abuses that must be opposed. The most serious abuse associated with the Church’s doctrine of penance was that of indul-
Wessel West Indies
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
gences. Wessel attacked this error from many sides. The pope had not the power to separate sin from punishment, the person from his acts.
8. Indul- Thereis to be no such distinction made
gences and between temporal and eternal pun- Purgatory. ishments as was often made the basis of an argument in favor of the indulgence. Indulgences, moreover, introduce contradiction into the necessary connection of sin and punishment. Besides this, the pope can not step in between man and God, nor has he power over the merits of Christ nor over the efficacy of the saints’ intercession. Wessel declined also the current doctrine of purgatorial fire. He believed in the necessity of a continuous development of Christian life after death, and would not hear of rendering satisfaction for sins in purgatory. While the soul may in the future be purified of dross still clinging to it from its earthly existence, such a process must be spiritual and enjoyable rather than one producing misery. Entrance into ‘‘ purgatory ’’ must accordingly be one step in a process of betterment, it must lead to a state of being superior to the first state of Adam, since the possibility of temptation is excluded. If there be “ pain ”’ in purgatory, that pain is sorrow rather than suffering—sorrow caused by the sense of unworthiness. of love of Christ.
While Wessel has been perhaps too enthusiastically praised by Ullmann (see bibliography) as a ‘Reformer before the Reformation,” it is equally a mistake to consider him an orthodox churchman. That he foreshadowed the German Reformation is evinced by his teachings as set forth above. Yet in many respects Wessel’s face was turned backward toward Augustine and Bernard.