CATECHISM 
 
 THE COUNCIL OF TRENT, 
 
 TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH. 
 
 WITH NOTES, ETC. 
 
 BY VEEY REV. J. DONOVAN, D.D., 
 
 E. PROFESSOR, MATNOOTH COLLEGE; DOMESTIC PRELATE TO HIS HOLINESS GREGORY XVI. 
 
 MEMBER OF THE ARCH^EOLOOICAL SOCIETY OF ROME ; HON. MEMBER 
 
 OF THE SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS, ETC. 
 
 "In scarcely a single instance," says NIGHTINGALE, "has a case concerning the 
 Catholics been fairly stated, or the channels of history not been grossly, not to say 
 wickedly, corrupted." RELIGION OF ALL NATIONS. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 JAMES DUFFY, 15, WELLINGTON-QUAY; 
 
 AND 
 
 22, PATERNOSTER-ROW, LONDON. 
 
 1867.
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 Jlrinicb fag I. P. 'ftnolt * Son, 
 6 AND 7, GT. BKUNSWICK-ST.
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 10 
 
 JACOBO PHILIPPO FRANSONIO 
 
 PATRI PURPURATO 
 
 TO SACK. CONSILII CHRIST. NOMINI PROPAG. 
 
 1 
 HAi;C ROM. CATECHESEOS VERSEONEM 
 
 [N ANGLICE LOQUENTIUM/USUM 
 
 LICET G. A. TESTIMONIUM 
 
 / / 
 
 >N RENUENTI KUNCUPAT 
 
 / 
 
 DONOVAN SACERDOS HIBERNUS 
 
 GREG. XVI. P. M. 
 
 TO HIS EMINENCE 
 
 JAMES PHILIP FRANSONJ, 
 
 CARDINAL-PREFECT OF THE PROPAGANDA, 
 IS INSCRIBED, BY PERMISSION, THE PRESENT WORK, 
 
 AS A SMALL TRIBUTE 
 
 OF RESPECT FOR HIS CHARACTER, 
 
 AND OF GRATITUDE FOR HIS KINDNESS, 
 
 BY HIS OBLIGED AND GRATEFUL HUMBLE SERVANT, 
 
 THE TRANSLATOR.
 
 DECREE OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 UT fidelis populus ad suscipienda Sacramenta major! cum 
 reverentia atque animi devotione accedat, praecipit sancta Sy- 
 nodus Episcopis omnibus, ut non solum cum haec per se ipsos 
 erunt populo administranda, prius illorum vim et usnm pro 
 suscipientium captu explicent, sed etiam idem a singulis parochis 
 pie prudenterque etiam lingua vernacula, si opus sit, et com- 
 mode fieri poterit, servari studeant, juxta formam a sancta 
 Synodo in catechesi singulis sacramentis praescribendam, quam 
 Episcopi in vulgarem linguam fideliter verti atque a parochis 
 omnibus populo exponi curabunt, etc. 
 
 Cone. Trid. Sess. xxiv., de Reform, c. 7. 
 
 THAT the faithful people may approach to receive the sacraments 
 with the greater reverence and devotion of mind, the holy 
 Synod commands all bishops, not only when these shall have 
 to be administered by themselves to the people, previously to 
 explain their force and use in a manner suited to the capacity 
 of the receivers, but also to endeavour that the same be piously 
 and prudently observed by every parish-priest, even in the 
 vernacular tongue, if need be, and it can be conveniently done, 
 according to the form to be prescribed by the holy Synod for 
 all the sacraments in a catechism, which bishops will take care 
 to have faithfully translated into the vulgar tongue, and ex- 
 pounded to the people by the parish-priests. 
 
 Council of Trent, Sess. xxiv. , on Reformation, c. 7.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Translator's Preface, ...... 7 
 
 Preface to the Catechism, touching the Necessity, Authority, 
 Office, of Pastors in the Church, and the Principle Heads of 
 
 the Christian Doctrine, . . . . .17 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAP. I. On Faith and the Symbol of Faith, . . 25 
 
 CHAP. II. On the First Article of the Creed, . . 27 
 
 CHAP. III. On the Second Article, . . . .40 
 
 CHAP. IV. On the Third Article, . . . .48 
 
 CHAP. V. On the Fourth Article . . . .55 
 
 CHAP. VI. On the Fifth Article, . . . .64 
 
 CHAP. VII. On the Sixth Article, . . . .73 
 
 CHAP. VIII. On the Seventh Article, . . . .78 
 
 CHAP. IX. On the Eighth Article, . . . .84 
 
 CHAP. X. On the Ninth Article, . . . .90 
 
 CHAP. XI. On the Tenth Article, . . . .105 
 
 CHAP. XII. On the Eleventh Article, . . . .110 
 
 CHAP. XIII. On the Twelfth Article, . . . .119 
 
 PART IL 
 
 CHAP. I. On the Sacraments in General, . . . 126 
 
 CHAP. II. On the Sacrament of Baptism, . . . 143 
 
 CHAP. III. On the Sacrament of Confirmation, . .176 
 
 CHAP. IV. On the Sacrament of the Eucharist, . . 187 
 
 CHAP. V. On the Sacrament of Penance, . . . 227 
 
 CHAP. VI. On the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, . . 265 
 
 CHAP. VII. On the Sacrament of Order, . . .273 
 
 CHAP. VIII. On the Sacrament of Matrimony, . . 289
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAP. I. On the Precepts of God contained in the Deca- 
 logue, . . . . . .304 
 
 CHAP. IT. On the First Commandment, . . . 312 
 
 CHAP. III. On the Second Commandment, . . .327 
 
 CHAP. IV. On the Third Commandment, . . .339 
 
 CHAP. V. On the Fourth Commandment, . . . 350 
 
 CHAP. VI. On the Fifth Commandment, . . .360 
 
 CHAP. VII. On the Sixth Commandment, . . .370 
 
 CHAP. VIII. On the Seventh Commandment, . . 377 
 
 CHAP. IX. On the Eighth Commandment, . . . 389 
 
 CHAP. X. On the Ninth and Tenth Commandment, . 399 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 CHAP. I. On Prayer and its Primary Necessity, . . 408 
 
 CHAP. II. On the Utility of Prayer, . . .410 
 
 CHAP. III. On the Parts and Degrees of Prayer, . . 414 
 
 CHAP. IV. -On the Objects of Prayer, . . .417 
 
 CHAP. V. For whom we should pray, . . .419 
 
 CHAP. VI. To whom we should pray, . . . 422 
 
 CHAP. VII. On the Preparation for Prayer, . . . 423 
 
 CHAP. VIII. On the Manner of Praying, . . .426 
 
 CHAP. IX. On the Preface to the Lord's Prayer, . . 430 
 
 CHAP. X. On the First Petition, . . 441 
 
 CHAP. XI. On the Second Petition, .... 445 
 
 CHAP. XII. On the Third Petition, . . . .454 
 
 CHAP. XIII. On the Fourth Petition, . . .464 
 
 CHAP. XIV. On the Fifth Petition, . . . .474 
 
 CHAP. XV. On the Sixth Petition, . . .486 
 
 CHAP. XVI. On the Seventh Petition, . . 497 
 
 CHAP. XVII. On the Last Clause of the Lord's Prayer, . 504
 
 THE 
 
 TKANSLATOK'S PEEFACE. 
 
 THE ROMAN CATECHISM, of which an English Transla- 
 tion is here submitted to the public, was composed by 
 decree of the Council of Trent; and the same high 
 authority requires all bishops " to take care that it be 
 faithfully translated into the vernacular language, and 
 expounded to the people by all pastors."* 
 
 The Fathers of the Council had examined with 
 patient industry, and, in the exercise of their high 
 prerogative, had defined with unerring accuracy the 
 dogmas of faith which were then denied or disputed ; 
 but the internal economy of the Church also solicited 
 and engaged their attention ; and, accordingly, we find 
 them employed in devising measures for the instruction 
 of ignorance, the amelioration of discipline, and the 
 reformation of morals. 
 
 Amongst the means suggested to their deliberative 
 wisdom for the attainment of these important ends, the 
 Roman Catechism has been deemed not the least judi- 
 cious or effective. The ardour and industry of the 
 " Reformers " were actively employed, not only in the 
 publication of voluminous works, " to guard against 
 which required perhaps little labour or circumspection ;" 
 but, also, in the composition of " innumerable small 
 
 * Council of Trent, Sess. xxiv. c. vii. on Reformation.
 
 8 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 works, which, presenting on the surface the semblance 
 of piety, deceived with incredible facility the simple and 
 the incautious."* To meet the mischievous activity of 
 such men, and to rear the edifice of Christian knowledge 
 on its only secure and solid basis, the instruction of its 
 authorized teachers ; to afford the faithful a fixed 
 standard of Christian belief, and the pastor a prescribed 
 form of religious instruction; to supply a pure and 
 perennial fountain of living waters to refresh and in- 
 vigorate at once the pastor and the flock, were amongst 
 the important objects contemplated by the Fathers of 
 Trent in the publication and translation of the Roman 
 Catechism.t 
 
 They, too, are amongst the objects contemplated by 
 those who urged the present undertaking, and which 
 influenced the translator's acceptance of the task. 
 Coincidence of circumstances naturally suggests a con- 
 currence of measures ; and it requires little discernment 
 to discover the coincidence that exists between the 
 present circumstances of this country and those which 
 awakened and alarmed the vigilance of the Fathers of 
 Trent. Ireland, the empire, has been inundated with 
 pernicious tracts, teeming with vituperative misrepre- 
 sentation of the dogmas of the Catholic faith, and loaded 
 with unmeasured invective against the principles of 
 Catholic morality. " Innumerable small works, present- 
 ing on the surface the semblance of piety, have been 
 scattered with unsparing hand amongst the ignorant 
 and the incautious:" efforts are still made (the object 
 is avowed) " to promote the principles of the Refor- 
 mation," by unsettling the religious convictions of the 
 * Pref . p. iv. t Pref. p. iii. , sq.
 
 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 9 
 
 people: and we are fortified by the example of the 
 Fathers of Trent in the hope, that an antidote, eminently 
 calculated to neutralize the poison so industriously 
 diffused, to abate prejudice, instruct ignorance, promote 
 piety, and confirm belief, will be found in a work con- 
 taining a comprehensive summary of the dogmas of the 
 Catholic faith, and a no less comprehensive epitome of 
 the principles of Catholic morality. 
 
 To another, and, happily, an increasing class of the 
 community, the present volume cannot fail to prove an 
 useful acquisition to those who, anxious only for truth, 
 desire to know the real principles of Catholics, could 
 they arrive at a knowledge of them through the medium 
 of a compendious and authoritative exposition. Whilst 
 inquiry struggles to burst the bonds in which prejudice 
 and interested misrepresentation have long bound up its 
 freedom, and would still oppress its energies, it would 
 not become Catholics to look on with indifference. 
 We owe it to truth to aid these growing efforts of en- 
 lightened reason ; the voice of charity bids us assist the 
 exertions of honest inquiry ; we owe it to ourselves to 
 co-operate in removing the load of unmerited obloquy 
 under which we still labour ; and, if it were possible for 
 us to be insensible to these claims, there is yet an 
 obligation from which nothing can exempt us it is 
 due to religion to make her known as she really is. To 
 these important ends we cannot, perhaps, contribute 
 more effectually than by placing within the reach of all 
 a work explanatory of Catholic doctrine, and of univer- 
 sally acknowledged authority in the Catholic Church.* 
 
 * On this subject the following observations from the pen of a Pro- 
 testant clergyman are as candid as they are just : " The religion of
 
 10 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 To the pastor, upon whom devolves the duty of 
 public instruction, the " Catechismus ad Parochos " 
 presents peculiar advantages. In its pages he will 
 discover a rich treasure of theological knowledge, ad- 
 mirably adapted to purposes of practical utility. The 
 entire economy of religion he will there find developed 
 to his view the majesty of God, the nature of the 
 divine essence the attributes of the Deity, their tran- 
 scendant operations the creation of man, his unhappy 
 fall the promise of a Redeemer, the mysterious and 
 merciful plan of redemption the establishment of the 
 Church, the marks by which it is to be known and 
 distinguished the awful sanction with which the Di- 
 vine Law is fenced round, the rewards that await and 
 animate the good, the punishments that threaten and 
 awe the wicked the nature, number, and necessity of 
 those supernatural aids instituted by the divine goodness 
 to support our weakness in the arduous conflict for 
 salvation the Law delivered in thunder on Sinai, 
 
 the Roman Catholics ought always, in strictness, to be considered 
 apart from its professors, whether kings, popes, or inferior bishops ; 
 and its tenets, and its forms, should be treated of separately. To the 
 acknowledged creeds, catechisms, and other formularies of the Catholic 
 Church, we should resort for a faithful description of what Roman 
 Catholics do really hold, as doctrines essential to salvation ; and as 
 such, held by the faithful in all times, places, and countries. Though 
 the Catholic forms in some points may vary in number and splendor, 
 the Catholic doctrines cannot ; though opinions may differ, and 
 change with circumstances, articles of faith remain the same. With- 
 out a due and constant consideration of these facts, no Protestant can 
 come to a right understanding respecting the essential faith and 
 worship of the Roman Catholics. It has been owing to a want of this 
 discrimination, that so many absurd, and even wicked tenets, have 
 been palmed upon our brethren of the Catholic Church ; that which 
 they deny, we have insisted they religiously hold ; that which the 
 best informed amongst them utterly abhor, we have held up to the 
 detestation of mankind, as the guide of their faith, and the rule of 
 their actions. This is not fa', ^ i s no * doing to others as we 
 would have others do unto us." The Religions of all Nations, by the 
 Rev. J. Nightingale, p. 12.
 
 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 11 
 
 embracing the various duties of man under all the 
 relations of his being finally, the nature, necessity and 
 conditions of that heavenly intercourse that should sub- 
 sist between the soul and its Creator; the exposition of 
 that admirable prayer composed by the Son of God 
 all this, comprehending as it does the whole substance 
 of doctrinal and practical religion, and at once in- 
 structive to pastor and people, the reader will find in 
 the " Catechisrnus ad Parochus," arranged in order, 
 expounded with perspicuity, and sustained by argument 
 at once convincing and persuasive. 
 
 Besides a general index, one pointing out the adap- 
 tation of the several parts of the Catechism to the Gospel 
 of the Sunday, will, it is hoped, facilitate the duty of 
 public instruction, and render this Catechism, what it 
 was originally intended to be, the manual of pastors. 
 
 Such are the nature and object of the present work ; 
 a brief sketch of its history must enhance its worth, and 
 may, it is hoped, prove acceptable to the reader. 
 
 It has already been observed, that the Roman Cate- 
 chism owes its origin to the zeal and wisdom of the 
 Fathers of Trent: the Decree of the Council for its 
 commencement, which the reader will find prefixed to 
 these pages, was passed in the twenty-fourth session ; 
 and its composition was confided to individuals recom- 
 mended, no doubt, by their superior piety, talents, and 
 learning. That, during the Council, a Congregation 
 had been appointed for the execution of the work, is 
 matter of historic certainty;* but whether, before the 
 close of the Council, the work had actually been com- 
 menced, is a point of interesting, but doubtful inquiry .f 
 
 * Pogianus, voL ii. p. 18. t Palavicino, lib. xxiv. c. 13.
 
 12 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 It is certain, however, that amongst those who, under 
 the superintending care of the sainted Archbishop of 
 Milan, were most actively employed in its composition, 
 are to be numbered three learned Dominicans, Leonardo 
 Marini, subsequently raised to the Archiepiscopal throne 
 of Lanciano,* Francisco Foreiro, the learned translator 
 of Isaias,-f- and ^Egidius Foscarari, Bishop of Modena,t 
 names not unknown to history and to literature. 
 Whether to them exclusively belongs the completion of 
 the Catechism, or whether they share the honor and 
 the merit with others, is a question which, about the 
 middle of the last century, enlisted the zeal and indus- 
 try of contending writers. The Letters and Orations 
 of Pogianus, published by Lagomarsini, seem however 
 to leave the issue of the contest no longer doubtful. 
 Of these letters one informs us, that three Bishops were 
 appointed by the Sovereign Pontiff to undertake the 
 task: I of the three Dominicans already mentioned, two 
 only had been raised to the episcopal dignity; and 
 hence a fourth person, at least, must have been asso- 
 ciated to their number and their labours. That four 
 persons had been actually appointed by the Pontiff 
 appears from the letter of Gratianus to Cardinal Com- 
 mendon;^[ and, after much research, Lagomarsini has 
 discovered that this fourth person was Muzio Calini, 
 
 * Epistolas et Orationes Julii Pogiani, editse a Lagomarsini, Romae, 
 1756, vol. ii. p. 20. 
 
 t Oltrochius de Vita ac Rebus Gestis S. Caroli Borromaei, lib. i. c. 8, 
 annot. 3, apud Pogianum, vol. ii. p. 20. 
 
 J Tabularium Ecclesiae Romance. Leipsic, 1743. 
 
 Foreiro's Translation and Commentary on Isaias may be seen in 
 the ' ' Recueil des grands critiques. " 
 
 II "Datum est negotium a Pontifice Maximo tribus episcopis," etc. 
 Pog. Ep. et Orat., vol. iii. p. 449. 
 
 1 "ad earn rein quatuor viroa Pius delegit," etc. Pog. vol. 
 
 L 17.
 
 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 13 
 
 Archbishop of Zara.* The erudite and accurate Tira- 
 boschi has arrived at the same conclusion : he expressly 
 numbers Calini amongst the authors of the Roman 
 Catechism. -J- The MSS. notes, to which Lagomarsini 
 refers in proof of this opinion, mention, it is true, the 
 names of Galesinus and Pogianus with that of Calini : 
 Pogianus, it is universally acknowledged, had no share 
 in the composition of the work; and the passage, there- 
 fore, must have reference solely to its style. With 
 this interpretation the mention of Calini does not conflict ; 
 the orations delivered by him in the Council of Trent 
 prove that, in elegance of Latinity, he was little inferior 
 to Pogianus himself; and the style, therefore, might 
 also have employed the labour of his pen. 
 
 Other names are mentioned as possessing claims to 
 the honour of having contributed to the composition of 
 the Trent Catechism, amongst which are those of Car- 
 dinal Seripandus, Archbishop of Salerno, and Legate at 
 the Council to Pius IV., Michael Medina, and Cardinal 
 Antoniano, secretary to Pius V. ; but Tiraboschi omits 
 to notice their pretensions ; and my inquiries have not 
 been rewarded with a single authority competent to 
 impeach the justness of the omission. Their names, 
 that of Medina excepted, he frequently introduces 
 throughout his history ; in no instance, however, does 
 he intimate that they had any share in the composition 
 
 * Calini assisted at the Council as Archbishop of Zara, and died 
 Bishop of Terni, in 1570. It would appear from Tiraboschi that he 
 belonged to no religious order. He is called " huomo di molte lettere 
 e molta pieta." See MSS. notes found in the library of the Jesuit 
 College in Fermo ; also MSS. letters of Calini, apud Pogian. , vol. ii. 22 ; 
 Palavicino Istoria del C. di Trento, 1. xv. c. 13. 
 
 t See Tiraboschi Storia della Letteratura Italiana, T. vii. part i. 
 p. 304, 308 : vid. Script. Odin. Praedic. voL ccxxviii. Romae, 
 1784.
 
 14 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 of the Roman Catechism; and his silence, therefore, I 
 am disposed to interpret as a denial of their claim. 
 
 The Work, when completed,* was presented to Pius 
 V., and was handed over by his Holiness for revisal to 
 a Congregation, over which presided the profound and 
 judicious Cardinal Sirlet.-f- The style, according to 
 some, was finally retouched by Paulus ManutiusrJ 
 according to others, and the opinion is more probable, 
 the " limae labor et mora " owe their last improvements 
 to the classic pen of Pogianus. The uniformity of the 
 style (the observation is Lagomarsini's), and its strong 
 resemblance to that of the other works of Pogianus, 
 depose in favour of the superiority of his claim. || The 
 work was put to press under the vigilant eye of the 
 laborious and elegant Manutius,^" published by autho- 
 rity of Pius V., and translated, by command of the 
 Pontiff, into the languages of Italy, France, Germany, 
 and Poland.** To the initiated no apology is, I trust, 
 necessary for this analysis of a controversy which the 
 translator could not, with propriety, pass over in silence, 
 
 * It was finished anno 1564 : " Catechismum habemus jam absolu- 
 tum," etc., Letter of St. Charles Borromeo to Cardinal Hosius, dated 
 December 27th, 1564. Pog. 2, xxxxxvii. 
 
 t Ibid. To Cardinal Sirlet Biblical literature owes the Varia2 Lec- 
 tiones in the Antwerpian Polyglot. 
 
 t Graveson, Hist. Eccl. T. 7, p. 156, Ed. Venet. 1738 ; Apostolus 
 Zeno. Anotat. in Bibl. Elog. Ital. T. ii. p. 156, Ed. Venet. 1733. 
 
 Lagomarsini Not. in Gratian. Epist. ad Card. Commend. Romae, 
 1756. 
 
 II Vol. ii. p. 34. 
 
 U Pog., vol. ii. p. 39. 
 
 '* It was printed by Mamitius before the end of July, 1566, but not 
 published until the September following, when a folio and quarto 
 edition appeared at the same time, accompanied by an Italian trans- 
 lation from the pen of P. Alesio Figgliucci, 0. P. Sabutin. in vit& Pii 
 V. Pog. vol. ii. 40. More than two centuries after, that is in 1804, 
 appeared in a freer style and more modern dress, a second Italian 
 translation by Massimo Brazzacco, Superior of the Congregation of 
 the Oratory at Udiue.
 
 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 15 
 
 and on which so much laborious research has been 
 expended. To detail, however, the numerous approvals 
 that hailed the publication of the work, recommended 
 its perusal, and promoted its circulation, would perhaps 
 rather fatigue the patience, than interest the curiosity 
 of the reader.* Enough that its merits were then, as 
 they are now, recognized by the Universal Church; 
 and the place given amongst the masters of spiritual 
 life to the devout A'Kempis, " second only," says 
 Fontenelle, "to the books of canonical Scripture," 
 has been unanimously awarded to the Catechism of the 
 Council of Trent, as a compendium of Catholic Theo- 
 
 Thus, undertaken by decree of the Council of Trent, 
 the result of the aggregate labours of the most distin- 
 guished of the Fathers who composed that august 
 assembly, revised by the severe judgment, and polished 
 by the classic taste of the first scholars of that classic 
 age, the Catechism of the Council of Trent is stamped 
 with the impress of superior worth, and challenges the 
 respect and veneration of every reader. 
 
 In estimating so highly the merits of the Original, it 
 has not, however, escaped the translator's notice, that a 
 work purely theological and didactic, treated in a severe, 
 scholastic form, and therefore not recommended by the 
 more ambitious ornaments of style, must prove unin- 
 viting to those who seek to be amused, rather than to 
 be instructed. The judicious reader will not look for 
 
 * Amongst these authorities are Bulls cii., cv. of Pius V. in Bullar. 
 p. 305, 307 ; Brief of Greg. XIII., 1583; Epist Card. Borrom.; Synods 
 of Milan, 1565 ; of Beneventum, 1567 ; of Ravenna, 1568 ; of Meauz, 
 1569 ; of Geneva, 1574 ; of Melun (national), 1576 ; of Rouen, 1581 
 of Bourdeaux, 1583 ; of Tours, 1583 ; of Rheims, 1583 ; of Toulouse, 
 1590 ; Avignon, 1594 ; of Aquileia, 1586, etc., etc., etc.
 
 16 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 such recommendation ; the character of the work pre- 
 cludes the idea: perspicuity, and an elaborate accuracy, 
 are the leading features of the Original ; and the trans- 
 lator is, at least, entitled to the praise of not having 
 aspired to higher excellencies. To express the entire 
 meaning of the author, attending rather to the sense 
 than to the number of his words, is the rule by which 
 the Roman Orator was guided in his translation of the 
 celebrated orations of the two rival Orators of Greece.* 
 From this general rule, however just, and favourable 
 to elegance, the translator has felt it a conscientious 
 duty not unfrequently to depart, in the translation of 
 a work, the phraseology of which is, in so many 
 instances, consecrated by ecclesiastical usage. Whilst, 
 therefore, he has endeavoured to preserve the spirit, he 
 has been unwilling to lose sight of the letter ; studious 
 to avoid a servile exactness, he has not felt himself at 
 liberty to indulge the freedom of paraphrase ; anxious 
 to transfuse into the copy the spirit of the original, he 
 has been no less anxious to render it an express image 
 of that original. The reader, perhaps, will blame his 
 severity: his fidelity, he trusts, may defy reproof; and 
 on it he rests his only claim to commendation. 
 
 By placing the work in its present form before the 
 Public, the translator trusts he shall have rendered 
 some service to the cause of religion: should this 
 pleasing anticipation be realized, he will deem the mo- 
 ments of leisure devoted to it well spent, and the 
 reward more than commensurate to his anxious labours. 
 
 * De Opt. Gen. Orat. n. 14. 
 
 MAYNOOTH COLLEGE, 
 
 June 10th, 1829.
 
 CATECHISM 
 
 ACCORDING TO THK 
 
 DECREE OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT, 
 
 EDITED BY THE COMMAND OF OUR MOST ILLUSTRIOUS 
 LORD PIUS THE FIFTH. 
 
 PEE FACE. 
 
 TOUCHING THE NECESSITY, AUTHORITY, OFFICE OF PASTORS IN THE 
 CHURCH, AND THE PRINCIPAL HEADS OF THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 QUESTION I. J/a??, left to his own Strength, is unable to attain 
 True Wisdom, and the certain Means of obtaining Happiness. 
 
 SUCH is the nature of the human mind and intelligence, that, 
 although, by the application of great labour and diligence, it 
 has of itself investigated and ascertained many other matters 
 which appertain to the knowledge of divine things ; yet, illu- 
 mined by the light of nature, it never could know or discern 
 the greatest part of those things, by which is attained eternal 
 salvation, the principal end for which man was created and 
 formed to the image and likeness of God. " For," as the 
 Apostle teaches, " the invisible things of God, from the creation 
 of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things 
 that are made ; his eternal power also aud divinity" (Rom. i. 20) ; 
 but so far does " the mystery which hath been hidden from 
 ages and generations" transcend the reach of man's under- 
 standing, that had it not been " manifested to his saints, to 
 whom God," by the gift of faith, " would make known the 
 riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is 
 Christ " (Col. i. 26, sq.), by no research would it have been 
 given to man to aspire to such wisdom. 
 
 QUESTION II. Whence is so excellent a Gift of Faith derived. 
 
 But, as "faith cometh by hearing" (Rom. x. 17), how neces- 
 sary must have been, at all times, the faithful labour and 
 ministry of a legitimate teacher towards the attainment of 
 
 B
 
 18 PKEFACE. 
 
 eternal salvation, is evident, since it is written, " Ho\v shall they 
 hear without a preacher ? and how shall they preach unless 
 they be sent ?" (Rom. x. 14, 15.) And, indeed, never from the 
 beginning of the world itself has God, most merciful and be- 
 nignant, been wanting to his own ; but "at sundry times and 
 in divers manners spoke to the fathers by the prophets " (Heb. 
 i. 1), and pointed out to them, suitably to the circumstances of 
 the times, a certain and direct path to celestial happiness. 
 
 QUESTION III. Christ came into this World to teach the Faith, 
 which the Apostles and their Successors afterwards propagated. 
 
 But, as he had foretold that he would give a Teacher of 
 justice " to be the light of the Gentiles," that his " salvation " 
 may reach " even to the farthest part of the earth " (Is. xlix. 6), 
 " in these days" he " hath spoken to us by his Son " (Heb. i. 2), 
 whom also by a voice from heaven, " from the excellent glory " 
 (2 Pet. i. 17), he has commanded all to hear and to obey. 
 And then the Son " gave some, apostles, and some, prophets, 
 and others, pastors and teachers" (Eph. iv. 11), to announce 
 the word of life ; that we might not be " carried about " like 
 "children, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, but" 
 (Eph. iv. 14), adhering fast to the firm foundation of the faith, 
 might be " built together into an habitation of God in the Holy 
 Ghost" (Eph. ii. 22). 
 
 QUESTION IV. How the Words of the Pastors of the Church 
 are to be received. 
 
 And that no one might receive " the word of the hearing of 
 God" (1 Thess. ii. 13) from the ministers of the Church as the 
 word of men, but as the word of Christ, what it really is, that 
 same Saviour of us has ordained, that to their ministry should 
 be jiiven authority so great, that he said, " He that heareth you, 
 heareth me ; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me " (Luke, x. 
 16); words which he wished not to be understood of those only 
 whom he was addressing, but likewise of all who, by legitimate 
 succession, should discharge the office of teaching, with whom 
 he promised to be " all days, even to the consummation of the 
 world" (Matt, xxviii. 20). 
 
 QUESTION V. The Truth having leen already manifested, it is 
 necessary now also that Pastors preach the Word of God. 
 
 But as this preaching of the divine word should never be 
 interrupted in the Church, so in these our days it is certainly 
 necessary to labour with greater zeal and piety, that the faith- 
 ful may be nurtured and strengthened with sound and whole-
 
 PREFACE. 19 
 
 some doctrine as with the food of life ; for " false prophets have 
 gone out into the world" (Uohn, iv. 1), "to corrupt the minds of 
 the faithful with various and strange doctrines " (Heb. xiii. 9), 
 of whom the Lord hath said : " I did not send prophets, yet 
 they ran ; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied " 
 (Jerem. xxiii. 21). In which matter to such length has their 
 impiety, trained in all the arts of Satan, been carried, that it 
 would seem almost impossible to confine it within any bounds ; 
 and did we not rely on that splendid promise of our Saviour, 
 who declared that he had laid so solid a foundation for his 
 Church, that the gates of hell should never be able to prevail 
 against it (Matt. xvi. 18), it were very much to be apprehended, 
 lest, beset on every side by so many enemies, assailed and 
 besieged by so many engines, it would in these days fall. For, 
 to omit those most illustrious states, which heretofore piously 
 and holily retained the true Catholic faith, which they had re- 
 ceived from their ancestors, but are now gone astray, relinquish- 
 ing the paths of truth, and openly declare that they best 
 cultivate piety by having totally abandoned the faith of their 
 fathers, there is no region, however remote, no place, however 
 securely guarded, no corner of the Christian commonwealth, 
 into which this pestilence has not sought secretly to insinuate 
 itself. 
 
 QUESTION VI. The Heretics have sought to corrupt the minds of 
 Christians chiefly by means of Catechisms. 
 
 For those who proposed to themselves to corrupt the minds 
 of the faithful, aware that it was impossible that they could 
 hold immediate personal intercourse with all, and pour into 
 their ears their poisoned words, having adopted a different plan 
 with the same intent, disseminated the errors of impiety much 
 more easily and extensively. For besides those voluminous 
 works, by which they sought to overthrow the Catholic faith 
 (to guard against which, however, containing as they did open 
 heresy, required perhaps little labour or circumspection), they 
 also composed innumerable small works, which presenting on 
 their surface the semblance of piety, deceived with incredible 
 facility the simple and the incautious. 
 
 QUESTION VII. The Holy Synod rightly decreed that the Pesti- 
 lent Preachings and Writings of the Fake Prophets must be 
 opposed. 
 
 Anxious to apply some healing remedy to an evil so great 
 and so pernicious, the Fathers of the (Ecumenical Synod of 
 Trent, therefore, thought it not enough to decide the more
 
 20 PREFACE. 
 
 important points of Catholic doctrine against the heresies of our 
 time, but deemed it further incumbent on them to deliver some 
 fixed form and manner of instructing the Christian people from 
 the very rudiments of the faith ; which [form] should be 
 followed in all churches, by those who have to discharge the 
 duty of a lawful pastor and teacher. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. It was necessary, after so many Written 
 Treatises of Christian Doctrine, to put forward a New Cate- 
 chism for Pat-tors, even by the care of the (Ecumenical Council 
 and the Authority of the Supreme Pontiff. 
 
 In writings of this sort, many, it is true, have already been 
 employed, and have earned a great reputation for piety and 
 learning. To the Fathers, however, it seemed of the first 
 importance that a work should appear, sanctioned by the 
 authority of the Holy Synod, from which parish- priests and 
 all others on whom the duty of imparting instruction devolves, 
 may be able to seek and derive certain precepts for the edifi- 
 cation of the faithful ; that as there is " one Lord, one Faith " 
 (Eph. iv. 5), so also there may be one common rule and pre- 
 scribed form of delivering the faith, and instructing the Chris- 
 tian people unto all the duties of piety. 
 
 QUESTION IX. All the Dogmas of our Religion are not here 
 fully discussed. 
 
 As, therefore, the things which seem to pertain to this 
 purpose are many, let no one suppose that the Holy Synod 
 intended, that in one volume all the dogmas of the Christian 
 faith should be explained with that minuteness, which is usual 
 with those who profess to treat of the institution and doctrine 
 of all religion ; for that would have been a task of almost 
 endless labour, and evidently ill-suited to the proposed end. 
 'But, having undertaken to instruct pastors and priests who 
 have care of souls, in the knowledge of those things that belong- 
 most particularly to the pastoral office, and are accommodated 
 to the capacity of the faithful, [the Holy Synod] wished that 
 those things only should be brought forward, which may assist 
 the pious zeal of pastors therein, should they not be very 
 familiar with the more difficult disputations concerning divine 
 matters. Such being the case, the order of the present under- 
 taking requires that, before we proceed to develop severally 
 those things, in which is comprised a summary of this doc- 
 trine, we premise a few observations, explanatory of certain 
 matters which pastors should make the primary objects of their 
 consideration, and which they should keep before their eyes, in
 
 PREFACE. 21 
 
 order that they may know to what end, as it were, all their 
 views, labours, studies are to be directed, and how they can 
 more easily attain and accomplish what they desire. 
 
 QUESTION X. When the Pastors of Souls are here taken to be 
 instructed, ivhat must form their Chief Consideration, that 
 they may rightly discharge their duly. 
 
 This, then, seems to hold the first place, that they always 
 recollect that in this consists all the knowledge of a Christian 
 man, or rather, as our Saviour says : " This is life everlasting, 
 that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom thou hast sent" (John, xvii. 3). The work of a teacher 
 in the Church will, therefore, be directed chiefly to this, that 
 the faithful earnestly desire " to know Jesus Christ and him 
 crucified" (1 Cor. ii. 2), and that they be firmly convinced, and 
 with the innermost piety and devotion of heart believe, that 
 " there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby 
 we must be saved" (Acts, iv. 12), for " he is the propitiation for 
 our sins " ( 1 John, ii. 2). But as " in this we do know that rt 
 have known him," if " we keep his commandments ' (1 Job!., 
 ii. 3), the next consideration, anJ one intimately connected -rU- 
 the preceding, is to show that life is not to be spent by t'ne 
 faithful in ease and sloth, but that we " ought to walk even as 
 he walked" (1 John, ii. 6), " and," with all earnestness, " pur- 
 sue justice, godliness, faith, charity, mildness" (1 Tim. vi. 11), 
 for he " gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
 iniquity, and purify unto himself a people acceptable, pursuing 
 good works" (Tit. ii. 14), which things the Apostle commands 
 pastors to " speak and exhort" (Tit. ii. 15). But as our Lord 
 and Saviour has not only declared, but has also shown by his 
 own example, that the law and the prophets depend on love 
 (Matt. xxii. 40), and as also, according to the confirmation of 
 the Apostle, " the end of the commandment," and the fulfilment 
 of the law, "is charity" (1 Tim. i. 5; Rom. xiii. 8) ; no one 
 can doubt that this, as a paramount duty, should be attended 
 to with the utmost assiduity, that the faithful people be excited 
 to a love of the infinite goodness of God towards us ; that, 
 inflamed with a sort of divine ardour, they may be powerfully 
 attracted to that supreme and all-perfect good, to adhere to 
 which is solid and true happiness, as he will clearly perceive, 
 who can say with the prophet, " What have I in heaven, and 
 besides thee what do 1 desire upon earth ?" (Psal. Ixxii. 25). 
 This assuredly is that " more excellent way" (1 Cor. xii. 31) 
 which the same Apostle pointed out, when he referred the 
 whole purport of his doctrine and instruction to charity, " which
 
 22 PREFACE. 
 
 never faileth " (1 Cor. xiii. 8) ; for whatever is proposed [by 
 the pastor], whether it be the exercise of faith, hope, or some 
 moral virtue, the love of our Lord should always be so set forth 
 therein, that any one may clearly see that all the works of per- 
 fect Christian virtue can have no other origin, nor be referred to 
 any other end, than divine love (1 Cor. xvi. 14). 
 
 QUESTION XI. It is not enough that Pastors, while leaching, 
 should look to these Two Ends, but they should accommodate 
 themselves to each one's Capacity. 
 
 But as iu imparting instruction of any sort the manner of 
 teaching is of the highest importance, so, in the instruction of 
 the Christian people, it should be deemed of the greatest 
 moment. For the age, capacity, manners, condition, of the 
 hearers demand attention, that he who exercises the office of 
 teaching may become " all things to all men," to gain all to 
 Christ (1 Cor. ix. 22), and may approve himself a faithful 
 minister and steward (1 Cor. iv. 1, 2), and like a "good and 
 faithful servant," be worthy to be placed by his Lord " over 
 many things " (Matt. xxv. 23). Nor let him think that the 
 persons committed to his charge are all of one mind, so that 
 he may be able to teach by some one prescribed and fixed 
 course of instruction, and form all the faithful alike to true 
 piety; for whereas some are as "new-born infants" (1 Pet. 
 ii. 2), others begin to prow up in Christ, and others are in 
 some sort of full maturity, it is necessary to consider carefully 
 who they are that have occasion for milk, who for more solid 
 food (1 Cor. iii. 2 ; Heb. v. 12), and to afford to each such 
 aliments of doctrine as may give the spirit increase, " until we 
 all meet in the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son 
 of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the 
 fulness of Christ " (Eph. iv. 13). Now this the Apostle pointed 
 out to the observation of all in himself when he said, that he 
 was " a debtor to the Greek and the Barbarian, to the wise and 
 the unwise" (Rom. i. 14); in order, to wit, that those who 
 have been called to this ministry might understand, that in 
 teaching the mysteries of faith and the precepts of life, the 
 instruction ought to be accommodated to the capacity and 
 intelligence of the hearers ; that, whilst they fill the minds of 
 the strong with spiritual food (Lament, iv. 4 ; Heb. v. 14), they 
 meanwhile suffer not the little ones to perish with hunger, 
 asking for bread whilst there is "none to break it to them" 
 (Lament, iv. 4). Nor should any one's zeal in teaching be 
 relaxed, because it is sometimes necessary that the hearer be
 
 PREFACE. 23 
 
 instructed in precepts concerning matters apparently unim- 
 portant and humble, which cannot without irksomeness be 
 treated by those most particularly whose mind is accustomed 
 to repose in the contemplation of sublime things. For if the 
 wisdom itself of the Eternal Father descended upon earth, that, 
 in the lowliness of our flesh, he might deliver to us the precepts 
 of a heavenly life, who is there whom the " charity of Christ 
 presseth " (2 Cor. v. 14) not to become a little one in the 
 midst of his brethren ; and, as a nurse cherishing her children, 
 so anxiously to desire the salvation of his neighbours, that, as 
 the Apostle testifies of himself, he wish " to impart unto " them, 
 " not only the Gospel of God, but also " his " own soul " ? (I 
 Thess. ii. 7, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XTI. Since God has withdrawn his Visible Presence 
 from iis, Pastors will derive his Word from Scripture and 
 Tradition. 
 
 But every sort of doctrine which is to be delivered to the 
 faithful is contained in the word of God, which is divided into 
 Scripture and Tradition. In the study of these matters, there- 
 fore, pastors will spend their days and nights, mindful of that 
 admonition of St. Paul, addressed to Timothy, which all whoso- 
 ever have the care of souls should consider as appertaining to 
 themselves. But the admonition is as follows : " Attend to 
 reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine " (1 Tim. iv. 13), for " all 
 Scripture divinely inspired is profitable to teach, to reprove, to 
 correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of God may be per- 
 fect, furnished to every good work" (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17). But 
 as the things divinely revealed are so many and so various, that it 
 is no easy task either to acquire a knowledge of them, or, having 
 acquired that knowledge, to retain them in the memory, so 
 that, when occasion may require, a ready and prompt explana- 
 tion of them may be at hand, our predecessors have very wisely 
 reduced this whole force and scheme of saving doctrine to these 
 four distinct heads : the Apostles' Creed ; the Sacraments ; the 
 Ten Commandments ; and the Lord's Prayer. In the doctrine 
 of the Creed are contained all things that are to be held accord- 
 ing to the discipline of the Christian faith, whether they 
 regard the knowledge of God, or the creation and government 
 of the world, or the redemption of the human race, or the re- 
 wards of the good and the punishments of the wicked. The 
 doctrine of the Seven Sacraments comprehends signs, and, as it 
 were, the instruments for obtaining divine grace. In the Deca- 
 logue is laid down whatever has reference to the Law, " the
 
 24 PREFACE. 
 
 end" whereof "is charity" (1 Tim. i. 5). Finally, in the 
 Lord's Prayer is contained whatever can be desired, hoped, or 
 salutarily prayed for by men. It follows, therefore, that these 
 four, as it were, common places of sacred Scripture being ex- 
 plained, there can scarcely be wanting anything to be learned by 
 a Christian man. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. By what Method Parish-Priests may combine 
 the Explanation of the Gospel with the Explanation of the 
 Catechism. 
 
 It has, therefore, seemed proper to acquaint parish-priests, 
 that, whenever they shall have occasion,iii the ordinary discharge 
 of their duty, to expound any passage of the Gospel or any 
 other part of sacred Scripture, its substance, whatever it be, 
 falls under some one of the four heads already enumerated, to 
 which they will recur as to the source of that doctrine, from 
 which their exposition is to be drawn. For example, if the Gospel 
 of the first Sunday of Advent is to be explained, " There shall 
 be signs in the sun and in the moon," etc. (Luke, xxi. 25), what 
 appertains to its explanation is contained under the article of 
 the Creed, " He shall come to judge the living and the dead ;" 
 by embodying which, in his exposition, the pastor will by one 
 and the same work instruct his faithful people both in the 
 Creed and in the Gospel. Wherefore, whenever he has to teach 
 and to expound, he will observe this practice of directing all 
 things to these four first general heads, to which we said are 
 referred the whole force and doctrine of holy Scripture, lie 
 will, however, observe that order of teaching, which shall seem 
 suited to persons and times. Following the authority of the 
 Fathers, who, to initiate men in Christ the Lord, and instruct 
 them in his discipline, began with the doctrine of faith, we have 
 deemed it expedient to explain first what appertains to faith.
 
 ACCORDING TO THE 
 
 DECEEE OF THE QOMCIL OF TBEKT. 
 
 PART I. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON FAITH AXD THE SYMBOL OF FAITH. 
 
 QUESTION I. What is here meant by Faith, and of its Necessity 
 to Salvation. 
 
 BUT as in the sacred Scriptures the word "faith" has a 
 variety of meanings, we here speak of that faith, by virtue of 
 which we yield our entire assent to whatever has been divinely 
 delivered. And that this faith is necessary to salvation, no 
 man will reasonably doubt, especially as it is written, " With- 
 out faith it is impossible to please God " (Heb. xi. 6). For 
 as the end which is proposed to man as his ultimate happiness 
 is above the ken of the human mind, it was necessary for him 
 to receive the knowledge thereof from God. And this know- 
 ledge is nothing else than faith, by virtue of which we hold 
 that as ratified, which the authority of our Holy Mother the 
 Church teaches us to have been delivered by God ; for the 
 faithful can have no doubt touching those things of which God, 
 who is " truth " (John, xiv. 6) itself, is the author. Hence we 
 understand how great is the difference between this faith which 
 we have in God, and that which we yield to the writers of 
 human history. But faith, though comprehensive in its mean- 
 ing, and differing in degree and dignity for we read in the 
 sacred Writings these words, " thou of little faith, why didst 
 thou doubt?" (Matt. xiv. 31), and, "Great is thy faith" 
 (Matt. xv. 28), and, " Increase our faith " (Luke, xvii. 5), and, 
 "Faith without works is dead" (James, ii. 17), and, "Faith 
 which worketh by charity " (Gal.v. 6) is yet the same in kind, 
 and the force and nature of its definition applies equally to
 
 26 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 all its degrees. How fruitful it is, and what great advantages 
 we may derive from it, will be pointed out in the explanation 
 df the articles. 
 
 QUESTION II. When and Why the Twelve Heads of Faith 
 
 were handed down by the Apostles. 
 
 The first points, then, which Christian men ought to hold 
 are those which the holy Apostles, the leaders and teachers of 
 the faith, inspired by the Holy Ghost, have divided into the 
 twelve articles of the Creed. For, when they had received a 
 command from the Lord to go forth " into the whole world," 
 acting as his "ambassadors" (2 Cor. v. 20), "and preach 
 the Gospel to every creature " (Mark, xvi. 15), they thought pro- 
 per to compose a form of Christian faith, doubtless that all 
 might think and speak the same thing, and that amongst those 
 whom they should have called to the unity of faith, there should 
 be no schisms ; but that they should " be perfect in the same 
 mind, and in the same judgment" (1 Cor. i. 10). 
 
 QUESTION III. Why it was called a Symbol. 
 This profession of Christian faith and hope, composed by 
 themselves, the Apostles called a u Symbol," either because it 
 was made up of various sentences, which each contributed re- 
 spectively towards its completion, or because they might use it 
 as a common sign or watchword, by which they might easily 
 distinguish " false brethren," deserters from the faith, " un- 
 awares brought in " (Gal. ii. 4), who adulterated " the word of 
 God " (2 Cor. ii. 17), from those who would really bind them- 
 selves by an oath of fidelity to the warfare of Christ. 
 
 QUESTION IV. On the Necessity of this Creed, and into how 
 many Parts it is divided. 
 
 Amongst the many truths which the Christian religion 
 proposes to the faithful, and of which, separately or generally, 
 a certain and firm faith ought to be held, the first, and one 
 which is necessary to be believed by all, is that which God 
 himself has taught us as the foundation and summary of truth, 
 and which regards the unity of the Divine Essence, the dis- 
 tinction of the Three Persons, and the actions which are in 
 .some sort peculiarly attributed to each. The parish-priest will 
 teach that the doctrine of this mystery is briefly contained in 
 the Apostles' Creed. For, as has been observed by our pre- 
 decessors, who have treated this subject piously and accurately, 
 [the Creed] seems to be divided principally into three parts, 
 one describing the First Person of the Divine Nature, and
 
 PART I. CHAPTER II. 27 
 
 the wondrous work of creation; another, the Second Person, 
 and the mystery of man's redemption ; a third comprising the 
 doctrine of the Third Person, the origin and source of onr 
 sanctification, in divers and most appropriate sentences. Now 
 these sentences we call articles, by a sort of simile frequently 
 used by our forefathers ; for as the members of the body are 
 divided by joints (articuli), so also, in this profession of faith, 
 whatever is to be believed by us distinctly and separately from 
 anything else, we properly and appositely call an article. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OX THE FIRST ARTICLE OF THE CREED. 
 
 " I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER, ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF HEAVEN 
 AND EARTH." 
 
 QUESTION I. The First Article is briefly explained. 
 
 The import of these words is this : I believe with certainty, 
 and without any doubt profess my belief in God the Father, the 
 First Person, to wit, of the Trinity, who, by his omnipotent 
 power, created from nothing, preserves and govern?, heaven itself 
 and earth, and all things which are contained in the compass of 
 heaven and earth ; and not only do I believe in him from the 
 heart, and profess this belief with the lips, but with the greatest; 
 zeal and piety tend towards him, as the supreme and most per- 
 fect good. Let this, then, serve as a sort of brief comprehensive 
 view of this first article. But as great mysteries lie concealed 
 under almost every word, the parish-priest must now give them 
 a more diligent consideration, that, as far as the Lord has 
 permitted, the faithful people may approach, " with fear and 
 trembling " (Philip, xi. 12), the contemplation of the glory 
 of the Divine Majesty. 
 
 QUESTION II. Meaning of the Word "Believe." 
 
 The word " believe," therefore, does not here mean to think, 
 to imagine, to opine ; but, as the sacred Scriptures teach, it 
 has the force of the most decided assent, by which the mind 
 firmly and steadily assents to God revealing his mysteries. 
 As far, therefore, as regards the explanation of this passage, 
 he believes, who is firmly and without hesitation persuaded of 
 anything (Rom. iv. 18, 21). Nor ought any one suppose that 
 the knowledge derived through faith b less certain, because the
 
 28 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 objects which faith proposes to our belief are not seen ; for the 
 divine light in which we perceive them, although it does riot 
 render the objects clear, yet suffers us not to doubt regarding 
 them ; " for God, who commanded the light to shine out of 
 darkness, hath" himself "shone in our hearts" (2 Cor. iv. 6), 
 that the Gospel be not hidden to us, as " to them that are 
 lost " (2 Cor. iv. 3). 
 
 QUESTION III. The Matters propounded in the Creed are not to 
 be curiously scrutinized, but simply asserted. 
 
 From what has been said it then follows, that he who is 
 endued with this heavenly knowledge of faith, is free from an 
 inquisitive curiosity ; for God, when he commanded us to 
 believe, proposed not to us to search into the divine judgments, 
 or inquire into their reason and cause, but commanded an 
 immutable faith, by the efficacy of which the mind reposes in 
 the knowledge of eternal truth. And, indeed, whilst the Apostle 
 bears witness that " God is true, and every man a liar " (Rom. 
 iii. 4), if it would be the part of an arrogant and presumptuous 
 person not to believe a grave and sensible man affirming any- 
 thing, but urge him moreover to support what he said by reasons 
 or testimonies ; what temerity and folly would it not be for one 
 who hears the words of God, to demand reasons for his heavenly 
 and saving doctrine ? Faith, therefore, is to be held to the 
 exclusion not only of all doubt, but also of the desire of 
 demonstration. 
 
 QUESTION IV. It is not sufficient for Salvation to believe, but it 
 is necessary also to profess the Faith. 
 
 But this also the parish-priest should teach, that he who 
 says, " I believe," besides declaring the inward assent of his 
 mind, which is an internal act of faith, should also openly pro- 
 fess, and with the greatest alacrity confess and proclaim, what 
 he holds inwardly in his heart. For the faithful should possess 
 the same spirit on which the Prophet relied, when he said : " I 
 have believed, and therefore have I spoken" (Ps. cxv. 10) ; 
 should follow the example of the Apostles, who replied to the 
 princes of the people : " We cannot but speak the things which 
 we have seen and heard " (Acts, iv. 20) ; should be excited by 
 that noble saying of St. Paul: "I am not ashamed of the 
 Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one 
 that believeth " (Kom. i. 16) ; also, [by these words] by which 
 the truth of this sentiment is especially confirmed : " With the 
 heart we believe unto justice ; but with the mouth confession 
 is made unto salvation" (Rom. x. 10).
 
 PART I. CHAPTER II. 29 
 
 QUESTION \ 7 .The Excellence of the Christian Faith. 
 
 " IN GOD." From these words we may learn the dignity 
 and excellence of Christian wisdom, and thence how much we 
 owe to the divine goodness ; we, to whom it is given at once 
 to mount, as it were, by the ladder of faith, to the knowledge 
 of that which surpasses ia excellence, and which should be the 
 object of our most earnest desires. 
 
 QUESTION YI. How much the, Christian Wisdom concerning 
 God differs from the Philosophical Knowledge of Divine Things. 
 
 For in this, Christian philosophy and the wisdom of this 
 world differ much, that, guided solely by the light of nature, 
 and having made gradual advances by reasoning on effects and 
 sensible objects, human wisdom, not till after long and laborious 
 investigation, at length reaches with difficulty the contemplation 
 of the invisible things of God, discovers and understands the 
 First Canse and Author of all things ; whilst, on the contrary, 
 Christian philosophy so whets the edge of the human mind, 
 that it is enabled without difficulty to penetrate the heavens, 
 and, illumined with divine splendour, to contemplate first the 
 eternal source of light itself, and next the things that are placed 
 below him ; so that, as the Prince of the Apostles says, we 
 experience with the most exquisite pleasure of mind, " and 
 believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable" (1 Pet. i. 8), that we 
 have been called "out of darkness into his admirable light " 
 (1 Pet. ii. 9). Justly, therefore, do the faithful profess first to 
 believe in God, whose majesty, with Jeremias, we declare to be 
 "incomprehensible" (Jer. xxxii. 19) ; for, as the Apostle says, 
 he " inhabiteth light inaccessible," whom no " man hath seen 
 nor can see " (1 Tim. vi. 16) ; for, when speaking to Moses, he 
 said, " man shall not see me and live " (Exod. xxxiii. 20). 
 For to be capable of rising to the contemplation of the Deity, 
 than whom there is nothing more sublime, our mind must neces- 
 sarily be entirely abstracted from the senses ; and of this, in 
 the present life, we are naturally incapable. But although this 
 is the case, God, " nevertheless," says the Apostle, " left not 
 himself without testimony, doing good from heaven, giving raius 
 and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness " 
 (Acts, xiv. 16). Hence it was that philosophers conceived 
 nothing mean of the Deity ; entirely removed from him 
 every thing corporeal, every thing gross and compound ; 
 ascribed to him also the perfection and fulness of all 
 good, from whom, as from an eternal and inexhaustible foun- 
 tain of goodness and benignity, should flow every perfect gift
 
 30 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 to all creatures ; called him the wise, the author of truth, the 
 loving, the just, the most beneficent, and by other appellations 
 expressive of supreme and absolute perfection ; and said that 
 his immense and infinite agency filled every place, and extended 
 to all things. This is far better and much more clearly evinced 
 from the sacred Scriptures, as in the following passages : 
 " God is a spirit " (John, iv. 24) ; " Be you perfect, as also your 
 heavenly Father is perfect " (Matt. v. 48) ; " All things are 
 naked and open to his eyes" (Heb. iv. 13); "0 the depth of 
 the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God " 
 (Rom. xi. 33) ; " God is true " (Rom. iii. 4) ; "I am the way, 
 and the truth, and the life " (John xiv. 6) ; " Thy right hand id 
 full of justice" (Ps. xlvii. 11) ; " Thou openest thy hand, and 
 fillest with blessing every living creature" (Ps. cxliv. 16); and 
 finally, " Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I 
 flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if 
 I descend into hell, thou art present; if I take my wings early in 
 the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even 
 there also shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold 
 me" (Ps. cxxxviii. 7, sq.); and, " Do I not fill heaven and earth, 
 saith the Lord ?" (Jer. xxiii. 24.) These are great and glorious 
 truths, regarding the nature of God, of which philosophers 
 attained a knowledge, which, whilst it accords with the authority 
 of the sacred volumes, results from the investigation of his 
 works. The necessity of heavenly teaching, however, we also 
 recognise, if we reflect, that not only does faith, as has been 
 already observed, make known clearly and at once to the rude 
 and illiterate those truths, the knowledge of which philosophers 
 attained only by long study, but likewise that the knowledge of 
 things, which is acquired by the discipline of faith, is impressed 
 on our minds with much greater certainty and inerrancy than if 
 we had arrived at a knowledge of those same things by the 
 reasonings of human science. But how much superior must not 
 that knowledge of the Deity be deemed, the access to which the 
 contemplation of nature has not made known in common to all, 
 but the light of faith has opened peculiarly to those who believe. 
 This [knowledge] is contained in the articles of the Creed, which 
 disclose to us the unity of the divine essence, and the distinc- 
 tion of three persons ; and also that the ultimate end of man is 
 God himself, from whom is to be expected the possession of the 
 eternal happiness of heaven ; for we have learned from St. Paul, 
 that God "is a rewarder of them that seek him" (Heb. xi. 6). 
 How great are these rewards, and whether they are such as 
 that human reason could have aspired to a knowledge of them 
 (1 Cor. ii. 9, 14), the Prophet Isaias, long before the same
 
 PART I. CHAPTER II. 31 
 
 Apostle, showed in these words t " From the beginning of the 
 world they have not heard, nor perceived with the ears : The 
 eye hath not seen, God, besides thee what things thou hast 
 prepared for them that wait for thee " (Isa. Ixiv. 4). 
 
 QUESTION VII. We are to confess that there is one God, not 
 more Gods than one. 
 
 Bat from what we have said, it must also be confessed that 
 there is but one God, not many gods ; for, as we attribute to 
 God supreme goodness and perfection, it is impossible that what 
 is supreme and most perfect should be found in more than one. 
 If a being want anything necessary to supreme perfection, it is 
 by the very fact imperfect, and therefore cannot have the nature 
 of God. This is also proved from many passages of sacred Scrip- 
 ture ; for it is written : " Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is 
 one Lord " (Deut. vi. 4) ; again : " Thou shalt not have strange 
 gods before me " (Exod. xx. 3) is the command of God ; and 
 again, he often admonishes us by the Prophet : " I am the first, 
 and I am the last ; and besides me, there is no God " (Is. xliv. 
 6, xlviii. 12). The Apostle also openly testifies, "One Lord, 
 one faith, one baptism " (Eph. iv. 5). 
 
 QUESTION VIII. The Name of God is sometimes given to created 
 natures, but improperly. 
 
 Nor let it, however, surprise us, if the sacred Scriptures 
 sometimes give the name of God to creatures also (Ps. Ixxxi. ; 
 Exod. vii. 15, xxii. 28 ; 1 Cor. viii. 5) ; for when they called 
 the prophets and judges gods, they did so not after the manner 
 of the Gentiles, who, in their folly and impiety, formed to them- 
 selves many gods; but they wished to express, by a manner of 
 speaking then usual, some eminent quality or function conferred 
 on them by the gift of God. The Christian faith, therefore, 
 believes and professes, as is said in the Nicene Creed in confir- 
 mation of this truth, that God in nature, substance, essence is 
 one; but, soaring still higher, it so understands him to be one 
 that it reveres Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, of which 
 mystery we now proceed to speak. 
 
 QUESTION IX. God is in a general way styled the Father of all 
 men, but in a peculiar way the Father of all Christians. 
 
 " Father " comes next in the Creed; but as the word "Father " 
 is applied to God for more reasons than one, we shall first have 
 to determine what is its more strictly appropriate meaning in 
 this place. Some even, whose darkness the light of faith never 
 illumined, iinderstood God to be an eternal substance, from
 
 32 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 whom things had their beginning, and by whose providence 
 all things were governed, and preserve their order and state. 
 As, therefore, he to whom a family owes its origin, and by 
 whose wisdom and authority it is governed, is called father ; 
 so, by an analogy derived from things human, God was called 
 by them Father, because they recognised him as the creator 
 and governor of the universe. The sacred Scriptures also have 
 used the same appellation when, speaking of God, they declare 
 that to him the creation of all things, power, and admirable 
 providence are to be attributed; for we read: "Is not he thy Father 
 that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee ?" 
 (Deut. xxxii. 6.) And elsewhere: "Have we not all one Father ? 
 Hath not one God created us ?" (Mai. ii. 10.) But God, particu- 
 larly in the New Testament, is much more frequently, and in a cer- 
 tain sense peculiarly, called the Father of Christians, who "have 
 not received the spirit of bondage in fear, but have received the 
 spirit of adoption of sons, whereby they cry Abba, Father " (Rom. 
 viii. 15) ; "for the Father hath bestowed on us that manner of 
 charity, that we should be called, and should be the sons of 
 God" (1 John, iii. 1) ; " and if sons, heirs also, heirs indeed of 
 God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. viii. 17), who is "the 
 first-born amongst many brethren" (Rom. viii. 29); "for which 
 cause he is not ashamed to call us brethren" (Heb. ii. 11). 
 Whether, therefore, one look to the common title of creation 
 and providence, or the special one of spiritual adoption, justly do 
 the faithful profess to believe, that God is their Father. 
 
 QUESTION X. What mysteries are to be inferred from this tvord 
 "Father" and the distinction of the Persons in divine things. 
 
 But the parish-priest Avill teach that, on hearing the word 
 " Father," besides the ideas which we have unfolded, the mind 
 should be raised to the contemplation of more exalted mysteries. 
 For under the name of " Father," the divine oracles begin to 
 disclose to us that which is more abstruse, and more deeply 
 hidden in that inaccessible light in which God dwells, that 
 which human reason and research not only could not attain, but 
 even conjecture to exist. For this name indicates, that in the 
 one essence of the Godhead is proposed to our belief, not one 
 Person only, but a distinction of Persons; for in one Godhead 
 there are Three Persons: the Father, who is begotten of none 
 the Son, who is begotten of the Father before all ages ; the 
 Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Sou likewise 
 from eternity. But in the one substance of the Divinity the 
 Father is the First Person, who with his only begotten Sou 
 and the Holy Ghost is one God and one Lord, not in the singu-
 
 PART I. CHAPTER II. 33 
 
 larity of one Person, but in the Trinity of one substance. 
 Now these Three Persons, for it would be impious to suppose 
 anything unlike or unequal in them, are understood to be distinct 
 only by their peculiar relations ; for the Father is unbegotten, 
 the Son begotten of the Father, and the Holy Ghost proceeds 
 from both ; and we confess the same essence of the Three 
 Persons, the same substance, so that we believe that, in the 
 confession of the true and eternal Godhead, we are piously and 
 religiously to adore both distinction in the Persons, and unity in 
 the essence, and equality in the Trinity. For when we say 
 that the Father is the First Person, this is not to be under- 
 stood to mean that in the Trinity there is anything before 
 or after, greater or less for far be this impiety from the minds 
 of the faithful since the Christian religion proclaims the 
 same eternity, the same majesty of glory in the Three Persons. 
 But the Father, because he himself is the beginning without 
 beginning, we truly and without hesitation affirm to be the First 
 Person, who, as he is distinct by his peculiar relation of pater- 
 nity, so of him alone is it especially true that he begot the Son 
 from eternity ; for, when in this confession we pronoiince 
 together the words " God " and " Father." it intimates to us 
 that he was always both God and Father. But as in the 
 knowledge and explanation of nothing is investigation more 
 dangerous, or error more grave, than in the knowledge and ex- 
 position of this the most profound and difficult of all, let the 
 parish-priest instruct the people religiously to retain the proper 
 terms " essence and Person," by which this mystery is expressed; 
 and let the faithful know that unity belongs to the essence and 
 distinction to the Persons. But we ought on no account to 
 search into these truths with too much subtlety, recollecting 
 that "he, who is the searcher of majesty, shall be overwhelmed 
 by glory " (Prov. xxv. 27). We ought to be satisfied with 
 what we know with certainty and are assured of by faith, that 
 we have been so taught by God, to dissent from whose oracles is 
 the extreme of folly and misery. He has said : " Teach all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt, xxviii. 19) ; and again : 
 " There are three that give testimony iu heaven, the Father, 
 the Word, and the Holy Ghost ; and these three are one " 
 (1 John, v. 7). Let him, however, who, by the divine bounty, 
 believes these things, constantly beseech and implore God, 
 and the Father, who made all things out of nothing, 
 and " ordereth all things sweetly " (Wisdom, viii. 1), who 
 " gave " us " power to become the sons of God " (John, i. 12), 
 and who made known to the human mind the mystery of 
 
 c
 
 34 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 the Trinity, let him, I say, pray without intermission that, 
 admitted one day into the eternal tabernacles, he may be worthy 
 to see how great is the fecundity of the Father, who, contem- 
 plating and understanding himself, begot the Son, like and 
 equal to himself; how a love of charity in both, entirely the 
 same and equal, which is the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the 
 Father and the Son, connects together the begetter and the 
 begotten by an eternal and indissoluble bond ; and that thus 
 there is one essence of the divine Trinity, and a perfect distinc- 
 tion of the Three Persons. 
 
 QUESTION XI. What we are here to understand by the word 
 " Omnipotent" 
 
 " OMNIPOTENT." To show with what great religion and piety 
 the God of all holiness is to be adored, the sacred Scriptures are 
 wont to express his supreme power and infinite majesty by 
 various names ; but the parish-priest should particularly set 
 forth, that to him omnipotence is most frequently ascribed. 
 Thus he says of himself : " I am the Almighty God " (Gen. 
 xvii. 1) ; and again, Jacob, when sending his sous to Joseph, 
 thus prayed for them : " May my Almighty God make him 
 favourable to you " (Gen. xliii. 14) ; again, in the Apocalypse 
 it is written : " The Lord God, who is, and who was, and who 
 is to come, the Almighty " (Apoc. i. 8) ; and in another place 
 the last day is called " the great day of the Almighty God " 
 (Apoc. xvi. 14). Sometimes the same is expressed also in 
 several words ; thus : " No word shall be impossible with God" 
 (Luke, i. 37) ; " Is the hand of the Lord unable ?" (Num. xi. 23) ; 
 also : " Thy power is at hand when thou wilt " (Wisd. xii. 18) ; 
 and many other passages of the same import. From these 
 various forms of speech, we perceive what, clearly, is compre- 
 hended under the single word " Almighty." By it, then, we 
 understand that there is not, nor can there be conceived in mind 
 or imagination, anything which God cannot do ; for he has 
 power to effect not only those things which, although of sur- 
 passing greatness, fall in some manner under our comprehension, 
 namely, that things may fall back into nothing, and that from 
 nothing many worlds may suddenly start into existence, but in 
 his power are placed even far greater things, of which the 
 human mind and intelligence cannot form the remotest idea. 
 
 QUESTION XII. Although God is Omnipotent, he cannot sin or 
 le deceived. 
 
 But although God can do all things, yet he cannot lie, or 
 deceive, or be deceived, or sin, or cease to exist, or be ignorant
 
 PART I. CHAPTER II. 35 
 
 of anything ; for such things are compatible with that nature 
 only whose actions are imperfect ; but of these things God, 
 whose acts are ever all-perfect, is said to be incapable, because 
 to be capable of them argues infirmity, not supreme and infi- 
 nite power over all things, which he possesses. Thus, then, 
 whilst we believe God to be omnipotent, we consider that from 
 him is entirely excluded whatever is not closely connected, and 
 altogether consistent, with his perfect essence. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. Why, other names of the Deity being omitted, 
 Omnipotence alone is mentioned in the Creed; and what is the 
 utility of this Faith. 
 
 But let the parish-priest show that, all other names, which 
 are uttered of God, having been omitted, rightly and wisely 
 was this alone proposed to our belief in the Creed. For when 
 we acknowledge God to be omnipotent, we also, at the same 
 time of necessity, confess that he is omniscient, and that all 
 things are subject to his dominion and authority. When we 
 doubt not that all things may be accomplished by him, it 
 naturally follows that we must also be convinced of all other 
 things regarding him, the absence of which would render the 
 manner of his omnipotence altogether unintelligible to us. 
 Besides, nothing serves so much to confirm our faith and hope, 
 as to have it fixed in our hearts, that "with God all things are 
 possible" (Matt. xix. 26); for whatever we ought afterwards 
 to believe, however great, however wonderful it may be, and 
 however it may transcend the order and manner of things, 
 easily and without hesitation obtains the assent of human 
 reason, when once it has received the knowledge of the omnipo- 
 tence of God. Nay, rather, the greater the truths which the 
 divine oracles may teach, the more willingly does human reason 
 deem them worthy of belief; nor whenever we may also 
 expect any good thing, is the mind disheartened by the magni- 
 tude of the desired boon, but is elevated and confirmed, fre- 
 quently considering that there is nothing impossible to an 
 omnipotent God. With this faith, then, we ought to be 
 specially fortified, whenever we are obliged to perform any 
 wondrous works for the use and advantage of our neighbours, or 
 when we wish to obtain by prayer anything from God. [Its 
 necessity] in the one case, the Redeemer himself has taught, 
 when, rebuking the incredulity of the Apostles, he said : " If 
 you have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, yon shall say to this 
 mountain, remove from hence to yonder place, and it shall re- 
 move; and nothing shall be impossible to you" (Matt. xvii. 19); 
 and in the other, St. James thus bears witness : " Let him ask
 
 3G CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 in faith, nothing wavering ; for he that wavereth is like a wave 
 of the sea, that is moved and carried about by the wind. 
 Therefore, let not that man think that he shall receive anything 
 of the Lord " (James, i. 6, sq.). This faith also affords us 
 many benefits and advantages. It forms us, in the first place, 
 to all modesty and lowliness of mind, as the Prince of the 
 Apostles says : "Be you humbled, therefore, under the mighty 
 hand of God " (1 Pet. v. 6). It also admonishes us not to fear 
 where there is no cause of fear, but to fear God alone (Ps. 
 xxxii.8,xxxiii.lO),in whose power we ourselves, and all that we 
 have, are placed (Wisd. vii. 16) ; for our Saviour says : "I will 
 show you whom you shall fear ; fear ye him who, after he hath 
 killed, hath power to cast into hell " (Luke, xii. 5). This faith we 
 also make use of to know and celebrate the infinite favours of God 
 towards us ; for he who considers that God is omnipotent, cannot 
 be of so ungrateful a mind as not frequently to exclaim : " He 
 that is mighty hath done great things to me " (Luke, i. 49). 
 
 QUESTION XIV. The word " Omnipotent" is not here so attri- 
 buted to the Father as not also to be applied to the Son or the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 But, because in this article we call the Father Almighty, no 
 one ought to be led into the error of supposing that it is so 
 given to him, as not to be common also to the Son and the 
 Holy Ghost. For as we say the Father is God, the Son God, 
 the Holy Ghost God ; and yet there are not three Gods, but 
 one God ; so, in like manner, we confess that the Father is 
 Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty; 
 and yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty 
 (Athanasian Creed). The Father, however, we, fora particular 
 reason, call Almighty, because he is the source of all origin; as 
 we also attribute wisdom to the Son, who is the eternal Word 
 of the Father; and goodness to the Holy Ghost, who is the 
 love of both ; although these and such ether appellations may 
 be given indiscriminately to the Three Persons, consistently with 
 the rule of the Catholic faith. 
 
 QUESTION XV. How and why God created Heaven and Earth. 
 " Creator of heaven and earth." How necessary it was to 
 have a little previously imparted to the faithful a knowledge of 
 the omnipotence of God, may be clearly seen from what we are 
 now about to explain with regard to the creation of the universe. 
 For, when no room is left for doubting the omnipotence of the 
 Creator, we the more readily believe the marvel of so mighty a 
 work. For God formed not the world from any material, but
 
 PART I. CHAPTER II. 37 
 
 created it from nothing, and founded it, not constrained by 
 force or necessity, but spontaneously and of his own will. Nor 
 was he impelled to the work of creation by any other cause than 
 that he might impart to creatures his own goodness; for, essen- 
 tially and supremely happy in itself, the nature of God stands 
 not in need of anything ; as David says : " I have said to the 
 Lord, thou art my God, for thou hast no need of my goods " 
 (Pa. xv. 2). But as, influenced by his own goodness, " he 
 hath done all things whatsoever he would " (Ps. cxiii. 3), so, 
 when he created all things, he followed no external model or 
 form ; but contemplating, and, as it were, imitating, the uni- 
 versal model which is contained in the divine intelligence, the 
 supreme architect, with supreme wisdom and infinite power, 
 attributes peculiar to himself, created all things in the begin- 
 ning ; " for he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and 
 they were created" (Ps. xxxii. 9, cxlviii. 5). 
 
 QUESTION XVI. What is here to be understood ly " Heaven 
 and Earth" 
 
 By the words " heaven " and " earth " is to be understood 
 whatever heaven and earth contain ; for, besides the heavens, 
 which the Prophet called " the works of " his " fingers " (Ps. 
 viii. 4), he also added the splendour of the sun, and the beauty 
 of the moon and of the other heavenly bodies ; and, that they 
 may be " for signs and for seasons, and for days and years " 
 (Gen. i. 14), he so ordered the celestial orbs in a certain and 
 constant course, that nothing can be seen more variable than 
 their continual revolution, nothing more certain than that 
 variety. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. Of the Creation of the Spiritual Heavens, 
 that z', of Angels. 
 
 Moreover, God created from nothing spiritual nature and 
 angels innumerable, to serve and minister to him ; and these 
 he afterwards enriched and adorned with the admirable gifts 
 of his grace and power. For that the devil and the rest of 
 the rebel angels had been gifted at their creation with grace, is 
 clear, since in the sacred Scriptures we read that the devil 
 "stood not in the truth" (John, viii. 44). On which subject, 
 St. Augustine has as follows : '* He created the angels with a 
 good will, that is, with pure love, by which they might adhere 
 to him, at once forming in them a nature, and bestowing on 
 them grace. Hence we are to believe that the holy angels 
 never were without good will, that is, the love of God " (Dc 
 Civit. Dei, xii. 9). As to their knowledge, there is extant this
 
 38 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 testimony of holy Scripture : " Thou, lord, my king, art wise 
 according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to understand all 
 things upon earth " (2 Kings, xiv. 20). Finally, to them the 
 inspired David ascribes power, in these words : " Mighty in 
 strength, executing his word " (Ps. cii. 20) ; and hence it is 
 that they are often called in Scripture " the powers " and " the 
 hosts" of the Lord. But although they had been all adorned 
 with celestial gifts, very many, nevertheless, who revolted from 
 God, their Parent and Creator, being hurled from those loftiest 
 mansions, and shut up in the darkest dungeon of the earth, 
 suffer the eternal punishment of their pride, of whom the Prince 
 of the Apostles writes thus : he " spared not the angels that 
 sinned ; but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to 
 the lower hell, into torments, to be reserved unto judgment " 
 (2 Pet. ii. 4). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. On the Creation of the Earth. 
 
 God also, by his word, commanded the earth to stand in the 
 midst of the world, " founded upon its own basis," and made 
 " the mountains ascend, and the plains descend, into the place 
 which " he " founded for them ;" and lest the force of the 
 waters should inundate the earth, he " set a bound which they 
 shall not pass over ; neither shall they return to cover the 
 earth " (Ps. ciii. 5, 8, sq.). He next not only clothed and 
 adorned it with trees, and every variety of herb and flower, but 
 filled it also, as he had already the waters and air, with in- 
 numerable sorts of living creatures. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. On the Creation of Man. 
 
 Lastly, he formed man from the slime of the earth, so framed 
 and constituted in body, as to be immortal and impassible, not 
 however by the strength of nature herself, but by the gift of 
 God. But as regards the soul, he created it to his own image 
 and likeness ; gifted it with free will ; and so tempered all his 
 motions and appetites, that they should be, at all times, subject 
 to the control of reason. He then added the admirable gift of 
 original righteousness, and next gave him dominion over all 
 other animals. From the sacred history of Genesis, parish- 
 priests will easily make themselves acquainted with these things, 
 for the instruction of the faithful. 
 
 QUESTION XX. In the words " Heaven and Earth " are com- 
 prised all things visible and invisible. 
 
 What we have said, then, concerning the creation of nil 
 things, is to be understood by the words "heaven and earth,"
 
 PART I. CHAPTER II. 39 
 
 all which the Prophet thus briefly embraced : " Thine are the 
 heavens, and thine is the earth : the world and the fulness 
 thereof thon hast founded" (Ps. Ixxxviii. 12) ; and still more 
 briefly, too, the Fathers of the Council of Nice, who added in 
 their Creed these words, " of all things visible and invisible ;" 
 for whatever things are contained in the universe, and we con- 
 fess to have been created by God, either fall under the senses, 
 and are included in the word " visible," or may be perceived 
 by the mind and intelligence, and are expressed by the word 
 " invisible." 
 
 QUESTION XXI. The things created by the Power of God cannot 
 subsist without his Government and Providence. 
 
 We must not, however, believe God to be the creator and 
 maker of all things, so as to suppose that, the work once ac- 
 complished and completed, the things which he had made could 
 continue to exist without his infinite energy. For as all things 
 owe their being to the exercise of the supreme power, wisdom, 
 and goodness of the Creator, so also, unless his continual pro- 
 vidence were present to created things, and preserved them by 
 the same might by which they were produced, they would in- 
 stantly return to their original nothing. And this the Scripture 
 declares, when it says : " How could anything endure, if thou 
 wouldst not ? or be preserved, if not called by thee ?" (Wisdom, 
 xi. 26.) 
 
 QUESTION XXII. God, by his Government, does not overturn the 
 force of Secondary Causes. 
 
 But not only does God protect and govern all things that 
 exist by his providence, but also, by an internal virtue, impels 
 to motion and action whatever things move and act, and this 
 in such a manner, as that, although he excludes not, he yet 
 prevents, the agency of secondary causes ; for his most secret 
 influence extends to all things, and, as the wise man testifies, 
 " reacheth from end to end, mightily, and ordereth all things 
 sweetly" (Wisdom, viii. 1). Wherefore the Apostle, when 
 announcing to the Athenians the God, whom not knowing they 
 adored, said : " He is not far from every one of us ; for in him 
 we live, and move, and be" (Acts, xvii. 27, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. The creation of things is not to be attributed 
 to the father only. 
 
 In explanation of the first article of the Creed let thus much 
 suffice, with this additional observation, however, that the work 
 of the creation is common to all the Persons of the Holy and
 
 40 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Undivided Trinity : to the Father, whom, according to the 
 doctrine of the Apostles, we here declare to be " Creator of 
 heaven and earth ;" to the Son, of whom we read in the sacred 
 Scriptures: "All things were made by him" (John, i.j3); and 
 to the Holy Ghost, of whom it is written : u The Spirit of God 
 moved over the waters" (Gen. i. 2) ; and elsewhere : "By the 
 AVord of the Lord the heavens were established ; and all the 
 power of them by the Spirit of his mouth " (Ps. xxxii. 6). 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE SECOND AKTICLE. 
 " AND IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD." 
 
 QUESTION I. Of the Second Article, and the utility of its 
 profession. 
 
 That wonderful and most abundant is the advantage, which 
 flows to the human race from the belief and profession of this 
 article, is shown by that testimony of St. John: "Whosoever 
 shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, 
 and he in God " (John, iv. 15) ; and is also declared by Christ the 
 Lord, proclaiming the Prince of the Apostles blessed [for the 
 confession of this truth] : " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona ; 
 because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, bnt my 
 Father who is in heaven " (Matt. xvi. 17); for this is the most 
 firm basis of our salvation and redemption. 
 
 QUESTION II. How we may best know the magnitude of the 
 blessing propounded in this Article. 
 
 But, as the fruit of this admirable advantage is best under- 
 stood, by considering the ruin brought on man, in his fall from 
 that most happy state, in which God had placed our first 
 parents, let the parish-priest take particular care that the faithful 
 know the cause of these common miseries and calamities. For 
 when Adam had departed from the obedience due to God, and 
 had violated the prohibition : " Of every tree of Paradise thou 
 shalt eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou 
 shalt not eat, for in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thon 
 shalt die the death " (Gen. ii. 16, sq.), he fell into the extreme 
 calamity of losing the sanctity and righteousness in which he 
 had been placed, and of becoming subject to all the other evils, 
 which the Holy Council of Trent has explained more at large 
 (Sess. v. and vi.). [Pastors], therefore, will remind [the faith-
 
 PART I. CHAPTER III. 41 
 
 ful], that sin and the punishment of sin had not been confined 
 to Adam, but had justly descended from him, as from their seed 
 and cause, to all posterity. 
 
 QUESTION III. No one but Christ could restore Mankind. 
 
 Having thus fallen from its most elevated degree of dignity, 
 our race could by no means be thence uplifted and replaced in 
 its primitive state, by the power of men or angels. Wherefore, 
 there was left that sole remedy for the ruin and evils, that the 
 infinite power of the Son of God, having assumed the weakness 
 of our flesh, should remove the infinite weight of sin, and re- 
 concile us to God in his blood. 
 
 QUESTION IV. Without the belief of Redemption, no one could 
 ever lie saved, and therefore, Christ has been frequently foretold 
 from the beginning of the world. 
 
 But the belief and confession of this our redemption, which 
 God held out in the beginning, are now, and always were, 
 necessary to the attainment of salvation. For in that con- 
 demnation of the human race, which immediately followed the 
 sin [of Adam], the hope of redemption was also held out in 
 these words, by which [God] denounced to the devil the loss 
 which he Avas to sustain by man's redemption : " I will put 
 enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her 
 seed : she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for 
 her heel" (Gen. iii. 15). The same promise he thenceforth 
 often confirmed, and more distinctly signified his counsel to those 
 men especially, to whom he desired to manifest singular bene- 
 volence, and amongst others to the Patriarch Abraham, to whom 
 he often signified this mystery, but declared it then more openly, 
 when, in obedience to God's command, he was willing to sacri- 
 fice his only son Isaac: "Because," says he, " thou hast done 
 this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my 
 sake, I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the 
 stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore. Thy 
 seed shall possess the gates of their enemies, and in thy seed 
 shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast 
 obeyed my voice " (Gen. xxii. T6, sqq.). From which words 
 it had been easy to infer, that he who was to bring salvation to 
 all, having freed them from the most cruel tyranny of Satan, 
 was to be of the progeny of Abraham. It was necessary that 
 the Son of God should be born of the seed of Abraham, 
 according to the flesh. Not very long after, to preserve the 
 memory of this promise, the Lord ratified the same covenant 
 with Jacob, the grandson of Abraham ; for when, as the
 
 42 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Scripture testifies, Jacob " saw in his sleep a ladder standing 
 upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven, the angels 
 also of God ascending and descending by it" (Gen. xxviii. 
 12, sqq.), he also heard the Lord leaning upon the ladder, saying 
 to him: " I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the 
 God of Isaac ; the land, wherein thon sleepest, I will give to 
 thee and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the 
 earth ; thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east, and 
 to the north and to the south ; and in thee and thy seed all the 
 tribes of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen. xxviii. 13, sq.). 
 Kor did God cease afterwards, by renewing the recollection of 
 the same promise, to excite in the race of Abraham, and in 
 many others, the expectation of a Saviour ; for, after the 
 establishment of the Jewish republic and religion, it began to 
 become better known to his people. Types signified, and men 
 foretold, what and how great blessings, that Saviour, our 
 Redeemer, Christ Jesus, was to bring to mankind. And, 
 indeed, the Prophets, whose minds were illumined with heavenly 
 light, foretold to the people the birth of the Son of God, the 
 wondrous works which, being born man, he wrought, his doctrine, 
 manners, intercourse, death, resurrection, and the other mys- 
 teries regarding him ;* and all these as graphically as if they 
 were then passing before their eyes ; so that, if the diversity 
 of future and past time be removed, we no longer see any 
 difference to exist between the predictions of the Prophets and 
 the preaching of the Apostles, none between the faith of the 
 ancient Patriarchs and our own. But we must now speak of 
 the several parts of this article. 
 
 QUESTION V. Of the name " Jesus" and that it properly suits 
 Christ. 
 
 " Jesus " is the proper name of him who is God and man, 
 and signifies Saviour ; [a name] given to him not indeed acci- 
 dentally, nor by the judgment or will of man, but by the 
 counsel and command of God. For the angel announced thus 
 to Mary his mother : " Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb 
 and shalt bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name 
 Jesus " (Luke, i. 31) ; and he afterwards not only commanded 
 Joseph, who was espoused to the Virgin, to call the child by 
 that name, but also declared why he should be so called: 
 " Joseph," says he, " son of David, fear not to take unto thee 
 Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy 
 
 * Is. vii. 14, viii. 3, ix. 5, xi. 1, liii. throughout; Jer. xxiii. 5, 
 xxx. 9 ; Dan. vii. 13, ix. 24.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER III. 43 
 
 Ghost; and she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his 
 name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins " (Matt. 
 i. 20, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION VI. This Name is applied to other Men, lut not for 
 the same reason. 
 
 In the sacred Scriptures there were many of this name, for 
 instance, the son of Nun, who succeeded Moses, and a privi- 
 lege denied to him (Num. xx. 12), conducted into the land of 
 promise the people whom Moses had delivered from Egypt.* 
 By the same name also were called the son of Sirach of Jerusalem, 
 " who renewed wisdom from his heart" (Eccl. 1. 29) ; and the 
 son of Josedec the priest (Agg. i. 1). But how much more 
 truly shall we deem this name given to our Saviour, who gave 
 light, liberty, and salvation, not to some one people only, but to 
 all men, of all ages ; men not oppressed indeed by famine, or by 
 Egyptian or Babylonish dominion, but sitting " in the shadow 
 of death " (Luke, i. 79), and fettered by the most galling chains 
 of sin and the devil ; to him who purchased for them a right to 
 the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, who reconciled them 
 to God the Father? In those men we recognise so many types 
 of Christ the Lord, by whom the blessings which we have men- 
 tioned were accumulated on the human race. To this one name 
 " Jesus" are moreover referred the other names which were pre- 
 dicted to be given by divine appointment to the Son of God;t 
 for whilst the rest partially glanced at the salvation which he 
 was to give us, this embraced the force and nature of the uni- 
 versal salvation of mankind. 
 
 QUESTION VII. Meaning of the name " Christ" and why 
 appropriate to our Jesus. 
 
 To the name " Jesus " is also added that of " Christ," 
 which signifies " the anointed ;" and is a name both of honour 
 and office, and not peculiar to one thing, but common to many ; 
 for by our fathers of old, priests and kings, whom God, on 
 account of the dignity of their office, commanded to be anointed, 
 were called Christs.| For priests are they who commend the 
 people to God by assiduous prayers, who oft'er sacrifices to God, 
 who deprecate his wrath in behalf of the people (Exod. xxix. 
 6, xl. 13). But to kings is intrusted the government of peo- 
 
 * Eccl. xlvi. 1, sqq. Le. Joshua, who is so called passim by the 
 LXX.-TR. 
 
 t Is. vii. 14, viii. 8, ix. 6; Jer. xxiii. 6. 
 j 1 Kings, xii. 5, xvi. 6, xxiv. 7 ; 1 Paral. xvi. 21, sq.; Ps. civ. 15.
 
 44 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 pies, and to them chiefly belong the protection of the authority 
 of the law, of the lives of the innocent, and the punishment of 
 the audacious guilty. As, then, both of these functions seem to 
 represent the majesty of God on earth, those who had been 
 chosen to discharge the royal or sacerdotal office, were, there- 
 fore, anointed with oil.* Prophets also were usually anointed 
 (Num. iii. 3), who, as the interpreters and ambassadors of the 
 immortal God, ' unfolded to us the secrets of heaven, and by 
 salutary precepts, and the prediction of future events, exhorted 
 to amendment of life. But when Jesus Christ our Saviour came 
 into the world, he assumed the parts and offices of the three 
 characters, of Prophet, Priest, and King, and is therefore called 
 " Christ," having been anointed for the discharge of these 
 functions, not by the agency of any mortal, but by the power of 
 his heavenly Father ; not with earthly ointment, but with a spiri- 
 tual oil ; for into his most holy soul were poured the plenitude 
 and grace of the Holy Ghost, and a more abundant effusion of 
 all gifts than any other created nature could receive. This the 
 Prophet very clearly showed, when, addressing the Redeemer, he 
 said: "Thou hast loved justice, and hatest iniquity ; therefore 
 God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above 
 thy fellows" (Ps. xliv. 8). The same is also much more expli- 
 citly set forth by the Prophet Isaias, in these words: "The 
 Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed 
 me ; he hath sent me to preach to the meek " (Is. Ixi. 1 ; Luke, 
 iv. 18). Jesus Christ, therefore, was the supreme prophet and 
 master (Deut. xviii. 15), who has taught us the will of God, am! 
 from whose teaching the world has received the knowledge of 
 the heavenly Father ; and to him pre-eminently and surpassingly 
 belongs the name [of prophet], for all others who were dignified 
 by that name were his disciples, and sent principally to announce 
 tins Prophet who was to come to save all men. Christ was also 
 a Priest, not indeed of the tribe of Levi, as were the priests in 
 the Old Law, but of that of which the Royal Prophet sang : 
 " Thou art a Priest for ever according to the order of Melchise- 
 dech " (Ps. cix. 4; Heb. v. 6). Of this subject the Apostle has 
 accurately followed up the arrangement in his epistle to the 
 Hebrews (Heb. v. et vii.). But Christ, not only as he is God, 
 but as he is man, and partakes of our nature, we also acknow- 
 ledge to be king ; of whom the angel testified : " He shall reign 
 in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall 
 be no end " (Luke, i. 32, sq.). This kingdom of Christ is spiri- 
 tual and eternal, is begun on earth, but is perfected in heaven ; 
 
 * Lev. viii. 11, sq. ; Num. iii. 3 ; 1 Kings, xvi. 13.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER III. 45 
 
 and the duties of king he indeed discharges with admirable pro- 
 vidence towards his Church. He governs her ; he guards her 
 against the open assaults and covert designs of her enemies ; he 
 prescribes to her laws ; he bestows on her not only holiness and 
 righteousness, but also power and strength to persevere. But, 
 although within the limits of this kingdom are contained the 
 good as well as the bad, and thus to it all men by right belong ; 
 yet those who, in conformity with his precepts, lead an unsullied 
 and innocent life, experience, beyond all others, the sovereign 
 goodness and beneficence of our king. Although descended 
 from a most illustrious race of kings (Matt. i. ; Luke, iii. 3), he 
 nevertheless obtained not this his kingdom by hereditary or 
 human right, but he was king, because God bestowed on the 
 man [Jesus] all the power, dignity, and majesty of which the 
 nature of man is susceptible. To him, therefore, God delivered 
 the government of the whole world ; and to him as has already 
 commenced, all things shall be made fully and perfectly subject 
 on the day of judgment.* 
 
 QUESTION VIII. How it becomes us to believe and confess Jesus 
 Christ "the cnly Son" of God. 
 
 In these words, mysteries more exalted with regard to Jesus 
 are proposed to the faithful, as objects of belief and contem- 
 plation ; namely, that he is the Son of God, and true God, as is 
 the Father who begat him from eternity. We further confess 
 that he is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, equal in all 
 things to the other two ; for in the divine Persons nothing un- 
 equal or unlike should exist, or be imagined to exist ; whereas 
 we acknowledge the essence, will, power of all to be one ; a 
 truth clearly revealed in many oracles of sacred Scripture, and 
 most sublimely set forth in that testimony of St. John: ''In the 
 beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
 Word was God " (John, i. 1). But, when we hear that Jesus is the 
 Son of God, we are to understand nothing earthly or mortal of his 
 birth ; but ought firmly to believe, and with the greatest piety 
 of soul to adore, that birth by which, from all eternity, the 
 Father begat the Son ; which, by the light of reason, we can by 
 no means conceive and fully comprehend ; and overwhelmed, as 
 it were, with admiration of the mystery, we should say with the 
 Prophet : " Who shall declare his generation ?" (Is. liii. 8.) 
 This, then, we are to believe, that the Son is of the same nature, 
 of the same power and wisdom with the Father; as we more 
 explicitly confess in the Nicene Creed ; for it says : " And in one 
 
 * John, xvii. 2 ; Apoc. xix. 6 ; 1 Cor. xv. 25, sqq.
 
 46 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of 
 the Father before all ages ; God of God, light of light, true God 
 of true God, begotten not made, consubstantial to the Father, 
 by whom all things were made." 
 
 QUESTION IX The Mode of his eternal generation illustrated by 
 a Comparison; twofold Nativity and Filiation of Christ. 
 
 Of all the comparisons which are adduced to indicate the 
 mode and manner of this eternal generation, that which is 
 borrowed from human thought seems to come nearest to the 
 thing ; whence St. John calls the Son " the Word " (John, i. 1) ; 
 for, as our mind, in some sort understanding itself, forms an 
 image of itself, which theologians have expressed by the term 
 " word ;" so God, as far, however, as we may compare human 
 things with divine, understanding himself, begets the eternal 
 Word. It is better, however, to contemplate what faith pro- 
 poses, and, with a sincere mind, believe and confess that Jesus 
 Christ is true God and true man ; as God, begotten of the 
 Father before all ages ; as man, born in time of Mary, his 
 Virgin-mother. Whilst, however, we acknowledge his twofold 
 nativity, we believe him to be one son, because he is one 
 person, in whom is united the divine and human nature. 
 
 QUESTION X. How Christ is to be considered as having, or as 
 not having, Brethren. 
 
 As to his divine generation, he has no brethren or coheirs, 
 being himself the only Son of the Father, whilst we mortals are 
 the device and work of his hands ; but if we consider his birth 
 as man, he not only calls many by the name of brethren, but 
 also holds them in the place of brethren (Heb. ii. 12), that with 
 him they may obtain the glory of the paternal inheritance. 
 They are those who, by faith, have received Christ the Lord, 
 and who really and by works of chanty approve the faith which 
 they by name profess ; wherefore he is called by the Apostle, 
 " The first-born amongst many brethren " (Rom. viii. 29). 
 
 QUESTION XI. Christ is called our Lord according to Both 
 
 Natures. 
 
 "Our Lord." Many things are mentioned of our Saviour in 
 Scripture, some of which, it is clear, apply to him as God, some 
 as man, because from his different natures he received their 
 different properties. We therefore say with truth, that Christ 
 is Omnipotent, Eternal, Infinite, [attributes] which he has from 
 his divine nature; and again, we say of him that he suffered, 
 died, and rose again, which are manifestly compatible only with
 
 PART I. CHAPTER III. 47 
 
 his human nature. But besides these, some others agree with 
 both natures ; as when, in this place, we say, " our Lord." If, 
 then, this name is applicable to both natures, with good reason 
 is he to be set forth as our Lord. For as he, as well as the 
 Father, is eternal God, so is he also, as well as the Father, 
 Lord of all things ; and, as he and the Father are not, the one, 
 one God, and the other, another God, but manifestly the same 
 God; so likewise he and the Father are not, the one, one Lord, 
 and the other, another Lord. As man, he is also, for many reasons, 
 rightly called " our Lord." And first, indeed, because he was 
 our Redeemer, and delivered us from sin, justly has he received 
 this pOAver truly to be and be called our Lord. This is the 
 doctrine of the Apostle : " He humbled himself, becoming obe- 
 dient unto death; even the death of the cross: wherefore God 
 also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is 
 above all names, that in the name of Jesus every knee should 
 bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and in hell, and that 
 every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in 
 the glory of God the Father" (Phil. ii. 8, sqq.) ; and of himself 
 he says, after his resurrection : " All power is given to me in 
 heaven and on earth" (Matt, xxviii. 18). He is also called 
 " Lord," because in one person are united both natures, the 
 human and divine ; for by this admirable union he deserved, 
 even had he not died for us, to be constituted common Lord of 
 all created things, but particularly of the faithful who obey, 
 and, in all the fervour of their souls, serve him. 
 
 QUESTION XII. Christians ought to give themselves up wholly to 
 Jesus Christ^ having trampled under foot the Prince of 
 Darkness. 
 
 It remains, therefore, that the parish-priest exhort the faith- 
 ful people to the effect, that they may know that it is most just 
 that we, who derive our name from him, and are called Chris- 
 tians, and who cannot be ignorant of the great extent of his 
 favours, most particularly in this, that, by his gift, we under- 
 stand all these things by faith, that it is just, I say, that we, 
 above all other men, should devote and consecrate ourselves for 
 ever, even as bond-servants, to our Redeemer and Lord. This 
 we professed when we were being initiated by baptism, and 
 before our introduction into the Church ; for we declared that 
 we renounced Satan and the world, and gave ourselves up 
 wholly to Jesus Christ. But if, in order to be enrolled as 
 soldiers of Christ, we consecrated ourselves by so holy and 
 solemn a profession to our Lord, what punishment shall we not 
 deserve, if, after having entered into the Church, and known
 
 48 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 the will and laws of God, after having received the grace of the 
 sacraments, we shall form our lives upon the laws and maxims 
 of the world and the devil ; as if, when cleansed in the waters 
 of baptism, we had pledged our fidelity to the world and the 
 devil, and not to Christ our Lord and Saviour ? And what 
 heart so cold, as not to be inflamed with love by the prompt 
 benevolence and beneficence of so great a Lord towards us, who, 
 though holding us in his power and dominion, as slaves ran- 
 somed by his blood, yet embraces us with such love as to call 
 us not servants, but " friends " and brethren ? (John, xv. 14.) 
 This, assuredly, is a most just and, perhaps, the strongest claim 
 of all, to induce us ever to acknowledge, venerate, and adore 
 him as "our Lord." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF THE THIRD ARTICLE. 
 
 " WHO WAS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLT GHOST, BORN OF THE 
 VIRGIN MARY." 
 
 QUESTION I. What the Third Article of Faith propounds to be 
 believed by the Faithful. 
 
 That, in having liberated us from the bondage of the most 
 relentless tyrant, God has conferred a surpassing and singular 
 blessing on the human race, the faithful may understand from 
 what has been set forth in the preceding article. But if we 
 place before our eyes the plan and manner also in which chiefly 
 he was pleased to accomplish this, nothing indeed will appear 
 to be more glorious, nothing more magniticent, than the divine 
 beneficence and goodness towards us. The grandeur, therefore, 
 of this mystery, which the sacred Scriptures very often propose 
 to our consideration as the principal source of our eternal salva- 
 tion, the parish-priest will begin to point out with the exposition 
 of this third article. Its meaning he will teach to be this, that 
 we believe and confess that the same Jesus Christ, our only 
 Lord, the Son of God, when for us he assumed human flesh in 
 the womb of the Virgin, was not conceived, like other men, 
 from the seed of man, but, in a manner transcending the whole 
 order of nature, by the power of the Holy Ghost (Matt. i. 20 ; 
 Luke, i. 31) ; so that the same person, remaining God as he was 
 from eternity, became man, what he was not before. But that 
 these words are so to be understood, is clearly seen from the 
 confession of the Holy Council of Constantinople ; for it says :
 
 TART I. CHAPTER IV. 49 
 
 " who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from 
 heaven, and became incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin 
 Mary, and WAS MADE MAN." The same truth has also been un- 
 folded by St. John the Evangelist, who imbibed from the bosom 
 of our Lord and Saviour himself the knowledge of this most pro- 
 found mystery ; for when he had declared the nature of the di- 
 vine Word in these terms : " In the beginning was the Word, 
 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," he at 
 length concluded, " and THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, and dwelt 
 among us" (John, i. 14). 
 
 QUESTION II. By his temporal Nativity no confusion of natures 
 was made in Christ. 
 
 For " the Word," which is a person of the Divine Nature, 
 assumed human flesh in such a manner, that the hypostasis and 
 Person of the divine and human nature is one and the same ; 
 and hence it is that so admirable an union preserved the actions 
 and properties of both natures, and as we read in that great 
 Pontiff, St. Leo : " Neither did the glorifying of the inferior 
 consume it, nor did its assumption diminish the superior."* 
 
 QUESTION III. TJie Holy Ghost did not alone accomplish the 
 work of the Incarnation. 
 
 But as an explanation of the words must not be omitted, let 
 the parish-priest teach that, when we say that the Son of God 
 was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, this Person of 
 the holy Trinity did not alone accomplish the mystery of the 
 Incarnation. For although the Son alone assumed human 
 nature, yet all the Persons of the holy Trinity, the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost, were authors of this mystery ; for we 
 must hold that rule of Christian faith, that whatsoever God 
 does extrinsically in created things is common to the Three 
 Persons, and that one neither does more than, nor acts without 
 another. That, however, one Person proceeds from another, 
 this alone cannot be common to all ; for the Son is begotten of 
 the Father only, the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and 
 the Son; but whatever originates from them extrinsically, is the 
 work of the Three Persons without any difference ; and of this 
 description is to be considered the Incarnation of the Son of 
 God. Of those things, nevertheless, that are common to all the 
 Persons, the sacred Scriptures are wont to attribute some to one 
 
 * Serm. i. de Nativ. Dom. p. 57 (ed. 1575), "tanto fcedere naturam 
 utramque consereret, ut nee inferiorem consumeret gloridcatio, nee 
 superiorem minueret assuiaptio." 
 
 D
 
 50 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Person, some to another : thus to the Father they attribute 
 supreme power over all things ; to the Son, wisdom ; to the Holy 
 Ghost, love. And as the mystery of the divine Incarnation de- 
 clares the singular and boundless benignity of God towards us, 
 therefore is this work attributed in some special manner to the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 QUESTION IV. In the Conception of Christ all things are not, but 
 most of them are, Supernatural. 
 
 In this mystery we perceive that some things were done 
 which transcended the order of nature, some by the power of 
 nature. Thus, in believing that the body of Christ was formed 
 from the most pure blood of his Virgin Mother, we acknowledge 
 therein human nature, this being common to all human bodies. 
 But what transcends the order of nature and human comprehension 
 is, that as soon as the Blessed Virgin, assenting to the words 
 of the angel, said : " Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it 
 done unto me according to thy word " (Luke, i. 38), the most 
 sacred body of Christ was immediately formed, and to it was 
 united a soul actually enjoying the use of reason ; and thus, 
 in the same instant of time, he was perfect God and perfect 
 man. That this was the new and admirable work of the Holy 
 Ghost no one can doubt, whereas, according to the order of 
 nature, no body, unless within the prescribed period of time, 
 can be endued with a human soul. There is, moreover, what 
 is worthy of the greatest admiration, that as soon as the soul of 
 Christ was united to his body, the Divinity itself also was 
 united both to soul and body ; and thus at the same time his 
 body was formed and animated, and the Divinity united to 
 body and soul. Hence it follows that, at the same instant, he 
 was perfect God and perfect man ; and the most holy Virgin 
 having, at the same moment, conceived God and man, is truly 
 and properly called Mother of God and man. This was signi- 
 fied to her by the angel, when he said : " Behold, thou shalt 
 conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son, and thou 
 shalt call his name Jesus ; he shall be great, and shall be called 
 the Son of the Most High" (Luke, i. 31, sq.) ; and by the event 
 was verified the prophecy of Isaias : " Behold a virgin shall 
 conceive, and bear a son; and his name shall be called Emma- 
 nuel " (Isaias, vii. 14) Elizabeth also, when, filled with the 
 Holy Ghost, she understood the conception of the Son of God, 
 declared the same in these words : " Whence is this to me, that 
 .the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke, i. 43.) 
 But, as the body of Christ was formed, as we before said, of
 
 PART I. CHAPTER IV. 51 
 
 the most pure blood of the immaculate Virgin, without any aid 
 of man, and by the sole operation of the Holy Ghost ; so also, 
 at the moment of his conception, his soul received an overflowing 
 fulness of the Spirit of God, and a superabundance of all 
 graces : " for God doth not give " to him, as to other men, who 
 are adorned with holiness and grace, " the Spirit by measure," 
 as St. John testifies (John, iii. 34) ; but poured into his soul all 
 grace so abundantly, that " of his fulness we all have received" 
 (John, i. 16). 
 
 QUESTION V. Christ cannot be called the Son of God by 
 adoption. 
 
 Although he possessed that spirit, by which holy men attain 
 the adoption of the sons of God, we cannot, however, call him 
 the adopted Son of God ; for, being the Son of God by nature, 
 to him we can in nowise deem applicable the grace or name 
 of adoption. 
 
 QUESTION VI. What we should chiefly meditate upon with 
 regard to the first part of the Article. 
 
 Regarding the admirable mystery of the conception, these 
 are the things which appeared to require explanation. In order 
 that fruit to salvation may redound to us therefrom, the faithful 
 should recall particularly to their recollection, and often inwardly 
 reflect, that it is God who assumed human flesh ; but that he 
 was made man in such a manner as we cannot comprehend in 
 mind, much less explain in words ; finally, that he vouchsafed to 
 become man, to the end that we mortals might be regenerated 
 children of God. When they shall have attentively considered 
 these things, let them then, with humble and faithful mind, 
 believe and adore all the mysteries contained in this article, nor 
 let them wish curiously to investigate or scrutinize them, which 
 can scarcely ever be done without danger. 
 
 QUESTION VII. What is meant by Christ being born of the Virgin 
 Mary. 
 
 " Born of the Virgin Mary." This is the other part of this 
 article of the Creed, in explaining which the parish-priest will 
 be diligently employed ; because the faithful are bound to 
 believe that the Lord Jesus was not only conceived by the power 
 of the Holy Ghost, but was also brought forth and "born of 
 the Virgin Mary." The words of the angel, who first announced 
 the most happy tidings to the world, declare with what joy and 
 delight of heart the belief of this mystery should be meditated
 
 52 "CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 on: " Behold," says he, " I bring you good tidings of great joy, 
 that shall be to all the people" (Luke, ii. 10); and the same we 
 easily understand from the song chanted by the angelic host of 
 heaven : " Glory to God in the highest ; and on earth peace to 
 men of good will " (Luke, ii. 14). Hence also began to be 
 fulfilled that most ample promise of God to Abraham, to whom 
 it was said that in his seed " all nations " should one day " be 
 blessed " (Gen. xxii. 18) ; for Mary, whom we truly proclaim 
 and venerate as Mother of God, because she brought forth that 
 person who was at once God and man, was descended from 
 king David (Matt. i. 1, sqq.). 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Christ was not born according to the common 
 course of Nature. 
 
 But as the conception itself utterly transcends the order of 
 nature, so also in the birth we can contemplate nothing but what 
 is divine. Besides, a circumstance wonderful beyond expression 
 or conception, he is born of his mother without any diminution 
 of her maternal virginity ; and as he afterwards went forth 
 from the sepulchre whilst closed and sealed, and entered the 
 room in which his disciples were assembled, " the doors " being 
 "shut" (John, xx. 19); or, not to depart even from natural 
 things, which we witness every day, as the rays of the sun 
 penetrate, without breaking or injuring in the least, the solid 
 substance of glass ; after a similar, I say, but more exalted 
 manner, did Jesus Christ come forth from his mother's womb, 
 without any injury to her maternal virginity, which, imma- 
 culate and perpetual, we celebrate with most just praises. This 
 was the work of the Holy Ghost, Avho, in the conception and 
 birth of the Son, so favoured the Mother, as to have imparted 
 to her fecundity, and preserved her perpetual virginity.* 
 
 QUESTION IX. Christ is rightly called a Second Adam, and 
 Mary a Second Eve. 
 
 The Apostle sometimes calls Christ Jesus " the last Adam " 
 (1 Cor. xv. 45, sqq.; Kom. v. 12), and institutes a comparison 
 between him and the first ; for as in the first all men die, so in 
 the second all are " made alive " (Eccl. xxv. 33 ; Gen. iii.) ; 
 and as, in the natural order, Adam was the father of the human 
 race, so Christ is the author of grace and glory. The Virgin 
 Mother we may also in like manner compare with Eve, making the 
 second Eve, that is Mary, correspond with the first, as we have 
 
 * Bishop Pearson, on the Creed, maintains the perpetual virginity 
 of Mary, Art. iii. p. 173, sqq. TK.
 
 TART T. CHAPTER IV. 53 
 
 shown the second Adam, that is Christ, to correspond with the 
 first Adam. For Eve, by believing the serpent, entailed male- 
 diction and death on the human race (Eph. ii. 3); and, after 
 Mary believed the angel, the divine goodness made her instru- 
 mental in bringing benediction and life to men. From Eve we 
 are born "children of wrath" (Gen. iii. 16); from Mary we have 
 received Jesus Christ, through whom we are regenerated chil- 
 dren of grace. To Eve it was said: " In sorrow shalt thou bring 
 forth children" (Gen. iii. 16); Mary was exempt from this 
 law, for, preserving inviolate the integrity of her virginal chas- 
 tity, she brought forth Jesus the Son of God, without, as we 
 have already said, any sense of pain. 
 
 QUESTION X. The chief figures and prophecies by which the 
 mysteries of the Conception and Nativity of Christ were sha- 
 dowed forth. 
 
 The mysteries of this conception and nativity being, there- 
 fore, so great and so many, it accorded with the views of Divine 
 Providence, that they should be signified by many types and 
 prophecies. Wherefore the holy Doctors understood many 
 things, which we read in various passages of sacred Scripture, 
 to relate to them, but particularly that gate of the sanctuary 
 which Ezechiel saw "shut" (Ezech. xliv. 2); also the "stone 
 cut out of the mountain without hands," as it is in Daniel, 
 which " became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth " 
 (Dan. ii. 34, sq.); next, the rod of Aaron, which alone budded 
 of all the rods of the princes of Israel (Num. xvii. 8) ; and the 
 bush which Moses saw " on fire, and was not burnt " (Exod. iii. 
 2). The holy Evangelist has described in detail the history of 
 the birth of Christ (Luke, ii.) ; and as the parish-priest can 
 readily recur to that account, it is unnecessary for us to say any 
 more on the subject. 
 
 QUESTION XI. The mystery of the Incarnation is often to be 
 inculcated on the people, and what advantage may be derived 
 from meditation thereon: 
 
 But these mysteries, which " were written for our instruction" 
 (Rom. xv. 4), he should labour to impress deeply on the minds 
 and hearts of the faithful, in order that, in the first place, by 
 the commemoration of so great a benefit, they may make some 
 return of thanks to God, its author; next, in order to place 
 before their eyes, for imitation, this unparalleled and singular 
 example of humility. For what can be more useful to us, what 
 better calculated to subdue the pride and haughtiness of our 
 hearts, than frequently to reflect that God humbles himself in
 
 54 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 such a manner as to communicate to men his glory, and assume 
 the frailty and weakness of man ; that God becomes man, and 
 that the supreme and infinite majesty, " at whose nod," as the 
 Scripture says, "the pillars of heaven tremble and dread" 
 (Job, xxvi. 11), ministers to man; and that he whom the angels 
 adore in heaven is born on earth ? When God does these things 
 for our sake, what, I ask, what should we do, to testify our obe- 
 dience to him ? With how willing and cheerful a mind ought 
 we not to love, embrace, perform all the offices of humility 1 
 Let the faithful also see in what salutary lessons Christ instructs 
 us at his birth, before he utters a word. He is born in 
 poverty ; he is born as a harbourless stranger ; he is born in a 
 lowly manger; he is born in the depth of winter; for so writes 
 St. Luke : "And it came to pass, that, when they were there, 
 her days were accomplished that she should be delivered; and 
 she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him up in 
 swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there 
 was no room for them in the inn " (Luke, ii. 6, sq.). Could the 
 Evangelist comprehend under more humble terms all the 
 majesty and glory of heaven and earth ? Nor does he say that 
 there was no room in the inn ; but that there was no room for 
 him who says, " The world is mine and the fulness thereof" 
 (Ps. xlix. 12). This another Evangelist also has testified: " He 
 came uuto his own, and his own received him not " (John, i. 2). 
 When the faithful shall have placed these things before their 
 eyes, let them then reflect, that God vouchsafed to assume the 
 lowliness and frailty of our flesh, that the human race might be 
 exalted to the highest degree of dignity ; for this single reflec- 
 tion, that he who is true and perfect God became man, sufficiently 
 declares the exalted dignity and pre-eminence of man, which 
 has been conferred on him by the divine bounty; so that we 
 may now glory that the Son of God is bone of our bone, and 
 flesh of our flesh, a privilege not granted to those most 
 blessed spirits, " for," as the Apostle says, " nowhere doth he 
 take hold of the angels; but of the seed of Abraham he taketh 
 hold" (Heb. ii. 16). We must, moreover, take care lest, to our 
 very great prejudice, it come to pass that, as there was no room 
 for him in the inn at Bethlehem, in which he might be born ; so 
 also he be not able, now that he is no longer born in the flesh, 
 to find a place in our hearts in which he may be spiritually born ; 
 for this, being most desirous of our salvation, he earnestly wishes. 
 As then, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and in a manner 
 transcending the order of nature, he was made man and was born, 
 was holy and even holiness itself ; so should we be " born, not 
 of blood nor of the will of the flesh, but of God " (John, i. 13);
 
 PART I. CHAPTER V. 55 
 
 walk thenceforward as a new creature (Gal. vi. 15), " in newness 
 of life" (Rom. vi. 4), and preserve that holiness and purity of 
 soul that eminently become men regenerated by the Spirit of God 
 (2 Cor. iii. 18). For thus shall we reflect in ourselves some 
 image of this holy conception and nativity of the Son of 
 God, which are the objects of our firm faith, and believing which, 
 we admire and adore " the wisdom of God in a mystery, which 
 is hidden " (1 Cor. ii. 7). 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF THE FOURTH ARTICLE. 
 
 " SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DEAD, AND 
 BURIED." 
 
 QUESTION I. Necessity of knowing the Fourth Article, and its 
 Import. 
 
 How great is the necessity of knowing this article, and how 
 diligently the parish-priest should take care that the faithful 
 very frequently revolve in mind the remembrance of our Lord's 
 passion, the Apostle teaches, when he declares that he knows 
 nothing " but Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Cor. ii. 2). In 
 treating this subject, therefore, the greatest zeal and industry 
 are to be employed, in order that it may be elucidated as much 
 as possible, and that the faithful, excited by the commemoration 
 of so great a benefit, may turn themselves wholly to the con- 
 templation of the love and goodness of God towards us. In the 
 first part, then, of the article (for of the second we shall treat 
 hereafter), faith proposes to our belief, that when, by command 
 of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate governed the province of 
 Judea, Christ the Lord was nailed to a cross; for, having been 
 seized, mocked, treated with all sorts of outrages and tortures, 
 he was finally crucified. 
 
 QUESTION II. The Soul of Christ felt the Tortures. 
 
 Nor, indeed, should it be matter of doubt to any one, that 
 his soul, as regards its inferior part, was not exempt from those 
 torments ; for, as he really assumed human nature, we must 
 of necessity confess that he also experienced in his soul a most 
 acute sense of pain; whence he says : " My soul is sorrowful, 
 even unto death " (Matt. xxvi. 38 ; Mark, xiv. 34). For 
 although human nature was united to the Divine Person, he yet 
 felt the bitterness of his passion not less because of that union
 
 56 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 than if that union had not been, for in the one Person of Jesus 
 Christ were preserved the properties of both natures, divine and 
 human; and hence, what was passible and mortal remained 
 passible and mortal ; and, again, what was impassible and im- 
 mortal, such as we understand the divine nature to be, retained 
 its own proper condition. 
 
 QUESTION III. Why in the Creed mention is made of the 
 Governor of Judea, under whom Christ suffered. 
 
 But if we find it here so carefully recorded, that Jesus Christ 
 suffered at that time when Pilate was procurator of the province 
 of Judea, that the parish-priest will teach was done in order 
 that, by fixing definitely the time, which we find also done by 
 the Apostle Paul (1 Tim. vi. 13), the knowledge of so important 
 and so necessary an event may be the better ascertained by all ; 
 and also because by these words it is shown, that by the event 
 was verified that prediction of the Saviour : " They shall deliver 
 him to the Gentiles, to be mocked, and to be scourged, and to 
 be crucified" (Matt. xx. 19). 
 
 QUESTION IV. It did not happen accidently, that Christ suffered 
 Death on the Wood of the Cross. 
 
 That he suffered death particularly on the wood of the cross, 
 is also to be attributed to the divine counsel, to wit, " that 
 whence death came, thence life might arise ;"* for the serpent, 
 which had overcome our first parents by the fruit of the tree, 
 was overcome by Christ on the tree of the cross. To show the 
 congruity of the Saviour's having suffered particularly the death 
 of the cross, many reasons, which the holy Fathers pursued in 
 detail, might be adduced ; but let the parish-priest admonish the 
 faithful, that for them it is sufficient to believe that species of 
 death to have been chosen by the Saviour, which appeared the 
 more adapted and suitable to the redemption of the human race, 
 as assuredly none could be more ignominious and humiliating ; 
 for not only amongst the Gentiles was the punishment of the 
 cross deemed execrable, and most replete with disgrace and 
 ignominy ; but also in the law of Moses the man is pronounced 
 " accursed, that hangeth on a tree " (Deut. xxi. 23 ; Gal. iii. 13). 
 
 QUESTION V. The History of Christ's Passion is frequently to 
 
 be gone over to the people. 
 
 But that the faithful may be well acquainted with at least 
 the principal heads of this mystery, which seem of more im- 
 
 * Preface to the Mass of the Cross.
 
 TART I. CHAPTER V. 57 
 
 mediate necessity to confirm the truth of our faith, the parish- 
 priest will not omit the historical part of this article, which 
 lias been most diligently set forth by the holy Evangelists ; 
 for on this article, as on a sort of foundation, rest the religion 
 and faith of Christians, and on this, when once laid, the 
 superstructure rises with security. For if to the mind and 
 understanding of man anything else presents difficulty, most 
 difficult of all, certainly, must the mystery of the cross be 
 deemed ; and we can hardly conceive that our salvation de- 
 pends on the cross itself, and on him who for us was fastened 
 to its wood. But in this, as the Apostle teaches, we may ad- 
 mire the supreme providence of God : " for seeing that in the 
 wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God ; it pleased 
 God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe" 
 (1 Cor. i. 21). We are, therefore, not to wonder, if the Pro- 
 phets, before the coming of Christ, the Apostles, after his death 
 and resurrection, laboured so strenuously to persuade men that 
 he was the Redeemer of the world, and to bring them under 
 the power and obedience of the Crucified. Wherefore, as nothing 
 was so far beyond the reach of human reason as the mystery 
 of the cross, the Lord, immediately from the fall, never ceased, 
 both by figures and by the oracles of the Prophets, to signify the 
 death of his Son. And to glance a little at the figures : first, 
 Abel, who fell a victim to the envy of his brother (Gen. iv. 8); 
 next, the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen. xxii. 6, sqq.) ; again, the 
 lamb immolated by the Jews on their departure from the land 
 of Egypt (Exod. xii. 5, sqq.) ; and also the brazen serpent 
 lifted up by Moses in the desert (Num. xxi. 8, sq. ; John, 
 iii. 14), prefigured the passion and death of Christ the Lord. 
 With regard to the Prophets, that many arose who foretold this 
 event, is indeed too well known to require to be here developed. 
 To omit David, who in his Psalms has embraced the principal 
 mysteries of our redemption (Psalms ii., xxi., Ixviii., cix.), so 
 clear and explicit are the oracles of Isaias beyond all others 
 (Is. liii.), that it may with good reason be said, that he re- 
 corded a past rather than predicted a future event.* 
 
 QUESTION YI. What this Clause, " Dead and Buried" 
 intimates to be believed. 
 
 " Dead and buried." In these words the parish-priest will 
 unfold to the belief of the faithful, that Jesus Christ, after he 
 was crucified, was really dead and buried. Nor is it without 
 reason that this is proposed to the faithful separately as au 
 
 * Hier. Epist. ad Paulin. near the end.
 
 58 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 object of belief; since there have not been wanting those, who 
 denied that he died on the cross. Justly, therefore, did the 
 holy Apostles judge, that to that error should be opposed this 
 doctrine of faith, of the truth of which article no room for 
 doubt is left us, for all the Evangelists agree that Jesus " yielded 
 up the ghost."* Moreover, as Christ was true and perfect 
 man, he could also truly die ; and man dies when the soul is 
 separated from the body. When, therefore, we say that Jesus 
 died, we mean that his soul was separated from his body, with- 
 out, however, conceding that his Divinity was separated from 
 his body: on the contrary, we firmly believe and confess that, 
 while his soul was separated from his body, his Divinity con- 
 tinued always united both to his body in the sepulchre, and to 
 his soul in hell. But it became the Son of God to die, " that 
 through death he might destroy him who had the empire of 
 death, that is to say, the devil ; and might deliver them, who, 
 through the fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to 
 servitude" (Heb. ii. 14, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION VII. Christ underwent Death not Involuntarily or ly 
 Compulsion. 
 
 But it was the peculiar privilege of Christ the Lord, to have 
 died when he himself decreed to die, and to have died, not so 
 much by external violence, as by internal assent. Nor did he 
 ordain his death only, but also the time and place in which 
 he should die ; for thus has Isaias written: " He was offered, 
 because it was his own will " (Isaias, liii. 7). And the Lord, 
 before his passion, declared the same of himself: "I lay down my 
 life that I may take it again. No man taketh it away from me ; 
 but I lay it down of myself; and I have power to lay it down, 
 and I have power to take it up again " (John, x. 17, sq.). But 
 as regards time and place, when Herod insidiously sought his 
 life, he said: " Go, and tell that fox: behold I cast out devils, 
 and do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am 
 consummated. Nevertheless I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, 
 and the day following, because it cannot be that a prophet 
 perish out of Jerusalem " (Luke, xiii. 32, sq.). He, therefore, 
 did nothing involuntarily or by compulsion, but offered himself 
 of his own free will; and going to meet his enemies, he said: 
 " I am he " (John, xviii. 5) ; and all those punishments, which 
 they unjustly and cruelly inflicted on him, he endured volun- 
 tarily, a fact than which, when we meditate on all his sufferings 
 and torments, nothing indeed can have greater force to excite 
 
 * Matt, xxvii. 50 ; Mark, xv. 37 ; Luke, xxiii. 46 ; John, xix. 30.
 
 PART I. CHAP. V. 5U 
 
 the inmost feelings of our souls. For were any one to endure 
 by compulsion, not freely, every species of suffering on our 
 account, we should not deem his claims to our gratitude very 
 considerable ; but were he freely, and for our sake only, to 
 endure death, when he might have avoided it, this indeed were 
 a kind of favour of such magnitude, as to deprive even the most 
 grateful, not only of the power of returning, but even of ade- 
 quately feeling the obligation. Hence we may conceive the 
 supreme and transcendent love of Jesus Christ towards us, and 
 his divine and boundless claims on us. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Why Christ is said not only to have been Dead, 
 but also " Buried." 
 
 But, when we confess that he was buried, this is not con- 
 stituted as it were part of the article, because it presents any 
 new difficulty, besides what is implied in what has been said 
 of his death ; for if we believe that Christ died, we can also 
 easily be persuaded that he was buried. But the word " buried " 
 was added, first, that there might be less room for doubt 
 respecting his death, for it is a very strong argument, to estab- 
 lish a person's death, if we prove that his body was buried; 
 and, secondly, that the miracle of his resurrection may be more 
 clearly declared, and may shine forth with greater lustre. Nor 
 is our belief confined to the burial of Christ's body alone ; but 
 by these words is proposed, as the principal object of our 
 belief, that God was buried, as, according to the rule of Catholic 
 faith, we also most truly say, that God was born of a virgin, 
 that God died; for, as the Divinity was never separated from 
 his body, which was laid in the sepulchre, we truly confess that 
 God was buried. 
 
 QUESTION IX. What Matters are chiefly to be observed concern- 
 ing the Deatli and Burial of Christ. 
 
 As to the place and manner of his burial, what the holy 
 Evangelists record will be found sufficient for the parish-priest.* 
 Two things, however, demand particular observation ; the one, 
 that, in accordance with the prediction of the Prophet, " Thou 
 wilt not give thy Holy One to see corruption" (Psalm xv. 10 ; 
 Acts, ii. 31), the body of Christ was in no degree corrupted in 
 the sepulchre ; the other, which regards all the parts of this 
 article, that burial, passion also, and death, apply to Christ 
 Jesus, not as God, but as man ; for to suffer and to die are 
 incidental to human nature only; although all these are also 
 
 * Matt, xxvii. 60 ; Mark, xv. 46 ; Luke, xxiii. 53 ; John, xix. 38.
 
 CO CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 attributed to God, because it is evident that they are with pro- 
 priety predicated of that person, who was at once perfect God 
 and perfect man. 
 
 QUESTION X. How we ought to contemplate the Benefit of 
 Christ's Passion. 
 
 These things being known, the parish-priest will explain 
 those particulars of the passion and death of Christ, from 
 which the faithful may be enabled, if not to comprehend, at 
 least to contemplate, the immensity of so stupendous a mystery. 
 And first, we are to consider who is he that suffers all these 
 things. His dignity we indeed cannot express in words or 
 conceive in thought. Of him St. Johu says, that he is " the 
 Word," which " was with God " (John, i. 1, sq.) ; and the 
 Apostle describes him in these magnificent terms, that he it is 
 "whom" God "hath appointed heir of all things, by whom 
 also he made the world ; who being the splendour of his glory, 
 and the figure of his substance, and upholding all things by 
 the word of his power, making purgation of sins, sitteth on 
 the right hand of the majesty on high " (Heb. i. 2, sq.). In a 
 word, Jesus Christ, God and man, suffers I The Creator suf- 
 fers for those whom he himself created : the Master suffers for 
 the servant : He suffers by whom angels, men, the heavens, the 
 elements, were created ; He, I say, in whom, through whom, 
 and from whom, are all things (Rom. xi. 36). We cannot, 
 therefore, be surprised if, whilst he agonized under so many 
 torments and sufferings, the whole fabric of the universe was 
 also convulsed ; for, as the Scripture says, " the earth quaked 
 and the rocks were rent" (Matt, xxvii. 51), "and there was 
 darkness over all the earth, and the sun was darkened" (Luke, 
 xxiii. 44, sq.). If, then, even mute and senseless things 
 mourned the passion of their Creator, let the faithful think with 
 what tears they, "the living stones" of this edifice (1 Peter, 
 ii. 5), should manifest their sorrow. 
 
 QUESTION XI. Reasons why Christ vouchsafed to suffer Death, 
 and what is to be thought of those, who, professing Christianity, 
 wallow in Sin. 
 
 That the greatness and intensity of the divine love towards us 
 may still more appear, the reasons why the Saviour suffered are 
 now also to be explained. Should, then, any one ask Avhy the 
 Son of God underwent his most bitter passion, he will find that, 
 besides the hereditary guilt of our first parents, the principal 
 cause consisted in the vices and crimes which men have perpe- 
 trated from the beginning of the world to the present day, and
 
 PART I. CHAPTER V. 61 
 
 shall perpetrate henceforward to the consummation of time ; for 
 in his passion and death the Son of God, oar Saviour, con- 
 templated the atonement and obliteration of the sins of all ages, 
 by offering for them to his Father a full and superabundant 
 satisfaction. Besides, what adds to the dignity of this matter, 
 Christ not only suffered for sinners, but sinners were also the 
 authors and ministers of all the torments which he endured. Of 
 this the Apostle reminds us, writing thus to the Hebrews : 
 "Think diligently upon him who endured such opposition from 
 sinners against himself ; that you be not wearied, fainting in 
 your minds " (Heb. xii. 3). In this guilt we must deem all 
 those to be involved, who fall frequently into sin ; for, as our 
 sins impelled Christ the Lord to undergo the death of the cross, 
 certainly those who wallow in sins and iniquities, as far as in 
 them lies, " crucify again to themselves the Son of God, and 
 make a mockery of him " (Heb. vi. 6). In us such guilt may 
 indeed seem deeper than it was in the Jews, inasmuch as, ac- 
 cording to the same Apostle, " if they had known it, they never 
 would have crucified the Lord of glory " (1 Cor. ii. 8); whereas 
 we both profess to have known him, and yet, denying him by 
 our "works" (Tit. i. 16), seem in some sort to lay violent 
 hands on him. 
 
 QUESTION XII. Christ was delivered over by the Father, and by 
 himself also. 
 
 But that Christ the Lord was delivered over by the Father 
 also and by himself, the sacred Scriptures bear witness ; for he 
 says in Isaias : " For the wickedness of my people have I struck 
 him " (Isaias, liii. 8) ; and a little before, when, filled with the 
 Spirit of God, he saw the Lord covered with stripes and wounds, 
 the same Prophet said : "All we, like sheep, have gone astray : 
 every one hath turned aside into his own way ; and the Lord 
 hath laid on him the iniquities of us all" (Ibid. 6). But of the 
 Son it is written : " If he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall 
 see a long-lived seed " (Ibid. 10). But the Apostle expressed 
 the same thing in language still stronger, when, however, on 
 the other hand, he wished to show, how much we may trust in 
 the boundless mercy and goodness of God ; for he says : " He that 
 spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how 
 hath he not also,Vith him, given us all things?" (Rom. viii. 52.) 
 
 QUESTION XIII. Christ truly felt, in Body and Mind, the 
 Bitterness of his Torments. 
 
 It now follows, that the parish-priest teach how great was the 
 bitterness of the passion ; although if we bear in mind that our
 
 62 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Lord's sweat became as drops of blood, trickling " down upon 
 the ground" (Luke, xxii. 44), and this at the sole anticipation 
 of the torments and tortures which he was soon after to endure, 
 every one will thence easily perceive, that his sufferings admitted 
 of no increase. For if and this sweat of blood proclaims it 
 so bitter was the thought of the impending evils, what must we 
 not suppose their actual endurance to have been ? That, how- 
 ever, Christ the Lord underwent the most intense sufferings both 
 of mind and body, is certain. In the first place, then, there was 
 no part of his body that did not experience the most excrucia- 
 ting tortures ; for his hands and feet were fastened Avith nails to 
 the cross ; his head was pierced with thorns, and smitten with a 
 reed ; his face was befouled with spittle, and buffeted with blows ; 
 his whole body was covered with stripes. Men, too, of all sorts 
 and conditions, " met together against the Lord and against his 
 Christ" (Psalm ii. 2). For Jews and Gentiles were the advisers, 
 the authors, the ministers, of his passion. Judas betrayed him 
 (Matt. xxvi. 47): Peter denied him (Mark, xiv. 68, sq.) : the 
 rest abandoned him (Matt. xxvi. 56) ; and, whilst on the very 
 cross, we are at a loss which to deplore, his agony or his ig- 
 nominy, or both ! And surely no sort of death more shameful, 
 none more bitter, could have been devised, than that with which 
 only the most guilty and atrocious malefactors were usually vi- 
 sited, and the tediousness of which aggravated the sense of its 
 intense pain and torture ! His agony was also increased by the 
 very constitution and frame of his body, which, formed by the 
 power of the Holy Ghost, was indeed much more perfect and 
 better tempered than the bodies of other men can be, and had 
 therefore a keener susceptibility, and a more acute sense of all 
 those torments which it endured. But as regards inward anguish 
 of mind, no one can doubt, that in Christ it was extreme. For 
 to those among the saints who endured torments and tortures, 
 there was not wanting interior consolation given from above, re- 
 freshed by which they were enabled not only to bear with 
 patience the violence of their sufferings, but, in many instances, 
 to feel elated in the very midst of them, with inward joy ; for 
 the Apostle says : " I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill 
 up those things, that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in 
 my flesh, for his body, which is the Church " (Coloss. i. 24) ; 
 and in another place : "I am filled with comfort; I exceedingly 
 abound with joy in all our tribulation " (2 Cor. vii. 4). But 
 Christ the Lord tempered with no admixture of sweetness the 
 chalice of his most bitter passion ; but permitted his human 
 nature to feel all torments as if he had been man only, and not 
 also God.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER V. 63 
 
 QUESTION XIV. What Advantages and Blessings chiefly the 
 Passion of Christ has brought to the Christian Family. 
 
 It only remains that the blessings and advantages also which 
 we have derived from the Lord's passion, be accurately ex- 
 plained by the parish-priest. In the first place, then, the 
 passion of our Lord was deliverance from sin ; for, as it is in 
 St. John : " He hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in 
 his own blood" (Rev. i. 5); and the Apostle says: "He 
 hath quickened you together with him, forgiving you all offences, 
 blotting out the handwriting of the decree which was against 
 us, which was contrary to us, and the same he took out of the 
 way, fastening it to the cross" (Col. ii. 13, sq.). In the next 
 place, it has rescued us from the tyranny of the devil, for our 
 Lord himself says : "Now is the judgment of the world ; now 
 shall the prince of this world be cast out ; and I, if I be lifted 
 up from the earth, will draw all things to myself " (John, xii. 
 31, sq.). He has also discharged the penalty due to our sins ; 
 and next, as no more grateful and acceptable sacrifice could 
 have been offered to God, it has reconciled us to the Father 
 (2 Cor. v. 19), appeased his wrath, and propitiated his justice. 
 Finally, by taking away our sins, it has also opened to us 
 heaven, which was closed by the common sin of mankind, as 
 the Apostle signifies in these words: "Having, therefore, 
 brethren, a confidence in the entering into the sanctuary, by the 
 blood of Christ" (Heb. x. 19). Nor is there wanting some 
 type and figure of this mystery in the Old Law ; for those who 
 were prohibited to return into their native country before the 
 death of the high-priest (Num. xxxv. 25), typified that, until 
 that eternal High-priest, Christ Jesus, died, and by dying opened 
 at once the gates of heaven to those who, purified by the sacra- 
 ments, and gifted with faith, hope, and charity, become par- 
 takers of his passion ; no one, however just and pious had 
 been his life, could gain admission into his heavenly country. 
 
 QUESTION XV. Whence the Passion of Christ had Efficacy to 
 merit such great Blessings for us. 
 
 But the parish-priest will teach, that all these transcendent 
 and divine blessings have come to us from the passion of the 
 Lord ; first, because the satisfaction which Jesus Christ has, 
 in an admirable manner, made to his eternal Father for our 
 sins, is full and complete ; and the price which he has paid 
 for us, was not only equal and adequate to our debts, but far 
 exceeded them. Moreover, it was a sacrifice most acceptable
 
 64 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 to God, which, when offered him by his Son on the altar of 
 the cross, entirely appeased the wrath and indignation of the 
 Father ; and this word [sacrifice] the Apostle makes use of, 
 when he says : " Christ loved us, and delivered himself for ns, 
 an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness" 
 (Eph. v. 2). It was, moreover, a redemption, of which the 
 Prince of the Apostles says: "You were not redeemed with 
 corruptible gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the 
 tradition of your fathers ; but with the precious blood of Christ, 
 as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled" (1 Pet. i. 18, sq.) ; and 
 the Apostle teaches : " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse 
 of the law, being made a curse for us " (Gal. iii. 13). 
 
 But besides these immense blessings, we have also received 
 another of the very utmost importance, that in the passion 
 alone we have the most illustrious examples of all virtues ; for 
 so conspicuous therein are patience, and humility, and exalted 
 charity, and meekness, and obedience, and unshaken firmness 
 of soul, not only in bearing sufferings for justice sake, but also 
 in meeting death, that we may truly say, that our Saviour, on 
 the day of his passion alone, exemplified in his own person all 
 the moral precepts which he taught in words during the entire 
 time of his public ministry. This exposition of the saving 
 passion and death of Christ the Lord, we have given briefly. 
 But God grant that these mysteries may be ever present to 
 our minds, that we may learn to suffer, to die, and to be 
 buried, with the Lord; that thenceforth all defilement of sin 
 having been cast off, rising with him to a new life, we may at 
 length, through his grace and mercy, be worthy to be made 
 partakers of his heavenly kingdom and glory. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF THE FIFTH ARTICLE. 
 
 " HE DESCENDED INTO HELL, THE THIRD DAY HE AROSE AGAIN 
 FROM THE DEAD." 
 
 QUESTION I. How the first part of this Article is to be 
 understood. 
 
 To know the glory of the burial of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 of which we have just treated, is, indeed, highly important ; 
 but still more important is it to the faithful people, to know 
 the splendid triumphs which he achieved, by having subdued 
 the devil, and despoiled the abodes of hell. On these and also
 
 TART I. CHAPTER VI. 65 
 
 on the resurrection, we are no\v about to speak ; and, although 
 the latter might, with propriety, be treated under a separate 
 head, yet, following the authority of the holy Fathers, we have 
 thought it proper to unite it with his descent into hell. 
 
 In the first part [of this article], then, it is proposed to our 
 belief, that, on the death of Christ, his soul descended into hell, 
 and dwelt there as long as his body remained in the grave. 
 Hut, in these words, we also, at the same time, confess, that 
 the same Person of Christ was simultaneously in hell and in the 
 sepulchre. Nor should this appear surprising to any one ; for, 
 as we have already repeatedly taught, although his soul departed 
 from his body, his divinity was never separated either from soul 
 or body. 
 
 QUESTION II. Meaning of the word " Hell " in this Article 
 
 But as the parish-priest, by first teaching what is here meant 
 by the word hell, may throw considerable light on the exposi- 
 tion of this article, it is to be observed, that the word hell is 
 not here to be taken for the grave, as some have not less im- 
 piously than ignorantly thought ; for, in the preceding article, 
 we have been taught that Christ the Lord was buried ; nor 
 was there any reason why, in delivering the faith, the same 
 thing should be repeated by the Apostles in other and more 
 obscure terms ; but the word hell signifies those hidden abodes, 
 in which are detained the souls that have not attained celestial 
 bliss ; and in this sense the sacred Scriptures have used the 
 word in many places ; for in the Apostle we read: " That in the 
 name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of those that are in 
 heaven, on earth, and in hell " (Philip, ii. 10) : and in the Acts 
 of the Apostles, St. Peter says, that Christ the Lord was again 
 risen, " having loosed the sorrows of hell " (Acts, ii. 24). 
 
 QUESTION III. How many Places are there, in ivhich Souls, 
 placed out of the enjoyment of Bliss, are detained after Death. 
 
 Nor, however, are those abodes of one and the same kind, 
 for among them is that most loathsome and dark prison, in 
 which the souls of the damned, together with the unclean spirits, 
 are tortured in everlasting and inextinguishable fire. This place 
 is also called Gehenna, the bottomless pit, and its literal signi- 
 fication, hell. There is also the fire of purgatory, in which the 
 souls of the pious are purified by a temporary punishment, that 
 they may be admitted into their eternal country, into which 
 nothing defiled entereth (Apoc. xxi. 27). And of the truth of 
 this doctrine, which holy Councils declare to be confirmed by 
 Scripture testimonies and Apostolical tradition (Trid. Concil. 
 
 E
 
 66 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 sess. 25), the parish-priest will have occasion to treat the more 
 diligently and frequently, as we are fallen on those times when 
 men endure not sound doctrine. Lastly, a third sort of recep- 
 tacle is that in which were received the souls of the just before 
 the coming of Christ the Lord; and where, without any sense of 
 pain, sustained by the blessed hope of redemption, they enjoyed 
 a tranquil abode. The souls, then, of these pious men, who, in 
 " Abraham's bosom " ( Luke, xvi. 22), were expecting the 
 Saviour, Christ the Lord liberated, descending into hell. 
 
 QUESTION IV. The Soul of Christ, not potentially only, but really 
 descended into Hell. 
 
 Nor must we suppose that he descended into hell in such a 
 manner, that his power and virtue only, and not also his soul, 
 went thither; but must fully believe, that his soul itself really and 
 substantially descended into hell ; on which there exists that 
 most certain testimony of David : " Thou wilt not leave my 
 soul in hell" (Ps. xv. 10). 
 
 QUESTION V. The dignity of Christ suffered nothing by his descent 
 into Hell. 
 
 But although Christ descended into hell, his supreme power 
 was not in aught diminished, nor was the splendour of his 
 holiness imbued with any stain ; whereas rather by this fact it 
 was most clearly proved, that whatever had been proclaimed of 
 his holiness was most true, and that, as he had previously de- 
 clared by so many miracles, he was the Son of God. This we 
 shall easily understand, if we compare the causes why Christ, 
 and why other men, descended into those places. They all 
 descended as captives ; but He, " free" and victorious " among 
 the dead" (Ps. Ixxxvii. 5), descended to subdue the demons by 
 whom, in consequence of sin, they were held in captivity. 
 Besides, all others descended, some to endure the most acute 
 torments ; some, though exempt from other pain, yet deprived 
 of the vision of God, were tortured with suspense by the hope of 
 the blessed glory which they were expecting ; whereas Christ 
 the Lord descended, not to suffer aught, but to liberate from 
 the miserable wearisomeness of that captivity holy and just men, 
 and impart to them the fruit of his passion. By his descent 
 into hell, therefore, his supreme dignity and power suffered no 
 diminution whatever. 
 
 QUESTION VI. Why Christ wished to descend into Hell. 
 
 These things having been explained, [the pastor] will next 
 have to teach that Christ the Lord descended into hell, that
 
 PART I. CHAPTER VI. 67 
 
 having seized the spoils of the devils, he might conduct into 
 heaven those holy Fathers and the other pious souls liberated 
 from prison. This he accomplished in an admirable and most 
 glorious manner ; for his presence at once shed a most brilliant 
 lustre on the captives, and filled their souls with boundless joy 
 and gladness. He also imparted to them that supreme happi- 
 ness, which consists in the vision of God ; by which event was 
 verified what he had promised the thief in these words : " Amen, 
 I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise " 
 (Luke, xxiii. 43). This deliverence of the pious, Osee had 
 predicted long before, as follows : " Death, I will be thy 
 death. Hell, I will be thy bite" (Osee, xiii. 14). This the 
 Prophet Zacharias also signified, when he said: " Thou, also, by 
 the blood of thy testament, hast sent forth thy prisoners out of 
 the pit, wherein is no water" (Zach. ix. 11). Lastly, the 
 Apostle expressed the very same in these words : " Divesting 
 principalities and powers, he made a show of them confidently, 
 triumphing openly over them in himself" (Col. ii. 15). 
 
 But to comprehend better the efficacy of this mystery, we 
 should frequently call to mind, that not only the pious men, 
 who had been born after the coming of the Saviour, but also 
 those who had preceded that event from the days of Adam, or 
 shall succeed it to the end of the world, attained salvation 
 through the benefit of his passion. Wherefore, until he died 
 and rose again, to no one were the gates of heaven open ; but 
 the souls of the pious, on their departure from this life, were 
 either borne to the bosom of Abraham, or, as is still the case 
 with those who have something to be expiated, and die indebted 
 [to the divine justice], were purified in the fire of purgatory. 
 
 There is this other reason, also, why Christ the Lord 
 descended into hell, that there, too, as v/ell as in heaven and 
 on earth, he might declare his might and power ; and " that in " 
 his " name every knee" indiscriminately " should bow, of those 
 that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth " (Phil. ii. 10). 
 And here, who is not filled with admiration and astonishment 
 at the infinite goodness of God to the human race ? Not 
 satisfied with having undergone, for our sake, a most cruel 
 death, he vouchsafed also to penetrate into the inmost recesses 
 of the earth, to transport into bliss the souls most dear to him, 
 whose deliverance thence he had achieved. 
 
 QUESTION VII. Meaning of the Second Part of the Fifth 
 
 Article. 
 
 The second part of the article follows, in the explanation of 
 which how indefatigably the parish-priest should labour, these
 
 68 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 words of the Apostle declare : " Be mindful that the Lord 
 Jesus Christ is risen from the dead " (2 Tim. ii. 8); a command, 
 no doubt, addressed not only to Timothy, but to all who have 
 care of souls. But the meaning of the article is this : after 
 Christ the Lord expired on the cross, on the sixth day and ninth 
 hour of the day, and was buried on the evening of the same 
 day by his disciples, who, by permission of the governor Piiate, 
 laid the body of the Lord, when taken down from the cross, 
 in a new monument, in a garden near at hand, his soul was 
 reunited to his body, very early on the morning of the third 
 day after his death, which was the Lord's day ; and thus be, 
 who had been dead during those three days, returned to life, 
 which dying he had relinquished, and rose again. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Christ rose again, not by another s power, like 
 the rent of men, but by his own. 
 
 But by the word resurrection is not merely to be understood 
 that Christ was raised from the dead, which was common with 
 him to many others, but that he rose by his own power and 
 virtue, which was peculiar to him alone ; for it is incompatible 
 with nature, nor was it given to any man to be able, by his own 
 power, to recall himself from death to life. This was reserved 
 exclusively for the supreme power of God, as we understand 
 from these words of the Apostle : " Although he was crucified 
 through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God " 
 (2 Cor. xiii. 4). This divine power, having never been sepa- 
 rated either from the body of Christ in the grave, or from his 
 soul when he had descended into hell, there existed a divine 
 energy as well in the body, by which it might be reunited to 
 the soul, as in the soul, by which it might return again to the 
 body ; and by which he, by his own power, might return to life, 
 and rise again from the dead. This David foretold, when, 
 filled with the Spirit of God, he prophesied in these words: 
 " His right hand hath wrought for him salvation, and his arm is 
 holy " (Ps. xcvii. 2). This the Lord himself also confirmed by 
 the divine testimony of his own lips : " I lay down my life, that I 
 may take it again ; and I have power to lay it down, and I 
 have power to take it up again " (John, x. 17, sq.). To the 
 Jews he also said, in confirmation of the truth of his doctrine : 
 " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up " 
 (John, ii. 19). Although they understood this of that temple 
 magnificently built of stones, yet, as the words of Scripture 
 declare in the same place, " he spoke of the temple of his 
 body "(Ibid. 21). Although we sometimes read in the Scriptures 
 that Christ the Lord was raised by the Father (Acts, ii. 24,
 
 PART I. CHAPTER VI. 69 
 
 iii. 15 ; Rom. viii. 11), this is to be referred to him as man; 
 as those passages which, on the other hand, signify that he 
 rose by his own power, relate to him as God. 
 
 QUESTION IX. How Christ is catted "the First Begotten of the 
 Dead, 1 ' when others before him are known to have been raised 
 to life. 
 
 But it was also the peculiar privilege of Christ that he 
 himself should have been the first who enjoyed this divine 
 favour of rising from the dead, for in the Scriptures he is called 
 " the first-born from the dead " (Col. i. 18), and " the first- 
 begotten of the dead " (Apoc. i. 5), and, as it is in the Apostle, 
 " Christ is risen from the dead, the first- fruits of them that 
 sleep ; for by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection 
 of the dead ; and as in Adam all die, so, also, in Christ all shall 
 be made alive ; but every one in his own order ; the first-fruits 
 Christ, then they that are of Christ " (1 Cor. xv. 20, sqq.). 
 These words are to be interpreted of a perfect resurrection, by 
 which we are resuscitated to immortal life, being no longer sub- 
 ject to death ; and in this sort of resurrection Christ the Lord 
 holds the first place ; for, if we speak of resurrection that is, 
 of a return to life subject to the necessity of again dying many 
 others were raised from the dead before Christ (3 Kings, xvii. 
 22 ; 4 Kings, iv. 34), all of whom, however, returned to life on 
 the condition that they must die again ; but Christ the Lord, 
 having subdued and conquered death, so rose again as to be no 
 longer capable of dying ; which, indeed, is confirmed by this 
 very explicit testimony of the Apostle : " Christ rising again 
 from the dead, dieth now no more : death shall no more have 
 dominion over him " (Rom. vi. 9). 
 
 QUESTION X. How and ivhy Christ deferred his Resurrection 
 till the Third Day. 
 
 These additional words of the article, " the third day," the 
 parish-priest will have occasion to explain, lest the faithful 
 should suppose that the Lord had been in the grave during 
 the entire of these three days ; but as he lay in the sepulchre 
 during an entire natural day, and during part of the preceding 
 and part of the following day, he is on that account most truly 
 said to have lain in the grave three days, and on the third day 
 to have risen from the dead. To declare his divinity he was 
 unwilling to defer his resurrection to the end of the world ; 
 whilst, again, to convince us that he was really man, and had 
 really died, he rose not immediately, but on the third day, after
 
 70 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 his death a space of time that seemed sufficient to prove his 
 real death. 
 
 QUESTION XI. Why the Fathers of the Synod of Constantinople 
 added to this Article the clause, "according to the Scriptures" 
 
 Here the Fathers of the first Synod of Constantinople added, 
 " according to the Scriptures," an addition which, taken from 
 the Apostle, they transferred to the Creed, because the same 
 Apostle taught the paramount necessity of the mystery of the 
 resurrection in these words : " If Christ be not risen again, then 
 is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain ; and if 
 Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain, for you are yet in 
 your sins" (1 Cor. xv. 14, sqq.). Hence, admiring the belief 
 of this article, St. Augustine wrote : " It is nothing great to 
 believe that Christ died ; this the Pagans, and Jews, and all 
 the wicked believe; all believe this, that he died. The re- 
 surrection of Christ is the belief of Christians : to believe that 
 he rose again, this we deem something great " (August, in 
 Ps. cxx. 4). Hence it is that our Lord very frequently spoke 
 of his resurrection, and scarcely ever conversed with his disciples 
 on his passion without mentioning his resurrection. Thus, when 
 he had said, "The Son of man shall be delivered to the Gentiles, 
 and shall be mocked and scourged and spit upon ; and after they 
 have scourged him, they will put him to death ;" he concluded 
 by saying, " and the third day he shall ri.=e again."* And when 
 the Jews asked him to prove his doctrine by some sign and 
 miracle, he answered : " A sign shall not be given them but the 
 sign of Jonas the Prophet : for as Jonas was in the whale's 
 belly three days and three nights, so shall the Son of man be 
 in the heart of the earth three days and three nights."f But 
 to understand better the force and meaning of this article, 
 there are three things to be investigated and known by us 
 first, why it was necessary that Christ should rise again ; 
 next, what is the end and object of the resurrection ; and 
 what are the blessings and advantages of which it is to us 
 the source. 
 
 QUESTION XII. Reasons for the Necessity ofChrisfs 
 
 Resurrection. 
 
 With regard, then, to the first, it was necessary that he 
 should rise again, iu order that the justice of God might be 
 manifested; for it was most fitting that he who, through 
 obedience to God, was degraded and treated with every sort 
 
 * Luke, xviii. 32, sqq.; Matt. xvi. 21. 
 T Luke, xi. 29 ; Matt. xii. 39, sq.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER VI. 71 
 
 of ignominy, should by him be exalted. This is a reason 
 assigned by the Apostle, when he says to the Philippians : 
 " He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even 
 unto the death of the cross ; wherefore God, also, hath exalted 
 him " (Philip, ii. 8, sq.). [He rose], also, in order that our 
 faith, which is necessary to justification, might be confirmed ; 
 for the resurrection of Christ from the dead, by his own power, 
 should be the strongest proof of his divinity. Besides, it was 
 necessary, in order that our hope should be nurtured and sus- 
 tained ; for, as Christ rose again, we rest on an assured hope 
 that we, too, shall rise again, for the members must necessarily 
 attain the condition of their head. This is the conclusion that 
 the Apostle seems to draw from his reasoning, when he writes to 
 the Corinthians (1 Cor. xv. 12) and Thessalonians (1 Thess. iv. 
 14) ; and Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, has said: "Blessed 
 be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according 
 to his great mercy, hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, 
 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an 
 inheritance incorruptible" (1 Peter, i. 3, sq.). Lastly, [the 
 pastor] must teach that the resurrection of our Lord was neces- 
 sary, in order to complete the mystery of our salvation and re- 
 demption ; for by his death Christ liberated us from our sins, 
 and by his resurrection he restored to us the principal blessings 
 which we had forfeited by sin. Hence it is said by the Apostle : 
 ' ; He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justi- 
 fication " (Rom. iv. 25). That nothing, therefore, may be 
 wanting to the salvation of the human race, it was meet that, 
 as he should die, he should also rise again. 
 
 QOESTION XIII. What Advantages result to Men from the 
 Resurrection of Christ. 
 
 From what has been hitherto said, we can perceive what 
 great advantages the resurrection of Christ the Lord has brought 
 to the faithful ; for in the resurrection we acknowledge God to 
 be immortal, full of glory, the conqueror of death and hell ; 
 and this we must unhesitatingly believe and confess of Christ 
 Jesus. Again, the resurrection of Christ has also been to us 
 the source of the resurrection of the body, both because it has 
 been the efficient cause of that mystery, and because we ought 
 all to rise again after the example of our Lord ; for, with re- 
 gard to the resurrection of the body, the Apostle bears this 
 testimony : " By a man came death, and by a man the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead" (i Cor. xv. 21) ; for, whatever God wrought 
 in the mystery of our redemption, in all he made use of the 
 humanity of Christ as the efficient instrument ; and hence his
 
 72 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TFvENT. 
 
 resurrection was in some sort the instrument of accomplishing 
 ours. It may also be called the model, the resurrection of Christ 
 the Lord being the most perfect of all ; and as the body of Christ 
 rising again to immortal glory was changed, so shall our bodies 
 also, which had been before frail and mortal, be restored, adorned 
 with glory and immortality ; for, as the Apostle teaches : " We 
 wait for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform 
 the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory " 
 (Phil. iii. 20, sq.). The same may be said of a soul dead in 
 sins, to which how the resurrection of Christ is proposed as a 
 model, the same Apostle shows in these words : '" As Christ is 
 risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may 
 walk in newness of life ; for if we have been planted together 
 in the likeness of his death, in like manner we shall be of his 
 resurrection." And a little after he says : " Knowing that 
 Christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more : death 
 shall no more have dominion over him ; for in that he died to 
 sin, he died once ; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 
 So do you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but 
 alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. vi. 4, 5, 10, 11). 
 
 QUESTION XIV. What Examples are to be borrowed from the 
 Resurrection of Christ. 
 
 From the resurrection of Christ, therefore, wo should derive 
 two lessons of imitation: the one that, after we have washed 
 away the stains of sin, we enter on a new kind of life, in which 
 may shine forth moral integrity, innocence, holiness, modesty, 
 justice, beneficence, humility; the other, that we so persevere 
 in that manner of life, as never more, with God's assistance, 
 to stray from the way of righteousness, on which we have once 
 entered. Nor do the words of the Apostle prove only that the 
 resurrection of Christ is proposed as the model of our resurrec- 
 tion ; but they also declare that it gives us power to rise again, 
 and imparts to us strength and spirit to persevere in holiness 
 and righteousness, and in keeping the commandments of God. 
 For as from his death we not only take an example of dying to 
 sin, but also derive strength by which we may die to sin ; so 
 does his resurrection invigorate us to attain righteousness ; that 
 thenceforward, worshipping God piously and holily, we may 
 walk in the newness of life, to which we rise ; for by his resur- 
 rection the Lord achieved principally this, that we, who had 
 before died with him to sin and to this world, might also rise 
 with him again to a new discipline and manner of life.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER VII. 73 
 
 QUESTION XV. From u-hat indications it may be inferred, that 
 any one has risen with Christ according to the Spirit. 
 
 The principal indications of this resurrection from sin, which 
 demand observation, are pointed out to us by the Apostle ; for 
 when he says : " If you be risen with Christ, seek the things 
 that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of 
 God" (Col. iii. 1), he plainly shows that they who desire to 
 possess life, honours, ease, riches, there chiefly where Christ 
 dwells, have truly risen with Christ ; but when he adds : 
 ' Mind the things that are above, not the things that are on the 
 earth " (Col. iii. 2), this he also gave as another mark, as it 
 were, by which we may discern whether we have truly risen 
 with Christ. For, as a relish for food is wont to indicate a 
 healthy state of the body ; so if any one relish " whatsoever 
 things are true, whatsoever things are modest, whatsoever 
 things are just, whatsoever things are holy" (Phil. iv. 8), and 
 in his inmost soul experience a sense of the sweetness of 
 heavenly things, this may be considered the strongest proof, 
 that he who is thus disposed, has risen with Christ Jesus to a 
 new and spiritual Jife. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. 
 
 " HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, SITTETH AT THE RIGHT HAND OF 
 GOD THE FATHER, ALMIGHTY." 
 
 QUESTION I. The Excellence of this Article, and the Meaning of 
 the First Part. 
 
 When, filled with the Spirit of God, the Prophet David con- 
 templated the blessed and glorious ascension of our Lord into 
 heaven, he exhorts all to celebrate that triumph with the 
 greatest joy and gladness : " Clap your hands," says he, " all 
 ye nations ; shout unto God with the voice of joy. God is 
 ascended with jubilee, and the Lord with the sound of trumpet " 
 (Ps. xlvi. 2, 6). The parish-priest will hence understand that 
 this mystery is to be explained with the greatest assiduity, and 
 that he is to take especial care, that the faithful not only per- 
 ceive it by faith and understanding, but, as far as possible, 
 study, with God's assistance, to reflect also its image in their 
 lives and actions. With regard, then, to the exposition of the 
 sixth article, in which principally is treated this divine mystery,
 
 74 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 we must begin with its first part, and unfold its force and mean- 
 ing. For the faithful are also unhesitatingly to believe that 
 Jesus Christ, having fully executed and accomplished the work 
 of redemption, ascended as man, body and soul, into heaven ; 
 but as God, he was never absent from heaven, filling, as he does, 
 all places with his divinity. 
 
 QUESTION II. Christ ascended not only by Virtue of his Divinity , 
 but also of his Humanity. 
 
 But let the pastor teach that he ascended by his own might, 
 and was not raised aloft by the power of another, as was Elias, 
 who " went up" in a fiery chariot into heaven (4 Kings, ii. 11), 
 or as was the Prophet Habacuc (Dan. xiv. 35), or Philip the 
 deacon (Acts, viii. 39), who, borne through the air by the divine 
 power, traversed far distant parts of the earth. Neither did he 
 ascend into heaven solely as God, by the supreme power of the 
 Divinity, but also as man ; for although the ascension could not 
 have taken place by natural power, yet that virtue, with which 
 the blessed soul of Christ had been endowed, was capable of 
 moving the body as it pleased ; and his body, now glorified, 
 readily obeyed the command of the actuating soul. And thus 
 we believe that Christ, as God and man, ascended by his own 
 power into heaven. 
 
 QUESTION III. In what sense Christ is said, in the Second Part 
 of this Artic^ to sit at the Bight Hand of the Father. 
 
 In the second part of this article are these words : " Sitteth 
 at the right hand of the Father." In these words we observe a 
 trope, that is, the changing of a word [from its literal to a figu- 
 rative meaning], a thing frequent in the sacred Scriptures, when, 
 accommodating the matter to our understanding, we attribute 
 human affections and members to God, in whom, spirit that he 
 is, nothing corporeal can be conceived. But as, in human things, 
 we consider him who is placed at the right hand to occupy the 
 more honourable place, transferring the same idea to celestial 
 things also, in order to express the glory which Christ, as man, 
 has obtained before all others, we confess that he is at the right 
 hand of the Father. Here, however, " to sit " does not imply 
 position and figure of body; but he declares the fixed and per- 
 manent possession of even royal and supreme power and glory, 
 which he has received from the Father ; of which the Apostle 
 says : " Raising him up from the dead, and setting him at his 
 right hand in the heavenly places, above all principality, and 
 power, and virtue, and dominion, and every name that is named, 
 not only in this world, but also in that which is to come ; and he
 
 PART I. CHAPTER VII. 75 
 
 hath put all things under his feet" (Eph. i. 20, sqq.) ; words 
 which manifestly imply that this glory belongs to our Lord in a 
 manner so special and exclusive, as not possibly to suit any 
 other created nature ; whence, in another place, the Apostle 
 testifies : " To which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my 
 right band ?" (Heb. i. 13.) 
 
 QUESTION IV. Why the History of Chrisfs Ascension should be 
 frequently repeated to the people. 
 
 But the parish-priest will explain the sense of the article more 
 at large, by detailing the history of the ascension, which the 
 Evangelist St. Luke has described with admirable order in the 
 Acts of the Apostles (Acts, i.). In its exposition he must ob- 
 serve, in the first place, that to the ascension, as to their end, 
 are referred all other mysteries, and that in it is contained the 
 perfection and completion of all; for as with the incarnation of 
 our Lord commence all the mysteries of our religion, so with his 
 ascension into heaven terminates his pilgrimage [on earth]. 
 Moreover, other articles of the Creed, which regard Christ the 
 Lord, show his exceeding great humility and lowliness ; for 
 nothing can be conceived more humble or more lowly than that 
 the Son of God assumed for us the frailty of human nature, and 
 vouchsafed to suffer and die ; but nothing more magnificent, 
 nothing more admirable, can be said to declare his supreme 
 glory and divine majesty, than what we confess in the present 
 and preceding articles, that he rose from the dead, ascended into 
 heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father. 
 
 QUESTION V. Why Christ ascended into Heaven, and did not 
 rather establish his Kingdom on Earth. 
 
 These things having been explained, he will next accurately 
 teach why Christ the Lord ascended into heaven. He ascended, 
 firstly, because the highest and most glorious abode of heaven, 
 not the obscure habitation of this earth, presented a suitable 
 dwelling-place for his body, which, in the resurrection, had been 
 gifted with the glory of immortality. Nor did he ascend solely 
 to possess the throne of his glory, and the kingdom which he 
 had merited by his blood, but, also, to attend to whatever 
 appertained to our salvation, and next to prove thereby, that 
 "his kingdom is not of this world" (John, xviii. 36) ; for the 
 kingdoms of this world are terrene and transient, and are based 
 upon great wealth and the power of the flesh ; whilst the king- 
 dom of Christ is not, as the Jews expected, earthly, but 
 spiritual and eternal, the wealth and riches of which also he 
 shows to be spiritual, by placing his abode in the heavens.
 
 76 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 And in this his kingdom they are to be deemed richer and more 
 affluent in the abundance of all good things, who are more 
 diligent in seeking the things that are of God. For St. James 
 also testifies, that God had chosen " the poor of this world, rich 
 in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to 
 them that love him" (James, ii. 5). But ascending into 
 heaven, our Lord wished also to make us follow him thither in 
 mind and heart ; for as, by his death and resurrection, he had 
 left us an example of dying and rising again in spirit ; so, by 
 his ascension, he teaches and instructs us, that though placed on 
 earth, we should transfer ourselves in thought to heaven, con- 
 fessing that we are " pilgrims and strangers on earth," seeking 
 " a country " (Heb. xi. 13, sq.), " fellow-citizens with the 
 saints, and the domestic of God" (Eph. ii. 19); "for," 
 as the same Apostle says, " our conversation is in heaven " 
 (Phil. iii. 20). 
 
 QUESTION VI. What Benefits are conferred on men through the 
 Ascension of Christ. 
 
 Now the force and magnitude of the inexplicable blessings, 
 which the bounty of God has poured out on us, inspired David, 
 according to the interpretation of the Apostle, had long before 
 sung in these words : " Ascending on high, he led captivity 
 captive; he gave gifts to men" (Ps. Ixvii. 19 ; Eph. iv. 8); 
 for on the tenth day [after his ascension], he. gave the Holy 
 Ghost, with whose power and abundance he filled the multitude 
 of the faithful then present, and then truly fulfilled those 
 magnificent promises : " It is expedient for you that I go ; for 
 if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go, 
 I will send him to you " (John, xvi. 7). He also ascended into 
 heaven, according to the Apostle, " that he may appear in the 
 presence of God for us " (Heb. ix. 24), and discharge for us the 
 office of advocate with the Father : " My little children," says 
 St. John, " these things I write to you, that you may not sin ; 
 but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
 Jesus Christ, the just ; and he is the propitiation for our sins" 
 (1 John, ii. ], sq.). Nor, indeed, is there anything from which 
 the faithful should derive greater joy and delight of soul, than 
 that Jesus Christ is constituted the advocate of our cause, and 
 the intercessor for our salvation with the eternal Father, with 
 whom his favour and influence are paramount. Finally [by his 
 ascension], he prepared for us " a place " (John, xiv. 2), as he 
 had also promised ; and Jesus Christ himself entered, as our 
 head, in the name of us all, into the possession of celestial 
 glory. For, ascending into heaven, he threw open its gates,
 
 PART I. CHAPTER VII. 77 
 
 which had been closed by the sin of Adam ; and, as he had 
 foretold to his disciples at his last snpper. secure to us a way 
 by which we might arrive at celestial bliss. To demonstrate this 
 by the event, he introduced with himself, into the mansions of 
 eternal bliss, the souls of the pious, which he had liberated from 
 prison. 
 
 QUESTION VII. The Advantages which Christ brought us ly his 
 Ascension, 
 
 This admirable profusion of heavenly gifts, was followed by 
 a salutary series of advantages. For, in the first place, the 
 merit of our faith was greatly augmented ; because faith has 
 for its object those things that fall not under the senses, and 
 are remote from the reason and intelligence of men. Where- 
 fore, if the Lord had not departed from us, the merit of our 
 faith would be diminished ; for Christ the Lord has declared 
 them " blessed " that have not " seen, and have believed " 
 (John, xx. 29). Besides, the ascension of Christ into heaven 
 has great weight to confirm in our hearts hope; since, believing 
 that Christ, as man, ascended into heaven, and placed human 
 nature at the right hand of God the Father, we are in great 
 hope, that we, his members, shall also ascend thither, and be 
 there united with our head, according to this testimony of our 
 Lord himself: " Father, I will, that where I am, they also, 
 whom thou hast given me, may be with me " (John, xvii. 24). 
 In the next place, we have attained this most specially impor- 
 tant advantage, that it has rapt our love to heaven, and inflamed 
 it with the divine Spirit ; for, most truly has it been said, that 
 where our treasure is, there also is our heart (Matt. vi. 21). 
 
 QUESTION VIII. It was not Advantageous to us that Christ 
 should remain on Earth. 
 
 And, indeed, if Christ the Lord were dwelling on earth, our 
 every thought would be fixed on the very sight and society of 
 the man, and we should regard only that person who was to 
 bestow on us such blessings, and would cherish towards him a 
 sort of earthly affection. But, by ascending into heaven, he has 
 rendered our love spiritual, and has caused us to venerate and 
 love as God him who, now absent, is the object of our thoughts. 
 This we understand partly from the example of the Apostles, 
 who, whilst our Lord was present with them, seemed to judge 
 of him in some measure humanly ; and it has been partly con- 
 firmed by the testimony of the Lord himself, when he says : "It 
 is expedient for you that I go " (John, xvi. 7); for that imper- 
 fect love, which they cherished towards Christ Jesus when
 
 78 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TEENT. 
 
 present, was to be perfected by divine love, and that by the 
 coming of the Holy Ghost ; wherefore he immediately adds : 
 " If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you." 
 
 QUESTION IX. After the Ascension of Christ, the Church was 
 very much increased. 
 
 Besides he [thus] enlarged his house upon earth, that is, 
 his Church, which was to be governed by the power and gui- 
 dance of the Holy Spirit; and he left Peter, the Prince of the 
 Apostles, as pastor, and supreme head upon earth, of the 
 Universal Church. "Some, indeed," also, "he gave to be 
 Apostles, and some Prophets, and others Evangelists, and others 
 Pastors and Teachers" (Eph. iv. 11); and, thus, sitting at the 
 right hand of the Father, he continually bestows different gifts 
 on different persons ; for the Apostle testifies : " To every one 
 of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of 
 Christ " (Eph. iv. 7). Finally, what we have already taught 
 concerning the mystery of his death and resurrection, the same 
 also the faithful should think concerning his ascension ; for, 
 although we owe our salvation and redemption to the passion of 
 Christ, who by his merits opened heaven to the just ; yet his 
 ascension has been not only proposed to us as a model, 
 by which we may learn to look on high, and ascend in spirit 
 into heaven, but it has also imparted to us a divine virtue, by 
 which we may be enabled to accomplish what it teaches. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OF THE SEVENTH ARTICLE. 
 
 " FROM THENCE HE SHALL COME TO JUDGE THE LIVING 
 AND THE DEAD." 
 
 QUESTION I. Three Benefits of CJirist to his Church, and the 
 Meaning of the Seventh Article, 
 
 To adorn and illustrate his Church, there are three eminent 
 offices and functions of our Lord Jesus Christ, those of 
 Redeemer, Patron, and Judge. But as, from the preceding 
 articles, it is evident, that the human race was redeemed by 
 his passion and death, and that, by his ascension into heaven, 
 he has also undertaken for ever the advocacy and patronage 
 of our cause, it next follows, that his character as judge be set 
 forth in this article, the force and purport of which is to declare 
 that, on the last day, Christ the Lord will judge all mankind.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER VIII. 79 
 
 QUESTION II. The Coming of Christ is Twofold. 
 
 For the sacred Scriptures bear witness, that there are two 
 comings of the Son of God, one, when, for our salvation, he as- 
 sumed flesh, and was made man, in the womb of a virgin; 
 the other, when, at the end of the world, he shall come to judge 
 all men. This coming is called in the sacred Scriptures, " the 
 day of the Lord ;" of which the Apostle says: "The day of the 
 Lord shall so come, as a thief in the night" (1 Thess. v. 2); 
 and the Saviour himself: " But of that day and hour no one 
 knoweth" (Matthew, xxiv. 36; Mark, xiii. 32). And in proof 
 of the last judgment, let that authority of the Apostle suffice: 
 " We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that 
 every one may receive the proper things of the body, according 
 as he hath done, whether it be good or evil " (2 Cor. v. 10). 
 For sacred Scripture is full of testimonies, which will occur to 
 pastors everywhere,* not only to prove the fact, but also to 
 place it before the eyes of the faithful ; that as, from the begin- 
 ning of the world, that day of the Lord, on which he was clothed 
 with human flesh, was always most earnestly desired by all, be- 
 cause in that mystery they reposed the hope of their liberation ; 
 so, after the death and ascension into heaven of the Son of God, 
 the second day of the Lord may thenceforth be the object of our 
 most earnest desires : " waiting for the blessed hope and coming 
 of the glory of the great God " (Tit. ii. 13). 
 
 QUESTION III. How often every man must undergo Sentence before 
 the Tribunal of Christ the Judge. 
 
 But to explain this subject, parish-priests must distinguish 
 two different periods, at which each one must necessarily appear 
 in presence of the Lord, and render a special account of all his 
 thoughts, words, and deeds, and finally receive sentence from the 
 mouth of his Judge. The first is, when each of us departs life ; 
 for he is instantly placed at the tribunal of God, where all that he 
 had ever done, or spoken, or thought, is subjected to the strictest 
 scrutiny; and this is called the particular judgment. The second 
 is, when, on the same day, and in the same place, all men shall 
 stand together, at the tribunal of their Judge, that, in the presence 
 and hearing of all ages, each may know his final doom and sen- 
 tence ; the announcement of which will constitute no very small 
 
 * 1 Kings, ii. 10; Ps. xcv. 13, xcvii. 9; Isa. ii. 13, 26, 27, 30; Jer. 
 xxx. 23; Dan. vii. 9; Joel, ii. 1, 31; Soph. i. 2. 14; Malach. iv. 1; Matt. 
 xii. 36, xiii. 49; Luke, xvii. 24; Acts, i. 11, lii. 20; Rom. ii. 14; 1 Cor. 
 xv. 1; Thess. i. 7; Apoc. xx. 11.
 
 80 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 part of the pains and punishments of the impious and wicked, 
 and of the remuneration and rewards which the pious and just 
 will receive, when it shall appear what has been the tenor of 
 each man's life. This is called the general judgment. 
 
 QUESTION IV. Why, besides the Particular, it ivas necessary there 
 should be a General Judgment. 
 
 Regarding it, an indispensable duty of the pastor is to show 
 why, besides the particular judgment of each individual, a 
 general one should also be passed upon all men. For those who 
 depart this life, leave behind them sometimes children who follow 
 the example of their parents, sometimes books, followers, ad- 
 mirers, and advocates of their example, language, conduct 
 matters by which the rewards or punishments of the dead must 
 necessarily be augmented, since such advantage or calamity, af- 
 fecting so many persons, is to terminate only with the end of 
 the world ; it was meet that a perfect inquiry should be held, 
 regarding all this sort of good or bad actions and words, a thing 
 which had been impossible without a general judgment of all 
 men. Moreover, as the good name of the. pious is often injured, 
 whilst the wicked are commended with the praise of innocence, 
 the nature of the divine justice demands that the pious recover, 
 in the presence, and with the suffrage, of a congregated world, 
 the estimation of which they had been unjustly deprived among 
 men. Again, as good and bad men performed all their actions 
 through life, not without the co-operation of their bodies, it fol- 
 lows by all means that good and bad actions appertain also to 
 the bodies, which were the instruments of those actions. It was 
 therefore most fitting that the bodies should participate with 
 their souls in the due rewards of eternal glory or the punish- 
 ments ; and this could not be accomplished without a general 
 resurrection and a general judgment of all men. Lastly, as it 
 was necessary to prove that in human prosperity and adversity, 
 which are sometimes the promiscuous lot of the good and the 
 bad, everything is done and ordered by the infinite wisdom and 
 justice of God ; it was meet not only that rewards should await 
 the good, punishments the wicked, in the next life, but that they 
 should also be awarded by a public and general judgment, by 
 which they might become better known, and more conspicuous 
 to all; and that, for the unjust complaint, in which, on seeing the 
 wicked abounding in wealth and flourishing in honours, even the 
 Saints themselves, as men, were wont sometimes deploringly to 
 indulge, the praise of justice and providence may be given to 
 God by all; for the Prophet says: "My feet were almost moved, 
 my steps had well nigh slipt; because I had a zeal on occasion
 
 PART I. CHAPTER VIII. 81 
 
 of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners;" and a little 
 after : " Behold, these are sinners, and yet, abounding in the 
 world, they have obtained riches ; and I said, then have I in 
 vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the inno- 
 cent ; and I have been scourged all the day ; and my chastise- 
 ment hath been in the morning" (Ps. Ixxii. 2, 3, 12, sqq.). 
 And this has been the frequent complaint of many ; whence a 
 general judgment was necessary, lest perhaps men should say 
 that God, walking " about the poles of heaven " (Job, xxii. 
 14), regards not the things of earth. Justly, therefore, has 
 this formula of truth been made one of the twelve articles of the 
 Christian Faith, that, should the minds of any waver concerning 
 the providence and justice of God, they might be confirmed by 
 means of this doctrine. Besides, the pious should be encouraged, 
 the impious appalled, by the proposed judgment ; that, knowing 
 the justice of God, the former might not be disheartened, and 
 that, through fear and expectation of eternal punishment, the 
 latter might be recalled from their evil ways. Wherefore, 
 speaking of the last day, our Lord and Saviour declared, that a 
 general judgment shall one day take place, and described the 
 signs of its approach; that on seeing them, we may know that the 
 end of the world is at hand (Matt. xxiv. 29) ; and, afterwards, 
 ascending into heaven, he sent angels to console his Apostles, be- 
 wailing his departure, in these words: "This Jesus who is taken 
 up from you into heaven, so shall he come as you have seen him 
 going into heaven" (Acts, i. 11). 
 
 QUESTION V. The Power of Judging the Human Race has been 
 given to Christ according to both Natures. 
 
 But that this judgment has been assigned to Christ the Lord, 
 not only as God, but also as man, the sacred Scriptures declare ; 
 for although the power of judging is common to all the Persons 
 of the holy Trinity, yet we attribute it specially to the Son, 
 because to him we also ascribe wisdom. And that he will judge 
 the world as man, is confirmed by the testimony of our Lord, 
 who says : " As the Father hath life in himself, so he hath 
 given to the Son also to have life in himself; and he hath given 
 him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of 
 man " (John, v, 26, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION VI. Why this Judgment is not ascribed, in like 
 manner, to the Father or the Holy Ghost. 
 
 But [the pastor] will teach, that this judgment is to be ex- 
 ercised by Christ the Lord chiefly that, as sentence is to be 
 pronounced on men, they may see their judge with their cor-
 
 82 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 poreal eyes, and hear the sentence pronounced with their ears, 
 and fully learn that judgment through the senses. Most just is 
 it, too, that the man, who was condemned by the most iniqui- 
 tous judgment of men, should himself be, afterwards, seen by 
 all men sitting as judge of all. Hence, the Prince of the 
 Apostles, having expounded, in the house of Cornelius, the 
 principal heads of the Christian religion, and having taught that 
 Christ suspended from a cross, and put to death by the Jews, 
 rose to life on the third day, added : " And he commanded us 
 to preach to the people, and to testify that he it is who hath 
 been appointed by God, to be the judge of the living and the 
 dead " (Acts, x. 42). 
 
 QUESTION VII. By what Signs it will be known that the Last 
 Judgment is at hand. 
 
 But the sacred Scriptures declare, that these three principal 
 signs will precede the judgment : the preaching of the Gospel 
 throughout the whole world, a defection from the faith, Anti- 
 christ ; for the Lord says: "This Gospel of the kingdom shall 
 be preached in the whole world, as a testimony to all nations, 
 and then shall the consummation come" (Matt. xxiv. 14) ; and 
 the Apostle admonishes us that we be not deceived by any man, 
 " as if the day of the Lord were at hand ; for, unless there come 
 a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of per- 
 dition " (2 Thess. ii. 2, sq.), the judgment will not take place. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. How the Judgment will take place, and how 
 Sentence will be passed on all. 
 
 The form and process of this judgment, parish-priests will 
 easily know from the oracles of Daniel (Dan. vii. 9), and from 
 the doctrine of the holy Evangelists, and of the Apostle. The 
 sentence, moreover, to be pronounced by the judge, is here to 
 be expounded with more than ordinary diligence. Looking 
 with joyful eyes to the just, standing on his right hand, Christ 
 our Saviour will pronounce sentence on them with the greatest 
 benignity, in these words : " Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
 possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
 the world " (Matt. xxv. 34). That nothing can be heard more 
 delightful than these words, they will understand who compare 
 them with the condemnation of the wicked ; and reflect within 
 themselves, that, by these words, pious and just men are called 
 from labour to rest, from the vale of tears to supreme joy, from 
 miseries to the everlasting happiness, which, by their offices of 
 charity, they deserved.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER VIII. 83 
 
 QUESTION IX. With what sorts of Punishments the Wicked, 
 placed on the Left Hand, shall be visited. 
 
 Turning next to those who shall stand on his left hand, he 
 shall pour out his justice on them in these words: "Depart 
 from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared 
 for the devil and his angels" (Matt. xxv. 41). For in those 
 first words, " depart from me," is expressed the heaviest punish- 
 ment with which the wicked shall be visited, their banishment 
 at the greatest distance from the sight of God, unrelieved by 
 one consolatory hope of ever enjoying so great a good. This 
 Divines call " the pain of loss," because in hell the wicked shall 
 ever want the light of the vision of God. The words, " ye 
 cursed," which are added, augment to a wonderful degree their 
 misery and calamity; for if, when about to be banished from the 
 divine presence, they are deemed worthy at least of some bless- 
 ing, this might be to them, indeed, a great consolation ; but 
 having no such expectation as might alleviate calamity, the 
 divine justice will most deservedly pursue them, when banished, 
 with every malediction. The words, " into everlasting fire," 
 which follow next, express another sort of punishment, called 
 by Divines " the pain of sense ;" because, like stripes and 
 flagellations, or other severer sort of punishments, amongst 
 which doubtless the tortures of fire produce the most intense 
 feeling of pain, it is felt through the organs of sense. When to 
 this evil is added that it is to last for ever, by this it is shown 
 that the sufferings of the damned will comprise an accumulation 
 of all punishments. And this the words, " which is prepared 
 for the devil and his angels," at the close of the sentence, more 
 fully declare ; for as it is so provided, that we bear all troubles 
 more lightly, if we have some companion and sharer in our 
 calamity, by whose prudence and kindliness we may, in some 
 degree, be assisted ; what, then, shall be the misery of the 
 damned, to whom, in such extreme wretchedness, it shall never 
 be permitted to be loosed from the society of the most wretched 
 demons ? And most justly shall this sentence be passed by our 
 Lord and Saviour on the wicked, who neglected all the works 
 of true piety, who gave not meat to the hungry, drink to the 
 thirsty, shelter to the stranger, clothing to the naked, nor 
 visited him who was sick and in prison. 
 
 QUESTION X. The subject of the Judgment should be frequently 
 inculcated on the Ears of the Faith/ul People. 
 
 These are matters which pastors should very frequently press 
 upon the attention of the faithful ; for the truth contained in
 
 84 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 this article, conceived by faith, is most efficacious in bridling 
 the perverse propensities of the heart, and withdrawing souls 
 from sin.* Hence it is said in Ecclesiasticus : "In all thy 
 works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin " (Eccl. 
 vii. 40). And, indeed, scarcely will any one be so abandoned 
 to vice, as not to be recalled to the pursuit of virtue by the 
 reflection, that a time will come, when he will have to render 
 an account, before a most just judge, not only of all his words 
 and actions, but even of his most hidden thoughts, and shall 
 pay a penalty according to his deserts. But the just man must 
 be more and more excited to cultivate justice, and, although he 
 even spend his life in want, infamy, torments, must be trans- 
 ported with the greatest joy, when he looks forward to that 
 day, on which, after the conflicts of this wretched life, he shall 
 be declared victorious in the hearing of all men ; and, admitted 
 into his heavenly country, shall be crowned with divine, and 
 these, also, eternal honours. It remains, therefore, that the 
 faithful be exhorted to attain the best manner of living, and 
 exercise themselves in every practice of piety ; that thus they 
 may be able to wait with greater security of mind that great 
 coming day of the Lord, and even, as becomes children, to 
 desire it most earnestly. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON THE EIGHTH ARTICLE. 
 
 " I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST." 
 
 QUESTION I. How great is the Necessity and Fi*uit of Faith in 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Hitherto we have expounded, as far as the nature of the 
 proposed subject seemed to require, what appertained to the 
 First and Second Persons of the holy Trinity. It now follows, 
 that what is handed down in the Creed regarding the Third 
 Person, that is, the Holy Ghost, be also explained. In the 
 exposition of this matter, pastors will employ all study and 
 diligence ; for, in a Christian man, ignorance or error is not 
 more excusable on this, than on the preceding articles. 
 Wherefore the Apostle suffered not some Ephesians to be igno- 
 rant of the Person of the Holy Ghost: having asked them if 
 
 * Aug. serm. 128, <le tein p. Greg. horn. 39 in Evang. Bernard, serm. 
 i. in feaio omnium Sanctorum.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER IX. 85 
 
 they had " received the Holy Ghost," and having received for 
 answer, that they did " not so much as" know "whether there 
 be a Holy Ghost," he immediately asked : " In what, then, 
 were you baptized ?" (Acts, xix. 2, sqq.) ; by which words he 
 signified that a distinct knowledge of this article is most neces- 
 sary to the faithful. From it they derive this especial fruit, 
 that, considering attentively, that whatever they possess, they 
 obtained through the bounty and beneficence of the Holy Spirit, 
 they learn to think more modestly and humbly of themselves, 
 and begin to place all hope in the protection of God, which, to 
 a Christian man, should be the first step towards supreme 
 wisdom and happiness. 
 
 QCESTION II. The Word "Holy Ghost " does not agree with the 
 Third Person of the Trinity so as not to be applicable also to 
 the others. 
 
 The explanation of this article, therefore, should begin with 
 the force and meaning which is here attached to the word, 
 " Holy Ghost ;" for, as this appellation is with equal and 
 strictest propriety enunciated of the Father and the Son (for 
 both are spirit, both holy, if indeed we confess God to be a 
 spirit), and by this term are also signified angels and the souls 
 of the pious, care must be taken that the people be not led into 
 error by the ambiguity of the word. Wherefore it must be 
 taught, that, in this article, by the word Holy Ghost is under- 
 stood the Third Person of the Trinity, a sense in which it is 
 sometimes taken in the Old, and often in the New Testament. 
 Thus David prays : " Take not thy Holy Spirit from me" (Ps. 
 1. 13) ; in the book of Wisdom we read: " Who shall know 
 thy thought, except thou give wisdom, and send thy Holy 
 Spirit from above ?" (Wis. ix. 17) ; and elsewhere: " He created 
 her in the Holy Ghost " (Eccl. i. 9). In the New Testament 
 also we are commanded to be baptized " in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost " (Matt, xxviii. 
 19) ; we read that the most holy Virgin conceived of the Holy 
 Ghost (Matt. i. 20) ; we are also sent by St. John to Christ, 
 who baptizeth us with the Holy Ghost (John, i. 33) ; and the 
 word occurs to readers in very many other places besides. 
 
 QUESTION III. Why a Proper Name is not given to the Third 
 Person of the Trinity, as to the other Two. 
 
 Nor should any one wonder that a proper name is not 
 given to the Third as to the First and Second Person ; for the 
 Second Person is designated by a proper name, and is called 
 Son, because, as has been explained in the preceding articles,
 
 86 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 his eternal origin from the Father is properly called generation. 
 As, then, that origin is signified by the word generation ; so 
 the Person who emanates we properly call Son, and the Person 
 from whom he emanates, Father. Now, as on the production 
 of the Third Person is imposed no proper name, but it is called 
 spiration and procession, it follows that the Person produced 
 should also be without a proper name. But his emanation has 
 no proper name, for this reason, that we are obliged to borrow 
 from created things the names which are given to God ; and, 
 as we know no other created means of communicating nature 
 and essence but by virtue of generation, hence it is that we 
 cannot express by a proper name the manner in which God 
 communicates himself entire by the force of his love. Where- 
 fore the Third Person is called by the common name of Holy 
 Ghost, a name, indeed, which we understand to be most ap- 
 propriate to him, who infuses into us spiritual life, and with- 
 out whose most holy inspiration we can do nothing meritorious 
 of eternal life. 
 
 QUESTION IV. The Holy Ghost is God, of entirely the same 
 Power and Nature with the Father and the Son. 
 
 But, the import of the name being explained, the people 
 should first of all be taught, that the Holy Ghost is equally 
 God with the Father and the Son, equal to the same, equally 
 omnipotent, eternal, all-perfect, the supreme good, infinitely 
 wise, and of the same nature with the Father and the Son. 
 This the propriety of the word " in " suificiently indicates, when 
 we say, " I believe in the Holy Ghost ; " which word " in " is 
 affixed to each Person of the Trinity, to express the force 
 of our faith. And this, clear testimonies of the sacred writings 
 also confirm ; for when, in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Peter 
 had said, " Ananias, why hath satan tempted thy heart, that 
 thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost?" he soon after adds: 
 " Thou hast not lied to men, but to God " (Acts, v. 3, sq.) ; the 
 same whom he had previously called the Holy Ghost, he im- 
 mediately after calls God. The Apostle also to the Corinthians 
 interprets Him, whom he had called God, to be the Holy 
 Ghost : " There are," says he, " diversities of operations, but the 
 same God, who worketh all in all ; " " but," immediately sub- 
 joins he, " all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, 
 dividing to every one according as he will" (1 Cor. xii. 6, 11). 
 Besides, in the Acts of the Apostles, what the Prophets attri- 
 bute to the one God, he ascribes to the Holy Ghost. Thus, 
 Jsaias had said : " I heard the voice of the Lord saying : Whom 
 shall I send ? And he said : Go, and thou shalt say to this
 
 PART I. CHAPTER IX. 87 
 
 people : Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears 
 heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and 
 hear with their ears" (Is. vi. 8, sqq.); and when about to cite 
 those words, the Apostle says : " Well did the Holy Ghost 
 speak to our fathers by Isaias the Prophet" (Acts, xxviii. 25). 
 Again, when the Scripture annexes the Person of the Holy 
 Ghost to the Father and the Son, as when it commands the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, to 
 be used in baptism, no room for doubt is left us regarding the 
 truth of this mystery. For, if the Father is God, and the Son 
 God, we must necessarily acknowledge that the Holy Ghost, 
 who is united with them in the same degree of honour, is also 
 God. Moreover, he who is baptized in the name of any crea- 
 ture, can derive no fruit therefrom. " Were you baptized in 
 the name of Paul?" (1 Cor. i. 13), says he, to show that this 
 could avail them nothing to salvation. As, then, we are bap- 
 tized in the name of the Holy Ghost, we must acknowledge that 
 he is God. But this same order of the Three Persons, whereby 
 the divinity of the Holy Ghost is proved, we may observe both 
 in the epistle of John : " There are three that give testimony 
 in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and 
 these three are one" (1 John, v. 7) ; and also in that noble 
 doxology of the holy Trinity : " Glory be to the Father, and to 
 the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," with which the divine praises 
 and the psalms are concluded. Finally, what is most pertinent 
 to confirm this truth, the sacred Scriptures testify that whatever 
 faith attributes to God, equally suits the Holy Ghost ; where- 
 fore to him they ascribe the honour of temples, as when the 
 Apostle says : " Know yon not that your members are the 
 temple of the Holy Ghost?" (1 Cor. vi. 19); also sanctifica- 
 tion (2 Thess. ii. 13 ; 1 Pet. i. 2), and verification (John, vi. 
 64; 2 Cor. iii. 6); and to search "the deep things of God" 
 (1 Cor. ii. 10) ; to speak by the Prophets (2 Pet. i. 21); and 
 to be present in all places (Ps. cxxxviii. 7; Wisd. i. 7); all 
 of which are attributable to God alone. 
 
 QUESTION V. It must be assuredly believed, that the term "Holy 
 Ghost " signifies the Third Person of the Trinity, subsisting 
 of himself . 
 
 It must also be accurately explained to the faithful, that the 
 Holy Ghost is God, so as that we must confess him to be the 
 Third Person, distinct in the divine nature from the Father and 
 the Son, and produced by their will ; for, to omit other testi- 
 monies of Scripture, the form of baptism taught by our Saviour 
 (Matt, xxviii. 19), most clearly shows that the Holy Ghost is
 
 88 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 the Third Person, subsisting by himself in the divine nature, and 
 distinct from them, which also the words of the Apostle declare, 
 when he says : " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the 
 charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost, be 
 with you all, Amen" (2 Cor. xiii. 13). The same is much 
 more explicitly announced in the words here added by the 
 Fathers of the first Council of Constantinople,* to refute the 
 impious madness of Macedonius: " And in the Holy Ghost, the 
 Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the 
 Sou ; who, together with the Father and the Son, is adored and 
 glorified ; who spoke by the Prophets." By confessing the Holy 
 Ghost to be " Lord," they thus declare how far he excells the 
 angels, who, however, are the noblest spirits created by God ; 
 for St. Paul testifies that they are all " ministering spirits, sent 
 to minister for those who shall receive the inheritance of sal- 
 vation" (Heb. i. 14.) But they designate him, " The Giver of 
 life," because the soul lives more by its union with God, than 
 the body is nurtured and sustained by its union with the soul. 
 As, then, the sacred Scriptures ascribe to the Holy Ghost this 
 union of the soul with God, it is clear that, with the greatest 
 propriety, is the Holy Ghost designated " the Giver of life." 
 
 QUESTION VI. It declares that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the 
 Father and the Son, as from one principle. 
 
 With regard to what follows : " who proceedeth from the 
 Father and the Son," the faithful are to be taught that the Holy 
 Ghost proceeds, by eternal procession, from the Father and the 
 Son, as from one principle ; for this the ecclesiastical rule, from 
 which it is not lawful for a Christian to deviate, propounds to 
 us to be believed ; and it is confirmed by the authority of the 
 sacred Scriptures and Councils. For, speaking of the Holy 
 Ghost, Christ the Lord said : " He shall glorify me, because he 
 shall receive of mine " (John, xvi. 14) ; and the same is inferred 
 from the fact of the Holy Ghost being sometimes called in holy 
 Scripture, " the Spirit of Christ," sometimes, " the Spirit of the 
 Father ;" is one time said to be sent by the Father (John, xiv. 
 26), another time by the Son (John, xv. 26) ; it being thus not 
 obscurely signified, that he proceeds alike from the Father and 
 the Son. " If any man," says St. Paul, " have not the Spirit of 
 Christ, he is none of his " (Rom. viii. 9) j and he calls the Holy 
 
 * The words "and the Son," subsequently inserted by the Latins, 
 were not contained in the Creed of the first Council of Constantinople, 
 nor in that of Nice. The insertion, however, was not so much an 
 addition as an explanation, and was confirmed by the Greeks in the 
 Councils of Lyons and Florence. TR.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER IX. 89 
 
 Ghost the Spirit of Christ, when he says to the Galatians : 
 " God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying : 
 Abba, Father " (Gal. iv. 6). In St. Matthew, he is called the 
 Spirit of the Father : " It is not you that speak, bat the Spirit 
 of your Father that speaketh in you " (Matt. x. 20) ; and our 
 Lord said, at the last supper : " When the Paraclete shall come, 
 whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who 
 proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me " 
 (John, xv. 26). In another place also he affirms, that the same 
 Holy Ghost is to be sent by the Father : " whom," says he, 
 " the Father will send in my name " (John, xiv. 26). Under- 
 standing from these words the procession of the Holy Ghost, it 
 is clear to us, that he proceeds from both. These are the 
 things that are to be taught with regard to the Person of the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 QUESTION VII. Since the Works of the Trinity are undivided, 
 why certain Effects and Gifts are particularly attributed to the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 [The pastor] must also teach, that there are certain admirable 
 effects, and certain most ample gifts of the Holy Ghost, which 
 are said to originate and emanate from him, as from a perennial 
 fountain of goodness. For, although the extrinsic works of the 
 most holy Trinity are common to the Three Persons, yet, many 
 of them are attributed especially to the Holy Ghost, to give us 
 to understand that they proceed from the boundless love of God 
 towards us : for as the Holy Ghost proceeds from the divine will, 
 inflamed as it were with love, we can comprehend that these 
 effects, which are referred particularly to the Holy Ghost, arise 
 from the extreme love of God towards us. Hence it is that the 
 Holy Ghost is called A GIFT ; fur by the word gift is meant that 
 which is kindly and gratuitously bestowed, no hope of remune- 
 ration being proposed. Whatever blessings and benefits, there- 
 fore, have been bestowed on us by God, and, as the Apostle 
 says, " what " have we, that we have " not received " from 
 God ? (1 Cor. iv. 7), these we should, with pious and grateful 
 mind, acknowledge to have been bestowed by the bounty and gift 
 of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. What, of what kind, and how great are 
 the Effects of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 But his effects are numerous ; for, to omit the creation of 
 the world, the propagation and government of created things, 
 of which we made mention in the first article, it was shown a 
 little before, that to the Holy Ghost is specially attributed, the
 
 90 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 giving of life ; and this is confirmed by the testimony of 
 Ezechiel : " I will give you spirit, and you shall live " (Ezech. 
 xxxvii. 6). The Prophet, however, enumerates the principal 
 and most especial effects of the Holy Ghost : " The spirit of 
 wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, 
 the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and the spirit of the fear 
 of the Lord " (Isa. xi. 2, sq.) ; which are called the gifts of the 
 Holy Ghost, and to which is sometimes given the name of the 
 Holy Ghost. Wisely, therefore, does St. Augustine admonish, 
 that, whenever in the sacred Scriptures mention is made of the 
 word Holy Ghost, we must pay attention, in order that we may 
 distinguish whether it means the Third Person of the Trinity, or 
 his effects and operations ;* for they are both as distinct from 
 one another as is the Creator from things created. And these 
 matters should be explained the more diligently, as from these 
 very gifts of the Holy Ghost we derive rules of a Christian life, 
 and are enabled to perceive whether the Holy Ghost dwell within 
 us. But that grace of justification, which seals us "with the 
 Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance " 
 (Eph. i. 13, sq.), is to be proclaimed by us above his other 
 amplest gifts, for this it is that unites our hearts to God in the 
 closest bonds of love; whence it comes to pass that, inflamed with 
 a most ardent desire of piety, we begin a new life, and, " made 
 partakers of the divine nature," are " called and " really are 
 " the sons of God."| 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 OF THE NINTH ARTICLE. 
 
 " I BELIEVE THE HOLT CATHOLIC CHURCH \ THE COMMUNION 
 OF SAINTS." 
 
 QUESTION I. Reasons why the Ninth Article ought the most 
 frequently of all to be inculcated on the people. 
 
 With what great diligence pastors ought to take care to ex- 
 plain to the faithful the truth of this ninth article, will be easily 
 known, if we attend chiefly to two considerations : first, that, 
 as St. Augustine observes,} the Prophets spoke more plainly 
 
 * St. Augustine, lib. 15, de Trinit. cap. xviii. 19. 
 t 2 Pet. T. 4 ; 1 John, iii. 1 ; Counc. Trid. Sess. vi 
 J S. Aug. in Ps. xxx. 15 ; Expos, ii. serm. ii. 18, Ed. Benedict.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER X. 9J 
 
 and openly of the Church than of Christ, foreseeing that on this 
 a much greater number may err and be deceived, than on the 
 mystery of the Incarnation : for, in after ages, there would not 
 be wanting wicked men, who, like the ape, that would fain pass 
 for a man, would profess themselves alone to be Catholics, and, 
 with no less impiety than effrontery, assert that with them alone 
 is the Catholic Church ; secondly, that he, whose mind is strongly 
 impressed with this truth, will easily escape the awful danger of 
 heresy ; for a person is not to be called a heretic, as soon as he 
 shall have offended in matters of faith ; but he who, having dis- 
 regarded the authority of the Church, maintains impious opinions 
 with pertinacity. As, therefore, it is impossible that any one 
 be infected with the contagion of heresy, so long as he holds 
 what this article proposes to be believed, let pastors use every 
 diligence, that the faithful having known this mystery, and 
 guarded against the wiles of satan, may persevere in the true 
 faith. But this article hinges upon the preceding one; for, it 
 having been already shown, that the Holy Ghost is the source 
 and giver of all holiness, we here profess our belief, that the 
 Church has been endowed by him with sanctity. 
 
 QUESTION II. What is particularly and what generally denoted 
 by the word" Ecclesia" (Church). 
 
 And as the Latins, having borrowed the word " Ecclesia " from 
 the Greeks, have transferred it, since the preaching of the Gos- 
 pel, to sacred things, it becomes necessary to explain its meaning. 
 The word Ecclesia (church) means a calling forth ; but writers 
 afterwards used it to signify a council or assembly. Nor does 
 it matter whether the people have been professors of a true or a 
 false religion ; for, in the Acts, it is written of the people of 
 Ephesus, that, when the town-clerk had appeased a tumultuous 
 assemblage, he said : " And if you inquire after any other matter, 
 it may be decided in a lawful assembly " (Ecclesia) ;* thus 
 calling the Ephesians, who were worshippers of Diana, a lawful 
 " assembly." Nor are the Gentiles only, who knew not God, 
 called an "Ecclesia;" by the same name are also designated the 
 councils of wicked and impious men : " 1 have hated the assem- 
 bly of the malignant," says the Prophet, " and with the wicked 
 I will not sit " (Ps. xxv. 5). In common Scripture usage, how- 
 ever, the word was subsequentlyemployed to signify the Christian 
 commonwealth only, and the congregations of the faithful ; that 
 is, of those who were called by faith to the light of truth and 
 
 * Acts, xix. 39. Ecclesia is derived from tiutaXfw, to call forth; from 
 the circumstance that the Athenian assembly, from which it took its 
 name, was usually summoned by heralds. TK.
 
 92 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 the knowledge of God, that, having forsaken the darkness of 
 ignorance and error, they may worship the living and true God 
 piously and holily, and serve him from their whole heart. In a 
 word : " The Church," says St. Augustine, " consists of the faith- 
 ful people, dispersed throughout the world."* 
 
 QUESTION III. What Mysteries chiefly are presented for 
 contemplation in the word Church. 
 
 In this word are contained no unimportant mysteries, for, 
 in the <k calling forth," which the word " Ecclesia " signifies, 
 at once shine forth the benignity and splendour of the divine 
 grace, and we understand that the Church is very unlike all 
 other commonwealths ; for they rest on human reason and pru- 
 dence, but this has been established on the wisdom and councils 
 of God ; for he called us by the inward inspiration of the 
 Holy Ghost, who opens the hearts of men, and outwardly 
 through the labour and ministry of pastors and preachers. 
 Moreover, what end should be proposed to us from this calling, 
 that is, the knowledge and possession of things eternal, he will 
 very well perceive, who will observe why the faithful people of 
 old, placed under the law, were called a synagogue, that is, a 
 congregation ; for, as St. Augustine teaches, " they were so 
 called, because, like cattle, which are wont to herd together, 
 they looked only to terrestrial and transitory goods."t Where- 
 fore, the Christian people are justly called, not a synagogue, but 
 a Church, because, despising terrene and transitory things, they 
 pursue only things heavenly and eternal. 
 
 QUESTION IV. By what names the universal body of Christians 
 is found described in the sacred Scriptures. 
 
 Many names, moreover, which are replete with mysteries, 
 have been applied to designate the Christian commonwealth. 
 Thus, by the Apostle it is called " the house and edifice of 
 God." " If," says he to Timothy, " I tarry long, that thou 
 mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house 
 of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and 
 ground of truth " (1 Tim. iii. 15). But the Church is called a 
 house, because it is, as it were, one family, governed by one 
 master of the family, and enjoying a community of all spiritual 
 goods. It is also called the flock of the sheep of Christ, of 
 which he is " the door and the shepherd " (John, x. 7 ; Ezech. 
 
 * 8. Aug. in Ps. cxlix. 3. The text of St. Augustine is : " Ecclesia 
 sanctorum, Ecclesia frumentorum toto terrarum orbe diffusorum." 
 t Aug. in Ps. Ixxvii. et Ixxxi. 1.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER X. 93 
 
 xxxiv. 5). It is called the spouse of Christ : " I have espoused 
 you to one husband," says the Apostle to the Corinthians, " that 
 I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ " (2 Cor. xi. 2) ; 
 and to the Ephesiaus : " Husbands, love your wives, as Christ 
 also loved the Church " (Eph. v. 25) ; and of marriage : " This 
 is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church " 
 (Eph. v. 32). Finally, the Church is called the body of Christ, 
 as may be seen in the epistles to the Ephesians (Eph. i. 23) and 
 Colossians (Colos. i. 24) appellations, each of which has very 
 great influence in exciting the faithful to prove themselves 
 worthy the boundless clemency and goodness of God, who hath 
 chosen them to be the people of God. 
 
 QUESTION V. Two parts of the Church are chiefly mentioned, 
 the one Triumphant, the other Militant. 
 
 These things being explained, it will be necessary to enu- 
 merate the several parts of the Church, and point out their 
 differences, that the people may the better comprehend the 
 nature, properties, gifts, and graces of the Church, beloved of 
 God, and, on that account, unceasingly praise the divine 
 Majesty. The Church, then, consists principally of two 
 parts, the one called the Church triumphant, the other, the 
 Church militant. The Church triumphant is that most glo- 
 rious and happy assemblage of blessed spirits, and of those who 
 triumphed over the world, the flesh, and the devil, and who, 
 free and secure from the troubles of this life, enjoy everlasting 
 bliss. But the Church militant is the society of all the faithful 
 still living on earth, and is called militant, because it wages 
 perpetual war with those implacable enemies, the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil. We are not, however, hence to infer that 
 there are two Churches; but there are, as we have already 
 said, two constituent parts of the same Church, one of which 
 has gone before, and is now in the possession of its heavenly 
 country, the other following every day, until at length, united 
 with our Saviour, it repose in endless felicity. 
 
 QUESTION VI. In the Church Militant are two sorts of men, the 
 good and the bad. 
 
 Now, in the Church militant there are two sorts of men, the 
 good and the bad, and the bad indeed profess the same faith, 
 and partake of the same sacraments as the good, differing in 
 their lives and morals. In the Church they are called the good, 
 who are joined and bound together not only by the profession 
 of the same faith, and the participation of the same sacraments
 
 94 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 but also by the spirit of grace, and the bond of charity; of 
 whom it is said : " The Lord knoweth who are his " (2 Tim. ii. 
 19). Who they are who belong to the number of these pious 
 men, we too may form some conjecture ; but know with certainty 
 we cannot (Counc. Trid. sess. vi. c. 12). Of this part of his 
 Church, therefore, we are not to suppose Christ our Saviour to 
 have spoken when he referred us to the Church, and commanded 
 us to obey her (Matt, xviii. 17) ; for, unknown as is that por- 
 tion of the Church, how could any one ascertain with certainty 
 to whose decision to recur, whose authority to obey? The 
 Church, therefore, as the sacred Scriptures and the writings of 
 holy men testify, comprises the good and the bad ; and in this 
 sense were written these words of the Apostle : " One body and 
 one spirit" (Eph. iv. 4). 
 
 QUESTION VII. The Church is visible, and comprises in its bosom 
 both the good and the bad. 
 
 Now this Church is known, and compared to a city seated on 
 a mountain, which is seen from every side (Matt. v. 14) ; for as 
 all must obey her authority, it is necessary that she be known. 
 Nor does the Church include the good only, but also the bad, as 
 the Gospel teaches in many parables; as when it mentions that 
 " the kingdom of heaven," that is, the Church militant, " is like 
 to a net cast into the sea " (Matt. xiii. 47), or to a field in which 
 tares were sown amongst [the good grain] (Matt. xiii. 24), or to 
 a threshing-floor on which the grain is mixed up with the chaff 
 (Luke, iii. 17), or to ten virgins, some of whom were wise, and 
 some foolish (Matt. xxv. 1, sq.). But long before also, we may 
 behold a figure and resemblance of this Church in the ark of 
 Noah, in which were contained not only clean, but also unclean 
 animals (Gen. vii. 2 ; 1 Pet. iii. 20). But, although the Catholic 
 faith truly and constantly affirms that to the Church belong the 
 good and the bad, yet it is to be explained to the faithful from 
 the same rules of faith, that very different is the condition of each 
 class ; for, as the chaff is mingled with the grain on the threshing- 
 floor, or as members, deadened in various ways,sometimes remain 
 attached to thebody,so also are the wicked contained in theChurch. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Who are excluded from the pale of the Church 
 Militant. 
 
 Hence from her pale are excluded only three classes of persons : 
 first, infidels ; next, heretics and schismatics ; lastly, the excom- 
 municated: infidels, because they never belonged to, and never 
 knew the Church, nor were they ever made partakers of any 
 sacrament in the society of the Christian people ; heretics and
 
 PART I. CHAPTER X. 95 
 
 schismatics, because they have severed themselves from the 
 Church, nor do they belong to the Church any more than de- 
 serters belong to the army from which they have deserted. It 
 is not, however, to be denied, that they are still subject to the 
 power of the Church, whereas they may be cited before her 
 tribunal, punished and condemned by anathema. Finally, ex- 
 communicated persons also, because excluded by her sentence 
 from the Church, belong not to her communion, until they re- 
 pent. With regard, however, to the rest, although bad and 
 wicked men, they, no doubt, still continue in the Church ; and 
 of this the faithful are frequently to be informed, in order to be 
 fully convinced that, were even the lives of her ministers per- 
 chance flagitious, they are still included within her pale, and lose 
 not on that account any part of their power. 
 
 QUESTION IX. Various significations of the word Church. 
 
 But portions, also, of the Universal Church are commonly 
 called a church, as when the Apostle names the Church at 
 Corinth (2 Cor. i. 1), at Galatia (Gal. i. 2), of the Laodiceans 
 (Colos. iv. 16), of the Thessalonians (1 Thess. i.). The' private 
 families of the faithful he also calls churches; thus he com- 
 mands the church in the house of Prisca and Aquila to be 
 saluted (Eom. xvi. 3, 5); also in another place: "Aquila and 
 Priscilla, with the church that is in their houses, salute you 
 much" (1 Cor. xvi. 19). Writing to Philemon, he also made 
 use of the same word (Philemon, 2). Sometime!?, also, by the 
 word church are meant her prelates and pastors : " If he will 
 not hear thee," says Christ, " tell it to the Church " (Matt, xviii. 
 17), in which passage are meant the authorities of the Church. 
 The place, also, in which the faithful assemble for sermon or 
 other religious purpose, is called a church (1 Cor. xi. 18); but, 
 in this article, the Church signifies the multitude of the good 
 and the bad, and not only the governing, but also the governed. 
 
 QUESTION X. On the Marks of the true Church, and first, of its 
 
 Unity. 
 
 The distinctive characters of this Church must also be un- 
 folded to the faithful, from which they will be enabled to know 
 with how great a blessing they have been favoured by God, 
 who have had the happiness to be born and educated within her 
 pale. Her first distinctive character, then, described in the 
 Creed of the Fathers, is unity : " One is my dove ; my perfect 
 one is but one " (Cant. vi. 8). So vast a multitude, although 
 scattered far and wide, is called One, for the reasons mentioned 
 by St. Paul to the Ephesians ; for he proclaims that there is but
 
 96 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 " One Lord, one faith, one baptism " (Eph. iv. 5). Her ruler 
 and governor is also one : the invisible one, indeed, Christ, whom 
 the eternal Father hath given " head over all the Church, which 
 is his body " (Eph. i. 22, 23) ; but the visible one, him, who, 
 the legitimate successor of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, 
 occupies the See of Rome. 
 
 QUESTION XI. What is to be thought concerning the Roman 
 Pontiff, the Visible Head of Christ's Church. 
 
 That this visible head was necessary, to establish and pre- 
 serve the unity of the Church, is the unanimous reasoning and 
 opinion of the Fathers. This St. Jerome both clearly saw and 
 wrote against Jovinian in these words : " One is chosen, that, 
 by the appointment of a head, occasion of schism may be 
 removed " (Lib. i. contr. Jovin. med.) ; and to Damasus : 
 " Away with envy : let the ambition of Roman grandeur retire : 
 I speak to the successor of the fisherman, and the disciple of the 
 cross. Following no chief but Christ, I am united in commu- 
 nion with your Holiness, that is, with the Chair of Peter : t 
 know that on that rock is built the Church. Whoever eats the 
 lamb outside this house is profane : whoever is not in the ark of 
 Noah shall perish in the flood " (Epist. 57). The same was 
 long before proved by Irenseus (Adv. hacret. lib. iii. c. 3), and 
 by Cyprian (De Simp. Prsel. sub init.), who, speaking of the 
 unity of the Church, says : " The Lord speaks to Peter, ' I say 
 to thee Peter : Thou art Peter ; and upon this rock 1 will build 
 my Church ' (Matt. xvi. 18). He builds the Church on him 
 alone ; and although, after his resurrection, he gives his own 
 equal power to all the Apostles, saying, ' As the Father hath 
 sent me, I also send you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost ' (John, 
 xx. 21, sq.); yet, to display unity, he disposed, by his own 
 authority, the origin of this same unity, which has its begin- 
 ning from one," etc. Again, Optatus of Milevis says: " It can- 
 not be ascribed to ignorance on your part, knowing, as you 
 do, that the episcopal Chair, in whicli Peter, the head of all the 
 Apostles, sat, was conferred on him first in the city of Rome; 
 that in him alone the unity of the Chair might be observed by 
 all, and that the other Apostles might not claim each a chair 
 for himself; so that he, who would erect another in opposition 
 to this single Chair, would now be a schismatic and a prevari- 
 cator" (Lib. 2, ad. Parmen. sub init.). In the next place, 
 Basil has left written these words : " Peter was placed in the 
 foundation, because he said : ' Thou art Christ, the Son of 
 the living God,' and heard in reply that he was a rock; for, 
 although he was a rock, yet he was not such a rock as Christ,
 
 PART I. CHAPTER X. 97 
 
 for Christ is truly an immovable rock, but Peter, only by 
 virtue of that rock. For Christ bestows his own dignities on 
 others : He is a priest, and he makes priests ; he is a rock, and 
 he makes a rock ; and what are his own, he bestows on his ser- 
 vants " (Horn. 29). Lastly, St. Ambrose says : " For great are 
 the gifts of God, who not only restored to us what had been 
 ours, but also granted ns what are his own." Then, after a few 
 words, he proceeds : " But great is the favour of Christ, who 
 bestowed on his disciples almost all his own titles. ' I am,' 
 says he, ' the light of the world' (John, viii. 12); and yet with 
 this title, in which he himself glories, he favoured his disciples, 
 saying : ' You are the light of the world ' (Matt. v. 14) ; ' I am 
 the living bread ' (John, vi. 41) ; and, * we are all one bread ;** 
 ' I am the true vine' (John, xv. 1) ; and to thee he says : ' I 
 planted thee a fruitful vineyard, all true.'f ' Christ is a rock, 
 for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the 
 rock was Christ ' (1 Cor. x. 4) ; and yet the favour of this title 
 he denied not to his disciple, that he also should be Peter (Matt, 
 xvi. 18), because deriving from the rock the solidity of constancy 
 and the firmness of faith."J 
 
 QUESTION XII. How, besides Christ, the Church requires one 
 Visible Head. 
 
 Should any one object that the Church, content with one 
 head and spouse, Jesus Christ, requires no other beside, the 
 answer is at hand; for, as we have Christ the Lord not only 
 the author of all the sacraments, but also their inward minister 
 (for he it is that baptizes, and that absolves ; and yet he insti- 
 tutes men the external ministers of the sacraments); so has he 
 placed over his Church, which he governs by his inward spirit, 
 a man to be the vicar and minister of his power ; for, as a visible 
 Church requires a visible head, so our Saviour appointed Peter 
 head and pastor of the faithful of every sort, when, in the most 
 ample terms, he committed to him his sheep to be fed (John, 
 xxi. 15), so that he wished his successor to have the very same 
 power of ruling and governing the whole Church. 
 
 * 1 Cor. x. 17. In the Vulgate it is : " We being many," etc. TR, 
 t Jer. ii. 21. In the Vulgate it is : "I planted thee a chosen vine- 
 yard, all true seed." TR. 
 
 Lib. 9, Com. in Luc. c. 9. The words of St. Ambrose are want- 
 ing in some of the best editions of the Roman Catechisms, in that of 
 Paulus Manutius for instance, in the Leipsic stereotype edition of 
 1841, approved by the Saxon Catholic Consistory, and in the Trans- 
 lation of Figliucci, an error in its origin purely typographical. See 
 letter of the Bishop of Munster, published in the 4to edition, Poland, 
 1572, and prefixed to the Translation of Figliucci, Bassano, 1788. TR, 
 
 O
 
 98 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. The Apostle subjoins other reasons why the 
 Church is called One. 
 
 Moreover, " There is one and the same spirit " (1 Cor. xii. 
 11), says the Apostle to the Corinthians, who imparts grace to 
 the faithful, as the soul [imparts] life to the members of the 
 body. Exhorting the Ephesians to preserve this unity, he 
 says : " Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
 peace : one body and one spirit " (Eph. iv. 3, sq.) ; for as the 
 human body consists of many members, and they are animated 
 by one soul, which gives sight to the eyes, hearing to the ears, 
 and to the other senses their respective powers ; so is the mys- 
 tical body of Christ, which is the Church, composed of many 
 faithful. The hope to which we are called, is also one, as the 
 same Apostle testifies in the same place (Eph. iv. 4) ; for we all 
 hope for the same thing, namely, an eternal and happy life. 
 Finally, the faith, which is to be held and professed by all, is 
 one : " Let there be no schisms amongst you " (1 Cor. i. 10), 
 says the Apostle ; and baptism, which indeed is the sacrament 
 of the Christian faith, is one (Eph. iv. 5). 
 
 QUESTION XIV. On the second note of the Church, by which it is 
 called Holy. 
 
 Another distinctive mark of the Church is, that it be holy, 
 as we learn from these words of the Prince of the Apostles : 
 "You are a chosen generation, a holy nation" (1 Pet. ii. 9). 
 Now the Church is called holy, because she is consecrated 
 and dedicated to God ; for so other like things, such as, in the 
 Old Law, vessels, vestments, altars, when appropriated 
 and dedicated to the divine worship, although material, 
 were called holy (Levit. xxvii. 28, 30) ; as, in like 
 manner, the first-born, who were dedicated to the Most High 
 God, were called holy (Exod. xiii. 12). Nor ought it seem sur- 
 prising to any one, that the Church, although containing many 
 sinners, is called holy ; for, as also those who profess any art, 
 although they observe not its rules, retain the name of artists ; 
 so the faithful, although they offend in many things, and perform 
 not their promises, are called holy, because they have been 
 made the people of God, or have consecrated themselves to 
 Christ by faith and baptism. Wherefore, St. Paul calls the 
 Corinthians " sanctified " and " holy," although it is evident 
 that amongst them there were some, whom he sharply rebukes 
 as carnal, and on graver accounts (1 Cor. i. 2, and iii. 3). 
 She is also to be called holy, because, as the body, she is 
 united to her holy head, Christ the Lorcl(Ephes. iv. 15, sq.),
 
 PART I. CHAPTER X. 99 
 
 the fountain of all holiness, from whom are diffused the graces 
 of the Holy Spirit, and the riches of the divine bounty. Inter- 
 preting these words of the Prophet, " Preserve my soul, for I 
 am holy " (Ps. Ixxxv. 2), St. Augustine admirably says: " Let, 
 too, the body of Christ boldly say ; let also that one man, 
 exclaiming from the ends of the earth, boldly say, with [Christ] 
 his head, and under [Christ] his head : ' I am holy ;' for he has 
 received the grace of holiness, the grace of baptism and of 
 remission of sins;" and a little after : " If all Christians and all 
 the faithful, baptized in Christ, have put him on, as the Apostle 
 says : ' As many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have 
 put on Christ ' (Gal. iii. 27) : if they are made members of his 
 body, and say they are not holy, they do an injury to their 
 head, whose members are holy."* Moreover, the Church alone 
 has the legitimate worship of sacrifice, and the salutary use of 
 the sacraments, by which, as the efficacious instruments of 
 divine grace, God effects true holiness ; so that whoever are 
 really holy, cannot be outside this Church. The Church, there- 
 fore, it is clear, is holy (Eph. i. 1, 4), and holy indeed, because 
 she is the body of Christ, by whom she is sanctified, and in 
 whose blood she is washed (Eph. i. 7, 13, v. 26). 
 
 QUESTION XV. How the Church of Christ is Catholic. 
 
 The third distinctive mark of the Church is, that she is called 
 Catholic, that is, universal, an epithet which is truly applied to 
 her ; for, as St. Augustine bears witness : " She is diffused by 
 the splendour of one faith from the rising to the setting sun."f 
 For, unlike human republics, or the conventicles of heretics, the 
 Church is not circumscribed within the limits of one kingdom 
 only, nor is she confined to one class of men ; but embraces in 
 the bosom of love all mankind, whether they be barbarians or 
 Scythians, or slaves or freemen, or males or females. There- 
 lore is it written : " Thou hast redeemed us to God in thy 
 blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation ; 
 and hast made us to our God a kingdom" (Apoc. v. 9, sq.). 
 Of the Church, David says: "Ask of me, and I will give thee 
 the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the 
 earth for thy possession " (Ps. ii. 8) ; also: " I will be mindful 
 of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me " (Ps. Ixxxvi. 4) ; and, 
 ' Man is born in her " (Ps. Ixxxvi. 5). Moreover, to the same 
 Church, " built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Pro- 
 phets" (Eph. ii. 16, 20, sqq.), belong all the faithful who have 
 
 * Eph. v. 26, sqq. ; S. Aug. in Ps. Ixxxv. 2. 
 t S. Aug. Serai. 131 et 181, de temp.
 
 100 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 existed from Adam to this very day, or who shall exist, profes- 
 sing the true faith, as long as the world shall last ; all of whom 
 are built and founded on that " corner-stone," Christ, who made 
 both one, and announced peace to them that were near, and to 
 them that were afar. She is, also, called universal for this 
 reason, that, like those who entered the ark (Gen. vii. 7), lest 
 they should perish in the flood, all who desire to attain eternal 
 salvation must cling to and embrace her. Catholicity, therefore, 
 is to be given as a most certain rule, whereby to distinguish the 
 true from a false Church. 
 
 QUESTION XVI. How the Church of Christ is also called 
 Apostolic. 
 
 We also know the true Church from her origin, which she 
 derives, under the revelation of grace, from the Apostles ; for 
 her doctrine is truth, neither novel nor of recent origin, but de- 
 livered of old by the Apostles, and disseminated throughout 
 the whole world. Whence, no one can doubt, that the impious 
 opinions of heretics, opposed as they are to the doctrine taught 
 by the Church from the days of the Apostles to the present day, 
 are far different from the faith of the true Church. Wherefore, 
 that all might know which is the Catholic Church, the Fathers, 
 guided by the Spirit of God, added in the Creed the word 
 " Apostolic." For the Holy Spirit, who presides over the 
 Church, governs her by no other than Apostolic ministers ; and 
 this Spirit was indeed first imparted to the Apostles, and after- 
 wards has, by the supreme goodness of God, always continued 
 in the Church. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. The Church cannot err in Dogmas of Faith 
 or Morals. 
 
 But as this one Church, because governed by the Holy Ghost, 
 cannot err in delivering the discipline of faith and morals ; so all 
 other societies, which arrogate to themselves the name of 
 Church, because guided by the spirit of the devil, are neces- 
 sarily sunk in the most pernicious errors both of doctrine and 
 morals. 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. Under what Figures the Church of Christ 
 was chiefly shadowed forth in the Old Testament. 
 
 But as the figures of the Old Testament have great influence 
 in exciting the minds of the faithful, and recalling the recollec- 
 tion of things the most beautiful, whence chiefly they have been 
 used by the Apostles, pastors will not pass by that source of 
 instructions which possesses important advantages. Amongst
 
 TART I. CHAPTER X.- 101 
 
 these the ark of Noah affords a conspicuous illustration. It 
 was constructed " by the divine command " (Gen. vi. 14), 
 solely that no room for doubt may be left that it signifies the 
 Church, which God has so constituted, as that whoever may 
 enter her by baptism, can be safe from all danger of eternal 
 death ; while such as are without her, as happened to those 
 who were not received into the ark, are overwhelmed by their 
 own crimes. Another figure is that great city of Jerusalem,* a 
 name by which the Scriptures often signify holy Church ; for in 
 Jerusalem alone was it lawful to offer sacrifices to God; because 
 also in the Church of God only, and nowhere out of her, are 
 found the true worship and true sacrifice, which can at all 
 be acceptable to God. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. How to believe Christ's Church appertains to 
 the Articles of Faith. 
 
 Lastly, with regard to the Church, it will also have to be 
 taught, how to believe the Church "can appertain to the 
 articles of faith." For although any one ascertains by his 
 reason and senses the existence on earth of the Church, that is, 
 of a society of men, who are devoted and consecrated to Christ 
 the Lord, nor does faith seem necessary to conceive a matter on 
 which neither Jews nor Turks entertain a doubt ; yet it is by 
 the light of faith only, not by any convincing process of rea- 
 soning, that the mind can understand those mysteries, the 
 existence of which in the holy Church of God has been partly 
 made known, and will partly be explained under the sacrament 
 of Order. Since, therefore, this article, as well as the others, 
 surpasses the capacity and strength of our understanding, most 
 justly do we confess, that we know not from human reason, but 
 contemplates with the eyes of faith, the origin, privileges, and 
 dignity of the Church. 
 
 QUESTION XX. What, how many, and how great things, we are 
 commanded to believe to be in the Church. 
 
 For of this Church the author was not man, but the im- 
 mortal God himself, who built her upon a most solid rock 
 (Matt. xvi. 18), as the Prophet testifies: " The Highest him- 
 self hath founded her " (Ps. Ixxxvi. 5) ; whence she is called 
 "the inheritance of God" (Ps. ii. 8, xxxii. 12, Ixxvii. 62), 
 and "the people" of God (Ps. xxvii. 8; xxviii. 11). Nor is 
 the power which she received human, but is the gift of the 
 
 * Gal. iv. 26; Heb. xii. 22; Ps. cxxi. 3; Is. ii.. xx., xxiii, lx., 
 Ixx,
 
 102 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 divine munificence. Wherefore, as it cannot be acquired by 
 the strength of nature, so also by faith only do we understand, 
 that in the Church are the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt, 
 xvi. 19, xviii. ; John, xx. 23) ; that to her has been confided 
 the power of remitting sins (Ibid.) ; of excommunicating (Matt, 
 xviii. 17; 1 Cor. v.) ; and of consecrating the real body of 
 Christ (Luke, xxii. 19; Heb. xiii. 10); and that her children 
 ' have not here a lasting city, but seek one that is to come " 
 (Heb. xiii. 14). We are, therefore, bound to believe that 
 there is One, Holy, Catholic Church. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. We are to believe the Church, not in the 
 Church, as in God. 
 
 For we believe the Three Persons of the Trinity, the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost, so as to place our faith " in " 
 them ; whereas now, the form of expression being changed, we 
 profess to believe the Holy, not in the Holy [Catholic] Church, 
 that, by this difference of expression also,- God, the author of 
 all things, may be distinguished from things created, and that 
 we may acknowledge ourselves indebted to the divine good- 
 ness for all those exalted benefits which have been conferred on 
 the Church. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. On the last Clause of this Article, "the 
 Communion of Saints." 
 
 The Evangelist St. John, when writing to the faithful on the 
 divine mysteries, assigned this reason why he would instruct 
 them therein : " That," says he, " you also may have fellow- 
 ship with us, and our fellowship be with the Father, and witli 
 his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John, i. 3). This " fellowship " con- 
 sists in the " Communion of Saints/' of which we treat in the 
 present article. But would that, in its exposition, those who 
 preside over the Church would imitate the diligence of Paul 
 and of the other Apostles ; for not only is it a sort of interpre- 
 tation of the preceding article, and a doctrine of most abundant 
 fruit, but it also declares what ought to be the use of the 
 mysteries which are contained in the Creed. For all our re- 
 searches and knowledge ought to be directed to one end, that 
 is, to our admission into this most august and blessed society 
 of the saints, and our most steady perseverance therein ; 
 " with joy giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made 
 us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light " 
 (Col. i. 12).
 
 PART I. CHAPTER X. 103 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. Explanation of this clause, and in what 
 consists " the Communion of Saints" 
 
 The faithful, therefore, in the first place, are to be taught 
 that this article is, as is were, a sort of explanation of the 
 preceding one, which regards the one, holy, Catholic Church ; 
 for the unity of the Spirit, by which she is governed, effects 
 that whatever has been conferred on her is common. Thus, 
 the fruit of all the sacraments pertains to all the faithful ; by 
 which sacraments, and most of all by baptism, the door, as it 
 were, by which we enter the Church, they are, as by so many 
 sacred links, bound and united to Christ. That by this Com- 
 munion of Saints should be understood a communion of sacra- 
 ments, the Fathers intimate in the Creed by these words : " I 
 confess one baptism." But after baptism follows the Eucharist 
 in the first place, and next, the other sacraments ; for, although 
 common to all the sacraments, because all unite us to God, and 
 render us partakers of him whose grace we receive, yet the 
 word [communion] belongs in a more special manner to the 
 Eucharist, which accomplishes this communion (1 Cor. x. 1C). 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. There is a Participation of Merits in the 
 Church. 
 
 But another communion in the Church also demands atten- 
 tion ; for all pious and holy actions undertaken by one apper- 
 tain to all, and are rendered profitable to all, by charity, which 
 " seeketh not her own " (1 Cor. xiii. 5). This is confirmed by 
 the testimony of St. Ambrose, who, explaining that passage of 
 the Psalm, " I am a partaker with all them that fear thee," ob- 
 serves : " As we say that a member is a partaker of the entire 
 body, so do we say that it is united to all that fear God."* 
 Therefore, has Christ taught us to say, "our," not "my bread" 
 (Matt. vi. 11), and other similar petitions, not looking to our- 
 selves only, but also to the general interests and salvation of 
 all. This communication of goods is often illustrated in the 
 sacred Scriptures, by a very apposite comparison borrowed from 
 the members of the human body ; for in the body there are 
 many members ; but though many, they yet constitute one 
 body, in which each performs its own, not all the same function. 
 Nor do all possess the same dignity or discharge functions 
 equally useful and honourable ; and none proposes to itself its 
 own particular advantage, but that of the entire body (1 Cor. 
 xii. 14, sq.). Besides, they are all so well adapted and connected 
 
 * Serm. viii. c. 65, in Psal. cxviii.
 
 104 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 together, that if one is affected with pain, the rest also 
 sympathize with it, through the relationship and accord of 
 nature ; and if, on the contrary, one is in a healthy state, the 
 feeling of pleasure is common to all. The same we may con- 
 template in the Church : although composed of various mem- 
 bers, that is, of different nations, of Jews, Gentiles, freemen and 
 slaves, rich and poor ; yet, when initiated by baptism, they 
 become one body with Christ, of which he is the head. To 
 each one in this Church is also assigned his own proper office ; 
 for as in it some are appointed Apostles, some teachers, but all 
 for the public benefit, so to some it belongs to govern and to 
 teach ; to others, to be subject and to obey. 
 
 QUESTION XXV. The Wicked in the Church do not enjoy the 
 Participation of Spiritual Goods. 
 
 But the advantages of so many and such exalted gifts and 
 goods bestowed by the Almighty, they enjoy who lead a Chris- 
 tian life in charity, and are just and beloved of God; whilst 
 the dead members, that is, men who are bound in the thraldom 
 of sin, and estranged from the grace of God, although not 
 deprived of the advantage of continuing to be members of this 
 body; yet, as dead members, receive not the spiritual fruit, 
 which is communicated to just and pious men. However, as 
 they are in the Church, they are assisted in recovering lost grace 
 and life, by those who live by the spirit; and they enjoy those 
 fruits of which, no doubt, they are devoid, who are entirely 
 cut off from the Church. 
 
 QUESTION XXVI. Graces gratuitously granted, and the other 
 gifts of God, are common to [the whole~\ Church. 
 
 But not only those gifts that justify, and endear men to 
 God, are common, but also "graces gratuitously given," amongst 
 which are numbered knowledge, prophecy, the gift of tongues 
 and miracles, and others of the same sort (1 Cor. xiii. 2) ; which 
 gifts are granted even to bad men, not for their own, but for 
 the public benefit, for the building up of the Church. Thus, 
 the gift of healing is given, not for sake of him who is endowed 
 with it, but for sake of the sick person to be healed. In short, 
 nothing is possessed by a truly Christian man, that he should 
 not consider as common to all others with himself; and he 
 should, therefore, be prepared and ready to relieve the misery 
 of the indigent. For he that is adorned with such goods, and 
 sees his brother in want, and will not assist him, is plainly 
 convicted of not having the charity of God within him (1 John, 
 iii. 17). It is, therefore, sufficiently obvious, that those who
 
 PAKT I. CHAPTER XI. 105 
 
 are in this holy communion, enjoy a sort of felicity, and may 
 truly say : " How lovely are thy tabernacles, Lord of hosts ! 
 My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. 
 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, Lord" (Psalm 
 Ixxxiii. 2, 5). 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ON THE TENTH ARTICLE. 
 "THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS." 
 
 QUESTION I. How it is necessary to Relieve that in the Church 
 there is the Remission of Sins. 
 
 There is no one who, when he sees this article on the remis- 
 sion of sins enumerated among the other articles of the Creed, 
 can doubt that in it is contained not only some divine mystery, 
 but also one very necessary to the attainment of salvation ; for 
 it has been already shown that, without a firm belief of all the 
 articles of the Creed, the way to Christian piety is open to no 
 one. Should, however, that which ought of itself to be known 
 to all, seem to require also to be confirmed by some testimony, 
 that will suffice which our Saviour, a short time before his ascen- 
 sion into heaven, testified on the subject, when opening the 
 understanding of his disciples, "that they might understand 
 the Scriptures :" " It behoved Christ to suffer," says he, " and 
 to rise again from the dead the third day ; and that penance and 
 remission of sins should be preached in his name among all 
 nations, beginning at Jerusalem " (Luke, xxiv. 45, sqq.). If 
 parish-priests consider these words, they will readily understand 
 that, whilst the other matters that regard religion are to be 
 made known to the faithful, a great obligation is particularly 
 imposed on them by the Lord, of diligently explaining to them 
 this article. With regard to this point, then, it will be the 
 duty of the parish-priest to teach, that not only is " forgiveness 
 of sins " found in the Catholic Church, of which Isaias had 
 foretold : " The people that dwell therein shall have their 
 iniquity taken away from them " (Isaias, xxxiii. 24) ; but, 
 also, that in her is the power of forgiving sins ; by which, 
 if priests use it duly, and according to the laws prescribed 
 by our Lord, we are bound to believe sins to be truly remitted 
 and pardoned.
 
 106 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION II. In what manner Sins are remitted in the 
 Church. 
 
 But this pardon, when, first making a profession of faith, we 
 are cleansed in sacred baptism, is given us so abundantly, that 
 no sin, original or actual, of omission or commission, remains to 
 be expiated, no penalty to be paid. But by the grace of bap- 
 tism, nevertheless, no one is exempted from every infirmity of 
 nature ; on the contrary, having each of us to contend against 
 the motions of concupiscence, which cease not to incite us to 
 sin, you could scarcely find any one who either opposes so 
 vigorous a resistance, or guards his salvation so vigilantly, as 
 to escape entirely unscathed. It being necessary, therefore, 
 that a power of forgiving sins, distinct from that of the sacra- 
 ment of baptism, should exist in the Church, to her were en- 
 trusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven, by which may be 
 pardoned the sins of every penitent, though he had sinned to 
 the last day of life. Of this we have the clearest testimonies 
 in the sacred Scriptures; for in St. Matthew, the Lord thus 
 speaks to Peter : " I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom 
 of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shall bind upon earth, it shall 
 be bound also in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon 
 earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven" (Matt. xvi. 19) ; also: 
 " Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in 
 heaven ; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be 
 loosed also in heaven" (Matt, xviii. 18). Again, St. John tes- 
 tifies that the Lord, having breathed on the Apostles, said : 
 " Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose sins you shall forgive, they 
 are forgiven them ; and whose you shall retain, they are retained " 
 (John, xx. 22, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION III. The Power of Forgiving Sins is circumscribed 
 by no particular Sins or Times. 
 
 Nor are we to suppose that this power is restricted to some 
 particular sorts of sins, for no crime, however heinous, can be 
 committed or conceived, the power of remitting which holy 
 Church does not possess ; as, also, there is no sinner, however 
 abandoned and depraved, who, if he truly repent of his misdeeds, 
 ought not to propose to himself a confident hope of pardon. 
 Neither is this same power so circumscribed as that it may be 
 used only at some determined time; for at whatever hour the 
 sinner shall wish to return to soundness, that he is not to be 
 rejected, our Saviour taught, when, to the Prince of the Apostles, 
 asking how often sinners are to be forgiven, whether seven
 
 PART I. CHAPTER XI. 107 
 
 times, he replied : " Not till seven times, but till seventy times 
 seven" (Matt, xviii. 21, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION IV. The Power of Forgiving Sins is not granted to 
 all Christians. 
 
 If, however, we look to the ministers of this divine power, it 
 will appear to be less extensive ; for the Lord has given the 
 power of so holy an office not to all, but to Bishops and Priests 
 only. As to the manner of exercising that power, we must 
 think the same ; for sins can be forgiven only through the 
 sacraments, when validly administered ; and no power has been 
 given to the Church otherwise to remit sins. Whence it fol- 
 lows, that both priests and the sacraments serve as instruments 
 to the forgiveness of sins, by which Christ the Lord, the author 
 himself and bestower of salvation, accomplishes in us the 
 remission of sins and justification. 
 
 QUESTION V. How great is the Gift granted to the Church of 
 Forgiving Sins. 
 
 But that the faithful may look with greater veneration on 
 this heavenly gift, bestowed on the Church by the singular 
 mercy of God towards us, and may approach its use and appli- 
 cation with the more ardent study of piety, the parish-priest will 
 endeavour to point out the dignity and amplitude of this grace. 
 But that is best understood by diligently explaining how great 
 must be the efficacy of that which remits sins, and from unjust 
 makes men just ; for this, it is evident, is accomplished by the 
 infinite and immense power of God, that same power which we 
 believe to have been necessary in raising the dead, and in the 
 creation of the world. But if, also, as is confirmed by the opinion 
 of St. Augustine,* to render one from unrighteous righteous, 
 must be deemed a greater work than to create heaven and earth 
 from nothing, it follows, since creation itself can result only from 
 infinite power, that with much more reason is the remission of 
 sins to be attributed to infinite power. 
 
 QUESTION VI. No one, but God atone, remits Sitis by his own 
 Authority. 
 
 Wherefore we recognise the language of the ancient Fathers 
 as most true, by which they confess that by God alone are sins 
 forgiven to men, and that to no other author than to his infinite 
 goodness and power is so wonderful a work to be referred : " I 
 am he," says the Lord himself, by his Prophet, " I am he that 
 
 * Lib. 1, de Pecc. Merit, c. 23, et Horn. 23, in lib. 50.
 
 108 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 blot out thy iniquities " (Isaias, xliii. 25). For the manner of 
 remitting sins seems analagous to that of cancelling a pecuniary 
 debt. As, then, by none but the creditor can the pecuniary debt 
 be forgiven ; so the debts which we owe to God alone (for our 
 daily prayer is : " forgive us our debts ") (Matt. vi. 12), can, it 
 is evident, be forgiven us by none but him. 
 
 QUESTION VII. The power of Remitting Sins was granted to no 
 Mortal before the Birth of Christ. 
 
 But this wonderful and divine gift was imparted to no created 
 nature until God became man. Christ our Saviour, himself true 
 God, was the first of all, who, as man, received this prerogative 
 from his heavenly Father : " That you may know," says he, 
 "that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (then 
 said he to the man sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, 
 and go into thy house " (Matt. ix. 6 ; Mark, ii. 5, sqq.). As, 
 then, he became man, in order to bestow on men this forgiveness 
 of sins, he granted this power to bishops and priests in the 
 Church, before he ascended into heaven, there to sit for ever at 
 the right hand of God, although, as we before taught, Christ 
 remits sins by his own authority ; all others as his ministers. 
 Wherefore, if we ought especially to admire and reverence what- 
 ever is the effect of infinite power, we sufficiently understand, 
 that this gift, which has been bestowed on the Church by the 
 bounty of Christ the Lord, is most precious. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. By what Virtue men obtain the pardon of their 
 
 Sins. 
 
 The manner itself also in which God, our most merciful 
 Father, resolved to blot out the sins of the world, will power- 
 fully excite the minds of the faithful to the contemplation of the 
 magnitude of this blessing ; for it was his will that our crimes 
 should be expiated by the blood of his only begotten Son, that 
 he should voluntarily pay the penalty which we deserved for 
 our sins, that the just should be condemned for the unjust, that 
 the innocent should suffer a most bitter death for the guilty 
 (1 Peter, iii. 18). When, therefore, we shall reflect in our 
 hearts, that we " were not redeemed with corruptible gold or 
 silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb un- 
 spotted and undefiled" (1 Peter, i. 18, sq.), we shall easily con- 
 clude, that nothing more salutary could have fallen to us than 
 this power of forgiving sins, which shows forth the ineffable 
 providence of God, and his extreme love towards us. From this 
 reflection must accrue to all the most abundant fruit.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER XI. 109 
 
 QUESTION IX. In what way chiefly may be seen the Magnitude 
 of the Benefit which is offered in the Power of the Keys. 
 
 For whoever offends God, by some mortal sin, instantly for- 
 feits whatever merits he acquired through the death and cross 
 of Christ, and is entirely excluded from entrance to paradise, 
 which, when previously closed, our Saviour opened to all by his 
 passion. And, indeed, when this reflection enters the mind, 
 the consideration of human misery cannot but impress us with 
 the most earnest solicitude. But if we turn our attention to 
 this admirable power, which has been divinely bestowed on the 
 Church, and, confirmed in the faith of this article, believe that 
 to every one is offered the means by which, with the divine 
 assistance, he may be restored to his former state of dignity, we 
 are then, indeed, compelled to exult with exceeding joy and 
 gladness, and to give immortal thanks to God. And truly, if 
 when we labour under some grievous malady, the medicines 
 prepared for us by the art and industry of physicians, are wont 
 to seem grateful and agreeable to us ; how much more agreeable 
 should those remedies be, which the wisdom of God has insti- 
 tuted for the cure of souls, and the restoration of life, parti- 
 cularly as they bring, not indeed an uncertain hope of recovery, 
 like those medicines which are applied to the body, but most 
 certain health to those who desire to be cured. 
 
 QUESTION X. Why and how Christians ought to frequent the 
 remedies given to the Church in the poiver of the Keys. 
 
 The faithful, therefore, after they shall have known the 
 dignity of so ample and glorious a blessing, shall have to be 
 exhorted to study to turn it also religiously to their benefit ; 
 for he who makes no use of what is useful and necessary, can 
 hardly escape being considered to despise it, but particularly as 
 the Lord communicated to the Church this power of forgiving 
 sins, in order that all might make use of this salutary remedy. 
 For as no man can be cleansed without baptism, so, whoever 
 desires to recover the grace of baptism, forfeited by mortal sins, 
 must have recourse to another sort of expiation, namely, the 
 sacrament of Penance. But here the faithful are to be admo- 
 nished that, so ample a power of pardon being set forth, which 
 we declared to be also unrestricted by time, they become not 
 either more prone to sin or slow to repentance ; for, in the 
 former case, being manifestly convicted of being injurious and 
 contumelious towards this divine power, they are unworthy of 
 the divine mercy ; and in the latter, there is very great reason
 
 110 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL' OF TRENT. 
 
 to apprehend, lest, surprised by death, they shall in vain have 
 confessed the forgiveness of sins, which they deservedly for- 
 feited by their tardiness and procrastination.* 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ON THE ELEVENTH ARTICLE. 
 "THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH." 
 
 QUESTION I. How important it is to have a complete knowledge 
 of this Article. 
 
 That great is the force of this article to establish the truth 
 of our faith, is very clearly shown by the fact, that in the 
 sacred Scriptures it is not only propounded to the belief of the 
 faithful, but is also confirmed by many arguments. Now, as 
 we hardly find this to be the case with regard to the other 
 articles of the Creed, it can be understood that on it, as on a 
 most solid foundation, rests our hope of salvation ; for, as the 
 Apostle reasons : " If there be no resurrection of the dead, then 
 Christ is not risen again; and if Christ be not risen again, then 
 is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain " (1 Cor. xv. 
 13, sq.). The parish priest, therefore, will not employ less 
 labour and zeal in explaining it, than the impiety of many has 
 expended toil in its subversion; for that, from the knowledge 
 of this article, great and eminent advantages redound to the 
 benefit of the faithful, will be shortly after proved. 
 
 QUESTION II. Why the Apostles have called the Resurrection of 
 Mankind " the Resurrection of the Flesh" 
 
 But that, in this article, the resurrection of mankind is called 
 " the resurrection of the flesh," is a circumstance that will 
 demand especial attention. It was not indeed done without a 
 reason ; for the Apostles wished thus to teach a necessary 
 truth, that the soul is immortal. Lest, therefore, any one might 
 perhaps imagine that it had perished with the body, and that 
 both are to be recalled to life, whereas that the soul is immortal, 
 is quite evident from very many passages of the sacred Scrip- 
 tures ;t on that account mention is made in this article of 
 
 * Aug. iu Job. Tract. 33, et lib. 50 Homil. 41 ; Ambros. lib. 2, de 
 Pienit. c. 1, 2, et 11. 
 t Wisd. ii. 23, hi. 4 ; Matt. x. 28, xxii. 31, sq.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER XII. Ill 
 
 the resurrection of the flesh only. And although, in the sacred 
 Scriptures, the word " flesh " often signifies also the whole man, 
 as it is in Isaias : " All flesh is grass " (Isaias, xl. 6), and in St. 
 John : " The Word was made flesh " (John, i. 14) ; yet, in this 
 place, the word flesh denotes the body ; to give us to under- 
 stand, that of the two constituent parts of mau, body and soul, 
 one only, that is the body, is corrupted and returns into the 
 dust of the earth, whence it was formed, but that the soul 
 remains incorrupt. As, then, no one, unless he shall have died, 
 can be recalled to life, the soul is not properly said to rise 
 again. Mention is also made of the flesh, in order to confute 
 the heresy of Hymeneus and Philetus (1 Tim. i. 20 ; 2 Tim. ii. 
 18), who, during the lifetime of the Apostle, asserted that, 
 whenever the resurrection is treated of in the sacred Scriptures, 
 we are to understand, not a corporeal, but a spiritual resurrec- 
 tion, by which we rise from the death of sin to a life of inno- 
 cence. That error, therefore, these words clearly exclude, whilst 
 they establish the real resurrection of the body. 
 
 QUESTION III. On ichat Grounds chiefly the Doctrine of the 
 real Resurrection of the Bodies is to be established. 
 
 But it will be the part of the parish-priest to illustrate this 
 truth by examples taken from the Old and New Testament, and 
 from all ecclesiastical history. In the Old Testament, some 
 were recalled to life by Elias (3 Kings, xvii. 21, sq.) and Eliseus 
 (4 Kings, iv. 34, and xiii. 21) ; and, besides those whom Christ 
 the Lord raised from death (Matt. ix. 25 ; Luke, vii. 14, sq. ; 
 John, xi. 43, sq.), some were recalled to life by the holy Apos- 
 tles, and by very many others (Acts, ix. 40 ; xx. 1Q) ; and 
 this resurrection of many confirms the doctrine of this article. 
 For, as we believe that many were resuscitated from death, so 
 should we believe that all shall be recalled to life. Nay, the 
 principal fruit that we ought also to derive from such miracles, 
 is this, that we yield to this article our uttermost belief. To 
 parish-priests ordinarily conversant with the sacred Writings, 
 there are many testimonies which will easily present themselves ; 
 but, in the Old Testament, the most conspicuous passages are 
 those that are read in Job, when he says, that in his flesh he 
 shall see his God (Job, xix. 26), and in Daniel, when speaking 
 of those " that sleep in the dust of the earth," he says that 
 they " shall awake, some unto life everlasting, and others unto 
 eternal reproach " (Dan. xii. 2) ; but, in the New Testament, 
 what St. Matthew relates of the disputation which our Lord 
 had with the Sadducees (Matt. xxii. 31 ; Mark, xii. 25, sq.), 
 and what the Evangelists narrate concerning the last judgment
 
 112 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 (John, v. 25 ; Matt. xix. 28). To this point is also to be 
 referred the accurate reasoning of the Apostle, writing to the 
 Corinthians (1 Cor. xv. 12), and Thessalonians (1 Thess. 
 iv. 13). 
 
 QUESTION IV. Comparisons by which the same truth may be 
 confirmed. 
 
 But although this is most certain by faith, yet it will avail 
 much to show, by examples or arguments from reason, that what 
 faith proposes to be believed, is not at variance with nature or 
 the intelligence of the human mind. Wherefore, to one asking 
 how the dead should rise again, the Apostle answered thus: 
 " Foolish man I that which thou sowest is not quickened, 
 except it die first ; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest 
 not that body that shall be, but bare grain, as of wheat, or of 
 some of the rest; but God giveth it a body as he will ;" and 
 a little after he says : " It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in 
 incorruption" (1 Cor. xv. 36, 37, 38, 42). St. Gregory shows 
 that to this similitude many others might be added : " For the 
 light," says he, " is every day withdrawn from our eyes, as it 
 were by dying, and is again recalled, as it were by rising again ; 
 trees lose their verdure, and are again restored, as it were by 
 resurrection ; and seeds die by putrefaction, and rise again by 
 germination."* 
 
 QUESTION V. Reasons by which this same truth is proved. 
 
 Those reasons, also, which are adduced by ecclesiastical 
 writers, may seem sufficiently calculated to establish this matter. 
 And first, indeed, as souls are immortal, and have, as part of 
 man, a natural propensity towards human bodies, their perpe- 
 tual separation from the bodies must be deemed at variance 
 with nature. But as that which opposes nature, and is violent, 
 cannot be lasting, it appears congruous that they should be 
 reunited to the bodies ; whence it also follows, that there will be 
 a resurrection of bodies. This kind of argument our Saviour 
 employed, when, disputing with the Sadducees,he deduced the re- 
 surrection of the body from the immortality of the soul (Matt. xxii. 
 31, sq.). In the next place, as an all-just God holds out punish- 
 ments to the wicked, rewards to the good, and as very many of 
 the former depart life before they suffer due punishment, and 
 many of the latter requited by no rewards of virtue, it is neces- 
 sary that the souls be agaiu united with the bodies, that, as the 
 partners of their vices [or their virtues], they may become 
 
 * S. Gregor. lib. 14, Moral, c. 28, 29, 30.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER XII. J 1 3 
 
 sharers in their punishments or rewards. This argument has 
 been elaborately treated by St. Chrysostom, in a homily to the 
 people of Antioch.* To this effect, the Apostle, reasoning on 
 the resurrection, says : " If in this life only we have hope in 
 Christ, we are of all men the most miserable" (1 Cor. xv. 19). 
 These words no one will suppose to have reference to the misery 
 of the soul, which, because immortal, might yet enjoy happiness 
 in a future life, although the bodies should not rise again; but 
 they are to be understood of the whole man, for, unless the body 
 receive due rewards for its labours, those who, like the Apos- 
 tles, endured so many afflictions and calamities in life, would 
 necessarily be the most miserable of all men The same he 
 teaches much more explicitly ("writing] to the Thessalonians 
 in these words : "We glory in the churches of God for your 
 patience and faith, and iu all your persecutions and tribulations, 
 which you endure for an example of the just judgment of God, 
 that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for 
 which also you suffer ; seeing it is a just thing with God to repay 
 tribulation to them that trouble you ; and to yon who are 
 troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
 from heaven with the angels of his power ; in a flame of fire, 
 giving vengeance to them who know not God, and who obey 
 not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. i. 4, 5, 6, 
 7, 8). And to this, that, as long as the soul is separated from 
 the body, men cannot attain full happiness, replete with every 
 good ; for as any part separated from the whole is imperfect, so 
 also is the soul which is not joined to the body. Whence 
 it follows, that in order that nothing may be wanting to its 
 consummate happiness, the resurrection of the body is necessary. 
 By these, then, and other similar arguments, the parish-priest 
 will be able to instruct the faithful in this article. 
 
 QUESTION VI. No man will then be found exempt from Death 
 and Resurrection -. 
 
 He should also carefully explain, from the doctrine of the 
 Apostle, who are to be resuscitated to life ; for writing to the 
 Corinthians, he says : " As in Adam all die, so also in Christ 
 all shall be made alive" (1 Cor. xv. 22). Although the condi- 
 tion of all shall not be the same, all, therefore, without distinc- 
 tion of good and bad, shall rise again from the dead ; " they 
 that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; but they 
 that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment" 
 (John, v. 29). But when we say "all," we understand those 
 
 * S. Chrysostom, Homil. 49 and 50.
 
 114 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 who shall have died before the day of judgment, as well 
 as those who shall then die. For that the Church acquiesces 
 in this opinion, which asserts that all, without exception, shall 
 die, and that the opinion itself is more consonant to truth, St. 
 Jerome has left written;* and St. Augustine thinks the same.f 
 Nor are the words of the Apostle, in his epistle to the Thessalo- 
 nians, repugnant to this opinion: "The dead who are in Christ 
 shall rise first ; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be 
 caught up together with him in the clouds, to meet Christ in 
 the air" (1 Thess. iv. 15, sq.) ; for St. Ambrose, explaining 
 these words, says : " In that very taking up, death shall antici- 
 pate, as it were, by a deep sleep ; and the soul, having gone forth 
 from the body, shall instantly return ; for when taken up, they 
 shall die, that, coming to the Lord, they may receive their 
 souls from the presence of the Lord ; because with the Lord 
 they cannot be dead."J The same opinion is approved by the 
 authority of St. Augustine, in his book on the City of God. 
 
 QUESTION VII. Tlie Human Soul will receive the very same Body 
 in the Last Judgment. 
 
 But as it is of much importance for us to be fully persuaded 
 that the identical body, that belonged to each one, though it be 
 corrupted and has returned into dust, is nevertheless to be re- 
 suscitated to life, that, too, the parish-priest will undertake accu- 
 rately to explain. This is the meaning of the Apostle, when he 
 says : " This corruptible must put on incorruption " (1 Cor. 
 xv. 53), by the word " this," evidently designating his own 
 body. This also Job most clearly foretold : " In my flesh," says 
 he, " I shall see my God; whom I myself shall see, and my eyes 
 shall behold, and not another" (Job, xix. 26, sq.). The same is 
 inferred from the definition of resurrection itself; for resurrection, 
 according to Damascene, is " a return to that state from which 
 one has fallen." || Lastly, if we consider the reason for a future 
 resurrection, pointed out by us a little before, there will be 
 nothing that could make the mind of any one dubious on this 
 matter. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Why the Resurrection of the Body was ordained 
 ly God. 
 
 But we have taught that the bodies are to be quickened in 
 order that "every one may receive the proper things of the body, 
 
 * S. Hieron. Epist. 152. t August, de Civit. Dei, lib. xx. c. 20. 
 
 I lu 1 Epist. ad Thess. c. 4, 15, sqq. Lib. xx. c. 20. 
 
 || Dam. de Fid. Orthod. iv. 28.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER XII. 115 
 
 according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil " (2 Cor. 
 v, 10). Man, therefore, must rise again from the very body by 
 the aid of which he served God or the devil ; that with the 
 same body he may attain rewards, and a crown of triumph, or 
 endure punishments and torments the most woeful. 
 
 QUESTION IX. The Bodies will not resume the Deformity 
 contracted in this Mortal Life. 
 
 Not only will the body rise again, but whatever belongs to 
 the reality of its nature, and to the honour and ornament of man, 
 is to be restored. To this effect we read an admirable testimony 
 of St. Augustine : " There will then," says he, " exist no cor- 
 poral deformity; if some have been overburdened with flesh, 
 they shall not resume the entire mass of the body, but what 
 shall exceed the proper habit shall be deemed superfluous ; and, 
 on the other hand, whatever disease or old age has wasted in the 
 body, as, for instance, should some have been thin from emacia- 
 tion, it shall be repaired through Christ by the divine power, for 
 Christ will not only restore to us the body, but whatever shall 
 have been taken from us through the wretchedness of this life."* 
 la another place the same Father says: " Man shall not resume 
 the hair which he had, but such as will become him, according 
 to that : ' The very hairs of your head are all numbered ' (Luke, 
 xii. 7), which are to be restored according to the divine wisdom." f 
 In the 6rst place, as the members appertain to the integrity 
 of human nature, they shall all be restored together ; for they 
 who were either blind from their very birth, or lost their sight 
 on account of some disease, the lame, the maimed, aud the para- 
 lysed, shall rise again with an entire and perfect body ; be- 
 cause otherwise the desire of the soul, which is inclined to an 
 union with the body, would not at all be satisfied; and yet 
 we believe without doubt, that in the resurrection its desire 
 shall be fully satisfied. Besides, it is sufficiently evident that the 
 resurrection, like the creation, is to be numbered amongst the 
 principal works of God. As, then, at the beginning of creation, 
 all things came perfect from the hand of God, that such shall also 
 be the case at the resurrection we must by all means affirm. Nor 
 is this to be confessed of the martyrs only, of whom St. Augus- 
 tine thus bears witness : " As that mutilation could not but prove 
 a corporal deformity, they shall not be without those members ; 
 otherwise they who were beheaded should rise without a head. 
 The scars, however, of the sword shall remain in their members, 
 
 * St. Aug. 1. xxii. de Civit. Dei, c. 19, 20, 21, et Ench. c. 86, 87, 
 88, 89 ; Hieron. Epist. 59 et 61. t s - Au S- Eucl1 - c -
 
 116 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 more refulgent than gold and precious stones, even as the scar* 
 of the wounds of Christ."* This is also most truly said of the 
 wicked, although their members may have been amputated 
 through their own fault ; for, the greater the number of mem- 
 bers they shall have, the more severe the torture of the pains 
 with which they shall be tormented. Wherefore, that resto- 
 ration of members will redound, not to their happiness, but 
 calamity and misery, as merit or demerit is ascribed not to 
 the members themselves, but to the person to whose body they 
 are united. For to those who have done penance, they shall 
 be restored for reward; but to those who shall have contemned 
 it, for punishment. If these things be maturely considered by 
 parish-priests, they will never want abundance of matter and 
 words to excite and inflame the hearts of the faithful with a 
 zeal for piety, that, considering the troubles and calamities of 
 this life, they may eagerly look forward to that blessed glory of 
 the resurrection, which is proposed to the just and the pious. 
 
 QUESTION X. Of what sort the Bodies of Men shall be after they 
 shall have risen. 
 
 It now follows that the faithful understand that, with regard 
 to the things that constitute the substance of the body, although 
 that very same body that had been before dead must be re- 
 called to life, far different however will be its condition. To 
 omit the other points, all the bodies of the risen will differ from 
 themselves chiefly in this, that whereas before they were subject 
 to the laws of death, after they shall have been resuscitated to 
 life they shall, without distinction of good and bad, attain im- 
 mortality. This admirable restoration of nature, as the testi- 
 monies of the Holy Scriptures admonish us, the glorious 
 victory, which Christ achieved over death, merited ; for it is 
 written : " He shall cast death down headlong for ever " (Isa. 
 xxv. 8) ; and, in another place : " Death, I will be thy death " 
 (Osee, xiii. 14) ; explaining which the Apostle says : " And the 
 enemy death shall be destroyed last" (1 Cor. xv. 26) ; and we 
 read in St. John : "Death shall be no more" (Apoc. xxi. 4). 
 But most fitting was it, that by the merit of Christ the Lord, by 
 whom the empire of death has been overturned (Heb. ii. 14), 
 the sin of Adam should be far exceeded ; and it was also conso- 
 nant to the divine justice, that the good should enjoy a life of 
 endless bliss, whilst the wicked, suffering eternal torments, 
 " shall seek death, and shall not find it ; shall desire to die, and 
 death shall fly from them " (Apoc. ix. 6). To the good, then, 
 and the bad this immortality shall be common. 
 * Lib. xxii. de Civ. Dei, c. 20.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER XII. 117 
 
 QUESTION XI. With ivhat Gifts the Bodies of the Blest shall be 
 adorned after the Resurrection. 
 
 Moreover, the revived bodies of the saints shall possess 
 certain transcendent and glorious adornments, which will 
 ennoble them far beyond their former condition. The principal 
 are those four which are called " gifts," and which are inferred 
 by the Fathers from the doctrine of the Apostle. Of these the 
 first is " impassibility," a gift and endowment that shall place 
 them beyond the reach of suffering anything disagreeable, or of 
 being affected with pain or inconvenience of any sort. For 
 neither the piercing severity of the cold, nor the glowing inten- 
 sity of heat, nor the rush of waters, shall have power to hurt 
 them : " It is sown," says the Apostle, " in corruption, it shall 
 rise in incorruption " (1 Cor. xv. 42). The reason why school- 
 men have called it impassibility, rather than incorruption, is to 
 signify that it is a property peculiar to a glorified body ; for this 
 impassibility is not common to them with the damned, whose 
 bodies, although incorruptible, are capable of experiencing heat 
 and cold, and of being affected by various torments. The next 
 quality is " brightness," by which the bodies of the saints shall 
 shine like the sun ; for thus does our Saviour testify in St. Mat- 
 thew : " The just," says he, " shall shine as the sun, in the 
 kingdom of their Father " (Matt. xiii. 43) ; and, lest any one 
 should doubt of it, he exemplified it in his Transfiguration (Matt, 
 xvii. 2). This the Apostle sometimes calls glory, sometimes 
 brightness : " He will reform the body of our lowness, made like 
 to the body of his glory " (Philip, iii. 21) ; and, again : " It is 
 sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory " (1 Cor. xv. 43). Of 
 this glory the people of Israel too beheld some image in the 
 desert, when, " from the conversation " and presence of God, 
 " the face of Moses " shone with such lustre, that " the children 
 of Israel could not steadfastly behold it."* This brightness is a 
 sort of refulgence redounding to the body from the supreme 
 happiness of the soul, so that it is a sort of emanation from the 
 bliss which the soul enjoys, as also the soul itself is rendered 
 happy by a participation of the divine happiness. But we must 
 not believe that all are adorned in an equal degree with this, as 
 with the first gift : all the bodies of the saints shall, indeed, be 
 equally impassible, but they shall not have the same brightness ; 
 for, as the Apostle bears witness : " One is the glory of the sun, 
 another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the 
 stars ; for star differeth from star in glory : so also is the resurrec- 
 
 * Exod. xxxiv. 29 ; 2 Cor. iii. 7.
 
 118 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 tion of the dead " (1 Cor. xv. 41, sq.). To this quality 13 
 united that which is called " agility," by which the body shall 
 be freed from the burden by which it is now pressed down, and 
 shall acquire a capability of being moved with the utmost facility 
 and celerity whithersoever the soul shall please, as St. Augustine 
 has clearly taught in his book on the City of God,* and St. 
 Jerome on Isaias (cap. 40). Hence the Apostle has said : " It 
 is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power" (1 Cor. xv. 43). 
 To these has been added what is called " subtility," by virtue 
 of which the body will be completely subjected to the dominion 
 of the soul, will be subservient to it, and will be ready at its 
 pleasure ; as is shown from these words of the Apostle : " It is 
 sown an animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body " (1 Cor. xv. 
 44). These are nearly the principal heads, which will require 
 to be taught in the exposition of this article. 
 
 QUESTION XII. What fruit the Faithful will derive from such 
 great Mysteries of the Resurrection. 
 
 But that the faithful may know what fruit they may derive 
 from a knowledge of so many and such great mysteries, [the 
 pastor] must proclaim, in the first place, that to God, who has 
 "hidden these things from the wise, and revealed them to little 
 ones" (Matt. xi. 25), we should return boundless thanks. For 
 how many men, either pre-eminent for the praise of wisdom or 
 endowed with extraordinary learning, who never caught the 
 least glimpse of this so certain a truth ? In his having made 
 known those things to us, for whom it was not permitted to 
 aspire to such knowledge, we have reason to celebrate with 
 incessant praises his supreme goodness and clemency. In the 
 next place, from meditation on this article will follow that im- 
 portant benefit, that in it we shall easily find consolation both 
 for ourselves and for others, on the death of those who were 
 connected with us by ties of friendship or of blood ; a species of 
 consolation which we know the Apostle to have employed, when 
 writing to the Thessalonians of those " wh have slept " 
 (1 Thess. iv. 13). But in all our other afflictions and calami- 
 ties also, the thought of a future resurrection will bring to us the 
 greatest relief of our sorrow ; as we learn from the example of 
 holy Job, who supported his afflicted and sorrowing mind with 
 this sole hope of one day rising from the grave, and beholding 
 the Lord his God (Job, xix. 26). Besides, it will have very 
 great influence in persuading the faithful peoples to be most 
 careful to lead a life of rectitude and integrity, unsullied by any 
 
 * Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. xiii. c. 18 and 20; and lib. xxii. c. 11.
 
 PART I. CHAPTER XIII. 119 
 
 defilement of sin; for, if they shall reflect, that those vast riches, 
 which follow the resurrection, are proposed to them, they will 
 be easily attracted to the pursuits of virtue and piety ; whilst, on 
 the other hand, nothing will have greater efficacy in subduing 
 the inordinate desires of the soul, and withdrawing souls from 
 sins, than frequently to be reminded with what evils and tor- 
 ments reprobates will be visited, who, on that last day, " shall 
 come forth to the resurrection of judgment" (John, v. 29). 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ON THE TWELFTH APvTICLE. 
 
 " LIFE EVERLASTING." 
 
 QUESTION I. Why this Article of Faith is placed last, and how 
 important it is that it be frequently expounded to the people. 
 
 With this article of eternal life the holy Apostles, our leaders, 
 thought proper to conclude the Creed, which contains the sum- 
 mary of our faith, both because, after the resurrection of the 
 flesh, the only remaining object of hope to the faithful is the 
 reward of everlasting life ; and in order that that perfect happi- 
 ness, embracing the fulness of all good, might be ever present 
 before our eyes, and that we might be taught that thereon are 
 to be fixed all our thoughts and affections. Wherefore, in in- 
 structing the faithful, parish-priests will never cease to inflame 
 their souls with the proposed rewards of eternal life ; that they 
 may look upon the greatest difficulties, which they should have 
 taught them ought to be undergone in the cause of religion, as 
 light and even agreeable, and may yield a more ready and 
 cheerful obedience to God. 
 
 QUESTION II. What is here meant by " Life Everlasting." 
 
 But as, under these words, which are here used to declare the 
 happiness reserved for us, lie concealed very many mysteries, 
 they are to be unfolded in such a manner as that they may be 
 patent to all, as far as each one's capacity may permit. The 
 faithful, therefore, are to be admonished, that, by these words, 
 " life everlasting," is signified not only perpetuity of life, to 
 which the devils and the wicked are also consigned, but like- 
 wise perpetuity of bliss, which is to fill up the desire of the 
 blessed. And in this sense they were understood by that lawyer 
 in the Gospel, who asked the Lord our Saviour, what he should 
 do to possess everlasting life (Luke, xviii. 18) ; as if he had
 
 120 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 said : What am I to do, in order to arrive at that place, where 
 it may be permitted to enjoy everlasting happiness ? And in 
 this sense the Sacred Volumes understand these words, as may 
 be seen in many places.* 
 
 QUESTION III. Why that Supreme Happiness is called " Life 
 Everlasting" 
 
 That supreme happiness is designated by this name, principally 
 lest any one might think that it consists in corporeal and transi- 
 tory things, which cannot be " everlasting." For to set forth 
 what was sought, even that very word " blessedness" were in- 
 sufficient, particularly as there have not been wanting men, who, 
 inflated with the opinion of a sort of false philosophy, would 
 place the supreme good in those things that are perceived by 
 the senses ; for these grow old and perish, whilst happiness ter- 
 minates with no limits of time. Nay rather, these earthly 
 things are very remote from true happiness, from which he re- 
 cedes the farthest, who is captivated by a love and longing after 
 the world. For it is written : " Love not the world, nor those 
 things which are in the world ; if any man love the world, the 
 charity of the Father is not in him" (1 John, ii. 15) ; and a little 
 after : " The world passeth away and the concupiscence thereof" 
 (1 John, ii. 17). Parish-priests, therefore, will be careful dili- 
 gently to impress these truths on the minds of the faithful, that 
 they may be induced to despise perishable things, and be con- 
 vinced that in this world, in which we are not citizens, but 
 sojourners (1 Pet. ii. 2), happiness is not to be obtained. Yet, 
 even here we may with good reason be said to be happy in hope ; 
 if, " denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we live soberly, 
 and justly, and piously, in this world ; waiting for the blessed 
 hope and coming of the glory of the great God and oar Saviour 
 Jesus Christ" (Tit. ii. 12, sq.). Many, who seemed to "them- 
 selves wise " (Rom. i. 22), not understanding these things, and 
 imagining that happiness was to be sought for in this life, " be- 
 came fools," and fell into the most deplorable calamities. But 
 from the words, "life everlasting," we also understand that, 
 contrary to the false notions entertained by some, happiness 
 once attained can never be lost ; for happiness is an accumula- 
 tion of all goods without any admixture of evil, which, as it fills 
 up man's desire, necessarily consists in eternal life ; for he who 
 is happy cannot but earnestly desire to be permitted perpetually 
 to enjoy those goods which he has obtained. Wherefore, were 
 not that possession permanent and certain, he should necessarily 
 be tormented by extreme agony of fear. 
 
 * Matt, xix, 29, xxv. 46; Rom. vi. 22.
 
 PART I. CHAP. XIII. 121 
 
 QUESTION IV. Eternal Happiness is ineffable and 
 incomprehensible. 
 
 But how great is the happiness of the blessed, who live in 
 their celestial country, and its incomprehensibility to all but to 
 themselves alone, are sufficiently evinced by our use of these 
 very words, "happy life ;" for when, to express anything, we 
 use a word which is common to many others, we easily under- 
 stand that a proper term is wanting, by which that thing may 
 be fully expressed. When, therefore, happiness is signified by 
 those words, which apply not with greater propriety to the 
 blessed than to all who may live for ever, this can be to us a 
 proof, that there is a something more exalted and excellent than 
 that we can convey its idea perfectly by a proper term. For, 
 although to this celestial happiness are given in the sacred 
 Scriptures very many other names, such as the " Kingdom of 
 God" (Acts, xiv. 21), "of Christ" (2 Pet. i. 2), "of heaven" 
 (Matt. v. 3, 20), " Paradise " (Luke, xxiii. 43), " the Holy City " 
 (Apoc. xxi. 10), "the New Jerusalem " (Apoc. xxi. 2, iii. 12), 
 " my Father's house " (John, xiv. 2) ; yet it is clear that none 
 of these is sufficient to convey an adequate idea of its greatness. 
 Parish-priests, therefore, will not neglect the opportunity here 
 presented, of inviting the faithful to the practice of piety, justice, 
 and all the duties of the Christian religion, by such ample re- 
 wards as are announced in the term, " life everlasting." Amongst 
 the blessings instinctively desired, life undoubtedly is wont to be 
 reckoned one of the greatest; but by it principally, when we 
 say " life everlasting," is happiness defined. If, then, nothing is 
 more loved, nothing can be dearer or more delightful than this 
 short and calamitous life, which is subject to so many and such 
 various miseries as more truly to be called death, with what 
 ardour of soul, with what earnestness of purpose, should we not 
 then seek that eternal life, which, all evils being at an end, com- 
 prises the perfect and absolute aggregate of all goods ! For, 
 according to the holy Fathers, the happiness of eternal life is to 
 be defined, " an exemption from all evils, and the fruition of all 
 goods." Of the evils the testimonies of the sacred Scriptures 
 are very clear ; for in the Apocalypse it is written : " They shall 
 not hunger nor thirst any more, neither shall the sun fall on 
 them, nor any heat" (vii. 16); and again: "God shall wipe 
 away all tears from their eyes ; and death shall be no more; nor 
 mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow, shall be any more; for the 
 former things are past away " (Apoc. xxi. 4). But the glory of 
 the blessed shall be without measure, and their sorts of solid 
 joy and pleasure without number. As our mind is altogether
 
 122 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 incapable of containing the magnitude of this glovy, nor can it at 
 all penetrate into our souls, it is necessary that we enter into it, 
 that is, " into the joy of the Lord " (Matt. xxv. 21), that, im- 
 mersed therein, we may abundantly satisfy the desire of the soul. 
 
 QUESTION V. What sorts of Goods chiefly the Blessed will enjoy. 
 
 But although, as St. Augustine writes, the evils from which 
 we shall be exempt would seem more easily enumerated than the 
 goods and the pleasures which we shall drink in,* yet we must 
 endeavour to explain, briefly and clearly, those things which 
 will be calculated to inflame the faithful with a desire of attain- 
 ing that supreme felicity. But it will -be necessary, first, to make 
 use of that distinction, which we have received from the most 
 eminent writers of divine things ; who determine that there are 
 two sorts of goods, one of which belongs to the nature of happi- 
 ness, the other accompanies happiness itself; and hence, to faci- 
 litate instruction, they have termed the former goods essential, 
 the latter necessary. 
 
 QUESTION VI. In what must, consist the Essential and Primary 
 Cause of Eternal Happiness. 
 
 Now, solid happiness, which we may designate by the common 
 appellation, " essential," consists in this, that we see God, and 
 enjoy the beauty of him, who is the source and principle of all 
 goodness and perfection : " This," says Christ the Lord, " is life 
 everlasting, that they may know thee, the only true God, and 
 Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John, xvii. 3). This senti- 
 ment St. John seems to interpret, when he says : " Dearly be- 
 loved, we are now the sons of God ; and it hath not yet 
 appeared what we shall be. "We know that when he shall appear, 
 we shall be like to him, because we shall see him as he is " 
 (1 John, iii. 2); for he [hereby] signifies that [supreme] happi- 
 ness consists of these two things, that we shall both see God 
 such as he is in his nature and substance, and that we shall be- 
 come as it were gods ; for those who enjoy him, although they 
 retain their own substance, do yet assume a certain admirable 
 and almost divine form, so as to seem gods rather than men. 
 
 QUESTION Vll.How the Blessed put on after a manner the Form 
 and Nature of God. 
 
 But why such is the case is clear from this, that everything 
 is known either from its essence, or from its resemblance and 
 appearance ; but, as nothing resembles God, so as to enable us 
 
 * Serm. Ixiv. de Verb. Dora, et de Symb. ad Catech. lib. 3, c. 2.
 
 TART I. CHAPTER XIII. 123 
 
 by the aid of that resemblance to arrive at a perfect knowledge 
 of him, it follows that no one can behold his nature and essence, 
 unless this same divine essence unite itself to us ; and this those 
 words of the Apostle signify : " We now see through a glass in 
 an obscure manner, but then face to face" (1 Cor. xiii. 12). 
 The words " in a dark manner " St. Augustine interprets to 
 mean, that we see him in a resemblance, suited to understand 
 God.* This St. Denis also clearly shows, when he affirms, that 
 the things above cannot be known by any resemblance with 
 the things below; for the essence and substance of what is in- 
 corporeal, cannot be known through a resemblance with anything 
 corporeal ; especially as resemblances must have less concretion 
 and be more spiritual than the things themselves whose image 
 they reflect, as we easily know from universal experience. Since, 
 then, it is impossible to find a resemblance of anything created, 
 equally pure and spiritual with God himself, hence it is that from 
 no resemblance can we perfectly understand the divine essence.t 
 Moreover, all created things are circumscribed by certain limits 
 of perfection; but God is infinite, nor can the likeness of any- 
 thing created contain his immensity. The only means left, there- 
 fore, of arriving at a knowledge of the divine substance, is that 
 it unite itself to us, and, after a marvellous manner, elevate onr 
 understanding higher, that we may be thus rendered fit to con- 
 template the beauty of his nature. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. The Blessed are illumined with the Light of 
 Glory, and all ought to be moved with all hope to see God. 
 
 This we shall attain by the light of glory, when, illumined 
 by that splendour, we shall see God, the true light, in his own 
 light (Ps. xxxv. 10); for the blessed always see God present; 
 and by this greatest and most exalted of all gifts, being made 
 partakers of the divine essence (2 Pet. i. 4), they enjoy true and 
 solid happiness. Our belief of this truth should be joined to an 
 assured hope of one day arriving, through the goodness of God, 
 at the same, as has been defined in the Symbol of the Fathers ; 
 for it says : " I expect the resurrection of the dead, and the life 
 of the world to come." 
 
 QUESTION IX. The Manner in which Man is joined to God in 
 bliss, is explained by a Comparison. 
 
 These are things altogether divine, which cannot be explained 
 by words, or comprehended by us in thought. Of this happiness, 
 
 * Aug. lib 15, de Trin. c. 9. 
 
 t Dionys. Areop. de Divin. Nom. c. 1.
 
 124 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 however, we may trace some resemblance in sensible objects ; 
 for as iron, when acted on by fire, becomes igneous, and, while 
 its substance remains the same, seems changed into something 
 different, namely fire, in like manner, they who are admitted into 
 that celestial glory, being inflamed with the love of God, although 
 they cease not to be the same, are so affected, that they may be 
 said with good reason to differ much more from those that are in 
 this life, than glowing iron differs from that which is quite cold. 
 To comprise the matter, then, in a few words, that supreme and 
 absolute happiness, which we call essential, is to be placed in the 
 possession of God; for what can he want to perfect happiness, 
 who possesses God, the centre of all goodness, the fulness of all 
 perfection ? 
 
 QUESTION X. What are the Accidental Goods with which the 
 Messed shall abound. 
 
 To this happiness, however, are added certain adornments, 
 common to all the blessed, which, because less removed from hu- 
 man comprehension, are, also, wont more strongly to move and 
 excite our minds. Of this sort are those things which the Apostle 
 to the Romans seems to have in view : " Glory, and honour, and 
 peace to every one that worketh good" (Rom. ii. 10); for the 
 blessed shall, indeed, enjoy glory, not only that which we have 
 last shown to constitute essential happiness, or to be most 
 closely connected with its nature, but also that which consists in 
 the clear and distinct knowledge that each will have of the sin- 
 gular and exalted dignity of his companions [in glory]. But 
 how great must not that honour be esteemed, which is conferred 
 by God on those who are no longer called servants, but "friends " 
 (John, xv. 14), "brethren" (Matt. xii. 49); and "sons" of 
 God! (Rom. viii. 15, sq.). Hence, our Redeemer will address 
 his elect in these most loving and most honourable words : 
 " Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared 
 for you" (Matt. xxv. 34); so that justly may we exclaim: 
 " Thy friends, God, are made exceedingly honourable " 
 (Ps. cxxxviii. 17). But they shall also be celebrated with 
 praises by Christ the Lord, in presence of his heavenly Father, 
 and his angels. Besides, if nature has engendered in all men 
 this common desire of honour, which is conferred by men excel- 
 ling in wisdom, because they deem them the most authoritative 
 vouchers of their merit, what an accession of glory do we 
 account it to the blessed to experience reciprocally from one 
 another the highest honour ?
 
 PART I. CHAPTER XIII. 125 
 
 QUESTION XI. With what an Abundance of Goods the Blessed 
 will be loaded in those Everlasting Dwellings. 
 
 The enumeration of all the delights with which the glory of 
 the blessed shall be replete, would be endless ; nor can we even 
 imagine them in thought. Of this, however, the faithful should 
 be persuaded, that the blessed life of those in heaven overflows 
 with the abundance of all those things that can be agreeable to 
 us, or even desired, in this life, whether they pertain to mental 
 knowledge or bodily perfection ; although this the Apostle affirms 
 to be accomplished in a manner more exalted than " eye hath 
 seen, ear heard, or it hath entered into the heart of man " 
 (1 Cor. ii. 9). For the body, indeed, which before was gross 
 and concrete, having put off mortality, and being refined and 
 made spiritual in heaven, will no longer stand in need of nutri- 
 ment ; whilst the soul will, with supreme delight, be satiated 
 with that eternal food of glory, which the Master of that great 
 feast "passing will minister unto all" (Luke, xii. 37). And 
 who can desire rich garments or royal robes, where there shall 
 be no use for these things, and all shall be clothed with immor 
 tality and splendour, and adorned with a crown of imperishable 
 glory ? And if the possession of a spacious and magnificent man- 
 sion pertains to human happiness, what more spacious, what more 
 magnificent can be conceived, than heaven itself illumined, as it is 
 throughout, with the brightness of God? Hence, the Prophet, con- 
 templating the beauty of this dwelling-place, and burning with the 
 desire of reaching those blessed abodes, exclaims : " How lovely 
 are thy tabernacles, Lord of Hosts ! my soul longeth and 
 fainteth for the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh have 
 rejoiced in the living God" (Ps. Ixxxiii. 1, sq.). And that 
 this be the mind of all the faithful, this the common language 
 of all, as it should be the object of the parish-priest's most ear- 
 nest desires, so should it also be that of his most zealous care. 
 
 QUESTION XII. The Blessed will not be remunerated 
 indiscriminately with the same Eewards. 
 
 " In my Father's house," says the Lord, " there are many 
 mansions " (John, xiv. 2), in which shall be conferred rewards 
 of greater and of less value, as each one shall have deserved ; 
 for " he who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly ; and 
 he who soweth in blessings, shall also reap of blessings " (2 Cor. 
 ix. 6). Pastors, therefore, will not only excite the faithful to. 
 seek this happiness, but will also frequently admonish them that 
 a sure way of attaining it is, that, endued with faith and charity,
 
 126 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 and persevering in prayer and the salutary use of the sacra- 
 ments, they apply themselves to all the duties of benignity 
 towards their neighbours. For thus, through the mercy of 
 God, who has prepared that blessed glory for those who love 
 him, will one day be fulfilled what was said by the Prophet : 
 " My people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the taber- 
 nacles of confidence and of wealthy rest" (Is. xxxii. 18). 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL. 
 
 QUESTION I. The Parish-priest must take especial care to deliver 
 the Doctrine of the Sacraments. 
 
 Although every part of the Christian doctrine requires know- 
 ledge and diligence on the part of the parish-priest, that of the 
 sacraments, which is both necessary by the ordinance of God, 
 and most exuberant of advantages, demands, in a special man- 
 ner, his talents and industry ;* that, by its accurate and frequent 
 perception, the faithful may become such as that they may be 
 admitted to the worthy and salutary participation of these most 
 excellent and most holy institutions, and that priests may not 
 depart from that rule laid down in the divine prohibition: " Give 
 not that which is holy to dogs ; neither cast ye your pearls before 
 swine " (Matt. vii. 6). 
 
 QUESTION II. Meanings of the Word " Sacrament" 
 
 In the first place, then, as we are to treat of the sacraments 
 in general, it is proper to begin with the force and meaning of 
 the word itself, and to explain its ambiguous signification, that 
 the particular sense of the word in this place may be the more 
 easily understood. As regards our present purpose, the faithful, 
 therefore, are to be informed, that the word " sacrament" has 
 been differently understood by sacred and profane writers; for 
 by the word sacrament some authors wished to express the ob- 
 ligation of an oath, binding to the performance of some service ; 
 and hence, the oath by which soldiers promise to perform faith- 
 
 * See Cone. Trid. sess. vii.
 
 PART TI. CHAPTER I. 127 
 
 ful service to the state, has been called a military " sacrament ;" 
 and amongst the former this seems to have been the most ordi- 
 nary signification of the word. But amongst the Latin Fathers, 
 who have written on divine things, the word sacrament signifies 
 some sacred thing that lies concealed; as the Greeks, to express 
 the same idea, used the word " mystery." In this sense we un- 
 derstand the word sacrament is to be taken, when it is written 
 to the Ephesians : " That he might make known to us the mys- 
 tery of his will " (Eph. i. 9) ; afterwards, to Timothy : " Great 
 is the mystery of piety " (1 Tim. iii. 16) ; besides, in the book of 
 Wisdom : " They knew not the secrets of God " (Wisd. ii. 22). 
 In these and many other places, the word " sacramentum," we 
 may perceive, signifies nothing else than a sacred thing, hidden 
 and concealed. The Latin Doctors, therefore, were of opinion 
 that certain sensible signs, which at once declare, and, as it were, 
 place before the eyes, the grace which they effect, might be ap- 
 propriately called sacraments. They may, however, as St. 
 Gregory thinks, be called sacraments, because [by them] the 
 divine power secretly worketh salvation, under the veil of sen- 
 sible things.* But let no one suppose that this word has been 
 recently introduced into the Church ; for whoever will read St. 
 Jeromef and St. Augustine,! will easily perceive that to desig- 
 nate what we here speak of, the ancient writers on our religion 
 very frequently make use of the term " sacrament," and some- 
 times also the word " symbol," or " mystical sign," or " sacred 
 sign." On the word sacrament, let thus much suffice ; and, in- 
 deed, it applies also to the sacraments of the Old Law, on which, 
 however, superseded as they have been by the law and grace 
 of the Gospel, pastors have no occasion to deliver instruction. 
 
 QUESTION III. Of the proper meaning of " Sacrament" among 
 Catholic Writers. 
 
 But besides the meaning of the word, which has hitherto 
 been explained, the nature and efficacy of the thing are also dili- 
 gently to be investigated ; and to the faithful is to be unfolded 
 what is a sacrament ; for that the sacraments are amongst the 
 means of obtaining salvation and righteousness, no one can 
 doubt. But although there are many ways that may seem apt 
 and appropriate to explain this matter, none points it out more 
 plainly and clearly than the definition given by St. Augustine, 
 
 * D. Greg, in 1 Eeg. xvi. 13. 
 t In Amos, i. 1, and Iren. i. 15. 
 
 j In Joan. Tract. 80 in fine, and contra Faust, xix. 2; Cypr. Epist 
 15, et lib. de Bapt. Christ.
 
 128 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 which all scholastic Doctors have since followed : " A sacra- 
 ment," says he, " is a sign of a sacred thing ;"* or, as has been 
 said in other words, but to the same purport : " A sacrament 
 is a visible sign of an invisible grace, instituted for our justifica- 
 tion." 
 
 QUESTION IV. A Division of Sensible Things, and what is to be 
 understood by the word Sign. 
 
 That this definition may be plainer, its several parts will 
 have to be explained by pastors. And, first, they must teach 
 that all sensible objects are of two sorts ; for some are invented 
 to serve as signs ; others have been produced, not as signs, but 
 on their own account only. In the latter class may be num- 
 bered almost all objects in nature; but in the former are to be 
 placed the names of things, writing, standards, images, trum- 
 petSjf and a multiplicity of other things of the same sort ; for, 
 if you strip words of their power of expressing ideas, you seem 
 to take away the reason of their institution. These, then, are 
 properly called signs ; for, according to St. Augustine, a sign is 
 that which, besides what it presents to the senses, constitutes 
 also a medium through which we arrive at the knowledge of 
 something else ; as from a footstep, which we see imprinted 
 on the ground, we easily know that some one, whose footstep 
 appears, has passed. J 
 
 QUESTION V. It is shown how Sacraments are to be placed 
 amongst Signs. 
 
 This being the case, a sacrament, it is clear, is referred to 
 that class of things, which have been instituted as signs ; for it 
 makes known to us, by a certain appearance and resemblance, 
 that which God, by his invisible power, accomplishes in our 
 souls. To illustrate what, is taught by an example, baptism, in 
 which we receive external ablution, accompanied with certain 
 solemn words, signifies this, that, by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost, all the stain and defilement of sin are inwardly washed 
 away, and that our souls are enriched and adorned with that 
 glorious gift of heavenly righteousness ; whilst, at the same 
 time, that corporeal ablution, as shall be explained hereafter in 
 its proper place, accomplishes in the soul that which it signifies. 
 
 * Lib. 10, De Civ. Dei, x. 5. 
 
 t Aug. lib. 2, de Doct. Christ, ii. i. " Et tuba sonante milites vel 
 progredi se, vel regredi, et si quid aliud pugna postulat, opertere 
 noverunt." 
 
 J Ibid. : "Sicut vestigio viso, transisse animal, cujus vestigium est, 
 cogitamus."
 
 PART II. CHAPTER I. 129 
 
 That a sacrament is to be numbered amongst signs, is clearly 
 inferred from the Scriptures also ; for, speaking of circumcision, 
 a sacrament of the Old Law given to Abraham, the father of all 
 believers (Gen. xvii. 10), the Apostle writes thus to the Romans: 
 " And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the justice 
 of the faith" (Kom.iv.ll); and when, in another place, he affirms, 
 " that all we who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized 
 in his death " (Rom. vi. 3), we may learn that baptism is signifi- 
 cant of this, namely, as the same Apostle says, that " we are 
 buried together with him by baptism unto death" (Rom. vi. 
 4). Nor will it be unprofitable if the faithful people understand 
 that the sacraments appertain to signs, for they will thus be the 
 more easily persuaded to believe that what they signify, contain, 
 and effect is holy and august ; and recognizing their sanctity, 
 they will be more excited to venerate and adore the divine 
 beneficence towards us. 
 
 QUESTION VI. How many Sorts of Signs there are. 
 
 It now follows that these words, " sacred thing," which is the 
 other part of the definition, be explained. That this may be done 
 to advantage, the acute and subtile disquisition of St. Augustine 
 on the variety of signs, must be gone into again a little more deeply.* 
 For some signs are called natural, which, besides making them- 
 selves known to us, produce also in our minds a knowledge of 
 something else, a property which was already shown to be common 
 to all signs, such, for instance, as smoke, from which is imme- 
 diately understood the presence of fire. And this sign is to be 
 called natural for this reason, that smoke does not imply fire by 
 arbitrary institution ; but experience makes one, if he only sees 
 smoke, conclude that beneath exists at the same time the nature 
 and force of as yet latent fire. Other signs are not natural, but 
 conventional, and invented by men, to enable them to commune 
 one with another, and mutually to convey their sentiments and 
 counsels. How various and manifold these are we may per- 
 ceive from the fact, that some belong to the eyes, very many 
 to the ears, the rest to the other senses. Thus, when we inti- 
 mate anything to any one as, for example, when by hoisting 
 a military standard we declare something it is sufficiently 
 obvious that such iutimation is referred to the eyes only ; as to the 
 judgment of the ears appertains the sound of trumpets, of lutes, 
 and of the lyre, which is elicited not only to afford pleasure, but 
 very often to convey ideas. Through the same sense principally 
 are also conveyed words, which have most force to express the 
 inmost thoughts of the mind. But besides those signs which 
 * Lib. i. de Doctr. Christ, c. i. 
 
 I
 
 130 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 we have hitherto said are conventional and arbitrary, there are 
 some others, and confessedly of more sorts than one, which are 
 of divine appointment. For some signs were given by God to 
 men, solely to indicate or commemorate something ; such were 
 the purifications of the Law, the unleavened bread, and very 
 many other things that appertained to the ceremonies of the 
 Mosaic worship (Exod. xii. 15) ; but others God instituted, 
 which would have the force not only of signifying, but also of 
 accomplishing [what they signify] ; and among the latter kind 
 of signs are manifestly to be numbered the sacraments of the 
 New Law, for they are signs delivered by God, not invented by 
 man, which we believe with certainty to possess the power of 
 effecting something sacred, which they declare. 
 
 QUESTION VII. Meaning of the words "Sacred Thing" in the 
 Definition of a Sacrament. 
 
 But as we have shown that signs are of manifold variety, so 
 also the " sacred thing " is not to be supposed of one sort only. 
 By the words " sacred thing," however, as far as regards the 
 proposed definition of a sacrament, writers on sacred matters 
 express the grace of God, which sanctifies us, and adorns us 
 with the habit of all the divine virtues ; for to this grace they 
 justly considered that the proper appellation of " sacred thing " 
 should be given, since by the benefit thereof our soul is conse- 
 crated and united to God. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. A Fuller Definition of a Sacrament, and in 
 what manner it differs from other Sacred Signs. 
 
 In order, therefore, to explain more fully the nature of a 
 sacrament, [the pastor] must teach that it is a thing subject to 
 the senses, which possesses, by the institution of God, at once 
 the power of signifying, and accomplishing, sanctity and righ- 
 teousness. Whence it follows, as any one may easily understand, 
 that images of the saints, crosses, and the like, although they 
 are signs of sacred things, are not, however, on that account to 
 be called sacraments. The truth of this doctrine it will be easy to 
 prove by the example of all the sacraments, if any one wish to 
 apply to each what we already observed of baptism, when we 
 said, that that solemn ablution of the body signifies, and has 
 power to effect, a sacred thing, which is wrought inwardly by 
 the operation of the Holy Ghost. It also eminently accords 
 with the nature of these mystical signs, which have been insti- 
 tuted by God, to signify, by the institution of our Lord, not some 
 one thing, but several at once. This we may recognize in each 
 of the sacraments, for they all declare not only our sanctity and
 
 PART II. CHAPTER I. 131 
 
 justification, but two other things besides most intimately con- 
 nected with sanctity itself, namely, the passion of Christ the 
 Redeemer, which is the cause of our sanctification, and eternal 
 life and celestial bliss, to which, as to its end, our sanctification 
 should be referred. As, then, this can be perceived in all the 
 sacraments, justly have sacred Doctors taught, that each of 
 them has a threefold significancy, reminding us of something 
 passed, indicating and showing something present, and fore- 
 telling something future. Nor are we to suppose that this was 
 so taught by them as not to be proved by the testimony of the 
 holy Scriptures also ; for when the Apostle says : " All we who 
 are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in his death " (Rom. 
 vi. 3, sqq.), he plainly shows that baptism is to be called a 
 sign, because it reminds us of the death and passion of our 
 Lord. Afterwards, when he says : " We are buried together 
 with him by baptism unto death, that as Christ is risen from 
 the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in 
 newness of life " (Rom. vi. 4), from these words it is clear, that 
 baptism is a sign, by which is declared the infusion into us of 
 heavenly grace, by the aid of which it is given to us, forming 
 our lives anew, to discharge easily and with a willing mind all 
 the duties of true piety. Lastly, when he adds : " If we have 
 been planted together in the likeness of his death, in like man- 
 ner we shall be of his resurrection" (Rom. vi. 5), it is apparent 
 that baptism gives no obscure intimation of eternal life also, 
 which we are to attain thereby. 
 
 But besides these various kinds and modes of signifying 
 which we have mentioned, a sacrament also not unfrequently 
 indicates and marks the presence of more than one thing. This 
 it is easy for those to understand, who direct their attention to 
 the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, in which are signified 
 both the presence of the real body and blood of Christ, and also 
 tiie grace which it imparts to those receiving it not with an 
 impure heart; From what has been said, therefore, arguments 
 cannot be wanting to pastors, by which they may show what 
 great power of the Divinity, how many hidden miracles are 
 contained in the sacraments of the New Law, that they may 
 persuade ah 1 that they are to be reverenced and received with, 
 the greatest devotion. 
 
 QUESTION IX. Why Sacraments should be instituted among 
 Christians. 
 
 But nothing can seem better adapted to teach the right use 
 of the sacraments, than diligently to explain the reasous of their 
 institution. Mauy are wont to be enumerated, the tirat of which
 
 132 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 is the imbecility of the human mind ; for we see it so consti- 
 tuted by nature, that to no one is it permitted to aspire to 
 mental and intellectual knowledge, unless through the medium 
 of those things that are perceived through some sense. In 
 order, therefore, that we might the more easily understand the 
 things which are effected by the hidden power of God, the same 
 supreme Artificer of all things, most wisely, and of his own 
 benignity towards us, ordained to manifest that same power by 
 means of certain sensible signs. For, as has been admirably 
 said by St. Chrysostom: "If man were not clothed with a 
 material body, these good things would have been presented to 
 him naked and unveiled ; but, as the soul is united to the body, 
 it was altogether necessary towards understanding them, that 
 he should use the aid of sensible things."* 
 
 Another reason is, that our mind yields not a ready assent 
 to promises made us ; and hence, God, from the beginning of 
 the world, was accustomed to indicate what he had resolved to 
 do, very frequently indeed by words, but sometimes, when he 
 designed some work, the magnitude of which might destroy 
 belief in the promise, he annexed to his words other signs also, 
 which, in some cases, appeared miraculous. When, for instance, 
 God would send Moses to deliver the people of Israel ; and 
 Moses, although under the commission and protection of God, 
 still feared that a burden was imposed on him heavier than he 
 could bear, or that the people would not yield credence to the 
 divine oracles and words, the Lord confirmed his promise by a 
 manifold variety of signs.t As, then, in the Old Testament, 
 God testified by signs the stability of some great promise ; so, 
 also, in the New Law, Christ our Saviour, when he promised us 
 pardon of sins, heavenly grace, the communication of the Holy 
 Spirit, instituted certain sensible signs, by which we might 
 have him bound, as it were, by pledges, and thus could never 
 doubt his fidelity to his promises. 
 
 A third reason was, that, as St. Ambrose writes, the sacra- 
 ments may be at hand as remedies, and as the healing medicines 
 of the Samaritan in the Gospel, to recover or preserve the 
 health of the soul ;J for, through the sacraments, as through a 
 certain channel, should flow into our souls the efficacy of the 
 passion of Christ, that is, the grace which he merited for us on 
 the altar of the cross ; otherwise to no one could there be left 
 any hope of salvation. Hence, the Lord most merciful was 
 pleased to leave in the Church, sacraments stamped with the 
 
 * Chrys. Horn. 83, in Matt, et Horn. 60, ad Pop. Antioch. 
 t Exod. iii. 10, sqq. ; iv. 2, sqq. Lib. v. de Sacr. c. 4.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER I. 133 
 
 sanction of his word and promise, through which, provided 
 each of ns piously and devoutly apply to himself these reme- 
 dies, we should firmly believe that to us is really communicated 
 the fruit of his passion. 
 
 But there is, moreover, a fourth reason also why the institu- 
 tion of the sacraments may seem necessary, namely, that there 
 might be certain marks and symbols, by which the faithful 
 might be distinguished ; particularly as, to use the words of St. 
 Augustine, " no society of men, professing a true or a false re- 
 ligion, can be knit as it were into one body, unless they be unitf d 
 and held together by some federal bond of visible signs."* 
 Both these objects, then, the sacraments of the New Law accom- 
 plish, distinguishing, as they do, Christians from infidels, and 
 connecting the faithful themselves by a sort of holy bond. 
 Besides, another very just cause for the institution of the sacra- 
 ments may be shown from these words of the Apostle : " With 
 the heart we believe unto justice; but with the mouth confession 
 is made unto salvation" (Rom. x. 10); for, by the sacraments, we 
 seem to profess and make known our faith in the sight of men. 
 Thus, when we approach baptism, we openly testify our belief 
 that, by virtue of the water, with which we are washed in the 
 sacrament, is accomplished a spiritual cleansing of the soul. 
 
 In the next place, the sacraments have great efficacy, not 
 only in exciting and exercising faith in our souls, but also in in- 
 flaming that charity with which we should love one another ; 
 recollecting that, by partaking of the sacred mysteries in com- 
 mon, we are united in the closest bond, and are made members 
 of one body. 
 
 Finally, what is to be deemed of the greatest importance in the 
 study of Christian piety, the sacraments subdue and repress the 
 pride of the human mind, and exercise us in humility, by obli- 
 ging ns to subject ourselves to sensible elements in obedience to 
 God, from whom we had before impiously revolted to serve the 
 elements of the world. These are the things which appeared 
 chiefly necessary to be delivered to the faithful people regarding 
 the name, nature, and institution of a sacrament. When they 
 shall have been accurately expounded by pastors, they ought 
 next to teach what are the constituents of each sacrament, or 
 what are their parts, and, moreover, what rites and ceremonies 
 have been added in their administration. 
 
 *D. Aug. lib. xix. contra Faust, c. 11 et 21 ; et de Vera Rel. c. 17 ; 
 Basil, iii Exh. ad Bapt.
 
 13-i CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION X. The Parts necessary to the constituting of each 
 Sacrament. 
 
 In the first place, then, it must be explained that the " sen- 
 sible thing," which enters into the definition of a sacrament as 
 above given, although it must be held to constitute but one sign, 
 is twofold ; for every sacrament consists of two things, one of 
 which has the nature of " matter," and is called " the element;" 
 the other, the force of " form," and is designated by a common 
 appellation, " the word," for so we have learnt from the Fathers. 
 On this subject, that testimony of St. Augustine is known and 
 familiar to all: " The word is joined to the element, and a sacra- 
 ment is constituted."* By the words " sensible thing," therefore, 
 the Fathers understand both the matter or element, as water in 
 the sacrament of baptism, chrism in that of confirmation, and 
 oil in that of extreme unction, all of which fall under the sight ; 
 and also the words, which constitute the form, and are addressed 
 to the sense of hearing. The Apostle has clearly pointed out 
 both, when he says : " Christ loved the Church, and delivered 
 himself up for it, that he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the 
 laver of water in the word of life " (Eph. v. 25), in which pas- 
 sage are expressed the matter and forui of the sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XI. Why the Words were added to the Element. 
 
 To signify more fully and clearly the meaning of that which 
 is being done, words were to be added to the matter ; for of ail 
 signs, words, it is evident, are the most significant, and if they 
 be wanting, what the matter of the sacraments designates and 
 declares will be utterly obscure. For, as we may see in bap- 
 tism, since water has the power of cooling not less than of 
 cleansing, and may be a symbol of both effects, unless the words 
 be added, some one might perhaps make it a matter of con- 
 jecture, of certainty he dare not, which of these it may signify 
 in baptism ; but when the words are applied, we at once under- 
 stand, that it possesses the power and signification of cleansing.! 
 
 QUESTION XII. Excellence of the Sacraments of the New Law. 
 
 The sacraments of the New Law very far excel those of the 
 Old, in this, that no definite form that we indeed know of was 
 observed in administering those of the Old, a circumstance 
 which also rendered them very uncertain and obscure ; whilst 
 ours have so definite a form of words, that if a casual deviation 
 from it be made, the nature of a sacrament cannot subsist ; 
 
 * Aug. in Joan. Tract. Ixxx. f Aug. de Doct. Christ, lib. viii. c. 3.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER I. 135 
 
 and it is, therefore, expressed in the clearest terms, and such as 
 leave no room for doubting. These, then, are the parts that 
 appertain to the nature and substance of the sacraments, and 
 of which every sacrament is necessarily composed. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. What is the Value and Nature of Ceremonies 
 in the Sacraments. 
 
 To these are added ceremonies, which, although they cannot, 
 unless necessity compel a different course, be omitted without 
 sin, yet, if at any time they be omitted, not being essential, 
 are not to be considered at all to affect the validity of the 
 sacrament. And with good reason, indeed, has the adminis- 
 tration of the sacraments been, at all times, from the earliest ages 
 of the Church, accompanied with certain solemn ceremonies. 
 For, in the first place, there was the greatest propriety in pay- 
 ing to the sacred mysteries such a religious reverence, as to 
 appear to handle holy things holily. Besides, the ceremonies 
 themselves display more fully, and place, as it were, before the 
 eyes, the effects of the sacrament, and impress more deeply on 
 the minds of the faithful the holiness of those things. In the 
 next place, they elevate to the contemplation of sublime things, 
 the minds of those who behold and observe them with atten- 
 tion ; and excite in them faith and charity. Therefore should 
 the greater care and diligence be employed to make the faithful 
 know and understand clearly the meaning of the ceremonies 
 used in the administration of each sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. How many are the Sacraments of the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 It follows, that the number of the sacraments be explained ; 
 a knowledge which, indeed, brings with it this advantage, that 
 the greater the number of aids to salvation and a blessed life, 
 which the people shall understand to have been divinely pro- 
 vided for us, the greater must be the piety, with which they 
 will direct all the powers of their souls, to praise and proclaim 
 the singular beneficence of God towards us. The sacraments, 
 then, of the Catholic Church, are seven, as is proved from the 
 Scriptures, is handed down to us by the tradition of the Fathers, 
 and is testified by the authority of councils.* 
 
 * Trid. sess. vii. can. 1 ; Cone. Flo. in dec. ad Arm. D. Th. p. 3, 
 q. 63, art. 1.
 
 136 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XV. Why the Sacraments are neither more nor less 
 
 in number. 
 
 But why they are neither more nor less in number, may be 
 shown, with some probability, even from the analogy that exists 
 between natural and spiritual life. In order to live, to preserve 
 life, and to contribute to his own and to the public good, these 
 seven things seem necessary to man, namely to be born to 
 grow to be nurtured to be cured when sick to be strength- 
 ened when weak next, as regards the commonwealth, that 
 magistrates, by whose authority and power it may be governed, 
 be never wanting and, finally, to perpetuate himself and his 
 species by the propagation of legitimate offspring. Analogous, 
 then, as all these things obviously are to that life by which the 
 soul lives to God, from them will be easily inferred the number 
 of the sacraments. For the first is Baptism, the gate, as it 
 were, to all the rest, by which we are born again to Christ. 
 The next is Confirmation, by virtue of which we grow up, and 
 are strengthened in divine grace ; for, as St. Augustine bears 
 witness : " To the Apostles, who had been already baptized, 
 the Lord said : ' Stay you in the city till you be endued with 
 power from on high.' "* The third is the Eucharist, by which, 
 as by a truly celestial food, our spirit is nurtured and sustained ; 
 for of it the Saviour has said : "My flesh is meat indeed, and my 
 blood is drink indeed" (John, vi. 56). Penance follows in the 
 fourth place, by the aid of which lost health is restored, after 
 we have received the wounds of sin. The fifth is Extreme 
 Unction, by which the remains of sin are removed, and the 
 energies of the soul are invigorated ; for, speaking of this sacra- 
 ment, St. James has testified thus : " If he be in sins, they 
 shall be forgiven him" (James, v. 15). Order follows, by 
 which power is given to exercise perpetually in the Church the 
 public ministry of the sacraments, and to perform all the sacred 
 functions.f Lastly, is added Matrimony, that, by the legiti- 
 mate and holy union of man and woman, children may be pro- 
 created, and religiously brought up to the worship of God, and 
 the conservation of the human race (Eph. v. 31, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XVI. The Necessity or Dignity of all the Sacraments 
 
 is not the same. 
 
 It is, however, particularly worthy of remark, that, although 
 all the sacraments possess a divine and admirable efficacy, yet 
 
 * D. Aug. Ep. 108 ; and Luke, xxiv. 49. 
 
 t Acts, xiii. 2, sq. ; 1 Tim. iv. 14 ; 2 Tim. i. 6.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER I. 137 
 
 all have not a like and equal necessity or dignity, nor one and 
 the same significancy. Amongst them three are said to be 
 necessary beyond the rest, although not in the same manner. 
 For that baptism is necessary to each one without any quali- 
 fication, the Saviour has declared in these words : " Unless a 
 man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God " (John, iii. 5). But penance 
 is necessary for those only who have defiled themselves after 
 baptism with some mortal sin ; for unless they duly repent of 
 their offence, they cannot possibly escape eternal ruin. Order, 
 too, although not necessary to each of the faithful, is absolutely 
 necessary to the whole Church. But, if the dignity of the 
 sacraments be considered, the Eucharist far excels the rest in 
 holiness, and in the number and greatness of its mysteries. All 
 these matters will be more easily understood when we come to 
 explain, in its proper place, what appertains to each of the 
 sacraments. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. From, whom those Sacred and Divine Mysteries 
 principally have been received, and ly whom they are dispensed. 
 
 We must next see from whom we have received these 
 sacred and divine mysteries ; for the dignity of any great 
 boon is, no doubt, very much enhanced by the dignity and excel- 
 lence of him from whom the gift itself proceeds. That ques- 
 tion, however, cannot be one of difficult solution ; for, as it is 
 God that justifies men, and the sacraments themselves are 
 certain wonderful instruments of obtaining justification, it is 
 evident that one and the same God in Christ must be acknow- 
 ledged to be the author of justification and of the sacraments. 
 The sacraments, moreover, contain that power and efficacy 
 which penetrates to the inmost soul ; and as God alone has 
 power to enter into the hearts and minds of men, it is, hence, 
 also, clearly seen that he alone, through Christ, is the author 
 of the sacraments. That by him, also, they are inwardly dis- 
 pensed, is to be held with a certain and firm faith ; for, that 
 from him he had received this testimony, is affirmed by St. 
 John, when he says : " He who sent me to baptize in water, 
 said to me : He upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending, 
 and remaining on him, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy 
 Ghost" (John, i. 33). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. What Ministers God employs in dispensing 
 the Sacraments. 
 
 But although God is the author and dispenser of the sacra- 
 ments, he, nevertheless, would have them administered in the
 
 138 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Church, not by angels, but by men ; for that, to constitute the 
 sacraments, the ministry of men is not less necessary than the 
 matter and form, has been confirmed by the uninterrupted 
 tradition of the Fathers. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. The Minister, by his Unworthiness, cannot 
 impede the Virtue of the Sacramental Grace. 
 
 Representing, as they do, in this sacred function, not their 
 own person, but that of Christ, the ministers of the sacra- 
 ments, consequently, be they good or bad, validly consecrate 
 and confer them, provided they make use of the matter and 
 form always observed in the Catholic Church, according to the 
 institution of Christ, and intend to do what the Church does 
 in that administration ; so that, unless the receivers wish to 
 defraud themselves of so great a good, and to resist the Holy 
 Ghost, nothing can prevent them from receiving the fruit of 
 grace. And that this was at all times a fixed and ascertained 
 doctrine in the Church, St. Augustine, in those disputations 
 which he wrote against the Donatists, has most clearly proved :'"" 
 but if we desire testimonies of Scripture also, let us listen to 
 the Apostle himself speaking in these Avords : " I have planted," 
 says he, "' Apollo watered ; but God gave the increase. So 
 then neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth, 
 but God who giveth the increase" (1 Cor. iii. 6, sq.). From 
 these words it is sufficiently understood, that, as the wickedness 
 of those by whose hand they have been planted do no injury to 
 trees, so from the guilt of others no harm can be contracted 
 by those who were planted in Christ by the ministry of bad 
 men. Hence, even Judas Iscariot, as our holy Fathers have 
 taught from the Gospel of St. John (John, iv. 2), baptized many, 
 of whom, however, we do not read that any one was baptized 
 again ; whence, St. Augustine has left admirably written : 
 "Judas gave baptism, and after Judas none were baptized: 
 John gave, and after John they were baptized ; because, if 
 given by Judas, it was the baptism of Christ; but that given 
 by John, was John's (Acts, xix. 3, sqq.) ; not that we prefer 
 Judas to John, but that we rightly prefer the baptism of Christ, 
 given even by the hands of Judas, to the baptism of John, given 
 even by the hands of John."t 
 
 * Lib. 1, c. 4, et lib. 2, contra lit. Petil. c. 47. 
 t Tract, v. in Joan.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER I. 139 
 
 QUESTION XX. Wliat is to be thought of those who administer 
 the Sacraments with an Unclean Conscience. 
 
 But let not pastors or other ministers of the sacraments, on 
 hearing these things, think it enough for them if, disregarding 
 integrity of morals and purity of conscience, they attend only to 
 the due administration of the sacraments ; for although that de- 
 mands diligent care, yet in it are not comprised all things that 
 pertain to that function. They ought always to recollect that 
 to those who administer them with impure hands, the sacra- 
 ments, although they never lose the divine efficacy inherent in 
 them, bring eternal perdition and death. Holy things an obser- 
 vation which cannot be too often repeated should be treated 
 holily and reverently. " To the sinner," says the Prophet, " God 
 hath said: why dost thou declare my justices, and take my 
 covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hast hated discipline ?" (Ps. 
 xlix. 16.) If, then, it is unlawful for a man contaminated with 
 sins to treat of divine things, how great must be deemed the 
 guilt contracted by him who, conscious of many crimes, yet 
 dreads not to consecrate with polluted lips the sacred mysteries, 
 or to take them into polluted hands, to handle them, and to pre- 
 sent and administer them to others 1* particularly as it is written 
 in St. Denis, that the wicked are not permitted even to touch the 
 symbols (for so he calls the sacrameuts).t Let, then, the minis- 
 ters of sacred things first of all follow holiness, approach with 
 purity the administration of the sacraments, and so exercise 
 themselves in piety, that, from their frequent administration and 
 use, they may daily receive, with God's assistance, more abun- 
 dant grace. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. On the Two Principal Effects of the 
 Sacraments. 
 
 These things having been explained, the pastor must now 
 teach what are the effects of the sacraments, for that seems cal- 
 culated to throw not a little light on the definition of a sacra- 
 ment which was given above. These, then, are principally 
 counted two ; and amongst them that grace, which, by a name 
 commonly used by the sacred Doctors, we call " justifying," 
 deservedly holds the first place ; for thus has the Apostle most 
 explicitly taught us, when he says: " Christ loved the Church, 
 and delivered himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, cleans- 
 ing it by the laver of water in the word" (Eph. v. 25, sq.). 
 
 * Cone. Trid. sess. vii. can. 6. t De Eccl. Hier. c. 1.
 
 140 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 But how so great and so admirable an effect is produced by the 
 sacrament, as that, to use the well-known saying of St. Augus- 
 tine, " Water washes the body and touches the heart,"* that, 
 indeed, cannot be comprehended by human reason and intelli- 
 gence ; for it ought to be a fixed principle, that nothing sensible 
 is, of its own nature, endowed with such power as to be able to 
 penetrate to the soul ; but we know, by the light of faith, that 
 in the sacraments exists the virtue of the Omnipotent God, by 
 which they effect what the natural elements themselves cannot 
 by their own virtue accomplish. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. How the Effects of a Sacrament were, in the 
 Infancy of the Church, miraculously manifested. 
 
 Wherefore, lest any doubt as to this effect should ever 
 remain in the minds of the faithful, God, in the abundance of 
 his clemency, was pleased, when their administration first began, 
 to declare, by significant miracles, what they inwardly accom- 
 plished, that we might most firmly believe that the same effects, 
 although they be far removed from our senses, are always in- 
 wardly produced. Therefore, to omit that, at the baptism of 
 our Saviour in the Jordan, " The heavens were opened," and the 
 Holy Ghost appeared in the form of a dove,f thus admonishing 
 us that, when we are being washed in the salutary font, his grace 
 is infused into our soul, I say to omit this (for it belongs rather 
 to the significancy of baptism than to the administration of the 
 sacrament), do we not read that, when, on the day of Pentecost, 
 the Apostles received the Holy Ghost, by which they were 
 thenceforward inspired with greater alacrity and fortitude to 
 preach the truth of the faith, and to encounter dangers for the 
 glory of Christ, " Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as 
 of a mighty wind coming, and there appeared to them cloven 
 tongues, as it were of fire"? (Acts, ii. 2, sq.). Whence it was 
 understood, that, in the sacrament of confirmation, is given to us 
 the same Spirit, and to us is added such strength as enables us 
 resolutely to encounter and resist our perpetual enemies, namely, 
 the world, the flesh, and the devil ; and as often as the Apostles 
 administered those sacraments, these miracles, for some time 
 during the infancy of the Church, visibly took place, until, the 
 faith having now acquired maturity and strength, they ceased to 
 be wrought. 
 
 * In Joan. Tract. Ixxx. 
 
 t Matt. iii. 16; Mark, i. 10 ; Luke, iii. 21, sq.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER I. 141 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. How great is the Excellence of the Sacraments 
 of the New Law over those of the Old. 
 
 From what, then, has been shown concerning the first effect 
 of the sacraments, namely, justifying grace, it is also clear, that 
 there exists in the sacraments of the New Law a virtue more 
 excellent and efficacious than that formerly of the sacraments of 
 the Old Law, which, as " weak and poor elements " (Gal. iv. 9), 
 " sanctified such as were defiled to the cleansing of the flesh " 
 (Heb. ix. 13), not of the spirit. Wherefore, they were insti- 
 tuted as signs only of those things that were to be accomplished 
 by our mysteries ; whereas the sacraments of the New Law, 
 flowing from the side of Christ, "who, by the Holy Ghost, 
 offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from 
 dead works, to serve the living God " (Heb. ix. 14) ; and thus, 
 by virtue of the blood of Christ, they operate that grace which 
 they signify. Whence, if we compare them with the ancient 
 sacraments, besides being more efficacious, they will be found to 
 be both more exuberant of spiritual advantage, and more august 
 by their holiness. 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. What Sacraments impress a Character, and 
 what is that Character. 
 
 The other effect of the sacraments, an effect, however, not 
 common to all, but peculiar only to three, baptism, confirmation, 
 and holy order, is the character which they impress on the 
 soul. For when the Apostle says: "He that hath anointed 
 us is God, who also hath sealed us, and given the pledge of the 
 Spirit in our hearts " (2 Cor. i. 21), he not obscurely designates, 
 by the word " sealed," a character, the property of which is to 
 seal and mark something. This character is, as it were, a cer- 
 tain distinctive mark impressed on the soul, which inhering, as 
 it does perpetually, is indelible,* and of which St. Augustine has 
 thus written : " Shall the Christian sacraments be able perchance 
 to accomplish less than the bodily mark impressed, namely, on the 
 soldier ? That mark is not stamped on the soldier anew, when 
 returning to the military service from which he had deserted, 
 but the old one is recognized and approved. "f 
 
 * Cone. Trid. sess. vii. can. 9. 
 
 t Lib. ii. contr. ep. Farm. c. 33, et ep. 50, circa med., et Tract. 6 
 in Joan, et lect. 1 contr. Crescen. c. 30.
 
 142 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXV. What is the Effect of the Character, and how 
 Sacraments impressing a Character ought not to be repeated. 
 
 Now this character has a twofold effect : it both qualifies us 
 to receive or perform something sacred ; and serves to distin- 
 guish one from another by some mark. And, indeed, by the 
 character impressed in baptism, we attain both ; for by it we are 
 qualified to receive the other sacraments, and by it also the 
 faithful people are distinguished from the Gentiles, who follow- 
 not the faith. The same may be observed in the characters im- 
 pressed by confirmation and holy order : by the former of 
 which we are armed and arrayed as soldiers of Christ, publicly 
 to profess and defend his name, to fight against our domestic 
 onemy, and against the spiritual powers of wickedness in the 
 high places, and are at the same time distinguished from those 
 who, being lately baptized, are, as it were, new-born infants ; 
 the latter has annexed to it the power of consecrating and ad- 
 ministering the sacraments, and also distinguishes those who are 
 invested with such power, from the rest of the assembly of the 
 faithful. The rule of the Catholic Church is therefore to be 
 held, by which we are taught that these three sacraments im- 
 press a character, and are never to be repeated. These are the 
 instructions to be delivered generally on the sacraments. 
 
 QUESTION XXVI. By what means Pastors succeed in inducing 
 the People to Venerate the Sacraments, and make a Religious 
 use of them. 
 
 In the exposition of this subject, let pastors endeavour with 
 all zeal to effect principally two things: the first, that the faith- 
 ful understand of what high honour, respect, and veneration 
 these divine and celestial gifts are worthy ; the other, that, as 
 they have been designed by the God of infinite clemency for the 
 common salvation of all, they make pious and religious use of 
 them, and be so inflamed with the desire of Christian perfection, 
 as to think that they have incurred a very great loss, if they be 
 deprived, for any time, of the most salutary use, especially of 
 peuauce and of the Eucharist. These objects pastors will be 
 able easily to attain, if they will inculcate frequently on the ears 
 of the faithful, what we have said above on the divine excel- 
 lence and fruit of the sacraments : first, that they were institu- 
 ted by our Lord and Saviour, from whom can proceed nothing 
 but what is most perfect ; that in their administration, moreover, 
 is present the most efficacious influence of the Holy Ghost, per- 
 vading the inmost recesses of our heart ; that, in the next place, 
 they are endued with an admirable and certain virtue of curing
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 143 
 
 souls, and that through them are derived to us the inexhaustible 
 riches of the passion of our Lord. Lastly, let them show, that 
 the whole Christian edifice rests indeed on the most firm founda- 
 tion of the corner-stone, but that, unless it be supported on every 
 side by the preaching of the divine word, and by the use of the 
 sacraments, it is greatly to be feared that, having tottered to a 
 great extent, it must fall to the ground ; for as by the sacra- 
 ments we are ushered into life, so by this food, as it were, are 
 we nurtured, preserved, and grow to spiritual increase. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM. 
 
 QUESTION I. Why it is expedient that the Doctrine of Baptism 
 be frequently inculcated on the Faithful Peoples. 
 
 From what has been hitherto said on the sacraments in general, 
 it may indeed be known how necessary it is either to attaining a 
 knowledge of the doctrines of the Christian religion, or to the 
 practice of piety, to understand what the Catholic Church pro- 
 poses to be believed on each sacrament in particular ; but if any 
 one will read the Apostle attentively, he will without hesitation 
 conclude, that a perfect knowledge of baptism is imperatively de- 
 manded of the faithful ; not only so frequently, but also in such 
 solemn language, in language so full of the Spirit of God, does 
 the Apostle renew the recollection of that mystery, commend its 
 divine excellence, and place in it before our eyes the death, 
 burial, and resurrection of our Lord, as objects at once of our 
 contemplation and imitation (Rom. vi. 3 ; Coloss. ii. 12, sq.). 
 Let pastors, therefore, never think that they have bestowed 
 sufficient labour and study in treating this sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION II. When the Parish-priest ought most particularly to 
 discourse on Baptism. 
 
 But besides those days on which, according to the practice of 
 our ancestors, the divine mysteries of baptism were particularly 
 to be explained, namely, Holy Saturday and the Vigil of Pente- 
 cost, when the Church had been accustomed to celebrate this 
 sacrament with the greatest devotion and the utmost solemnity, 
 let them take occasion on other days also, to make it the subject- 
 matter of their discourse. And for this purpose a most con- 
 venient opportunity would seem to present itself, if sometimes, 
 when baptism is about to be administered to some one, they
 
 144 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 observe that a concourse of the faithful people has assembled ; 
 for although it may not be permitted them to go through all the 
 heads which belong to this sacrament, it will be then much 
 easier to teach one or two points, whilst the faithful see also at 
 the same time expressed in the sacred ceremonies of baptism, 
 and contemplate, with pious and attentive mind, the doctrine of 
 those things, which they receive with their ears. Whence it 
 will follow, that each, admonished by what he sees done in 
 another, may recollect within himself by what promises he bound 
 himself to God when he was initiated by baptism, and may, at 
 the same time, reflect whether in life and morals he approve 
 himself such as the very profession of the Christian name pro- 
 mises. In order, then, that the things to be taught may be ex- 
 pounded lucidly, the nature and substance of baptism must be 
 unfolded, premising, however, an explanation of the meaning of 
 the word itself. 
 
 QUESTION III. Meaning of the word " Baptism." 
 
 No one is ignorant that " baptism " is a Greek word, which, 
 although in the sacred writings it signifies not only that ablution 
 which belongs to the sacrament, but also every kind of ablution 
 (Is. xxiv. 23 ; Mark, vii. 4), and has sometimes been used 
 figuratively to express suffering, yet, with ecclesiastical writers, 
 denotes not every sort of bodily ablution, but that which belongs 
 to the sacrament, and is not administered without the prescribed 
 form of words ; and in this sense the Apostles very often used 
 it according to the institution of Christ the Lord.* 
 
 QUESTION IV. By what other Names the Fathers expressed 
 Sacramental Ablution. 
 
 The holy Fathers used other names also to designate the same 
 thing ; for St. Augustine testifies that it was called the sacra- 
 ment of Faith, because persons receiving it profess their faith 
 in all the doctrines of the Christian religion ;f and others 
 denominated this sacrament " illumination," because by the 
 faith which we profess in baptism our hearts are illumined : 
 " Call to mind," says the Apostle, meaning the time when they 
 had been baptized, " the former days, wherein being illuminated, 
 you sustained a great conflict of afflictions" (Heb. x. 32). 
 Chrysostom, in his sermon to the baptized, calls it moreover " a 
 purgation," because through baptism we " purge out the old 
 
 *Rom. vi. 3, sq. ; 1 Cor. i.; Eph. iv. 15; Gal. ii. 12; 1 Pet. 
 ii. 21. 
 f Epist. xcviii. 8.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 145 
 
 leaven, that" we "may be a new mass" (1 Cor. v. 7), also 
 " a burial," " a planting," and " the cross of Christ ;"* the 
 reason for all which appellations we may gather from the epistle 
 to the Romans (Rom. vi. 3, 5). But why St. Denis called it 
 the beginning of the most holy commandments, is clear, since 
 this sacrament is, as it were, the gate through which we enter 
 into the fellowship of Christian life, and from it we begin to 
 obey the divine precepts.t These things regarding the name 
 must be briefly explained. 
 
 QUESTION V. Definition of Baptism. 
 
 But with regard to the definition of the thing, although many 
 may be adduced from sacred writers, yet that which may be un- 
 derstood from the words of our Lord in John, and of the Apostle 
 to the Ephesians, appears more appropriate and convenient ; for 
 since our Saviour says : " Unless a man be born again of water 
 and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God " 
 (John, iii. 5) ; and the Apostle, when speaking of the Church : 
 " Cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life" (Eph. 
 v. 26) ; it hence follows that baptism may be accurately and 
 appositely defined to be, " The sacrament of regeneration by 
 Avater in the word ;" for by nature, we are born from Adam 
 children of wrath, but by baptism we are regenerated in Christ, 
 children of mercy, for " he gave power to men to be made the 
 sons of God, to them that believe in his name, who are born not 
 of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
 of God" (John, i. 12, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION VI. In what Manner the Sacrament of Baptism is 
 constituted. 
 
 But, in whatsoever terms we may explain the nature of bap- 
 tism, the people must be taught that this sacrament consists of 
 ablution, accompanied necessarily, according to the institution of 
 the Lord and Saviour, by determinate and solemn words (Matt, 
 xxviii. 19). So have the holy Fathers always taught, as is 
 proved by that most explicit testimony of St. Augustine : " The 
 word is joined to the element, and a sacrament is constituted." 
 This it will be necessary to point out with the greater diligence, 
 lest perhaps the faithful be led into the error of supposing, that 
 the water itself, which is preserved in the sacred font for admi- 
 nistering baptism, is, as is commonly said, the sacrament ; for 
 then only must it be called the sacrament of baptism, when wo 
 
 * S. Chrysost. x. o. t S. Dion, de Eccl. Hier. c. 2. 
 
 K
 
 146 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 are actually using water by way of ablution, accompanied by the 
 words instituted by our Lord. But as we first said, when 
 treating of the sacraments in general, that each sacrament 
 singly consists of matter and form, it is therefore necessary that 
 pastors point out what both are in baptism. 
 
 QUESTION VII. What is the Proper Matter of Baptism. 
 
 The matter, then, or element of this sacrament, is every kind 
 of natural water, which without any addition is usually called 
 water, be it sea-water, river-water, water from a marsh, or well, 
 or fountain ; for the Saviour also has taught that, " Unless a 
 man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God " (John, iii. 5) ; and the Apostle 
 says, that the Church was cleansed " by the laver of water " 
 (Eph. v. 26) ; and in the epistle of St. John we read written : 
 " There are three that give testimony on earth, the spirit, the 
 water, and the blood " (1 John, v. 8). It is also proved from 
 other testimonies of the sacred Scriptures. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Tlie Passage in St. Matthew respecting the 
 " Baptism of Fire" is explained. 
 
 But what has been said by John the Baptist, that the Lord 
 will come who would baptize " in the Holy Ghost, and in fire " 
 (Matt. iii. 2), is by no means to be understood of the matter of 
 baptism, but ought to be referred to the interior effect of the 
 Holy Spirit ; or at least to the miracle which appeared on the 
 day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost descended from heaven 
 on the Apostles, in form of fire (Acts, ii. 3) ; of which Christ 
 our Lord foretold in another place : "John, indeed, baptized with 
 water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not 
 many days hence " (Acts, i. 5). 
 
 QUESTION IX. By ivhat Figures and Prophecies the force of the 
 Waters of Baptism was shown. 
 
 That the Lord also signified the same both by figures and by 
 the oracles of the Prophets, we perceive from the sacred Scrip- 
 tures ; for the Prince of the Apostles, in his first epistle, shows 
 that the deluge, by which the world was purged, because " the 
 wickednesss of men was great on the earth, and all the thoughts 
 of their hearts were bent upon evil " (Gen. vi. 5), bore a figure 
 and likeness of this water (1 Pet. iii. 20, sq.) ; and, meanwhile, 
 to omit the cleansing of Naaman the Syrian (4 Kings, v. 14), and 
 the admirable virtue of the sheep-pool (John, v. 2), with many 
 other similar types manifestly symbolic of this mystery, St. 
 Paul, writing to the Corinthians, has expounded that the pas-
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 147 
 
 sage of the Bed Sea was also typical of the same water (1 Cor. 
 x. 1, sq.). With regard to the predictions, none can doubt that 
 the waters to which the Prophet Isaias so freely invites all that 
 thirst (Isaias, Iv. 1), and those that Ezechiel saw in spirit, issu- 
 ing from the temple (Ezech. xlvii. 1), and also " the fountain" 
 which Zacharias foretold, prepared for " the house of David, and 
 the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the washing of the sinner and of 
 the unclean woman" (Zach. xiii. 1), pertain to indicating and 
 expressing the salutary water of baptism. 
 
 QUESTION X. Why God chose to use Water, rather than any 
 other matter, for constituting Baptism. 
 
 But how suitable it was to the nature and efficacy of baptism, 
 that water should have been instituted as its proper matter, St. 
 Jerome, writing to Oceanus, has proved indeed by many argu- 
 ments.* With regard, however, to this topic, pastors can teach, 
 in the first place, that, as this sacrament was necessary for all, 
 without exception, to attain life, water, therefore, which is always 
 at hand, and is easily procured by all, was most fit matter. 
 Next, water is most significant of the effect of baptism ; for, as 
 water washes away nncleanness, so does it also very well illus- 
 trate the virtue and efficacy of baptism, by which are washed 
 away the stains of sin. Moreover, as water is extremely well 
 adapted to cool bodies, so by baptism is, in a great measure, ex- 
 tinguished the ardour of the passions. 
 
 QUESTION XI. Chrism, why added to the simple and natural 
 water. 
 
 But it is to be observed, that although, in case of necessity, 
 simple water, without any other admixture, is fit matter to con- 
 stitute this sacrament, yet, when baptism is administered with 
 solemn ceremonies, the Catholic Church, guided by Apostolic 
 tradition, has uniformly observed the practice of adding holy 
 chrism also, by which it is clear that the effect of baptism is more 
 fully declared. The people are also to be taught that, although 
 it may sometimes be uncertain whether this or that water be 
 genuine, such as the perfecting of the sacrament requires, this 
 however is to be held for certain, that never by any means cau 
 the sacrament of baptism be constituted from other matter thaii 
 from natural liquid water. 
 
 * Hieron. Epist. Ixxxv.
 
 148 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XII. Why the perfect form of Baptism is to be clearly 
 explained to all the faithful promiscuously. 
 
 But after the matter, which is one of the two parts of which 
 baptism must consist, shall have been diligently explained, pastors 
 will study with equal diligence to teach the form also, which 
 constitutes its other essential part. But they will consider that, 
 in the explanation of this sacrament, a necessity of greater care 
 and study arises from the circumstance that the knowledge of so 
 holy a mystery may not only of itself delight the faithful ex- 
 ceedingly, which indeed is commonly the case with regard to all 
 knowledge of divine things, but is also very desirable for almost 
 daily occasions ; for, as will be more fully explained in its proper 
 place, since times often occur when baptism requires to be ad- 
 ministered, both by others of the laity, and very often by women, 
 hence it is that all the faithful indiscriminately ought to be well 
 acquainted with what regards the substance of this sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. What is the perfect and absolute form of this 
 Sacrament. 
 
 Wherefore pastors will teach, in clear and plain language, 
 which may be easily understood by all, that the perfect and 
 absolute form of baptism is this : " I BAPTIZE THEE IN THE NAME 
 OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST ;" for 
 so was it delivered by our Lord and Saviour, when, in Matthew, 
 he gave to his Apostles the command : " Go ye and teach all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost " (Matt, xxviii. 19). From that 
 word " baptizing," the Catholic Church, instructed from above, 
 most rightly understood that in the form of the sacrament should 
 be expressed the action of the minister, which is the case when 
 it is said : " I baptize thee." And as, besides the ministers, it 
 should signify both the person who is being baptized and the 
 principal efficient cause of baptism, therefore are added that pro- 
 noun " thee," and the distinct names of the Divine Persons ; so 
 that the absolute form of the sacrament is expressed in those 
 words just explained : " I baptize thee in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," for the sacrament of 
 baptism is the work not of the Son alone, of whom St. John says : 
 " He it is that baptizeth " (John, i. 33), but simultaneously of 
 all the Persons of the blessed Trinity. By saying, however, 
 " in the name," not names, it is distinctly declared that in the 
 Trinity there is but one nature and Godhead ; for in this place 
 the word is not referred to the Persons, but signifies the divine
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 149 
 
 substance, virtue, and power, which, in the Three Persons, are 
 one and the same. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. Whether in the form of Baptism all the words 
 are equally necessary. 
 
 It is, however, to be observed, that in this form, which we 
 have shown to be entire and perfect, some of the words are 
 absolutely necessary, their omission invalidating the sacra- 
 ment; some not so necessary as that their omission would 
 affect its validity. Of the latter kind is [in the Latin form] 
 the word " ego " (I), the force of which is included in the word 
 " baptizo " (I baptize). Nay more, in the Greek churches, as 
 they deemed it unnecessary to make mention of the minister, 
 by a different mode of expression the first person was alto- 
 gether omitted ; and hence, in baptism they universally make 
 use of this form : " Be the servant of Christ baptized in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 From the decision and definition, however, of the Council of 
 Florence, it appears that, as by these words is sufficiently 
 explained what appertains to the truth of baptism, that is, the 
 ablution which then actually takes place, those who make use 
 of it perfectly administer the sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XV. How the Apostles might have baptized in the 
 name of Christ. 
 
 Should we also be justified in saying that there was a time 
 when the Apostles baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ only,* we must, indeed, hold as certain, that they did 
 so by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that, in the infancy 
 of the Church, their preaching might be rendered more illus- 
 trious by the name of Jesus Christ, and that his divine and 
 infinite power might thus be the more proclaimed. But, in 
 the next place, examining the matter thoroughly, we shall 
 easily perceive that none of those parts prescribed by the Saviour 
 himself is wanting in that form ; for, he who mentions Jesus 
 Christ signifies, also, at the same time, the person of the Father, 
 by whom, and the Holy Ghost, in whom, he was anointed. 
 
 QUESTION XVI. We are to believe that the Apostles never bap- 
 tized in the name of Christ, omitting the other Two Persons of 
 the Trinity. 
 
 Whether, however, the Apostles baptized any one with this 
 form, may, perhaps, seem doubtful, if we are disposed to follow 
 
 * Acts, ii. 38, viii. 16, x. 48, xix. 5.
 
 150 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 the authority of Ambrose* and Basil,t most holy and grave 
 Fathers, who interpreted baptism "in the name of Jesus 
 Christ " to mean baptism instituted by Christ the Lord, as 
 distinguished from that of John ; whilst the Apostles departed 
 not from the common and usual form, which comprises the 
 distinct names of the Three Persons. And this manner of 
 expression Paul, also, seems to have employed, in his epistle to 
 the Galatians, when he says : " As many of you as have been 
 baptized in Christ, have put on Christ" (Gal. iii. 27); to signify 
 that they were baptized in the faith of Christ, yet with no 
 other form than that which the same Saviour, our Lord, had 
 commanded to be observed. Thus far it will be sufficient to 
 instruct the faithful on the matter and form, which essentially 
 belong to the substance of baptism. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. How the Ablution should be made in this 
 mystery of Regeneration. 
 
 But as, in the administration of this sacrament, the legiti- 
 mate manner of ablution ought, also, to be observed, the 
 doctrine of this part, also, should, therefore, be delivered by pas- 
 tors, and they must briefly explain that, by the common custom 
 and practice of the Church, there are three ways of adminis- 
 tering baptism [immersion, effusion, and aspersion] ; for those 
 who ought to be initiated by means of this sacrament, are 
 either immersed into the water, or the water is poured on 
 them, or they are sprinkled with the water. Whichever of 
 these rites is observed, we must believe that the baptism is 
 truly administered ; for, water is used in baptism to signify 
 the ablution of the soul, which it accomplishes. Whence, bap- 
 tism is called by the Apostle a laver (Tit. iii. 5 ; Eph. v. 26) ; 
 but ablution is not more really accomplished by the immersion 
 of any one in water, which we find to have been long observed 
 in the Church from the earliest times, than by the effusion of 
 water, which we now perceive to be the common practice, or by 
 aspersion, the manner in which there is reason to believe Peter 
 administered baptism, when, on one day, he converted and 
 baptized "three thousand souls" (Acts, ii. 41). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. Whether a single or a threefold Ablution be 
 required. 
 
 But whether the ablution be performed once or thrice must 
 be held to make no difference, for that baptism was formerly, 
 
 * De Spiritu Sancto, lib. i. c. 3. t De Spiritu Sancto, lib. i. c. 12. 
 See also Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 61.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 151 
 
 and may now be, validly administered in the Church in either 
 way, sufficiently appears from the epistle of St. Gregory the 
 Great to Leander. That rite, however, which each individual 
 finds observed in his own church, is to be retained by the 
 faithful. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. Why the Head, most particularly, is here to 
 receive the Ablution. 
 
 The pastor must particularly admonish [the faithful] that 
 the ablution is not to be applied indifferently to any part of 
 the body, but most particularly to the head, which is the seat 
 of all the internal and external senses; and also, that the 
 words of the sacrament, which comprise the form, are to be 
 pronounced by him who baptizes, not before or after, but 
 during the actual ablution. These things being explained, it 
 will, moreover, be proper to teach, and recal to the recollection 
 of the faithful, that, in common with the other sacraments, 
 baptism was instituted by Christ the Lord. 
 
 QUESTION XX. Whether Christ instituted Baptism before or 
 after his Passion. 
 
 This, then, pastors will often teach, and will point out that 
 two different periods of baptism are to be noted : one, when it 
 was instituted by the Saviour; the other, when the law was 
 passed for its reception. With regard to the first, it is clear 
 that this sacrament was instituted by the Lord, when he himself, 
 having been baptized by John, gave to the water the virtue of 
 sanctifying. That then was imparted to the water the 
 power of generating, namely, to spiritual life, St. Gregory 
 Nazianzen* and St. Augustinet testify. And in another place 
 [the latter] has left written : " From the moment that Christ is 
 immersed in water, from that moment water washes away all 
 sins;";}: and elsewhere: "The Lord is baptized, not having 
 occasion to be cleansed, but that, purifying the waters by the 
 contact of his pure flesh, they may have the power of cleansing." 
 And a very strong argument to that effect might be afforded 
 by the fact, that the most holy Trinity, in whose name bap- 
 tism is conferred, manifested their divine presence on that 
 occasion. For the voice of the Father was heard ; the person 
 of the Son was present ; and the Holy Ghost descended in 
 form of a dove ; besides, " the heavens," whither we may now 
 ascend by baptism, "were opened" (Matt. iii. 16, sq. ; Mark, 
 
 * Orat. in Nat. Salvat. circa finem. f Serm. 29, 36, 37, de Temp. 
 J Ibid.
 
 152 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 i. 9, sq.). Should any one desire to know how our Lord gave 
 to the waters a virtue so great, so divine, that, indeed, tran- 
 scends human comprehension ; but that, when our Lord received 
 baptism, water, by contact with his most holy and pure body, 
 was consecrated to the salutary use of baptism, that we can 
 sufficiently understand ; with this observation, however, that 
 although instituted before the passion, we must yet believe this 
 sacrament to have derived all its force and efficacy from the 
 passion, which was the consummation, as it were, of all the 
 actions of Christ, 
 
 QUESTION XXI. When the Law of Baptism began to be 
 obligatory on men. 
 
 With regard to the other period, that is, at what time the 
 law on baptism was passed, this also admits of no doubt ; for 
 sacred writers are agreed, that when, after the resurrection of 
 our Lord, he gave to his Apostles the command : "Go, and teach 
 all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt, xxviii. 19 ; Mark, xvi. 
 15), from that time all who were to attain eternal salvation 
 began to be bound by the law of baptism. This is inferred 
 from the authority of the Prince of the Apostles, when he says : 
 " Who hath regenerated us unto a lively hope through the re- 
 surrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Pet. i. 3); and 
 the same may be known from that passage of Paul (when 
 speaking of the Church) : " He delivered himself up for it, 
 cleansing it by the laver of water in the word" (Eph. v. 25, sq.). 
 For both seemed to have referred the obligation of baptism to 
 the time subsequent to the death of our Lord : so that we can 
 have no doubt whatsoever, that to the same time after the 
 passion had reference also those words of the Saviour: " Unless 
 a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God " (John, iii. 5). 
 
 QUESTION XXII. In how great veneration the Sacrament of 
 Baptism is to be held. 
 
 From these matters, then, if accurately treated by pastors, 
 there can be no doubt that the faithful must recognize in this 
 sacrament the highest dignity, and venerate it with the most 
 profound piety of soul, particularly when they reflect, that to each 
 of them are imparted in baptism, by the interior virtue of the 
 Holy Ghost, those glorious and most ample gifts, that were 
 declared by significant miracles at the baptism of Christ the 
 Lord. For as, were our eyes, even as befel the servant of 
 Eliseus (4 Kings, vi. 17), so opened that we might see heavenly
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 153 
 
 things, no one could be supposed so insensible as not to be 
 transported with the greatest admiration by the divine mysteries 
 of baptism ; why should we not anticipate the same result also, 
 when the riches of this sacrament shall have been so unfolded 
 by pastors, that the faithful may be able to contemplate them, 
 if not with the eyes of the body, yet with those of the soul 
 illumined with the light of faith ? 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. How many sorts of persons can administer 
 Baptism. 
 
 But it appears not only useful, but necessary, to teach who 
 are the ministers of this sacrament, in order that those to whom 
 this office is principally intrusted may study to attend to it holily 
 and religiously ; and that no one, outstepping, as it were, his 
 proper limits, may unseasonably enter upon, or arrogantly 
 intrude into the office belonging to another ; whereas, the 
 Apostle admonishes, that order is to be observed in all things 
 (1 Cor. xiv. 40). Let the faithful therefore be taught, that of 
 these there are three grades ; and that in the first indeed are 
 to be ranked bishops and priests, to whom it has been given to 
 exercise this office, not by any extraordinary power, but by 
 their own right ; for to them, in the persons of the Apostles, 
 was addressed by our Lord the command : " Go and baptize " 
 (Matt, xxviii. 19). Bishops, however, lest they should be 
 obliged to neglect the more weighty charge of instructing the 
 people, were accustomed to leave the administration of baptism 
 to priests. But that priests exercise this function by their own 
 right, so as that they may administer baptism even in pre- 
 sence of the bishop, is clear from the doctrine of the Fathers,* 
 and the practice of the Church. For being ordained to conse- 
 crate the holy Eucharist, which is the sacrament of peace and 
 unity (1 Cor. x. 17), it was fitting that power should be given 
 them to administer all those things, through which necessarily 
 others are enabled to become participators of that peace and 
 unity. If, then, the Fathers have sometimes said, that without 
 the leave of the bishop, priests have no right to baptize, they 
 seem to have spoken of that baptism which was wont to be 
 administered on certain days of the year with solemn ceremony. 
 Next to bishops and priests come deacons, for whom, numerous 
 decrees of the holy Fathers testify, it is not lawful, without the 
 leave of the bishop or priest, to administer this sacraraent.t 
 The last rank is that of those who may administer baptism in 
 case of necessity, without its solemn ceremonies ; and in this 
 
 * Isid. lib. 2, de offic. Eccles. cap. 4. f Distinct, xciii. cap. 13.
 
 154 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 number are included all, even of the laity, whether men or women, 
 whatever sect they may profess ; for this function is permitted, 
 in case of necessity, even to Jews, and infidels, and heretics ; 
 provided, however, they intend to do what the Catholic Church 
 does in that act of her ministry. Now these things have been 
 confirmed by many decrees of the ancient Fathers and Councils ; 
 and the holy Synod of Trent also denounces anathema against 
 those who presume to say, " that baptism, which is even given 
 by heretics in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost, with the intention of doing what the Church 
 does, is not true baptism."* In this truly may we admire the 
 supreme goodness and wisdom of our Lord ; for since this sacra- 
 ment must necessarily be received by all, as he instituted water 
 for its matter, than which nothing can be more common, so he 
 also wished that no one should be excluded from its adminis- 
 tration, although, as has been said, all are not allowed to use 
 the solemn ceremonies ; not indeed that the rites or ceremonies 
 are of greater dignity, but because they are of less necessity, 
 than the sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. What Order is to be observed by the Faithful 
 in Baptizing. 
 
 Let not the faithful, however, imagine that this office has 
 been allowed to all so indiscriminately, as that there exist not 
 the greatest propriety in observing some order among its minis- 
 ters ; for if a man be present, a woman ; if a clerk, a layman ; 
 if a priest, a simple clerk, should not take to themselves the ad- 
 ministration of baptism. Midwives, however, who have been 
 accustomed to baptize, are not to be found fault with, if some- 
 times, when a man is present, who is not at all familiar with 
 the administration of this sacrament, they perform what would 
 otherwise seem rather to be the proper office of a man. 
 
 QUESTION XXV. Why, in the mysteries of Regeneration, besides 
 those who baptize, Sponsors are employed. 
 
 To those who, as has been hitherto explained, administer 
 baptism, is to be added another class of ministers, who, accord- 
 ing to the most ancient practice of the Catholic Church, are 
 wont to be admitted to the celebration of the sacred and salutary 
 ablution. They were formerly called by writers on divine 
 
 * Trid. sess. vii. de Bapt. can. 4 ; Aug. lib. 7, contra Donatist. cap. 
 51 ; ibid. lib. 3, cap. 10, et lib. 2, contra Parmen. ; et Concil. Lat. 
 cap. 1 ; et Cone. Florent. in deer. Eugenii.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 155 
 
 things by the common appellations of " undertakers," " sponsors" 
 or " sureties," but are now called godfathers and godmothers. As 
 this is an office common to almost all the laity, pastors must 
 treat of it accurately, that the faithful may understand what is 
 principally necessary to its due performance. They should, first 
 of all, explain why, at baptism, besides the ministers of the 
 sacrament, godfathers and sponsors should also be added. That 
 this is done with very great propriety will be seen by all, if they 
 recollect that baptism is a spiritual regeneration, by which we 
 are born children of God ; for of it St. Peter speaks thus : " As 
 new-born infants, desire the rational milk without guile" (1 
 Pet. ii. 2). As, therefore, every one, after he has been ushered 
 into light, requires a nurse and instructor, by whose aid and 
 assistance he may be brought up, and instructed in learning and 
 useful knowledge ; so also it is necessary that those who, by 
 the waters of baptism, begin to live a spiritual life, be consigned 
 to the fidelity and prudence of some one from whom they may 
 imbibe the precepts of the Christian religion, and by whom they 
 may be trained to every manner of piety; and thus gradually 
 grow up in Christ, until, with the Lord's help, they at length 
 arrive at perfect manhood; particularly as pastors, who are 
 charged with the public cure of parishes, have not as much time 
 left as to be able to undertake that private care of instructing 
 children in the faith. But for this very ancient practice, we 
 have the illustrious testimony of St. Denis, when he says : " It 
 occurred to our divine Leaders" (for so he calls the Apostles), 
 " and they thought fit to receive infants after this holy manner, 
 that the natural parents of the child should deliver him to the 
 care of some one skilled in divine things, as to a master under 
 whom, in the capacity of spiritual father and guardian of his 
 salvation in holiness, the child might spend the remainder of his 
 life."* The same doctrine is confirmed by the authority of 
 Hyginus.t 
 
 QUESTION XXVI. The Spiritual Affinity contracted in Baptism 
 impedes and annuls Matrimony. 
 
 Most wisely, therefore, has it been ordained by holy Church, 
 that not only the person who baptizes contracts an affinity 
 with the person baptized, but also the sponsor with the god- 
 child and its natural parents ; so that between all these, legiti- 
 mate contracts of marriage cannot be entered into, and if entered 
 into are dissolved. 
 
 * Dionys. de Eccl. Hier. c. 7. t Habetur de consec. dist. 5, cap. 
 100.
 
 156 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXVII. What are the duties of Sponsors, and what 
 is required of them. 
 
 The faithful must also be taught what are the duties of spon- 
 sors; for so negligently is this office treated in the Church, that 
 its bare name alone is left ; but of the sanctity contained therein, 
 men seem not even to have the least idea. Let all sponsors, 
 then, at all times recollect that they are bound principally by 
 this law, to exercise a constant vigilance over their spiritual 
 children, and take particular care that, in those things which 
 regard the formation of a Christian life, they approve them- 
 selves through life such as [their sponsors] promised they should 
 be by the solemn ceremony. On this subject let us hear what 
 St. Denis writes, speaking the language of the sponsor : " I 
 promise, by my assiduous exhortations, to induce the child, when 
 he shall arrive at a knowledge of religion, to renounce every- 
 thing opposed to, and to profess and perform the sacred promises 
 which he makes."* St. Augustine also : " I most especially ad- 
 monish you," says he, " men and women, who have become 
 sponsors, to know that you stood sureties before God for those 
 whom you have been seen to receive at the sacred font."t And, 
 indeed, it eminently becomes him who has undertaken any office, 
 to be indefatigable in the diligent discharge of its duties ; and 
 he who professed to be the teacher and guardian of another, 
 should on no account suffer him to be deserted, whom he once 
 received under his trust and guardianship, so long as he shall 
 understand him to have occasion for his care and protection. 
 Speaking of this same office of sponsors, St. Augustine sums up, 
 in a few words, the lessons of instruction which ought to be im- 
 pressed by them on their spiritual children; for he says: " They 
 ought to admonish them to observe chastity, love justice, cherish 
 charity ; and, above all, let them teach them the Creed and the 
 Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments also, and what are the 
 first rudiments of the Christian religion."! 
 
 QUESTION XXVIII. Persons are not to be promiscuously 
 admitted to the office of Sponsors. 
 
 Such being the case, we easily understand to what sort of per- 
 sons the administration of this holy guardianship should not be 
 intrusted ; namely, to those who are either unwilling to discharge 
 
 * Loco sup. cit. t Loco sup. cit. 64. J D. Aug. serm. 163, de 
 temp, and serm. 215, aud serm. 165, de temp, de coiis. dist. iv. c. 
 120.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 157 
 
 it faithfully, or unable to do so assiduously and accurately. 
 Wherefore, besides the natural parents, who, to mark more 
 strongly how much this spiritual bringing up differs from the 
 carnal, are not permitted to undertake that charge, heretics par- 
 ticularly, Jews, and infidels are altogether to be forbidden this 
 office, their thoughts and cares being ever occupied in obscuring 
 by falsehoods the truth of the faith, and subverting all Christian 
 piety. 
 
 QUESTION XXIX. What ought to be the number of Sponsors. 
 
 It has been ordained by the Council of Trent,* that the spon- 
 sors also be not numerous, but be limited to one male or female, 
 or, at the most, to one male and one female ; because the order 
 of discipline and instruction might be confused by a number of 
 teachers ; and also because it was necessary to provide against 
 the muliplication of such affinities, as would impede the wider 
 diffusion of social relations amongst men by the lawful tie of 
 marriage. 
 
 QUESTION XXX. Baptism is necessary to salvation for all. 
 
 But if to the faithful the knowledge of the matters hitherto 
 explained is to be deemed most useful, there also can appear 
 nothing more necessary than that they be taught that the law 
 of baptism is prescribed by our Lord to all, insomuch that they, 
 unless they be regenerated unto God, through the grace of bap- 
 tism, be their parents Christian or infidel, are born to eternal 
 misery and perdition. Pastors, therefore, must frequently ex- 
 pound what is read in the Evangelist : " Unless a man be born 
 again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of God" (John, iii. 5).' 
 
 QUESTION XXXI. Infants are by all means to be Baptized. 
 
 That this law is to be understood not only of adults, but also 
 of infants, and that the Church has received this from Apos- 
 tolic tradition, is confirmed by the concurrent doctrine and 
 authority of the Fathers. Besides, it must be believed that 
 Christ our Lord was unwilling that the sacrament and grace of 
 baptism should be denied to children, of whom he said : 
 " Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me, 
 for the kingdom of heaven is for such" (Matt. xix. 14) ; whom 
 he embraced on whom he laid his hands whom he blessed 
 (Mark, x. 16). Moreover, when we read that some entire 
 family was baptized bj Paul (1 Cor. i. 16; Acts, xvi. 33), it 
 
 * Sess. xxiv. cap. ii.
 
 158 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 sufficiently appears that children also, who were of their number, 
 had been cleansed in the salutary font. Circumcision, too, 
 which was a figure of baptism, affords a strong argument in 
 favour of this practice. That children were wont to be circum- 
 cised on the eighth day, every one knows.* To those, then, to 
 whom circumcision, " made by hand, in despoiling of the body 
 of the flesh" (Coloss. ii. 11), had been profitable, it is clear that 
 baptism, which is the circumcision of Christ "not made by hand," 
 is also profitable. Lastly, as the Apostle teaches : " If by one 
 man's offence, death reigned through one ; much more they, 
 who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice, 
 shall reign in life through one, Jesus Christ" (Rom. v. 17). 
 As, then, through the sin of Adam, children have contracted 
 original guilt, with still greater reason may they attain grace 
 and righteousness through Christ the Lord to reign unto life, 
 which indeed can by no means be effected without baptism.t 
 Wherefore, pastors will teach that infants are by all means to 
 be baptized, and that their tender age is next gradually to be 
 formed to true piety by the precepts of the Christian religion ; 
 for, as the wise man has admirably said : " A young man, 
 according to his way, even when he is old, he will not depart 
 from it" (Prov. xxii. 6). 
 
 QUESTION XXXII. Infants receive spiritual grace in Baptism. 
 
 That when baptized, they receive the mysterious gifts of 
 faith, it is not lawful to doubt ; not that they believe by the 
 assent of their own mind, but because that want is supplied 
 by the faith of their parents, if their parents be of the number 
 of the faithful ; if not (to use the words of St. Augustine), by 
 the faith of the universal society of the saints ;| for we say 
 rightly, that they are presented for baptism by all those, to 
 whom it is pleasing that they should be presented, and by 
 whose charity they are united to the communion of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 QUESTION XXXIII. The Baptism of Infants not to be delayed. 
 
 But the faithful are earnestly to be exhorted, to take care 
 that their children be brought to the church as soon as it may 
 be done without danger, and baptized with solemn ceremonies ; 
 for as no other means of attaining salvation remains for infant 
 
 * Gen. xxi. 4; Lev. xii. 3; Luke, i, 59, ii. 21. f Cone. Trid. 
 
 sess. v. decret. de Peccato Orig., and sess. vii. de Baptism, cap. 
 12, sqq. J Ep. 23, ad Boil.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 159 
 
 children, except baptism, it is easily understood how enormous 
 is the guilt which they incur, who suffer them to be deprived of 
 the grace of the sacrament longer than necessity may require ; 
 particularly as, on account of their feeble age, dangers almost 
 innumerable impend over them. 
 
 QUESTION XXXIV. How Adults are to be instructed 
 before Baptism. 
 
 But the practice of the ancient Church declares, that a 
 different manner of proceeding is to be observed with regard to 
 those who are of adult age, and enjoy the perfect use of reason, 
 namely, persons born of infidel parents ; for to them the 
 Christian faith is to be proposed ; aiid they are with all earnest- 
 ness to be exhorted, allured, invited, to embrace it. But if they 
 be converted to the Lord God, they should then be admonished 
 not to defer the sacrament of baptism beyond the time pre- 
 scribed by the Church ; for, whereas it is written : " Delay not 
 to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day " 
 (Eccl. v. 8), they are to be taught that perfect conversion con- 
 sists in regeneration by baptism ; that, besides, the longer they 
 delay coming to baptism, the longer must they be without the 
 use and grace of the other sacraments, by which the Christian 
 religion is practised, whereas without baptism they are in- 
 accessible; that, in the next place, they are also deprived of the 
 most abundant fruit which we derive from baptism, for the 
 water of baptism not only entirely washes away and removes the 
 stain and defilements of all past sins, but adorns us with divine 
 grace, by the aid and help of which we are enabled to avoid sin 
 also for the future, and to preserve righteousness and innocence, 
 in which all easily understand the sum of a Christian life to 
 consist. 
 
 [QUESTION XXXV. It is shown that the Baptism of Adults 
 should be deferred. 
 
 On this class of persons, nevertheless, the Church has not 
 been accustomed to confer the sacrament of baptism imme- 
 diately, but has ordained that it be deferred to a certain time. 
 For that delay is not attended with the danger which was said 
 above to impend over infants ; for, should any sudden accident 
 render it impossible for adults to be cleansed in the saving 
 water, their intention and determination to receive it, and 
 their repentance for their previous ill-spent life, will suffice 
 them to grace and justification. On the other hand, this delay 
 seems to be attended with some advantages ; for, in the first 
 place, as great care must be taken by the Church that no one
 
 160 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 approach this sacrament with dissimulation and hypocrisy, the 
 intentions of such as seek baptism are better examined and 
 ascertained. Hence it is that we read it decreed in ancient 
 Councils, that converts from Judaism to the Catholic faith, 
 before their admission to baptism, should be some months in the 
 ranks of the catechumens. In the next place, they are better 
 instructed in the doctrine of the faith which they ought to 
 profess, and in the practices of a Christian life. Moreover, 
 greater religious respect is paid to the sacrament, if adminis- 
 tered to adults with solemn ceremony, on the appointed days of 
 Easter and Pentecost only. 
 
 QUESTION XXXVI. Baptism is not always to lie deferred 
 in the case of Adults. 
 
 Sometimes, however, when there is a just and necessary 
 cause, the time of baptism is not to be deferred, as, for instance, 
 when danger to life seems imminent, and particularly if persons 
 are to be baptized who are already fully instructed in the 
 mysteries of faith. That this was done by Philip and by the 
 Prince of the Apostles, is sufficiently clear ; for the one bap- 
 tized the Eunuch of Queen Candace, the other, Cornelius, 
 without any delay being interposed, but as soon as they pro- 
 fessed to embrace the faith " (Acts, viii. 38, sq.; x. 47, sqq.). 
 
 QUESTION XXXVII. How those who are to be Baptized 
 ought to be disposed. 
 
 The pastor will also teach and explain to the people bow 
 those who are to be baptized ought to be disposed. In the first 
 place, then, they must desire and purpose to receive baptism ; 
 for as in baptism each one dies to sin, and engages to enter 
 upon a new manner and discipline of life, it is fit that it be 
 administered, not to any one that is unwilling or refusing, 
 but to those only who receive it of their own free will and 
 accord. Hence we observe from holy tradition, that it has been 
 always the practice that baptism was administered to no one 
 without his being previously asked whether he will be baptized. 
 Nor are we to suppose that this will is wanting in infants too, 
 since the will of the Church, who answers for them, cannot be 
 doubtful. 
 
 QUESTION XXXVIII. When insane persons may or may not be 
 Baptized. 
 
 [The pastor], moreover, [will teach] that mad and frantic per- 
 sons, who, having been once of sound mind, have subsequently
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 16 J 
 
 fallen into insanity, having at that time no desire of receiving 
 baptism, are not to be baptized unless danger to life be immi- 
 nent ; but when they are in danger to life, if previously to their 
 insanity they gave intimation of a wish to that effect, they are 
 to be baptized ; but if not, the administration of baptism is to be 
 abstained from. The same decision should be made regarding 
 persons in lethargy. But if they were never under the mind's 
 control, so that they at no time enjoyed the use of reason, the 
 authority and practice of the Church sufficiently declare that 
 they are to be baptized in the faith of the Church, just as children 
 before they come to the use of reason. 
 
 QUESTION XXXIX. What things are further required for 
 receiving Baptism. 
 
 But besides a will to be baptized, in order to obtain the grace 
 of the sacrament, faith also is, in like manner, most necessary ; 
 for our Lord and Saviour has taught: " He that believeth and is 
 baptized, shall be saved " (Mark, xvi. 16). Another requisite is 
 that each person repent him of his past transgressions, and also 
 determine to refrain from all sins for the future. For, otherwise, 
 he who would seek baptism, while yet unwilling to correct the 
 habit of sinning, should be altogether repelled ; for nothing is so 
 much opposed to the grace and virtue of baptism, as the dis- 
 position and determination of those, who set to themselves no 
 end ever of sinning. Since, then, baptism should be sought 
 with a view that we may put on Christ, and be united to him, 
 it is manifest that he who purposes to persevere in vices and sins, 
 should justly be repelled from the sacred ablution, particularly as 
 none of those things, that appertain to Christ and his Church, 
 are to be received in vain ; and although, as regards the sacra- 
 ment, if, whilst he is being duly baptized, the adult intends to 
 receive what holy Church administers, he, beyond all doubt, 
 validly receives the sacrament ; yet, if we regard sanctifying 
 and saving grace, we are well aware that by him who purposes 
 to " walk according to the flesh, and not according to the spirit " 
 (Rom. viii. 1, 2, 4), baptism is received in vain, and is of no 
 avail. Wherefore to that vast multitude, who, as the Scripture 
 says, " being compunct in heart," asked of him and of the other 
 Apostles what they should do, the Prince of the Apostles replied 
 thus : " Do penance, and be baptized, every one of you " (Acts, 
 ii. 38); and in another place he says: " Be penitent, therefore, 
 and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out " (Acts, iii. 
 19). Writing to the Romans, the blessed Paul also plainly 
 shows, that he who is baptized should entirely die to sin ; and 
 hence he admonishes us that we yield not our "members as 
 
 L
 
 162 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 instruments of iniquity unto sin; but present" ourselves " to God, 
 as those that are alive from the dead " (Rom. vi. 13). 
 
 QUESTION XL. What great advantage should result from 
 discoursing on these matters. 
 
 If, then, the faithful shall frequently meditate on these matters? 
 they will indeed be compelled, in the first place, earnestly to ad~ 
 mire the infinite goodness of God, who, induced by his sole 
 mercy, has bestowed upon us, undeserving of it as we are, a 
 blessing so singular and divine as that of baptism. Again, 
 when they place before their eyes how free from all crime should 
 be the lives of those, who have been embellished with so great a 
 gift, they will easily understand that it is especially required of 
 every Christian man to strive to spend each day of his life as 
 holily and religiously as if it were that very day on which he 
 had received the sacrament and grace of baptism. To inflame 
 their minds, however, with zeal for true piety, nothing will avail 
 more than if pastors give an accurate exposition of the effects of 
 baptism. 
 
 QUESTION XLI. What is the chief Effect of Baptism. 
 
 As, then, these are to furnish matter of frequent instruction, 
 in order that the faithful may the better understand their own 
 most exalted dignity, and may never suffer themselves to be 
 dislodged therefrom by any disguised artifices or open assaults 
 of the adversary, they are to be taught, in the first place, that 
 by the admirable virtue of this sacrament is remitted and par- 
 doned sin, whether originally contracted from our first parents, 
 or actually committed by ourselves, although it should even be 
 so enormous as to seem to outstrip imagination itself. This its 
 efficacy was foretold long before by Ezechiel, by whom the 
 Lord God thus speaks : "'I will pour upon yon clean water, 
 and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness" (Ezech. 
 xxx vi. 25). Also the Apostle to the Corinthians, after a long 
 enumeration of sins, added : " Such some of you were, but you 
 are washed, but you are sanctified " (1 Cor. vi. 2). And that 
 this doctrine was always handed down by holy Church, is clear; 
 for St. Augustine, in the book which he wrote on the baptism 
 of infants, bears this testimony : " By the generation of the 
 flesh, [original] sin only is contracted ; but by the regeneration 
 of the Spirit, remission is made not only of original, but also of 
 actual sins."* And St. Jerome to Oceanus, says : " All sins are 
 forgiven in baptism."! And that no one may be at liberty 
 
 * Lib. i. de pec. merit, et remis. c. 15. t Epist. 85.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 163 
 
 further to doubt on the subject, the holy Council of Trent 
 also, after the definition of other Councils, declared the same, 
 when it decreed anathema against those who should presume 
 to think otherwise, or who should not hesitate to assert that 
 sins, although remitted in baptism, are not however entirely 
 removed or utterly eradicated, but are abraded in such a man- 
 ner, as that their roots remain still fixed in the soul.* For, 
 to use the words of the same holy Council : " In those who are 
 born again, God hates nothing, because there is no condem- 
 nation to those who are truly buried together with Christ by 
 baptism unto death (Rom. vi. 4), ' who walk not according to 
 the flesh' (Rom. viii. 1); but putting off the old man, and 
 putting on the new, who is created according to God (Eph. iv. 
 22, sq.), are made innocent, immaculate, pure, harmless, and 
 beloved of God."t 
 
 QUESTION XLII. Whether Concupiscence in Baptized Persons be 
 
 a sin. 
 
 That concupiscence, however, or an innate predisposition to 
 sin (fomes), remains, as has been decreed by the authority of 
 the Council itself in the same place, we must confess ; but it 
 does not really constitute sin ; for, as St. Augustine also holds: 
 " In baptized children the guilt of concupiscence is remitted ; 
 [concupiscence itself] is left for probation ;"J and the same 
 testifies in another place : " In baptism the guilt of concupis- 
 cence is pardoned, but the infirmityremaius;" for concupiscence, 
 which is an effect of sin, is nothing else than an appetite of the 
 soul, in its own nature repugnant to reason; which motion, 
 however, if not accompanied by the consent of the will, or by 
 neglect, differs widely from the real nature of sin. And when 
 St. Paul says : " I had not known concupiscence, if the law did 
 not say, ' thou shalt not covet ' " (Rom. vii. 7), from these 
 words he wished to be understood, not the force itself of concu- 
 piscence, but the fault of the will. St. Gregory delivers the 
 same doctrine, writing thus : " If there are any who may say 
 that, in baptism, sins are effaced superficially, what greater 
 infidelity than such an assertion ? whereas, the soul, radically 
 freed from sin by the sacrament of faith, adheres to God alone." || 
 And in proof of this matter, he makes use of the testimony of 
 our Saviour, when he says in St. John : " He that is washed, 
 
 * Sess. v. can. 5.' t Sess. v. on original sin. J Lib. i. de peccat. 
 merit, et remiss, c. 39. Lib. i. de nupt. et cone. c. 23 et 25, et 
 contr. Jul. 1. vi c. 5, L i retract, c. 15, et de verb. Apost. fer, 6. 
 II L. iii, Regist. ep. 30. _.
 
 164 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 needeth not but to wash his feet, but is clean wholly " (John, 
 xiii. 10). 
 
 QUESTION XLIII. It is again proved that all sins are taken 
 away by Baptism. 
 
 But if any one wishes to see an express figure and image of 
 the efficacy of baptism, let him propose to himself, for contem- 
 plation, the history of Naaman, the leprous Syrian, who, when 
 he had washed himself seven times in the water of the Jordan, 
 was so cleansed from leprosy, as the Scripture testifies, that his 
 flesh became " like the flesh of a child " (4 Kings, v. 14). The 
 remission of all sin, whether original or actual, is, therefore, the 
 proper effect of baptism ; and that such was the object of its 
 institution by our Lord and Saviour, the Prince of the Apostles, 
 to omit other testimonies, has conveyed in the clearest terms, 
 when he says: "Do penance, and be baptized every one of you, 
 in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins " (Acts, 
 ii. 38). 
 
 QUESTION XLIV. As Sin, so also the punishment of Sin is 
 remitted. 
 
 But in baptism not only are sins remitted, but all the punish- 
 ments due to sins and iniquities are also benignantly pardoned 
 by God ; for although to communicate the virtue of the passion 
 of Christ the Lord is common to all the sacraments, yet, of 
 baptism alone has it been said by the Apostle, that by it we die 
 and are buried with Christ (Rom. vi. 4 ; Col. ii. 12). Hence 
 holy Church has always understood, that to impose those offices 
 of piety, which are usually called by the holy Fathers works of 
 satisfaction, on him who is to be purified by baptism, cannot be 
 done without the greatest in jury to this sacrament.* Nor indeed 
 is there any opposition between the doctrine here delivered and 
 the practice of the primitive Church, which of old commanded the 
 Jews, when they were baptized, to fast forty successive days ; 
 for that ordinance did not appertain to satisfaction, but those 
 who had received baptism were thus admonished, that, in venera- 
 tion for the dignity of the sacrament, they should devote some 
 time to the uninterrupted exercise of prayer and fasting. 
 
 * Quod poense peccatis debitse remittantur in baptismo, vide Ambros. 
 in c. 11 ad Rom. ; Aug. 1. 1, de Nupt. et concupis. c. 33, et in Ench. 
 c. 4 ; D. Thorn, p. 3, q. 69, art. 2, unde nee. ulla est imponenda poani- 
 tentia ; Greg. 1. 7, regist. Episc. 24, et habetur de consecrat. distinct. 
 4, cap. ne quod absit ; D. Thorn, p. 3, q. 68, art. 5.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 165 
 
 QUESTION XLV. Baptism gives no exemption from the penalties 
 of the Civil Law. 
 
 But although the remission in baptism of the punishments due 
 to sin ought to be an ascertained fact, it does not, therefore, ex- 
 empt the offender from the punishments awarded by the civil 
 tribunals to grievous delinquency; so as, for instance, to rescue 
 the man, who deserves death, from the penalty ordained by the 
 laws. The religion and piety, however, of those princes, who, 
 that the glory of God in his sacraments might be the more 
 strikingly displayed, would relax and remit that punishment 
 also to the guilty, were highly to be commended. 
 
 QUESTION XLVI. The punishments ichich are wont to fie inflicted 
 after this life, are remitted in Baptism. 
 
 Baptism, moreover, effects a liberation from all the punish- 
 ments consequent on original sin after the course of this life ; 
 for these -blessings we may attain through the merit of the death 
 of our Lord ; but by baptism, as has been said above, we die 
 with him: " For if," as the Apostle says, "we have been planted 
 together in the likeness of his death, in like manner we shall be 
 of his resurrection" (Rom. vL 5). 
 
 QUESTION XL VII. Why a state of Incorrupt Nature is not at 
 once restored by Baptism. 
 
 But should any one ask why, immediately after baptism, we 
 are not exempt in this mortal life, also, from these incon- 
 veniences, and transferred by the influence of this sacred ablu- 
 tion to that perfect grade of life, in which Adam, the first parent 
 of the human race, had been placed before sin, the answer will 
 be, that for this there are two principal reasons. Of these the 
 first is, that we, who by baptism are united to, and made mem- 
 bers of Christ's body, were not to be more honoured than our 
 head. As, therefore, Christ the Lord, although possessing from 
 the first moment of his incarnation the plentitude of grace and 
 truth, yet did not lay aside the fragility of human nature which 
 he assumed, until, after having endured the torments of his pas- 
 sion and death, he rose again to the glory of immortality; who 
 can wonder, if he see that the faithful, after they have received 
 the grace of heavenly justification by baptism, are still however 
 clothed with a perishable and frail body, that when, having 
 undergone many labours for sake of Christ, and met death, they 
 shall have been again recalled to life, they may at length be 
 worthy to enjoy life eternal with Christ?
 
 166 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TKENT. 
 
 But another reason why corporal infirmity, disease, sense of 
 pain, the motion of concupiscence, are left in us after baptism, 
 is, namely, that we might have, as it were, the germs and 
 materials of virtue, from which we may afterwards obtain more 
 abundant fruit of glory, and more ample rewards. For when, 
 with patient minds, we bear all the ills of life, and, with the 
 divine assistance, subject to the dominion of reason the depraved 
 affections of our hearts, we ought to rest on an assured hope, 
 that the time will come, when, if with the Apostle we shall have 
 " fought a good fight, finished " the " course," and " kept the 
 faith, the Lord, the just Judge, will " also " render to " us " in 
 that day a crown of justice, which is laid up for " us (2 Tim. iv. 
 7). Such, also, seems to have been the divine conduct with re- 
 gard to the children of Israel; whom, although the Lord 
 delivered them from the bondage of Egypt, having drowned 
 Pharaoh and his host in the sea (Exod, xiv. 27), he yet did not 
 conduct at once into that happy land of promise, but first tried 
 them by many and various sufferings; and afterwards, when he 
 had sent them to possess the promised land, he, indeed, expelled 
 from their native territories the other inhabitants, but left some 
 nations, whom they could not exterminate, that the people of 
 God might never want an occasion to exercise their warlike 
 valour and fortitude (Judges, iii. 1, sq.). Moreover, if, besides 
 the celestial gifts with which the soul is adorned, the goods of 
 the body were also given through baptism, we should have 
 reason to doubt whether many might not approach baptism with 
 a view to obtain the comforts of this life, rather than the glory 
 hoped for in the next ; whereas, however, the Christian should 
 always propose to himself, not these false and uncertain goods, 
 " which are seen," but the true and eternal, " which are not 
 seen" (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18). 
 
 QUESTION XLVIII. The Regenerated, amid the miseries of this 
 life, are not destitute of solid mental delight. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, to those who " walk worthy " of their 
 "vocation " (Eph. iv. 1), the condition of this life, full of misery 
 though it be, is not without its pleasures and its joys ; for to us, 
 who, by baptism, are already engrafted as branches on Christ 
 (John, xv. 2), what more pleasing or desirable than, having 
 taken the cross upon our shoulders, to follow him as our Leader, 
 fatigued by no labours, retarded by no dangers from earnestly 
 pressing forward " towards the prize of the supernal vocation of 
 God ;" some to receive from the Lord the laurel of virginity, 
 others the crown of doctrine and preaching, some the palm of 
 martyrdom, others the honours appropriated to their respective
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 167 
 
 virtues ? These splendid insignia of praise would be given to 
 none, had we not first contended in the race of this calamitous 
 life, and stood unconquered in the battle-fight. 
 
 QUESTION XLIX. What advantage a man gains by Baptism 
 besides the remission of sin and punishment. 
 
 But to return to the effects of baptism, [the pastor] must 
 explain, that, by virtue of this sacrament, we are not only de- 
 livered from evils, that are truly to be called the greatest, but 
 are also enriched with invaluable goods and gifts. Our soul is 
 replenished with divine grace, by which, being made just and 
 children of God, we are also constituted heirs to eternal salva- 
 tion ; for, as it is written : " He that believeth and is baptized, 
 shall be saved" (Mark, xvi. 16) ; and the Apostle testifies, that 
 the Church is cleansed " by the laver of water, in the word of 
 life " (Ephes. v. 26). But grace, as the Council of Trent has 
 decreed, should be believed by all, under pain of anathema, is 
 not only that whereby sins are remitted, but is also a divine 
 quality inherent in the soul, and, as it were, a certain splendour 
 and light, that effaces all the stains of our souls, and renders the 
 souls themselves brighter and more beautiful.* This is clearly 
 inferred from the sacred Scriptures, when they say that grace 
 is " poured forth " (Tit. iii. 6), and also when they usually call 
 it " the pledge " of the Holy Ghost, f 
 
 QUESTION L. To the Divine Grace, whicn is infused in Baptism, 
 Virtues are added as attendants. 
 
 To this is added a most noble train of all virtues, which are 
 divinely infused into the soul with grace. Wherefore, when 
 the Apostle says to Titus : " He saved us by the laver of re- 
 generation and renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom he hath 
 poured forth upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our 
 Saviour " (Tit. iii. 5, 6), St. Augustine, explaining those words, 
 " poured forth upon us abundantly," says : " that is, for the re- 
 mission of sins and abundance of virtues."]: 
 
 QUESTION LI. By Baptism we are incorporated with Christ. 
 
 By baptism, too, we are united and joined, as members, to 
 Christ our head. As, then, from the head flows the force, by 
 which the different parts of the body are moved to the proper 
 
 * Sess. vi. vii. de Justific. t Eph. i. 14 ; 2 Cor. i. 22, v. 5. 
 
 J Epist. 23, ad Bonifac.j item lib. 1, de peccat. merit, et remiss, 
 c. 29.
 
 168 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 performance of their respective functions; so, also, from the ful- 
 ness of Christ the Lord, are diffused divine virtue and grace to 
 all who are justified, qualifying us for all the duties of Christian 
 piety. 
 
 QUESTION LIT. How it happens that they who have received such 
 an accumulation of virtues in Baptism, are so slow to practise 
 piety. 
 
 Nor should it seem strange to any one, if, furnished and 
 adorned though we be, with so great an abundance of virtues, 
 we yet enter upon or at least finish acts of piety and moral 
 virtue, not without great difficulty and labour ; for this happens, 
 not because the virtues, from which these actions emanate, have 
 not been bestowed on us by the goodness of God, but because 
 there remains, after baptism, a most severe conflict of " the 
 flesh against the spirit " (Gal. v. 17), in which conflict, however, 
 it becomes not a Christian man to be disheartened, or to grow 
 faint ; for, relying on the goodness of God, we should rest on 
 the best hope, that, by the daily practice of living well, the time 
 will come, when "whatsoever things are modest, whatsoever things 
 are just, whatsoever holy " (Philip, iv. 8), that same may also 
 appear easy and agreeable. Be these the subjects of our fond 
 consideration ; be these the objects of our cheerful practice ; 
 that " the God of peace " may be with us (2 Cor. xiii. 2). 
 
 QUESTION LIII. In Baptism is impressed an indelible character. 
 
 By baptism, moreover, we are sealed with a character, that 
 can never be effaced from the soul, of which, however, there is 
 no occasion to speak here at length, as from what has been 
 already said, when treating of the sacraments generally, the 
 pastor may transfer to this place sufficient matter appertaining 
 to this subject. 
 
 QUESTION LIV. That Baptism can never be repeated. 
 
 But as, from the force and nature of the character, it has 
 been defined by the Church, that the sacrament of baptism is on 
 no account to be iterated, the faithful should frequently and 
 diligently be admonished by pastors on the subject, lest at any 
 time they be led into errors. That baptism is not to be repeated, 
 the Apostle has taught, saying : " One Lord, one faith, one 
 baptism " (Eph. iv. 5). Again, when he exhorts the Romans 
 to take care, that, dead in Christ by baptism, they lose not the 
 life which they had received from him, saying: " In that [Christ] 
 died to sin, he died once " (Rom. vi. 10), he seems clearly to 
 signify, that as he cannot die again, neither can we die again by
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 169 
 
 baptism. Hence holy Church also openly professes that she 
 believes " one baptism ;" and that this accords exceedingly with 
 the nature of the thing, and with reason, is understood from 
 this, that baptism is a certain spiritual regeneration. As, then, 
 by virtue of the laws of nature, we are generated and born but 
 ouce, and, as St. Augustine observes, " there is no returning to 
 the womb ;"* so, in like manner, there is but one spiritual gene- 
 ration, nor is baptism ever at any time to be repeated. 
 
 QUESTION LV. Baptism is not repeated when administered 
 conditionally. 
 
 Nor let any one suppose that it is repeated by the Church, 
 when she laves any one whose previous baptism is matter of 
 uncertainty, making use of this formula: "If thou art baptized, 
 I baptize thee not again ; but if thou art not yet baptized, I 
 baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost ;" for in such cases baptism is to be considered 
 not as impiously repeated, but as holily and conditionally ad- 
 ministered. 
 
 QUESTION LVI. Conditional Baptism is not to be used 
 indiscriminately. 
 
 In this, however, some matters, in which, to the very great 
 injury of the sacrament, abuses are of almost daily occurrence, 
 demand the previous diligent attention of pastors ; for there are 
 not wanting those who think, that no sin can be committed if 
 they administer indiscriminately conditional baptism. Hence, if 
 an infant be brought to them, they think that no inquiry what- 
 soever need be made whether it was previously baptized, but 
 immediately give it baptism. Nay more, although well aware 
 that the child received private baptism, they yet hesitate not to 
 repeat its administration in the Church conditionally, making use 
 of the solemn ceremonial. This they certainly cannot do without 
 sacrilege, and they contract that stain which theologians call 
 " an irregularity ;" for the conditional form of baptism, according 
 to the authority of Pope Alexander, is permitted in the case of 
 those only, regarding whom, after diligent inquiry, doubt re- 
 mains whether they duly received baptism. In no other case is 
 it ever lawful to administer baptism to any one a second time, 
 even conditionally. 
 
 * In Joan. Tract. 2,
 
 170 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION LVII. What is the last benefit conferred on men by 
 virtue of Baptism. 
 
 But, besides the other advantages which we derive from 
 baptism, the last, as it were, to which all the rest seem to be re- 
 ferred, is, namely, that it opens to each of us the gate of heaven, 
 before closed by sin. These effects, which are produced in us 
 by virtue of baptism, may be clearly understood from the cir- 
 cumstances which the Gospel authority affirms to have occurred 
 at the baptism of our Saviour ; for the heavens were opened, 
 and the Holy Ghost appeared descending upon Christ the Lord 
 in form of a dove (Matt. iii. 16) ; from which it was given to 
 understand, that to those who are baptized are imparted the 
 gifts of the Holy Spirit, and that to them is unlocked the gate of 
 heaven, opening to them an entrance into glory, not, it is true, 
 immediately after baptism, but at a more seasonable time, when,' 
 freed from all miseries, which are incompatible with a life of 
 bliss, they shall exchange a mortal for an immortal state of ex- 
 istence. These, then, are the fruits of baptism, which, if indeed 
 we look to the efficacy of the sacrament, are, no doubt, common 
 alike to all ; but if we consider the dispositions with which each 
 person may approach to receive it, we must certainly confess 
 that all do not participate in an equal degree of its heavenly 
 grace and fruit. 
 
 QUESTION LVIII. What is the force and utility of the Ceremonies 
 of Baptism. 
 
 It now remains to explain, clearly and concisely, what is to 
 be taught regarding the prayers, rites, and ceremonies of this 
 sacrament ; for to rites and ceremonies may, to some extent, be 
 transferred the admonition given by the Apostle regarding the 
 gift of tongues, when he observes, that it is unprofitable to speak 
 unless the faithful understand what one says (1 Cor. xiv. 2, sqq.). 
 They present an image, and convey the signification of the things 
 that are being done in the sacrament ; but if the faithful people 
 know not the force and power of those signs, the utility of 
 ceremonies will not appear to be very great. The pastors, there- 
 fore, must endeavour to make the faithful understand them, 
 and must impress their minds with the conviction that, although 
 not of absolute necessity, they are to be looked upon as of very 
 great importance, and held in great honour. This both the 
 authority of those by whom they were instituted, who without 
 question were the holy Apostles, and also the end for which they 
 wished ceremonies to be employed, sufficiently teach ; for it is
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 171 
 
 evident that they contribute to the more religious and holy ad- 
 ministration of the sacraments ; serve to place, as it were, before 
 the eyes, the exalted and inestimable gifts contained therein; 
 and impress more deeply on the minds of the faithful, the bound- 
 less beneficence of God. 
 
 QUESTION LIX. Rites of Baptism threefold. 
 
 But that in their exposition a certain order may be observed 
 by pastors, and that the instructions delivered by them may be 
 the more easily retained in the memory of the hearers, all the 
 ceremonies and prayers, which the Church uses in the adminis- 
 tration of baptism, are to be reduced to three heads. The first 
 class, then, comprehends such as are observed before coming 
 to the baptismal font ; the second, such as are used at the font 
 itself; the third, those that are usually added after baptism has 
 been adminstered. 
 
 QUESTION LX, When the Baptismal Water is to be 
 consecrated by common rite. 
 
 In the first place, then, the water to be used in baptism is 
 to be prepared ; for the baptismal font is consecrated, the oil 
 of mystic unction being added ; and this is not allowed to be 
 done at all times, but, according to the usage of our ancestors, 
 certain festivals, which are most justly to be deemed the 
 greatest and the most holy of all, are awaited, on the vigils of 
 which the water of the sacred ablution is consecrated, on which 
 days alone, except in case of necessity, it was also the practice 
 of the ancient Church that baptism should be administered. 
 But although, on account of the dangers incidental to common 
 life, the Church has deemed it expedient that this custom 
 should not be continued, she still observes with the most 
 religious reverence those solemn days of Easter and Pentecost, 
 on which the baptismal water is to be consecrated. 
 
 QUESTION LXI. Why the persons to be baptized are not at 
 once admitted into the Church. 
 
 After the consecration of the water, the other ceremonies 
 that precede baptism should be successively explained. The 
 persons to be initiated in baptism are carried, or, as may also 
 happen, conducted, to the door of the church, and are strictly 
 forbidden its entrance, as unworthy to be admitted into the 
 house of God, until they shall have cast off the yoke of the 
 most degrading servitude, and devoted themselves wholly to 
 Christ the Lord, and to his most just sovereignty.
 
 172 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION LXIL Why the persons to be baptized are questioned 
 and instructed as to what they ask. 
 
 The priest then asks them what they ask of the Church, 
 and having received answer, he first instructs them in the 
 doctrine of the Christian faith, of which a profession is to be 
 made in baptism. This is done catechetically, a practice of 
 instruction which no one can doubt originated in the command 
 of our Lord and Saviour, addressed to his Apostles : " Go ye 
 into the whole world, and teach all nations, baptizing them in 
 the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
 commanded you ;"* words from which we may learn that 
 baptism is not to be administered until, at least, the principal 
 heads of our religion are explained. 
 
 QUESTION LXIII. How the more ignorant ought to be catechized, 
 according to the ancient custom of the Church. 
 
 But as the catechetical form consists of many interrogations, 
 if the person who is being instructed be of adult age, he himself 
 answers the questions asked ; but if he be an infant, the sponsor 
 answers, and makes solemn engagement for him according to 
 the prescribed form. 
 
 QUESTION LXIV. Use of the Exorcism. 
 
 The exorcism follows, which is composed of words of sacred 
 and religious import, and of prayers to expel the devil, and to 
 weaken and crush his power ; wherefore, the priest breathes three 
 times into the face of him who is to be initiated, that he may 
 expel the power of the old serpent, and may catch the breath of 
 lost life. 
 
 QUESTION LXV. Salt, why applied to the mouth of the person 
 being baptized. 
 
 To the exorcism are added other ceremonies, each of which, 
 being mystical, has its proper and clear signification. When, 
 for instance, salt is put into the mouth of the person brought to 
 be baptized, this evidently imports, that by the doctrine of faith, 
 and the gift of grace, he should be delivered from the corrup- 
 tion of sin, experience a relish for good works, and be delighted 
 with the food of divine wisdom. 
 
 * Mark, xvi. 15 ; Matt, xxviii. 19, sq.
 
 TART II. CHAPTER II. 173 
 
 QUESTION LXVI. Meaning of the Sign of the Cross made on 
 several parts of the body. 
 
 Besides, the forehead, eyes, breasts, shoulders, ears, are signed 
 with the sign of the cross, all which declare, that, by the mys- 
 tery of baptism, the senses of the person baptized are opened 
 and strengthened, to enable him to receive God, and to under- 
 stand and observe his precepts. 
 
 QUESTION LXVII. The nostrils and ears, why smeared with 
 Spittle. 
 
 His nostrils and ears are next touched with spittle, and he is 
 immediately sent to the baptismal font, that as sight was re- 
 stored to the blind man, mentioned in the Gospel, whom the 
 Lord, after having spread clay on his eyes, commanded to wash 
 them in the water of Siloe (John, ix. 7) ; so also we may under- 
 stand that the efficacy of the sacred ablution is such as to bring 
 light to the mind to discern heavenly truth. 
 
 QUESTION LXVIII. What is taught by the Denunciation of 
 Satan. 
 
 After the performance of these ceremonies, they come to the 
 baptismal font ; and there are employed other rites and cere- 
 monies, from which may be learned the sum of the Christian re- 
 ligion ; for in three distinct interrogatories, the priest formally 
 asks the person to be baptized: "Dost thon renounce satan?" 
 " and all his works ? and all his pomps ?" to each of which in- 
 terrogations he, or the sponsor in his name, replies, "I re- 
 nounce." He, therefore, who is to be enrolled under the banner 
 of Christ, must first enter into a holy and religious engagement 
 that he abandons the devil and the world, and will never cease 
 to detest both as his worst enemies. 
 
 QUESTION LXIX. The person to be baptized is next anointed 
 with the Oil of Catechumens on the breast and between the 
 shoulders; Meaning thereof. 
 
 The person to be baptized is next anointed with the oil of 
 catechumens on the breast and between the shoulders ; on the 
 breast, that by the gift of the Holy Ghost he may cast off error 
 and ignorance, and may receive the true faith, for "the just man 
 liveth by faith" {Gal. iii. 2); on the shoulders, that by the grace 
 of the Holy Spirit he may shake off negligence and torpor, and 
 engage in the performance of good works ; for " faith without 
 works is dead " (James, ii. 26).
 
 174 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION LXX. How the person to be baptized makes a 
 Profession of his Faith. 
 
 Next, standing at the baptismal font itself, he is interro- 
 gated by the priest in the following manner: "Dost thou believe 
 in God the Father, Almighty ? " to which he answers : " I 
 believe;" and being similarly interrogated with regard to the 
 other articles of the Creed successively, he makes a solemn re- 
 ligious profession of his faith. Under these two engagements, 
 it is clear, is contained the whole force and discipline of the law 
 of Christ. 
 
 QUESTION LXXI. Why the person now about to be washed with 
 the Salutary Water is asked if he will be baptized. 
 
 "When baptism is now to be administered, the priest asks 
 the person to be baptized if he will be baptized, and, on 
 receiving an answer in the affirmative from him, or in his 
 name, if he be an infant, from the sponsor, he immediately 
 performs the salutary ablution in the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; for, as by voluntary 
 obedience to the serpent man was justly condemned, so the 
 Lord will have none but the voluntary soldier enrolled under 
 his banner, that, by a spontaneous obedience to the divine 
 commands, he might attain eternal salvation. 
 
 QUESTION LXXII. Why the head of the Baptized is soon after 
 anointed with Chrism. 
 
 The person being now baptized, the priest anoints the crown 
 of his head with chrism, to give him to understand that from 
 that day he is united, as a member, to Christ, his head, and 
 engrafted on his body, and that, therefore, is he called a Chris- 
 tian, from Christ, but Christ, from Chrism. St. Ambrose 
 observes, that what, indeed, the chrism signifies, the prayers 
 then offered by the priest sufficiently explain. 
 
 QUESTION LXXIII. What is meant by the White Garment or 
 White Kerchief given to the person baptized. 
 
 The priest afterwards puts a white garment on the person 
 baptized, saying : " Receive this white garment, which mayest 
 thou carry unstained before the judgment-seat of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, that thou mayest have eternal life ;" but to 
 infants, who are not formally dressed, is given a white ker- 
 chief, with the same words. The holy Fathers teach that by 
 this symbol is signified the glory of the resurrection to which
 
 PART II. CHAPTER II. 175 
 
 we are born again by baptism ; the brightness and beauty 
 with which the soul, purified from the stains of sin, is adorned 
 in baptism ; and the innocence and integrity which the person 
 baptized should preserve throughout life.* 
 
 QUESTION LXXIV. Meaning of the Burning Wax-Light held 
 by the person baptized. 
 
 A lighted taper is next put into the hand, showing that 
 faith, inflamed by charity, which he received in baptism, is to 
 be fed and augmented by the pursuit of good works. 
 
 QUESTION LXXV. The Name, its utility, its selection, in regard 
 to the person baptized. 
 
 Finally, to the person baptized is given a name, which 
 should be taken from some one who, through his eminent 
 piety and religion, has obtained a place in the catalogue of the 
 saints ; for this similarity of name will easily serve to stimu- 
 late him to the imitation of his virtue and holiness, and to 
 pray and hope that he who ought to be the model of his 
 imitation, may also become the advocate to defend his safety 
 of soul and body. Wherefore, those are to be reprehended, 
 who so industriously search after and give to their children 
 the names of heathens, and of those, particularly, who were the 
 most conspicuous of all for their crimes ; for from this it may 
 be understood what little regard they have for the pursuit of 
 Christian piety, who seem to be so enamoured with the memory 
 of impious men, as to wish to have the ears of the faithful ring 
 on every side with such profane names. 
 
 QUESTION LXXVI. Recapitulation of the things delivered 
 touching the mysteries of Baptism. 
 
 If these things on baptism shall have been explained by 
 pastors, not one, almost, of those matters that are to be con- 
 sidered of primary importance as regards the knowledge of 
 this sacrament, will seem to be omitted. For, we have shown 
 the meaning of the word " baptism," the nature and substance 
 of the sacrament, together with the parts of which it consists. 
 We have said by whom it was instituted ; what ministers are 
 necessary to its administration ; and who should be employed, 
 as it were, as tutors, to sustain the weakness of the person 
 baptized. We have also said to whom baptism should be 
 administered, and how they should be disposed ; what are the 
 virtue and efficacy of the sacrament ; finally, we have explained, 
 
 * Dionys. Eccl. Hierar. ; Amb. de iis qui myst. init. c. 8.
 
 176 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 at sufficient length for our purpose, the rites and ceremonies 
 to be observed in its administration. Pastors should recollect 
 that all these instructions have principally for object, that the 
 faithful devote their constant care and attention to the fulfil- 
 ment of the engagements into which they so holily and reli- 
 giously entered when they were initiated in baptism, and lead 
 a life corresponding with the most holy profession of the 
 Christian name. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION. 
 
 QUESTION I. Why at the present day most particularly the 
 excellence of Confirmation should be explained. 
 
 If the diligence of pastors was ever to be required in ex- 
 plaining the sacrament of confirmation, it is certainly necessary 
 to elucidate it in a most especial manner at present, when this 
 sacrament is altogether omitted by many in the holy Church of 
 God, whilst there are very few who study to derive therefrom the 
 fruit of divine grace which they ought. Lest, therefore, this 
 divine blessing may seem, through their fault, and to their most 
 serious injury, to have been conferred on them in vain, the 
 faithful are to be instructed, both on Whitsunday, on which 
 day principally it is wont to be administered, and also on such 
 other days as pastors shall deem convenient, on the nature, 
 efficacy, and dignity, of this sacrament, so as that they may 
 understand that not only is it not to be neglected, but that it 
 is to be received with the greatest piety and religion. 
 
 QUESTION II. Why the Church has called this Sacrament 
 Confirmation. 
 
 But to begin with its name, [the pastor] must inform the 
 faithful, that this sacrament is called by the Church " Con- 
 firmation;" because, if nothing else impede its efficacy, the 
 person who has been baptized, when anointed with the sacred 
 chrism by the bishop, who accompanies the unction with these 
 solemn words : " I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and 
 confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," begins to be 
 firmer in the strength of new virtue, and thus a perfect soldier 
 of Christ.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER III. 177 
 
 QUESTION III. Confirmation is a True Sacrament of the 
 New Law. 
 
 In confirmation, the Catholic Church has always recognized 
 the true and proper nature of a sacrament, as Pope Mel- 
 chiades,* and many other very holy and very ancient Pontiffs, 
 plainly declare. The truth of this doctrine St. Clement could 
 not have confirmed in stronger terms than when he says : 
 " All should hasten without delay to be born again to God, 
 and then to be signed by the bishop, that is, to receive the 
 sevenfold grace of the Holy Ghost; for, as has been handed 
 down to us from St. Peter, and as the other Apostles taught, 
 in obedience to the command of our Lord, he who culpably 
 and voluntarily, and not from necessity, has neglected to 
 receive this sacrament, cannot possibly be a perfect Christian." t 
 This same faith has been confirmed by their teaching, as may be 
 seen in their decrees, by Urban, \ Fabian, Eusebius,|| Koman 
 Pontiffs, who, full of the same spirit, shed their blood for the 
 name of Christ. 
 
 QUESTION IV. Sacred Doctors who mention this Sacrament. 
 
 To these, moreover, is added the unanimous authority of 
 the Fathers, amongst whom Denis the Areopagite, bishop of 
 Athens, when teaching how to consecrate and make use of this 
 holy ointment, says : " The priests clothe the baptized with a 
 garment emblematic of purity, in order to conduct him to the 
 bishop ; and the bishop, signing him with the sacred and truly 
 divine ointment, makes him partaker of the most holy commu- 
 nion."^ Such importance does Eusebius of Cassarea also at- 
 tribute to this sacrament, that he hesitates not to say, that the 
 heretic Novatus could not deserve to receive the Holy Ghost, 
 because, having been baptized under severe illness, he was not 
 sealed with the sign of chrism.** But on this subject we 
 have the clearest testimonies from St. Ambrose, in his book on 
 the Initiated; ft and from St. Augustine, in the books which 
 he published against the epistles of the Donatist Petilian ;;$ both 
 of whom were so convinced, that no doubt could exist as to the 
 reality of this sacrament, that they even taught and confirmed 
 it by passages of Scripture ; the one testifying, that to the sacra- 
 
 * Ep. ad Episc. Hisp. c. 2. *!I De Eccl. Hier. c. 4. 
 
 t Epist. 4, ad Julian. ** Hist. Eccl. vi. 20. 
 
 % Ep. 1, ad omnes Christianos, c. 7. tt Lib. i. c. 7. 
 Ep. 2, ad omnes Orien. c. 1. Jt Lib. i. c. 104. 
 
 II Ep. 3, ad Episc. Tusc. etCamp. 
 
 M
 
 178 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 ment of confirmation apply these words of the Apostle : 
 " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed 
 unto the day of redemption" (Eph. iv. 30) ; the other, what is 
 read in the Psalms : " Like the precious ointment on the head, 
 that ran down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron" (Psalm 
 cxxxii. 2) ; and also that of the same Apostle : " The charity 
 of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is 
 given to us " (Rom. v. 5). 
 
 QUESTION V. Distinction of the Sacraments, whence to be derived. 
 
 But although said by Melchiades to have a most intimate con- 
 nexion with baptism,* confirmation is yet to be deemed not 
 the same, but a far different sacrament ; for the diversity of the 
 grace which each of the sacraments confers, and of the sensible 
 sign employed to signify that grace, evidently render them dis- 
 tinct and different sacraments. As, then, by the grace of baptism, 
 we are begotten to newness of life, whereas by that of confirma- 
 tion we grow to full maturity, " having put away the things of a 
 child" (1 Cor. xiii. 11); it is hence sufficiently understood, that the 
 same difference that exists in the natural life, between birth and 
 growth, exists also in the supernatural, between baptism, which 
 has the power of regenerating, and confirmation, by virtue of 
 which the faithful increase, and acquire perfect spiritual strength. 
 Besides, as anew and distinct kindof sacrament is to be constituted, 
 when the soul has to encounter any new difficulty, it may easily 
 be perceived, that, as we require the grace of baptism to imbue 
 the mind with faith, so is it, also, of the utmost advantage, that 
 the minds of the faithful be strengthened by a different grace, 
 that they be deterred by no danger, or fear of pains, tortures, 
 death, from the confession of the true faith. This, then, being 
 accomplished by the sacred chrism of confirmation, it is hence 
 clearly inferred, that the nature of this sacrament is different 
 from baptism. Hence Pope Melchiades accurately evolves the 
 difference between them, writing as follows : " In baptism man 
 is enlisted into the service ; and in confirmation he is equipped 
 for battle : at the baptismal font the Holy Ghost imparts pleni- 
 tude to accomplish innocence ; but in confirmation he ministers 
 perfection to augment grace : in baptism we are regenerated to 
 life ; after baptism we are fortified for the combat : in baptism 
 
 * Epist. ad Episc. Hisp. in med. For confirmation as a sacra- 
 ment, see also Ambros. de Sacr. lib. 3, c. 2, lib. de Spiritti Sancto, 
 c. 6 et 7 ; item Aug. de Trinit. lib. 15, c. 26 ; et in epist. Joan, tract. 
 3 et 6, et in Psulmis 26 ; et ante hos omnes, Tertul. lib. de Resurr. 
 car. , Cypr. Epist. 7 ; Origen, horn. 9, in Levit. , Hieron. cont. Lucif . 
 Cyril. Hieros. Catecli. 3.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER III. 179 
 
 we are cleansed; after baptism we are strengthened : regenera- 
 tion of itself saves those receiving baptism in peace ; confirma- 
 tion arms and prepares for conflicts."* These are truths not 
 only already recorded by other Councils, but specially defined 
 by the holy Council of Trent ; so that we are no longer at liberty 
 not only to think otherwise, but even at all to entertain a doubt 
 regarding theni.f 
 
 QUESTION VI. Who is the Author of the Sacrament of 
 Confirmation. 
 
 But as it was shown above how necessary it were to teach 
 in common concerning all the sacraments, from whom they had 
 their origin, the same ought, also, to be taught regarding con- 
 firmation, that the faithful may be impressed with a deeper 
 sense of the sanctity of this sacrament. Accordingly, pastors 
 must explain, that not only was Christ the Lord its author, 
 but that he also ordained, as St. Fabiau,J bishop of Rome, testi- 
 fies, the rite of chrism and the words which the Catholic Church 
 uses in its administration. To those who acknowledge confirma- 
 tion to be a sacrament, this can be easily proved, whereas all 
 the sacred mysteries exceed the powers of human nature, and 
 could be instituted by no other than by God. We now coine to 
 speak of its component parts, and first of its matter. 
 
 QUESTION VII. What is the Matter of this Sacred Mystery. 
 
 This is called chrism, by which word, borrowed from the Greeks, 
 although profane writers signify any sort of ointment, yet those 
 who treat of divine things have appropriated it by common usage 
 to that ointment only, which is composed of oil and balsam, with 
 the solemn consecration of the bishop. A mixture of two cor- 
 poreal things, therefore, furnishes the matter of confirmation ; 
 and as this compound of different things declares the manifold 
 grace of the Holy Ghost, given to the confirmed, so does it 
 also sufficiently thow the excellence of the sacrament itself. 
 That such is the matter of this sacrament, holy Church' and her 
 Councils have always taught ; and the same has been handed 
 down to us by St. Denis,|| and by many other Fathers of the 
 gravest authority, particularly by Pope Fabian,^" who testifies 
 that the Apostles received the composition of chrism from the 
 Lord, and transmitted it to us. 
 
 * Loco citato, f Cone. Laod. can. 48 ; Meld. c. 6 ; Florent. et 
 Constant ; Trid. sess. vii. J Epist. 2, ad Episc. Orient. Concil. Laod. 
 c. 48 ; Carthag. ii. c. 3. H Eccles. Hier. c. 4. H Epist. 3, ad Episc. 
 Orient.
 
 180 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. What the Oil in the Matter of Confirmation 
 signifies. 
 
 Nor, indeed, could any other matter than that of chrism seem 
 more appropriate to declare the effects of this sacrament ; for 
 oil, by its nature unctuous and fluid, expresses the plenitude of 
 grace, which, through the Holy Ghost, overflows and is poured 
 into others from Christ the head, " like the ointment on the 
 head, that ran down upon the beard of Aaron, to the skirt of his 
 garment" (Ps. cxxxii. 2) ; for him " God anointed with the oil 
 of gladness, above" his " fellows" (Ps. xliv. 8), and "of his 
 fulness we all have received" (John, i. 16). 
 
 QUESTION IX. Of what the Balsam mixed with Oil here puts its 
 in mind. 
 
 But what else does balsam, the odour of which is most agree- 
 able, signify, but that the faithful, when they are made perfect 
 by the grace of confirmation, diffuse around such a sweet odour 
 of all virtues, that they may say with the Apostle : " We are 
 unto God the good odour of Christ " (2 Cor. ii. 15). Balsam 
 has, also, the efficacy of preserving from putrescence whatever 
 is anointed with it, a property that seems admirably suited to 
 express the virtue of this sacrament ; whereas it is quite evident 
 that the souls of the faithful, prepared by the heavenly grace 
 imparted in confirmation, may be easily protected from the con- 
 tagion of sins. 
 
 QUESTION X. Why it is necessary that the Clirism be 
 consecrated by the Hi^hop. 
 
 The chrism is consecrated by the bishop with solemn cere- 
 monies ; for that our Saviour so taught at his last supper, when 
 he committed to his Apostles the manner of making chrism, we 
 learn from Fabian, a Pontiff eminently distinguished by his 
 sanctity, and by the glory of martyrdom.* The necessity of 
 this consecration may, however, be shown from reason also ; 
 for in most of the other sacraments, Christ so instituted their 
 matter as to impart to it holiness also ; for it was not only his 
 will that water should constitute the element of baptism, when 
 he said : " Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy 
 Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John, iii. 5) ; 
 but he, also, at his own baptism, imparted to it the power of 
 sanctifying thenceforward. Wherefore has it been said by St. 
 Chrysostom : " The water of baptism, had it not been sanctified 
 
 * S. Fab. Papa, uti supra.
 
 PART n. CHAPTER ni. 181 
 
 by contact with the body of our Lord, could not purge the sins 
 of believers.'** As, then, the Lord did not consecrate, by 
 actually using and handling, this matter of confirmation, it is 
 necessary that it be consecrated by holy and religious prayers ; 
 and this consecration can appertain to no other save the bishop, 
 who is instituted the ordinary minister of this sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XI. What is the Form of this Sacrament. 
 
 The other component part of confirmation, that is, its form 
 and the words used at the sacred unction, must also be ex- 
 plained ; and the faithful are to be admonished, that, in re- 
 ceiving this sacrament, they, on hearing the words pronounced, 
 are then particularly to excite their minds to piety, faith, and 
 religion, that no obstacle may be opposed to heavenly grace. 
 The form of confirmation, then, is comprised in these words : 
 
 " I SIGN THEE WITH THE SIGN OF THE CROSS, AND I CONFIRM THEE 
 WITH THE CHRISM OF SALVATION, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, 
 AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GlIOST." If, however, 
 
 we call in reason also to [the investigation of] truth, the same 
 may be easily proved ; for the form of a sacrament should con- 
 tain all those things that explain the nature and substance of 
 the sacrament itself. 
 
 QUESTION XII. That such is the Perfect Form of this Sacrament, 
 how further proved. 
 
 But in confirmation are chiefly to be observed these three 
 things: the divine power, which, as a principal cause, operates 
 in the sacrament ; then the strength of mind and soul which is 
 imparted by the sacred unction to the faithful unto salvation ; 
 and next, the sign impressed on him who is to engage in the 
 warfare of Christ. Now of these the first is sufficiently declared 
 by the concluding words of the form : " In the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ;" the second, by 
 the words immediately preceding them : "I confirm thee with 
 the chrism of salvation ;" and the third, by the words with 
 which the form opens: " I sign thee with the sign of the cross." 
 But were we even unable to prove by any reasoning that such 
 is the true and absolute form of this sacrament, the authority 
 of the Catholic Church, under whose mastership we have always 
 been thus taught, suffers us not to entertain the least doubt on 
 the subject. 
 
 * Horn. 4, oper. imperf. et habetur de consec. dist. 4, c. Nunquid.
 
 182 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. Who is the proper Minister of the Sacrament 
 of Confirmation. 
 
 Pastors should also teach, to whom principally has been com- 
 mitted the administration of this sacrament ; for as, according 
 to the Prophet, there are many who run, and yet are not sent 
 (Jerem. xxiii. 21), it is necessary to teach who are its true and 
 legitimate ministers, that the faithful people may be enabled to 
 obtain the sacrament and grace of confirmation.* That the 
 bishop alone, then, has ordinary power to administer this sacra- 
 ment, the sacred Writings show ; for we read in the Acts of 
 the Apostles, that, when Samaria had received the Word of 
 God, Peter and John were sent to them, " who prayed for 
 them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: for he was not 
 yet come upon any one of them, but they were only baptized " 
 (Acts, viii. 15, sq.). Here we may see that he who had bap- 
 tized, having been only a deacon, had no power to confirm; but 
 that that office was reserved to a more perfect order of minis- 
 ters, that is, to the Apostles ; and the same may be observed, 
 also, whenever the sacred Scriptures make mention of this 
 sacrament (Acts, xix. 6). Nor are there wanting, in proof of 
 this matter, the clearest testimonies of the holy Fathers, and of 
 Pontiffs, of Urban, Eusebius, Damasus, Innocent, Leo, as is 
 evident from their decrees. St. Augustine, also, complains 
 grievously of the corrupt practice of the Egyptians and Alexan- 
 drians, whose priests dared to administer the sacrament of con- 
 firmation. And the strict propriety of consigning this office to 
 bishops, pastors may illustrate by the following comparison. As 
 in constructing edifices, although the artisans, who are inferior 
 agents, prepare and dispose cement, lime, timber, and the rest 
 of the material, to the architect, however, belongs the com- 
 pletion of the work ; so, in like manner, should this sacrament, 
 by which, as it were, the spiritual edifice is completed, be admi- 
 nistered by no other than by the chief priest. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. Sponsors, why added in Confirmation, and 
 
 what affinity is contracted in Confirmation. 
 A sponsor is also added, as we have already shown to be the 
 case in baptism ; for if they who enter the gladiatorial lists 
 have occasion for some one, by whose skill and counsel they 
 may be taught by what thrusts and passes they may, themselves 
 being secure, despatch their antagonist; how much more will 
 the faithful require a leader and monitor, when, sheathed, as it 
 
 * Trid. sess. 23, c. 4, et can. 7.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER III. 183 
 
 were and secured in the panoply of this sacrament, they engage 
 in the spiritual conflict, in which eternal salvation is the pro- 
 posed reward! With good reason, therefore, are sponsors to be 
 called to assist at the administration of this sacrament also ; 
 and with them is contracted the same spiritual affinity, which, 
 as we already taught when treating of sponsors in baptism, 
 impedes the lawful marriage of the parties.* 
 
 QUESTION XV. The Sacrament of Confirmation it not absolutely 
 necessary, but is not however to be overlooked. 
 
 But as it often happens that, in receiving this sacrament, the 
 faithful either make use of either precipitate haste or gross neg- 
 lect and procrastination (for, concerning those who have arrived 
 at such a degree of impiety as to have the hardihood to contemn 
 and despise it, we have nothing to say), pastors will also explaia 
 who, of what age, endued with what zeal for piety, they 
 should be, to whom confirmation ought to be administered. And 
 first of all, it should be taught that this sacrament is not so 
 necessary that one cannot be saved without it; but although not 
 necessary, yet it ought to be omitted by no one, but rather, in a 
 matter full of holiness, through which the gifts of God are so 
 liberally bestowed on us, the greatest care should be taken to avoid 
 all neglect; for what God has proposed in common to all for their 
 sauctification, all should likewise most earnestly desire.f 
 
 QUESTION XVI. It is shown that the Sacrament of Confirmation 
 ought to be received by all. 
 
 And, indeed, St. Luke, when describing that admirable 
 effusion of the Holy Spirit, says : '" And suddenly there came 
 a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled 
 the whole house where they were sitting ;" and a little after, 
 " and theyVere all filled with the Holy Ghost " (Acts, ii. 2, 4) ; 
 from which words we may understand, that, as that house bore a 
 type and figure of the Church, the sacrament of confirmation, 
 which took its beginning from that day, appertains to all the 
 faithful. This is also easily inferred from the nature of the 
 sacrament itself ; for they ought to be confirmed with the sacred 
 chrism, who have need of spiritual increase, and are to be 
 conducted to the perfection of the Christian religion ; but this 
 is eminently suited to all without exception ; for as nature in- 
 tends that all her children should grow up and attain full 
 maturity, although she sometimes does not realize her wishes ; 
 
 * Trid. sess. 24, c. 2. f De consec. dist. 5, c. 2, sq. ; Cone. AureL 
 3 ; Hugo de sanct. Viet, de Sacrara. lib. 2, p. 7, c. 39.
 
 184 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 so the Catholic Church, the common mother of all, earnestly 
 desires that in those whom she has regenerated by baptism, the 
 form of the Christian man be brought to perfection ; and as 
 this is accomplished through the sacrament of mystic unction, 
 it is clear that that unction belongs alike to all the faithful. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. At what age Christians are to be admitted 
 to this Sacrament. 
 
 Here it is to be observed, that, after baptism, the sacrament 
 of confirmation may indeed be administered to all ; but that, 
 until children shall have attained the use of reason, its admi- 
 nistration is inexpedient. Wherefore, if not to be postponed 
 to the age of twelve, it is most proper to defer this sacrament 
 at least to that of seven ; for confirmation has not been insti- 
 tuted as necessary to salvation, but that by virtue thereof we 
 might be found very well armed and prepared, when called 
 upon to fight for the faith of Christ ; and for this kind of con- 
 flict assuredly no one will consider children, who still want the 
 use of reason, to be qualified. 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. How those who are rather of advanced age 
 ought to prepare themselves for this Sacrament. 
 
 From this it therefore follows, that persons of mature age, 
 who are to be confirmed, must, indeed, if they desire to receive 
 the grace and gifts of this sacrament, not only bring with them 
 faith and piety, but also grieve from their hearts for the more 
 weighty sins which they have committed. In this [the pastor] 
 will labour, that they also previously confess their sins, and be 
 excited by his exhortation to fasting and other works of piety, 
 and be admonished of the propriety of reviving that laudable 
 practice of the ancient Church, of receiving this sacrament 
 fasting.* To this it is to be presumed, that the faithful may 
 be easily persuaded, if they shall understand the gifts and 
 admirable effects of this sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XIX, What are the Effects of Confirmation. 
 
 Pastors, therefore, will teach that, in common with the other 
 sacraments, confirmation, unless some obstacle be opposed on the 
 part of the receiver, imparts new grace ; for it has been shown 
 that these sacred and mystic signs are of such a nature, as to in- 
 dicate and produce grace ; and as we cannot even imagine grace 
 
 * De Consecr. dist. 3. On the effects of confirmation, see St. 
 Thomas in p. 3, q. 72, art. 7.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER III. 185 
 
 to co-exist with sin, it follows that [confirmation] also pardons 
 and remits sins. But, besides these things, which are to be con- 
 sidered common with the other [sacraments], to confirmation it 
 is peculiarly given first to perfect the grace of baptism ; for those 
 who have been made Christians by baptism, still have in some 
 sort the tenderness and softness, as it were, of new-born infants 
 (1 Pet. ii. 2), and afterwards become, by the sacrament of chrism, 
 stronger against all the assaults of the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil, and their mind is fully confirmed in faith to confess and 
 glorify the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, whence, also, no doubt, 
 originated the very name [of confirmation]. 
 
 QUESTION XX. The name of Confirmation whence derived. 
 
 For the word " confirmation " is not derived, as some not less 
 ignorantly than impiously have pretended, from the circumstance 
 of baptized infants, when arrived at mature years, having been 
 conducted of old to the bishop, to confirm their faith in Christ, 
 which they had embraced in baptism, so that confirmation would 
 seem to differ in nothing from catechetical instruction ; of which 
 practice no approved testimony can be adduced ; but the name 
 has been given to it, because, by virtue of this sacrament, God 
 confirms in us the work which he commenced by baptism, and 
 conducts us to the perfection of solid Christian virtue. But not 
 only does it confirm ; it also increases [divine grace], of which 
 Melchiades thus testifies : " The Holy Ghost, who descends with 
 salutary illapse on the waters of baptism, imparts, in the font, 
 plenitude to the accomplishment of innocence : in confirmation he 
 gives an increase to the augmentation of grace."* And not 
 only does he give an increase, but an increase after a wonderful 
 manner. This the Scriptures most beautifully signify and ex- 
 press by a metaphor taken from clothing : " Stay you in the city," 
 says our Lord and Saviour, speaking of this sacrament, "until 
 yon he endued with power from on high." f 
 
 QUESTION XXI. The Virtue of Confirmation is to be set forth 
 from what befel the Apostles. 
 
 But if pastors shall wish to show the divine efficacy of this 
 sacrament (and this, no doubt, will have very great influence in 
 moving the minds of the faithful), it will be sufficient to explain 
 what occurred to the Apostles themselves. So weak and timid 
 were they, before and even at the very time of the passion, that 
 no sooner was our Lord apprehended, than they instantly fled 
 (Matt. xxvi. 56) ; and Peter, who was designated the rock and 
 
 * Ep. ad Episc. Hispan. f Luke, xxiv. 49. Induamini, clothed. Tft.
 
 186 ' CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 m_i "**^ 
 
 foundation of the Church, and who had displayed unshaken con- 
 stancy, and exalted magnanimity (Matt. xvi. 18, xxvi. 51), 
 terrified at the voice of one weak woman, denied, not once nor 
 twice only, but a third time, that he was a disciple of Jesus Christ 
 (Matt. xxvi. 70, 72, 74) ; and after the resurrection they all 
 remained shut up at home " for fear of the Jews " (John, xx. 19). 
 But, on the day of Pentecost, so great was the virtue of the Holy 
 Ghost with which they were all replenished, that, whilst they 
 freely and fearlessly disseminated the Gospel confided to them, 
 not only through Judaea, but throughout the world (Acts, ii. 1), 
 they thought that no greater happiness could await them than 
 that of being " accounted worthy to suffer reproach," chains, 
 torments, crucifixion, "for the name of" Christ (Acts, v. 41). 
 
 QUESTION XXII. Confirmation impresses a Character, and 
 cannot be repeated. 
 
 Confirmation has also the effect of impressing a character ; 
 whence, as we said above of baptism also, and as will be more 
 fully explained too in its proper place with regard to the 
 sacrament of order, it can on no account be ever repeated. If, 
 then, these things shall have been frequently and accurately ex- 
 plained by pastors, it will be almost impossible that the faithful, 
 having known the dignity and utility of this sacrament, should 
 not study with the greatest diligence to receive it with purity 
 and devotion. It remains now briefly to glance at the rites and 
 ceremonies used by the Catholic Church in the administration of 
 this sacrament ; and the great advantages of this explanation 
 pastors will understand, if they revert to what we already saiil 
 on this subject under its proper head. 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. Why the forehead of those being confirmed 
 is anointed inform of a Cross. 
 
 The forehead, then, of persons being confirmed, is anointed 
 with sacred chrism ; for, by this sacrament, the Holy Spirit in- 
 fuses himself into the souls of the faithful, and increases in them 
 strength and fortitude, to enable them, in the spiritual contest, 
 to fight manfully, and to resist their most implacable foes. To 
 which effect, it is declared, that they are to be deterred by no 
 fear or shame, of which affections the front is the principal 
 index, from the open confession of the name of Christ.* Besides, 
 that mark, by which the Christian is distinguished from all 
 others, as the soldier is by certain military badges, should be 
 impressed on the more conspicuous part of the body. 
 
 * St. Thomas in p. 3, q. 7'2, art. 9; Aug. in Ps. xiv.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 187 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. At what time chiefly this Sacrament should 
 be conferred. 
 
 It has also been matter of solemn religious observance in the 
 Church of God, that this sacrament should be administered 
 principally at Pentecost, because on that day most especially 
 were the Apostles strengthened and confirmed by the power of 
 the Holy Ghost (Acts, ii. 2); by the recollection of which super- 
 natural event, the faithful should be admonished of the nature 
 and magnitude of the mysteries contained in the sacred unction. 
 
 QUESTION XXV. Why the Bishop gives a slap on the cheek, and 
 invokes Peace on the person confirmed. 
 
 The person, when anointed and confirmed, next receives a 
 gentle slap on the cheek from the hand of the bishop, to make 
 him recolloct that, as a valiant champion, he should be prepared 
 to endure with unconquered spirit all adversities for the name of 
 Christ. Lastly i? given him the peace, that he may understand 
 that he has attained the plenitude of divine grace, and " that 
 pence which surpasseth all understanding" (Phil. iv. 7). Let 
 this, then, be a summary of those things, which are to be 
 expounded by pastors touching the sacrament of chrism, not 
 so much, however, in naked words and cold language, as in the 
 burning accents of pious and glowing zeal, so as to seem to im- 
 print them on the souls and inmost thoughts of the faithful. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST. 
 
 QUESTION I. Why the Mysteries of the Eucharist ought to be 
 treated and received with the deepest reverence. 
 
 As of all the sacred mysteries bequeathed to us by our Lord 
 and Saviour as most unfailing instruments of divine grace, 
 there is none comparable to the most holy sacrament of the 
 Eucharist ; so, also, for no crime is there a heavier punishment 
 to be feared from God, than for the unholy or irreligious use 
 by the faithful of that which is full of all holiness, or rather 
 which contains the author himself and source of holiness. This 
 the Apostle wisely saw, and of it be has openly admonished us; 
 for when he had declared the enormity of their guilt, " who dis- 
 cerned not the body of the Lord" (1 Cor. xi. 29), he imme- 
 diately subjoined: "Therefore are there many infirm and weak
 
 188 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 among you, and many sleep " (1 Cor. xi. 30). That the faith- 
 ful people, therefore, aware that to this heavenly sacrament are 
 due divine honours, may derive therefrom abundant fruit of 
 grace, and escape the most just anger of God, pastors will ex- 
 plain, with the greatest diligence, all those things which may 
 seem calculated more fully to display its majesty. 
 
 QUESTION II. Why and when the Sacrament of the Eucharist 
 was instituted. 
 
 In this it will be necessary that, following the example of 
 the Apostle Paul, who professed to have delivered to the 
 Corinthians what he had received from the Lord, they, first of 
 all, explain to the faithful the institution of this sacrament. 
 That its institution was as follows is clearly inferred from the 
 Evangelist. Our Lord, who, " having loved his own, loved 
 them to the end" (John, xiii. 1), to give them some divine and 
 admirable pledge of this love, knowing that the hour had now- 
 come, when he should pass from this world to the Father, that 
 he might never at any time be absent from his own, with inex- 
 plicable wisdom accomplished what transcends all the order and 
 condition of nature. For having celebrated the supper of the 
 paschal lamb with his disciples, that the figure might yield to 
 the reality, the shadow to the substance, He " took bread, and 
 giving thanks " to God, " blessed and brake, and gave to his 
 disciples, and said : TAKE YE AND EAT, THIS is MY BODY, WHICH 
 
 SHALL BE DELIVERED FOR YOU : THIS DO FOR THE COMMEMORATION 
 
 OF ME. In like manner " he took " the chalice also, after he had 
 supped, saying : THIS CHALICE is THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MY 
 
 BLOOD ; THIS DO, AS OFTEN AS YOU SHALL DRINK IT, IN COMMEMO- 
 HATION OF ME."* 
 
 QUESTION III. Why this Sacrament is called the Eucharist. 
 
 Wherefore sacred writers, finding it impossible to convey by 
 one term the dignity and excellence of this admirable sacrament, 
 have endeavoured to express it by a variety of appellations. 
 For sometimes they call it " the Eucharist," a word which we 
 may render either " the good grace," or " the thanksgiving ;"t 
 and with good reason, indeed, is it to be called " the good grace," 
 both because it foreshows eternal life, of which it has been 
 written : "The grace of God is everlasting life" (Rom. vi. 23); 
 and also because it contains in itself Christ the Lord, who is true 
 grace, and the fountain of all heavenly gifts. Nor do we less 
 
 * Matt. xxvi. 26; Mark, xiv. 22 ; Luke, xxii. 19; 1 Cor. xi. 24. 
 f In Latin, bona gratia, or gratiarum actio.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 189 
 
 appropriately interpret it " the thanksgiving ;" for, when we 
 immolate this most pure Victim, we daily give God boundless 
 thanks for all his benefits towards us, and first of all for so ex- 
 cellent a gift of his grace, which he bestows on us in this sacra- 
 ment. But that same name also very well accords with those 
 things which we read were done by Christ the Lord, when in- 
 stituting this mystery ; for, " taking bread, he brake it, and gave 
 thanks" (loc. cit.). David, too, when contemplating the great- 
 ness of this mystery, before he uttered that verse : " He hath 
 made a remembrance of his wonderful works, being a merciful 
 and gracious Lord ; he hath given food to them that fear him " 
 (Ps. ex. 4), thought that thanksgiving should precede, when he 
 says : " His work is praise and magnificence."* 
 
 QUESTION IV. Why this Sacrament is called Communion, the 
 Sacrament of Peace and Love. 
 
 It is also frequently declared by the word " sacrifice ; " of 
 which mystery there will be occasion to speak more at large 
 presently. It is besides called " communion," which word is 
 evidently taken from that passage of the Apostle, where we read: 
 " The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the com- 
 munion of the blood of Christ ? And the bread which we break, 
 is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?" (1 Cor. x. 16.) 
 For, as Damascene has explained, this sacrament " unites us to 
 Christ, and renders us partakers of his flesh and divinity, recon- 
 ciles and unites us to each other in the same Christ, and consoli- 
 dates us as it Avere into one body."f Whence it came to pass, 
 that it was also called the sacrament of peace and charity, that 
 we might understand how unworthy the Christian name they 
 are, who indulge in enmities, and that hatred, dissensions, and 
 discord should be altogether banished as the most baneful pests 
 of the faithful, especially as, in the daily Christian sacrifice of 
 our religion, we profess to preserve nothing more studiously than 
 peace and charity. 
 
 QUESTION V. Why the same Sacrament is called the Viaticum 
 and Supper. 
 
 But it is also frequently called by sacred writers the viaticum, 
 both because it is the spiritual food by which we are sustained 
 in our pilgrimage through this life, and also because it prepares 
 for us the way to eternal glory and happiness. Wherefore, 
 
 * Ps. ex. 3. Chrysost. horn. 24, in 1, ad Cor. ad hsec verba, Calix 
 benedictionis ; Cypr. lib. de lapsis ; Ambr, lib. 5, de Sacr. c. 3 ; D. Th. 
 p. 3, q. 73, a. 4. t De Fid. Orthod. iv. 13.
 
 190 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 according to an ancient usage of the Catholic Church, we see it 
 observed that none of the faithful depart life without this sacra- 
 ment. And, indeed, the most ancient Fathers, following the 
 authority of the Apostle, have also sometimes called the holy 
 Eucharist by the name of " supper " (1 Cor. xi. 20), because it 
 was instituted by Christ the Lord at that saving mystery of the 
 last supper.* 
 
 QUESTION VI. The Euclwrist cannot be consecrated and received 
 after having taken meat or drink. 
 
 It is not, however, on that account lawful to consecrate or re- 
 ceive the Eucharist after meat or drink, for the practice of its 
 being received only by persons fasting, salutarily introduced, as 
 ancient writers have recorded, by the Apostles, has been always 
 retained and observed. 
 
 QUESTION VII. The Eucharist is a Sacrament property so catted. 
 
 But the import of the name having been explained, it will be 
 necessary to teach that this is a true sacrament, and one of those 
 seven which holy Church has ever religiously revered and vene- 
 rated. For, in the consecration of the chalice, it is called " a 
 mystery of faith." Besides, to omit the almost innumerable testi- 
 monies of sacred writers, who always held that it was to be 
 numbered amongst the true sacraments, the same is proved from 
 the very purport and nature of a sacrament. In it are sensible 
 and outward signs : in the iiext place it signifies and produces 
 grace; and neither the Evangelists nor the Apostle leave room for 
 doubting its institution by Christ. When all these things concur 
 in confirming the truth of the sacrament, there is evidently no 
 need for any other arguments. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. That in this Sacrament there are many things to 
 which the name of Sacrament corresponds. 
 
 But pastors must carefully observe, that in this mystery there 
 are many things to which sacred writers have occasionally given 
 the name of sacrament ; for sometimes both its consecration and 
 participation, but frequently the body and blood itself of the 
 Lord, which is contained in the Eucharist, used to be called a 
 sacrament. For St. Augustine says, that this sacrament con- 
 sists of two things, that is, of the visible species of the elements, 
 and of the invisible flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 hitnself.f And in like manner we affirm that this sacrament 
 
 * Cypr. De Coma Domini. t De Catech. rud. c. 16.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 191 
 
 is to be adored,* meaning of course the body and blood of our 
 Lord. But it is clear that all these are less properly called 
 sacraments ; and the species themselves of bread and wiiie pos- 
 sess the true and perfect import of this name. 
 
 QUESTION IX. How the Eucharist differs from all the other 
 Sacraments. 
 
 But how much this sacrament differs from all the rest, is 
 easily inferred. For, all the other sacraments are perfected by 
 the use of their matter, that is, by their administration ; bap- 
 tism, for instance, becomes a sacrament when the ablution is 
 being actually performed ; but to the perfection of the Eucha- 
 rist, the consecration of the elements suffices; for, though' 
 preserved in a pyxis, either element ceases not to be a sacra- 
 ment. Again, in constituting other sacraments, no change of 
 the matter and element into another substance takes place ; 
 for, the water of baptism, or the oil of chrism, when those . 
 sacraments are being administered, lose not their former nature 
 of water and oil ; but, in the Eucharist, that which was bread 
 and wine before consecration, is, after consecration, really the 
 substance of the body and blood of the Lord. 
 
 QUESTION X. The Twofold Matter of the Eucharist does not 
 constitute Two Sacraments. 
 
 But although there are two elements, namely, bread and 
 wine, from which the entire sacrament of the Eucharist is con- 
 stituted; yet, taught by the authority of the Church, we confess 
 that there is not, however, a plurality of sacraments, but one 
 only ; for, otherwise, the number of the sacraments could not be 
 seven, as has been always handed down, and as has been defined 
 by the Councils of Lateran,t Florence,! and Trent. For as, by 
 the grace of this sacrament, is effected one mystical body, in order 
 that the sacrament itself may correspond with what it effects, 
 it should be one, and one indeed, not because it should consist 
 of, but because it signifies, one thing. For, as meat and drink, 
 which are two different things, are used for one purpose only, 
 that is, to recruit the strength of the body ; so, also, it was 
 meet that to them should correspond the two different sacra- 
 mental species, which should signify the spiritual food by 
 which souls are supported and refreshed. Therefore has our 
 Lord and Saviour said: "My flesh is meat indeed, and my 
 
 * Cone. Trid. sess. xiii. c. v. and can. 6. t The great Lateran 
 Council, held under Innocent II., does not expressly mention that 
 there are seven sacraments, but it is clearly to be inferred from c. i., 
 &c. J Doctr. de Sacram. Sess. vii. can. 1.
 
 192 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 blood is drink indeed " (John, vi. 56). But the pastor must 
 diligently explain what the sacrament of the Eucharist signifies, 
 that, seeing the sacred mysteries with their eyes, the faithful 
 may also, at the same time, feed the soul with the contempla- 
 tion of divine things. 
 
 QUESTION XI. Of what things this Sacrament is significant. 
 
 There are three things, then, which are indicated by this 
 sacrament. The first is the passion of Christ the Lord, a 
 thing past; for he himself has taught: "Do this for a com- 
 memoration of me " (Luke, xxii. 19) ; and the Apostle has 
 testified : " As often as you shall eat this bread, and drink this 
 chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until he come " 
 (1 Cor. xi. 26). Another is divine and heavenly grace, which, 
 being present, is imparted by this sacrament, to nurture and 
 preserve the soul ; for as by baptism we are begotten to new- 
 ness of life, and by confirmation are strengthened to enable us 
 to resist satan, and openly to profess the name of Christ; so, 
 by the sacrament of the Eucharist, are we nurtured and sup- 
 ported. The third thing, which it foreshows as future, is the 
 fruit of eternal joy and glory, which, according to God's pro- 
 mise, we shall receive in our heavenly country. These three 
 things, then, distinguished, as they evidently are, by diversity 
 of time, past, present, and future, are signified by the sacred 
 mysteries in such a manner, that the whole sacrament, though 
 consisting of different species, is referred to the declaring of 
 each of them as to the signification of one thing. 
 
 QUESTION XII. Matter of this Sacrament, and what sort 
 of Bread is to be consecrated. 
 
 But it is particularly incumbent on pastors to know the 
 matter of this sacrament, that they themselves may duly con- 
 . secrate it, and also that the faithful may be admonished of that 
 of which it is the symbol, and may burn with an earnest desire 
 to possess what it signifies. The matter, then, of this sacra- 
 ment is twofold ; one, wheaten bread, of which we shall treat 
 first; of the other we shall speak hereafter. For, as the 
 Evangelists, Matthew (xxvi. 26), Mark (xiv. 22), and Luke 
 (xxii. 19), teach, Christ the Lord "took bread" into his hands, 
 " blessed, and brake, saying : THIS is MY BODY ;" and, accord- 
 ing to John, the same Saviour called himself bread, when he 
 said : " I am the living bread, which came down from heaven " 
 (vi. 41). As, however, there are various sorts of bread, either 
 because they differ in material, being made, some of wheat, 
 some of barley or of pulse, and other products of the earth, or
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 193 
 
 because they possess different qualities, some being leavened, 
 others altogether without leaven, with regard to the first, the 
 words of the Saviour 'show that it should be wheaten bread ; 
 for, according to the common usage of speaking, when we 
 simply say bread, it is sufficiently clear that wheaten bread is 
 understood. That is also declared by a figure in the Old Testa- 
 ment; for the Lord had commanded that the "loaves of pro- 
 position," which signified this sacrament, should be made of 
 "fine flour" (Lev. xxiv. 5). 
 
 QUESTION XIII. It is proper that the Eucharistic Bread be 
 unleavened. 
 
 But as none but wheaten bread is to be considered the proper 
 matter of this sacrament (for this Apostolic tradition has taught 
 us, and the authority of the Catholic Church has confirmed), so 
 also is it easily inferred from those things which Christ the 
 Lord did, that this bread should be unleavened ; for he conse- 
 crated and instituted this sacrament on the first day of un- 
 leavened bread, on which it was not lawful for the Jews to 
 have anything leavened in their houses.* Should any one 
 object the authority of John the Evangelist, who says that all 
 this was done " before the festival day of the Pasch " (John, 
 xiii. 1), the argument is one of easy solution; for by the day 
 before the Pasch John understands the same day which the 
 other Evangelists designate " the first day of unleavened bread." 
 He wished particularly to mark the " natural " day, which com- 
 mences at sunrise ; and the first " natural " day of the Pasch 
 being Friday, " the day before the Pasch " must, therefore, 
 mean Thursday, on the evening of which the festival of un- 
 leavened bread began, and on which our Lord celebrated the 
 Pasch [and instituted the Eucharist]. Hence St. Chrysostom, 
 also, interprets the first day of unleavened bread to be the day, 
 on the evening of which unleavened bread was to be eaten. f 
 The peculiar fitness of the consecration of unleavened bread, to 
 express that integrity and purity of mind which the faithful 
 should bring to this sacrament, we are taught by the Apostle, 
 when he says : " Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a 
 new mass, as you are unleavened; for Christ our Pasch is sacri- 
 ficed. Therefore, let us feast, not with the old leaven, not with 
 the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened 
 bread of sincerity and truth " (1 Cor. v. 7, sq.). 
 
 * Matt. xxvi. 17 ; Mark, xiv. 12 ; Luke, xxii. 7. t In Matt, 
 horn. 83.
 
 194 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. Unleavened Bread not absolutely necessary for 
 the Eucharist. 
 
 This quality of the bread, however, is not to be deemed so 
 necessary, as that, if it be wanting, the sacrament cannot exist ; 
 for both sorts are called by the common name, and have the 
 true and proper nature of bread.* No one, however, is at 
 liberty on his private authority, or rather temerity, to alter the 
 laudable rite of his Church ; and such alteration is the less war- 
 rantable in priests of the Latin Church, commanded moreover as 
 they are, by the Supreme Pontiffs, to consecrate the sacred mys- 
 teries with unleavened bread only.t With regard to the first 
 matter of this sacrament, let this exposition suffice. It is, however, 
 to be observed, that the quantity of the matter to be conse- 
 crated has not been defined, as we cannot define the exact 
 number of those who can or ought to receive the sacred 
 mysteries. 
 
 QUESTION XV. What Matter is to be used for consecrating the 
 Blood of the Lord. 
 
 It remains for us to speak of the other matter and element of 
 this sacrament, which is wine pressed from the fruit of the 
 vine, with which is mingled a little water. That in the insti- 
 tution of this sacrament, our Lord and Saviour made use of 
 wine, has been at all times the doctrine of the Catholic Church, 
 for he himself said : " I will not drink from henceforth of this 
 fruit of the vine, until that day ;"| on which passage Chrysos- 
 tom observes: " Of the fruit of the vine, which certainly pro- 
 duced wine, not water ;" as if he had it in view, so long before, 
 to uproot the heresy of those who supposed, that in these mys- 
 teries water alone is to be used. 
 
 QUESTION XVI. Water is to be mixed with the Wine in the 
 Sacrament 
 
 With the wine, however, the Church of God has always 
 mingled water: first, because that Christ the Lord did so, is 
 proved by the authority of Councils and the testimony of St. 
 Cyprian ;|| next, because by this admixture is renewed the 
 recollection of the blood and water that issued from his side. 
 " Waters," also, as we read in the Apocalypse, denote the people 
 (xvii. 15); and hence, water mixed with wine signifies the union 
 
 * Concil. Flor. sess. ult. t Lib. 3, decret. de celebr. miss. c. final. 
 tMatt. xxvi. 29; Mark, xiv. 25. Horn. 83, in Matt, || Lib. 1, 
 Epist. 3 ; Trid. sess. xxii. c. 7, et can. 9.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 195 
 
 of the faithful people with Christ their head ; and this rite, de- 
 rived as it is from Apostolic tradition, the holy Church has always 
 observed. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. It is not absolutely necessary that Water be 
 used, and the quantity of Water ought to be less than that of 
 the Wine. 
 
 But although there are reasons so grave for mingling water 
 with the wine, that it cannot be omitted without a mortal sin, 
 yet its absence is insufficient to render the sacrament null. But 
 as, in the sacred mysteries, priests must be mindful to mingle 
 water with the wine, so, also, must they take care to mingle it 
 in small quantity, for in the opinion and judgment of ecclesiastical 
 writers, that water is changed into wine. Hence these words of 
 Pope Honorius on the subject : " A pernicious abuse has pre- 
 vailed in your district, of using, in the sacrifice, a greater quantity 
 of water than of wine ; whereas, according to the rational practice 
 of the Universal Church, a much greater quantity of wine should 
 be used than of water."* These, then, are the only two ele- 
 ments of this sacrament ; and with good reason has it been 
 enacted by many decrees, that, although there have been those 
 who were not afraid to do so, it is unlawful to offer anything but 
 bread and wine.f But we have now to consider how well 
 adapted these two symbols of bread and wine are to declare those 
 things, of which we believe and confess them to be sensible 
 signs. 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. How many and how great things the symbols 
 of Bread and Wine represent in this Sacrament. 
 
 In the first place, then, they signify to us Christ, as he is the 
 true life of men ; for our Lord himself says : " My flesh is meat 
 indeed, and my blood is drink indeed " (John, vi. 56). As, 
 then, the body of Christ the Lord furnishes nourishment to eternal 
 life to those who receive the sacrament thereof with purity and 
 holiness, with reason is its matter composed chiefly of those 
 things by which this life is sustained, in order that the faithful 
 may easily understand, that the mind and soul are satiated by 
 the communion of the precious body and blood of Christ. These 
 very elements serve also somewhat to suggest to men, the truth 
 of the real presence of the body and blood of the Lord in the 
 sacrament. Observing as we do, that bread and wine are every 
 day changed, by the power of nature, into human flesh and blood, 
 
 * Lib. 3, Decretal, de eel. miss. c. 13. t Vid. de consecr. dist. 2, 
 c. 1, 2, et seq.
 
 196 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 we may the more easily be led by this analogy to believe, that 
 the substance of the bread and wine is changed, by the celestial 
 benediction, into the real flesh and real blood of Christ. This 
 admirable change of the elements, also, contributes to shadow- 
 forth what takes place in the soul ; for as, although no change 
 of the bread and wine appeal's externally, yet is their substance 
 truly changed into the flesh and blood of Christ; so, in like 
 manner, although in us nothing appears changed, yet are we re- 
 newed interiorly to life whilst we receive in the sacrament of 
 the Eucharist the true life. Moreover, as the body of the 
 Church, which is one, is composed of many members, of that 
 union nothing is more strikingly illustrative than the elements of 
 bread and wine ; for bread is made from many grains ; wine is 
 pressed from many clusters of grapes; and thus do they declare 
 that we, though many, are most closely bound together by the 
 bond of this divine mystery, and made as it were one body. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. What Form should be used to consecrate 
 the Bread. 
 
 It now follows that we treat of the form to be used in the 
 consecration of the bread ; not, however, with a view that the 
 faithful people should be taught those mysteries, unless neces- 
 sity require it (for those who have not been initiated in holy 
 orders, it is unnecessary to instruct on these matters), but lest 
 mistakes the most shameful take place on the part of consecrating 
 priests, through ignorance of the form. We are then taught by 
 the holy Evangelists Matthew and Luke, and also by the 
 Apostle, that the form consists in these words : THIS is JIT 
 BODY ; for it is written : " Whilst they were at supper, Jesus 
 took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to his disciples, 
 and said: Take and eat, THIS is MY BODY ;"* and as this form of 
 consecration was observed by Christ the Lord, the Catholic 
 Church has always used it. The testimonies of the Fathers, 
 the enumeration of which would be endless, and also the decree 
 of the Council of Florence, which is obvious and accessible to 
 all, must here be omitted, particularly as the knowledge which 
 they convey may be attained from these words of the Saviour : 
 "Do this fora commemoration of me" (Luke, xxii. 19); for 
 what the Lord enjoined to be done, is to be referred not only 
 to what he had done, but also to what he had said, and is to be 
 understood to relate most particularly to words, uttered not less 
 for the purpose of effecting than of signifying what they effected. 
 But [that these words constitute the form] is easily proved from 
 reason also ; for the form is that by which is signified what is 
 
 *Matt xxvi. 26; Mark, xiv. 22 Luke, xxii. 19; 1 Cor. ii. 24.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 19Y 
 
 Accomplished in this sacrament ; bat as the preceding words 
 signify and declare what is done, that is, the conversion of the 
 bread into the true body of our Lord, it therefore follows, that 
 these very words constitute the form. In this sense may be 
 understood the words of the Evangelist, " He blessed," for they 
 seem equivalent to his having said : " Taking bread, he blessed 
 it, saying : this is my body. 
 
 QUESTION XX. All the Words which, according to the usage 
 of the Church, are employed in the Consecration, are not 
 necessary. 
 
 For although the Evangelist has placed the words, " Take 
 and eat " (Matt. xxvi. 26), before the words, " This is ray 
 body;" yet the former evidently express the use only, not the 
 consecration of the matter. Wherefore, they are by all means 
 to be pronounced by the priest, as is also pronounced the con- 
 junction " for :> in the consecration of the body and blood ; but 
 they are not necessary to the validity of the sacrament ; for 
 otherwise it would follow, that, if this sacrament were to be 
 administered to no one, it should not, or indeed it could not, be 
 consecrated ; whereas, no one can lawfully doubt that the 
 priest, by pronouncing the words of our Lord according to the 
 institution and practice of the Church, truly consecrates the 
 proper matter of the bread, although it should afterwards happen 
 that the holy Eucharist be never administered to any one. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. What Form is to be used in the Consecration 
 of the Blood. 
 
 With regard to the consecration of the wine, which is the 
 other element of the sacrament, it is necessary, for the same 
 reason assigned above, that the priest know and understand 
 well its form. We are then firmly to believe that it consists in 
 the following words : "FoR THIS is THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD OF 
 
 THE NEW AND ETERNAL TESTAMENT, TI1E MYSTERY OF FAI7H, WHICH 
 SHALL BE SHED FOR YOU AND FOR MANY TO THE REMISSION OF SINS."* 
 
 Of these words the greater part are taken from Scripture ; 
 but some have been preserved in the Church from Apostolic 
 tradition. Thus, the words, " this is the chalice," are contained 
 in St. Luke (Luke, xxii. 20), and in the Apostle (1 Cor. xi. 25); 
 but what follows, " of my blood," or, " my blood of the new 
 testament, which shall be shed for you and for many to the 
 remission of sins, 1 ' are found partly in St. Luke (Luke, xxii. 
 20), and partly in St. Matthew (Matt. xxvi. 28). But the 
 
 * Decretal. 1. 3, de celeb, miss c. 6.
 
 198 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 words " eternal " and "the mystery of faith," have been tanghfc 
 us by holy tradition, the interpreter and guardian of Catholic 
 truth. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. That this is the True Form of Consecration, 
 is shown. 
 
 But of this form no one can doubt, if he here also attend to 
 what has been already said of the form used in the consecra- 
 tion of the bread. For the form [to be used in the consecra- 
 tion] of this element, evidently consists of those words, which 
 signify that the substance of the wine is changed into the blood 
 of the Lord. Wherefore, as the words already cited clearly 
 declare this, it is plain that no other form is to be constituted. 
 They, moreover, express certain admirable fruits of the blood, 
 shed in the passion of our Lord, which belong in a most special 
 manner to this sacrament. Of these, one is " the entering into " 
 the eternal inheritance, which has come to us by right of 
 " the new and eternal testament ;"* another is access to righ- 
 teousness by u the mystery of faith," for " God hath set forth " 
 Jesus " to be " a propitiator " through faith in his blood, that 
 he himself may be just, and the justifier of him who is of the 
 faith of Jesus Christ" (Rom. iii. 25, sq.). A third is the remis- 
 sion of sins (Heb. ix. 12). 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. The Form of Consecrating the Blood is 
 explained. 
 
 But as these very words of consecration are replete with 
 mysteries, and most appropriately suit the subject, they demand 
 a more minute consideration. When, therefore, it is said : 
 " For this is the chalice of my blood,"t these- words are to be 
 understood to mean : " This is my blood, which is contained in 
 this chalice." Rightly and appositely is mention of " tlie 
 chalice " to be made at the consecration of the blood, as it is 
 the drink of the faithful ; for the blood, were it not contained 
 in some vessel, would not seem sufficiently to signify this sort 
 of drink. Next follows : " of the new testament ;" which has 
 been added, to give us to understand, that the blood of Christ 
 the Lord is not given under a figure, as was done in the Old 
 Law, of which we read in the Apostle to the Hebrews, that 
 without blood the testament was not dedicated (Heb. ix. 18), 
 but that it is really and truly given to men, a prerogative which 
 appertains to the new testament. Whence the Apostle says : 
 " Therefore," Christ " is the mediator of the new testament, 
 
 * Heb. x. 19, xiii. 20; Ordinary of the Mass. f Secret. 1. 3, de 
 eel. Miss. c. 8.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 199 
 
 that by means of his death, they who are called may receive 
 the promise of eternal inheritance " (Heb. ix. 15). But the 
 word " eternal " refers to the eternal inheritance, the right to 
 which we acquired by the death of Christ the Lord, the eternal 
 Testator. The words " mystery of faith," which are subjoined, 
 do not exclude the reality, but signify that what lies hidden 
 and concealed, aiid very far removed from the ken of human 
 eye, is to be believed with firm faith. In this place, however, 
 these words bear an import different from that which they have 
 when applied also to baptism ; for here " the mystery of faith " 
 consists in seeing by faith the blood of Christ, veiled under the 
 species of wine ; but baptism is justly called by us " the sacra- 
 ment of faith," by the Greeks, " the mystery of faith," because 
 it embraces the entire profession of the Christian faith. There 
 is, however, another reason also why we call the blood of the 
 Lord " the mystery of faith," namely, because, when faith 
 proposes to our belief that Christ the Lord, the true Son of 
 God, at once God and man, suffered death for us, a death 
 designated by the sacrament of his blood, human reason is 
 most particularly beset with very great difficulty and em- 
 barrassment. 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. Why mention of Death is made especially at 
 the Consecration of the Blood. 
 
 Here, therefore, rather than at the consecration of his body, 
 is appropriately commemorated the passion of our Lord, by the 
 words, " which shall be shed for the remission of sins ;" for the 
 blood, separately consecrated, has more force and weight to 
 place before the eyes of all the passion of the Lord, his death, 
 and the nature of his passion. The additional words, " for yon, 
 and for many," are taken, some from Matthew (Matt. xxvi. 28), 
 some from Luke (Luke, xxii. 20), but have been joined to- 
 gether by holy Church under the guidance of the Spirit of God ; 
 and they serve to declare the fruit and advantage of his pas- 
 sion. For, if we look to its virtue, we shall have to confess 
 that his blood was shed by the Saviour for the salvation of all ; 
 but if we consider the fruit which men have received from it, 
 we easily understand that it reaches not all, but many only. 
 When, therefore, he said, " for you," he meant either those 
 who were present, or those chosen from amongst the Jewish 
 people, such as were, with the exception of Judas, the disciples 
 with whom he was speaking ; but when he added, " for many," 
 he wished to be understood the remainder of the elect from 
 amongst the Jews or Gentiles. With reason, therefore, were 
 the words " for all " not used, as in this place the fruits of the
 
 200 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 passion are alone spoken of, and to the elect only did that bring 
 the fruit of salvation. And this is the purport of these words 
 of the Apostle : " Christ was offered once, to exhaust the sins 
 of many " (Heb. ix. 28) ; and also of what the Lord says in 
 John : " I pray for them ; I pray not for the world, but for 
 them whom thou hast given me, because they are thine " (John, 
 xvii. 9). In the words of this consecration lie hid very many 
 other mysteries, which pastors themselves, by the assiduous 
 meditation and study of divine things, will, with the divine 
 assistance, easily discover. 
 
 QUESTION XXV. This Sublime Mystery is not to be judged of 
 by the Sense?. 
 
 But to return now to the explanation of those things, of which 
 the faithful are on no account to be suffered to remain ignorant, 
 let pastors, keeping in view the admonition of the Apostle, as to 
 the enormity of their guilt, who discern not " the body of the 
 Lord" (1 Cor. xi. 29), first of all, teach them that the mind 
 and understanding must, as much as possible, be withdrawn 
 from the dominion of the senses ; for, were the faithful to per- 
 suade themselves, that in this sacrament is contained nothing 
 but what they perceive by the senses, they must be led into 
 the greatest impiety, when, discerning by the sight, the touch, 
 the smell, the taste, nothing else but the appearance of bread 
 and wine, they would come to the conclusion that in the 
 sacrament there is only bread and wine. Care must, therefore, 
 be taken, that the minds of the faithful be withdrawn, as much 
 as possible, from the judgment of the senses, and excited to 
 the contemplation of the boundless virtue and power of God. 
 
 QUESTION XXVI. What is chiefly effected in this Sacrament 
 by virtue of the Mystical Consecration. 
 
 For there are three things most deserving of admiration and 
 veneration, which the Catholic faith unhesitatingly believes 
 and confesses to be accomplished in this sacrament by the 
 words of consecration. The first is, that the true body of Christ 
 the Lord, the very same that was born of the Virgin, and sits 
 at the right hand of the Father in heaven, is contained in this 
 sacrament ; the second, that, however alien to, and remote from, 
 the senses it may seem, no substance of the elements remains 
 therein; the third, which is an easy inference from the two 
 preceding, although the words of consecration express it prin- 
 cipally, that the accidents, which are discerned by the eyes, or 
 perceived by the other senses, exist in a wonderful and in- 
 effable manner without a subject. All the accidents of bread
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 201 
 
 and wine, we, indeed, may see ; they, however, inhere in no 
 substance, but exist by themselves ; whereas, the substance of 
 the bread and wine is so changed into the very body and blood 
 of the Lord, that the substauce of bread and wine altogether 
 ceases to exist. 
 
 QUESTION XXVII. The reality of the Body of Christ in the 
 Sacrament, is shown from the Scriptures. 
 
 But to begin with the first, let pastors endeavour to explain 
 how perspicuous and clear are the words of our Saviour, which 
 demonstrate the real presence- of his body in the sacrament ; 
 for when he says : " This is my body, this is my blood, "* no 
 one, provided he be of sane mind, can be at a loss to know 
 what we are to understand, particularly as he speaks of his 
 human nature, of the real existence of which in Christ, the 
 Catholic faith permits no one to doubt ; as Hilary, a man of 
 eminent holiness and learning, has admirably written, there is 
 no room to doubt the reality of the flesh and blood of Christ, 
 since, according to the declaration of our Lord, and our faith, 
 his " flesh is meat indeed."f 
 
 Another passage also is to be expounded by pastors, from 
 which it is clearly to be learnt, that in the Eucharist are con- 
 tained the true body and blood of the Lord. For the Apostle, 
 having recorded the consecration of bread and wine by the Lord, 
 and his administration of the sacred mysteries to his Apostles, 
 subjoins : " But let a man prove himself, and so eat of that bread, 
 and drink of the chalice ; for he that eateth and drinketh un- 
 worthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discern- 
 ing the body of the Lord" (1 Cor. xi. 28, sq.). If, as heretics 
 repeatedly assert, there were nothing else to be venerated in the 
 sacrament, but a memorial and sign of the passion of Christ, what 
 occasion was there to exhort the faithful, in language so energetic, 
 to " prove " themselves? For by that heavy denunciation con- 
 tained in the word " judgment," the Apostle declared, that some 
 grievous enormity is perpetrated by him, who unworthily re- 
 ceiving the body of the Lord, concealed beneath the eucharistic 
 veil, distinguishes it not from other kind of food. This the 
 Apostle also more fully developed, in a preceding passage of the 
 same epistle, in these words : " The chalice of benediction which 
 we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? and 
 the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of 
 the Lord?" (1 Cor. x. 16) ; words which indeed demonstrate the 
 
 * Matt. xxvi. 28 ; Mark, xiv. 22, 24 ; Luke, xxii. 19. t S. Hilar. 
 deTrinit. 1. viii. 14.
 
 202 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 real substance of the body and blood of Christ [in the holy 
 Eucharist]. These passages of Scripture are, therefore, to be 
 expounded by pastors, and they must specially teach, that of 
 their meaning no doubt or uncertainty is left, particularly as they 
 have been interpreted by the sacred authority of the Church of 
 God. 
 
 QUESTION XXVIIL How we must inquire into the, doctrine of the 
 Church of Christ as to the meaning of the Scriptures, and the 
 reality of the Body of the Lord in the Eucharist. 
 
 We can arrive at a knowledge of her doctrine in a twofold 
 way and manner ; the first, by consulting the Fathers who 
 flourished from the beginning of the Church, and in every suc- 
 ceeding age, and who are the best witnesses of her doctrine, all 
 of whom, with the utmost unanimity, and in the clearest terms, 
 have delivered the truth of this dogma. As to adduce the in- 
 dividual testimony of each Father would be a laborious task, it 
 will be sufficient to notice, or rather point out a few, from whom 
 it will be easy to form a judgment of the rest. Let then St. 
 Ambrose first declare his faith, who, in his book on those that 
 are initiated in the mysteries, testifies, that as the true body of 
 Christ was assumed of the Virgin, so is his true body received 
 in this sacrament, and that this is to be held with the most firm 
 faith. And in another place he teaches, that before consecration 
 bread is there, but after consecration, the flesh of Christ.* Let 
 St. Chrysostom, another witness of no less credit and weight, 
 next appear, who indeed professes and teaches this same truth 
 in many other places, but particularly in his sixtieth homily on 
 those who receive the sacred mysteries impurely ; and also in his 
 forty-fourth and forty-fifth homilies on St. John : " Let us," says 
 he, " obey, not contradict God, although what is said may seem 
 to be contrary to our thoughts or our sight ; for his words can- 
 not deceive ; our senses are easily deceived."! With these 
 testimonies fully accords what St. Augustine, that most earnest 
 defender of the Catholic faith, always taught, particularly when, 
 in his explanation of the title of the thirty-third Psalm, he says : 
 "To carry himself in his own hands, is impossible to man, and 
 peculiar to Christ alone; for he was carried in his own hands, 
 when, dispensing his body, he said, ' this is my body'." \ And 
 Cyril (I pass over Justin and Iraeneus ||), in his fourth book on 
 
 * De Sacr. iv. 4, et de iis qui myster. init. c. 9, vide et de consec. 
 ilist. 2, cap. f Ad popul. Antioch. hoinil. 60 et 61 ; horn. 82, in 
 Matt. ; bom. 44. 45, in Joanii. J In Psalm xxxiii. u. 10 ; Concio 1, 
 versus finem ; de consec. dist. 1, c. 92. g Lib. iv. in Joann. c. 13, sq. 
 ami lib. x. c. 13. || Apology 1, towards the end.
 
 PART TI. CHAPTER IV. 203 
 
 'John, so unequivocally affirms, that in this sacrament is the true 
 flesh of the Lord, that his words can be obscured by no fallacious 
 or captious interpretations. But should pastors wish for other 
 testimonies of the Fathers also, it will be easy to add St. Denis,* 
 Hilary,! Jerome,J Damascene, and innumerable others, 
 whose most grave sentiments on this subject we read every- 
 where, collected together by the industry and labour of learned 
 and pious men. 
 
 QUESTION XXIX. How often the Contrary Opinion has been 
 condemned in the Councils of the Church. 
 
 Another way remains, by which we may investigate the judg- 
 ment of the Church on matters of faith, namely, the condemna- 
 tion of the contrary doctrine and opinion. But it is a known 
 fact, that so diffused and disseminated throughout the Universal 
 Church at all times, and so unanimously received by all the faith- 
 ful, was the belief of the real presence of Christ's body in the 
 holy sacrament of the Eucharist, that when, [in the eleventh 
 century], five hundred years since, Berengarius dared to deny it, 
 asserting that therein was only a sign, he, having been promptly 
 condemned by the unanimous voice of the Council of Vercelli, 
 convoked by authority of Leo IX., anathematized his heresy. || 
 Subsequently returning to the same madness of impiety, he was 
 condemned by three other councils, one held at Tours, the other 
 two at Rome, of which latter two, one was convened by Nicholas 
 II., the other by Gregory VII., Supreme Pontiffs. That sentence 
 Innocent III. afterwards confirmed in the great Council of 
 Lateran ;^[ and subsequently the faith of the same truth was 
 more openly declared and established by the Synods of Florence** 
 and Trent. tt 
 
 If, then, pastors will diligently explain these matters (to say 
 nothing of those who, blinded by errors, hate nothing more than 
 the light of truth), they will be able both to strengthen the weak, 
 and afford the greatest joy and pleasure to the minds of the 
 pious ; especially as it is not permitted to the faithful to doubt, 
 but that amongst the other articles of faith is also comprised the 
 faith of this dogma. Believing and confessing, as they do, the 
 supreme power of God over all things, they must also believe 
 that to him was not wanting power to effect this stupendous 
 work, which we admire and adore in the sacrament of the 
 Eucharist. Again beli ying, as they do, the holy Catholic Church, 
 
 * De Eccl. Hier. c. 3. + De Trinit. lib. viii. JEp. ad Damasum 
 de filio prodigo. De Orth. Fid. c. 14. || Cone. Vercell. cap. Ego 
 Berengarius. II c. 1. ** De Sacram. c. iv. and can. 22. ft Sess. xiii.
 
 204 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 it necessarily follows that they at the same time believe that the 
 truth regarding this sacrament is such as we have explained. 
 
 QUESTION XXX. Plow great is the Dignity of the Church Militant 
 is shown from the Majesty of this Mystery. 
 
 But there is nothing truly that can be added to the delight 
 and fruit of the pious, when they contemplate the dignity of this 
 most sublime sacrament ; for, in the first place, they understand 
 how great must be the perfection of the Gospel Law, to which it 
 has been given to possess in reality that which, at the time of 
 the Mosaic Law, had been shadowed only by types and figures. 
 Wherefore it has been divinely said by St. Denis, that our Church 
 is a mean between the Synagogue and the heavenly Jerusalem, 
 and therefore participates of both.* And, indeed, the faithful 
 can never sufficiently admire the perfection of holy Church, and 
 the height of her glory, removed, as she seems to be, but by 
 one degree from heavenly bliss. For this is common to us with 
 the inhabitants of heaven, that both have Christ, God and man, 
 present ; but they, and in this alone are they raised a degree 
 above us, being present, enjoy the beatific vision, whilst we, with 
 a firm and unwavering faith, do homage to him present, and yet 
 removed from the sense of sight, concealed beneath the ad- 
 mirable veil of the sacred mysteries. Moreover, iu this sacra- 
 ment the faithful experience the most perfect charity of Christ 
 our Saviour, for it eminently became his goodness never to with- 
 draw from us the nature which he had assumed from us, but, as 
 much as possible, to wish to dwell and hold intercourse with us, 
 at all times verifying that saying : " My delights ' were ' to be 
 with the children of men " (Prov. viii. 31). 
 
 QUESTION XXXI. The Hones, Sinews, and all other things ap- 
 pertaining to the Perfection of Man, are here truly present 
 together with Divinity. 
 
 Here pastors must also explain, that in this sacrament are 
 contained not only the true body of Christ, and whatever apper- 
 tains to the true nature of a body, such as bones and nerves, but 
 also Christ whole and entire. But it is necessary to teach that 
 Christ is the name of God and man, that is, of one Person in 
 whom are united the divine and human natures. Wherefore, 
 he embraces both substances, and the accompaniments of both 
 substances, the divinity and the entire humanity, which latter 
 consists of the soul, and of all the parts of the body, and also of 
 the blood, all which we must believe to be in the sacrament ; 
 
 * De Eccl. Hierar. c. 3, p. 1.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 205 
 
 for, as in heaven the whole humanity is united to the divinity 
 iu one Person and Hypostasis, it is impiety to suppose that the 
 body, which is in the sacrament, is separated from the same 
 divinity. 
 
 QUESTION XXXII. The Blood, Soul, and Divinity are not in the 
 Eucharist in the same manner as is the Body of Christ. 
 
 Here, however, it is necessary that pastors observe, that in 
 this sacrament all are not contained after the same manner, nor 
 by the same virtue ; for there are some things which we say are 
 in the sacrament by the force and efficiency of consecration, for 
 as these words effect what they signify, theologians have said, 
 that whatever is expressed by the form of words, is in the sacra- 
 ment by virtue of the sacrament. Thus, if it happened that any- 
 thing were entirely separated from the rest, they have taught, 
 that in the sacrament would be contained that only which the 
 form would express, and not the rest. But some things are con- 
 tained in the sacrament, because united to those that are ex- 
 pressed by the form ; for as the form used in the consecration of 
 the bread signifies the body of the Lord, when it is said, " This 
 is my body," the body itself of Christ the Lord will be in the 
 Eucharist by virtue of the sacrament. But as to the body are 
 united the blood, soul, and divinity, all these too will be in the 
 sacrament, not indeed by virtue of the consecration, but as united 
 to the body. And these are said to be in the sacrament by 
 " concomitance," in which manner it is clear that in the sacra- 
 ment is contained Christ whole and entire ; for if any two things 
 are actually united, where one is, there also must the other be. 
 It therefore follows, that Christ, whole and entire, is so con- 
 tained as well under the species of bread, as of wine, that as, 
 under the species of bread, are truly present, not only the body, 
 but also the blood and Christ entire, so, on the other hand, under 
 the species of wine, are truly present, not only the blood, but also 
 the body and Christ entire. 
 
 QUESTION XXXIII. Why a Tivofold Consecration takes place 
 in the Eucharist. 
 
 But although that these things are so, ought to be to all the 
 faithful matter of certain and deepest conviction, yet with very 
 good reason has it been ordained, that two consecrations should 
 separately take place, first to represent more effectually the pas- 
 sion of our Lord, in which his blood was separated from his 
 body, wherefore, in the consecration, we mention the effusion of 
 his blood; and next, because, as the sacrament was to be used by 
 us to nurture the soul, it was most fitting that it should be rnsti-
 
 206 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 tuted as meat and drink, which evidently constitute the perfect 
 sustenance of the body. 
 
 QUESTION XXXIV. Christ, whole and entire, is present in each 
 Particle of either Species. 
 
 Nor is it to be omitted, that Christ, whole and entire, is con- 
 tained not only in either species, but also in each particle of 
 either species. For, as St. Augustine has left written : " Each 
 receives Christ the Lord, and he is entire in each portion ; nor 
 is he diminished by each severally, but gives himself entire in 
 each."* This is, also, an obvious inference from the Evan- 
 gelists; for it is not to be supposed that each portion of the bread 
 was consecrated by our Lord with a separate form of words, 
 but that all the bread sufficient to constitute the sacred mys- 
 teries, and to be distributed to the Apostles, was consecrated at 
 the same time, and with the same form. That such was the 
 case, also, in the consecration of the chalice, appears from these 
 words of the Saviour : " Take and divide it among you" (Luke, 
 xxii. 17). Our expositions hitherto have had for object to en- 
 able pastors to show, that in the sacrament of the Eucharist are 
 contained the true body and blood of Christ. 
 
 QUESTION XXXV. After Consecration, none of the Substance of 
 the Matter of this Sacrament remains. 
 
 They will now also teach, and it is the next subject which we 
 propose to ourselves, that after consecration the substance of the 
 bread and wine does not remain in the sacrament. This, although 
 it may well excite the most profound admiration, is yet a neces- 
 sary consequence from what has been already proved ; for if, 
 after consecration, the body of Christ is really and truly under the 
 species of bread and wine, not having been there before, it must 
 have become so by change of place, by creation, or by the change 
 of another thing into it. But that the body of Christ cannot be 
 in the sacrament by change of place is evident, as it would then 
 cease to be in heaven, for whatever is moved must necessarily 
 cease to occupy the place from which it is moved. Still less 
 can we suppose that the body of Christ is rendered present by 
 creation, an idea which cannot even be conceived in thought. 
 It remains, therefore, that the body of our Lord be in the sacra- 
 ment, because the bread is changed into it ; and, therefore, it 
 necessarily follows, that no substance of the bread remains. 
 
 * Miss. Ambr. in praef. Dom. v. post Epiph.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER TV. 207 
 
 QUESTION XXXVI. Transubstantiation, approved ly Councils, 
 has its foundation in the Scriptures. 
 
 Indnced by this reasoning, our Fathers and predecessors in 
 the faith, in the great Council of Lateran,* and in that of 
 Florence,t confirmed, by express decrees, the truth of this 
 article. By the Council of Trent, however, it was more 
 explicitly defined thus : " If any one shall say that, in the 
 holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread 
 and wine remains, together with the body and blood of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema."! The doctrine thus 
 defined, it was easy to infer from testimonies of Scripture, and, 
 first, from what our Lord himself said, when instituting this 
 sacrament : " This is my body ;" for the force of the word 
 " this " is to point out the entire substance of the thing pre- 
 sent ; but if the substance of the bread remained, the words 
 " ' this ' is my body," would appear to be by no means said 
 with truth. Again, Christ the Lord says in John : " The 
 bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world " 
 (John, vi. 52) ; thus calling his flesh bread. And he added a 
 little after: " Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and 
 drink his blood, you shall not have life in you " (John, vi. 54), 
 and again : " My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink 
 indeed" (John, vi. 56). When, therefore, in terms so clear and 
 perspicuous, he calls his flesh bread and true food, and his blood 
 true drink, he appears to have sufficiently declared that no sub- 
 stance of the bread and wine remains in the sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XXXVII. How the Fathers acknowledged 
 Transubstantiation in this Sacrament. 
 
 And that this has, also, been always the concurrent doctrine 
 of the holy Fathers, whoever turns over their pages will easily 
 perceive. St. Ambrose writes thus: "You, perhaps, say, 'Mine 
 is common bread:' before the words of consecration that bread 
 is, indeed, bread ; but after consecration, from bread it becomes 
 the flesh of Christ."|| The more easily to prove this, he after- 
 wards adduces a variety of examples and comparisons. But 
 in another place, when expounding those words: " Whatsoever 
 the Lord pleased, he hath done in heaven and on earth " 
 (Ps. cxxxiv. 6), he says: " Although the form of bread and 
 wiue is visible, yet are we to believe that, after consecration, 
 
 * Lateran Concil. c. 1. t Flor. in epist. Eugenii IV. data ad Arm. 
 et a Concilio approbata. J Sess. xiii. can. 2. Matt. xxvi. 26 ; 
 Mark, xiv. 22 ; Luke, xxi. 18 ; 1 Cor. xi. 24. || De Sacr. iv. 4.
 
 208 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 there is nothing but the flesh and Wood of Christ."* Explain- 
 ing the same doctrine, almost in the same words, St. Hilary 
 taught that, although, externally it appear bread and wine, yet, 
 in reality, it is the body and blood of the Lord."t 
 
 QUESTION XXXVIII. Why the Eucharist is also called Bread, 
 even after Consecration. 
 
 But here let pastors admonish, that we should not at all be 
 surprised if, after consecration, it is also called bread ; for the 
 Eucharist was wont to be called by this name, both because it 
 has the appearance of bread, and because it still retains the 
 quality, natural to bread, of supporting and nourishing the 
 body. That the usage of the sacred Scripture is to call things 
 by what they appear to be, is sufficiently shown from what is 
 recorded in Genesis, that Abraham saw " three men," who, 
 notwithstanding, were three angels (Gen. xviii. 2) ; and the two 
 who appeared to the Apostles, at the ascension of Christ the 
 Lord into heaven, although they were angels, are called " men."| 
 
 QUESTION XXXIX. How so admirable a Conversion of 
 Substances takes place. 
 
 The exposition of this mystery is altogether most difficult; 
 but pastors, however, will endeavour to explain the manner 
 of this admirable conversion to those who have made greater 
 progress in the knowledge of divine things ; for those who are 
 yet rather weak may, it were to be feared, be overwhelmed by 
 its greatness. This conversion, then, is such, that the whole 
 substance of the bread is changed, by the divine power, into 
 the whole substance of the body of Christ, and the whole sub- 
 stance of the wine, into the whole substance of the blood of 
 Christ, without any change in our Lord; for Christ is neither 
 generated, nor changed, nor increased, but remains entire in 
 his substance. Declaring this mystery, St. Ambrose says : 
 " You see how operative are the words of Christ. If, then, so 
 great is the efficacy of the words of the Lord Jesus, that things 
 should begin to exist that had no existence the world, for in- 
 stance how much more operative are they to continue in being 
 things that had existence, and change them into another ?" 
 Other ancient Fathers, of most grave authority, have left after 
 them a written record to the same effect. Thus, St. Augustine 
 says : " We faithfully confess that before consecration it is 
 bread and wine, the produce of nature ; but after consecra- 
 
 * De consec. dist. 2, c. omnia. f Hilar. de Trin. 1, 8, et de 
 consec. dist. 2, c. 28. Acts, i. 10. Vicl. D. Thorn, p. 3, ^q. 75, 
 
 art. 3 et 4. De Sacr. iv. 4.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 209 
 
 tion, the body and blood of Christ, which the blessing conse- 
 crated."* " The body," says Damascene, " is truly united to 
 the divinity, the body born of the holy Virgin ; not that the 
 body assumed descends itself from heaven, but that the bread 
 itself and wine are transmuted into the body and blood of 
 Christ."t 
 
 QUESTION XL. This stupendous Conversion is appropriately 
 
 called Transubstantiation. 
 
 This admirable conversion, then, as the sacred Council of 
 Trent has taught, is accurately and appropriately called by the 
 holy Catholic Church " Transubstantiation ;"J for, as natural 
 generation, because in it the form [of existence] is changed, 
 may properly and appropriately be called transformation; so, 
 in like manner, to express that, in the sacrament of the 
 Eucharist, the whole substance of one thing passes into the 
 whole substance of another, the word " Transubstantiation " 
 was rightly and wisely introduced by our predecessors in the 
 faith. 
 
 QUESTION XLI. The Manner of Transubstantiation, and of the 
 Place in which Christ is in this Sacrament, must not be too 
 curiously inquired into. 
 
 But, in accordance with the principle very often repeated by 
 the Fathers, the faithful are to be admonished not to inquire 
 too curiously into the manner in which that change may be 
 made, for it defies our powers of conception, nor have we any 
 example of it in natural changes, nor in the work of creation 
 itself. The change itself is to be learned by faith ; the manner 
 of that change is not to be made a subject of too curious 
 inquiry (Eccli. iii. 22). Pastors should, also, use no less caution in 
 explaining the mysterious manner in which the body of Christ the 
 Lord is contained whole under the least particle of the bread ; 
 for such disputations will scarcely ever have to be entered 
 upon. But, however, when Christian charity shall require it, 
 pastors will recollect previously to fortify the minds of the 
 faithful, by reminding them that " no word shall be impossible 
 with God" (Luke, i. 37). 
 
 QUESTION XLII. The Body of our Lord is not in the Eucharist 
 
 as in a place. 
 
 Let them next teach, that Christ the Lord is not in this 
 sacrament as in a place ; for place regards things themselves, 
 
 * De Consec. c. 41, dist. 2, can. Nos autem. f De orthod. fid- 
 lib, iv. c. 14. J Sess. xiii. c. 4; et can. 2, et de consec. distinct. 2> 
 
 c. pains. 
 
 O
 
 210 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 inasmuch as they possess some magnitude ; and we do not say 
 that Christ the Lord is in the sacrament inasmuch as he is 
 great or small, terms which belong to quantity, but inasmuch 
 as he is a substance. For the substance of the bread is changed 
 into the substance of Christ, not into his magnitude or quan- 
 tity. Now, no one doubts that substance is contained in a 
 small, as well as in a large, space ; for the substance of the air 
 and its entire nature must, of necessity, exist in a small, as well 
 as in a large, quantity of air, as must, also, the whole nature of 
 water, not less in a small pitcher than in a river. As, then, 
 to the substance of the bread succeeds the body of the Lord, 
 we must confess it to be in the sacrament after exactly the 
 same manner as was the substance of the bread before conse- 
 cration ; but whether that was present in great or small quan- 
 tity, was entirely a matter of indifference. 
 
 QUESTION XLIII. In this Sacrament there is no substance in 
 which the Accidents of Bread and Wine may inhere. 
 
 The third effect, namely, that the species of bread and wine 
 exist in this sacrament without a subject, remains an effect, 
 which, in this sacrament, must appear stupendous and admi- 
 rable, and which must be deemed more easy to be treated of by 
 pastors, after the explanation of the two others. For it having 
 been already proved that in the sacrament are truly the body 
 and blood of the Lord, so that no substance of the bread and 
 wine any longer subsists, and as the accidents cannot inhere in 
 the body and blood of Christ ; it remains that, in a manner 
 altogether above the order of nature, they sustain themselves, 
 supported by nothing else. This has been the uniform and 
 constant doctrine of the Catholic Church; and may also be easily 
 confirmed by the authority of those testimonies, by which it 
 was already made plain, that no substauce of the bread and 
 wine remains in the Eucharist. 
 
 QUESTION XLIV. Why Christ vouchsafed to give us his Body 
 and Blood under the form of bread and tvine. 
 
 But nothing becomes the piety of the faithful more than, 
 omitting the more subtle questions, to venerate and adore the 
 majesty of this admirable sacrament ; and next, to revere the 
 supreme providence of God in instituting the holy mysteries to 
 be administered under the form of bread and wine. For as to 
 eat human flesh or drink human blood is most revolting to 
 human nature, most wisely has he ordained the administration 
 of his most holy body and blood under the form of those things, 
 namely, of bread and wine, with which, as our daily and commou
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 211 
 
 food, we are especially delighted. Annexed are also those two 
 other advantages; one, that we are freed from the calumnies of 
 infidels, which we could not easily escape, if we were seen to 
 eat the Lord under his proper form ; the other is that, while we 
 receive the body and blood of the Lord, so that, however, his 
 reality is imperceptible to the senses, this avails very much to 
 increase faith in our souls, which, indeed, according to the well- 
 known observation of St. Gregory, " has no merit there where 
 reason gives proof."* But these matters which have hitherto 
 been expounded, are not to be explained to the people without 
 great caution, taking into consideration the capacity of the 
 hearers and the necessity of the times. 
 
 QUESTION XLV. What benefit they derive, who shall worthily 
 receive the Body and Mood of the Lord. 
 
 But with regard to the admirable virtue and fruits of this 
 sacrament, there is no class of the faithful to whom a knowledge 
 of these things does not belong, and to whom it should not 
 appear most necessary. For what is said at such length on this 
 sacrament, has principally for object to make the faithful sensible 
 of the advantages of the Eucharist. As, however, no language 
 can convey an adequate idea of its immense advantages and 
 fruits, one or two points must be treated by pastors, in order to 
 show what an abundance and profusion of all goods are con- 
 tained in those sacred mysteries. This they will in part ac- 
 complish, if, having made known the efficacy and nature of all 
 the sacraments, they compare the Eucharist to a fountain, the 
 others to rivulets; for it is truly and necessarily to be called the 
 fountain of all graces, containing, as it does, after an admirable 
 manner, the fountain itself of celestial gifts and graces, and the 
 author of all the sacraments, Christ the Lord, from whom, as 
 from its source, whatever of goodness and perfection the other 
 sacraments possess is derived. From this fountain of divine 
 grace therefore may be easily inferred the most ample gifts, 
 which are bestowed on us by this sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XL VI. The Eucharist brings the same benefits to the 
 Soul as bread and wine do to the Body. 
 
 It will also appear expedient, to consider attentively the 
 nature of bread and wine, which are the symbols of this sacra- 
 ment ; for all the advantages which bread and wine bring to the 
 body, the sacrament of the Eucharist affords to the health and 
 delight of the soul, but after a better and more perfect manner ; 
 for this sacrament is not, like bread and wine, changed into 
 
 * Horn. 26, in Evangelia.
 
 212 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 our substance ; but we are, in some sort, changed into its nature, 
 so that to this subject may with propriety be transferred that 
 of St. Augustine : " I am the food of the grown : grow, and 
 thou shalt eat me ; nor shalt thou change me into thee, as thy 
 corporal food, but thou shalt be changed into me."* 
 
 QUESTION XLYII. In what manner Grace is conferred by this 
 Sacrament. 
 
 If, then, " grace and truth came by Jesus Christ " (John, i. 
 17), they must also flow into the soul which receives with 
 purity and holiness him who said of himself : " He that eateth 
 my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him " 
 (John, vi. 57) ; for those who receive this sacrament with dis- 
 positions of piety and religion, must, beyond all doubt, receive 
 the Son of God into their souls, so as to be ingrafted, as living 
 members, on his body ; for it is written : " He that eateth me, 
 the same also shall live by me " (John, vi. 58) ; also : " The 
 bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world " 
 (John, vi. 52). Explaining which passage, Cyril says : " The 
 Word of God, uniting himself to his own flesh, made it vivify- 
 ing. It became, therefore, to be united to our bodies after a 
 certain wonderful manner, through his sacred flesh and precious 
 blood, which we receive in the bread and wine, consecrated by 
 his vivifying benediction."! 
 
 QUESTION XLVIII. A Man, defiled and dead in sins, is not 
 vivified by receiving the Eucharist, even though this Sacrament 
 is said to confer Grace. 
 
 When, then, it is said, that by the Eucharist is imparted 
 grace, pastors must admonish that this is not so to be under- 
 stood as that, really to receive this sacrament with advantage, 
 it is not necessary previously to have received grace; for, as 
 natural food is of no use to the dead, so, in like manner, the 
 sacred mysteries can evidently avail nothing the soul that lives 
 not by the Spirit ; and hence it is that they have the appear- 
 ance of bread and wine, to signify that they were instituted, 
 not to recall the soul to life, but to preserve it in life. But it 
 is said that grace is imparted by this sacrament, because even 
 the first grace, with which all should be endued before they 
 presume to touch with their lips the holy Eucharist, lest they 
 "eat and drink judgment to themselves" (1 Cor. xi. 29), is 
 given to none, unless they receive in wish and desire this very 
 
 * Conf. vii. 10. f Lib. 4, in Joan. c. 1, 14, et ep. 10, ad Nestor.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 213 
 
 sacrament ; for it is the end of all the sacraments, and the 
 symbol of ecclesiastical unity and brotherhood ; nor can any one 
 attain grace outside the Church. 
 
 QUESTION XLLK. How the Soul is refreshed and increased by 
 this Spiritual Food. 
 
 Again, as the body is not only supported but also increased 
 by natural food, and from it the taste derives every day new 
 relish and pleasure ; so also is the soul not only sustained but 
 invigorated by the food of the holy Eucharist, which gives to 
 the spirit an increasing zest for heavenly things ; and hence it 
 is that rightly and most truly is it said, that grace is imparted 
 by this sacrament, for justly may it be compared to manna, 
 " having in it the sweetness of every taste " (Wis. xvi. 20). 
 
 QUESTION L. By the Eucharist are remitted Venial Sins. 
 
 That by the Eucharist are remitted and pardoned lighter sins, 
 commonly called venial, should not be doubted ; for whatever 
 the soul has lost through the ardour of passion, by falling into 
 some slight offence, all this the Eucharist, cancelling those same 
 lesser faults, repairs, in the same manner (not to depart from 
 the illustration already adduced) that we feel that by natural 
 food is gradually restored and repaired the daily waste and loss 
 caused by the force of the vital heat within us. Justly, there- 
 fore, has it been said of this heavenly sacrament by St. Am- 
 brose : " That daily bread is taken as a remedy for daily infir- 
 mity."* But these things are to be understood of those sins, by 
 the sense and delectation of which the mind is not deeply 
 excited. 
 
 QUESTION LI. By this Sacrament the Soul is also preserved from 
 Future Evils. 
 
 In the holy mysteries is, moreover, such efficacy as to pre- 
 serve us pure and unhurt from sin and from the assault of 
 temptations, 1 ]' and prepare the soul, as it were, by a heavenly 
 medicine, against the easy approach and infection of virulent 
 and deadly disease. And hence, as St. Cyprian testifies, when 
 the faithful were formerly hurried in multitudes by tyrants to 
 torments and death, because they confessed the name of Christ, 
 it was an ancient usage in the Catholic Church, to give them, 
 by the hands of the bishop, the sacrament of the body and 
 blood of the Lord, lest, perhaps, overcome by the severity of 
 their sufferings, they should fail in the saving conflict.! It 
 
 * Lib. 4, de Sacram. c. 6, et 1. 5, c. 4. f Aug. tract. 26, in Joan. 
 + Lib. 1, Epist. 2, ad Cornel.
 
 214 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 also restrains and represses the lust of the flesh ; for whilst it 
 inflames souls more with the fire of charity, it of necessity ex- 
 tinguishes the ardour of concupiscence. 
 
 QUESTION LI I. How Access to Eternal Glory is opened by this 
 Sacrament. 
 
 Finally, to comprise all the advantages and blessings of this 
 sacrament in one word, it must be taught that the holy Eu- 
 charist is most efficacious towards the attainment of eternal 
 glory ; for it is written : " He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh 
 my blood, hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the 
 last day ;* that is to say, by the grace of this sacrament, the 
 faithful enjoy the greatest peace and tranquillity of conscience 
 during this life ; and, when the hour of departing life shall 
 have arrived, invigorated by its virtue, they, like Elias, who, 
 in the " strength of the hearthcake," walked to Horeb, the 
 mount of God (3 Kings, xix. 6, 8), ascend to eternal glory 
 and bliss. All these matters will be most amply expounded to 
 the faithful by pastors, if they either dilate on the sixth chapter 
 of St. John, in which are developed the manifold effects of this 
 sacrament ; or if, glancing at the admirable actions of Christ 
 the Lord, they show that if we justly and deservedly deem 
 those who have been most happy, who received him beneath 
 their roof during his mortal life (Luke. xix. 9), or were restored 
 to health by touching his virtue, or the hem of his garment 
 (Matt. ix. 20, xiv. 36), how much more fortunate and happy 
 are we, into whose soul, endued as he is with unfading glory, 
 he disdains not to enter, to heal all its wounds, to adorn it 
 with his choicest gifts, and unite it to himself ! 
 
 QUESTION LIII. The Different Manners of Communicating. 
 
 But that the faithful people may learn to " be zealous for 
 the better gifts" (1 Cor. xii. 31), [the pastor] must teach by 
 whom those abundant fruits of the holy Eucharist, which have 
 been just mentioned, can be obtained, and that there is more 
 than one way of communicating. Rightly and wisely, then, 
 have our predecessors in the faith, as we read in the Council of 
 of Trent,f distinguished three modes of receiving this s-acrament; 
 for some receive the sacrament only, as sinners, who dread not 
 to receive the sacred mysteries with polluted lips and hearts, 
 who, as the Apostle says, eat and drink the body of the Lord 
 
 * John, vi. 55. Vid. Chrys. de sacerdotio; D. Thorn, p. 3, q. 19, 
 art. 2. f Sess. xiii. c. 8.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 215 
 
 unworthily (1 Cor. xi. 29). Of these St. Augustine writes 
 thus : " He who dwells not in Christ, and in whom Christ 
 dwells not, undoubtedly eats not spiritually his flesh, although 
 carnally and visibly he press with his teeth the sacrament of 
 his flesh and blood."* Those, therefore, who receive the sacred 
 mysteries with such dispositions, not only obtain no fruit 
 therefrom, but, as the Apostle himself testifies, " eat and drink 
 judgment to themselves" (1 Cor. xi. 29). Others are said to 
 receive the Eucharist in spirit only : they are those who, in- 
 flamed with a lively "faith, which worketh by charity" (Gal. 
 v. 6), participate, in wish and desire, of that proposed celestial 
 bread, from which they receive, if not the entire, at least very 
 great fruits. Lastly, there are some who receive the holy 
 Eucharist sacramentally and spiritually ; those who, according 
 to the teaching of the Apostle, having first proved themselves 
 (1 Cor. xi. 28), and having approached this divine banquet 
 adorned with the nuptial garment (Matt. xxii. 11), derive from 
 the Eucharist those most abundant fruits, which we have already 
 mentioned. Wherefore it is clear, that those who, having it in 
 their power to receive also with due preparation the sacrament 
 of the body of the Lord, are yet satisfied with a spiritual com- 
 munion only, deprive themselves of the greatest heavenly 
 goods. 
 
 QUESTION LIV. It is shown that before any one approaches the 
 Eucharist he must prepare his soul. 
 
 But now it must be taught after what manner the minds of 
 the faithful should be prepared before they come to tlje sacra- 
 mental reception of the Eucharist. And first, to show clearly 
 the very great necessity of that preparation, to them must be 
 proposed the example of our Saviour. For before he gave to 
 his Apostles the sacrament of his precious body and blood, 
 although they were already " clean." he washed their feet (John, 
 xiii. 5, sq.), to declare that we ought to use all diligence to 
 bring with us to the participation of the holy mysteries the 
 greatest integrity and innocence of souL In the next place, 
 let the faithful understand, that as whoever receives the Eu- 
 charist with a very well disposed and prepared mind, is adorned 
 with the most ample gifts of heavenly grace, so, on the con- 
 trary, should he receive unprepared, he not only derives from it 
 no advantage, but the greatest disadvantages and detriments ; 
 for it is the property of the best and most salutary things, if 
 
 * De consec. disk 2, c. Quid est, and tract. 26 in Joan. ; also 
 lib. v. de Baptis. c. 8.
 
 216 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 we use them seasonably, to be of the greatest benefit, but if 
 unseasonably, to bring ruin and destruction. It is not, there- 
 fore, to be wondered at, that the greatest and most exalted 
 gifts of God, when received into a soul well disposed, are of the 
 utmost assistance to us towards the attainment of celestial 
 glory ; whilst, if we present ourselves in an unworthy state, 
 they bring eternal death. This is verified by the example of 
 the ark of the Lord. For the ark of the covenant, than which 
 the people of Israel possessed nothing more precious (Exod. 
 xxv. 10, sqq.), through which also the Lord had conferred on 
 them most important and innumerable blessings, when borne 
 away by the Philistines, brought on them a most destructive 
 plague, and the heaviest calamity, with eternal disgrace (1 
 Kings, v. per totum). So, also, food, when received into a 
 healthy stomach, nourishes and supports the body ; but the 
 same food, when received into a stomach full of peccant hu- 
 mours, generates malignant disease. 
 
 QUESTION LV. How the Mind should be prepared for the 
 Eucharist. 
 
 Let, then, the faithful employ that first preparation, which con- 
 sists in distinguishing table from table, this sacred table from 
 other profane tables (1 Cor. x. 21), this heavenly bread from 
 common bread. And this is done when we firmly believe that 
 the body and blood of the Lord is truly present, of him whom 
 the angels adore in heaven, at whose nod " the pillars of heaven 
 fear and tremble" (Job, xxvi. 11), of whose glory the heavens 
 and the earth are full (fs. vi. 3). This is to " discern the body 
 of the Lord," in accordance with the admonition of the Apostle 
 (1 Cor. ii. 29), venerating, however, as we ought, the greatness 
 of the mystery, rather than too curiously and disputatiously 
 investigating its truth. Another very necessary preparation is 
 that each one ask himself if he be at peace with, if he sincerely 
 and from the heart love, his neighbour; for Matthew says: 
 " Therefore, if thou offerest thy gift at the altar, and there 
 shall remember that thy brother hath anything against thee, 
 leave there thy gift before the altar, and first go to be recon- 
 ciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift " (Matt. 
 v. 24, 25). We should next diligently examine our conscience, 
 lest, perhaps, we be defiled by some deadly sin, of which it is 
 necessary to repent, in order previously to be cleansed from its 
 defilement, by the medicine of contrition and confession ; for it 
 has been defined by the Council of Trent, that for no one whom 
 the consciousness of mortal sin goads, and having an opportu- 
 nity of a confessor, however contrite he may deem himself, is it
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 217 
 
 lawful to receive the holy Eucharist, until he has purified him- 
 self by sacramental confession.* Besides, let us reflect in the 
 silence of our own hearts, how unworthy we are that the Lord 
 should bestow on us this divine gift. Wherefore, with the 
 centurion, of whom the Saviour himself testified, that he found 
 not " so great faith in Israel," we should say from the heart : 
 " Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my 
 roof" (Matfc. viii. 8, 10). Let us also ask ourselves, whether 
 we can say with Peter : " Lord, thou knowest that I love thee " 
 (John, xxi. 15) ; for we should recollect, that he who sat down 
 at the feast of the Lord " without a nuptial garment," was cast 
 into a darksome prison, and consigned to eternal torments 
 (Matt. xxii. 12, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION LVI. By him who wishes to communicate, some 
 attention should also be paid to the body. 
 
 Nor should our preparation be confined to the soul, but should 
 also extend to the body ; for we are to approach the holy table 
 fasting, not having at all eaten or drunk, at least from the pre- 
 ceding midnight up to the very moment in which we receive 
 the holy Eucharist. The dignity of so great a sacrament also 
 demands that, for some days previous to communion, married 
 persons abstain from the marriage-debt, admonished by the 
 example of David, who, when about to receive the loaves of 
 proposition from the hands of the priest, declared that he and 
 his servants had been clean from intercourse with their wives 
 for three days (1 Kings, xxi. 5). This is a summary of the 
 principal things to be observed by the faithful, in order pre- 
 viously to prepare themselves to receive the sacred mysteries 
 with advantage, for to these heads may easily be reduced all 
 other preparations. 
 
 QUESTION LV1I. All Christians are bound to communicate at 
 least once a year. 
 
 But lest possibly any may be rendered more negligent to 
 receive this sacrament, by the supposed labour and difficulty of 
 so great a preparation, the faithful are frequently to be admo- 
 nished, that to all is addressed the law that obliges to the 
 reception of the holy Eucharist ; and it has been, moreover, 
 declared by the Church, that whoever shall not have communi- 
 cated at least once a year, at Easter, subjects himself to excom- 
 munication. f 
 
 * Sess. xiii. ch. vii. et can. 11. t Concil. Lat. c. 28, alsol. 5, Decret. 
 tit. de Pcenit. et remis. cap. omnis utriusque sexus ; Trid. sess. 
 xiii. 9.
 
 218 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION LVIII. How offen, and af what times, the Eucharist 
 should be received. 
 
 Let not the faithful, however, deem it enough to receive the 
 body of the Lord once a year only, in obedience to the authority 
 of this decree; but let them judge that communion ought to 
 be more frequent, but whether it be more expedient that it 
 should be monthly, weekly, or daily, can be decided by no 
 fixed universal rule. St. Augustine, however, lays down a 
 most certain standard : " Live," says he, " in such a manner, as 
 to be able to receive daily."* Wherefore it will be the part of 
 the parish-priest frequently to .exhort the faithful that, as they 
 think it necessary every day to afford nourishment to the body, 
 they should also not neglect daily to feed and nourish the soul 
 with this sacrament ; for it is evident that the soul stands not 
 less in need of spiritual than the body of natural food. And 
 here it will be most beneficial to recapitulate the immense and 
 divine advantages which, as has been already shown, we derive 
 from the sacramental communion of the Eucharist. The figure 
 of the manna is also to be added, which it was necessary to use 
 every day, in order to repair the strength of the body (Exod. 
 xvi. 21, sq.) ; and also the authorities of the holy Fathers, 
 which earnestly recommend the frequent participation of this 
 sacrament ; for the words : " Thou sinnest daily; receive daily," 
 are not the sentiment of St. Augustine alone, but also, as any 
 one upon diligent inquiry will easily discover, the sentiment of 
 all the Fathers who wrote on this subject.f 
 
 QUESTION LIX. It is shown that frequent Communion has been of 
 old the practice of the Church. 
 
 That there once was a time when the faithful received the 
 Eucharist daily, we learn from the Acts of the Apostles ; for all 
 who then professed the Christian faith, burned with such true and 
 sincere charity, that devoting themselves, as they did unceasingly, 
 to prayer and other offices of piety (Acts, ii. 42, 46), they were 
 found prepared to receive every day the sacred mysteries of the 
 Lord's body. That practice, which seems to have been inter- 
 rupted, was again partially revived by Anacletus, most holy 
 
 * De verbis Dom. ser. 28, qni desumptus est ex Amb. L v. de 
 sacram. c. 4. f August, de verbis Dom. serin. 28 ; Ambr. 1. 5, de 
 sacram. c. 4; Aug. Epist. 118, c. 3; Ignat. ad Ephes. satis ante 
 finem ; Basil. Epist. ad Caesar, patr. ; Ambr. 1. 3, de sacr. c. 4 ; 
 Chrysost. horn. 61, ad pop. Antioch ; Cypr. de Orat. Dom. ad haec 
 verba, panem nostrum quot. ; Hieron. epist. ad Lucin. vers. finem ; 
 Cyril, c. 3, in Joau. c. 37 ; de consecr. dist. 2, per multa capita.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 219 
 
 Pope and martyr, who commanded that the ministers, assisting 
 at the sacrifice of the Mass, should communicate, an ordinance 
 which he declared to have been instituted by the Apostles.* It 
 was also for a long time a custom in the Church, that, as soon 
 as the sacrifice was ended, the priest, after he had taken the 
 holy Eucharist, turning to the congregation, invited the faithful 
 to the holy table iu these words: "Come, Brethren, to the Com- 
 munion ;" and those who were prepared, then received the holy 
 mysteries with the greatest devotion ;t but subsequently, when 
 charity and devotion had grown so cold, that the faithful very 
 rarely approached the communion, it was decreed by Pope Fa- 
 bian, that all should receive the Eucharist thrice every year, at 
 Christmas, at Easter, and at Pentecost, a decree which was 
 subsequently confirmed by many Councils, particularly by the 
 first of Agatha. I When at length things had come to such a 
 pass, that not only was that holy and salutary ordinance un- 
 observed, but communion was deferred even for several years, it 
 was decreed in the Council of Lateran, that all the faithful should 
 communicate at least once a year, at Easter, and that those who 
 might have neglected to do so, should be prohibited access to 
 the Church. 
 
 QUESTION LX. It is not fit to administer the Eucharist to 
 Children who are not yet come to the use of reason. 
 
 But although this law, sanctioned by the authority of God and 
 the Church, regards all the faithful, it must nevertheless be 
 taught, that those are excepted, who. by reason of their tender 
 age, have not yet attained the use of reason ; for they are in- 
 capable of discerning the holy Eucharist from profane and com- 
 mon bread, nor can they bring with them to its reception piety 
 of soul and religion. And that also appears quite inconsistent 
 with the ordinance of Christ the Lord, who says: "Take ye, and 
 eat " (Matt. xxvi. 26) ; for infants are evidently incapable of 
 taking and eating. In some places, it is true, an ancient prac- 
 tice prevailed of giving the holy Eucharist also to infants ;|| 
 but, however, as well for the reason already assigned, as for 
 others most consonant to Christian piety, this practice has been 
 long discontinued by authority of the same Church. 
 
 * De consec. dist. 2, c. 10. t Dionys. de Eccl. Hier. c. 3. parte 
 2; Hieron. Epist. 28, ad Lucin.; Greg. 1. 2, dialog, c. 23; 1. de Eccl. 
 dogmat. c. 53, et citatur. de consec. dist. 2, c. 13. J C. 38 ; Concil. 
 Lat. can. 1 ; et citatur de pcenit. et remiss, c. Omnis, et Trid. sess. xiiL 
 can. 9. Can. 1, Omnes utriusque sexus. || Cypr. de Lapsis post med.
 
 220 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION LXI. At what Age the holy Mysteries are to be given 
 to Children. 
 
 But at what age the sacred mysteries are to be given to children, 
 no one can better determine than the father and the confessor, 
 for to them it belongs to examine and to inquire from the chil- 
 dren whether they have acquired any knowledge of, and ex- 
 perience a relish for this admirable sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION LXII. It is sometimes allowed to admit the Insane to 
 Communion. 
 
 To persons, moreover, in a state of insanity, and at the same 
 time estranged from a sense of piety, the sacrament ought on 
 no account to be given. If, however, before they became 
 insane, they evinced a pious and religious disposition of mind, it 
 will be lawful, according to the decree of the Council of Car- 
 thage, to administer the Eucharist to them at the close of life, 
 provided there be no danger to be apprehended of discharging 
 the stomach, or of other indignity and inconvenience.* 
 
 QUESTION LXIII. The Laity are not to communicate under Both 
 Kinds. 
 
 As to the rite to be observed in communicating, let parish- 
 priests teach that it is forbidden by a law of holy Church that 
 any one but the priests consecrating the body of the Lord in 
 the sacrifice should receive the holy Eucharist under both kinds, 
 without the authority of the Church itself. Christ the Lord, it 
 is true, as has been explained by the Council of Trent, f insti- 
 tuted, and gave to his Apostles, at his last supper, this most 
 sublime sacrament under both kinds ; but that does not prove, 
 that our Lord and Saviour established this law, that the sacred 
 mysteries must be administered to all the faithful under both 
 species ; for, speaking of this sacrament, he himself frequently 
 mentions it under one kind only, as when he says: " If any man 
 eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I 
 will give is my flesh for the life of the world ;" and : " He that 
 eateth this bread shall live for ever" (John, vi. 58, 59). 
 
 QUESTION LXIV. Reasons why the Church has allowed the use 
 of One Species only. 
 
 But it is clear that the Church was induced by many, and 
 those too most cogent reasons, not only to approve, but also 
 to confirm by authority of a decree, this practice of communi- 
 cating under one species. For, in the first place, the greatest 
 
 * Cone. Carth. iv. 76. f Sess. xxi. cau. 1, 2, 3.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 221 
 
 caution was necessary to avoid spilling the blood of the Lord 
 on the ground, a thing that seemed not easy to be avoided, if 
 the chalice ought to be administered in a large assemblage of 
 the people. Besides, as the holy Eucharist ought to be in 
 readiness for the sick, it was very much to be apprehended, 
 were the species of wine long unconsumed, that it might turn 
 acid. Moreover, there are very many who cannot at all bear 
 the taste or even the smell of wine ; lest, therefore, what is in- 
 tended for the health of the soul, should prove noxious to that 
 of the body, most prudently has it been enacted by the Church, 
 that the faithful should receive the species of bread only. It is 
 further to be observed that, in several countries, they labour 
 under extreme scarcity of wine, nor can it be brought from else- 
 where without very heavy expenses, and very tedious and 
 difficult journeys. In the next place, a circumstance most of all 
 to the point, the heresy of those was to be uprooted, who denied 
 that Christ, whole and entire, is contained under either species, 
 and asserted that the body only without the blood is contained 
 under the species of bread, and the blood only under the species 
 of wine. In order, therefore, that the truth of the Catholic 
 faith might be placed more clearly before the eyes of all, com- 
 munion under one kind, that is, under that of bread, was most 
 wisely introduced. There are also other reasons, collected by 
 those who treat on this subject, which, if it shall appear neces- 
 sary, can be adduced by parish-priests. That nothing doctrinal 
 may be omitted on this sacrament, we must now speak of its 
 minister, a point, however, on which scarcely any one can be 
 ignorant. 
 
 QUESTION LXV. The, Priest alone is the Minister of the 
 Sacrament. 
 
 It must, then, be taught, that to priests alone has been given 
 power to consecrate, and distribute to the faithful, the holy 
 Eucharist. That in the Church has always been observed the 
 practice, that the faithful people should receive the sacrament 
 from the priests, and that the officiating priests should commu- 
 nicate themselves, the holy Council of Trent has explained,* 
 and has shown that this practice, as, having proceeded from 
 Apostolic tradition, is to be religiously retained, particularly as 
 Christ the Lord has left us an illustrious example thereof, who 
 both consecrated his own most sacred body, and gave it to the 
 Apostles with his own hands (Matt. xxvi. 26 ; Mark, xiv. 22). 
 But to consult in every way for the dignity of so great a sacra- 
 
 * Sess. xiii. c. 1(X
 
 222 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 ment, not only has the power of its administration been given 
 to priests alone, but the Church has also prohibited by a law 
 that any one but a consecrated person, provided some case of 
 grave necessity do not occur, should dare handle or touch the 
 sacred vessels, linens, or other instruments necessary to its 
 completion. 
 
 QUESTION LXVI. The Eucharist may be consecrated or 
 administered by Wicked Priests. 
 
 Whence both priests themselves and the rest of the faithful 
 may understand, with what piety and holiness they should be 
 endued, who approach to consecrate, administer, or receive the 
 Eucharist. What, however, was already said of the other sacra- 
 ments, that, provided what appertains to their perfect nature be 
 duly observed, they are notthe less administered by unholy hands, 
 the same holds good also with regard to the sacrament of the 
 Eucharist ; for we are to believe that all these depend not on 
 the merit of the minister, but are operated by the virtue and 
 power of Christ the Lord. These are the things to be expounded 
 regarding the Eucharist as a sacrament. We must now explain 
 the remaining point, its nature as a sacrifice, that parish -priests 
 may understand what are the principal instructions, which they 
 ought to deliver to the faithful people on Sundays and holidays, 
 regarding this mystery, in conformity with the decree of the 
 holy Council [of Trent].* 
 
 QUESTION LXVII. The Eucharist, the peculiar Sacrifice of 
 the New Testament, is most acceptable to God. 
 
 For this sacrament is not only a treasure of heavenly riches, 
 by which, if we turn it to good account, we conciliate to us the 
 grace and love of God ; but in it is also a certain paramount 
 means, by which we are enabled to make him some return for 
 the immense benefits bestowed on us. How grateful and ac- 
 ceptable to God is this Victim, if duly and legitimately im- 
 molated, is inferred from the consideration, that if the sacrifices 
 of the Old Law, of which it is written : " Sacrifice and oblations 
 thou didst not desire " (Ps. xxxix. 7), and again : " If thou 
 hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it : with 
 burnt-offering thou wiit not be delighted " (Ps. 1. 18), were so 
 pleasing to the Lord, that the Scripture testifies that from them 
 God " smelled a sweet savour " (Gen. viii. 21), that is to say, 
 they were grateful and acceptable to him, what have we not to 
 hope from that sacrifice, in which is immolated and offered He 
 himself, of whom a voice from heaven was twice heard [to pro- 
 
 * Sess. xxii. princip. c. 8.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 223 
 
 claim] " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased " 
 (Matt. iii. 17 ; xvii. 5). This mystery, therefore, parish-priests 
 will diligently explain, that when the faithful shall assemble at 
 divine service they may learn to meditate with attention and 
 devotion on those sacred things at which they are present. 
 
 QUESTION LXVIII. Reasons why the Eucharist was instituted 
 by Christ the Lord. 
 
 They will teach then, in the first place, that the Eucharist 
 was instituted by Christ for two purposes, one, that it might 
 be the celestial food of our soul, by which we may be able to 
 support and preserve spiritual life ; the other, that the Church 
 might have a perpetual sacrifice, by which our sins might be 
 expiated, and our heavenly Father, often grievously offended 
 by our crimes, might be turned away from wrath to mercy, from 
 the severity of just chastisement to clemency. Of this we may 
 observe a type and figure in the paschal lamb, which was wont 
 to be offered and eaten by the children of Israel as a sacrament 
 and a sacrifice (Deut. xvi.). Nor could our Saviour, when about 
 to offer himself to God the Father on the altar of the cross, 
 have given any more illustrious indication of his unbounded love 
 towards us, than when he bequeathed to us a visible sacrifice, 
 by which that bloody sacrifice, soon after to be offered once on 
 the cross, would be renewed, and its memory daily celebrated 
 with the greatest utility, to the consummation of ages, by the 
 Church diffused throughout the world. 
 
 QUESTION LXIX. Difference between the Sacrament and 
 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 But [between the Eucharist as a sacrament and a sacrifice] 
 the difference is very great ; for as a sacrament it is perfected 
 by consecration ; but as a sacrifice all its force consists in its 
 oblation. When therefore kept in a pyxis, or borne to the sick, 
 the holy Eucharist has the nature of a sacrament, not sacrifice. 
 Next, also, as a sacrament, it is to them that receive the divine 
 host, a source of merit, and brings with it all those advantages 
 which have been mentioned above ; but as a sacrifice, it is not 
 only a source of merit, but also of satisfaction ; for, as in his 
 passion, Christ the Lord merited and satisfied for us ; so those 
 who offer this sacrifice, by which they communicate with us, 
 merit the fruit of the Lord's passion, and satisfy. 
 
 QUESTION LXX. At what time this Sacrifice of the New 
 Testament was instituted. 
 
 Now with regard to the institution of this sacrifice, the holy 
 Council of Trent has left no room for doubt ; for it has declared
 
 224 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 that it was instituted by Christ the Lord at the last supper ; 
 and has at the same time condemned under anathema those who 
 would assert, that in it is not offered to God a true and proper 
 sacrifice ; or that " to offer " means nothing else, than that Christ 
 is given as our [spiritual] food.* 
 
 QUESTION LXXI. It is not lawful to offer Sacrifice to the Saints, 
 or to any Creature. 
 
 Nor did [the Council] omit carefully to explain, that this 
 sacrifice is offered to God alone.t For although the Church 
 sometimes offers Masses in commemoration and honour of the 
 Saints, she yet teaches that the sacrifice is offered, not to them, 
 but to God alone, who has crowned the Saints with immortal 
 glory. Wherefore the priest never says : " I offer sacrifice to 
 thee Peter, or to thee Paul ;" but, whilst he offers sacrifice to 
 God alone, he renders him thanks for the signal victory of the 
 blessed martyrs, and thus implores their patronage, " that they, 
 whose memory we celebrate on earth, may vouchsafe to inter- 
 cede for us in heaven."! 
 
 QUESTION LXXII. Whence this Doctrine of the Sacrifice and 
 Priesthood of the New Law is derived. 
 
 But this doctrine, handed down by the Catholic Church, con- 
 cerning the truth of this sacrifice, she received from the words 
 of the Lord, when, on that last night, committing to his Apostles 
 these same sacred mysteries, he said : " Do this for a commemo- 
 ration of me ;" for as has been defined by the holy Synod, he 
 then ordained them priests, and commanded that they and their 
 successors in the priestly office should immolate and offer his 
 body.| And this the words of the Apostle to the Corinthians 
 also sufficiently prove, when he says : " You cannot drink the 
 chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of devils : you cannot be 
 partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils " 
 (1 Cor. x. 21). For as, by the " table of devils," must be under- 
 stood the altar, on which sacrifice was offered to them ; so also, 
 that the conclusion proposed to himself by the Apostle may be 
 
 * Sess. xxii. c. 1, also can. 1, 2 ; Dionys. 1. 17, de Eccles. c. 3 ; 
 Ignat. epist. ad Smyrn. ; Tert. lib. de Orat. ; Iren. 1. 4, c. 32 ; Aug. 1. 
 10, de Civit. Dei, c. 10, 1. 17, c. 20, 1. 18, c. 35, 1. 10, c. 13, 1. 22, c. 8 ; 
 et alibi passim. f Trid. Synod, sess. xxi. c. 3. J Ordinary of the 
 Mass. Aug. contra Faust, lib. 20, c. 21. " Populus autem Christianus 
 memorias martyrum religiosa solemnitate concelebrat, et ad excitan- 
 dam imitationem, et lit meritis eorum consociettir, atque orationibus 
 adjtivetur." Luke, xxii. 19 ; 1 Cor. xi. 24. || Cone. Trid. 
 sess. xxii. c. 1.
 
 PAKT II. CHAPTER IV. 225 
 
 legitimately deduced, "the table of the Lord" can mean nothing 
 else than the altar, on which sacrifice was offered to the Lord. 
 
 QUESTION LXXIII. By what Figures and Prophecies this 
 Sacrifice was chiefly signified. 
 
 Should we require figures and prophecies of this sacrifice 
 from the Old Testament, in the first place, Malachy most clearly 
 prophesied thereof in these words : " From the rising of the sun, 
 even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, 
 and in every place there is a sacrifice, and there is offered to my 
 name a clean oblation ; for my name is great among the Gen- 
 tiles, saith the Lord of hosts" (Malach. i. 11). Moreover, this 
 Victim was foretold, as well before as after the promulgation of 
 the Law, by various kinds of sacrifices ; for this Victim alone, 
 as the perfection and completion of all, comprises all the bles- 
 sings which were signified by those sacrifices. In nothing, 
 however, can we behold a more express image thereof than in 
 the sacrifice of Melchisedech (Gen. xiv. 18); for the Saviour 
 himself offered to God the Father, at the last supper, his body 
 and blood, nnder the species of bread and wine, declaring him- 
 self constituted " a priest for ever according to the order of 
 Melchisedech."* 
 
 QUESTION LXXIV. The Sacrifice of the Mass is the same 
 
 with that offered on the Cross. 
 
 We, therefore, confess that the sacrifice of the Mass is and 
 ought to be considered one and the same as that of the cross, 
 as the Victim is one and the same, namely. Christ our Lord, 
 who immolated himself, once only,']' after a bloody manner, on 
 the altar of the cross. For the bloody and unbloody Victim 
 are not two victims, but one only, whose sacrifice is daily re- 
 newed in the Eucharist, in obedience to the command of the 
 Lord : " Do this for a commemoration of me."j 
 
 QUESTION LXXV. Of loth the Priest is also One. 
 But the priest also is one and the same, Christ the Lord ; for 
 the ministers who offer sacrifice, when they consecrate his body 
 and blood, act not in their own, but in the person of Christ, as 
 is shown by the words of consecration itself ; for the priest does 
 not say, " This is the body of Christ," but " This is my body;" 
 and thus representing Christ the Lord, he changes the sub- 
 stance of the bread and wine into the true substance of his body 
 and blood. 
 
 Heb. vii. 17 ; Ps. cix. 4. f Heb. vii. 27, ix. 25, 28. J Luke, 
 xxii. 19 ; 1 Cor. xi. 24. Chrys. horn. 2 in 2 ad Timoth. et horn, de 
 prod. Judae ; Arab. lib. 4, de Sacram. c. 4. 
 
 P
 
 226 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION LXXVI. The Mass a Sacrifice of Propitiation as well 
 as of Praise. 
 
 This being the case, it must be unhesitatingly taught that, as 
 the holy Council [of Trent] has also explained, the holy sacri- 
 fice of the Mass is not a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving 
 only, or a mere commemoration of the sacrifice accomplished on 
 the cross, but also a truly propitiatory sacrifice, by which God 
 is appeased and rendered propitious to us.* If, therefore, with a 
 pure heart, a lively faith, and impressed with an inward sorrow 
 for our transgressions, we immolate and offer this most holy 
 Victim, it is not to be doubted that we shall " obtain mercy" from 
 the Lord, " and grace in seasonable aid" (Heb. iv. 16) ; for so 
 delighted is the Lord with the odour of this Victim, that, im- 
 parting to us the gift of grace and repentance, he pardons our 
 sins. Hence, also, this usual prayer of the Church : " As often 
 as the commemoration of this Victim is celebrated, so often is 
 the work of our salvation being done," that is to say, through 
 this unbloody sacrifice flow to us those most plenteous fruits of 
 the bloody Victim. 
 
 QUESTION LXXVII. The Sacrifice of the Mass is also available 
 to the Dead. 
 
 Parish-priests will next teach, that such is the efficacy of 
 this sacrifice, that it is profitable not only to the celebrant and 
 communicant, but also to all the faithful, whether living with 
 us on earth, or already numbered with those who are dead in 
 the Lord, but whose sins have not yet been fully expiated ; for, 
 according to Apostolic tradition the most authentic, it is not 
 less available when offered for them, than when offered for the 
 sins of the living, their punishments, satisfactions, calamities, 
 and difficulties of every sort.t 
 
 QUESTION LXXVIII. No Mass, celebrated according to the 
 Common Usage of the Church, is to be called private. 
 
 It is hence easy to perceive, that all Masses, because conducive 
 to the common interests and salvation of all the faithful, are to 
 be considered common to all. 
 
 QUESTION LXXIX. To what the Ceremonies of this Sacrifice 
 pertain. 
 
 This sacrifice has many very august and solemn rites, none 
 of which is to be deemed superfluous or unmeaning; for all 
 
 * Sess. xxii. c. 2, et can. 3. t Cone, Trid, sess, xxii, c. 2, also can, 3.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 227 
 
 tend to display more fully the majesty of so great a sacrifice, 
 and to excite the faithful, when beholding the saving mysteries, 
 to the contemplation of the divine things which lie concealed 
 in that sacrifice. On these rites, however, it is unnecessary to 
 say more, as Avell because this subject seems to demand a more 
 lengthened exposition than is compatible with our purpose, as 
 because priests will have at hand an almost endless variety of 
 treatises and commentaries, written on this matter by pious 
 and very learned men. Suffice it, then, to have hitherto ex- 
 plained, with the divine assistance, the principal heads of those 
 things that regard the Eucharist, both as a sacrament and 
 sacrifice. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE. 
 
 QUESTION I. The Doctrine of Penance is to be accurately and 
 frequently inculcated on Christian Ears. 
 
 As the frailty and weakness of human nature are known to 
 all, and each one easily experiences it in himself, so no one can 
 be ignorant what great necessity there is for the sacrament of 
 penance. If, then, we ought to measure the diligence which 
 is to be bestowed. by parish-priests on each subject by the 
 magnitude and weight of the matter which they treat, we shall 
 fully acknowledge that, in the explanation of this subject, they 
 can never be sufficiently diligent. Moreover, the exposition of 
 this sacrament demands greater accuracy than that of baptism, 
 because baptism is administered but once, and cannot be 
 repeated, whereas penance may be administered, and becomes 
 necessary as often as any one may happen to sin after baptism; 
 for it has been declared by the Council of Trent, that " To 
 those who have fallen after baptism, the sacrament of penance 
 is as necessary for salvation, as baptism is to those who have 
 not been already regenerated ;"* and that well-known saying 
 of St. Jerome, that penance is " a second plank,"| is highly 
 commended by all subsequent writers on sacred subjects. For 
 as, after shipwreck, one only refuge for saving life remains, to 
 seize, perchance, if possible, on some plank from the wreck; 
 so, after the loss of baptismal innocence, unless a man cling to 
 the plank of penance, his salvation, without doubt, must be 
 
 * Sess. xiv. can. 2 ; item sess. vi. can. 14. f Hieron. ad haec 
 verba, Ruit Hierusalein, aiid ep. 84.
 
 228 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 despaired of. Let these things, then, be understood as said to 
 excite, not only pastors, but also the rest of the faithful, lest, 
 perhaps, their carelessness deserve reprehension in a matter of 
 the utmost necessity ; for, in the first place, mindful of the 
 common frailty, they ought most earnestly to desire to ad- 
 vance, with the divine assistance, in the way of God without 
 falling ; but should they occasionally stumble, then, looking 
 to the infinite benignity of God, who, as a good shepherd, is 
 wont to bind up the wounds of his sheep, and heal them, they 
 will consider that this most salutary medicine of penance is 
 never to be deferred to another time (Ezech. xxxiv. 16). 
 
 QUESTION II. How various is the Signification of the word 
 Penance. 
 
 But to enter upon the subject itself, the various significations 
 of the name of this sacrament are first to be explained, lest any 
 one should be led into error by the ambiguity of the word. 
 For, by penance some understand satisfaction ; others, very far 
 removed from the doctrine of the Catholic faith, supposiug 
 penance to have no reference to the past, define it to be nothing 
 more than a new life. It must, therefore, be taught that this 
 word [poenitentia] has a variety of meanings. In the first 
 place, it is used to express a change of mind, as when, without 
 taking into account the nature of the object, whether it be good 
 or bad, what before was pleasing is now become displeasing. 
 In this sense all are penitent, whose sorrow is according to the 
 world, not according to God; and this "penance" worketh 
 not " salvation but death " (2 Cor. vii. 10). There is another 
 penance, when one conceives sorrow for past delinquency, 
 which before pleased, sorrow not for sake of God, but for one's 
 own sake. A third is, when we not only grieve from the 
 inmost feelings of the heart for sin committed, or give, also, 
 some exterior indication thereof, but are in that grief for sake 
 of God alone. To each of these kinds of sorrow the word 
 [poenitentia] applies literally ; but when we read in the sacred 
 Scriptures that God repenteth,* the expression is evidently 
 figurative ; for the Scriptures, when they declare that God 
 ordained to change anything, make use of such language as 
 is accommodated to human ideas; because God seems not to 
 act differently from men, who, should they repent of anything, 
 use every exertion to alter it. Thus, therefore, it is written, 
 that " it repented him that he had made man " (Gen. vi. 6), 
 and in another place, that it repented him to "have made 
 Saul king" (1 Kings, xv. 2). 
 
 * Gen. vi. 6; 1 Kings, xv. 2 ; Ps. cv. 45 ; Jerem. xxvi. 3.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 229 
 
 QUESTION III. Difference between the Meanings of Penance. 
 
 But between these significations of the word [prenitentia] 
 we ought to observe a great difference ; for the first argues 
 imperfection; the second is a certain affection of an agitated 
 and disturbed mind ; the third, we say, is both a virtue and a 
 sacrament, which is its proper meaning in this place. And, 
 first, we must treat of penance as a part of virtue, not only 
 because the faithful people ought to be trained by pastors to 
 every kind of virtue, but also because the acts which proceed 
 from penance, as a virtue, constitute the matter, as it were, of 
 penance, as a sacrament ; and unless penance, as a virtue, be 
 first rightly understood, it is impossible not to be ignorant, also, 
 of its force as a sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION IV. What is Inward Penance. 
 
 The faithful, therefore, are first to be admonished and ex- 
 horted to labour most strenuously and studiously to attain this 
 inward penance of the heart, which we call a virtue, without 
 which exterior penance will avail them very little.* Inward 
 penance consists in turning ourselves to God from the heart, and 
 in detesting and holding in hatred our past transgressions, with, 
 at the same time, a firm and deliberate resolution of correcting 
 our evil course of life and corrupt morals, not without the 
 hope of obtaining pardon from the mercy of God. It is accom- 
 panied with grief and sadness, which latter is a perturbation 
 and affection, and is called by many a passion, joined, as it 
 were, as a companion, to detestation of sins. Wherefore, with 
 many of the holy Fathers, the definition of penance is comprised 
 in this anguish of mind. 
 
 QUESTION V. Faith is not a part of Penance. 
 
 But in him who repents, faith must necessarily precede 
 penance, for no one who wants faith can turn himself to 
 God; and hence faith cannot at all be said with propriety to 
 be a part of penance.f 
 
 QUESTION VI. Inward Penance of the Mind is to be considered 
 a Virtue. 
 
 But that this interior penance, as we have already said, 
 appertains to virtue, the many precepts delivered regarding it 
 
 * Vide Amb. in sermone de poen. et citatur de pcenit. dist. 3, cap. 
 poenitentia ; Aug. lib. de. vera et falsa pcen. c. 8, et habetur de poen. 
 3, c. 4 ; Greg. horn. 34 in Evang. et lib. 9 Regist. Epist. 39. t Cone. 
 Trid. seas. xiv. c. 3, can. 4.
 
 230 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 clearly show ; for a law enforces those actions only, the under- 
 taking of which implies virtue. Besides, no one can deny that 
 to grieve at a proper time, in a proper manner, and to a proper 
 extent, is an exercise of virtue. But this the virtue of penance 
 enables us duly to accomplish ; for it sometimes happens that 
 men conceive for their crimes a sorrow not proportioned to 
 their grievousness. Nay, " there are some," writes Solomon, 
 " who are glad when they have done evil " (Prov. ii. Id) ; 
 whilst others, on the contrary, surrender themselves to such 
 affliction of mind, and such morbid melancholy, as even utterly 
 to despair of snlvation. Such, perhaps, may appear Cain, who 
 said: " My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon" 
 (Gen. iv. 13) and such, certainly, was Judas, who, "repent- 
 ing," lost, by hanging himself, life and salvation (Matt, xxvii. 
 3, 5). By the virtue of penance, therefore, we are assisted to 
 observe a due mean in our sorrow. 
 
 QUESTION VII. How he who repents ought to be disposed. 
 
 The same may also be inferred from the ends which the 
 truly penitent proposes to himself. His first purpose is to 
 abolish sin, and wipe away every fault and stain of the soul ; 
 the second, is to satisfy God for the sins committed, and this 
 evidently is an act referable to justice. For, although between 
 God and man no strict relation of justice can subsist, so great 
 is the distance between them; yet there is evidently a sort of 
 justice, such as exists between father and children, between 
 masters and servants. The third is, that man reinstate himself 
 in the favour of God, whom he has offended, and whose hatred 
 he has incurred by the defilement of sin. Now, that penance 
 appertains to virtue, all these sufficiently declare. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. By what steps, as it were, one may ascend to 
 
 that Divine Virtue of Penance. 
 
 It must also be taught by what steps we may ascend to this 
 divine virtue. First, then, the mercy of God prevents us, and 
 turns our hearts to himself; for which, when the Prophet 
 prayed, he said : " Convert us, Lord, to thee, and we shall 
 be converted" (Jerem. Lam. v. 21). Next, illumined by this 
 light, we tend inwardly to God by faith : " He that cometh to 
 God," as the Apostle testifies, " must believe that he is, and is 
 a rewarder to them that seek him " (Eleb. xi. 6). Moreover, 
 a sense of fear follows, and the soul, contemplating the severe 
 chastisements that await sin, is recalled therefrom ; and to this 
 seem to refer the words of Isaias : " As a woman with child, 
 when she draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 231 
 
 crieth out in her pangs; so are we become" (Is. xxvi. 17). 
 To this is next added a hope of obtaining mercy from God, 
 lifted up by which, we resolve to amend our life and morals. 
 Lastly, our hearts are inflamed by charity, whence arises that 
 filial fear worthy of dutiful and ingenuous children ; and thus, 
 dreading only to offend in anything the majesty of God, we 
 entirely abandon the habit of sin. By these steps, then, as it 
 were, we arrive at this most exalted virtue of penance. 
 
 QUESTION IX. What is the Chief Fruit of the Virtue of 
 
 Penance. 
 
 This virtue is to be deemed altogether heavenly and divine, 
 to which the sacred Scriptures promise the kingdom of heaven ; 
 for in St. Matthew it is written : " Do penance, for the king- 
 dom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. iv. 17); and in Ezechiel : 
 " If the wicked do penance for all the sins which he hath com- 
 mitted, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment and 
 justice, living he shall live" (xviii. 21); and also in another 
 place : " I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the 
 wicked turn from his way and live" (xxxiii. 2); which is evi- 
 dently to be understood of an eternal and happy life. 
 
 QUESTION X. What is to be thought of External Penance, and 
 why Christ wished it to be placed in the number of the 
 Sacraments. 
 
 With regard to external penance, it must be taught that in 
 it consists the nature of the sacrament, and that it has certain 
 sensible things, significant of what passes interiorly in the 
 soul ; but why Christ the Lord was pleased to give penance a 
 place among the sacraments, seems first to be explained to the 
 faithful. Of this the great object was that we might have less 
 room to doubt of the pardon of sins, promised by God when he 
 said : " If the wicked do penance," &c. (as above). For the 
 mind should be in the greatest suspense as to the sincerity of 
 inward penance, since, in what he does, every man has reason 
 to fear his own judgment. To calm this our solicitude, the Lord, 
 therefore, instituted the sacrament of penance, in which we 
 might cherUh a well-founded confidence, that through the 
 absolution of the priest our sins are forgiven us ; and our con- 
 sciences, on account of the faith justly to be reposed in the 
 virtue of the sacraments, might be rendered more tranquil ; 
 for the voice of the priest, legitimately pardoning us our sins, is 
 to be heard as that of Christ the Lord, who said to the para- 
 lytic : " Son, be of good heart ; thy sins are forgiven thee."* 
 
 * Matt. ix. 2. Vid. Cone. Trid. sess. xiv. c. 1.
 
 232 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Moreover, as no one can attain salvation but through Christ 
 and the benefit of his passion, it was meet and of very great 
 advantage to us, that a sacrament should be instituted, by the 
 force and efficacy of which, the blood of Christ flowing to us 
 might wash away the sins committed after baptism, and that 
 we might thus acknowledge that to our Saviour alone are we 
 indebted for the blessing of reconciliation. 
 
 QUESTION XI. How Penance is a True Sacrament of the 
 New Law. 
 
 But that penance is a sacrament pastors will easily show, 
 thus : for as baptism is a sacrament because it effaces all sin, 
 particularly that contracted by origin, in like manner, penance, 
 which takes away all sins committed after baptism, in will or 
 deed, is truly and properly to be called a sacrament. Again, 
 and this is the chief point, since those things that are done 
 externally, both by the penitent and by the priest, declare what 
 is effected in the soul, who can deny that penance is endued 
 with the true and proper nature of a sacrament ? for a sacra- 
 ment is the sign of a sacred thing ; but the sinner unequivocally 
 signifies, by signs of words and actions, that he has withdrawn 
 his mind from the defilement of sin ; whilst in the words and 
 actions of the priest we easily recognize the mercy of God 
 remitting the sins themselves. This, however, these words of 
 the Saviour clearly indicate : " I will give to thee the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven ; whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, 
 shall be loosed also in heaven " (Matt. xvi. 19); for the absolu- 
 tion, pronounced in the words of the priest, declares by sign 
 that remission of sins which it accomplishes in the soul. 
 
 QUESTION XII. The Sacrament of Penance may be 
 repeated. 
 
 But the faithful are not only to be taught that penance is to 
 be numbered amongst the sacraments, but also amongst those 
 that may be repeated ; for to Peter, asking if sin were to be 
 forgiven seven times, the Lord answered : " I say not to thee till 
 seven times, but till seventy times seven" (Matt.xviii.'22). When- 
 ever, therefore, pastors have to do with such men as seem todiffide 
 in the supreme goodness and clemency of God, they must seek to 
 inspire their minds with confidence, and to excite them to the 
 hope of divine grace. This they will easily accomplish, both 
 by the exposition of the preceding passage, and of others, 
 which will occur in great numbers in the sacred Writings, and 
 also by those reasons and arguments, which may be had from
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 233 
 
 St. Chrysostom's " book on the fallen," and St. Ambrose's books 
 on penance.* 
 
 QUESTION XIII. The Matter of Penance what, and of what 
 kind. 
 
 And as nothing should be better known to the faithful people 
 than the matter of this sacrament, they must be taught that 
 penance differs from the other sacraments principally in this, 
 that the matter of the other sacraments is some production of 
 nature or art, but the matter, as it were, of the sacrament of 
 penance consists, as has been declared by the Council of Trent,t 
 of the acts of the penitent, namely, of contrition, confession, 
 and satisfaction ; which are called parts of penance, inasmuch 
 as they are required in the penitent by the institution of God, 
 for the integrity of the sacrament, and the full and perfect 
 remission of his sins. Nor are these acts called by the holy 
 Synod, " the matter as it were," because they have not the 
 nature of the true matter, but because they are not, like water 
 in baptism, and chrism in confirmation, matter of such sort as 
 may be applied externally. With regard to what has been said 
 by some, that the sins themselves are the matter of this sacra- 
 ment, if we attend carefully, it will be seen that it differs not 
 at all [from what has been just laid down]; for as we say that 
 wood which is consumed by the force of fire, is the matter of 
 fire; so sins which are destroyed by penance may also be pro- 
 perly called the matter of this sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. What is the Form of the Sacrament of 
 Penance. 
 
 Explanation of the form also is not to be omitted, because 
 the knowledge thereof may excite the minds of the faithful to 
 receive with the greatest devotion the grace of this sacrament. 
 Now the form is : "I ABSOLVE THEE," as not only may be 
 inferred from these w<fcds : " Whatsoever you shall bind upon 
 earth, shall be bound also in heaven" (Matt, xviii. 18) ; but as 
 we have also learned from the same doctrine of Christ our 
 Lord, handed down to us by the Apostles, and as the sacra- 
 ments signify what they accomplish, and the words, " I absolve 
 thee," show that the remission of sins is accomplished through 
 the administration of this sacrament, it is evident that they 
 constitute the perfect form of penance. For sins are, as it were, 
 the chains by which souls are held fettered, and from which 
 
 * Chrys. i. 5, lib. de laps, repar. et habetur de pcenit. dist. 3, c. 
 Talis ; Ambr. de pcenit lib. i. c. 1, 2. t Sess. xxiv. c. 3, et can. 4.
 
 234 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 they are " loosed " by the sacrament of penance. This the priest 
 pronounces with no less truth of him also, who, by virtue of a 
 most ardent contrition, accompanied, however, with a desire of 
 confession, has already obtained from God the pardon of his 
 sins. 
 
 QUESTION XV. With what Fruit other Prayers are added to 
 the Form of the Sacrament. 
 
 Several prayers are moreover added, not indeed as necessary 
 to the form, but in order that those things may be removed, 
 which, through the fault of him to whom it is administered, 
 may impede the force and efficacy of the sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XVI. How different is the Power of the Priests of 
 Christ in judging of the Leprosy of Sin from the Power 
 of the Priests of the Old Law. 
 
 Wherefore, let sinners give the greatest thanks to God, who 
 has conferred such ample power on priests in the Church. 
 Unlike the priests of the Old Law, who merely declared the 
 leper cleansed from his leprosy (Levit. xiii. 9, xiv. 2), the 
 priests in the Church are invested with power, not simply to 
 declare a person to be absolved from his sins, but, as the ministers 
 of God, they really absolve; and this God himself, the Author 
 and Father of grace and justification, effects. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. In what Manner, or by what JRites, Penitents 
 ought to recommend their Act. 
 
 The faithful will also diligently observe the rites used in the 
 administration of this sacrament ; for so it will come to pass, 
 that they retain a deeper impression of the blessings, which 
 they have acquired by means of this sacrament, namely, that 
 as servants they have been reconciled to their most clement 
 Lord, or rather, as children, to the best of Fathers ; and they 
 will, at the same time, more easily undefctand the duty incum- 
 bent on those, who desire (and all should desire) to evince their 
 grateful remembrance of so great a benefit. For he that 
 repents him of his sins, casts himself down with a lowly and 
 humbled spirit at the feet of the priest, that in this his so 
 humble demeanour he may easily recognize the necessity of 
 extirpating pride, from which all those enormities which he 
 deplores had their origin and have sprung. In the priest, who 
 sits as his legitimate judge, he venerates the person and power of 
 Christ the Lord ; for in the administration of the sacrament of 
 penance, as in that of the others, the priest discharges the 
 function of Christ. The penitent next proceeds to the enuine-
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 235 
 
 ration of his sins, acknowledging himself deserving of the 
 severest and bitterest chastisements, and suppliantly implores 
 the pardon of his offences. To the antiquity of all these rites 
 St. Denis bears, indeed, the most authentic testimony.* 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. What Advantages chiefly Men derive from 
 the Sacrament of Penance. 
 
 To the faithful, however, nothing will prove more advan- 
 tageous, and nothing will bring them greater alacrity to receive 
 the sacrament of penance, than if parish-priests frequently 
 explain what great advantages we may derive therefrom. 
 They will then understand that of penance it may be truly 
 said, that its root is bitter, but its fruits very sweet. In this, 
 then, consists all the efficacy of penance, that it restores ns to 
 the favour of God, and unites us to him in the closest friend- 
 ship.! This reconciliation with God is sometimes followed, in 
 pious persons, who receive this sacrament holily and devoutly, 
 by the greatest peace and tranquillity of conscience, accom- 
 panied with the highest spiritual delight; for there is no crime, 
 however grievous and enormous, which is not effaced by the 
 sacrament of penance; not, indeed, once only, but often and 
 repeatedly. Of this the Lord thus speaks by his Prophet: " If 
 the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, 
 and keep all my commandments, and do judgment and justice, 
 living he shall live, and not die ; and I will not remember all 
 his iniquities which he hath done" (Ezech. xviii. 21, 22). And 
 St. John : "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
 forgive us our sins " (1 John, i. 9) ; and a little after he says : 
 " If any man sin " (and he excepts no sort of sin), " we have 
 an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the just ; and he is 
 the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for 
 those of the whole world" (1 John, ii. 1, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XIX. In what sense it is said that certain Sins 
 cannot be remitted. 
 
 If, therefore, we read in the Scriptures that some obtained 
 not mercy from God, although they earnestly implored it, that 
 we understand to have taken place because they repented not 
 of their crimes truly and from the heart (2 Mac. ix. 3). 
 "Whenever, therefore, in the sacred Scriptures, or in the holy 
 Fathers, passages occur which seem to say, that some sins 
 cannot be remitted, we must interpret such passages to mean, 
 that it is extremely difficult to obtain the pardon of them ; for 
 
 * In epist. ad Demoph. t Cone. Trid. sess. xiv. c. 3.
 
 236 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 as a disease is said to be incurable, when the patient is so dis- 
 posed as to loathe the medicine that would accomplish his cure ; 
 so is there a certain kind of sin that is not remitted or pardoned, 
 because it repels the grace of God, the proper remedy of sal- 
 vation. To this effect it has been said by St. Augustine : 
 " When, after a knowledge of God, through the grace of Christ, 
 any one opposes fraternity, and burns with the torches of enmity, 
 in opposition to grace itself, so deep is the stain of his sin, 
 that, although his bad conscience is compelled to acknowledge 
 and declare its guilt, he cannot submit to the humiliation of 
 imploring pardon."* 
 
 QUESTION XX. Without Penance no one can obtain pardon 
 of his Sins. 
 
 But to return to penance, to it in so special a manner belongs 
 the efficacy of cancelling sins, that without penance we cannot 
 by any means obtain or even hope for remission of sins ; for it 
 is written: "Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise 
 perish" (Luke, xiii. 3). This was said by our Lord of grievous 
 and mortal sins, although the lighter sins, which are called 
 venial, also require some kind of penance : " If," says St. 
 Augustine, " without penance, venial sins could be remitted, 
 the daily penance performed for them by the Church would be 
 to no purpose.f 
 
 QUESTION XXI. How many are the Integral Parts of 
 Penance. 
 
 But as, on those matters which in any degree affect practice, 
 it is not enough to speak in general terms, pastors will take 
 care to expound severally those things, from which the nature 
 of true and salutary penance may be understood by the faithful. 
 To this sacrament, then, it is peculiar that, besides matter and 
 form, which are common to all the sacraments, it has also, as 
 we said before, those parts which constitute as it were penance 
 whole and entire, namely, contrition, confession, and satis- 
 faction ; of which St. Chrysostom speaks thus : " Penance com- 
 pels the sinner willingly to undergo all things : in his heart is 
 contrition ; on his lips confession ; and in his deed all humility, 
 or a fruitful satisfaction. "J These parts [of penance] are said 
 
 * Serm. ii. de verbis Domini, et ep. 50, ad Bonif. f Aug. lib. 
 
 50, horn. 50, item epist. 168, ad Ench. cap. 71. J Horn. 2, de pcenit. 
 Vid. cone. Trid. xiv. de pcenit. cap. 3, et can. 4 ; item cone. Flor. in 
 doctrin. de Sacram.
 
 PAKT II. CHAPTER V. 237 
 
 to be of that kind which are necessary to constitute a whole, for 
 as the human form consists of several members, of hands, feet, 
 eyes, and other such parts, of which, if any be wanting, the body 
 is justly deemed imperfect, and if not wanting, perfect ; so also, 
 in like manner, penance is so constituted of these three parts, 
 that, although, as regards its nature, contrition and confession 
 are sufficient for a man's justification, yet, unless accompanied 
 by the third part, which is satisfaction, something is necessarily 
 wanting to its absolute perfection. Wherefore, so connected 
 are those parts one with another, that contrition includes in 
 itself the design and purpose of confession and satisfaction, 
 contrition and a desire of satisfaction precede confession, and the 
 other two precede satisfaction. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. How these Three Parts of Penance are 
 inferred. 
 
 Why there are these three parts of penance may be explained 
 on the principle, that sins are committed against God by thought, 
 word, and deed ; and it was proper, therefore, that submitting 
 ourselves to the keys of the Church, we should endeavour to ap- 
 pease his wrath, and obtain from him the pardon of our sins, by 
 the very same things by which the most holy majesty of God 
 was profaned by us. In further confirmation we may add, that 
 penance is, as it were, a certain compensation for offences com- 
 mitted, proceeding from the will of the person who has offended, 
 and appointed by the will of God, against whom the offence has 
 been committed. A willingness to compensate is, therefore, re- 
 quired, in which willingness contrition chiefly consists : the 
 penitent must also submit himself to the judgment of the priest, 
 who is the vicegerent of God, to enable him to award him a 
 punishment proportioned to his guilt; and hence are clearly per- 
 ceived the nature and necessity both of confession and satisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. In this Matter what is properly Contrition. 
 
 But as [pastors] ought to expound to the faithful the force 
 and nature of these parts, we must first begin with contrition, 
 which is to be carefully explained; for at no point of time, when 
 past transgressions recur to memory, or we offend anew, should 
 the heart be void of contrition. By the Fathers of the Council 
 of Trent, it is thus defined : " Contrition is a sorrow of mind, 
 and a detestation for sin committed, with the purpose of sinning 
 no more."* Speaking of the motion of contrition, the Council 
 
 * Sess. xiv. c. 4.
 
 238 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 a little after adds : " It thus at length prepares for the remission 
 of sins, if it is united with confidence in the divine mercy, and 
 with the desire of performing the other things which are required 
 for rightly receiving this sacrament." From this definition, there- 
 fore, the faithful will understand, that the force of contrition does 
 not consist merely in one's ceasing to sin, or purposing to enter, 
 or actually entering on a new sort of life, but that first of all the 
 sinner must conceive a hatred of, and endeavour to expiate his 
 past ill-spent life. This, those cries of the holy Fathers, which 
 the Scriptures inform us were frequently poured out by them, 
 most strongly confirm : " I have laboured in my groaning," says 
 David; "every night I will wash my bed;" and: " The Lord hath 
 heard the voice of my weeping" (Ps. vi. 7, sq.); and again Isaias: 
 " I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul " 
 (Is. xxxviii. 15). These, and other effusions of the same im- 
 port, are, no doubt, the expression of a vehement hatred of past 
 life, and detestation of sins. 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. Why Contrition lias been named Sorrow by 
 the Fathers of the Council. 
 
 But although contrition is defined " a sorrow," the faithful are 
 to be admonished not to think that this sorrow consists in sen- 
 sible feeling, for contrition is an action of the will ; and St. 
 Augustine bears witness, that sorrow is not penance, but an 
 accompaniment of penance.* But by the word " sorrow," the 
 Fathers [of Trent] meant a hatred and detestation of sin ; both 
 because, in this sense, the sacred Scriptures make use of the word, 
 for David says : " How long shall I take counsels in my soul, sor- 
 row in my heart all the day ?" (Ps. xii. 2,) and also, because 
 from contrition itself arises sorrow in the inferior part of the 
 soul, which is the seat of concupiscence ; so that with propriety 
 has contrition been defined " a sorrow," because it produces sor- 
 row, to express which, penitents used also to change their gar- 
 ments, a circumstance to which our Lord alludes in St. Matthew: 
 " Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida ; for if in Tyre 
 and Sidon the mighty works had been wrought that have been 
 done in you, they would long ago have done penance in sack- 
 cloth and ashes" (Matt. xi. 21). 
 
 QUESTION XXV. Why Contrition is commonly called by 
 
 Theologians a Detestation of Sin. 
 
 In order to signify the force of the sorrow, with propriety 
 has the name of contrition been given to the " detestation of 
 
 * Homil. 50.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 239 
 
 sin," of which we speak, borrowing a metaphor from material 
 things, which are broken into minute parts with a stone or 
 other harder substance, that by that term it might be declared 
 that our hearts, which had grown hard with pride, are stricken 
 down and reduced by the efficacy of penance. Hence no other 
 sorrow, conceived even for the death of parents or children, or 
 for any other calamity, is called by this name ; but the word 
 is employed exclusively to express that sorrow, with which we 
 are affected by the forfeiture of the grace of God and of in- 
 nocence. 
 
 QUESTION XXVI. By wJiat other Names the same Detestation 
 of Sin is wont to be called. 
 
 But the same thing is wont to be designated by other names 
 also ; for it is called " contrition of heart," because the sacred 
 Scriptures often use the word " heart " for the will ; for, as from 
 the heart is derived the principle which produces the motions 
 of the human system, so the will rules and governs all the 
 other powers of the soul. By the holy Fathers it is also called 
 " compunction of heart ;" and hence, the works written by them 
 on contrition they preferred inscribing, " Treatises on compunc- 
 tion of heart ;"* for as imposthumes are cut with an instrument, 
 to enable the shut-up virus to escape, so is the heart cut with 
 the knife, as it were, of contrition, to enable it to eject the 
 deadly virus of sin ; wherefore contrition is called by the Pro- 
 phet Joel a rending of the heart : " Be converted to me," says 
 he, " with all your hearts, in fasting, and in weeping, and in 
 mourning; and rend your hearts " (Joel, ii. 12). 
 
 QUESTION XXVII. Why the Sorrow for Sins, comprised in the 
 word Contrition, ought to be the greatest and most vehement. 
 
 That for past transgressions should be felt the deepest and 
 greatest sorrow, a sorrow not to be exceeded even in thought, 
 it will be easy to show by the following considerations. For 
 as perfect contrition is an operation of charity, proceeding from 
 filial fear, it is clear that the measure of contrition and of 
 charity should be deemed the same. But as the charity with 
 which we love God (1 John, iv. 7) is the most perfect love, 
 hence it is that the sorrow that accompanies contrition should 
 also be the most vehement ; for, as God is to be loved above 
 all things, so whatever alienates us from God, we ought to 
 detest above all things. Here it is also to be observed, that to 
 charity and contrition is assigned in sacred Scripture the same 
 
 * Chrysost. de compunct. cord.
 
 240 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 extent: of charity it is said: " Tbou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with thy whole heart " (Deut. vi. 5) ; again, of contrition 
 the Lord cries out by his Prophet : " Be converted with all your 
 heart" (Joel, ii. 12). Besides, if, as of all things that deserve 
 our love, God is the supreme good, so also of all things that 
 deserve our hatred, sin is the supreme evil, it follows that for 
 the same reason that we confess God is to be supremely loved, 
 we should also necessarily hold sin in supreme detestation. But 
 that the love of God is to be preferred to all things, so that, 
 even to save our lives, it is not lawful to sin, these words of the 
 Lord clearly teach us : " He that loveth father or mother more 
 than me, is not worthy of me " (Matt. x. 37) ; and " Whoso- 
 ever will save his life shall lose it " (Matt. xvi. 25 ; Mark. viii. 
 35). It is also to be remarked, that as, according to the testi- 
 mony of St. Bernard, charity recognizes no limit or measure, 
 or, to use his own words, as " the measure of loving God is to 
 love him without measure ;"* so the hatred of sin is to be 
 defined without limit. Besides, let our contrition be not only 
 very great, but also very vehement, and thus perfect ; and let 
 it exclude all apathy and indifference ; for it is written in 
 Deuteronomy : " When thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou 
 shalt find him ; yet so if thou seek him with all thy heart, and 
 all the affliction of thy soul" (Deut. iv. 29) ; and in Jeremias : 
 " You shall seek me and shall find me, when you shall seek me 
 with all your heart; and I will be found by you, saith the Lord' 
 (Jer. xxix. 13, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XXVIII. Contrition ceases not to be true, although 
 
 Sensible Sorrow for Sins be not absolute. 
 If, however, we may not succeed in rendering it thus perfect, 
 our contrition, nevertheless, may be true and efficacious ; for it 
 often happens that things that fall under the senses affect us 
 more than spiritual things ; and hence some persons sometimes 
 experience a greater sense of grief for the loss of their children 
 than for the baseness of their sins. The same judgment is also 
 to be formed, should the bitterness of our grief be unaccompanied 
 with tears, which, however, in penance, are very much to be 
 desired and commended; for on this matter St. Augustine has 
 admirably observed: " The bowels of Christian charity are not 
 within thee, if thou bewailest the body, from which the soul has 
 departed."! And to this have reference the words of the Re- 
 deemer above cited : " Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Beth- 
 saida; for if in Tyre and Sidon the mighty works had been 
 
 * Lib. de diligendo Deo circa med. t Serm. 41, de sanctis.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 241 
 
 done that have been done in thee, they would long ago have 
 done penance, in sackcloth and ashes" (Matt. xi. 21). To 
 establish this, however, the very well-kno\vn examples of the 
 Ninivites (Jonas, iii. 6), of David (Ps. vi. and 1.), of the woman 
 who was a sinner (Luke, vii. 37, 48, 51), and of the Prince of 
 the Apostles (Luke, xxii. 62), ought to suffice, all of whom ob- 
 tained the pardon of their sins, imploring the mercy of God with 
 abundance of tears. 
 
 QUESTION XXIX. In Contrition, Capital Sins are to be detested 
 
 individually. 
 
 But the faithful are most particularly to be exhorted and 
 admonished, to study to apply the true grief of contrition spe- 
 cially to each mortal sin ; for this is the description that Isaias 
 gives of contrition, when he says: " I will recount to thee all 
 my years in the bitterness of my soul " (Is. xxxviii. 15), for to 
 recount all our years is to examine our sius individually, in order 
 to be heartily sorry for them. In Ezechiel, too, we read: " If 
 the wicked do penance for all his sins, he shall live" (Ezech. 
 xviii. 21) ; and to this purport St. Augustiue says : " Let the 
 sinner consider the quality of his crime, as to time, place, 
 variety, person."* 
 
 QUESTION XXX. It is efficient sometimes to detest one's Sins 
 
 collectively. 
 
 In this matter, however, let not the faithful despair of the 
 supreme goodness and clemency of God ; for he, being most 
 desirous of our salvation, interposes no delay to granting us 
 pardon, but embraces with paternal love the sinner, the moment 
 he enters into himself and turns himself to the Lord, having 
 detested his sins generally, which he intends afterwards, if 
 opportunity shall offer, to recall severally to his recollection, and 
 to abhor in his soul. For he commands us, by the mouth of his 
 Prophet, thus to hope, when he says : " The wickedness of the 
 wicked shall not hurt him, in what day soever he shall turn from 
 his wickedness" (Ezech. xxxiii. 12). 
 
 QUESTION XXXI. What things are especially requisite for True 
 
 Contrition. 
 
 From what has been said, then, may be gathered those 
 things that are most necessary to true contrition, on which 
 the faithful people ought to be accurately instructed ; that 
 each may know how he may attain it, and may have a rule 
 whereby he may determine how far he may be removed from 
 the perfection of this virtue. For, in the 6rst place, it is 
 
 * Lib. de vera et falsa relig. cap. 14.
 
 242 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 necessary that we detest and deplore all our past sins, lest, if 
 our sorrow extend only to some, our repentance be fictitious 
 and pretended, not salutary ; for, as has been said by the 
 Apostle St. James : " Whosoever shall keep the whole law, 
 but offend in one point, is become guilty of all" (James, ii. 10). 
 Another matter is, that contrition itself be accompanied with a 
 desire of confession and satisfaction, of which we shall after- 
 wards treat in their proper place. A third is, that the penitent 
 form a fixed and firm purpose of amendment of life, according 
 to these express words of the Prophet: "If the wicked do penance 
 for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my 
 commandments, and do judgment and justice, living he shall 
 live, and shall not die : I will not remember all his iniquities 
 which he hath done ;" and a little after : " When the wicked 
 turneth himself away from his wickedness, which he hath 
 wrought, and doeth judgment and justice, he shall save his soul 
 alive" (Ezecb. xviii. 27) ; and a little after: "Be converted and 
 do penance for all your iniquities, and iniquity shall not be your 
 ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which 
 you have transgressed, and make yourselves a new heart and a 
 new spirit " (Ezech. xviii. 21, 22, 27, 30, 31). To the woman 
 who was caught in adultery, Christ the Lord also gave the same 
 instruction: " Go," says he, " and now sin no more " (John viii. 
 2) ; and also to the paralytic, whom he had cured at the pool of 
 Bethsaida : " Behold," says he, " thou art made whole ; sin no 
 more" (John, v. 14). 
 
 QUESTION XXXII. It is shown that Sorrow for Past Sin, and 
 a purpose of avoiding it for the future, is necessary to Con- 
 trition. 
 
 But that these two things, namely, sorrow for past sin, and 
 a purpose and caution to avoid in future the commission of any- 
 thing of the sort, are of primary necessity to contrition, nature 
 itself and reason also plainly show ; for he who would be recon- 
 ciled to a friend whom he had injured, ought both to regret to 
 have injured or offended him, and take good care for the future 
 not to appear to wound friendship in anything. These two 
 dispositions must be accompanied by obedience ; for the law to 
 which man is subject, be it natural and divine, or human, it is 
 proper he should obey. Wherefore, if the penitent has taken 
 anything from another by force or fraud, he ought to make res- 
 titution ; and ought likewise to satisfy, by the compensation of 
 some profit or good office, him whose honour or livelihood he 
 has injured by word or deed, according to the trite maxim of
 
 TART II. CHAPTER V. 243 
 
 St. Augustine : " The siu is not forgiven, unless what was taken 
 away be restored."* 
 
 QUESTION XXXIII. We must be Indulgent to others, if we 
 wish for Indulgence to ourselves. 
 
 Nor, amongst the other things which chiefly appertain to con- 
 trition, must we take less diligent and necessary care, that 
 ^ hatever injuries we may have received from others, be entirely 
 remitted and pardoned ; for. thus does our Lord and Saviour 
 admonish and denounce : " If you forgive men their offences, 
 your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offences ; but if 
 you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you 
 your sins " (Matt. vi. 14). These are the things to be 
 observed by the faithful in contrition. The other things, which 
 can easily be collected by pastors on this subject, will, indeed, 
 serve to render contrition more perfect and complete in its 
 kind, but are not to be deemed of such necessity, as that 
 without them the nature of true and salutary penance cannot 
 exist. 
 
 QUESTION XXXIV. What is the proper Force and Utility 
 of Contrition. 
 
 But as it might not be enough for pastors to teach what 
 appears necessary to salvation, unless they also labour with all 
 care and industry that the faithful direct their lives and actions 
 according to the rule prescribed for them, it will be of the 
 utmost advantage frequently to place before them the force and 
 utility of contrition ; for whereas most other pious practices, 
 such as beneficence to the poor, fasting, praying, and other such 
 holy and seemly works, will sometimes be rejected by God, 
 through the fault of those from whom they proceed, never, cer- 
 tainly, can contrition itself be otherwise than grateful and 
 acceptable to him ; for the Prophet says : " A contrite and 
 humble heart, God, thou wilt not despise" (Ps. i. 19). 
 Nay more, that no sooner have we conceived it in our hearts, 
 than our sins are forgiven us by God, these words of the same 
 Prophet declare elsewhere : "I said, I will confess against 
 myself my injustice to the Lord, and thou hast forgiven the 
 wickedness of my sin " (Ps. xxxi. 5). And of this we observe a 
 figure in the ten lepers, who, when sent by our Saviour to the 
 priests, were freed from leprosy before they reached them (Luke, 
 xvii. 14) ; giving us to understand that such is the efficacy of 
 true contrition, of which we have spoken above, that by its 
 benefit we at once obtain from the Lord the pardon of all our sins. 
 
 * Epist. v. 4.
 
 244 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXXV. How we may arrive at Perfect 
 
 Contrition. 
 
 It will also avail very much in exciting the minds of the 
 faithful, if pastors will lay down some rule, by which each 
 person may exercise himself in a manner conducive to contrition. 
 All should be admonished to see, by frequent examination of 
 conscience, whether they have observed those things which are 
 commanded by God, or by the ordinances of the Church ; and 
 should any one find himself guilty of any crime, let him at 
 once accuse himself, suppliantly ask pardon of the Lord, and 
 implore that time be given him both for confession and satis- 
 faction. Above all, let him. ask the aid of divine grace not to 
 fall in future into those same sins, which he is heartily sorry for 
 having committed. Pastors will also take care to excite the 
 greatest hatred of the faithful against sin, as well because its 
 foulness and turpitude are very great, as because it brings on 
 us the heaviest losses and calamities ; for it alienates from us 
 the favour of God, from whom we have received the greatest 
 blessings, and might have expected and obtained far greater, 
 and consigns us to eternal death, ever to endure the most ex- 
 cruciating torments. Having said thus much on contrition, let 
 us now come to confession, which is another part of penance. 
 
 QUESTION XXXVI. Excellence of Confession ; and its Insti- 
 tution how necessary for the Salvation of Christians. 
 
 The great care and assiduity which pastors should devote to 
 its exposition will be easily understood, if we reflect that, in 
 the general opinion of the pious, to confession is, in a great 
 measure, to be ascribed whatever of holiness, piety, and religion 
 has been preserved in the Church in our times, through the 
 boundless beneficence of God; so that to no one ought it be matter 
 of surprise, that the enemy of the human race, in his efforts to 
 overthrow to its foundation the Catholic faith, should, through 
 the agency of the ministers and satellites of his impiety, have 
 endeavoured to assail with all his might this citadel, as it were, 
 of Christian virtue. Pastors, therefore, must first teach that 
 the institution of confession has been to us extremely useful, 
 and even necessary; for granting that sins are cancelled by 
 contrition, who is ignorant, that [to effect this] it must be so 
 vehement, so intense, so ardent, as that the bitterness of our 
 sorrow may be compared with, and bear a proportion to, the 
 magnitude of our crimes. But as this is a degree of contrition 
 which very few could reach, the consequence also was, that very
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 245 
 
 few conld have hoped to obtain in this way the pardon of their 
 sins. 
 
 QUESTION XXXVII. Confession perfects Contrition. 
 
 It was therefore necessary that the Lord, in his infinite 
 mercy, should provide by some easier means for the common 
 salvation of men ; and this he did, in his admirable wisdom, 
 when he gave to the Church the keys of the kingdom of heaven. 
 For, according to the doctrine of the Catholic faith, it is to be 
 believed and firmly professed by all, that if any one is sincerely 
 sorry for his past sins, and firmly resolves to avoid sin for the 
 future, although his sorrow be not such as may be sufficient of 
 itself to obtain pardon, yet all his crimes, if duly confessed to 
 the priest, are remitted and pardoned by the power of the keys; 
 so that justly was it proclaimed by those most holy men, our 
 Fathers, that by the keys of the Church is thrown open the gate 
 of heaven.* Of this no one is at liberty to doubt, the Council 
 of Florence having defined that the effect of penance is ab- 
 solution from sins.f But the great utility of confession may 
 also be estimated from the fact, that we know from experience, 
 that to those who have led a wicked life, nothing is so useful 
 towards a reformation of morals, as sometimes to disclose their 
 secret thoughts, all their deeds and words, to a prudent and 
 faithful friend, who may be able to assist them by his advice 
 and co-operation. On the same principle, therefore, should it 
 be deemed most salutary to those who are agitated by the con- 
 sciousness of guilt, to lay open the diseases and wounds of their 
 soul to the priest, as the vicegerent of Christ the Lord, who 
 is bound by the severest law to eternal secrecy ; for they will 
 find immediate remedies at hand, that possess a certain celestial 
 efficacy, not only to cure their present malady, but to prepare 
 the soul so as not easily to relapse afterwards into the same kind 
 of disease and infirmity. Nor is that advantage of confession 
 to be omitted, which greatly concerns social life and intercourse ; 
 for if you take away sacramental confession from Christian 
 discipline, it is evident that the world will be replete with secret 
 and unutterable crimes ; crimes too, and others much more 
 grievous, that men depraved by vicious habits, will not after- 
 wards fear to commit in open day ; for the shame that attends 
 confession bridles as it were inordinate and licentious desires, 
 and restrains crime. Having now explained the advantages 
 of confession, pastors will next unfold its nature and efficacy. 
 
 * Ambr. serm. 1, dequaclrag. citatur <le poenit. dist. l,c. ecce mine. 
 August, lib. 2, de adul. con jug. 59 ; Chrysost. de sacerdot. lib. 2. 
 t Flor. Cone, in decreto Eugenii IV. de poenit. dist. 6, c. sacerdos.
 
 246 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXXVIII. Description and Nature of Sacramental 
 Confession. 
 
 Confession, then, they define to be " a sacramental accusa- 
 tion of our sins, made that we may obtain pardon by virtue 
 of the keys." It is properly called " an accusation," because 
 sins are not to be told as if we would boast of our crimes, 
 as they do " who are glad when they have done evil" (Prov. 
 ii. 14) ; nor are they at all to be told as a narrative of passing 
 occurrences to amuse idle hearers ; but they are to be enume- 
 rated as matters of self-accusation, with a desire even to avenge 
 them on ourselves. But we confess our sins with a view to 
 obtain the pardon of them ; and, in this respect, the tribunal 
 [of penance] differs from other tribunals, which take cognizance 
 of capital offences, and before which a confession of guilt is 
 followed by penalty and punishment, not by acquittal or pardon. 
 The definition of confession by the holy Fathers,* although 
 different in words, is generally to the same effect : " Confes- 
 sion," says St. Augustine, " is the disclosure of a secret disease, 
 with the hope of obtaining pardon ;"f and St. Gregory: "Confes- 
 sion is a detestation of sins ;"J both of which, because contained 
 therein, may be easily referred to the preceding definition. 
 
 QUESTION XXXIX. Why and when Confession was instituted 
 by Christ. 
 
 Parish-priests will next teach, and it is a matter to which 
 the greatest importance is to be attached, and which they will 
 deliver to the faithful without any hesitation, that this sacra- 
 ment was instituted, through his supreme bounty and mercy, 
 by Christ the Lord, who did all things well, and solely with a 
 view to our salvation. For after his resurrection, he breathed 
 on the assembled Apostles, saying : "' Receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost : whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven ; and 
 whose sins you shall retain, they are retained " (John, xx. 
 22, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XL. From what other Passages of Scripture it may 
 be inferred that Confession was instituted by Christ. 
 
 And the Lord appeared to have signified the same thing, 
 when, having raised Lazarus from the dead, he commanded his 
 Apostles to loose him from the bands in which he was bound 
 (John, xi. 44). This is the interpretation of St. Augustine : 
 
 * (Jhrysost. 20, in Genes. t Aug. serm. 4, de verbis Domini. 
 I Greg. Horn. 40, iu Evangel.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 247 
 
 " Priests themselves," says he, " can now be more serviceable, 
 more indulgent to those who confess ; for to those to whom they 
 remit crime, the Lord remits it;" that is, through his Apostles. 
 " Lazarus, whom he had already recalled from the tomb, he pre- 
 sented to his disciples to be loosed, thus intimating that to priests 
 was given the power of loosing."* To this also appertains the 
 command which he had given to the lepers cured on the way, 
 to " show" themselves " to the priests," and subject themselves 
 to their judgment ("Luke, xvii. 14). 
 
 QUESTION XLT. How we may infer from the Words of our 
 Lord, that Confession must be made to the Priest, and that 
 the successors of the Apostles are Judges. 
 
 Since, then, our Lord gave to priests the power of remitting 
 and retaining sins, it is clear that they were also constituted 
 judges of the matter on which they are to pronounce; and 
 as, according to the wise admonition of the holy Council of 
 Trent,f an accurate judgment cannot be formed on any matter, 
 nor can a proportion of justice be observed in awarding punish- 
 ments to crimes, without having previously examined and fully 
 understood the cause ; hence arises a necessity of the penitent's 
 making known to the priest, through confession, each and every 
 sin. This doctrine, then, pastors will teach, a doctrine defined 
 by the holy Synod of Trent, and uniformly handed down by 
 the Catholic Church. For, if we read the most holy Fathers 
 attentively, we shall meet throughout their works the clearest 
 testimonies confirming the fact, that this sacrament was in- 
 stituted by Christ the Lord, and that the law of sacramental 
 confession, which from the Greek they call " exomologesis" 
 and " exagoreusis," is to be received as Evangelical. If, 
 besides, we examine the figures of the Old Testament, to the 
 confession of sins without doubt appear to have reference those 
 various sorts of sacrifices, which were offered by the priests for 
 the expiation of different sorts of sins. 
 
 QUESTION XLII. With what fruit the Church has added to 
 Sacramental Confession certain Ceremonies. 
 
 But not only are the faithful to be taught that confession was 
 instituted by our Lord and Saviour, but they must also be re- 
 minded, that, by authority of the Church, have been added certain 
 rites and solemn ceremonies, which, although not essential to the 
 sacrament, yet serve to place its dignity more clearly before the 
 
 * De vera et falsa pcenit. c. 19, et serm. 8, de verbis Domini, 
 t Sess. xiv. can. v.
 
 248 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT 
 
 eyes, and to prepare the souls of those confessing, now inflamed 
 with piety, the more easily to obtain the grace of God. For when 
 humbled at the feet of the priest, with uncovered head, with eyes 
 fixed on the earth, and hands raised in supplication to heaven, and 
 with other such indications of Christian humilty, not, however, 
 essential to the sacrament, we confess our sins, we hence clearly 
 understand, that in the sacrament is to be recognized a heavenly 
 virtue, and that the divine mercy is to be sought and implored 
 by us with the utmost earnestness. 
 
 QUESTION XLIII. They who are guilty of Capital Si/is cannot 
 recover Salvation without Confession. 
 
 Nor let any one suppose that confession was indeed instituted 
 by our Lord, but yet so as not to impose a necessity for its 
 use ; for the faithful are to hold, that he who is weighed down 
 by mortal guilt, must be recalled to spiritual life by the sacra- 
 ment of confession ; and this indeed we see clearly intimated by 
 our Lord in a most beautiful metaphor, when he called the 
 power of administering this sacrament the key of the kingdom of 
 heaven (Matt. xvi. 19) ; for as no one can gain admittance into 
 any place without the aid of him to whom the keys have been 
 committed, so do we understand that no one is admitted into 
 heaven, unless its gates be opened by the priests, to whose 
 fidelity the Lord has confided its keys ; for otherwise this power 
 of the keys would be of no use whatever in the Church ; and if 
 entrance can lie open by another way, in vain shall he to whom 
 the power of the keys has been intrusted prohibit any one access 
 to heaven. This St. Augustine admirably knew, when he said: 
 " Let no man say to himself ' I repent in secret with the Lord ; 
 God, who has to pardon me, knows what I do in my heart.' 
 Was there no reason then for saying : ' Whatsoever you shall 
 loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven' (Matt, xviii. 18); 
 no reason why the keys were given to the Church of God ?"* 
 To the same effect writes St. Ambrose, in his book on penance, 
 when refuting the heresy of the Novatians, who asserted, that 
 to the Lord alone was reserved the power of forgiving sins : 
 " Who," says he, " reveres God more, he who obeys or he who 
 resists his commands ? God commanded us to obey his minis- 
 ters, whom, when we obey, we give honour to God alone."f 
 
 QUESTION XLIV. At what Age and Time of the Year we should 
 Confess. 
 
 As there cannot be the least doubt that the law of confession 
 was enacted and established by the Lord himself, it follows that 
 
 * Lib. 50, horn. 49. t De Pcen. lib. 1, c. 2.
 
 PART n. CHAPTER V. 249 
 
 we should see by whom, at what age, and at what period of the 
 year, it ought to be observed. In the first place, then, from the 
 canon of the Council of Lateran, which begins : " Omnis utrius- 
 que sexus," it is clearly seen, that no one is bound by the law 
 of confession, before that age at which he can have the use of 
 reason, a time, however, that has not been defined by any fixed 
 number of years;* but it seems to be laid down as a general 
 principle, that a child is bound to go to confession as soon as he is 
 able to distinguish between good and evil, and his mind is capable 
 of malice ; for, when any one has arrived at an age to consider 
 their eternal salvation, he is then first bound to confess his sins 
 to the priest, since otherwise no one, who is weighed down with 
 the consciousness of guilt, can hope for salvation. In the 
 same canon, of which we have already spoken, holy Church has 
 defined the period within which we are most particularly bound 
 to confess ; for she commands all the faithful to confess their sins 
 at least once a year.t 
 
 QUESTION XLV. How often Christians ought to avail themselves 
 of this Blessing. 
 
 But if we consider what a regard for our salvation demands, 
 we certainly ought not neglect confession, as often as we are 
 in imminent danger of death, or undertake to perform any act 
 incompatible with the state of a man defiled by sin, such as 
 to administer or receive the sacraments. The same rule should 
 be strictly followed, when we are apprehensive of forgetting 
 some sin into which we may have fallen ; for we cannot con- 
 fess sins which we do not recollect, nor do we obtain from the 
 Lord the remission of sins unless the sacrament of penance 
 efface them through confession. 
 
 QUESTION XLVI. All Sins should be individually laid open in 
 Confession. 
 
 But, as in confession are to be observed many things, some of 
 which appertain to the nature of the sacrament, others are not 
 so necessary, the pastor will have to treat of them accurately; 
 nor are books and treatises wanting, from which it is easy to 
 draw the explanations of all these matters. Above all, let 
 parish-priests teach, that in confession care must be taken that 
 it be entire and complete ; for all mortal sins must be laid 
 open to the priest ; but venial sins, which do not separate us 
 from the grace of God, and into which we fall more frequently, 
 although, as the experience of the pious proves, proper and 
 
 * Cone. Lat. c. 22. t Con. Lat. c. 21.
 
 250 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 profitable to be confessed, may, nevertheless, be omitted without 
 sin, and expiated by many other means. But mortal sins, as 
 we have already said, although even buried in the darkest 
 secrecy, and such as are forbidden only by the two last com- 
 mandments, are all and each to be enumerated ; for it often 
 happens that they inflict deeper wounds on the soul than 
 those that men commit openly and publicly. But it has been 
 so defined by the holy Council of Trent,* and always handed 
 down by the Catholic Church, as the testimonies of the holy 
 Fathers declare. For in St. Ambrose we read thus : " With- 
 out the confession of sin, no man can be justified from sin."t 
 St. Jerome, on Ecclesiastes, also fully confirms the same ; for 
 he says : " If the serpent, the devil, has secretly bitten any one, 
 and, without the knowledge of a third person, has infected him 
 with the poison of sin, if he shall be silent and will not do 
 penance, and is unwilling to disclose his wound to his brother 
 or master, his master, who has a tongue to cure him, can 
 profit him nothing."]: Besides, St. Cyprian, in his sermon on 
 the lapsed, most explicitly teaches the same in these words : 
 " Although free from the guilt of sacrificing to idols, or of 
 having purchased certificates to that effect ; yet, as they enter- 
 tained the thought of doing so, sorrowfully and simply con- 
 fessing that same to the priests of God, they make the dis- 
 closure of their conscience, expose the burden of their soul, 
 seek a salutary medicine for their wounds, although small and 
 slight." Finally, such is the unanimous voice and sense of all 
 the Doctors of the Church. 
 
 QUESTION XLVII. The Circumstances of Sins are to le 
 disclosed in Confession. 
 
 But in confession should be employed all that special care 
 and diligence, which we usually bestow on concerns of the 
 greatest moment ; and all our study should be directed to cure 
 the wounds of the soul, and eradicate sin. Nor ought we be 
 satisfied with the bare enumeration of our grievous sins, but 
 should also add such circumstances of each sin as considerably 
 aggravate or extenuate its malice ; for some circumstances are 
 so weighty as of themselves to constitute mortal sin, and ought 
 all therefore to be always confessed. If any one has imbrued 
 
 * Sess. xiv. can. 5 and can. 7. t Lib. de paradiso, c. 14. J Circa 
 finem. Singula peccata raortalia contiteri oportere docent August, 
 lib. de vera et falsa poenit. cap. 10; Gregor. homil. 10, super Ezechiel ; 
 Ambr. lib. de parad. cap, 14; Hieron. in Ecclesiast. c. 10; Cypr. de 
 lapsis circa finem; Vid. et de permit, dist. iii. c. sunt. plures, etc. pluit. 
 et ibid. dist. i. c. quem poenit. et ibid. pass.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 251 
 
 his hands in the blood of his fellow-man, he must state whether 
 his victim was a layman or an ecclesiastic. If he has had 
 illicit intercourse with a woman, he must state whether she was 
 single or married, a relative or a person consecrated to God by 
 the covenant of a vow. For these are circumstances which 
 alter the species of the sins ; so that the first is called by 
 theologians, simple fornication ; the second, adultery ; the third, 
 incest ; the fourth, sacrilege. Theft, too, is to be numbered 
 among sins ; but if a person steal a guinea, his sin is far less 
 grievous than that of him who has stolen one or two hundred 
 guineas, or an immense sum of money, but particularly if the 
 stolen money were sacred. To time and place the same rule 
 applies ; but instances are too well known, from the writings of 
 many, to require mention by us. Circumstances, then, such as 
 these, are to be enumerated ; but those that do not considerably 
 aggravate the depravity of the thing, may, without crime, be 
 omitted. 
 
 QUESTION XLVIII. The Confession in which anything serious 
 is intentionally omitted, is to be repeated. 
 
 But so necessary is it to confession that, as we have already 
 said, it be entire and complete, that if any one intentionally 
 omit sins, which should have been disclosed, and confess some 
 only, so far is he from deriving any benefit from that confession, 
 that he involves himself in fresh guilt. Nor is such an enu- 
 meration of sins to be called sacramental confession ; on the 
 contrary, it is necessary for the penitent to repeat the confession, 
 and accuse himself of the sin of having, under the semblance of 
 confession, violated the sanctity of the sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XLIX. The Omission of a Sin through Forgetfulness 
 for Slight Neglect, does not render it necessary to repeat the 
 Confession. 
 
 But should the confession seem otherwise defective, either 
 because the penitent had forgotten some grievous sins, or 
 because, although intent on fully confessing all his sins, he did 
 not so minutely explore the recesses of his conscience, he is not 
 bound to repeat the confession ; but it will be sufficient for him, 
 if he shall at any time recollect the sins which he had forgotten, 
 to confess them to a priest at another time. In this, however, 
 we must see whether we may not perhaps have examined our 
 consciences too negligently and remissly, and may not have 
 evinced so much carelessness in endeavouring to recollect our 
 past sins, as to seem in reality not to have even wished to
 
 252 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 remember them ; for in that case it will be absolutely necessary 
 to repeat the confession. 
 
 QUESTION L. Confession should be plain, simple, and 
 
 undisguised, 
 
 We must also take care that our confession be plain, simple, 
 and undisguised, not clothed in that artificial language which 
 some employ, who seem rather to give an outline of their 
 manner of life, than to confess their sins ; for our confession 
 should be such as to disclose ourselves to the priest such as we 
 know ourselves to be, representing as certain that which is 
 certain, and as doubtful that which is doubtful. This good 
 quality, it is clear, our confession wants, if our sins are not 
 enumerated, or if topics are introduced foreign to the matter 
 of our confession. 
 
 QUESTION LI. Confession should be prudent and modest. 
 
 They who, in explaining things, observe prudence and 
 modesty, are also very much to be commended ; for a superfluity 
 of words is to be avoided, but whatever is necessary to make 
 known the nature and quality of every sin, is to be explained 
 briefly and modestly. 
 
 QUESTION LIT. Confession cannot be made by a Messenger 
 or by Letter. 
 
 Priest and penitent should also be most careful that their 
 discourse in confession be held in secret ; and hence no one can, 
 on any account, confess his sins by messenger or letter, as 
 through such a medium nothing can be transacted secretly. 
 
 QUESTION LI II. Frequent Confession is expedient for a 
 Christian Man. 
 
 But nothing ought to be of such concern to the faithful, as to 
 study to cleanse the soul by the frequent confession of their 
 sins ; for when any one is oppressed by mortal guilt, nothing 
 can be more salutary to him, because of the many dangers that 
 impend over life, than to have immediate recourse to the 
 confession of his sins ; for, could each promise himself length 
 of days, yet truly is it shameful that we, who are so particular 
 in whatever relates to cleanliness of person or dress, evince not 
 at least the same attentive concern in preserving the lustre of 
 the soul from being sullied by the foulest stains of sin. 
 
 QUESTION LIV. With what Power the Minister of this 
 
 Sacrament should be endued. 
 
 But we must now speak of the minister of this sacrament. 
 That he is a priest, possessing ordinary or delegated jurisdiction
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 253 
 
 to absolve, sufficiently appears from the ordinances of the 
 Church ; for he who has to discharge this function, must have 
 not only the power of order, but also of jurisdiction. Of this 
 ministry these words of our Lord, in St. John, afford an illus- 
 trious testimony: " Whose sins you shall forgive, they are for- 
 given them ; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained " 
 (John, xx. 23) ; words evidently addressed not to all, but to 
 the Apostles only, to whom, in this function, priests succeed. 
 This also admirably accords [with the economy of religion] ; for, 
 as every sort of grace attached to this sacrament, flows from 
 Christ the head to his members, they, who alone have power to 
 consecrate his true body, should with good reason alone ad- 
 minister this sacrament to the mystical body of Christ, that is, 
 the faithful ; especially as the faithful are qualified and disposed, 
 by means of this very sacrament of penance, to receive the 
 holy Eucharist. The reverential care with which, in the primi- 
 tive ages of the Church, the right of the ordinary priest was 
 guarded, is easily understood from the ancient decrees of the 
 Fathers, which provided that no bishop or priest, unless com- 
 pelled by urgent necessity, should presume to exercise any 
 function in the parish of another, without his authority. Such 
 was the ordinance of the Apostle, when he commanded Titus to 
 ordain priests in every city (Tit. i. 5), who namely would 
 nurture and bring up the faithful with the heavenly food of 
 doctrine and of the sacraments. 
 
 QUESTION LV. In case of necessity, any Priest may absolve 
 any Sinner. 
 
 If, however, danger of death is imminent, and recourse can- 
 not be had to the proper priest, that no one may in consequence 
 perish, the Council of Trent teaches that it was the practice 
 observed in the Church of God, that any priest, whatever facul- 
 ties he might have, may not only remit all sorts of sins, but 
 also absolve from the bond of excommunication.* 
 
 QUESTION LYI. What sort of Confessor should be chosen by 
 
 each one solicitous for his Salvation. 
 
 Now, besides the power of order and of jurisdiction, which 
 are absolutely necessary, it is of primary importance that the 
 minister of this sacrament, holding, as he does, the place at 
 once of judge and physician, be endowed with knowledge and 
 erudition, and also with prudence. As regards the first, his 
 knowledge it is evident should be more than ordinary, that by 
 it he may be able to examine into the nature of sins, and, from 
 
 * Sess. xiv. c. 6.
 
 254 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 amongst the various sorts of sins, judge which are grievous, 
 which light, according to the state of life and circumstances of 
 each person. As physician, he has also occasion for consummate 
 prudence ; for he must take especial care that to the sick man 
 be administered those remedies which seem more adapted to 
 cure the soul, and to fortify in future against the violence of 
 disease. The faithful will heiice be able to understand that 
 each should use his best endeavours to choose for himself such a 
 priest as is recommended by integrity of life, learning, prudence, 
 judgment; who very well knows how great is the weight and 
 responsibility of the office of which he has charge, what 
 punishment is suited to every sin, and who are to be loosed or 
 bound. 
 
 QUESTION LVJI. It is never lawful, by Word or Sign, to 
 
 disclose things heard in Confession. 
 
 But as there is no one who is not most desirous that his 
 crimes and defilement should be kept secret, the faithful are 
 to be admonished that there is no reason whatever for them to 
 apprehend, that what they disclose in confession shall ever be 
 revealed to any one by the priest, or that by it danger of any 
 sort can, at any time, arise to them ; for against those priests 
 who bury not in eternal and religious silence all the sins which 
 any one has confessed to them, the sacred ordinances denounce 
 the heaviest chastisement.* Wherefore we read in the great 
 Council of Lateran : " Let the priest take the greatest care, 
 neither by word nor sign, nor by any other means whatever, in 
 the least degree to betray the sinner."f 
 
 QUESTION LVIII. What must chiefly be observed by the Priest, 
 when hearing the Confessions of others. 
 
 Having treated of the minister [of this sacrament], the order 
 of our matter now requires, that we explain some principal 
 heads, which are of no little importance with regard to the 
 use and practice of confession. For a great portion of the 
 faithful, to whom, in general, nothing is wont to appear more 
 tedious than the interval until those days elapse, which have 
 been appointed by the law of the Church for confession, so far 
 from giving careful attention to other matters, which obviously 
 possess most efficacy in conciliating the divine favour, are so 
 remote from Christian perfection as scarcely to call to mind 
 their sins which should be disclosed to the priest. As, there- 
 fore, we must, with all zeal, aid them in the work of salvation, 
 priests will first carefully observe in the penitent, whether he 
 
 * Leo, ep. 80. t Cap. XXL
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 255 
 
 have true contrition for his sins, and be deliberately and firmly 
 resolved to abstain from sins for the future. And if they shall 
 find him thus disposed, let them admonish and earnestly exhort 
 him to return" the greatest thanks to God for so great and so 
 singular a benefit, and let him never cease to beg of God the 
 aid of heavenly grace, fortified and protected by which, he will 
 easily be able to resist and repel depraved passions. He should 
 also be taught to suffer no day to pass, without devoting some 
 portion of it to meditation on the mysteries of our Lord's 
 passion, and exciting and inflaming himself to the imitation 
 and most ardent love of his Redeemer. For by this meditation 
 he will attain a consciousness of increased security, every day, 
 against all the assaults of the devil ; for there is no other 
 reason why, even when lightly assaulted by the enemy, we so 
 readily yield in courage and strength, but that we study not, by 
 meditation on heavenly things, to kindle within us the fire of 
 divine love, by which the mind may be refreshed and elevated. 
 But should the priest perceive that the penitent is not so sorry for 
 his sius, as that he can be said to be truly contrite, let him 
 endeavour to inspire him with a great wish for contrition, that 
 next, inflamed with the desire of this excellent gift, he may 
 resolve to ask and implore it from the mercy of God. But 
 above all, the pride of some is to be repressed, who seek by 
 some vain excuse to justify or extenuate their offences. If, 
 for example, when a person confesses that he had been violently 
 agitated by anger, he at once transfers the blame of this pertur- 
 bation to another, by whom injury had been previously done 
 him, he is therefore to be reminded, that such a plea is indi- 
 cative of a proud spirit, and of a man who either thinks lightly 
 of, or is entirely unacquainted with, the magnitude of his sin, 
 and that such sort of excuse serves rather to aggravate than 
 extenuate his guilt. For he who thus labours to justify his 
 conduct, seems openly to declare this, that then only will he 
 exercise patience, when he shall suffer injury from no one, than 
 which nothing can be more unworthy of a Christian man; for 
 whilst he ought deeply to deplore the state of him who inflicted 
 the injury, yet, regardless of the wickedness of the sin, he 
 indulges anger against a brother ; and having a noble oppor- 
 tunity of honouring God by patience, and of -correcting a brother 
 by meekness, he turns the means of salvation to his own de- 
 struction. 
 
 Still more pernicious, however, is the criminal conduct of 
 those to be deemed, who, prevented by a sort of foolish bash- 
 fulness, want resolution to confess their sins. Such persons 
 should, therefore be encouraged by exhortation, and be re-
 
 256 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 minded, that there is no reason whatever why they should 
 fear to lay open their faults ; and that it should seem surpris- 
 ing to no one to learn that men fall into sin, the common 
 malady, indeed, of all, and the natural consequence of human 
 infirmity. 
 
 There are others who, either because they seldom confess their 
 sins, or because they bestowed no care or reflection on the inves- 
 tigation of their crimes, know not well how to begin or end 
 their confession. Such persons require to be rather sharply 
 rebuked, and are particularly to be taught that, before any one 
 approaches the priest, he should take every care to be excited 
 to contrition for his sins, and that this can by no means be 
 done without endeavouring to know and recollect them seve- 
 rally. Should, then, the priest meet with persons of this class, 
 whom he knows to be entirely unprepared, he will dismiss them 
 from him in the mildest terms, and will exhort them to take 
 some time to think of their sins, and then return; but should 
 they happen to declare that they had given to the matter all 
 zeal and attention, as the priest has very great reason to fear, 
 that, if once sent away, they may not again return, they are to 
 be heard, especially if they manifest some earnestness to amend 
 their lives, and can be brought to accuse their own negligence, 
 and promise to compensate for it at another time by diligent 
 and accurate meditation. In such cases, however, great caution 
 must be used ; for if, having heard the confession, he is of 
 opinion, that the penitent did not at all want diligence in 
 enumerating, nor sorrow in detesting his sins, he can be ab- 
 solved; but should he have found him deficient in both, he will 
 instruct and advise him to employ greater care, as we said 
 above, iu examining his conscience, and will dismiss the person 
 in the kindest manner. But as it sometimes happens that 
 females, having forgotten some sin in a former confession, dare 
 not return to the priest, through fear of incurring with the 
 people suspicion of some great wickedness, or of being thought 
 to seek the praise of singular piety, [the pastor] must often 
 teach, both publicly and privately, that no one is gifted with so 
 great a memory, as to be able to remember all his deeds, words, 
 and thoughts ; that the faithful, therefore, should they re- 
 member any grievous crime that had previously escaped their 
 memory, should be deterred by no consideration from returning 
 to the priest. These, then, and many other matters of the 
 same nature, will demand the attention of priests in confession. 
 We must now come to the third part of penance, which is 
 called satisfaction.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 257 
 
 QUESTION LIX. What does "Satisfaction" signify in 
 general, and what in the Matter of Confession. 
 
 The name and nature of satisfaction, therefore, are first to 
 be explained, for the enemies of the Catholic Church have 
 hence seized on ample occasion for dissension and discord, to 
 the very great injury of the Christian people. Satisfaction, 
 then, is the full payment of what is due, for what is enough 
 (satis) seems to want nothing. Hence, when we speak of 
 reconciliation by grace, to satisfy means the same as to render 
 to another as much as may be sufficient for an angered mind to 
 atone for an injury ; and thus, satisfaction is nothing else than 
 " compensation for an injury offered to another." As far, 
 however, as regards the present subject, theologians have used 
 the word " satisfaction," to express that compensation, by which 
 a man makes some reparation to God for the sins that he has 
 committed. 
 
 QUESTION LX. How many are the Degrees of this Satisfaction, 
 which includes some Compensation for Sin. 
 
 As in this sort [of satisfaction] there may be many degrees, 
 hence it is that satisfaction has various acceptations. The first 
 and most excellent satisfaction is that by which whatever is due 
 by us to God, on account of our sins, has been paid abundantly, 
 although he should wish to deal with us according to the 
 strictest justice. This is said to be that satisfaction, which 
 appeased God and rendered him propitious to us ; and for it we 
 are indebted to Christ the Lord alone, who, having paid the 
 price of our sins, most fully satisfied God on the cross ; for no 
 created being could be of such worth as to exonerate us from so 
 heavy a debt ; and, as Sr. John testifies : " He is the propitia- 
 tion for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the 
 whole world" (1 John, ii. 2). This, therefore, is full and abun- 
 dant satisfaction, commensurate and adequate to the malice of 
 all crimes committed in this world; by the weight of which the 
 actions of men possess a very great value with God, and 
 without which they would be deemed worthy of no considera- 
 tion whatever. This the words of David seem to have in view, 
 who, after reflecting within himself, said : " What shall I 
 render to the Lord, for all the things that He hath rendered to 
 me ?" (Ps. cxv. 12) ; and unable to find anything worthy of 
 so many and such great blessings save this satisfaction, which 
 he expressed by the word " chalice," he subjoined : " I will 
 take the chalice of salvation, and I will call upon the name of 
 the Lord " (Ps. cxv. 13). There is another sort of satisfaction 
 
 R
 
 258 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 which is also called canonical, and is performed within a certain 
 fixed period of time. Hence, according to the practice of the 
 most ancient Church, when penitents are absolved from their 
 sins, some penance is imposed on them, the performance of 
 which has been commonly called " satisfaction." By the same 
 name is also signified any sort of punishment which we endure 
 for sin, although not imposed by the priest, but spontaneously 
 undertaken, and exacted by ourselves. But this belongs not at 
 all to penance as it is a sacrament ; but that only, which we 
 said is paid to God for sins conformably with the injunction of 
 the priest, is to be deemed part of the sacrament, with this 
 qualification, that it be accompanied with a firm and deliberate 
 purpose of using every care to avoid sin for the future, for some 
 have defined it thus : " To satisfy is to pay due honour to God ;" 
 and this, evidently, no one can do, unless resolved entirely to 
 avoid sins. To satisfy is also to cut off the causes of sins, and 
 not to allow access to their suggestion. In accordance with 
 this idea, some have considered satisfaction to be a cleansing, 
 by which is washed away whatever defilements remained in the 
 soul in consequence of the stain of sin, and by which we are 
 exempted from the temporal punishments to which we were 
 liable. Such being the case, it will be easy to convince the 
 faithful how necessary it is for penitents to exercise themselves 
 in this study of satisfaction. 
 
 QUESTION LXI. The Temporal Punishment is not always re- 
 mitted with the remission of the Eternal Punishment, which 
 follows the pardon of Sin. 
 
 For they must be taught that there are two things consequent 
 on sin, the stain and the punishment ; and although the punish- 
 ment of eternal death is always forgiven with the guilt to which 
 it was due ; yet, as has been declared by the Council of Trent, 
 it does not always happen that the Lord remits the remains of 
 sins and the definite temporal punishment which is due to sin.* 
 Of this there are clear examples in the sacred Scriptures, as, in 
 the third chapter of Genesis (Gen. iii. 17), in the twelfth and 
 twentieth of Numbers (Num. xii. and xx.), and in very many 
 other places ; but we have before our eyes that most con- 
 spicuous and most illustrious example of David. Although 
 Nathan had announced to him : " The Lord also hath taken 
 away thy sin; thou shalt not die " (2 Kings xii. 13) ; yet did 
 he voluntarily subject himself to the most severe penances, im- 
 ploring, night and day, the mercy of God, in these words : 
 
 * Sess. xiv. can. 8, and can. 12.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 259 
 
 " Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my 
 sin ; for I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me " 
 (Psl. 1. 4, 5). In these words did he beseech the Lord to 
 pardon not only the crime, but also the punishment due to the 
 crime, and to restore him, cleansed from the remains of sin, to 
 his former state of purity and integrity. And although this 
 was the object of his most earnest supplications, yet did the 
 Lord punish him with the death of the child of his adultery, 
 with the defection and death of his dearly beloved son Absa- 
 lom, and with the other punishments and calamities with which 
 he had already threatened him. In Exodus, also, the Lord, 
 although, yielding to the importunity of Moses, he had spared 
 the idolatrous people, yet threatened the enormity of their 
 crime with heavy chastisements (Exod. xxxii. 8, sqq.) ; and 
 Moses himself has borne testimony, that for it the Lord would 
 take most severe vengeance, even to the third and fourth gene- 
 ration. That in the Catholic Church such was, at all times, the 
 doctrine of the holy Fathers, is proved most clearly by their 
 authority.* 
 
 QUESTION LXII. Why God is not equally indulgent to Man 
 through the Sacrament of Penance as through Baptism. 
 
 But why is it that, in the sacrament of penance, as in bap- 
 tism, the entire punishment due to sin is not remitted, has been 
 admirably explained by the holy Council of Trent in these words : 
 " The nature of divine justice seems to demand that they who, 
 through ignorance, sinned before baptism, be received by God 
 into grace in one manner ; and in another, those who, after 
 having been freed from the servitude of sin and of the devil, and 
 having received the gift of the Holy Ghost, have not feared 
 knowingly to 'violate the temple of God' (1 Cor. iii. 17), and to 
 'grieve the Holy Spirit' (Eph. iv. 30). And it becomes the 
 divine clemency, that sins be not so remitted to us without any 
 satisfaction, as that, having taken occasion thence, thinking sins 
 lighter, we, injurious as it were and contumelious to the Holy 
 Spirit (Heb. x. 29), should fall into more grievous sins, treasur- 
 ing up to ourselves ' wrath against the day of wrath ' (Rom. ii. 
 5) ; for doubtless these satisfactory punishments greatly recall 
 from sin, and restrain as it were with a bridle, and make peni- 
 
 * Vide Aug. lib. ii. de peccat. merit, et remiss, cap. 34, et contra 
 Faust, lib. xxii. cap. 66, et praesertim in Joan, tract. 124, paulo ante 
 med.; Greg. lib. ix. moral, cap. 24; Chrysost. horn. 8, ad pop. 
 Antiocb.; Iterum Aug. Ench. cap. 30 : Ambr. de pcen. lib. ii. cap 5, 
 vide item canoues pcenitentiales apud Ant. Aug. ; vel in actia EccL 
 Mediolan.
 
 260 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 tents more cautions and vigilant for the future."* Another ad- 
 vantage is, that they are, as it were, certain testimonies of the 
 sorrow which we conceive for sins committed, and thus satisfac- 
 tion is made to the Church which has been grievously offended 
 by our crimes. For as St. Augustine says : " God despises not 
 a contrite and humbled heart ; but, as the grief of heart of one 
 is generally concealed from another, and does not come to the 
 knowledge of others by words or any other signs, rightly are 
 times of penance appointed by those who preside over the Church, 
 that satisfaction may be made to the Church, in which the sina 
 themselves are remitted."f 
 
 QUESTION LXIII. How others are aided ~by the Punishments 
 inflicted on us. 
 
 Besides, the examples of our penance teach others how to re- 
 gulate their own lives and follow piety ; for, seeing the punish- 
 ments inflicted on us for sins, they feel the necessity of using 
 the greatest circumspection throughout life, and of correcting 
 their former habits. It was therefore a very wise observance of 
 the Church, that public penance should be imposed on any one 
 guilty of public crime, in order that, deterred by fear, all others 
 might the more carefully avoid sins for the future ; and this has 
 been sometimes observed with regard also to secret sins of a 
 more grievous character. But in the case of public sins, it was, 
 as we said, the constant practice, that they who had committed 
 them were never absolved until they had undergone public 
 penance. Meanwhile, pastors implored God for their salvation, 
 and ceased not to exhort the penitents themselves also to do the 
 same. In this practice, indefatigable were the care and solicitude 
 of St. Ambrose, by whose tears, it is said, very many who had 
 approached the sacrament of penance with hard hearts, were 
 softened into true contrition. f But, subsequently, the severity 
 of ancient discipline was so relaxed, and charity waxed so cold, 
 that now many of the faithful think, that, to obtain the pardon 
 of sin, no inward sorrow of soul and grief of heart are necessary, 
 if they have only the semblance of sorrow. 
 
 QUESTION LXIV. By Penance we are assimilated to Christ. 
 
 Again, by undergoing such penances we come to bear the image 
 and likeness of Jesus Christ our head, " in that, wherein he him- 
 self hath suffered and been tempted" (Heb. ii. 18) ; for, as has 
 been said by St. Bernard, " nothing can appear so unseemly as a 
 delicate member under a head crowned with thorns ;" for we are, 
 
 * Sess. xiv. c. 8. f Aug. Ench. c. 65. J PaulLuus in vit. Ambr. 
 Serm. 5, de omii. sanct.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 261 
 
 as the Apostle bears witness, " joint heirs with Christ, yet so if 
 we suffer with him " (Rom. viii. 17) ; and as he has written in 
 another place : "If we be dead with him, we shall live also with 
 him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him" (2 Tim. ii. 11, 
 sq.), 
 
 QUESTION LXV. How, after the Mercy of God, there is 
 room for his Justice in sin, 
 
 St. Bernard also affirms, that in sin are found two things, the 
 stain and the scar; that the defilement itself is indeed removed 
 through the mercy of God, whilst to heal the scars of sins the 
 medicinal care applied by penance is most necessary; for as 
 after a wound has been healed, some scars remain, which also 
 themselves require care ; so with regard to the soul, after the 
 guilt is forgiven, it leaves remains to be cleansed away. The 
 opinion of St. Chrysostom also fully confirms the same, when 
 he says : " It is not enough that the arrow has been extracted 
 from the body ; but the wound also, inflicted by the arrow, 
 must be healed ; so, too, with regard to the soul, after sin has 
 been pardoned, the wound left must be healed by penance.' 1 * 
 We are very frequently taught by St. Augustine, that in 
 penance are to be considered these two things, the mercy and 
 the justice of God ; his mercy by which he pardons sins, and 
 the eternal punishments due to him ; his justice, by which he 
 inflicts on man temporary punishments.f 
 
 QUESTION LXVI. By Penance ice escape the Punishments 
 prepared for us by God. 
 
 Finally, the punishment of the penance undergone by us 
 averts the vengeance of God and the punishments awarded 
 against us ; for so teaches the Apostle, when he says : " If we 
 would judge ourselves, we should not be judged ; but whilst we 
 are judged, we are chastised by the Lord, that we may not be 
 damned with this M r orld " (1 Cor. xi. 31, sq.). When these 
 matters shall have been explained to the faithful, it will scarcely 
 be possible that they be not very much excited to works of 
 penance. 
 
 QUESTION LXVII. Whence are our Works both Meritorious 
 and Satisfactory. 
 
 But how great is its efficacy is gathered from this, that it 
 depends altogether on the merit of the passion of Christ the 
 
 * Serra. 1, in cnena Domini ; Horn. 80, ad pop. Antioch. 
 t In Ps. 1. ad hec verba, ECCE ENIM VENIT.
 
 262 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Lord. From this also we attain for our good actions the two- 
 fold excellent quality of meriting the rewards of eternal glory, 
 so as that even a cup of cold water given in his name is not 
 without its reward, and of satisfying for our sins (Matt. x. 42.) 
 
 QUESTION LXVIII. *0ur Satisfaction does not obscure the 
 Satisfaction and Merit of Christ. 
 
 Nor does this obscure the most perfect and superabundant 
 satisfaction of Christ the Lord, but rather, on the contrary, 
 renders it much more conspicuous and illustrious ; for the 
 grace of Christ appears more abundant, inasmuch as to us is 
 communicated not only what he alone, but also what he, as 
 head, merited and paid for his members by his Saints, and by 
 just men. This it is that gives, as is clear, such weight and 
 dignity to the good actions of the pious, for to those who are 
 united to him by charity Christ the Lord continually pours 
 out his grace, as the head to the members, and as the vine to 
 the branches. This grace always precedes, accompanies, and 
 follows our good works ; and without it we can have no merit 
 whatever, nor can we at all satisfy God. Hence it is, that to 
 the just nothing seems wanting, since by the works which by 
 the grace of God they perform, they, as far as our mortal con- 
 dition permits, can fulfil the divine law, and merit eternal 
 life, the fruition of which namely they shall attain, if they 
 depart life adorned with the grace of God ; for that saying of 
 the Saviour is well known : " He that shall drink of the water 
 that I shall give him, shall not thirst for ever ; but the water 
 that I shall give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, 
 springing up into everlasting life " (John, iv. 14). 
 
 QUESTION XLIX. Two Things still, which are particularly 
 necessary that any work may have the True Efficacy of Satis- 
 faction. 
 
 But in satisfaction, two things are especially required : the 
 first is, that he who satisfies be in the state of grace, and the 
 friend of God, for works done without faith and charity 
 cannot by any means be acceptable to God ; the other, that 
 the works performed be such as are of their own nature 
 troublesome and painful; for since they are compensations for 
 past sins, and as the holy martyr Cyprian says, redeemers of 
 sins,* it is absolutely necessary that they have in them some- 
 thing of acerbity. It does not, however, always follow, that 
 those who undergo those painful exercises, experience a sense 
 
 * Lib. 1, Ep. 3, post med.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER V. 263 
 
 of pain, for the habit of enduring, or an ardent love of God, 
 often renders even unfelt exercises the most irksome to be 
 endured. Such works, however, do not on that account cease 
 to be satisfactory ; for it is the privilege of the children of God 
 to be so inflamed with love and piety towards him, that, whilst 
 tortured with the most painful labours, they almost either feel 
 no inconvenience, or bear all with the most joyful mind. 
 
 QUESTION LXX. How many are the Works of Satisfaction. 
 
 Pastors will also teach, that every kind of satisfaction is to 
 be reduced principally to these three, prayer, fasting, and alms- 
 giving; which, indeed, correspond with three goods, those of the 
 soul, of the body, and what are called external goods, all of 
 which we have received from God. Now, nothing can be 
 better adapted and more suited to extirpate the roots of all 
 sins ; for, as " all that is in the world is the concupiscence of 
 the flesh," or "the concupiscence of the eyes," or " the pride of 
 life" (1 John, ii. 16); every one sees that to these three causes 
 of disease are most rightly opposed as many antidotes : to the 
 first, fasting ; to the second, alms-giving ; to the third, prayer. 
 Why, moreover, all satisfaction is reduced to these three 
 principally, it will be easy to understand, if we also consider 
 those who are offended by our sins, and who are God, our 
 neighbour, ourselves. God, therefore, we appease by prayer, 
 our neighbour we satisfy by alms, and ourselves we chastise by 
 fasting. 
 
 QUESTION LXXI. Are Afflictions, ivhich are sent to Men 
 
 outwardly, satisfactory. 
 
 But as in this life many and various afflictions and calamities 
 oppress us, the faithful are especially to be taught, that those 
 who bear with a patient mind whatever trials and afflictions 
 God may have sent them, have found ample matter of satisfac- 
 tion and merit ; but that those who endure such suffering with 
 unwillingness and repugnance, are deprived of all fruit of satis- 
 faction, and only undergo the chastisement and punishment of 
 God, by a just judgment avenging sins. 
 
 QUESTION LXXII. One can perform Penance and All its 
 Parts for another. 
 
 But in this the supreme goodness and clemency of God are 
 to be proclaimed with the greatest praises and thanksgivings, 
 who has granted to human weakness the privilege that one 
 may satisfy for another, a privilege peculiar to the [satisfac- 
 tory] part of penance ; for as, with regard to contrition and 
 confession, no mail can be contrite or confess for another ;
 
 264 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 so [with regard to satisfaction], those who are endued with 
 divine grace, may pay for another what is due to God ; and 
 thus would we seem in some sort to " bear each other's 
 burdens" (Gal. vi. 2). This is a point on which no room for 
 doubt is left to any one of the faithful, confessing, as we do in 
 the Apostles' Creed, "the Communion of Saints." Regenerated, 
 as we all are, to Christ, by having been washed in the same 
 baptism, made partakers of the same sacraments, and espe- 
 cially, refreshed by the same meat and drink, the body and 
 blood of Christ the Lord, we are all manifestly members of the 
 same body. As, then, the foot does not perform its function 
 solely for its own benefit, but also for that of the eyes, nor 
 again do the eyes see for their own, but for the common benefit 
 of all the members ; so ought works of satisfaction be deemed 
 common amongst us. This, however, is not true without any 
 exception, if we consider all the advantages which are derived 
 therefrom ; for works of satisfaction are also certain medicines 
 and cures, which are prescribed to the penitent to heal the 
 depraved affections of the mind ; a fruitful advantage, it is 
 clear, which they are altogether without who satisfy not for 
 themselves. These matters touching the three parts of penance, 
 contrition, confession, and satisfaction, it will be the duty of 
 the pastor to explain copiously and clearly. 
 
 QUESTION LXXIII. Whether he is to receive Absolution who 
 does not promise to restore what has been taken away. 
 
 But priests, before they absolve from his sins the penitent 
 whose confession they have heard, must be particularly careful 
 to insist that, if perchance he has culpably injured his neigh- 
 bour in property or character, he make full reparation ; for no 
 person is to be absolved unless he first promise to restore what 
 belongs to another. But as there are many who, although they 
 largely promise to comply with their duty, are yet deliberately 
 determined never to fulfil their promises, they are by all means 
 to be obliged to make restitution, and that injunction of the 
 Apostle is to be frequently impressed on their minds: "Let 
 him that stole, steal now no more ; but rather let him labour, 
 working with his hands that which is good, that he may have 
 to give to him who is in need " (Ephes. xv. 28). 
 
 QUESTION LXXIV. What sort of Satisfaction should be imposed 
 
 on the Penitent. 
 
 But, in imposing the penalty of satisfaction, priests will deem 
 it a duty to decide nothing arbitrarily, but to be guided in all 
 things by justice, prudence, and piety ; and in order to appear
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VI. 265 
 
 to measure sin by this rule, and also that penitents may acknow- 
 ledge the more the grievousness of their crimes, it will be expe- 
 dient to point out to them occasionally the punishments ordained 
 by direction of the ancient penitential canons, as they are called, 
 for some sins. The nature of the sin, then, will always regulate 
 the mode of the satisfaction ; but of all kinds of satisfaction the 
 most suitable is to enjoin penitents to devote themselves to 
 prayer on some certain fixed days, and to offer prayers to God 
 for all mankind, and especially for those who have departed this 
 life in the Lord. They should also be exhorted to undertake 
 and repeat often, of their own accord, the same works of satis- 
 faction appointed by the confessor, and so to order their morals 
 that all those things that appertain to the sacrament of penance 
 having been accomplished, they, notwithstanding, never discon- 
 tinue the practices of the virtue of penance. But, should it 
 also be deemed proper sometimes that for a public offence pub- 
 lic penance ought to be enjoined, although the penitent should 
 shrink from and deprecate it, he is not to be readily listened to, 
 but should be persuaded to embrace, with willing and cheerful 
 mind, what will prove salutary both to himself and others. 
 These things, which regard the sacrament of penance and its 
 several parts, must be so taught that the faithful not only 
 understand them perfectly, but also bring their minds, with the 
 assistance of the Lord, piously and religiously to put them really 
 into practice. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON THE SACRAMENT OF EXTREME UNCTION. 
 
 QUESTION I. Why Pastors of Souls should frequently treat of 
 the Sacrament of Extreme Unction with the people. 
 
 " In all thy works," say the holy oracles of Scripture, " re- 
 member thy last end, and thou shalt never sin " (Eccl. vii. 40) ; 
 words by which parish-priests are tacitly admonished that no 
 opportunity is to be omitted of exhorting the faithful people to 
 coustant meditation on death. But as the sacrament of extreme 
 unction cannot but have associated with it the recollection of 
 that last day, it is easily understood that it should form a sub- 
 ject of frequent instruction, not only inasmuch as it eminently 
 becomes [the pastor] to unfold and explain the mysteries which 
 appertain to salvation, but also because the faithful, frequently 
 reflecting that death is the inevitable doom of all men, will
 
 266 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 repress depraved desires. Thus will they be less appalled while 
 awaiting the stroke of death, and will return eternal thanks to 
 God, who has not only opened to us the way to true life in the 
 sacrament of baptism, but has also instituted that of extreme 
 unction, that, when departing this mortal life, we may have a 
 readier way to heaven. 
 
 QUESTION II. Why this Sacrament is called Extreme Unction. 
 
 In order, then, that the things more necessary to that expla- 
 nation be expounded, in nearly the same order as that observed 
 in the other sacraments, it is first to be shown that this sacra- 
 ment is called " extreme unction," because, of all the sacred 
 unctions prescribed by our Lord and Saviour to his Church, this 
 is the last to be administered. Hence this same unction was 
 also called by our predecessors in the faith, " the sacrament of 
 the anointing of the sick," and " the sacrament of dying 
 persons," appellations by which the faithful may easily call to 
 mind that last hour.* 
 
 QUESTION III. Extreme Unction proved to be a Sacrament. 
 
 But that extreme unction possesses the true nature of a 
 sacrament is first to be explained ; and this will be clearly 
 established, if we attend to the words in which the Apostle St. 
 James has promulgated the law of this sacrament: " Is any 
 man," says he, " sick among you ? Let him bring in the priests 
 of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with 
 oil in the name of the Lord ; and the prayer of faith shall save 
 the sick man, and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he be in 
 sins, they shall be forgiven him" (James, v. 14, sq.). For 
 when the Apostle affirms, " if he be in sins, they shall be for- 
 given him," he thereby declares the nature and efficacy of a 
 sacrament. And that such has been the constant doctrine of 
 the Catholic Church on extreme unction, several Councils tes- 
 tify ; and the Council of Trent denounces anathema against all 
 who presume to teach or think otherwise-! Innocent I. also 
 recommends this sacrament very much to the faithful. J 
 
 QUESTION IV. As there are here several Unctions, should we also 
 say that there are therein several Sacraments. 
 
 Pastors, therefore, must constantly teach that extreme 
 unction is a true sacrament, and that, although administered 
 
 * Vid. Hugon. de Sacr. part. xv. c. 2 ; Pet. Dam. ser. 1, de dedicat. 
 Eccles. t Sess. xiv. de Extr. Unct. c. 1, and can. 3. J Ep. 1. c. 8.
 
 PART TI. CHAPTER VI. 267 
 
 with many unctions, performed each with a proper prayer, and 
 with a peculiar form, it constitutes but one [sacrament] ; one, 
 however, not by the continuity of its parts, but, altogether like 
 objects which are composed of many things, by the perfection [of 
 the whole]. For as an edifice, which consists of many aod 
 diverse things, derives its perfection from one plan, so this 
 sacrament, although composed of several things and words, is 
 yet one sign, and has the efficacy of one thing, of which it is 
 the sign. Parish-priests will moreover teach what are the parts 
 of this sacrament, that is to say, the element and word ; for 
 these have not been omitted by St. James ; and in each of them 
 may be observed its own mysteries (James, v. 14, sqq.). 
 
 QUESTION V. What is the Matter of Extreme Unction. 
 
 Its element, then, or matter, as has been defined by Councils, 
 particularly by the Council of Trent,* is oil consecrated by the 
 bishop, that is to say, oil of olives only, and not that expressed 
 from any fatty or gross substapce. This its matter is most sig- 
 nificant of what is effected in the soul by virtue of the sacra- 
 ment ; for as oil is very efficacious in mitigating bodily pain, so 
 does the virtue of this sacrament alleviate the sadness and 
 anguish of the soul. Oil also restores health, brings cheerful- 
 ness, and affords as it were food to light, whilst it is also very 
 well calculated to refresh bodily fatigue ; and all these effects 
 are expressive of those produced, through the divine power, on 
 the sick man, by the administration of this sacrament. Regard- 
 ing the matter, let this suffice. 
 
 QUESTION VI. Form of this Sacrament. 
 
 But the form of the sacrament is the word and that solemn 
 prayer which the priest uses at each anointing, when he says : 
 " BY THIS HOLY UNCTION, MAY GOD INDULGE THEE WHATEVER 
 SINS THOU HAST COMMITTED BY SIGHT, SMELL, TOUCH," &C., &C. 
 And that such is the true and proper form of this sacrament, 
 the Apostle St. James intimates when he says : " Let them pray 
 over him, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man " 
 (James, v. 14, sq..), words from which we may know, that 
 the form is to be uttered by way of prayer, although the 
 Apostle has not said in what particular words that prayer is 
 to be comprised. But this has reached us by the faithful 
 tradition of the Fathers, so that all the Churches retain that 
 sort of form, which the Mother and Mistress of all Churches, 
 the holy Roman Church, uses. Some, it is true, alter a few 
 words, as when for " God indulge thee," they substitute, " God 
 
 * Sess. xiv. ch. 1.
 
 268 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 remit " or " spare," and sometimes, " heal," " whatever thou 
 hast committed ;" but, as there is no change of the sense, it is 
 clear that the same form is religiously observed by all. 
 
 QUESTION VII. Why the Form of this Sacrament is expressed 
 by way of Prayer. 
 
 Nor let any one be surprised that, whilst the form of each of 
 the other sacraments either absolutely signifies what it effects, 
 as when we say : " I baptize thee," or " I sign thee with the 
 sign of the cross," or is pronounced, as it were, by way of a 
 command, as when, in administering the sacrament of order, it 
 is said : " Receive power," this form of extreme unction is 
 alone expressed by way of prayer. For with very good 
 reason has that been ordained ; for as this sacrament is admi- 
 nistered, in order that, besides the spiritual grace which it 
 imparts, it may also restore health to the sick, and as, however, 
 it does not always follow that the sick recover from their 
 illness, therefore does the form consist of a prayer, by which 
 we beg of the divine bounty that which the virtue of the 
 sacrament is not wont to effect in constant and continual order. 
 In the administration of this sacrament, also, are employed 
 peculiar rites ; but the most part of them consist of prayers, 
 which the priest uses for the recovery of the sick person. For 
 there is no other sacrament, which is administered with more 
 prayers ; and with reason, for at that time most especially do 
 the faithful require the assistance of pious prayers ; and, there- 
 fore, all others who may happen to be then present, and parti- 
 cularly parish-priests, ought to implore God from the heart in 
 behalf of the sick person,5and with all earnestness recommend his 
 life and salvation to the divine mercy. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Who is the Institutor of this Sacrament. 
 
 It having been shown that extreme unction is truly and pro- 
 perly to be numbered amongst the sacraments, it also follows 
 that its institution is derived from Christ the Lord, having been 
 subsequently proposed and promulgated to the faithful by the 
 Apostle St. James. The same Saviour, however, seems to have 
 given some indication of this unction, when he sent his disciples, 
 two and two, before his face ; for of them it is thus written in 
 the Evangelist : " Going forth, they preached that they should 
 do penance ; and they cast out many devils, and anointed with 
 oil many that were sick, and healed them " (Mark, vi. 12, sq.). 
 This anointing we must believe not to have been invented by 
 the Apostles, but commanded by the Lord ; not to have been 
 endowed with some natural virtue, but of mystic import ;
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VI. 269 
 
 instituted rather to heal the maladies of the soul, than to cure 
 the diseases of the body. This Saints Denis, Ambrose, Chry- 
 sostom, and Gregory the Great affirm ; so that by no means 
 must it be doubted, that we ought to accept this with the 
 highest veneration as one of the seven sacraments of the Ca- 
 tholic Church. 
 
 QUESTION IX. Extreme Unction, to whom to be administered. 
 
 But the faithful are to be taught that, although this sacra- 
 ment appertains to all, certain classes of persons are excepted, 
 to whom it is not to be administered. And in the first place 
 are excepted persons in sound health ; for that to them ex- 
 treme unction is not to be given the Apostle also teaches, 
 when he says : " Is any one sick among you?" (James, v. 14^ ; 
 and reason shows, for it was instituted to be medicinal not only 
 to the soul, but also to the body. As, then, those only that 
 labour under disease have occasion for cure, therefore should 
 this sacrament be administered to those only who seem to be so 
 dangerously ill as to excite apprehensions of their approaching 
 dissolution. Those, however, sin very grievously who defer 
 the holy unction until all hope of recovery now lost, life 
 begins to ebb, and the sick person to sink into, insensibility ; 
 for it is obvious that it avails very much to a more abundant 
 reception of the grace of the sacrament, if the sick man be 
 anointed with the sacred oil whilst the mind and reason are 
 still unimpaired, and he can bring to its reception faith and 
 devotion. Wherefore parish-priests must take care to apply 
 this heavenly medicine, in itself at all times most salutary, then 
 especially whilst they see that its efficacy will also be increased 
 by the piety and devotion of those to whom it is to be 
 administered. 
 
 To no one, therefore, who is not visited by heavy sickness, 
 is it lawful to give the sacrament of unction, even though he 
 should incur risk of life by undertaking a perilous voyage, or 
 engaging in battle from which certain death may impend over 
 him, or even though, condemned to capital punishment, he 
 should be hurried off to execution. All, besides, who want the 
 use of reason, are not fit to receive this sacrament, nor are 
 children, who commit no sins, from the remains of which they 
 would have occasion to be healed by the remedial efficacy of 
 this sacrament, nor fools and madmen also, unless they have 
 lucid intervals, and then in particular give sign of piety, and 
 ask to be anointed with the sacred oil ; for a person insane 
 from his very birth is not to be anointed ; but if a sick person, 
 whilst yet in the full possession of his faculties, had expressed a
 
 270 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 wish to be made a partaker of this sacrament, and subsequently 
 becomes insane and delirious, he is to be anointed. 
 
 QUESTION X. What parts of the Body ought here to be 
 anointed. 
 
 The sacred unction is to be applied not to all the parts of 
 the body, but to the organs of sense only : to the eyes, because 
 [the organs] of sight ; to the ears, because [the organs] of 
 hearing ; to the nostrils, because [the organs] of smelling ; to 
 the mouth, because [the organ] of taste and speech ; to the 
 hands, because [the organs] of touch ; for although the sense 
 of touch is diffused alike through the whole body, yet the hands 
 are its principal seat. This manner of administering extreme 
 unction is observed by the Universal Church, audalso admirably 
 accords with the nature of this sacrament, for it is medicinal. 
 And as in diseases of the body, although the whole body is 
 affected with illness, yet the cure is applied to that part only 
 from which, as from its source and origin, the disease emanates ; 
 so is this unction applied not to the entire body, but to those 
 members which are pre-eminently the organs of sense, and 
 also to the loins, which are, as it were, the seat of concupiscence, 
 and to the feet, which enables us to move from one place to 
 another. 
 
 QUESTION XL Extreme Unction may be repeated. 
 
 Here it is to be observed that, during one and the same 
 illness, whilst the sick man is placed in the same danger to life, 
 he is to be anointed only once ; but should he recover after 
 having been thus anointed, he may receive the aid of this 
 sacrament as often as he shall subsequently fall into the same 
 danger of death ; and hence extreme unction is evidently to 
 be numbered amongst those sacraments that are wont to be 
 repeated. 
 
 QUESTION XII. What is the Religious Preparation with which 
 tJiis Sacrament should be received. 
 
 But as all care should be taken that nothing impede the grace 
 of the sacrament, and as nothing is more opposed to it than 
 the consciousness of mortal guilt, the constant practice of the 
 Catholic Church must be observed, of administering the sacra- 
 ment of penance and the Eucharist before extreme unction. 
 And next let parish-priests strive to persuade the sick person 
 to receive this sacrament with the same faith with which 
 those of old, who were to be healed by the Apostles, used 
 to present themselves. But the salvation of his soul is to be
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VI. 271 
 
 the first object of the sick man's wishes ; then the health of the 
 body, with this qualification, " if it avail to eternal glory." Nor 
 should the faithful doubt that those holy and solemn prayers 
 which are used by the priest, not in his own person, but in that 
 of the Church, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, are heard by God ; 
 and they are most particularly to be exhorted on this one point, to 
 take care that the sacrament of this most salutary oil be admi- 
 nistered to them holily and religiously, when the sharper conflict 
 seems at hand, and the energies of the mind as well as of the 
 body appear to be failing. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. By whom this Sacrament should be 
 administered.. 
 
 Who is the minister of extreme unction we learn from the 
 same Apostle that promulgated the law of the Lord; for he 
 says: "Let him bring in the priests" (James, v. 14). By the 
 word priests (presbyteri), as the Council of Trent has wisely 
 expounded,* he does not mean persons advanced in years, or of 
 chief authority among the people, but priests who have been 
 duly ordained by bishops by the imposition of hands (2 Tim. 
 i. 6). To the priest, therefore, has been committed the adminis- 
 tration of this sacrament ; not, however, to every priest, as holy 
 Church has decreed, but to the proper pastor who has jurisdiction, 
 or to another authorized by him to discharge his office. In this, 
 however, as also in the administration of the other sacraments, it is 
 to be most distinctly recollected, that the priest is the represen- 
 tative of Christ our Lord, and of his Spouse, holy Church. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. What fruits redound to Men from the use of 
 this Sacrament. 
 
 The advantages we receive from this sacrament are also to 
 be accurately explained, that if nothing else can allure the 
 faithful to its reception, they may be induced at least by its 
 utility, for we are naturally disposed to measure almost all 
 things by our interests. Pastors, therefore, will teach, that by 
 this sacrament is imparted grace that remits sins, and especially 
 indeed lighter, or, as they are commonly called, venial sins, for 
 mortal sins are removed by the sacrament of penance ; nor was 
 this sacrament instituted primarily for the remission of heavier 
 crimes ; but this baptism and penance only accomplish by their 
 own efficacy. Another advantage of the sacred unction is, 
 that it liberates the soul from the languor and infirmity which it 
 contracted from sins, and from all the other remains of sin. But
 
 272 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 the time to be considered most opportune for this cure is, when 
 we are afflicted with severe illness, and danger to life impends ; 
 for it has been implanted by nature in man to dread no human 
 visitation so much as death; and this dread greatly augments 
 the recollection of our past sins, especially if the most poignant 
 accusation of our conscience goads us ; for, as it is written: 
 " They shall come with fear at the thought of their sins, and 
 their iniquities shall stand against them to convict them " (Wis. 
 iv. 20). Another source of vehement anguish is the anxious 
 thought, that we must soon after stand before the judgment-seat 
 of God, who will pass on us a sentence of strictest justice ac- 
 cording to our deserts. It often happens that, struck with this 
 terror, the faithful feel themselves wonderfully agitated; and 
 nothing conduces more to a tranquil death than to banish sad- 
 ness, await with a joyous mind the coming of our Lord, and be 
 ready willingly to surrender our deposit whenever it shall be 
 his will to demand it back. To free the minds of the faithful 
 from this solicitude, and till the soul with pious and holy joy, 
 is then an effect of the sacrament of extreme unction. 
 
 From it, moreover, we derive another advantage, which may 
 justly be deemed the greatest of all. For although the enemy 
 of the human race never ceases, whilst we live, to meditate our 
 ruin and destruction, yet at no time does he more violently strain 
 every nerve utterly to destroy us, and, if possible, deprive us of 
 all hope of the divine mercy, than when he sees the last day of 
 life approach. Therefore are arms and strength supplied to the 
 faithful in this sacrament, to enable them to break the violence 
 and impetuosity of the adversary, and to fight bravely against 
 him ; for the soul is relieved and encouraged by the hope of the 
 divine goodness, strengthened by which it bears more lightly all 
 the burdens of sickness, and eludes with greater ease the arti- 
 fice and cunning of the devil, who lies in wait for it. Finally, 
 the recovery of health, if indeed advantageous, is another effect 
 of this sacrament. However, should the sick not recover it in 
 these days, that is to be attributed, not to any defect of the 
 sacrament, but rather to the weaker faith of a great part of 
 those who are anointed with the sacred oil, or by whom it is 
 administered ; for the Evangelist bears witness that the Lord 
 " wrought not many miracles " amongst his own, " because of 
 their unbelief" (Matt. xiii. 58). Although it may also be said 
 with reason that the Christian religion, since it has struck its 
 roots as it were more deeply in the minds of men, stands now 
 less in need of the aids of such miracles than they would seem 
 to have been formerly at the commencement of the rising 
 Church. But, nevertheless, faith is here to be strongly excited,
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VII. 273 
 
 for however it shall happen by God's counsel and will with 
 regard to the health of the body, the faithful ought to rely on a 
 sure hope of attaining, by virtue of this sacred oil, spiritual 
 health, and of experiencing, should the hour of their departure 
 from life be at hand, the fruit of that glorious assurance, by 
 which it is written : " Blessed are the dead who die in the 
 Lord " (Apoc. xiv. 13). 
 
 These matters regarding the sacrament of extreme unction 
 have indeed been said briefly ; bnt if even these heads of mat- 
 ter shall be developed by pastors more at large, and with becom- 
 ing diligence, it is not to be doubted that the faithful will derive 
 from that exposition very great fruit of piety. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE SACRAMENT OF ORDER. 
 
 QUESTION I. Why Parish-priests ought to explain to the people 
 with great diligence the Doctrine of the Saci-ament of Order. 
 
 If any one has attentively considered the nature and proper- 
 ties of the other sacraments, he will easily perceive, that so de- 
 pendent are they all on the sacrament of order, that without 
 it some could not at all be consecrated or administered, whilst 
 others would want their solemn ceremony, religious rite, and 
 due respect. Wherefore it is necessary that, following up their 
 exposition of the sacraments, pastors deem it a duty to treat 
 with the greater diligence of the sacrament of order also. And 
 this exposition will prove most profitable, first to themselves, 
 next to others who have entered into the ecclesiastical state of 
 life, and finally to the faithful people also ; to themselves, be- 
 cause, whilst engaged in treating this subject, they are more 
 excited to stir up within them that grace which they received in 
 this sacrament ; to others, who have been called into the inheri- 
 tance of the Lord, partly by experiencing the same love of piety, 
 and partly by acquiring a knowledge of those things, which will 
 qualify them the more easily to advance to higher degrees ; to 
 the rest of the faithful, first indeed by enabling them to under- 
 stand the respect due to the ministers of the Church, and next, 
 as it often happens that amongst the hearers there are many 
 who intend their children for the ministry of the Church, whilst 
 yet young, or some who, of their own accord and will, are 
 
 s
 
 274 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 candidates for that state of life, it is by no means proper that 
 such persons should be unacquainted with the principal things 
 regarding its nature. 
 
 QUESTION II. No Dignity on earth excels the Order of the 
 Priesthood. 
 
 The faithful, then, are first to be made acquainted with the 
 exalted dignity and excellence of this ordinance, if we regard its 
 highest degree, which is the priesthood. For as bishops and 
 priests are as certain interpreters and heralds of God, who in 
 his name teach men the divine law and the precepts of life, and 
 are the representatives on earth of God himself, it is clear that 
 their function is such, that none greater can be conceived ; 
 wherefore they are justly called not only " angels" (Mai. ii. 7), 
 but also " gods" (Fs. Ixxxi. 6), holding as they do amongst us 
 the power and authority of the immortal God. But although 
 they at all times held a most exalted dignity, yet the priests of 
 the new testament far excel all the others in honour ; for the 
 power of consecrating and offering the body and blood of our 
 Lord, and of remitting sins, which has been conferred on them, 
 transcends human reason and intelligence, still less can there be 
 found on earth anything equal and like to it. 
 
 QUESTION IIT. Who are to be considered as called by God 
 to the Priesthood and to Ecclesiastical Ministrations. 
 
 In the next place, as our Saviour was sent by the Father, 
 (John, viii. 42), and the Apostles and Disciples were sent into 
 the whole world by Christ the Lord (Matt, xviii. 10); so priests, 
 invested with the same power as they, are sent daily, " for the 
 perfection of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and the 
 edification of the body of Christ" (Eph. iv. 12). The burden 
 of this so great an office is therefore not rashly to be imposed 
 on any one, but on those only who, by sanctity of life, 
 knowledge, faith, prudence, can sustain it: "Neither" let "any 
 one " take " the honour to himself, but he that is called by God, 
 as Aaron was " (Heb. v. 4) ; but they are said to be called by 
 God, who are called by the lawful ministers of the Church ; for 
 those who arrogantly intermeddle with, and intrude themselves 
 into, this ministry, the Lord, it is to be taught, had in view 
 when he said : " I did not send Prophets, yet they ran " (Jer. 
 xxiii. 21). Than this class of men nothing can be more un- 
 happy and miserable, nothing more calamitous to the Church of 
 God.* 
 
 * Vid. dist. 23, multia in capitibua.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VII. 275 
 
 QUESTION IV. Who are to be considered to approach Holy 
 Orders rashly, and to enter the Church " another way." 
 
 But as, in every undertaking, the end which each person 
 proposes to himself is of the utmost importance (for when the 
 end is very good, all things proceed well), candidates for holy 
 orders should, first of all, be admonished of this, to propose to 
 themselves nothing unworthy of so great an office, a subject 
 which is indeed to be treated the more diligently, inasmuch as 
 the faithful are wont to sin more grievously in that respect in 
 these our days ; there are some who betake themselves to this 
 state of life in order to procure a livelihood ; so that, like 
 worldlings generally in some kind of sordid occupation, they 
 seem to look to nothing in the priesthood but gain. For al- 
 though the natural and divine law command that, according 
 to the saying of the Apostle, he who serves the altar should live 
 by the altar (1 Cor. ix. 13) ; yet to approach the altar for gain 
 and lucre, is sacrilege of the worst kind. Others a love of 
 honours and a spirit of ambition conduct to the altar; others 
 wish to be initiated in order to abound in riches ; and of this the 
 proof is, that, unless some rich ecclesiastical benefice be presented 
 to them, they have no thought of embracing the ecclesiastical 
 state. These are they whom our Saviour designates " hire- 
 lings" (John, x. 12), and who, as Ezechiel said," feed themselves, 
 and not the sheep" (Ezech. xxxiv. 2, 3, 10, 11); whose base- 
 ness and profligacy have not only tarnished the lustre of the 
 priestly order, so as to render it in our days an object of utter 
 contempt to the faithful people, but also cause themselves to 
 derive from the priesthood nothing more than Judas did from 
 the office of the Apostleship, which brought him everlasting per- 
 dition. But they who, legitimately called by God, undertake- 
 the priestly office, solely to promote God's glory, are justly said 
 "to enter the Church by the door" (John, x. 12). 
 
 QUESTION V. How they who by Holy Orders have dedicated 
 themselves to the Church, should surpass and excel the rest of the 
 people. 
 
 This, however, is not so to be understood as if the same 
 obligation [of promoting his glory} is not equally imposed on 
 all ; for men were created for this, to worship God ; and the 
 faithful in particular, consecrated as they have been by baptism, 
 should do so with their whole heart, their whole soul, and with 
 all their strength ; but candidates for the sacrament of order 
 must not only propose to themselves to seek in all things the 
 glory of God (a duty, it is evident, common to all, and most
 
 276 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 particularly to the faithful), but also, being devoted to some 
 particular ministry of the Church, to serve God " in holiness 
 and justice " (Luke, i. 74). For as in an army all indeed obey 
 the orders of the general, but yet one amongst them is colonel, 
 another captain, others hold other ranks ; so in the Church, 
 although all the faithful ought with all earnestness to follow piety 
 and innocence, by which God is most honoured, yet those who 
 are initiated in the sacrament of order, have to execute certain 
 special duties and functions. For they offer sacrifice for them- 
 selves, and for all the people ; instruct in the obligation of the 
 divine law ; exhort and form the faithful to its prompt and 
 cheerful observance ; and administer the sacraments of Christ 
 the Lord, by which all grace is imparted and augmented. In 
 a word, set apart from the rest of the people, they are engaged 
 in a ministry of all others by far the greatest and the most 
 exalted. 
 
 Having then explained these matters, parish-priests will pro- 
 ceed to expound the things that are peculiar to this sacrament, 
 that those amongst the faithful who wish to be admitted to the 
 ecclesiastical state, may understand the nature of the office to 
 which they may be called, and may know what an extent of 
 power has been conferred by God on his Church and her 
 ministers. 
 
 QUESTION VI. The Ecclesiastical Power Twofold. 
 
 ' That power is twofold of order and of jurisdiction. The power 
 of order has reference to the real body of Christ the Lord in the 
 holy Eucharist, but that of jurisdiction altogether regards his 
 mystical body ; for to the latter it belongs to govern and rule 
 the Christian people, and direct them to the everlasting bliss of 
 heaven. 
 
 QUESTION VII To what the Power of Order extends. 
 
 But the power of order not only includes the power and pre- 
 rogative of consecrating the Eucharist, but also prepares and 
 qualifies the souls of men for its reception, and embraces what- 
 ever else can be referred in any way to the Eucharist. Of this 
 several attestations can be adduced from the sacred Scriptures, 
 amongst which the most striking and weighty are the words 
 which are read in Saints John and Matthew, for the Lord says : 
 "As the Father hath sent me, I also send you : Receive ye the 
 Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; 
 and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained " (John, xx. 
 21, sqq.) ; and : "Amen, I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind 
 upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven ; and whatsoever you
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VII. 277 
 
 shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven " (Matt, 
 xviii. 18). These passages, if explained by pastors from the 
 doctrine and on the authority of the holy Fathers, will be able 
 to throw very great light on this truth. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. The Priesthood of Christ is more sublime than 
 tliat of the Law of Nature, or even of Moses. 
 
 This power very far transcends that which was given under 
 the law of nature to certain men, who administered sacred things ; 
 for the age anterior to the written law must also have had its 
 priesthood and its spiritual power, since that it had a law is suffi- 
 ciently clear. For the Apostle testifies that so interwoven with 
 one another are these two things, that, on one being transferred, 
 the other must also be necessarily transferred with it (Heb. vii. 
 12). As, then, led by natural instinct, men acknowledged that 
 God is to be worshipped, it followed that, under every form of 
 government, some persons must be set over the official guardian- 
 ship of sacred things and of the divine worship, whose power 
 might, in some sort, be called spiritual. This same power [the 
 priesthood of] the Israelitic people also possessed ; but although 
 superior in dignity to that with which priests under the law of 
 nature were endowed, it must, however, be considered far inferior 
 to the spiritual power enjoyed under the Gospel-dispensation ; for 
 this is a heavenly power, raised even above all that of angels, 
 and has its origin, not in the Mosaical priesthood, but in Christ 
 the Lord, who was a priest, not according to Aaron, but accord- 
 ing to the order of Melchisedech " (Heb. vii. 11). For he who 
 was endowed with supreme power to grant grace and pardon, 
 has left to his Church this power, limited however in its extent, 
 and attached to the sacraments. To exercise it, therefore, cer- 
 tain ministers have been appointed and solemnly consecrated ; 
 and this consecration is called " the sacrament of order," or 
 " sacred ordination." 
 
 QUESTION IX. What is Order, and why the Ecclesiastical 
 Function is called Order. 
 
 This appellation, which has a most extensive signification, the 
 holy Fathers were pleased to employ, in order to indicate the 
 dignity and excellence of the ministers of God. Understood in 
 its strict and proper acceptation, "order" is the disposition of 
 superior and inferior things, which are so well adapted to each 
 other, as to stand in reciprocal relations. Comprising, then, as 
 this ministry does, many gradations and various functions, and 
 distributed and disposed as they all are with regularity, it
 
 278 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 appears to be appropriately and suitably called the sacrament 
 of " order." 
 
 QUESTION X. Order is strictly speaking a Sacrament. 
 
 That sacred ordination is to be numbered amongst the other 
 sacraments of the Church, the holy Council of Trent has es- 
 tablished on the principle which has been repeatedly mentioned ; 
 for as a sacrament is a sign of a sacred thing, and as the ex- 
 ternal forms nsed in this consecration are significant of the grace 
 and power conferred on him who is consecrated, it very clearly 
 follows that order is to be pronounced really and truly a sacra- 
 ment.* Wherefore, the bishop, handing to him who is being 
 ordained priest a chalice containing wine and water, and a paten 
 with bread, says : " Receive the power of offering sacrifice," 
 &c.; by which words the Church has always taught, that, whilst 
 the matter is being presented, the power of consecrating the 
 Eucharist is conferred, a character being impressed on the soul, 
 to which is attached grace for the due and legitimate discharge 
 of this ministry, as the Apostle declares in these words: " I 
 admonish thee that thou stir up the grace of God, which is in 
 thee by the imposition of my hands; for God hath not given us 
 the spirit of fear but of power, and of love and of sobriety ** 
 (2 Tim. i. 6, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XI. Why there are several Orders of Ministers 
 instituted in the Church. 
 
 Now, to use the words of the holy Council, " Whereas the 
 ministry of " so great " a priesthood is a divine thing, to the 
 end that it might be exercised more worthily and with greater 
 veneration, it was meet that, in the most well-ordered arrange- 
 ment of the Church, there should be several and diverse orders 
 of ministers, who, by virtue of their office, should serve the 
 priesthood," and these indeed " so distributed, as that those who 
 were already marked with the clerical tonsure, should ascend 
 through the lesser to the greater orders."! 
 
 QUESTION XII. Number of the Orders. 
 
 It must then be taught that all these orders are comprised in 
 seven, and that this has been the constant teaching of the 
 Catholic Church. Their names are : Porter, Reader, Exorcist, 
 Acolyte, Sub-deacon, Deacon, Priest. That this number of mi- 
 nisters was wisely thus instituted, may be proved from the 
 functions that seem necessary to the solemn celebration of the 
 
 * Sess. xxiii. c. 3. t Sess. xxiii. c. 2.
 
 PART H. CHAPTER VTI. 279 
 
 holy sacrifice of the Mass, and to the consecration or adminis- 
 tration of the Eucharist, on account of which principally they 
 were established. Of these some are greater, which are also 
 called " holy," some lesser [called " minor orders "]. The 
 greater, or holy, are sub-deaconship, deaconship, and priesthood ; 
 the lesser [or minor orders] are porter, reader, exorcist, and 
 acolyte. To supply pastors with matter, wherewith they may 
 instruct those especially who they know are to be initiated in 
 some order, a few words are necessary on each. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. What mean Clerical Tonsure and the name of 
 " Clerk." 
 
 But we must begin with first tonsure, which [the pastor] 
 should teach to be a certain preparation for receiving orders ; 
 for as persons are prepared for baptism by exorcisms, for mar- 
 riage by espousals, so when they are dedicated to God by ton- 
 sure, access, as it were, is opened for them to the sacrament of 
 order. For by tonsure is declared what sort of person he 
 should be who desires to be imbued with holy orders ; for the 
 name of " clerk," which is then for the first time given him, 
 implies that thenceforward he has taken the Lord for his lot and 
 inheritance,* like those among the Hebrew people who were 
 bound to the service of God, to whom the Lord forbade that any 
 portion of the ground should be distributed in the land of pro- 
 mise, saying : " I am thy portion and inheritance " (Num. xviii. 
 20). And although this is common to all the faithful, it must 
 apply in an especial manner to those who have consecrated 
 themselves to the ministry of God. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. Why Clerks are marked by a Circular Crown 
 on the Head. 
 
 In tonsure the hair of the head is cut in form of a crown, 
 and should always be worn in that form, enlarging the crown 
 according as any one advances in orders. This form of the 
 tonsure the Church teaches to be derived from Apostolic tradi- 
 tion, as it is mentioned by SS. Denis the Areopagite,t Augus- 
 tine,:}: Jerome, Fathers of the greatest antiquity and authority. 
 It is, however, said that the Prince of the Apostles first of all 
 introduced that usage in memory of the crown of thorns which 
 was pressed on the head of our Saviour, that what the impious 
 devised for the ignomony and torture of Christ, might be worn 
 
 * K\rjpos, SOT?, "a lot." TR. t Dionys. de Eccles. Hier. c. 6, 
 part 2. J Aug. serm. 17, al Fratres in Eremo. Hier. in cap. 
 xliv. Ezech.
 
 ,280 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 by the Apostles as their ornament and glory, and also to signify 
 that the ministers of the Church should take care in all things to 
 exhibit in their conduct the figure and the likeness of Christ 
 our Lord. Some, however, assert that this mark is an emblem 
 of the royal dignity, which seems peculiarly to suit those who 
 are called to the inheritance of the Lord ; for it is easily under- 
 stood, that to the ministers of the Church belongs, in a peculiar 
 and more particular manner, what the Apostle Peter attributes 
 to the faithful people : " You are a chosen generation, a royal 
 priesthood, a holy nation " (1 Pet. ii > ^). Nor are there want- 
 ing those who are either of opinion, that by the form of a circle, 
 which is the most perfect of all figures, is signified a profession 
 of the more perfect life entered upon by clerks, or think that, 
 because hair is cut off, which is a sort of superfluity to the body, 
 by it is expressed a contempt for external things, and a disen- 
 gagement of the mind from all human cares. 
 
 QUESTION XV. What is the Function of Porters. 
 
 After first tonsure, the next step is to the order of Porter. 
 His duty is to keep the keys and gate of the church, and ex- 
 clude those from entering the temple to whom entrance had been 
 interdicted. He also assisted at the holy sacrifice of the Mass, 
 to take care that no one should approach too near the sacred 
 altar, and interrupt the priest while performing divine service. 
 To him were also committed other ministrations, as may be 
 clearly seen from the rites which are used at his consecration ; 
 for, handing to him whom he wishes to ordain porter the keys 
 taken from the altar, the bishop says : " So CONDUCT THYSELF, 
 
 AS HAVING TO RENDER AN ACCOUNT TO GOD FOR THOSE THINGS 
 
 THAT ARE KEPT UNDER THESE KEYS." That in the ancient 
 Church the dignity of this order was considerable, is under- 
 stood from ecclesiastical observances still existing ; for the 
 office of treasurer, who was also guardian of the sacristy, which 
 belonged to the porter, is even now numbered amongst the 
 more honourable functions of the Church. 
 
 QUESTION XVI. Office of Header in the Church, what. 
 
 The second degree of order is the office of Reader. To him 
 it belongs to recite in the Church, in a clear and distinct voice, 
 the books of the Old and New Testament, but particularly those 
 which are wont to be read during the nocturnal psalmody ;* ami 
 on him also devolved the task of instructing the faithful in the 
 first rudiments of the Christian religion. Hence, at his ordina- 
 
 * I. e. at Matins. TR.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VII. 281 
 
 tion the bishop, in presence of the people, handing him a book 
 in which is set down what belongs to this function, says : " RE- 
 CEIVE [THIS BOOK], AND BE THOU AN ANNOUNCER OF THE WORD OF 
 GOD, DESTINED, IF THOU SHALT FAITHFULLY AND USEFULLY DIS- 
 CHARGE THINE OFFICE, TO HAVE A PART WITH THOSE WHO, FROM 
 THE BEGINNING, HAVE WELL MINISTERED THE WORD OF GOD." 
 
 QUESTION XVII. Duty of the Exorcist. 
 
 The third is the order of Exorcists, to whom has been given 
 the power of invoking the name of the Lord over those who are 
 possessed by unclean spirits. Hence the bishop, when ordaining 
 them, hands them a book containing the exorcisms, using this 
 form of words : " TAKE AND COMMIT TO MEMORY, AND HAVE POWER 
 TO IMPOSE HANDS ON POSSESSED PERSONS, WHETHER BAPTIZED OR 
 CATECHUMENS." 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. Duties of Acolytes. 
 
 The fourth and last degree of all the orders which are called 
 minor, and not holy, is that of the Acolytes, whose duty it is to 
 attend and serve those in holy orders, deacons and sub-deacons, 
 in the ministry of the altar. They also carry and attend to the 
 lights during the celebration of the sacrifice of the Mass, but 
 particularly whilst the Gospel is being read, and were hence 
 called by a different name, that of wax-candle-bearers. At their 
 ordination, therefore, this rite was wont to be observed by the 
 bishop : first, having carefully admonished them of the nature 
 of their office, he places in the hand of each a light, with these 
 words : " RECEIVE THE CANDLESTICK AND WAX-LIGHT, AND KNOW 
 
 THAT THOU ART MANCIPATED TO LIGHT THE LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 IN THE NAME OF THE LORD." He then hands him also empty 
 cruets, in which wine and water are ministered in the sacrifice 
 [saying] : ' KECEIVE THE CRUETS TO SUPPLY WINE AND WATER FOR 
 THE EUCHARIST OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, IN THE NAME OF THE 
 LORD." 
 
 QUESTION XIX. What is the Office of Sub-deacon, and what 
 sort of Rites are used at his Consecration. 
 
 From minor orders, which come not under the denomination 
 of holy, and of which we have hitherto spoken, lies open the 
 legitimate access and ascent to holy orders. In their first degree 
 is placed the sub-deacon, whose office, as the name itself declares, 
 is to serve the deacon at the altar, for he ought to prepare the 
 sacred linens, the vessels, the bread and wine necessary for the 
 sacrifice. He now ministers water to the priest and bishop, 
 when they wash their hands at the sacrifice of the Mass. The
 
 282 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Bub-deacon also reads the Epistle, which was formerly recited at 
 Mass by the deacon ; assists as a witness at the sacred myste- 
 ries ; and prevents the officiating priest from being possibly dis- 
 turbed by any one. These functions, which appertain to the 
 ministry of the sub-deacon, may be known from the solemn cere- 
 monies which are used at his consecration. For, in the first 
 place, the bishop admonishes him, that on this order is imposed 
 the obligation of perpetual continence, and proclaims aloud 
 that no one is to be admitted to the order of sub-deacons, who 
 is not prepared freely to receive this law. In the next place, 
 after the solemn prayers of the Litanies, [the bishop] enume- 
 rates and explains what are the duties and functions of the sub- 
 deacon. This done, each of the candidates for ordination re- 
 ceives from the bishop himself a chalice and sacred paten, but 
 from the archdeacon, to give it to be understood that a sub- 
 deacon is to serve the deacon, cruets filled with wine and water, 
 together with a basin and towel for washing and drying the 
 hands, the bishop saying: " SEE WHAT SORT OF MINISTRY is GIVEN 
 
 TO YOU : I ADMONISH YOU THEREFORE SO TO COMPORT YOURSELVES 
 
 AS THAT YOU MAY PLEASE GOD." Other prayers are also added ; 
 and when, finally, the bishop has attired the sub-deacon in the 
 sacred vestments, at each of which are used appropriate words 
 and ceremonies, he hands him the book of the Epistles, and 
 says: "KECEIVE THE BOOK OF THE EPISTLES, AND HAVE POWER 
 
 TO READ THEM IN THE HOLY CHURCH OF GOD, AS WELL FOR THE 
 LIVING AS FOR THE DEAD." 
 
 QUESTION XX. Office of Deacon, what. 
 
 The second grade amongst the holy orders is held by the 
 Deacon, whose ministry is more comprehensive, and has been 
 always deemed more holy; for to him it belongs constantly to 
 accompany the bishop, to take care of him when preaching, to 
 assist him and the priest at the celebration of the holy mysteries 
 and at the administration of the other sacraments, and to read 
 the Gospel at the sacrifice of the Mass. In ancient times he not 
 unfrequently excited the minds of the faithful to attend to the 
 divine worship, and also administered the blood of the Lord in 
 those churches, in which it was the custom for the faithful to 
 receive the Eucharist under both kinds. To the deacon besides 
 was committed the distribution of the goods of the Church, in 
 order to administer to each one the necessaries of life. To the 
 deacon also, as the eye of the bishop, it belongs to investigate 
 who within his diocese lead lives of piety and religion, and who 
 do not; who attend the sacrifice and sermon at the appointed 
 times, and again who do not; that thus the bishop, being made
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VII. 283 
 
 acquainted by him with all these matters, may be enabled to advise 
 and admonish each offender privately, or to correct and rebuke 
 him publicly, as he may deem either likely to prove more effectual. 
 He should also call over the names of catechumens, and present 
 to the bishop those who are to be initiated in the sacrament of 
 order. In the absence of the bishop and priest, he may also 
 explain the Gospel to the people, not, however, from an elevated 
 place, to make it understood that this is not his proper office. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. What sort of Persons should be chosen 
 Deacons. 
 
 What great care should be taken, that no one, unworthy of 
 that office, ascend to this degree of order, the Apostle has shown, 
 when expounding to Timothy the morals, the virtue, and the 
 integrity of "the deacon" (1 Tim. iii. 8, 10). The rites and 
 solemn ceremonies with which he is consecrated by the bishop, 
 declare the same ; for the bishop uses more numerous and more 
 solemn prayers at the ordination of a deacon than of a sub-deacon, 
 and adds other ornamental sacred vestments. Moreover, he 
 imposes hands on him, as we read was practised by the Apostles, 
 when they ordained the first deacons (Acts, vi. 6). Finally, he 
 delivered to him the book of the Gospels, with these words : 
 " RECEIVE POWER TO READ THE GOSPEL IN TUB CHURCH OF 
 GOD, AS WELL FOR THE LIVING AS FOR THE DEAD, IN THE NAME 
 OF THE LORD." 
 
 QUESTION XXII. Dignity and Excellence of the Priesthood. 
 
 The third and highest degree of all the holy orders is the 
 Priesthood. The ancient Fathers are wont to designate persons 
 endued with it by two names ; for they sometimes call them 
 " presbyters," which in Greek signifies elders, not only on ac- 
 count of the maturity of age which is most necessary for this 
 order, but much more on account of the gravity of manners, the 
 learning and prudence ; for as it is written : " Venerable old 
 age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of 
 years ; but the understanding of a man is grey hairs " (Wisd. 
 iv. 8). Sometimes they also call them "priests" (sacerdotes), 
 both because they are consecrated to God, and because to them 
 it belongs to administer the sacraments, and to handle sacred 
 and divine things. 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. The Priesthood of the Old and New Law 
 is Twofold. 
 
 But as in the sacred Scriptures a twofold priesthood, the 
 one internal, the other external, is described, both must be
 
 284 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 distinguished, that pastors may be enabled to explain what 
 priesthood is here meant. With regard, then, to the internal 
 priesthood, all the faithful, after they have been washed in the 
 saving water, are called priests, but particularly the just, who 
 have the Spirit of God, and, by the benefit of the divine grace, 
 have been made living members of Jesus Christ the High-Priest ; 
 for, through faith inflamed by charity, they immolate on the altar 
 of their heart spiritual sacrifices to God ; and in the number of 
 these sacrifices are to be reckoned all good and virtuous actions, 
 which they refer to the glory of God. Wherefore, we read thus 
 in the Apocalypse : " Christ hath washed us from our sins in his 
 own blood, and hath made us a kingdom, and priests to God 
 and his Father" (Apoc. i. 5, sq.). To this effect it has been 
 said by the Prince of the Apostles : " Be you also, as living 
 stones, built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer 
 up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ " 
 (1 Pet. ii. 5). And the Apostle exhorts us, to "present" our 
 " bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God," our " reason- 
 able service " (Rom. xii. 1). David also had said long before : 
 "A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit ; a contrite and humble 
 heart, God, thou wilt not despise" (Ps. 1. 19); all which 
 are easily understood to regard the internal priesthood. But 
 the external priesthood does not extend to the multitude of all 
 the faithful, but is confined to certain men, who, instituted and 
 consecrated to God, by the lawful imposition of hands, and the 
 solemn ceremonies of holy Church, are devoted to some 
 particular and sacred ministry. This difference of the priesthood 
 is observable also in the Old Law, for that David spoke of the 
 internal priesthood has been shown a little before ; and with 
 regard to the external, what numerous commands God gave to 
 Moses and Aaron in reference to it, no one can be ignorant. 
 Besides, he appointed the entire Levitical tribe to the ministry of 
 th'e temple, and forbade by a law that any member of a different 
 tribe should dare to intrude himself into that function. Where- 
 fore, king Ozias (2 Paral. xxvi. 19), stricken by the Lord with 
 leprosy for having usurped the sarcerdotal office, paid the 
 heaviest penalty for his arrogance and sacrilege. As, then, we 
 may observe the same distinction of internal and external 
 priesthood in the evangelical law, the faithful are to be informed 
 that we here treat of the external priesthood, which is conferred 
 on particular individuals; for that alone belongs to the sacrament 
 of order.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VU. 285 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. What are the Proper Functions of Priests. 
 
 The office, then, of the priest is to offer sacrifice to God, and 
 to administer the sacraments of the Church, as is clearly seen 
 from the rites used at his consecration ; for, when he ordains 
 any one priest, the bishop, with all the priests present, first 
 imposes hands on him; and next, fitting the stole on his shoulders, 
 adjusts it on his breast in the form of a cross, thus declaring 
 that the priest is endued with strength from on high, to enable 
 him to carry the cross of Christ the Lord, and the sweet yoke 
 of the divine law, and to inculcate this law, not by words only, 
 but also by the example of a most virtuous and holy life. [The 
 bishop] afterwards anoints his hands with the sacred oil, pre- 
 sents to him a chalice containing wine, and a paten with a host, 
 saying : " RECEIVE THE POWER OF OFFERING SACRIFICE TO GOD, 
 
 AND OF CELEBRATING MASSES AS WELL FOR THE LIVING AS FOR THE 
 
 DEAD." By these ceremonies and words he is constituted an 
 interpreter and mediator between God and man, which must be 
 deemed the principal function of a priest. Finally, again 
 having placed his hands on his head, [the bishop] says : 
 " RECEIVE THOU THE HOLY GHOST : WHOSE SINS THOU SHALT 
 FORGIVE, THEY ARE FORGIVEN THEM; AND WHOSE THOU SHALT 
 RETAIN, THEY ARE RETAINED" (John, xx. 22, sq.), and confers 
 on him that celestial power of forgiving and retaining sins, 
 which the Lord gave to his disciples. 
 
 QUESTION XXV. The Order of Priesthood, although one, 
 has different Degrees. 
 
 But although the sacerdotal order is one, it yet has various 
 degrees of dignity and power. The first is that of those who are 
 simply called priests, whose functions have been hitherto ex- 
 plained. The second is that of bishops, who are placed over 
 their respective sees, to govern not only the other ministers of 
 the Church, but the faithful people, and, with the greatest 
 vigilance and care, to look after their salvation. Hence, in the 
 sacred Scriptures, they are frequently called " the pastors of the 
 sheep ;" and their office and duties Paul has described in his 
 sermon to the Ephesians, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles 
 (Acts. xx. 28). By Peter also, the Prince of the Apostles, 
 has been left a divine rule for the episcopal office, by which, if 
 bishops study to regulate their actions, they will doubtless be, 
 and will be esteemed, good pastors (1 Pet. v. 2). But bishops 
 are also called " pontiff?," a name borrowed from the ancient 
 Romans, and used by them to designate their chief-priests. The
 
 286 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 third degree is that of archbishops, who preside over several 
 bishops ; and who are also called " metropolitans," because 
 placed over the metropolis of the province. Wherefore, they 
 enjoy a more exalted station, and more ample power, than 
 bishops, although by ordination they differ in nothing from 
 bishops. Patriarchs are placed in the fourth degree, and are, as 
 the name implies, the first and supreme fathers [in the episcopal 
 order]. Formerly, besides the Supreme Roman Pontiff, there 
 were reckoned only four patriarchs in the whole Church, whose 
 dignity however was not the same ; for the patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, although this honour was conferred on him after 
 all the others, yet on account of the majesty of the empire [of 
 which Constantinople was then the capital], he held a higher 
 rank. The next is that of Alexandria, a see founded by the 
 Evangelist Mark, by the command of the Prince of the Apostles. 
 The third is that of Antioch, where Peter first fixed his see. 
 The fourth and last grade is held by that of Jerusalem, which 
 church was governed by James, the brother of our Lord. 
 Before all these the Catholic Church has ever revered the 
 Sovereign Pontiff of Rome, whom Cyril of Alexandria de- 
 nominated, in the Council of Ephesus, the Chief-bishop, Father, 
 and Patriarch, of the whole world. Sitting in that Chair, in 
 which it is certain that Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, sat to 
 the close of life, [the Catholic Church] recognizes in him the 
 highest degree of dignity, and the amplitude of jurisdiction; a 
 dignity and a jurisdiction not based on any synodal, or other 
 human constitutions, but given by God. Wherefore, as successor 
 to Peter, and the true and legitimate Vicar of Christ the Lord, 
 he presides over the Universal Church, the Father and Governor 
 of all the faithful, of bishops and of all other prelates, be theii 
 office and power what they may. From what has been said, 
 pastors then will teach what are the principal offices and 
 functions of ecclesiastical orders and degrees, and who is the 
 minister of this sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XXVI. Who is the legitimate Minister of the 
 
 Sacrament of Order. 
 
 That its administration belongs to the bishop is well known, 
 and is also easily proved by the authority of the holy Scrip- 
 tures, by tradition the most certain, by the testimony of all 
 the Fathers, the decrees of Councils, and the usage and prac- 
 tice of holy Church. Some abbots, it is true, were occasionally 
 permitted to confer minor, not holy, orders ; no one, however, 
 doubts that this is the proper office of the bishop, for whom, 
 and for whom alone, it is lawful to initiate in the other orders
 
 PART IT. CHAPTER VII. 287 
 
 called greater and holy; for sub-deacons, deacons, and priests, 
 are ordained by one bishop only ; but, according to an Apostolic 
 tradition, which has always been preserved in the Church, 
 a bishop is consecrated by three bishops. 
 
 QUESTION XXVII. Why singular Probity is required in those 
 to be promoted to Orders. 
 
 It now follows that we explain who are fit for this sacra- 
 ment, and first of all for the order of priesthood, and what 
 should be their principal qualifications ; for thence it will not 
 be difficult to determine what ought to be the qualifications 
 of those on whom the other orders are to be conferred, according 
 to their respective offices and dignities. That, in promoting 
 to orders, the greatest caution should be used, is obvious from 
 the consideration, that the other sacraments impart grace for 
 the use and sanctification of those by whom they are received ; 
 but those who are initiated in holy orders become partakers of 
 heavenly grace for the good of the Church, and, therefore, for 
 the salvation of all men. Hence we understand why orders 
 are conferred on certain appointed days only, on which, accord- 
 ing to the most ancient usage of the Church, solemn feasts 
 are also enjoined, that the faithful people may obtain from 
 God, by pious and holy prayers, such ministers of sacred things 
 as may seem well qualified to exercise with propriety, and 
 to the advantage of the Church, the power of so great a 
 ministry. 
 
 QUESTION XXVIII. What great Integrity of Life and Morals 
 is required in the person to be ordained. 
 
 First, therefore, he who is to be ordained priest, should be 
 highly commended for integrity of life and morals, not only 
 because, if, while conscious of mortal sin, he procures, or even 
 permits his ordination, he involves himself in a new and most 
 grievous crime ; but also, because it is his duty to enlighten 
 others by the lustre of his virtue and innocence. On this 
 subject pastors must make known the lessons addressed by 
 the Apostle to Titus and Timothy (Tim. i. and 1 Tit. iii.) ; 
 and must also teach that these bodily defects, which by divine 
 injunction excluded from the ministry of the altar in the Old 
 Law, should, under the Gospel Law, be transferred chiefly to the 
 deformities of the mind. Wherefore, we see observed in the 
 Church that holy practice, of those who are to be initiated 
 in holy orders first studying diligently to cleanse their con- 
 science in the sacrament of penance.
 
 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXIX. What and how great Learning is required 
 in the Priest. 
 
 In the priest, moreover, is to be required not merely that 
 knowledge which is necessary for the use and administration 
 of the sacraments, but he should also be so well acquainted 
 with the sacred Scriptures, as to be able to instruct the people 
 in the mysteries of the Christian faith and the precepts of the 
 divine law, to excite the faithful to piety and virtue, and to 
 reclaim them from sin. For the duties of the priest are 
 twofold ; the one, duly to consecrate and administer the sacra- 
 ments ; the other, to instruct the people committed to his faith- 
 ful care in those things and ordinances which are necessary to 
 salvation ; for Malachy testifies thus : "The lips of the priest 
 shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth; 
 because he is the angel of the Lord of Hosts" (Malach. ii. 7). 
 As, then, to discharge his duty in the former of these offices, a 
 moderate share of knowledge is sufficient, the latter certainly 
 requires not ordinary, but rather extraordinary knowledge. 
 From all priests, however, a profound knowledge of recondite 
 subjects is not equally required, but that which may be sufficient 
 for each to discharge his office in the ministry. 
 
 QUESTION XXX. Who are not to be admitted to the Dignity 
 of the Priesthood. 
 
 This sacrament is not to be conferred on boys or on mad or 
 insane persons, because they want the use of reason ; although, 
 if administered to them also, it doubtless impresses on their 
 soul the sacramental character. As to the age required for 
 the different orders, it will be easily known from the decrees 
 of the sacred Council of Trent.* Slaves, also, are excepted, 
 for he that is not at his own disposal, but under the power 
 of another, should not be dedicated to the divine service. 
 Besides, men of blood, and homicides, because excluded by an 
 ecclesiastical law, are excepted, and are irregular ; as are also 
 spurious persons, and all those who are not born in lawful 
 wedlock ; for it is proper that those devoted to the sacred 
 ministry have nothing about them that would seem to expose 
 them to be with reason contemned and despised by others. 
 Lastly, persons who labour under any remarkable personal 
 deformity, or are maimed, ought also not to be admitted, 
 
 Seas, xxiii. c. 12.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VIII. 289 
 
 for such deformity and debility offend the eye, and must 
 necessarily prove an obstacle to the administration of the 
 sacraments. 
 
 QUESTION XXXI. What are the chief Effects oftJiis 
 
 Sacrament. 
 
 Having explained these matters, it now remains that pastors 
 teach, what are the effects of this sacrament. It is clear that 
 the sacrament of order, although, as has been already said, 
 instituted chiefly for the advantage and beauty of the Church, 
 yet produces also in the soul of him who receives it sanctifying 
 grace, by which he is qualified and enabled rightly to discharge 
 the duties of his office, and administer the sacraments ; as also 
 the grace of baptism qualifies for the reception of the other 
 sacraments. By this sacrament also, it is clear, is conferred 
 another grace, namely, a special power in reference to the most 
 holy sacrament of the Eucharist, a power full and perfect in 
 the priest, who alone can consecrate the body and blood of our 
 Lord ; but in the other subordinate ministers, greater or less in 
 proportion to their greater or less approximation to the mysteries 
 of the altar. This power is also denominated a spiritual 
 character, because, by a certain interior mark impressed on the 
 soul, those who have been imbued in holy orders are distin- 
 guished from the rest of the faithful, and devoted to the divine 
 service. This the Apostle seems to have had in view, when he 
 said to Timothy : " Neglect not the grace which is in thee, 
 which was given thee by prophecy, with the imposition of 
 the hands of the priesthood " (1 Tim. iv. 14) ; and in another 
 place : " I admonish thee, that thou stir up the grace of God, 
 which is in thee by the imposition of my hands " (2 Tim. i. 6). 
 On the sacrament of order, let thus much suffice ; for our pur- 
 pose has been to lay before pastors the more important heads of 
 the subject only, in order to supply them with matter for the 
 information of the faithful people, and their instruction in 
 Christian piety. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON THE SA'CRAMENT OF MATRIMONY. 
 
 QUESTION I. Why Parish-priests should take especial care that 
 Hie Christian people know the Nature and Holiness of Matrimony. 
 
 As pastors should propose to themselves the happy and per- 
 fect lives of the Christian people, their most earnest wish must 
 
 T
 
 290 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 be that of the Apostle, when, writing to the Corinthians in 
 these words : "I would that you all were even as myself" (1 
 Cor. vii. 7), that is, that all would observe the virtue of con- 
 tinency ; for the faithful can find no greater happiness in this 
 life, than that the soul, distracted by no worldly care, and every 
 unruly desire of the flesh being tranquillized and extinguished, 
 repose in the sole study of piety, and the contemplation of 
 heavenly things. But since, as the same Apostle testifies, "every 
 one hath his proper gift from God, one after this manner, and 
 another after that " (1 Cor. vii. 7), and marriage is adorned 
 with great and divine blessings, so as truly and properly to be 
 numbered amongst the other sacraments of the Catholic Church, 
 and since the Lord honoured the celebration of marriage by his 
 presence (John, ii. 2), it is sufficiently obvious that the doctrine 
 regarding it must be expounded ; particularly as we find that 
 both St. Paul and the Prince of the Apostles have, in many 
 places, minutely described to us not only the dignity, but also 
 the duties of the married state. For, filled with the Spirit of 
 God, they very well understood the numerous and important 
 advantages that might flow to Christian society, if the faith- 
 ful possessed a knowledge of, and preserved inviolate, the 
 sanctity of marriage ; and that, on the contrary, from ignorance 
 or disregard of its holiness, accrue to the Church very many and 
 most grievous calamities and evils. The nature and import of 
 marriage must therefore be first explained ; for as vices not 
 unfrequently bear the semblance of virtue, care must be taken 
 that the faithful, deceived by a false appearance of marriage, 
 stain not their souls with turpitude and wicked lusts. To 
 explain the subject, the pastor will begin with the meaning of 
 the word " matrimony." 
 
 QUESTION II. Why the holy bond of Marriage is designated by 
 the names " Wedlock " or " Nuptials. 1 ' 
 
 [This sacrament] is called " matrimony," because the prin- 
 cipal object which a female should have in getting married is 
 to become a mother (mater) ; or because to a mother it belongs 
 to conceive, bring forth, train up her offspring. It is also called 
 " wedlock " (coujugium),* from the conjugal union of man and 
 wife ; because a lawful wife is attached as it were by the same 
 yoke with her husband. It is moreover called " nuptials,""!" 
 because, as St. Ambrose observes, brides veiled themselves 
 through modesty ;J an observance which also seemed to imply 
 that they should be obedient and subject to their husbands. 
 
 * Lit. "a yoking together," a conjungendo. 
 t Nuptise, a nubendo, "to veU oneself." J Amb. de Abrah. lib. i. c. 9.
 
 , PART II. CHAPTER VIII. 291 
 
 QUESTION III. Definition of Matrimony. 
 
 According to the general opinion of theologians, matrimony 
 is defined " the conjugal union of man and woman between 
 legitimate persons, which is to last during life." In order that 
 the parts of this definition may be the better understood, it 
 must be taught that, although all these conditions exist in a 
 perfect marriage, namely, internal consent, external compact ex- 
 pressed by words, the obligation and tie which arise from that 
 compact, and the marriage debt by which matrimony is con- 
 summated, yet the obligation and tie expressed by the word 
 " nnion " alone have properly the force and nature of marriage. 
 The word "conjugal" is added, because other kinds of com- 
 pacts, by which men and women are bound mutually to assist 
 each other for payment or for some other reason, are altogether 
 different from the nature of matrimony. Next follows " be- 
 tween legitimate persons," because persons who are absolutely 
 excluded from conjugal union by the laws, cannot contract 
 marriage, nor, if they do, is the marriage valid. Persons, for 
 instance, within the fourth degree of kindred, and a boy before 
 his fourteenth year, or a girl before her twelfth, the ages 
 established by the laws, cannot be fit to contract marriage 
 validly. The concluding words, " which is to last during life," 
 declare the nature of the indissoluble tie by which husband 
 and wife are bound together. 
 
 QUESTION IV. In what Matrimony chiefly consists. 
 
 It is hence evident that in that tie consist the nature and 
 import of marriage ; for when other definitions of eminent 
 Divines seem to ascribe its nature and import to the consent, as 
 when they say that marriage is the consent of the male and 
 female, this is to be understood thus : that the consent itself is 
 the efficient cause of marriage, as the Fathers taught in the 
 Council of Florence ; for the obligation and tie cannot arise 
 save from the consent and compact. 
 
 QUESTION V. What sort of Consent is required in Marriage, 
 
 and how it is to be declared. 
 
 But that the consent be expressed in words that designate 
 the present time is most necessary, for marriage is not a simple 
 donation, but a mutual compact ; and hence the consent of one 
 of the parties only cannot be sufficient, but the mutual consent 
 of both is necessary. To declare this mutual consent of the 
 mind, words are obviously necessary ; for if marriage could 
 consist of the internal consent alone, without any external indi- 
 cation, it would seem also to follow, that when two persons
 
 292 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 living in the most separate and distant countries consent to 
 marry, they contract a true and stable marriage, before they had 
 signified to each other their consent by letter or messenger ; a 
 consequence, however, repugnant to reason, and to the usage 
 and decrees of holy Church. 
 
 QUESTION VI. Mutual Consent expressed in Words, which have 
 reference to a future time, effects no Marriage. 
 
 Wisely, then, is it stated that the consent is to be expressed 
 in words that designate the present time ; for words that 
 indicate a future time, promise, but do not unite in, marriage. 
 Besides, what is to be hereafter has evidently no present exist- 
 ence ; and what has no existence must be considered to have 
 little or no firmness or stability. Hence a promise of future 
 marringe to a woman gives the man no matrimonial rights ; 
 and, although bound to fulfil his engagement, the violation of 
 which would convict him. of a breach of faith, yet what a man 
 has promised to do subsequently, he has not immediately ful- 
 filled. But he who has entered into the matrimonial alliance, 
 however he may afterwards regret it, yet cannot change, or 
 invalidate, or undo the compact. As, then, the marriage con- 
 tract is not a mere promise, but such a transfer of right, as that 
 the man thereby actually yields the dominion of his body to the 
 woman, the woman that of hers to the man ; it is, therefore, 
 necessary that marriage be contracted in words which designate 
 the present time, the force of which words abides also after 
 their utterance, and holds husband and wife bound by an indis- 
 soluble bond. 
 
 QUESTION VII. If through Modesty or other impediment the 
 Consent be not expressed in Words, a Nod or other Sign sup- 
 plies the place of words. 
 
 Instead of words, however, a nod or other unequivocal sign 
 of inward consent may be sufficient for marriage, and even 
 silence also, when the result of female modesty, provided the 
 parents speak for their daughter. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Consummation not necessary to a true 
 Marriage. 
 
 Hence parish-priests will teach the faithful, that in the tie 
 and obligation consist the nature and import of marriage ; and 
 that, besides the consent expressed in the manner already 
 explained, consummation is not necessarily required to con- 
 stitute a true marriage ; for it is quite certain that our first 
 parents, before their fall, when, according to the holy Fathers, 
 no consummation took place, were joined in real marriage
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VIII. 293 
 
 (Gen. ii. 22). Hence the holy Fathers say that marriage 
 consists not in its consummation, but in the consent [of the 
 parties] ; a doctrine which we find repeated by St. Ambrose iu 
 his book on Virgins.* 
 
 QUESTION IX. Marriage twofold. 
 
 These matters having been explained, it must be taught that 
 matrimony is to be considered in two points of view, either as a 
 natural union (for marriage was not invented by man, but 
 instituted by nature), or as a sacrament, the efficacy of which 
 transcends the order of nature. And as grace perfects nature 
 ("that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is 
 natural; afterwards that which is spiritual," 1 Cor. xv. 46), 
 the order of our matter requires that we first treat of matri- 
 mony as a natural contract, and as imposing natural duties, and 
 next, as a sacrament. 
 
 QOESTION X. Who is the Author of Marriage considered as an 
 office of Nature. 
 
 In the first place, then, the faithful are to be taught that 
 marriage was instituted by God; for it is written in Genesis: 
 " Male and female he created them : and God blessed them, 
 saying: Increase and multiply" (Gen. i. 27, sq.) ; and : " It is 
 not good for man to be alone : let us make him a help like unto 
 himself" (Gen. ii. 18) ; and a little after : " But for Adam 
 there was not found a helper like himself. Then the Lord God 
 cast a deep sleep upon Adam ; and when he was fast asleep, he 
 took one of his ribs and filled up flesh for it. And the Lord 
 God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman, and 
 brought her to Adam ; and Adam said, ' This now is bone of 
 my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called woman, 
 because she was taken out of man : wherefore a man shall 
 leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife ; and they 
 shall be two in one flesh' "* (Gen. ii. 21, sqq.) ; words which, 
 according to the authority of our Lord himself in St. Matthew, 
 show that matrimony was divinely instituted (Matt. xix. 6). 
 
 QUESTION XT. Marriage, considered as an Office of Nature, 
 and especially as a Sacrament, cannot be dissolved. 
 
 Not only did God institute marriage, but he also, as the holy 
 Council of Trent declares,t rendered it perpetual and indis- 
 soluble ; for the Saviour says : " What God hath joined toge- 
 ther, let not man separate" (Matt. xix. 6). For although, as a 
 
 * De Instit. Virgin, cap. 6. t Seas. xxiv. init
 
 294 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 natural contract, it belongs to marriage to be indissoluble, yet 
 its indissolubility arises chiefly from its nature as a sacrament ; 
 and this it is by which, in all its natural relations, it attains 
 the highest perfection. Its dissolubility, however, is repugnant 
 both to the care of bringing up offspring, and to the other 
 advantages of marriage. 
 
 QUESTION XII. Marriage not obligatory on all. 
 
 The words, " increase and multiply," which were uttered by 
 the Lord, do not go to impose on every individual an obligation 
 to marry, but to declare the object of the institution of mar- 
 riage ; for, now that the human race is increased, not only is 
 there no law rendering marriage obligatory on any one, but, on 
 the contrary, virginity is highly extolled and strongly recom- 
 mended in the sacred Scriptures to every one, as superior to the 
 marriage state, and is in itself more perfect and holy ; for our 
 Lord and Saviour taught thus : " He that can receive it, let him 
 receive it " (Matt. xix. 12) ; and the Apostle says : " Con- 
 cerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I 
 give counsel as having obtained mercy of the Lord to be 
 faithful" (1 Cor. vii. 25). 
 
 QUESTION XIII. Why man and woman should be joined in 
 Marriage. 
 
 But the reasons why man and woman should be joined in 
 marriage demand explanation. The first, then, is this very 
 society of the other sex, sought by the instinct of nature, entered 
 into with the hope of mutual aid, that each, assisted by the help 
 of the other, may the more easily bear the ills of life, and support 
 the weakness of old age. Another is the desire of procreation, 
 not so much indeed with a view that heirs be left to one's pro- 
 perty and wealth, as that professors of the true faith and reli- 
 gion be brought up, which, indeed, as sufficiently appears from 
 the sacred Scriptures, was the principal object proposed to them- 
 selves by those holy Patriarchs when they married. Wherefore, 
 the angel when informing Tobias by what means he should be 
 able to repel the violence of the evil demon, said : " I will show 
 thee who they are, over whom the devil can prevail ; for they 
 who in such manner receive matrimony, as to shut out God from 
 themselves and from their mind, and to give themselves to their 
 lust, ' as the horse and mule, which have no understanding* 
 (Pa. xxi. 2), over them the devil hath power." He then added : 
 " Thou shall take the virgin with the fear of the Lord, moved 
 rather for love of children than for lust, that in the seed of 
 Abraham thou mayest obtain a blessing in children " (Tob. vi.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VTIL 295 
 
 16, 17, 18, 22). And this was also the sole cause why God 
 established marriage from the beginning ; whence, married 
 persons, who, by medicine, either prevent conception or procure 
 abortion, are guilty of a most heinous crime ; for this is to ba 
 considered an impious conspiracy of murderers. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. Why Matrimony was instituted after Sin, 
 
 The third reason is one that has been added to other causes 
 after the fall of our first parent, when, on account of the loss of 
 the righteousness in which man was created, appetite began to 
 resist right reason ; namely, that he who is conscious of his own 
 weakness, and is unwilling to bear the conflict of the flesh, may 
 use the remedy of marriage to avoid sins of lust; on which the 
 Apostle writes : " Because of fornication let ever} 7 man have his 
 own wife, and let every woman have her own husband ;" and a 
 little after, having recommended to married persons a temporary 
 absence from the marriage debt, " to give themselves to prayer," 
 he adds : " Return together again, lest Satan tempt you for 
 your incontinency " (1 Cor. vii. 2). These, then, are the ends, 
 some one of which all who desire to contract marriage piously 
 and religiously, as becomes the children of the Saints, should 
 propose to themselves. If to these causes others also be added, 
 which induce persons to enter into marriage, and in making 
 choice of a wife, to prefer one to another, such as the desire of 
 leaving an heir, wealth, beauty, illustrious descent, congeniality 
 of disposition, such reasons, not being repugnant to the holiness 
 of marriage, are not to be condemned ; for the Patriarch Jacob 
 is not reprehended in the sacred Scriptures for having chosen 
 Rachel, allured by her beauty, in preference to Lia (Gen. xxix.). 
 These are the things to be taught regarding matrimony, as a 
 natural contract. 
 
 QIJESTION XV. Why Marriage was elevated by Christ to the 
 dignity of a Sacrament. 
 
 But as a sacrament, it will be proper to explain that its 
 nature is of a far superior order, and is referred to a far higher 
 end ; for as marriage, as a natural union, was instituted from 
 the beginning for the propagation of the human race, so was it 
 subsequently invested with the dignity of a sacrament, for the 
 procreation and education of a people in the religion and worship 
 of the true God, and of Christ our Saviour. For when Christ 
 the Lord would give some sign of that very close union which 
 subsists between him and his Church, and of his boundless love 
 towards us, he made known the dignity of so great a mystery 
 principally by this holy union of man and wife; and the
 
 296 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 extreme aptitude of the illustration may be understood from this, 
 that of all human relations no one is more binding among men 
 than the tie of marriage, and by it a man and woman are united 
 in the closest bonds of affection and love. Hence it is that the 
 sacred Scriptures frequently place before our eyes, under the 
 similitude of marriage, this divine union of Christ and his 
 Church. 
 
 QUESTION XVI. How Marriage is a true Sacrament of the 
 Evangelical Law. 
 
 Now that marriage is a sacrament, the Church has always 
 held as a certain and well-ascertained truth, in which she is 
 supported by the authority of the Apostle, who writes to the 
 Ephesians thus: " Men should love their wives, as their own 
 bodies: he that loveth his wife, loveth himself; for no man 
 ever hated his own flesh, but nouvisheth and cherisheth it, as 
 also Christ doth the Church ; for we are members of his body, 
 of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave 
 his father and mother, and shall adhere to his wife, and they 
 shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament ; but I 
 speak in Christ, and in the Church " (Eph. v. 28, sqq.). For, 
 when he says: "This is a great sacrament," no one should doubt 
 that he refers to marriage; as if he had said: "The conjugal 
 union of man and wife, of which God is the author, is a sacra- 
 ment, that is, a sacred sign of that most holy union, by which 
 Christ the Lord is united to the Church. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. How it is proved from the words of St. Paul, 
 that Matrimony is a Sacrament. 
 
 And that this is the true and proper meaning of those words, 
 is shown by the ancient holy Fathers, who interpreted that 
 passage; and the holy Council of Trent has given to it the 
 same explanation.* It is therefore evident that the husband 
 is compared by the Apostle to Christ, the wife to the Church ; 
 that the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head 
 of the Church (Ephes. v. 23) ; and that hence the husband 
 should love his wife, and in like manner, the wife should love 
 and respect her husband ;" for " Christ loved his Church, and 
 gave himself for her ;" and again, as the same Apostle teaches, 
 " The Church is subject to Christ." 
 
 But that by this sacrament grace also is signified and conferred, 
 in which the nature of the sacrament principally consists, these 
 words of the Council declare : " But the grace which might 
 perfect that natural love, and confirm that indissoluble union, 
 
 * Sess. xxiv. sub init.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER IV. 297 
 
 and sanctify the married, Christ himself, the institntor and 
 perfecter of the venerable sacraments, merited for us by his 
 passion."* It must therefore be taught, that, united in the bond 
 of mutual love, the husband and wife are enabled, by the grace 
 of this sacrament, to repose in each others affections; not to 
 seek alien and illicit attachments and intercourses ; but to pre- 
 serve " marriage honorable in all, and the bed undefiled " (Heb. 
 xiii. 4). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. How much the Matrimony of the Gospel is 
 superior to the Matrimony of the Law of Nature^ or of Moses. 
 
 But how much the sacrament of matrimony excels those mar- 
 riages which were wont to be entered into before or after the 
 law, we may knoy from this, that, although the Gentiles 
 thought that in marriage there was something divine, and that 
 therefore promiscuous intercourse was at variance with the law 
 of nature, and also held that fornication, adultery, and other 
 sorts of licentious excesses ought to be punished ; yet their mar- 
 riages had no efficacy whatever of a sacrament. But amongst 
 the Jews the laws of marriage were observed far more religiously, 
 nor is it to be doubted, that their marriages were endued with 
 greater holiness. For as they had received the promise, that 
 in the seed of Abraham all nations should one day be blessed 
 (Gen. xxii. 18), it was justly deemed to be a duty of great 
 piety amongst them to beget children, the offspring of a chosen 
 people, from whom, as to his human nature, Christ our Lord 
 and Saviour might have his birth ; but those unions also wanted 
 the true nature of a sacrament. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. Matrimony under the Law of Nature retained 
 not after the Sin [of our first parents], or under the Law of 
 Moses, the Honour which it originally received from God. 
 
 Moreover, \vhetherwe consider the law of nature after the sin 
 [of A(iam], or [the law] of Moses, we easily perceive that mar- 
 riage had fallen from its primitive honour and dignity. For 
 under the law of nature we find, that many of the Patriarchs 
 wedded several wives at the same time ; and, in the law of 
 Moses, should cause exist, it was subsequently permitted to dis- 
 miss one's wife, having given her a bill of divorce (Deut. xxiv. 
 1 ; Matt. xix. 7) ; both which concessions have been removed 
 by the Gospel law, and marriage restored to its pristine state; 
 for that polygamy was at variance with the nature of marriage 
 (although some of the Patriarchs, who, not without the permis- 
 sion of God, had a plurality of wives, are not to be censured), 
 Christ the Lord shows in these words : " For this cause shall a 
 
 * Sess. xxiv. sub init.
 
 298 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 man leave father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, 
 and they two shall be in one flesh. Wherefore," subjoins the Re- 
 deemer, " they are no more two bat one flesh " (Matt. xix. 5, 
 sq.); words by which he clearly showed that marriage was so 
 instituted by God as to be limited by the union of two only, 
 not more persons. This he also most explicitly taught else- 
 where, for he says : " Whosoever shall put away his wife and 
 marry another, committeth adultery against her ; and if the wife 
 shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she 
 committeth adultery" (Mark, xi. 2, sq.) ; for if a plurality of 
 wives were lawful for a man, there would seem to be no reason 
 whatever why he who marries a second wife, whilst he retains 
 the first, should be said to be guilty of adultery, any more than 
 if, having dismissed the first, he should be united to a second. 
 And we understand this to be the reason why, if, in accordance 
 with the law and custom of his country, an infidel had married 
 several wives, the Church commands him, when converted to 
 the true religion, to dismiss all the rest, and regard the first only 
 in the light of a true and lawful wife. 
 
 QUESTION XX. The Bond of Marriage cannot be dissolved by 
 Divorce. 
 
 But, by the same testimony of Christ the Lord, it is easily 
 proved that the bond of marriage cannot be dissolved by divorce ; 
 for if after a bill of divorce the wife were freed from the law 
 of the husband, she might, without the guilt of adultery, wed 
 another husband ; yet our Lord expressly declares, that " who- 
 soever shall put away his wife, and shall marry another, com- 
 mitteth adultery" (Luke, xvi. 18). Wherefore it is clear, that 
 the bond of marriage can be dissolved by death alone ; and this 
 the Apostle also confirms, when he says : "A woman is bound 
 by the law, as long as her husband liveth ; but if her husband 
 die, she is at liberty : let her marry whom she will, only in the 
 Lord" (1 Cor. vii. 39); and again : "To them that are mar- 
 ried, not I, but the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not 
 from her husbaud ; and if she depart, that she remain unmar- 
 ried or be reconciled to her husband" (1 Cor. vii. 10). To the 
 woman who might have left her husband for a just cause, the 
 Apostle offers that option, cither to remain unmarried, or be 
 reconciled to her husband ; for holy Church does not permit one 
 to separate from the other without rather weighty reasons. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. Why it is expedient that Marriage be on no 
 account dissolved. 
 
 And lest perhaps the law of marriage may appear to any one
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VIII. 299 
 
 too rigorous, inasmuch as it may never on any account be dis- 
 solved, its beneficial consequences must be pointed out. In the 
 first place, let men understand that, in contracting marriage, 
 virtue and congeniality of disposition should be looked to, rather 
 than wealth or beauty; and by this we, no doubt, best consult 
 the common interests of society. Besides, if marriage were dis- 
 soluble by divorce, causes of dissension would scarcely ever be 
 wanting to persons, but would be daily thrown in their way by 
 the old enemy of peace and chastity ; whereas now, when the 
 faithful reflect, that, although even separated as to bed and board, 
 they are still held bound by the tie of marriage, and that all 
 hope of taking a second wife is cut off, they therefore become 
 slower to anger and dissensions, and if even they sometimes 
 separate, they can no longer endure the absence of their part- 
 ner, and having been easily reconciled by friends, they return to 
 each other's society. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. Those separated by a bill of divorce can be 
 again united. 
 
 But here the salutary admonition of St. Augustine is not to 
 be omitted by pastors ; to show the faithful that they should not 
 deem it a hardship to be brought to a reconciliation with their 
 penitent wives, whom they had put away for adultery, he asks : 
 44 Why shall not the Christian husband receive his wife, whom 
 the Church receives ? or why should not the wife pardon her 
 adulterous but penitent husband, whom Christ also hath par- 
 doned ? "* When the Scripture calls him that keepeth an 
 adulteress " foolish " (Prov. xviii. 22), it means an adulteress, 
 who, after her delinquency, refuses to repent, and discontinue 
 the career of turpitude which she had commenced. From what 
 has been said, therefore, it is clear that to marriage amongst 
 the Jews and Gentiles, Christian marriage is far superior in 
 perfection and dignity. 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. What are the Advantages accruing to married 
 persons from this Sacrament. 
 
 The faithful are moreover to be taught, that there are three 
 advantages of marriage offspring, faith, the sacrament which 
 alleviate, by compensating for, those disadvantages which the 
 Apostle points out in these words: " Such shall have tribulation 
 of the flesh " (1 Cor. vii. 28) ; and by which sexual intercourse, 
 which, without marriage, would be deservedly reprobated, be- 
 comes an honourable union. The first advantage, then, ia 
 
 * Lib. de Adult, con jug. c. 6, et 9.
 
 300 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 offspring, that is, children begotten from a true and lawful wife ; 
 an advantage so highly appreciated by the Apostle, that he 
 says: "The woman shall be saved by bearing children" (1 
 Tim. ii. 15). This, however, is not to be understood solely of 
 the procreation of children, but also of the education and dis- 
 cipline by which children are reared to piety. Thus the Apostle 
 immediately subjoins: "If she continue in faith;" for the 
 Scripture admonishes: "Hast thou children? Instruct them, 
 and bow down their neck from their childhood" (Eccl. vii. 25). 
 The Apostle teaches the same ; and of such an education the 
 Scripture affords the most beautiful examples in the persons of 
 Tobias, Job, and other Patriarchs eminent for holiness. But 
 what are the duties of parents and children shall be more fully 
 explained in the exposition of the fourth commandment. 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. What is Faith in Matrimony, and how it is 
 to be preserved. 
 
 The next advantage of matrimony is " faith," not that habit 
 of virtue with which we are imbued when we receive baptism, 
 but the fidelity which mutually the husband plights to the 
 wife, and the wife to the husband, by which they deliver to 
 each other the dominion of their persons, and promise never to 
 violate the sacred covenant of marriage. This is an obvious 
 inference from these words, uttered by our first parent on. 
 receiving his wife Eve, words of which, as the Gospel informs 
 us, Christ the Lord afterwards approved : " Wherefore, a man 
 shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and 
 they shall be two in one flesh " (Gen. ii. 24 ; Matt. xix. 5) ; 
 also from that passage of the Apostle : " The wife hath not 
 power of her own body, but the husband ; and in like manner 
 the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife " 
 (1 Cor. vii. 4). Hence in the Old Law most justly were the 
 heaviest chastisements ordained by the Lord against adulterers, 
 because they violate this conjugal faith (Num. v. 12, sqq.). Matri- 
 monial faith also demands, that husband and wife be united by 
 a certain singular, and holy, and pure love, a love not such as 
 that of adulterers, but such as that which Christ cherishes to- 
 wards his Church; for this is the model which the Apostle 
 proposed, when he said: " Husbands, love your wives, as Christ 
 also loved the Church" (Ephes. v. 25); and very great indeed 
 was the love with which Christ embraced his Church, not a 
 selfish love, but a love that proposed to itself the sole interest 
 of his spouse.
 
 PART H. CHAPTER VIII. 301 
 
 ^QUESTION XXV. What the Sacrament is, when numbered 
 among the Advantages of Matrimony. 
 
 The third advantage is called the " sacrament," that is, the 
 indissoluble tie of marriage ; for, as we read in the Apostle : 
 " The Lord commanded that the wife depart not from the hus- 
 band, and if she depart, that she remain unmarried, or be 
 reconciled to her husband ; and let not the husband put away 
 his wife" (1 Cor. vii. 10). For if, as a sacrament, marriage 
 is significant of the union of Christ with his Church, it neces- 
 sarily follows that, as Christ never separates himself from the 
 Church, so a wife, as far as regards the tie of marriage, can 
 never be separated from her husband. But the more easily to 
 preserve this holy nnion undisturbed by complaint, the duties of 
 husband and wife, as described by St. Paul, and by Peter, the 
 Prince of the Apostles, must be set forth. 
 
 QUESTION XXVI. What are the Chief Duties of a Husband. 
 
 It is, then, the duty of the husband to treat his wife courte- 
 ously and with honour; and here it should be recollected that 
 Eve was called by Adam " his companion," when he said : 
 " The woman whom thou gavest me as a companion " (Gen. iii. 
 12); and hence it was, in the opinion of some of the Fathers, 
 that she was formed not from the feet but from the side of 
 man ; as also she was not formed from his head, to give her 
 to understand that she was not to be mistress of, but rather 
 subject to, her husband. It is, moreover, becoming that the 
 husband be constantly occupied in the exercise of some 
 honest pursuit, with a view as well to provide necessaries for 
 the support of the family, as to avoid the languor of idleness, 
 from which almost all vices have flown. He is next to keep 
 his family in order, to correct the morals of all, to keep them 
 steady in their respective employments. 
 
 QUESTION XXVII. What the Duty of a Wife requires. 
 
 On the other hand, the duties of a wife are thus enumerated 
 by the Prince of the Apostles : " Let wives be subject to their 
 husbands ; that if any believe not the word, they may be gained 
 without the word, by the conversation of the wives ; considering 
 your chaste conversation with fear ; whose adorning let it not 
 be the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or 
 the putting on of apparel, but the hidden man of the heart, in 
 the incorruptibility of a quiet and a meek spirit, which is rich 
 in the sight of God. For after this manner, heretofore also 
 the holy women, hoping in God, adorned themselves, being 
 subject to their own husbands, as Sara obeyed Abraham,
 
 302 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 calling him lord" (1 Pet. iii. 1, sqq.). Be it also a principal 
 study of theirs, to train up their children in the practice of 
 religion, and to take particular care of their domestic concerns. 
 Unless necessity oblige them to go abroad, let them willingly 
 remain at home; and let them never venture to leave home 
 without the permission of their husbands. Again, and in this 
 the conjugal union chiefly consists, let them always remember 
 that, next to God, no one is to be loved more than their husband, 
 and no one to be more highly prized whom also they should 
 humour and obey with the greatest alacrity of mind, in all 
 things not inconsistent with Christian piety. 
 
 QUESTION XXVIII. What is to be thought of the Rites of 
 Marriage. 
 
 Consequent to the explanation of these matters, will be the 
 instruction of the people by their pastors in the rites to be ob- 
 served in the administration of marriage ; on which, however, 
 it is not to be expected that precepts should here be delivered, 
 whereas the principal things to be observed on this head have 
 been copiously and accurately determined by the holy Council 
 of Trent, nor can that decree be unknown to pastors. It is, 
 therefore, sufficient to admonish them, to study to make 
 themselves acquainted, from the doctrine of the sacred Council, 
 with what regards this point, and to expound it diligently to 
 the faithful.* 
 
 QUESTION XXIX. Clandestine Marriages are not valid. 
 
 But above all, lest young persons and youth is a season of 
 extreme weakness and indiscretion deceived by the false name 
 of marriage, may rush incautiously into the engagements of 
 shameful amours, pastors will very frequently inform them that 
 such marriages as are not contracted in presence of the parish- 
 priest, or of some other priest with the leave of the parish-priest 
 himself or of the ordinary, and before a certain number of 
 witnesses, are to be considered neither true nor valid mar- 
 riages. 
 
 QUESTION XXX. It is proper to state the Impediments of 
 Marriage also. 
 
 The impediments of marriage also are to be explained, a 
 subject so carefully treated by many very learned writers on 
 morality, as to render it an easy task for all to transfer to this 
 place what they have written, especially as pastors have occasion 
 never almost to put those books out of their hands. Those 
 
 * Sess. xxiv. , as above.
 
 PART II. CHAPTER VIII. 303 
 
 instructions, therefore, and also the decrees of the holy Synod * 
 with regard to the impediment arising from " spiritual relation- 
 ship," or from " the justice of public honesty," or from "forni- 
 cation," pastors will peruse with attention, and take care to 
 expound to the people. 
 
 QUESTION XXXI. With what Dispositions Persons should 
 approach Marriage. 
 
 From what has been said may be clearly seen what ought to 
 be the dispositions of the faithful when they contract marriage ; 
 for they should not consider themselves as engaging in a human 
 but a divine work, in which the example of the Fathers of the 
 Old Law, whose marriages, although not invested with the 
 dignity of a sacrament, were deemed by them most holy and 
 religious rites, show what singular integrity of mind and piety 
 are required. 
 
 QUESTION XXXII. The Consent of Parents is to be required for 
 the Solidity of Marriage. 
 
 But, amongst other matters, children are most earnestly to be 
 exhorted to pay to their parents, and to those under whose 
 trust and authority they are placed, that tribute of respect, 
 not to engage in marriage without their knowledge, still less 
 in defiance of and resistance to their wish ; for it may be 
 observed, that, in the Old Testament, children were always 
 given by their fathers in marriage ; in which affair that very 
 great deference should be paid to their will, the Apostle also 
 seems to indicate in these words : " He that giveth his virgin in 
 marriage doth well ; and he that giveth her not doth better " 
 (1 Cor. vii. 38). 
 
 QUESTION XXXIII. What Instruction is to be given touching 
 the Use of Marriage. 
 
 The last remaining point regards the use of marriage, a sub- 
 ject which pastors will so tre*at as that no expression that may 
 seem unfit to meet the ears of the faithful, or that could offend 
 pious minds, or excite laughter, fall from their lips. For as 
 " The words of the Lord are pure words " (Ps. xi. 7), so also 
 does it eminently become a teacher of the Christian people to 
 make use of such language as is characterized by singular 
 gravity and integrity of soul. Two lessons of instruction are 
 then to be specially impressed on the mind of the faithful ; the 
 first, that marriage is not to be used from motives of sensuality 
 or pleasure, but that its use is to be restrained within those 
 
 * Sess. xxiv. c. 1, sqq.
 
 304 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 limits, which, as we have above shown, are prescribed by the 
 Lord. They should be mindful of the exhortation of the 
 Apostle: "They that have wives, let them be as those who 
 have not " (1 Cor. vii. 29) ; and also of the words of St. 
 Jerome : " A wise man ought to love his wife with judgment, not 
 with passion; he will govern the impetuosity of desire, and will 
 not be hurried into indulgence. There is no greater turpitude 
 than that a husband should love his wife as he would an 
 adulteress."* 
 
 QUESTION XXXIV. Married Persons should sometimes abstain 
 from the Marriage Debt. 
 
 But as all blessings are to be obtained from God by holy 
 prayer, the faithful are also to be taught sometimes to abstain 
 from the marriage debt, in order to devote themselves to prayer 
 and supplication to God. This religious continence, according 
 to the proper and holy injunction of our Fathers, they should 
 know is to be observed in particular for at least three days 
 previous to receiving the holy Eucharist, and oftener during 
 the solemn Fast of Lent; for thus will they find the blessings 
 themselves of marriage augmented by a daily increasing accu- 
 mulation of divine grace ; and living in the pursuit and practice 
 of piety, they will not only spend this life tranquilly and 
 placidly, but will also rest on the true and firm hope, which 
 " confoundeth not " (Rom. v. 5), of attaining, through the good- 
 ness of God, life eternal. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE PRECEPTS OF GOD CONTAINED IN THE 
 DECALOGUE. 
 
 QUESTION I It is shown that the Decalogue is a Compendium of 
 
 the Entire Law. 
 
 That the Decalogue is a summary and epitome of the entire 
 law, is the recorded opinion of St. Augustine,t for " whereas 
 the Lord had spoken many things, yet to Moses are given only 
 two tables of stoue, which are called tables of testimony, to be 
 
 * Contra Jovin. 1. 42. t Aug. ii in Exod. qusest. 140.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER I. 305 
 
 deposited in the Ark ; and the reason is, because on those ten 
 precepts, which were inscribed thereon, if carefully examined 
 with a view to be rightly understood, are found to depend all 
 other things that God has commanded ; as again do those same 
 ten commandments on these two, namely, the love of God and 
 of our neighbour, on which ' dependeth the whole Law and the 
 Prophets.' "* 
 
 QUESTION II. Why it eminently becomes Pastors strictly to 
 observe and clearly to explain the Decalogue. 
 
 Constituting then, as it does, a summary of the whole Law, 
 Pastors ought to spend in its contemplation their days and 
 nights, with the view not only to form their lives according 
 to this standard, but also to instruct the people entrusted to 
 them in the law of the Lord ; " for the lips of the priest shall 
 keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth, 
 because he is the angel of the Lord of Hosts" (Mai. ii. 7). To 
 the pastors of the New Law this pre-eminently applies ; for being 
 nearer to God, they should be " transformed from glory to glory, 
 as by the Spirit of the Lord " (2 Cor. iii. 18) ; and as Christ the 
 Lord has called them "the light of the world " (Matt. v. 14) ; 
 to them, therefore, it belongs in a special manner to be " a light 
 of them that are in darkness," instructors of " the foolish," 
 teachers "of infants" (Rom. ii. 19, sq.) ; "and if a man be 
 overtaken in any fault," those " who are spiritual " should 
 " instruct such a one " (Gal. vi. 1). In the Confessional, too, 
 they sustain the character of Judge, and pass sentence according 
 to the nature and measure of the offences. Unless, therefore, 
 they wish that their ignorance defraud themselves, and others 
 also, they must be most vigilant in this, and most practised in 
 the interpretation of the divine precepts, in order to be able 
 to pronounce according to this divine rule on every act of 
 omission and commission; and that, as the Apostle says, they 
 teach " sound doctrine " (2 Tim. iv. 3), that is, doctrine con- 
 taining no error, and heal the diseases of souls, which are sins, 
 that there may be "a people acceptable" to God, "pursuing 
 good works " (Tit. ii. 14). Now, in such instructions, let the 
 pastor propose to himself, and to others, such considerations as 
 may persuade to obedience to the law. 
 
 QUESTION III. Who is the Author of the Decalogue and 
 of the Law of Nature. 
 
 Amongst the other motives which may impel the minds of 
 men to observe the injunctions of this law, there is one that 
 
 * Matth. xxii. 40. ; Exod. xxxi. 18; xxxil 15. 
 
 U
 
 306 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 has most power, which is, that God is the author of this law; 
 for, although it is said to have been delivered " by angels,"* yet 
 that God himself is the author of the law, no one can doubt. 
 Of this not only the words of the Legislator himself, which 
 will soon after be explained, but almost numberless passages 
 of the Scriptures, which will easily occur to pastors,f afford 
 sufficiently ample testimony. For there is no one but is con- 
 scious that on his heart is inscribed by God a law by which he 
 is enabled to distinguish good from evil, virtue from vice, justice 
 from injustice" (Rom. ii. 14) ; and as the force and import of 
 this [unwritten] law are not different from that which is written, 
 who is there who would dare deny that God is the author of the 
 written, as he is of the unwritten law ? But, lest perhaps the 
 people, on hearing the abrogation of the Mosaic law, may 
 imagine that they are no longer bound by the precepts of the 
 Decalogue, they must be taught that, when God delivered the 
 law to Moses, he rather gave increased splendour to this divine 
 light, that was now almost darkened by the depraved morals 
 and inveterate perversity of man, than passed a new law ; for 
 it is most certain that the ten commandments are not to be 
 obeyed because they were given by Moses, but because they are 
 innate in the minds of all, and have been explained and con- 
 firmed by Christ the Lord.J 
 
 QUESTION IV. How the People may be excited to observe 
 
 the Law from the Consideration of its Author. 
 It will, however, prove a most powerful and persuasive 
 argument [to enforce its observance], to reflect that the founder 
 of the law is God, whose wisdom and equity we cannot doubt, 
 whose infinite power and might we cannot elude. Wherefore, 
 when, by his prophets, God commanded the law to be 
 observed, he proclaimed that he is " the Lord God /' and even 
 the opening words of the Decalogue are : " I am the Lord thy 
 God " (Exod. xx. 2 ; Deut. v. 6); and we read elsewhere : " If 
 I be a master, where is my fear ?" (Malach. i. 6). 
 
 QUESTION V. How great a benefit it is to have received the 
 
 Law from God. 
 
 That God has vouchsafed to unfold his will, which comprises 
 our salvation, is a consideration, which will not only excite the 
 
 * Gal. iii. 19 ; Heb. ii. 2 ; Acts, vii. 53. 
 t Ex. xxiv. 12 ; Lev. iv. 22, 27 ; Isa. xxxiii. 22 ; Ez. xx. 11. 
 J Matt. v. 17 ; xv. 3 ; xix. 17. 
 
 Ez. xx. 7, 19 ; Osee, xiii. 4; Lev. xviii. 4, 21, 30; xix. 2; xx. 8; 
 xxii. 31.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER I. 307 
 
 minds of the faithful to the observance of God's commandments, 
 bat also to thanksgiving. Wherefore the Scripture, in more 
 than one place, setting forth this greatest of blessings, 
 admonishes the people to know their own dignity and the divine 
 bounty, as in Deuteronomy : " This," it says, "is your wisdom 
 and understanding in the sight of nations, that hearing all these 
 precepts they may say : ' behold a wise and understanding 
 people, a great nation ' " (Deut. iv. 6) ; and again, in the Psalm: 
 " He hath not done in like manner to every nation ; and his 
 judgments he hath not made manifest to them(Ps. cxlvii. 20). 
 
 QUESTION VI. WJiy of old God willed to deliver his Law to 
 the Israelites with such great majesty. 
 
 But if the parish-priest will point out from Scripture authority 
 the circumstances which attended the promulgation of the law, 
 the faithful will easily understand with what piety and humility 
 they ought to reverence a law received from God. Three days 
 previous to its promulgation, to all was announced the divine 
 command, to wash their garments, to abstain from conjugal 
 intercourse, in order that they might be more holy and better 
 prepared to receive the law ; to be in readiness " on the third 
 day." Next, when they had reached the mount, whence the 
 Lord was about to deliver to them the laws by Moses, to Moses 
 alone was it said to ascend the mount, whither God came with 
 very great majesty, and filled the place with thunder and 
 lightning, with fire and dense clouds, and began to speak with 
 Moses, and delivered to him the laws (Exod. xix. 9, sqq). In 
 this the divine wisdom had solely for object, to admonish us 
 that the law of the Lord is to be received by us with a pure 
 and humble mind ; and that, should we neglect his precepts, the 
 punishments prepared by the divine justice impend over us. 
 
 QUESTION VII. How the Law, promulgated with such Terror, 
 can be fulfilled by Men, and that nothing is easier than Love. 
 
 Let the parish-priest moreover show that the injunctions of 
 the law are not difficult, which he can do even by this single 
 reason from St. Augustine, when he says : " How, I ask, is it 
 said to be impossible for man to love, to love, I say, a beneficent 
 Creator, a most loving Father, and next also, in the persons 
 of his brethren, his own flesh ? Yet, ' he that loveth, hath 
 fulfilled the law.' "* Whence, the Apostle John, openly testi- 
 fies, that " the commandments " of God " are not heavy " 
 (1 John, v. 3) ; for, as St. Bernard observes, nothing could be 
 
 * Rom. xiii. 8, Serm. 47, de temp.
 
 308 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 exacted from man more just,nothing more dignified, nothing more 
 advantageous.* Wherefore, filled with admiration of the 
 supreme benignity of God, Augustine thus addresses God him- 
 self : " What is man, that thou wilt be loved by him ? And if 
 he love thee not, thou threatenest heavy punishments ? Is it 
 not punishment sufficiently great if I love thee not ?"f But 
 should any one allege as an excuse that he is prevented by the 
 infirmity of nature from loving God, the pastor must teach that 
 God, who demands our love, pours " forth in our hearts, by " 
 his " Holy " Spirit, the force of his love (Rom. v. 5) ; and this 
 good Spirit is given by our Heavenly Father " to them that ask 
 him (Luke, xi. 13) ; so that justly has St. Augustine prayed : 
 " Give what thou commandest, and command what thou 
 pleasest."| -A- 3 *h en * ne divine assistance is ready to sustain 
 our weakness, especially since the death of Christ the Lord, by 
 which " the prince of this world " was cast out " (John xii. 31), 
 there is no reason why any one should be deterred by the diffi- 
 culty of the undertaking; for to him who loves, nothing is 
 difficult. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Whether all men are necessarily bound to the 
 observance of the Law. 
 
 Moreover, if the necessity of obeying the Law be explained, 
 it will contribute very much to induce to its observance, par- 
 ticularly as in our times there have not been wanting those who 
 impiously, and to their own serious injury, have not feared to 
 say that the law, whether it be easy or difficult, is yet by no 
 means necessary to salvation. Their wicked and impious 
 opinion the parish-priest will refute by testimonies from sacred 
 Scripture, especially from the same Apostle, by whose authority 
 they endeavour to defend their impiety. What, then, does the 
 Apostle say : " Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is 
 nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God " (1 Cor. 
 vii. 19). When elsewhere he repeats the same doctrine, and 
 says that " a new creature in Christ," alone availeth (Gal. vi. 15), 
 we plainly understand that he calls him a new creature in Christ, 
 who observes the commandments of God ; for he " that hath 
 and keepeth the commandments" of God, " loveth" God (John, 
 xiv. 21), as the Lord himself testifies in John : " If any one 
 love me, he will keep my word" (John, xiv. 23). A man, it is 
 true, may be justified, and from wicked, may become righteous, 
 before he fulfil, by external acts, each of the precepts of 
 
 * Lib. de diligendo Deo, c. 1. f Confess, i. 5. 
 
 $ Confess, x. 29, 31, et 37, et de bcroo persever. c. 20. 
 
 Matt. v. 17 ; xix. 17 ; Luke, xi. 28 ; Horn. ii. 13 ; iii. 31 ; xiii. 8.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER I. 309 
 
 the Law ; yet it is impossible that one who has attained the 
 use of reason, unless he be sincerely disposed to observe all the 
 commandments of God, can be justified. 
 
 QUESTION IX. What Fruits they obtain, who observe the 
 Divine Law. 
 
 Finally, that the parish-priest may omit nothing by which 
 the faithful people may be induced to observe the law, he will 
 point out how abundant and sweet are its fruits. This he will 
 easily prove from what is written in the eighteenth Psalm;* 
 for in it are celebrated the praises of the law of God, amongst 
 which the highest even is, that it unfolds the glory and the 
 majesty of God, much more amply than do the celestial orbs 
 themselves by their beauty and order, which, as they transport 
 all, even barbarous nations, into admiration of them, cause 
 them likewise to acknowledge the glory, the wisdom, and the 
 power of the Creator and Architect of all things (Rom. i. 20). 
 And, indeed, " the law of the Lord " also " converts souls to 
 God " (Ps. xviii. 8) ; for knowing the ways of God and his 
 most holy will through the law, we turn our feet into the 
 ways of the Lord. It also " giveth understanding to little 
 ones" (cxviii. 130) ; for they alone who fear God are truly 
 wise" (Job, xxviii. 28). Hence, they who observe the law of 
 God are replenished with true joys, and a knowledge of the 
 divine mysteries, together with vast pleasures and rewards both 
 in this life, and in the life to come. 
 
 QUESTION X. Since all things do the Will of God, it is shown 
 to be most just that Man follow the same Will. 
 
 Nor is the law to be observed by us so much on account of 
 our own interest, as for sake of God, who, in the law, has un- 
 folded to mankind his will, which, as the other creatures follow 
 it, much more just is it that man himself should follow (Ps. ciL 
 21 ; cxlviii. 8). Nor is it to be passed over in silence, that 
 God pre-eminently displayed his clemency and the riches of 
 his infinite bounty towards us even in this, that, whilst he might 
 have obliged us to serve him without a reward, he has, never- 
 theless, deigned to unite his own glory with our advantage, that 
 what is useful to man, would also give glory to God. This, 
 then, being a most important and glorious prerogative, the 
 parish-priest will teach, as has been saifl by the Prophet at the 
 close [of his eulogy of the law], that, " in keeping them, there 
 is a great reward" (Ps. xviii. 12) ; for not only are we pro- 
 
 f The praises of the law are also celebrated, Ps. cxviii. TR.
 
 310 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 raised those blessings which seemed rather to regard earthly 
 happiness, to be " blessed in the city, and blessed in the field " 
 (Deut. xxviii. 3), but also " a very great reward in heaven" 
 (Matt. v. 12), and " good measure, pressed down, shaken 
 together, and running over" (Luke, vi. 38) ; which, with the 
 aid of the divine mercy, we merit by our pious and righteous 
 works. 
 
 QUESTION XI. In what manner the Law of Moses is obligatory 
 on Men of all Times, and on what occasion it was promulgated 
 to the Israelites. 
 
 Although this law was given by the Lord to the Jews on the 
 Mount (Ex. xix. 20 ; Deut. v. 2, 4), yet, as it was long before 
 imprinted and engraved by nature on the hearts of all (Rom. ii. 
 15), and God, therefore, wished it to be obeyed at all times by 
 all men, it will hence be very profitable diligently to explain 
 those words in which it was promulgated to the Hebrews by 
 Moses, its minister and interpreter (Deut. v. 5 ; Gal. Hi. 19), 
 and also the history of the people of Israel, which is replete 
 with mysteries. First, [the pastor] will relate that, from 
 amongst all the nations under heaven, God chose one, which 
 took its descent from Abraham,* whom he wished to be a 
 stranger in the land of Canaan (Gen. xii. 1, sqq.), the posses- 
 sion of which, although he had promised him ;t yet he and his 
 posterity were wanderers for more than four hundred years 
 before they gained possession of the promised land,:}: daring 
 which pilgrimage God never withdrew his care from them. 
 They, indeed, " passed from nation to nation, and from one 
 kingdom to another people" (Ps. civ. 13) ; yet he never suffered 
 any injury to be done them; but, on the contrary, "reproved 
 kings for their sakes" (Ps. v. 14) ; and, before they went down 
 into Egypt, he sent before them a man, by whose prudence 
 both they and the Egyptians were rescued from famine. 
 During their stay in Egypt, such was the kindness with which 
 he embraced them, that, although Pharaoh was opposed to 
 them, and intent on their ruin, they increased to an extra- 
 ordinary degree (Exod. i. 12, 13); and when greatly afflicted, 
 and most severely treated as slaves, he raised up Moses as a 
 leader, to conduct them from bondage with a strong hand (Exod. 
 iii. et seq.). Of this tljeir deliverance, the Lord makes special 
 mention in these opening words of the law : " I am the Lord 
 
 * Dent. iv. 37 ; vii. 6, et xxvi. 18. + Gen. xii. 7 ; xiii. 14, 15 ; 
 xv. 18; xvii. 8. J Gen. xv. 13; Exod. xii. 40; Jos. v. 6. 
 
 Ps. v. 17 ; Gen. xxxvii. 28 ; xxxix. 1 ; xlv. 5.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER I. 311 
 
 thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the 
 house of bondage (Exod. xx. 2 ; Deut. v. 6). 
 
 QUESTION XII. Why the Jews were chosen ly God as His 
 People. 
 
 Amongst these events the parish-priest will most particularly 
 observe, that from among all nations one was chosen by God, 
 whom he called " his people," and by whom he would be known 
 and worshipped ; not that they were superior to the others ia 
 righteousness or in number, as God reminds the Hebrews, but 
 because it so pleased God himself, rather to multiply and enrich a 
 small and impoverished nation, that his power and goodness might 
 be better known and more illustrious among mankind (Deut. vii. 
 7, et seq.). Such having been the condition of those men, he 
 was " closely joined to them, and loved them " (Deut. x. 15), 
 so that, Lord of heaven and earth though he be, he disdained 
 not to be called "their God," to provoke to emulation the 
 other nations, that, perceiving the happiness of the Israelites, 
 all men might betake themselves to the worship of the true God 
 (Deut. iv. 6) ; as Paul also testifies that, by setting forth the 
 happiness of the Gentiles, and the true knowledge of God in. 
 which he had instructed them, he provoked to emulation those 
 who were his own flesh (Rom. xi. 14). 
 
 QUESTION XIII. Why the Hebrews were harassed with long and 
 severe Trials before they received the Law. 
 
 [The pastor] will next inform the faithful, that God suffered 
 the Hebrew Fathers to wander a long time, that he permitted 
 their posterity also to be oppressed and harassed by a most 
 galling servitude, to teach us, that to be friends of God we 
 must be enemies of the world, and pilgrims on earth (James, iv. 
 4) ; that therefore, to have nothing whatever in common with 
 the world gives us easier access to the friendship of God ; and 
 that, being transferred to the worship of God, we may under- 
 stand how much more happy are they truly that serve God, 
 than those who serve the world. Of this the Scripture admo- 
 nishes us, for it says : " Yet they shall serve him, that they 
 may know the difference between my service and the service of 
 the kingdom of the earth " (2 Par. xii. 8). He will moreover 
 explain that God delayed the fulfilment of his promises until 
 after the lapse of more than four hundred years, in order that 
 that people might be nurtured by faith and hope ; for, as shall 
 be shown in the explanation of the first commandment, God will 
 have his children always to depend on him, and place all their 
 hope in his goodness.
 
 312 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. The Time and Place in which the Law was 
 delivered, why chosen. 
 
 Lastly, he will mark the time and place, at which the people 
 of Israel received this Law from God ; namely, when, having 
 been led out of Egypt, they were come into the wilderness, that, 
 allured by the recollection of a blessing still fresh in their memory, 
 and terrified by the ruggedness of the place in which they 
 were journeying, they might be rendered more fit to receive the 
 law ; for men are bound most closely to those whose bounty 
 they have experienced, and seek refuge in the protection of 
 God, when they find that they have lost all hope of assistance 
 from man. Whence we may understand, that the more the 
 faithful detach themselves from the allurements of the world, 
 and the pleasures of the flesh, the more inclined they are to 
 embrace heavenly doctrines ; as has been written by the pro- 
 phet : " Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he 
 make to understand the hearing ? Them that are weaned from 
 the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts" (Isaiah, 
 xxviii. 9). 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 ON THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. 
 
 " I AM THE LORD THY GOD, WHO BROUGHT THEE OUT OF THE LAND 
 OF EGYPT, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE."* 
 
 QUESTION I. Meaning of the Exordium and the Mysteries 
 contained therein, 
 
 Let then the parish-priest strive, and, as far as he can, bring 
 to pass that the faithful people keep continually in mind these 
 words, " I am the Lord thy God ;" from which they will learn 
 that they have as a Legislator the Creator, by whom they were 
 made and are preserved, and that they may justly say : "He 
 is the Lord our God, and we are the people of his pasture and 
 the sheep of his hand " (Ps. xciv. 7). The earnest and fre- 
 quent inculcation of these words will serve to render the faithful 
 more prompt to observe the Law, and abstain from sins. But 
 what follows : " Who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt 
 and the house of bondage," whilst it seems to apply solely to 
 the Jews liberated from the domination of Egypt, yet, if we 
 consider its inner reference to the plan of universal salvation, 
 
 * Ex. xx. 2 ; Deut. v. 6.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER II. 313 
 
 appertains much more to Christian men, who have been 
 delivered by God, not from the bondage of Egypt, but from 
 the region of sin and " the power of darkness," and have been 
 "translated into the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Col. i. 13). 
 Contemplating the magnitude of this benefit, Jeremiah prophe- 
 tically exclaimed : " Behold the days come, saith the Lord, 
 when it shall be said no more : the Lord liveth that brought 
 forth the children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt ; but the 
 Lord liveth that brought the children of Israel out of the land 
 of the North, and out of all the lands to which I cast them 
 out ; and I will bring them again into their land which I gave 
 to their Fathers. Behold, I will send many fishers, saith the 
 Lord, and they shall fish them," &c. (Jer. xvi. 14, seq. ; xxiii. 
 7, sq.) For our most indulgent Father hath gathered together 
 through his Son, " the children that were dispersed " (John xi. 
 52), that, no longer "the servants of sin but of justice" (Rom. 
 vi. 16, 18), " we may serve before him in holiness and justice 
 all our days" (Luke i. 74, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION II. In what manner the Faithful ought to be affected 
 by the Beginning of this Decalogue. 
 
 Wherefore, to all temptations the faithful will oppose as a 
 shield these words of the Apostle, " Shall we that are dead to 
 sin, live any longer therein ?" (Rom. vi. 2). We are no longer 
 our own, but his who for us " died and rose again " (2 Cor. 
 v. 15) : " He is the Lord our God," who " purchased " us for 
 himself " with his own blood " (Acts, xx. 28). How shall we 
 be any longer capable of sinning against the Lord our God 
 (Gen. xxxix. 9), and " crucifying" him " again?" (Heb. vi. 6.) 
 Being truly free, and " by the freedom wherewith Christ hath 
 made us free" (Gal. iv. 31), let us, as we heretofore yielded 
 our members to serve injustice, henceforward yield them " to 
 serve justice unto sanctificatiou " (Rom. vi. 19). 
 
 QUESTION III. What is to be observed or avoided, according to 
 this First Commandment. 
 
 " THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME " (Ex. XX. 
 
 3 ; Dent. v. 7). The parish-priest will teach that, in the 
 Decalogue, the precepts that regard God occupy the first, and 
 those that regard our neighbour, the second place; because the 
 services that we render our neighbour, we render him for sake 
 of God ; for then only do we love our neighbour according to 
 the precept of God, when we love him for God's sake ; and 
 these precepts were inscribed on the first table. In the second 
 place, he will show that, in the words propounded, is contained
 
 314 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 a twofold precept ; the one mandatory, the other prohibitory ; 
 for what is said : " Thou shalt not have strange gods before me," 
 is equivalent to saying : " Thou shalt worship me the true God ; 
 thou shalt not worship strange gods." 
 
 QUESTION IV. In what manner Faith, Hope, and Charity are 
 contained in this Precept. 
 
 In the mandatory part is contained a precept of faith, hope, 
 and charity ; [of faith], for when we say, God, we acknowledge 
 him to be immoveable, immutable, remaining always the same, 
 faithful, righteous, without any iniquity ; whence assenting to 
 his oracles, we necessarily yield to him all faith and authority; 
 [of hope], for who can contemplate his omnipotence, clemency, 
 and beneficence, and not repose in him all his hopes ? [of charity], 
 for if we contemplate the richness of his goodness and love, 
 lavished on us, how can we but love him ! Hence that com- 
 mencement, hence that conclusion, which God makes use of in 
 Scripture in his precepts and commands : " I the Lord " (Lev. 
 xviii. xix.). 
 
 QUESTION V. The Precept is explained, as it is prohibitory. 
 
 The negative part of the precept is comprised in these words: 
 " Thou shalt not have strange Gods before me ;" words which 
 the Legislator used, not because this idea is not sufficiently 
 implied in the positive part of the precept, which says equiva- 
 lently : " Thou shalt worship me the only God ;" for if he is 
 God, he is the only God ; but on account of the blindness of 
 very many, who of old professed to worship the true God, and 
 yet adored a multitude of Gods ; of whom there were very many 
 amongst the Hebrews themselves, who, as Elias reproached 
 them with doing, halted " between two sides " (3 Kings, viii. 
 21), which the Samaritans did, who worshipped the God of 
 Israel, and the gods of the nations (4 Kings, xvii. 33, sqq.) 
 
 QUESTION VI. How this Commandment is to be deemed the 
 Greatest of All. 
 
 These matters explained, [the pastor] must add, that this is 
 the first and greatest of all the commandments, not only in 
 order, but also in nature, dignity, excellence ; for God ought 
 to have with us infinitely greater love and authority than are 
 due to master, to monarch. He created us : he the same go- 
 verns us : he nurtured us in our mother's womb, and brought us 
 thence into this world ; he supplies us with necessaries for life 
 and sustenance.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER II. 315 
 
 QUESTION VII. Who chiefly are guilty of violating this Com- 
 mandment. 
 
 Against this commandment offend all who have not faith, 
 hope, and charity, a numerous class of offenders ; for in this 
 number are those who fall into heresy, who believe not what 
 our holy Mother the Church proposes to be believed ; who give 
 credit to dreams, divinations, and other superstitious illusions ;"* 
 who despair of their salvation, and trust not in the divine good- 
 ness ; and also those who rely solely on riches, on bodily health 
 and strength. But these matters have been explained more at 
 large in treatises on morality. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. To this commandment is not opposed the Honour 
 given to the Saints, according to the received usage of the 
 Church. 
 
 But in the exposition of this precept, it must also be accu- 
 rately taught, that to this law are by no means repugnant the 
 veneration and invocation of the holy angels, and of the blessed 
 souls who enjoy the glory of heaven, nor the honour which the 
 Catholic Church has also ever paid to the bodies and ashes of 
 the Saints. For, were a king to issue a proclamation to the 
 effect that no one assume the regal character, or accept the 
 respect and honour due to the royal person, who so insane as at 
 once to conclude, that the king was unwilling that respect should 
 be paid to his magistrates ? Although following the example of 
 the holy men recorded in the Old Testament,t Christians are 
 said to adore the angels, they yet render them not that honour 
 which they give to God ; and if we read that angels sometimes 
 refused to be worshipped by men (Apoc. xix. 10 ; xxii. 9), we 
 are to understand that they did so, because the worship which 
 they would not accept was the supreme honour due to God 
 alone. 
 
 QUESTION IX. In what manner Angels may be worshipped, 
 is shown from the Scriptures. 
 
 For the same Holy Spirit who says : " Honour and glory 
 to the only God" (1 Tim. i. 17), has commanded us to honour 
 our parentsj and elders (Lev. xix. 32) ; and moreover, the holy 
 men who worshipped one God only are also said in the sacred 
 Scriptures to have " adored," that is, to have suppliantly 
 
 * Lev. xix. 26 ; Deut. xviii. 10 ; Isa. ii. 6. t Gen. xviii. 2; xix. 1; 
 Num. xxii. 31; Jos. v. 15. t Ex. xx. 12; Deut. v. 16 ; Eccl. iii. 9; 
 Matt. xv. 4 ; Mark vii. 10 ; Eph. vii. 1, sq. Gen. xxiii. 7, 12, xlii. 
 (j; 1 Kings, xxiv. 9; xxv. 23 ; 2 Kings, ix. 6, 8 ; 1 Par. xxix. 20.
 
 316 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 venerated kings. If then kings, by whom God governs the 
 world, are treated with such high honour, shall we not give to 
 the angelic spirits an honour greater in proportion as these 
 blessed minds exceed kings themselves in dignity ; [to those 
 angelic spirits] whom God has been pleased to constitute his 
 ministers (Heb. i. 14) ; whose services he makes use of not only 
 for the government of his Church, but also of the rest of the 
 universe ; by whose aid, although we see them not, we are daily 
 delivered from the greatest dangers both of soul and body ? 
 Add to this the charity with which they love us, prompted by 
 which, as is easily understood from Scripture (Dan. x. 13), 
 they pour out prayers for those countries over which they have 
 charge, a service which they, no doubt, render to those also 
 whose guardians they are, for they present our prayers and tears 
 before the throne of God.* Hence, the Lord has taught in the 
 Gospel that the little ones ought not to be scandalizedt because 
 " their angels in heaven always see the face of [his] Father 
 who is in heaven " (Matt, xviii. 10). 
 
 QUESTION X. That the holy Angels are to be invoiced is 
 proved from Scripture. 
 
 Their intercession, therefore, is to be invoked, because they 
 always see God, and most willingly undertake the advocacy of 
 our salvation assigned to them. Of this invocation their exist 
 testimonies of sacred Scripture ; for Jacob intreats, nay com- 
 pels, the angel with whom he had wrestled, to bless him, de- 
 claring that he would not let him go until he had received his 
 blessing (Gen. xxxii. 24, sq. ; Osee, xii. 4) ; nor did he implore 
 the blessing of the angel only whom he saw, but also of him 
 whom he saw not : " The angel," says he, " that delivereth me 
 from all evils, bless these boys" (Gen. xlviii. 16). 
 
 QUESTION XI. By the invocation of Saints and the veneration of 
 Reliques nothing is detracted from the honour due to God. 
 
 From these premises we are also justified in concluding that 
 by honouring the Saints who have slept in the Lord, by invoking 
 their intercession, and venerating their sacred reliques and 
 ashes, so far is the glory of God from being diminished, that 
 it is very much increased, in proportion as the hope of men is 
 thus more excited and confirmed, and they are encouraged to 
 the imitation of the saints. This office [of piety] is also sup- 
 ported by the second Council of Nice, J the Councils of 
 
 * Tob. iii. 25, xii. 12 ; Apoc. viii. 3, sq. f Matt, xviii. 6 ; Mark 
 ix. 41 ; Luke, xvii. 2. J C. ii. act. 6.
 
 PART HI. CHAPTER II. 317 
 
 Gangra,* and of Trent,f and by the authority of the Holy 
 Fathers 4 
 
 QUESTION XII. By what arguments chiefly the Invocation of 
 Saints is to be confirmed. 
 
 In order, however, that the parish-priest may be the better 
 prepared to refute those who impugn this truth, let him read 
 particularly St. Jerome against Vigilantius and Damascene ;|| 
 to whose reasoning, what is of primary importance, is added 
 the practice derived from the Apostles, and always retained 
 and preserved in the Church of God.^[ Of this matter, who 
 would require a stronger or clearer proof than the testimony of 
 sacred Scripture, which admirably celebrates the praises of the 
 saints ? for there are extant divine eulogies of particular saints 
 (Eccli. xliv. 1 ; Heb. xi.) ; and if their praises are celebrated in 
 the sacred Scriptures, why should not men pay them singular 
 honour? They are, however, still more to be honoured and 
 invoked, because they earnestly importune God for our salvation 
 (2 Mac. xv. 12, sqq. ; Apoc. v. 8). and God confers on us 
 many blessings through their merit and favour ;** for if there 
 is "joy in heaven for one sinner that doth penance " (Luke, xv. 
 7) will not the citizens of heaven also aid penitents by their 
 prayers ? Will they not, when asked, obtain by their inter- 
 cession the pardon of our sins, and conciliate for us the favour 
 of God. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. It is shovm that Invocation of Saints does not 
 proceed from any Diffidence in the Divine Aid, nor from 
 Weakness of Faith. 
 
 But should it be said, as is said by some, that the patronage 
 of the saints is unnecessary, because God hears our prayers 
 without an interpreter, this language of impious men that 
 observation of St. Augustine easily refutes, that there are 
 many things, which God does not grant without the interven- 
 tion of a mediator and intercessorj-f an observation, the 
 justness of which is confirmed by the illustrious examples 
 
 * Can. xx. t Sess. xxv. t Greg. Naz. orat. 21, n. 37, orat. 24, 
 orat. 21, n. 37, orat. 42, n. 9; Ephraem. orat. in Matrim. ; Basil, 
 contr. Eunom. iii. 1 ; Amb. de viduis c. 9, n. 55 ; Aug. de bapt. c. 
 Donat. vii. 1, etc. Hier. c. Vigil, p. 392, sq. || Dam. de orth. 
 fid. iv. 16. T Dion. Ar. Eccl. Hier. c. 7 ; Hilar. tract, in Ps. 129, 
 n. 7 ; Cone. NIC. ii. e. g. act. 7. ** Gen. xxvi. 5 ; 3 Kings, xi. 
 12, 32, 34 ; xv. 4, sq. ; 4 Kings, viii. 19 ; xix. 34 ; Isa. xxxvii. 3. 
 tt Aug. in Exod. q. 149.
 
 318 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 of Abimelech (Gen. xx.), and the friends] of Job (Job, xlii. 
 8, sq.), whose sins he did not pardon but through the 
 prayers of Abraham and of Job. Should it also be alleged, 
 that it is through want or weakness of faith that we recur to 
 the saints as intercessors and patrons, what answer will they 
 give to that example of the Centurion, who, although his faith 
 was highly eulogized by our Divine Lord himself, yet sent to 
 the Saviour " the Ancients of the Jews," to obtain from him 
 at their request the cure of his sick servant? (Luke vii. 3, 9.) 
 
 QUESTION XIV. The Doctrine of one Mediator, Christ, does not 
 exclude the Invocation of Saints. 
 
 Wherefore if we must confess that one mediator is proposed 
 to us, Christ the Lord, who alone has reconciled us to his 
 heavenly Father by his blood (1 Tim. ii. 5; Rom. v. 10; 2 Cor. 
 v. 18, sq.), and who, "having obtained eternal redemption," 
 and "entered once into the sanctuary" (Heb. ix. 12), ceases 
 not "to make intercession for us" (Heb. vii. 25), it can by no 
 means thence follow, that it is unlawful to have recourse to the 
 intercession of the Saints ; for if, because we have one Mediator 
 Christ Jesus, it were unlawful to make use of the succours of 
 the saints, the Apostle would never have committed the act of 
 seeking with so much earnestness the assistance of God through 
 the prayers of his living brethren, whereas the prayers of the 
 brethren on earth should derogate from the glory and dignity 
 of the Mediator Christ, not less than the intercession of the 
 saints in heaven. 
 
 QUESTION XV. The Virtue of Reliqucs whence confirmed, and 
 how great are their power and efficacy is proved. 
 
 But whom would not the wonders wrought at their tombs 
 convince of the honour which is due to the Saints and of " the 
 patronage "* of us which they undertake ? the blind, the lame- 
 handed, and the paralysed restored to their pristine state, the 
 dead recalled to life, and demons expelled from the bodies of 
 men ! facts which St. Ambrosef and St. Augustine;}: most 
 unexceptionable witnesses, declare in their writings not to have 
 heard, as many did, not to have read, as did very many very 
 grave men, but to have seen. But why multiply proofs ? If 
 the clothes, the kerchiefs (Acts xix. 12), if the shadow of the 
 Saints (Aits v. 15), before they departed life, banished diseases 
 and restored strength, who will have the hardihood to deny 
 
 * Rom. xv. 33; Eph. vi. 18; Phil. i. 19; Col. iv. 3 ; 1 Thess. v. 
 25 ; 2 Thess. vii. 1 ; Heb. iii. 18. t Amb. ep. 22, n. 2, et 17. 
 I Aug. eer. 286, c. 5, De Civ. Dei, xxii. 8 ; Confess, ix. 7.
 
 PART HI. CHAPTER II. 319 
 
 that God wonderfully works the same by the sacred ashes, the 
 bones, and other relics of the Saints ? This that dead body 
 declared, which, having been accidentally let down into the 
 sepulchre of Elisens " when it had touched the bones " of the 
 Prophet, instantly " came to life " (4 Kings, xiii. 21 ; Eccli. 
 xlviii. 14, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XVI. The words following do not constitute another 
 Commandment, but are a Continuation of the Preceding One. 
 
 But what follows : " Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven 
 thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or 
 in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters 
 under the earth : thou shalt not adore them nor serve them " 
 (Exod. xx. 4 ; Deut. v. 8, sq.) ; some, supposing this another 
 precept, would have it that the ninth and tenth Commandments 
 are reduced to one ;* but St. Augustine, dividing the two last, 
 was of opinion, that these very words belong to the first Com- 
 mandment ;| and this opinion, because celebrated in the Church, 
 we willingly follow. A very just argument in its favour, how- 
 ever, is at hand, that is, the propriety of annexing to the first 
 the rewards or punishments attached to [the observance or vio- 
 lation of] each of the commandments.J 
 
 QUESTION XVII. To this Precept is not opposed the Use of 
 Images, as received in the Church. 
 
 Nor let any one imagine that by this commandment is utterly 
 prohibited the art of painting, modelling, or sculpture, for we 
 read in the Scriptures that effigies and images were made by 
 the command of God, of Cherubim, of the brazen serpent (Num. 
 xxi. 8, sq.). It remains, therefore, that we interpret images to 
 have been forbidden only inasmuch as they might be the cause 
 of detracting from the true worship of God, as though they were 
 to be adored as gods. 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. In what ivays chiefly the Deity may be 
 offended by the Use of Images. 
 
 But as regards this commandment, 'it is clear that the Ma- 
 jesty of God is most grievously offended chiefly in a ^two-fold 
 manner ; the one, if idols and images be worshipped as God, 
 or if it be believed " that in them there is any divinity or 
 
 * Origen, horn, 8, in Exod., n. 2. t Aug. Ep. 55, c, 2, in Exod., 
 q. 71 ; in Ps. xxxii. ; enarr. 2, n. 6. J See on this subject Dr. Lin- 
 gard's " Remarks on a charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese 
 of Durham," 12mo, Dublin, 1822, p. 21. Exod. xxv. 18, sq. ; 3 
 Kings, vi. 23 j 2 Par. iii. 7.
 
 320 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 virtue on account of which they are to be worshipped, or 
 that anything is to be asked of them, or that confidence 
 is to be reposed in the images as was done of old by the 
 Gentiles, who placed their hope in idols,* and whose idolatry 
 the sacred Scriptures universally reprehend ;f the other, if any 
 one should attempt to form by any device a representation of 
 the Divinity, as if he could be seen by corporeal eyes, or could 
 be expressed by painting or statuary ; " for who," as Dama- 
 scene says, " can express God, who falls not under the sight, 
 who is incorporeal, who can be circumscribed by no limits, nor 
 described under any figure ?"J This matter is explained more at 
 large in the second Council of Nice. Admirably, therefore, 
 has the Apostle said, that [the Gentiles] " changed the glory of 
 the incorruptible God into a likeness of the image of a corrupt- 
 ible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping 
 things " (Rom. i. 23) ; for the likenesses of all these things, 
 although the work of their own hands, they worshipped as God. 
 Wherefore, the Israelites, who cried out before the molten calf : 
 " These are thy Gods, Israel, that have brought thee out of 
 the land of Egypt " (Exod. xxxii. 4, 8 ; 3 Kings, xii. 28) are 
 called idolaters (1 Cor. x. 7), because they changed their glory 
 iuto the likeness of a calf that -eateth grass (Ps. cv. 20). 
 
 QUESTION XIX. Meaning of the Latter Portion of the Precept. 
 
 When, therefore, the Lord had prohibited strange gods to be 
 worshipped, he, with a view to the utter removal of idolatry, 
 forbad the formation of an image of the Divinity from brass, or 
 any other material, declaring which, Isaias says : " To whom, 
 then, have you likened God, or what image will you make for 
 him?" (Isa. xl. 18). And that such is the meaning of [the 
 prohibitory part of] the precept, besides the writings of the 
 holy Fathers, who, as is expounded in the seventh [General] 
 Council, gives to it this interpretation,] | these words of Deute- 
 ronomy, by which Moses sought to withdraw the Israelites from 
 idolatry also sufficiently declare : " Yon saw not," says he, 
 " any similitude in the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb, 
 from the midst of the fire " (Deut. iv. 15). These words the 
 wisest of legislators uttered, lest, led away by'error of any sort, 
 
 * Cone. Trid. sess. xxv. f Ps. xcvi. 7, cxiii. 4, cxxxiv. 15 ; Wisd. 
 xiii. 16, sq., xiv. 12, 27 ; Isa. ii. 18, so., xl. 18, sq., xli. 29, xlii. 17 ; 
 Jer. x, 3, sq. 14, sq., xvi. 18, sq., li. 17, sq. ; Act. xvii. 29 ; Rom, i. 
 22, sq. ; 1 Cor. viii. 4, x, 7, 14. John Damasc. de orth. fid. iv. 16 ; 
 de imag. orat. 2, n. 5. Cone. Nic. act. 3. I! Cone, Nic. ii. act, 2 ; 
 Hadr. P. litt. ad Conf. et Iren. ; Impp, et in act. 4 ; locum ex Leontii 
 Episc. serm. 5.
 
 PAET III. CHAPTER II. 321 
 
 they should make an image of the Deity, and transfer to a 
 created thing the honour due to God. 
 
 QUESTION XX. This Precept they do not violate who represent 
 the Persons of the Trinity. 
 
 Let no one, however, on that account think that any offence 
 is committed against religion and the law of God, when some 
 Person of the most holy Trinity is expressed by certain forms, 
 which appeared in the Old and New Testament ;* for no one 
 is so ignorant as to believe that by that image is expressed the 
 Divinity ; but let the pastor teach that by them are declared 
 some peculiar relations, or actions, which are attributed to God ; 
 as when from Daniel, "the Ancient of days" is painted, seated 
 on a throne, and before him, " the books opened" (Dan. vii. 9, 
 sq.), the eternity of God is signified, and his infinite wisdom, 
 by which he sees, with a view to judge, all the thoughts and 
 actions of men. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. Angels why painted. 
 
 To angels also are fashioned both the human form, and wings, 
 that the faithful may understand how benevolent they are 
 towards the human race, and that they are as if ready to execute 
 the embassies of the Lord ; for " they are all ministering spirits, 
 sent to minister for these, who shall receive the inheritance of 
 salvation" (Heb. i. 14). 
 
 QUESTION XXII. Of forms representing the Holy Ghost. 
 
 What attributes of the Holy Ghost are signified, in the 
 Gospel,t and in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts, ii. 3), by the 
 forms of " a dove," and of " tongues of fire," is a matter too 
 well known to require lengthened exposition. 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. Likenesses of Christ and his Saints to be 
 painted and honoured. 
 
 But as Christ the Lord, and his most holy and most pure 
 mother, and all the other saints, having been endued with human 
 nature, bore the human form, it is not only not forbidden by 
 this commandment to paint and honour their images, but it has 
 always been deemed a holy practice, and a most certain proof 
 of a grateful mind ; a position which is confirmed by the monu- 
 ments of the Apostolic age, General Councils, and the writings 
 
 * Gen. xviii, xxxii 24, sq. ; Ex. iii. 2, xiii. 21, xxxiv. 17 ; 2 ParaL 
 vii. 1, sq. ; Isa. vi. 1 ; Ez. i. 27, sq., ii. 1 ; Dan. vii 13 ; Matth. iii 
 16 ; Apoc. i. 13, v. 6. t Matth. iii. 16 ; Mark, i. 10 ; Luke, iii 
 
 22 ; John, i. 32. 
 
 I
 
 322 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 of so many very holy and very learned fathers, who are of one 
 accord upon the subject.* 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. What is the Legitimate Use of Images in the 
 Church. 
 
 But the pastor will show that it is not only lawful to have 
 images in a church, and to pay them honour and respect, as the 
 honour which is paid to them is referred to their prototypes ; 
 but he will also declare that, up to the present day, this practice 
 has been attended with very great advantage to the faithful, 
 as may be seen in the book which Damascene published on 
 images,t and iu the seventh Council, which is the second of Nice. J 
 But because the enemy of mankind, by his wiles and deceits, 
 seeks to pervert every the most holy institution, should the 
 faithful happen at all to offend iu this matter, the parish-priest, 
 in pursuance of the decree of the Council of Trent, will use every 
 exertion in his power to correct such an abuse, and when occasion 
 offers, will explain the decree itself to the people. He will also 
 inform the illiterate, and those who are ignorant of the purpose 
 of images, that they are intended to instruct in the history of 
 both Testaments, and occasionally to renew the remembrance 
 of the events which t.hey record ; that thus excited by the recol- 
 lection of divine things we may be the more intensely inflamed 
 to adore and love God himself. He will also show that the 
 images of the saints are placed in churches to be honoured, and 
 also in order that, admonished by example, we may conform 
 ourselves to their lives and virtues. 
 
 " I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the 
 iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth 
 generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto 
 thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.")) 
 
 QUESTION XXV. This Appendix belongs not to the First 
 Precept only. 
 
 In this concluding clause of the first commandment, there are 
 two things which are carefully to be explained : the first is 
 that, although on account of the enormous guilt of prevarication 
 against the first commandment, and the propensity of man 
 towards its commission, the punishment is here appositely pro- 
 
 * Cone. Nic. ii. act. 2; Hadr. P. litt. ad Conf. et Iren. Impp. 
 Dan. de imag. orat. 1 ; Nat. Alex. Hist. Eccles. saec. 8, diss. 6. 
 t Orat. 1, 2, 3, v. de fid. Orth. iv. 16. J Vid. in act. 2 ; Hadr. P. 
 litt. ad Conf. Cone, of Trent, sess. xxv. sub. init. |) Exod. xx. 
 5, sq. ; Deut. v. 9, sq.
 
 TART III. CHAPTER II. 323 
 
 posed, yet it is a common appendage to all the commandments ; 
 for every law induces men by rewards and punishments to 
 observe its ordinances. Hence those frequent and numerous 
 promises of God in the Scripture. For to omit the almost 
 innumerable testimonies of the Old Testament," it is written in 
 the Gospel : " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the command- 
 ments" (Matt. xix. 17) ; and elsewhere : "He that doth the 
 will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven" (Ibid. vii. 21); and that: "Every 
 tree that yieldeth not good fruit shall be cut down and cast 
 into the fire" (Ibid. iii. 10) ; and: "Whosoever is angry with 
 his brother shall be guilty of the judgment " (Ibid. v. 22) ; and in 
 another place : " If you will not forgive men, neither will your 
 Father forgive you your sins " (Ibid. vi. 15). 
 
 QUESTION XXVI. Whether the Punishment, with which Pre- 
 varicators are here threatened, is to be inculcated in the same 
 manner on the Carnal and on the Perfect. 
 
 The other is that the perfect are to be taught this appendix 
 in a far different manner from carnal men: for to the perfect, 
 who " are led by the Spirit of God " (Rom. viii. 14), and obey 
 him with prompt and cheerful mind, it is in some wise very 
 glad tidings, and a strong proof of the divine good will towards 
 them; for they recognize the care of their most loving God, 
 who, now by rewards, now by punishments, almost compels 
 men to worship and venerate him. They recognize his infinite 
 benevolence towards them, in vouchsafing to issue his command 
 to them, and to avail himself of their service to the glory of 
 the divine name ; and not only do they recognize this, but are 
 also in great hopes that, when he commands what he pleases, 
 he will also give strength by which they may be enabled to 
 obey his law. But to the carnal, who are not yet liberated 
 from "the spirit of bondage" (Rom. viii. 15), and who abstain 
 from sins more through fear of punishment than love of virtue, 
 [this sanction of the divine Law], which forms the appendix, 
 is burdensome and severe. They are, therefore, to be supported 
 by pious exhortations, and to be led, as it were, by the hand, to 
 the path pointed out by the Law. These same things let the 
 pastor keep in view, as often as he shall happen to have 
 occasion to explain any of the commandments. 
 
 * Ps. xlix. 14 ; Isa. i. 19 ; Ivii. 2 ; Jer. v. 22 ; Ez. xvii. 19, xviii 
 4 ; MaL iv. 1, sq.
 
 324 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXVII. Wliat those words: " I am thy God, 
 Mighty," propose to be meditated on. 
 
 To both carnal and spiritual are, however, in particular to be 
 applied two stimulants, as it were, contained in this appendix, 
 and very well calculated to incite men to observe the law. The 
 one is, that God is called " Mighty," an appellation, which is 
 to be the more diligently expounded, as, unappalled by the 
 terrors of the divine menaces, the flesh often indulges in the 
 delusive expectation of escaping, in various ways, the wrath of 
 God and his threatened judgments ; but, when impressed with 
 the certain conviction that God is " Mighty," it exclaims with 
 the great David : " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? or 
 whither shall I flee from thy face ?" (Ps. cxxxviii. 7.) [The 
 flesh] also, sometimes distrusting the divine promises, magnifies 
 the power of the enemy to such a degree, as to think itself not 
 at all able to withstand him ; whereas, on the contrary, a firm 
 and unshaken faith, " nothing wavering " (James, i. 6), whilst 
 it relies confidently on the divine strength and power, animates 
 and confirms man, for he exclaims : " The Lord is my light and 
 my salvation; whom shall I fear 1 ?" (Ps. xxvi. 1.) 
 
 QUESTION XXVIII. What is meant by God being "Jealous." 
 The second stimulant is the divine jealousy ; for men some- 
 times think that God takes no concern in human affairs (Job, 
 xxii. 13, sq. ; Ps. Ixxii. 11, sq.), even as to whether we observe 
 or contemn his Law, an error which is the source of great dis- 
 order of life ; but when we believe that God is a jealous God, 
 meditation on this point easily keeps us within duty. 
 
 QUESTION XXIX. What sort of Jealousy is to be attributed to 
 
 God. 
 
 The jealousy, which is to be attributed to God, does not, 
 however, imply any agitation of mind, but that divine love and 
 charity by which God suffers no soul to violate with impunity 
 her fidelity to him, and which destroys all those who are dis- 
 loyal to him (Ps. Ixxii. 27). The jealousy of God, therefore, 
 is his most calm and impartial justice, by which the soul that 
 is corrupted by false opinions and depraved passions is repu- 
 diated, and is removed as an adulteress from the companionship 
 of God. But in this jealousy of God, evincing as it does his 
 supreme and incredible goodness towards us, we recognise a 
 source of sweetest and most delightful pleasure ; for there is no 
 love more ardent amongst men, or bond of union stronger or 
 closer, than what is found between married persons. God, 
 therefore, when, frequently comoariug himself to a spouse or
 
 PART III. CHAPTER IT. 325 
 
 husband, he calls himself a jealous God, demonstrates the excess 
 of his love towards us. Wherefore let the pastor here teach, 
 that so desirous ought men to be of the divine worship and 
 honour, as justly to be said to be jealous of, rather than to love, 
 God, after the example of him who says of himself : " With 
 zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of Hosts " (3 Kings, 
 xix. 14) ; or rather, let them imitate Christ himself, who has 
 said : " The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up " (Ps. Ixviii. 
 10; John ii. 17). 
 
 QUESTION XXX. What is the Purport of the Threat here set 
 
 forth. 
 
 But the import of the menace, that God will not suffer 
 sinners to go unpunished, but will either chastise them as a 
 Parent, or punish them sharply and severely as a Judge, is to 
 be explained. Moses, intimating it in another place, says : 
 "Thou shall know that the Lord thy God is a strong and 
 faithful God, keeping his covenant and mercy to them that love 
 him, and to them that keep his commandments, unto a thousand 
 generations ; and repaying forthwith them that hate him, so as 
 to destroy them without further delay, immediately rendering 
 to them what they deserve " (Deut. vii. 9, sq.) ; and Josue : 
 " Yon will not be able to serve the Lord ; for he is a holy God, 
 and mighty and jealous, and will not forgive your wickedness 
 and sins. If you leave the Lord and serve strange gods, he 
 will turn, and will afflict you, and will destroy you " (Jos. xxiv. 
 19, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XXXI. How God visits the Sins of the Fathers on 
 
 the Children to the Third and Fourth Generation. 
 But the people are to be taught, that the punishment here 
 threatened awaits the third and fourth generation of the impious 
 and the wicked ; not that the descendants always suffer the 
 punishments due to the crimes of their ancestors, but that, 
 although they and their children may go unpunished, their 
 posterity shall not all escape the wrath and vengeance of God. 
 This king Josias experieuced, for although God had spared 
 him on account of his singular piety, and had given him to 
 " be gathered to" the " sepulchre" of his fathers " in peace," 
 that he might not see the evils of the times to come, that were 
 to befal Judah and Jerusalem by reason of the impiety of his 
 grandfather Manasseh; yet, after his decease, the vengeance of 
 God so overtook his posterity, that it spared not even the 
 children of Josias.* 
 
 * 4 Kings xxii. 2, 19, sq.; xxiii. 25, 26, 29, 30, sq.; 2 Paral. xxxiv. 
 2, 3, 27, eq. ; xxxv. 24 ; xxxvi. ; Jer. xv. 4.
 
 326 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXXII. How these words agree with the words of 
 
 Ezekiel. 
 
 But how these words of the law are not at variance with that 
 sentence of the prophet : " The soul that sinneth shall die " 
 (Ez. xviii. 4), the authority of St. Gregory, concurring with all 
 the other ancient fathers, plainly shows ; for he says : " Who- 
 ever imitates the iniquity of a depraved father, is also bound 
 by his sin; but whoever does not imitate the iniquity of his 
 father, is not at all burdened with his sin. Hence it comes to 
 pass that the wicked son of a wicked father, who dreads not 
 to superadd his own malice to the vices of his father, by which 
 he knows the wrath of God to have been excited, is burdened 
 not only with the sins that he has added, but also with those 
 of his father ; and it is just that he who dreads not to follow in 
 the ways of a wicked father, before the eyes of a rigorous judge, 
 be punished in the present life for the crimes also of his wicked 
 parent."* The pastor will next recount how much the good- 
 ness and mercy of God exceed his justice. God is angry to 
 the third and fourth generation ; but his mercy he bestows on 
 thousands. 
 
 QUESTION XXXIII. What transgressors of the Divine laws 
 may be considered to hate God. 
 
 In the words, " Of them that hate me," is displayed the 
 grievousness of sin ; for what more flagitious and detestable 
 than to hate the Supreme Goodness itself, the Supreme Truth ? 
 This, however, is the case with all sinners ; for as " he that 
 hath " the " commandments " of God, " and keepeth them, 
 loveth " God (John xiv. 21) ; so he that contemneth the Law of 
 the Lord, and keepeth not his commandments, is justly said to 
 hate God. 
 
 QUESTION XXXIV. Meaning of " showing mercy to them that 
 love me" 
 
 The concluding words, "And them that love me," teach the 
 manner and motive of observing the Law ; for it is necessary 
 that those, who observe the Law of God, be influenced in its 
 observance by the same charity and love which they bear to 
 God ; a principle which will be hereafter applied to each of the 
 other commandments. 
 
 * Greg. M. Moral xv. 51.
 
 PART in. CHAPTER III. 327 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE SECOND COMMANDMENT. 
 ' THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN."* 
 
 QUESTION I. Why God willed specially to enact this law of 
 honouring his Name. 
 
 Although in the first precept of the Divine Law, by which we 
 are commanded to worship God in piety and holiness, is neces- 
 sarily contained this that follows in the second place ; for he 
 that wishes to be honoured, also requires to be spoken of by us 
 with the highest respect, and forbids the contrary, as the words 
 of the Lord in Malachy also clearly show: "The son honoureth 
 the father, and the servant his master ; if then I be a Father, 
 where is my honour ?" (Mai. i. 6) ; yet, on account of the im- 
 portance of the matter, God was pleased to make this law, 
 which commands his divine and most holy name to be honoured, 
 a distinct precept, and to prescribe it to us in plain and perspi- 
 cuous terms. 
 
 QUESTION II. What great efforts Parish-priests should make in 
 the Explanation of this Precept. 
 
 This should be to the parish-priest himself a primary proof, 
 that it will by no means suffice to speak on this matter in 
 general terms ; but that this subject is of such a nature as to 
 require to be dwelt upon at considerable length, and explained 
 to the faithful in all its bearings distinctly, clearly, and accu- 
 rately. Nor is this diligence to be deemed too great, whereas 
 there are not wanting those, who are so blinded by the dark- 
 ness of error as not to dread to blaspheme Him, whom the 
 angels glorify ; for they are not deterred by the Law once pro- 
 mulgated from daring most shamelessly to disparage the Majesty 
 of God every day, nay, almost every hour and moment of the 
 day. For who does not perceive that every assertion is 
 accompanied with an oath ; that every conversation abounds 
 with curses and imprecations ; so much so, that scarcely does 
 any one buy, or sell, or transact business of any sort, without 
 
 * Ex. xx. 7; Deut v. 2.
 
 328 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 interposing the solemn pledge of an oath, and, even in matters 
 the most unimportant and trivial, thousands of times rashly 
 making use of the most holy name of God ? It therefore 
 becomes imperative on the pastor to employ the greater care 
 and diligence in reminding the faithful frequently how grievous 
 and detestable is this crime. 
 
 QUESTION III. Wliat this Second Precept Commands or 
 Forbids. 
 
 In the exposition, then, of this precept, be it first well known 
 that, besides what it forbids, it also contains a positive precept, 
 enforcing certain things to be done. The pastor will give 
 a separate exposition of each ; and, to facilitate instruction 
 on these matters, he will first explain what the law commands, 
 and next what it prohibits. What it commands then is, that 
 the name of God is to be honoured, and that it is to be 
 appealed to on oath with reverence ; and on the other hand, 
 what it prohibits is, that any one contemn the divine name, 
 that any one take it in vain, or swear by it falsely, unnecessarily, 
 or rashly 
 
 QUESTION IV. Wliat is here meant ly the Name of God. 
 
 In that part, then, in which we are commanded to honour 
 the divine name, let the parish-priest enforce that the attention 
 of the faithful is not to be directed to the name of God, that 
 is to say, to the letters and syllables, or at all to the bare word 
 itself only, but that our thoughts should be fixed on the import 
 of that word, which expresses the Omnipotent and Eternal 
 Majesty of the Godhead, Trinity in Unity. Hence it is easily 
 inferred how unmeaning was the superstition of some amongst 
 the Jews, who dared not pronounce the name of God, which 
 they hesitated not to write, as if the divine power consisted 
 in the four letters of which it is composed, and not in their 
 signification.* But although enunciated in the singular num- 
 ber : " Thou shalt not take the name of God," it is not to be 
 understood of any one name in particular ; but of all the 
 names by which God is usually designated ; for God is called by 
 many names, such as " the Lord," " the Almighty" (Exod. xv. 
 3), " the Lord of Hosts,"t " the King of Kings " (Apoc. xvii. 
 14; xix. 16), "the Mighty One,"J and others of similar im- 
 port, which are read in the Scriptures ; all of which are entitled 
 to the same veneration. The pastor must next teach how due 
 
 * See St. Jerome, Ep. 25. t Iw. li. 15, liv. 5 ; Jer. 1. 34. J Ex. 
 xr. 5; Isa. x. 21 ; Jer. 1. 34; Apoc. xviii. 8. Hieron. d. 1.
 
 TAUT III. CHAPTER III. 329 
 
 honour is given to the divine name ; for to the Christian people, 
 whose tongues should every day celebrate the praises of God, 
 it is not lawful to be ignorant of a matter most useful and most 
 necessary to salvation. 
 
 QUESTION V. How we may le considered to venerate or honour 
 the Divine Name. 
 
 But although there are many ways of praising the divine 
 name, yet the force and weight of all seem to be included in 
 those, of which we here proceed to speak. First, then, God 
 is praised, when, in the presence of all, we confidently confess 
 him to be our Lord and our God ; and not only acknowledge 
 but also proclaim Christ the author of our salvation. [God 
 is also praised], when we pay a religious attention to his word, 
 by which his will is announced ; make it the subject of our 
 assiduous meditation ; and by reading or hearing it, study to 
 become acquainted with it, according to each one's capacity 
 and condition of life. Again, we honour and venerate the 
 divine name, when, from a sense cf religious duty, we celebrate 
 the divine praises, and for all things, both prosperous and 
 adverse, return him singular thanks. For the prophet says : 
 " Bless the Lord, my soul, and never forget all he hath done 
 for thee " (Ps. cii. 2) ; and there are extant very many Psalms 
 of David,* in which, with surpassing piety towards God, he 
 chants in sweetest strains the divine praises. We have 
 that admirable example of patience, Job, who, when he had 
 fallen into the greatest and most appalling calamities, never 
 ceased, with lofty and unconquered soul, to praise God. (Job, 
 i. *2l ; ii. 10). When, therefore, we are afflicted with pain of 
 mind and body, when tormented by miseries and misfortunes, let 
 us instantly direct all our zeal, and the powers of our souls, to 
 praise God, saying, with Job : " Blessed be the name of the 
 Lord." (Job, i. 21). 
 
 QUESTION VI. Other ways of obeying this Precept. 
 
 The name of God is also not less honoured, if we confidently 
 implore his assistance, to relieve us for instance from our afflic- 
 tions, or to give us constancy and strength to endure them 
 with fortitude. This the Lord wishes to be done : " Call upon 
 me," says Tie, " in the day of trouble : 1 will deliver thee, and 
 thou shalt glorify me" (Ps. xlix. 15) ; and of such supplication 
 illustrious examples are found in many other places, but espe- 
 cially in Psalms xvi., xliii., cxviii. Besides we treat the name 
 
 * Ps. ix., xvii, xviii.. xxx., xxxii., xxxiii., etc.
 
 330 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 of God with honour, when we call God to witness the truth of 
 what we assert, a mode which differs very much from those 
 above mentioned ; for the means enumerated above are in their 
 own nature so good and desirable, that to man there could be 
 nothing more happy, nothing more to be wished for, than to 
 employ himself day and night in their diligent practice : "I will 
 bless the Lord at all times," says David : " his praise shall be 
 always in my mouth" (Ps. xxxiii. 2) ; but with regard to an 
 oath, although in itself good, its frequent use is by no means to 
 be commended. 
 
 QUESTION VII. Why a rather frequent use of an Oath is not to 
 be approved of. 
 
 Of this difference the reason consists in this, that an oath 
 was instituted only as a remedy to human frailty, and as a 
 necessary means of proving the truth of what we advance. As, 
 then, it is inexpedient to have recourse to medicine, unless 
 when necessary, and as its frequent use is pernicious ; so also 
 with regard to an oath, we should never recur to it, unless 
 when there is weighty and just cause ; and a frequent use 
 thereof, so far from being advantageous, is on the contrary 
 highly detrimental. Hence the admirable observation of St. 
 Chrysostom, that oaths were introduced amongst men, not at 
 the beginning of the world, but long after, ' ; when vice had 
 overspread the whole earth ; when the moral world was thrown 
 into entire disorder, and universal confusion prevailed through- 
 out ; when, to complete the picture of human depravity, mortals 
 almost universally prostrated themselves in degrading servitude 
 to idols : then at length it was that oaths began to h'nd their 
 way amongst men, for when perfidy and wickedness had risen 
 to such a height that no one could be easily induced to believe 
 his fellow-man, then did they invoke God as a witness."* 
 
 QUESTION VIII. In ivhat the Nature of an Oath consists ; and 
 what it is properly speaking to Swear. 
 
 But, as in this part of the commandment our chief object is 
 to teach the faithful the conditions necessary to render an oath 
 pious and holy, it is first to be observed, that " to swear," 
 whatever be the form or sense of the words, is nothing else 
 than to call God to witness; for to say, " God is my witness," 
 and to swear "by God," are exactly the same. It is also an 
 oath to swear by things created, in order to gain credit ; as, for 
 instance, to swear by the holy Gospels of God, by the Cross, 
 
 * Chrysost. in Act. horn. 9, n. 5.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER III. 331 
 
 by the relics or names of the saints, and all such things. Of 
 themselves, indeed, such objects give no weight or authority to 
 an oath : its obligation it derives from God, the splendour of 
 whose divine majesty shines forth in them. Whence it follows, 
 that they who swear by the Gospel swear by God himself, 
 whose truth is contained and declared in the Gospel ; as also 
 by the Saints, who are the temples of God, who believed the 
 truth of his Gospel, were most faithful in its observance, and 
 diffused its doctrines most widely amongst peoples and nations. 
 
 QUESTION IX. Of that form of Oath which consists of 
 Execration. 
 
 The same holds good with regard to an oath uttered by way 
 of execration, such as that of St. Paul : " I call God to witness 
 upon my soul" (2 Cor. i. 23) ; for by this form [of oath] a 
 person is subjected to the judgment of God as the avenger of 
 falsehood. That some of these forms may be so used as though 
 they had not the force of an oath, we do not on that account 
 deny ; but it is nevertheless useful to observe in such cases also 
 what has been said with regard to an oath, and to direct such 
 forms entirely by the same rule and standard. 
 
 QUESTION X. Oaths are Affirmatory and Promissory. 
 
 But there are two sorts of oaths, affirmatory and promissory ; 
 an oath is called affirmatory, and also assertory, namely, when, 
 under its sacred sanction, we affirm any thing, past, or present, 
 such as the affirmation of the Apostle, in his Epistle to the 
 Galatians : " Behold ! before God, I lie not " (Gal. i. 20). An 
 oath is called promissory, to which also are referred threats, 
 when we promise and con6rm for certain the future performance 
 of anything, such as that of David, who promised, swearing to 
 Bethsabee his wife " By the Lord God," that her son Solomon 
 should be heir to his kingdom, and his successor on the throne 
 (3 Kings, i. 17, 30). 
 
 QUESTION XI. How many Conditions are required for a Lawful 
 
 Oath. 
 
 But although, to constitute an oath, it is sufficient to call 
 God to Avitness ; yet, to be a proper and holy oath, many more 
 conditions are required, which must be carefully explained. 
 They, as St. Jerome observes,* are briefly enumerated by Jere- 
 miah, when he says: "Thou slialt swear: as the Lord liveth, 
 iu truth, and in judgment, and in justice " (Jerem. iv. 2) ; words 
 
 * Hieron. in h, 1.
 
 332 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 in which indeed he briefly summed up the conditions, in which 
 is comprised the perfection of every oath, that is to say, truth, 
 judgment, and justice. 
 
 QUESTION XII. How an Oath is taken in Truth. 
 
 Let truth, then, hold the first place in an oath ; that is to 
 say, let what is asserted be true, and let him who swears believe 
 it to be so, induced not rashly, nor upon slight conjecture, but 
 by proofs of undoubted certainty. But the other kind of oath, 
 by which we promise anything, equally requires truth ; for he 
 who promises anything ought to be so disposed as that, when the 
 time shall have arrived, he really perform it, and fulfil his pro- 
 mise ; for an honest man will never undertake to do what he 
 considers to be opposed to the most holy commandments and 
 will of God ; but having once promised and sworn to do what 
 is lawful, he will never swerve from his engagement ; unless, 
 perhaps, change of circumstances should so alter the state of 
 the case, that, if he wished to keep his word and stand to his 
 promise, he would incur the displeasure and enmity of God. 
 That truth is necessary to a lawful oath David also declares, 
 when [having asked who is worthy to sit in the tabernacle of 
 the Most High], he answers : " He that sweareth to his neigh- 
 bour, and deceiveth not" (Ps. xiv. 4). 
 
 QUESTION XIII. Who is said to Swear in Judgment, and why 
 an Oath is not to be tendered to Children. 
 
 The second condition is "judgment;" for an oath ought not 
 to be taken rashly and inconsiderately, but deliberately and 
 advisedly. Let him, therefore, who is about to take an oath, 
 first consider whether he be or be not obliged by necessity [to do 
 so] ; and let him weigh well whether the whole matter be such 
 as to appear to require an oath. Let him besides consider the 
 time, attend to the place, and examine very many other things, 
 which are adjuncts to the matter ; nor let him he influenced by 
 love, or hatred, or any other passion, but by the force and 
 necessity of the thing itself. For, unless this consideration and 
 diligent attention precede, the oath will certainly be hasty and 
 rash ; such as the irreligious affirmation of those, who, on any, 
 the most unimportant and insignificant occasion, swear without 
 reason or purpose, and from a sort of evil habit. This we see 
 done everywhere, every day, by sellers and buyers ; for the 
 former, to sell at the highest price, the latter, to purchase at 
 the lowest, hesitate not to praise or dispraise with an oath 
 the goods on sale. As, then, judgment and prudence are 
 necessary, and children by reason of their age, are not yet
 
 PART III. CHAPTER III. 333 
 
 competent to perceive and distinguish so acutely, it was, there- 
 fore, decreed by St. Cornelius Pontiff,* that an oath should not 
 be exacted from children before puberty, that is, before their 
 fourteenth year. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. How an Oath is taken in Justice. 
 
 The last [condition of an oath] is justice, a condition required 
 most particularly in promissory oaths.f Wherefore, if a person 
 promise anything unjust or unlawful, he sins by swearing, and 
 heaps sin on sin by performing his promise. Of this there is 
 extant in the Gospel the example of king Herod, who, having 
 been bound by a rash oath, gave to a dancing girl, as a reward 
 for her dancing, the head of John the Baptist (Matth. xiv. 6 ; 
 Mark, vi. 21). Such was also the oath of the Jews, who, as it 
 is in the Acts of the Apostles, "bound themselves under" that 
 condition, that they would taste nothing " till they killed Paul " 
 (Acts, xxiii. 12). 
 
 QUESTION XV. Principal reasons why an Oath is sometimes 
 Lawful. 
 
 These matters thus explained, there remains no doubt what- 
 ever that they may safely swear, who shall have observed all 
 these things, and who shall have fenced the oath round with 
 these conditions as with so many guards. But this position it 
 will be easy to prove also by many arguments ; for this the Law 
 of the Lord, which is "pure" (Ps. xviii. 8) and "holy" (Rom. 
 vii. 12), hath commanded: "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God," 
 says Moses, "and shalt serve him only ; and thou shalt swear 
 by his name (Deut. vi. 13) ; and by David it has been written: 
 " All they shall be praised, that swear by him" (Ps. Ixii. 12). 
 The Sacred Writings moreover relate that the most holy Apostles, 
 the lights of the Church, sometimes made use of an oath ; and 
 this appears from the Epistles of St. Paul.f Add to this that 
 the angels themselves sometimes swear; for it is written by St. 
 John the Evangelist, in the Apocalypse, that the angel " swore 
 by him that liveth for ever " (Apoc. x. 6 ; Dan. xii. 7). Nay 
 more. God himself, the Lord of angels, sweareth, and, as we 
 read in the Old Testament in many places, confirmeth his pro- 
 mises with an oath ; as he did to Abraham, || and to David, who 
 hath recorded the oath sworn by God : " The Lord hath sworn, 
 
 * Canon Honestum, ap. Grat., P. 2, Caus. 22, qu. 5, c. 16. t Cone. 
 Tolet. viii. can. 2; J Rom. i. 9 ; 2 Cor. i. 23 ; Gal. i. 20 ; Phil. i. 8 ; 
 1 Thess. ii. 5, 10. Ps. xciv. 2 ; Heb. iii. 2 ; iv. 3. H Gen. xxii. 16 ; 
 i. 24 ; Ex. xxxii. 13 ; xxxiii. 1 ; Ps. civ. 9 ; EcclL xliv. 22 ; Mich, 
 vii. 20 ; Luke, i. 73 ; Heb. vi. 13, 17.
 
 334 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 and he will not repent : thou art a priest for ever according to 
 the order of Melchisedech."* 
 
 QUESTION XVI. It is proved that an Oath rightly taken is 
 praiseworthy. 
 
 Nor, if any one consider the whole matter more attentively, 
 and look to its origin and its end, is the reason why an oath 
 is laudable difficult to explain ; for an oath derives its origin 
 from faith, by which men believe God to be the author of all 
 truth, who can never be deceived nor deceive others, to whose 
 "eyes all things are naked and open (Heb. iv. 13), who, in fine, 
 by his admirable Providence, superintends all human affairs, 
 and governs the world. Imbued with this faith, men, therefore, 
 appeal to God as a witness of the truth, whom it were impious 
 and wicked not to believe. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. The end of an Oath is the Termination of 
 Controversies and Litigation. 
 
 With regard to its end, the intent and entire scope of an oath 
 are to establish the justice and innocence of a man, and put an 
 end to disputes and contests ; which also the Apostle teaches in 
 his epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. vi. 16). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. In what sense Christ forbade an Oath. 
 
 Nor does this doctrine clash with those words of the Redeemer 
 in St. Matthew: "You have heard that it Avas said to them of 
 old, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform thy 
 oaths to the Lord : but I say to you not to swear at all, neither 
 by heaven, for it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, for it 
 is his footstool ; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great 
 king : neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst 
 not make one hair white or black ; but let your speech be, yea, 
 yea, no, no ; and whatsoever is more than these cometh from 
 evil " (Matt. v. 33, sq.). For that by these words an oath is uni- 
 versally and under all circumstances condemned, cannot be said, 
 since we have already seen above that the Lord himself and the 
 Apostles had frequently sworn ; but the Lord wished to reprove 
 the perverse opinion of the Jews, by which they had been led 
 to suppose that nothing was to be provided against in the 
 taking of an oath but falsehood. Hence, even on the most 
 trivial and unimportant matters, they themselves very often 
 swore, and exacted an oath from others. This practice the 
 
 * Ps. cix. 4 ; Heb. v. C ; vii. 17.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER III. 335 
 
 Redeemer reprehends and reprobates, and teaches that, unless 
 necessity imperatively demand it, an oath must be entirely 
 abstained from. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. How Christ said that what exceeds the simple 
 
 Assertion of the Truth is of " Evil." 
 
 For an oath has been instituted on account of human frailty, 
 and in reality proceeds from evil, whereas, indeed, it indicates 
 either the inconstancy of him by whom, or the contumacy of him 
 for whom it is taken, who cannot otherwise be induced to 
 believe. Necessity, however, affords a just plea for an oath ; 
 and, in fact, when the Saviour says : " Let your speech be yea, 
 yea, no, no " (Matth. v. 37 ; James, v. 12), he evidently thus 
 forbids the habit of swearing in familiar conversation and on 
 trivial matters. Wherefore we are particularly admonished by 
 the Lord not to be too prompt and prone to swear ; and that 
 admonition must be sedulously taught, and inculcated on the 
 ears of the faithful ; for that from the unrestrained habit of 
 swearing, flow almost countless evils, is verified both by the 
 authority of the sacred Scriptures, and the testimonies of the Holy 
 Fathers. In Ecclesiasticus it is written : " Let not thy mouth 
 be accustomed to swearing, for in it there are many falls " 
 (Eccli. xxxiii. 9. 11) ; also : " A man that sweareth much shall 
 be filled with iniquity, and a scourge shall not depart from his 
 house " (Eccli. v. 12). On this subject more may be read in 
 St. Basil,* and St. Augustine, in his books against lyingj. 
 Thus much regarding the positive ; let us now speak of the 
 negative part of the commandment. 
 
 QUESTION XX. Why a False and Rash Oath is so great a sin. 
 We are forbidden to take the divine name in vain ; for he 
 who is led to make oath, not by deliberation, but by rashness, 
 evidently involves himself in grievous sin. That this is a most 
 grievous crime, these very words declare : " Thou shalt not 
 take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," word;:, which as if 
 to assign the reason why this is so grievous an enormity ; namely, 
 because the majesty of Him is abased, whom we profess to be 
 our Lord and our God. By this commandment, therefore, it is 
 forbidden that men swear falsely ; for he who shrinks not from 
 the enormity of calling God to witness falsehood, offers a signal 
 injury to God, branding him either with ignorance, as though 
 the truth of anything could be hidden from him, or at least with 
 improbity and depravity, as though he would by testimony con- 
 firm falsehood. 
 
 * Horn, in Ps. xiv. n. 5. t Aug. in lib. de mend. c. 15.
 
 336 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. How they who Swear truly may be Guilty of 
 Perjury. 
 
 But, not only he who affirms on oath, that what he knows to 
 be false is true, swears falsely, but also he who asserts on oath 
 that which, although it be true, he however thinks to be false ; 
 for as a lie is a lie, because it is uttered against the conviction 
 of the mind, it is clear that the latter utterly lies, and is 
 perjured. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. How a man swearing what is false, but what 
 he thinks to be true, may sin. 
 
 In like manner, he who swears that which he considers to be 
 true, but which is really false, is also guilty of perjury ; unless 
 he has used all the care and diligence in his power to arrive at 
 the truth of the whole matter; for although his assertion accords 
 with his conviction, he is nevertheless guilty of violating this 
 commandment. 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. How he, who does not what he has sworn or 
 vowed to do, sins. 
 
 He who binds himself by an oath to the performance of some- 
 thing, not intending, however, to fulfil his promise, or, having 
 had the intention, really neglects its performance, is also guilty 
 of the same sin ; and this applies also to those who, having 
 bound themselves to God by the covenant of a vow, fulfil it 
 not. 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. How he sins, who swears to commit a mortal 
 sin, or not to observe an Evangelical Counsel. 
 
 Moreover, this commandment is sinned against, if justice, 
 which is one of the three conditions of an oath, be wanting ; and 
 hence if any one swear to commit some mortal sin, the murder 
 of a man, for example, he is guilty of violating this command- 
 ment, although he should speak seriously and from inward 
 intent, and his oath should have truth which we first pointed 
 out as requisite. To these should be added such oaths as pro- 
 ceed from a sort of contempt, when any one swears that he will 
 not obey the Evangelical counsels, such as those that exhort to 
 celibacy and poverty ; for although no one is obliged to follow 
 them, yet if any one swear to their non-observance, he by that 
 oath contemns and violates the divine counsels. 
 
 QUESTION XXV. A man who sivears on slight conjectures, sins. 
 
 He also violates this law, and sins against " judgment," who 
 
 swears what is true, and believes it to be so on slight and remote
 
 PART III. CHAPTER III. 337 
 
 conjectures, for, although truth accompanies such an oath, it 
 still in some manner involves a falsehood; for he who swears so 
 negligently, is in great danger of committing perjury. 
 
 QUESTION XXVI. He who swears by false gods sins grievously. 
 
 Besides, he who swears by false gods swears falsely ; for 
 what is more foreign to truth than to attest lying and fictitious 
 deities as the true God ?* 
 
 QUESTION XXVII. He who dishonours the Word of God, either 
 by a false interpretation or a vain application, sins. 
 
 But as the Scripture, when it prohibits perjury, says : " Thou 
 shalt not profane the name of thy God" (Lev. xix. 12), it pro- 
 hibits irreverence, which is to be avoided in the other things, 
 to which, by authority of this commandment, honour is due ; 
 such as the word of God, the majesty of which not only the 
 pious, but sometimes also the impious revere, as, in the history 
 of the Judges, is recorded of Eglon, king of the Moabites (iii. 20). 
 But he who wrests the sacred Scripture from its true and genuine 
 sense to the dogmas of the impious aud to heresies, treats the 
 word of God most injuriously ; and of this wickedness the Prince 
 of the Apostles admonishes us in these words : " There are some 
 things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable 
 wrest, as also the other Scriptures, to their own perdition."t It 
 is also a shameful and base contamination of sacred Scripture, 
 to pervert its words and sentences, which should be revered 
 with all veneration, to profane purposes, as nefarious men do, 
 namely, to scurrility, fable, vanity, flattery, detraction, fortune- 
 telling, satirical libels, and the like. Such profanation of the 
 divine word, the sacred Council of Trent commands to be pun- 
 ished. J 
 
 QUESTION XXVIII. How they sin who do not invoke God 
 under their Calamities. 
 
 In the next place, as they honour God, who in their cala- 
 mities implore his aid and assistance ; so he, who invokes not 
 his succour, denies due honour to God ; and these David re- 
 bukes, when he says : " They have not called upon the Lord ; 
 there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear " 
 (Ps. xiii. 5, Iii. 6). 
 
 * Ex. xxiii 13 ; Aug. d. 1. c. 12, et ep. 47, n. 2. 
 
 t 2 Pet. iii. 16 ; 2 Cor. ii. 17, iv. 2. $ Sess. iv. sub. fin. 
 
 T
 
 338 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXIX. The most grievous of all these Sins is 
 Blasphemy against God and his Saints. 
 
 But they involve themselves in far more detestable guilt, who, 
 with impure and contaminated mouth, dare to blaspheme and 
 execrate the most holy name of God,* which is to be blessed 
 and praised above measure by all creatures, as also the name of 
 the Saints reigning with God ; a crime so atrocious, so mon- 
 strous, that sometimes the sacred Scriptures, should they happen 
 to speak of blasphemy, use the word "blessing." (3 Kings, 
 xxi. 13 j Job, i. 2, ii. 9.) 
 
 QUESTION XXX. Why to this precept are subjoined Threats 
 of its own. 
 
 But as the terror of penalty and punishment is wont power- 
 fully to coerce the licentiousness of sinning, the pastor, there- 
 fore, in order the more effectually to excite, and the more easily 
 to impel, to an observance of this commandment, will diligently 
 explain its other part, and as it were appendix : " FOR THE 
 
 LORD WILL NOT HOLD HIM GUILTLESS, THAT SHALL TAKE THE NAME 
 
 OF THE LORD HIS GOD IN VAIN" (Ex. xx. ; Deut. v. 11). 
 And let him first teach, that with very good reason were threats 
 annexed to this commandment, for by their annexation is de- 
 monstrated at once the grievousness of sin, and the benignity 
 of God tOAvards us ; who, delighted not with the perdition of 
 men (Tob. iii. 22 ; Wisd. i. 13), deters us by these salutary 
 menaces from incurring his wrath and displeasure, namely, that 
 we may experience his benevolence rather than his anger. Let 
 the pastor urge this topic, and express it with the greatest 
 earnestness, that the people may be made sensible of the grievous- 
 ness of the crime, may detest it the more vehemently, and may 
 employ greater care and caution in avoiding it. Let him, more- 
 over, show how great is the proclivity of men to the commission 
 of this sin, since it was not enough that God passed a law [for 
 its prevention], unless threats also were added. It is incredible 
 what advantages this reflection possesses ; for as nothing is so 
 injurious as a sort of incautious security of mind ; so the know- 
 ledge of one's own weakness is most profitable. Let him also 
 show that no determinate punishment had been appointed by 
 God, but that he only threatens generally, that he will not 
 suffer him to go unpunished who shall involve himself in this 
 crime. Wherefore, the various chastisements, with which we 
 are daily afflicted, ought to warn us of this sin ; for we may 
 
 Lev. xxiv. 14, sq.j Num. xvi. 30 ; Isa. i. 4, xxxvii 4.
 
 PART HI. CHAPTER IV. 339 
 
 hence easily conjecture that men fall into the heaviest calamities 
 because they obey not this precept, a consideration which will 
 probably render them more cautious for the future. Deterred, 
 therefore, by a holy fear, let the faithful in all earnestness fly 
 this sin ; for if at the last judgment an account must be ren- 
 dered for every idle word (Matt. xii. 36), what must be said of 
 most grievous enormities, which contribute a great contempt for 
 the divine name? 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE THIRD COMMANDMENT. 
 
 'REMEMBER THAT THOU KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH DAY, SIX DAYS 
 SHALT THOU LABOUR, AND SHALT DO ALL THY WORKS; BUT ON 
 THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH OF THE LORD THY GOD: THOU 
 SHALT DO NO WORK ON IT, THOU, NOR THY SON, NOR THY DAUGHTER, 
 NOR THY MAN-SERVANT, NOR THY MAID-SERVANT, NOR THY BEAST, 
 KOR THE STRANGER THAT IS WITHIN THY GATES, FOR IN SIX DAYS 
 THE LORD MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH, AND THE SEA, AND ALL 
 THINGS THAT ARE IN THEM, AND RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY: 
 THEREFORE THE LORD BLESSED THE SEVENTH DAY, AND SANCTIFIED 
 IT."* 
 
 QUESTION I. What the Faithful are commanded by this 
 Third Precept. 
 
 By this precept of the LaAV is prescribed in due order that 
 external worship, which is due to us by God ; for this is as it 
 were a fruit of the preceding precept, since, whom, led by the 
 faith and hope that we repose in him, we worship piously in our 
 inmost souls, him we cannot but adore with external worship 
 and thanksgiving. And as this is a duty which cannot be 
 easily discharged by those that are detained by the occupations 
 of human affairs, a fixed time has been appointed, when it may 
 be conveniently performed. 
 
 QUESTION II. Why especial care must be taken by the Parish- 
 priest that what is here prescribed be retained in ilie perpetual 
 Recollection of the Faithful. 
 As, then, this commandment is such as to be productive of 
 
 admirable fruit and utility, it very much concerns the parish- 
 
 * Ex. xx. 8, sq. ; Deut. v. 12, sq.
 
 340 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 priest that the greatest diligence be employed in its explana- 
 tion. But that first word of the commandment, " Remember," 
 has great force to inflame his zeal ; for as the faithful ought to 
 "remember" such a commandment, so is it the business of 
 the pastor to recall it often to their recollection both by admo- 
 nition and instruction. But how much it imports the faithful 
 to observe this commandment, is clearly perceived from the 
 consideration that by a faithful compliance therewith, they will 
 be more easily brought to observe all the other injunctions of 
 the law ; for as, among the other duties which they ought to 
 perform on festivals they are obliged to assemble at church to 
 hear the word of God ; when they shall have been taught the 
 divine " justifications " (Ps. cxviii. 26), they will also attain 
 this, to keep the Law of the Lord from their whole heart (ib. 
 v. 34). Wherefore, the celebration and sanctification of the 
 Sabbath are very often enjoined in the Sacred Scriptures, as 
 may be seen in Exodus (xvi. 23, sq. xx. 8, sq., xxxi. 13, sq.), 
 Leviticus (xix. 3, xxiii. 3, xxvi. 2), Deuteronomy (v. 12, sq.) ; in 
 the Prophets Isaias (Ivi. 2, 4, Iviii. 13), Jeremiah also (xvii. 21, 
 sq.), Ezechiel (xx. 12, sq., xxii. 8, xxiii. 38, xliv. 24, xlvi. 1, 
 sq.), in all of which places is delivered this precept on the 
 observance of the Sabbath. 
 
 QUESTION III. In what manner Princes are to be exhorted to 
 aid the Prelates of the Church. 
 
 But princes and magistrates are to be admonished and ex- 
 horted to aid by their authority the prelates of the Church, 
 most especially in those things that appertain to the upholding 
 and extending of this worship of God, and to command the people 
 to obey the injunctions of their pastors. But, with regard to 
 the explanation of this commandment, care must be taken that 
 the faithful be taught in what it agrees with, and in what it 
 differs from, the others ; for thus will they kuow why we ob- 
 serve and sanctify, not the Sabbath, but the Lord's day. 
 
 QUESTION IV. In what manner this Precept differs from 
 the other Laws of the Decalogue. 
 
 That difference, then, appears certain, that the other precepts 
 of the Decalogue belong to the natural law, and are perpetual 
 and unalterable, whence is it that, although the law of Moses 
 has been abrogated, yet the Christian people observe all the 
 commandments which are contained in the two tables, not 
 because Moses so commanded, but because they agree with the 
 law of nature, by the force of which men are impelled to their 
 observance ; whereas this commandment, touching the saucti-
 
 PART HI. CHAPTER IV. 341 
 
 fication of the Sabbath, if considered as to the time appointed 
 [for its observance], is not fixed and unalterable, but susceptible 
 of change, nor does it belong to the moral but ceremonial law, 
 neither is it a principle of the natural law, for we are taught or 
 formed by nature to give external worship to God on that 
 rather than on any other day ; but from the time the people of 
 Israel were liberated from the bondage of Pharaoh, they ob- 
 served the Sabbath day. 
 
 QUESTION V. The Ceremonies of the Law having been removed 
 at the Death of Christ; the Sabbath also, as far as it was 
 Ceremonial, was removed. 
 
 But the time when the observance of the Sabbath was to be 
 removed, is that same time when the other Hebrew rites and 
 ceremonies were to be abrogated, namely, at the death of Christ ; 
 for as those ceremonies are, as it were, images that shadowed 
 forth the light and the truth (Heb. x. 1), it was, therefore, 
 necessary that they should be removed at the coming of the 
 light and truth, which is Jesus Christ ; on which subject St. 
 Paul, when reproving the observers of the Mosaic rite, wrote 
 thus to the Galatians : " You observe days, and months, and 
 times, and years; I am in fear for you, lest, perhaps, I have 
 laboured in vain among you" (Gal. iv. 10, sq.) ; to which effect 
 he also wrote to the Colossians (ii. 16, sq.). Thus much on the 
 difference [between this and the other commandments]. 
 
 QUESTION VI. How this Third Commandment agrees with the 
 
 other Nine. 
 
 But this precept agrees with the others, not in rite and 
 ceremonies, but inasmuch as it comprises something that apper- 
 tains to the moral and natural law ; for the worship of God 
 and the practice of religion, which are expressed in this precept, 
 exist in the law of nature, since it is ordained by nature that 
 we should spend some hours in those things that belong to the 
 worship of God, a proof of which is, that we find that among 
 all nations there have been certain fixed festivals, and those 
 public, which were consecrated to the performance of sacred and 
 divine things. For it is natural to man to give a certain time 
 to necessary material functions, such as the repose of the body, 
 sleep, and other such things ; and as to the body, so, by 
 the same ordinance of nature, has it been effected, that to the 
 mind also some time should be allowed, in order to refresh 
 itself in the contemplation of God ; and thus, as there ought 
 to be some portion of time, during which divine service should 
 be performed, and the worship due to God should be paid, this, 
 certainly, belongs to the precepts of the moral law.
 
 342 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION VII. The Apostles ordained that the Lord's Day 
 be observed instead of the Sabbath Day. 
 
 The Apostles, therefore, resolved to consecrate the first day 
 of the seven to divine worship, which they called " the Lord's 
 day ;"* for St. John, in his Apocalypse, makes mention of " the 
 Lord's day" (Apoc. i. 10) ; and the Apostle orders collections to 
 be made "on the first day of the week" (1 Cor. xvi. 2), 
 which is, as St. Chrysostom interprets, the Lord's day ;f to 
 give us to understand, that even then the Lord's day was kept 
 holy in the Church. In order, then, that the faithful may 
 know what they are to do, or from what actions they are to 
 abstain on that day, it will not be foreign to the pastor's pur- 
 pose carefully to explain, word for word, the whole precept, 
 which may be properly distributed into four parts. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. What is here generally prescribed by this 
 word " Remember." 
 
 Let him, then, first propound generally what is prescribed by 
 the words: "Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath 
 day." The word " remember," is appropriately made use of 
 at the beginning of the commandment, because the sanctifica- 
 tion of that particular day belonged to the ceremonial law. Of 
 this it seemed necessary to admonish the people; for, although 
 the law of nature teaches that God is to be worshipped at 
 some time with religious rite, yet it has not prescribed on what 
 day particularly that ought to be done. Besides, the faithful 
 are to be taught, that from these words may be inferred the mode 
 and manner in which we should be employed during the week, 
 namely, so as constantly to keep in view the festival, on which 
 as we are, as it were, to render an account to God of our 
 actions and works, it is necessary that our occupations be such 
 as not to be repudiated by the judgment of God, or, as it is 
 written, be to us " an occasion of grief, and a scruple of heart" 
 (1 Kings, xxv. 31). Lastly, we are taught and the lesson 
 certainly merits attention that there will not be wanting 
 occasions to lead us into an oblivion of this commandment, 
 induced either by the example of others who neglect its ob- 
 servance, or by a love of public sights and amusements, by 
 which we are oftentimes drawn away from the holy and 
 religious observance of the Lord's day. But let us now come 
 to the meaning of the word " Sabbath." 
 
 * Aug. in App. fer. 280, n. 2. t Chrya. in 1 Cor. xvi. 2 Horn. 
 43, n. 1.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER IV. 343 
 
 QUESTION IX. What "Sabbath" and "Sabbatize" denote in 
 
 the Sacred Scriptures. 
 
 Sabbath, a Hebrew word, if interpreted in Latin, is expressed 
 by cessatio [cessation] ; " Sabbatize," therefore, means to cease 
 [from labour], and to rest ; and in this sense the seventh day 
 was called the "Sabbath." It is so called by the. Lord in 
 Exodus (Exod. xx. 8. sq. ; Gen. ii. 2), because having finished 
 and completed the creation of the world, " God rested from all 
 his work which he had done " (Gen. ii. 2, sq.). But subse- 
 quently not only this seventh day, but, on account of its dignity, 
 the week itself also was called by that name ; in which sense the 
 Pharisee said in St. Luke : " I fast twice in the [Sabbath] 
 week" (Luke, xviii. 12). Thus much as to the signification of 
 the word Sabbath." 
 
 QUESTION X. Of the Sanctification of the Sabbath. 
 But in the sacred Scriptures the sanctification of the Sabbath 
 is a cessation from bodily labour and from business, as the fol- 
 lowing words of the precept clearly show: "Thou shalt do no 
 work on it." This alone, however, is not the whole meaning of 
 the commandment, for otherwise it would have been sufficient to 
 say in Deuteronomy : " Observe the day of the Sabbath " (Deut. 
 v. 12) ; but since it is there added, " to sanctify it," by these 
 words it is shown that the Sabbath day is sacred to religion, 
 and consecrated to pious exercises and holy offices. The 
 Sabbath, therefore, we observe fully and perfectly, when we 
 render to God the duties of piety and religion ; and this is evi- 
 dently the " Sabbath " which Isaias calls " delightful " (Iviii. 
 13), for festivals are, as it were, the delight of God and of 
 pious men. If, then, to this religious and holy observance of 
 the Sabbath, are added works of mercy, the rewards proposed 
 to us in the same chapter are indeed very great and numerous 
 (v. 6, sqq.). 
 
 QUESTION XI. What is the Genuine Meaning of the above 
 Words. 
 
 The true and proper meaning of this precept tends, therefore, 
 to this, that a man apply himself earnestly, both in mind and 
 body, to take care that, disengaged from business and bodily 
 labours, he, at some fixed time, piously worship and adore God. 
 
 QUESTION XII. What is shown in the Other Part of the Com- 
 mandment. 
 
 In the other part of the precept it is shown that the seventh 
 day was divinely consecrated to the worship of God ; for it is
 
 344 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 written thus : " Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy 
 works ; but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy 
 God" (Exod. xx. 9, sq.), words which give us to understand 
 that the Sabbath is consecrated to the Lord, and that on that 
 day we are to render him the duties of religion, and to know 
 that the seventh day is a sign of his rest. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. Why it was expedient for the Jews to prescribe 
 a Certain Day for the Offices of Religion, and that the 
 Seventh. 
 
 Now this day was dedicated to the divine worship, because it 
 was inexpedient for a rude people to have the liberty of choosing 
 arbitrarily the time, lest perhaps they might imitate the religious 
 rites of the Egyptians. The last of the seven days was there- 
 fore chosen for the worship of God, a circumstance replete with 
 mystery. Hence in Exodus (Exod. xxxi. 13), and in Ezechiel 
 (Ez. xx. 12), the Lord calls it " a sign ;" he therefore says, 
 " See that you keep my Sabbath, because it is a sign between 
 me and you in your generations, that you may know that I am 
 the Lord, who sanctify you" (Exod. xxxi. 13). 
 
 QUESTION XIV. Of what Things the Celebration of the Sabbath 
 was a Sign. 
 
 It was therefore a sign, which indicated that men ought to 
 dedicate and consecrate themselves to God, whereas we see 
 that to him is dedicated even the day ; for that day is holy, 
 because on it, in a special manner, men ought to practise holi- 
 ness and religion. It is, in the next place, a sign, and, as it 
 were, a memorial, of the creation of this admirable Universe. 
 To the Israelites it was also a traditional sign, reminding them 
 that they had been freed and delivered by the hand of God 
 from the galling yoke of Egyptian bondage, as the Lord showed 
 in these words : " Remember that thou also didst serve in 
 Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee out from thence 
 with a strong hand and a stretched out arm. Therefore hath 
 he commanded thee that thou shouldst observe the Sabbath 
 day" (Deut. v. 15). It is also a sign both of the spiritual 
 and of the celestial Sabbath. 
 
 QUESTION XV. What is the Spiritual Sabbath of the Christian 
 
 People. 
 
 But the spiritual Sabbath consists in a certain holy and 
 mystic rest,* wherein "the old mau" (Eph. iv. 22), "being buried 
 
 * Aug. ep. Iv. c. 10, 11, 12, 13, fer. 8, c. 3, fer. 33, c. 3.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER IV. 345 
 
 with " Christ (Rom. vi. 4), is renewed unto life, and zealously 
 exercises himself in those acts that accord with Christian piety ; 
 for they who were " once darkness, but are now light in the 
 Lord," should " walk as children of light in all goodness, and 
 justice and truth, having no fellowship with the unfruitful 
 works of darkness " (Eph. v. 8, sqq.). 
 
 QUESTION XVI. What is their Sabbath to the Blest also. 
 
 The celestial Sabbath, as St. Cyril says, treating of that 
 passage of the Apostle, " ' There remaineth therefore a rest 
 for the people of God ' (Heb. iv. 9), is that life, in which, living 
 with Christ, we shall enjoy all good things, sin being radically 
 extirpated, according to that word : ' No lion shall be there, 
 nor shall any mischievous beast go up by it,' but ' a path and 
 a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way ' (Isa. 
 xxxv. 8, sq.) ; for the mind of the Saints attains all good 
 things in the vision of God."* The faithful therefore are to be 
 exhorted and animated by the pastor in these words : " Let us 
 hasten to enter into that rest'' (Heb. iv. 11). 
 
 QUESTION XVII. The Jews had other Festivals besides the 
 Seventh Day. 
 
 Besides the seventh day, the Jewish people had also other 
 festive and sacred days instituted by the divine Law, on which 
 would be renewed the recollection of the principal favours 
 [conferred on them by GodJ.f 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. Why the Apostles coitsecrated to the Divine 
 Worship, not the Seventh Day of the Week, but the First. 
 
 But it pleased the Church of God, that the religious cele- 
 bration of the Sabbath day should be transferred to " the 
 Lord's day ;" for as on that day light first shone on the world ; 
 so by the resurrection of our Redeemer on that day, who 
 opened to us the gate to life eternal, our life was recalled out 
 of darkness into light ; whence also the Apostles would have 
 it named "the Lord's day." We also observe in the sacred 
 Scriptures that this day was held sacred, because on that day 
 the creation of the world commenced, and the Holy Ghost was 
 given to the Apostles. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. Why other Festivals ivere added among 
 Christians to the Lord's Day. 
 
 From the infancy of the Church, and in subsequent times, 
 other days were instituted by the Apostles, and by our holy 
 
 * Wisd. vii. 11 ; Cyrill. Al. comm. in Joa. lib. iv. c. 6, passim, 
 t Vid. Cyrill. Al. de adorat. in spir. et ver. lib. 17.
 
 346 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Fathers, in order to commemorate with piety and holiness the 
 gifts of God. But amongst them the most conspicuous are 
 deemed those days which were consecrated to religion in 
 honour of the mysteries of our redemption ; next those dedicated 
 to the most blessed Virgin Mother, and also to the apostles 
 and martyrs, and to the other saints reigning with Christ : in 
 whose victory the goodness and power of God are praised, due 
 honours are paid to them, and the faithful people are excited to 
 their imitation. 
 
 QUESTION XX. How the Faithful are excited by this 
 Precept to fly Idleness. 
 
 And as to enforce the observance of this precept, there is 
 great efficacy in that portion of it, which is expressed in these 
 words : '' Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works; 
 but on the seventh clay is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God " 
 (Ex. xx. 9, sq. ; Deut. v. 13, sq.), the parish-priest ought care- 
 fully to explain that part. For from these words it may be 
 inferred, that the faithful are to be exhorted not to waste their 
 lives in indolence and sloth; but rather, mindful of the Apos- 
 tle's words, and in accordance with his injunction, " do " each 
 one his "own business, and work with" his "own hands" (1 
 Thess. iv. 11). Moreover, by this precept the Lord commands, 
 that in those six days we do our works ; that we defer not to 
 the Sunday what should be done or transacted on the other days 
 of the week, and by which the mind must be withdrawn from 
 the care and study of divine things. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. What we are chiefly forbidden to do on 
 Festivals. 
 
 Next is to be explained the third part of the commandment, 
 which describes, to some extent, the manner in which we ought 
 to keep holy the Sabbath day ; but explains particularly what 
 we are prohibited to do on that day : " Thou shalt do no work 
 on it," says the Lord, " thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, 
 nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy beast, nor 
 the stranger that is within thy gates" (Ex. xx. 10; Deut. v. 
 14). By these words we are taught, in the first place, to avoid 
 altogether Avhatever may interfere with the divine worship ; for 
 it may be easily perceived that every sort of servile work is 
 forbidden, not because it is improper or evil of its own nature, 
 but because it withdraws our mind from the divine worship, 
 which is the end of the commandment. Wherefore the faithful 
 should be more careful to avoid sin, which nut only withdraws
 
 PART III. CHAPTER IV. 347 
 
 the mind from the study of divine things, but entirely alienates 
 us from the love of God. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. Outward Actions, which are referred to the 
 Worship of God, are not forbidden on the Sabbath. 
 
 Those actions and works which appertain to divine worship, 
 such as to prepare the altar, to decorate the church on occasion 
 of some festival, and the like, although servile works, are not 
 however prohibited ; and hence it has been said by the Lord, 
 that " the priests in the temple break the Sabbath, and are 
 without blame " (Matt. xii. 5). 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. Certain Servile. Works also are allowed 
 on Festivals, through Necessity. 
 
 Neither is it to be supposed that by this commandment is 
 forbidden attention to those things, which, if neglected on a 
 festival, are lost to the proprietor, the preservation of which 
 the sacred canons also permit.* There are many other things 
 which our Lord in the Gospel declares may be done on festivals, 
 which the parish-priest will easily observe in St. Matthewt and 
 St. John (John, v. 10, sqq., vii. 22, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. Why Cattle are not to be employed on 
 Festivals. 
 
 But that nothing might be omitted that would interfere with 
 this sanctification of the Sabbath, beasts of burden are men- 
 tioned, because by their use men are prevented from keeping 
 holy the Sabbath day ; for, if beasts of burden be employed on 
 the Sabbath day, man's labour is also necessary to drive 
 them, as they cannot work alone, bat aid man, who conducts 
 it. On that day it is lawful for no man to work, therefore, 
 neither is it for cattle, whose labour man employs for that 
 purpose. The law of this precept has, therefore, another object 
 also in view, which is, that if God wills men to spare the labours 
 of cattle, certainly still more ought they to beware of being 
 inhuman to those persons of whose labour and industry they 
 avail themselves. 
 
 QUESTION XXV. In what Works chiefly Christians ought to 
 employ themselves on Festivals. 
 
 Nor ought the parish-priest to omit to teach diligently in what 
 works and actions Christian men should occupy themselves on 
 
 * Decretal, lib. 2, tit. 9, c. 3. 
 
 t Matt. xii. 1, sqq.; Mark, iii 2, sqq.; Luke, vi. 1, aqq.
 
 348 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.. 
 
 festivals. Of this sort are these, that we visit the temple of 
 God, and there, with sincere and pious attention of soul, assist 
 at the holy sacrifice of the Mass ; and frequently apply to the 
 healing of the wounds of the soul the divine sacraments of the 
 Church, which were instituted for our salvation. But nothing 
 more opportune or better can be done by Christian men, than 
 frequently to confess their sins to the priests ; to the performance 
 of which the parish-priest will be enabled to exhort the people, 
 by recurring in proof thereof for matter and manner to what 
 we have already said in its proper place on the sacrament 
 of Penance. But not only will he excite the people to have 
 recourse to this sacrament, but will sedulously exhort them 
 again and again, to partake frequently of the holy sacrament of 
 the Eucharist. Sermons are also attentively and diligently to 
 be heard by the faithful ; for nothing is more intolerable, 
 nothing, in truth, more unworthy [of a Christian"], than to 
 despise, or hear negligently, the words of Christ. The piety of 
 the faithful should also be frequently exercised in prayer and 
 the divine praises ; and their chief care should be diligently to 
 learn those things which appertain to the discipline of a Christian 
 life; and to practise with assiduity those duties which comprise 
 piety, by giving alms to the poor and the indigent, visiting the 
 sick, and piously administering consolation to the sorrowing 
 and the afflicted ; for, as St. James says, " Religion clean and 
 undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the father- 
 less and widows in their tribulation" (James, i. 27). From 
 what has been said, it will be easy to conclude what are the 
 things by which this precept is violated. 
 
 QUESTION XXVI. Why was it necessary to set apart some 
 Fixed Days for Divine Worship. 
 
 But it should also constitute part of the duty of the parish- 
 priest to have at hand certain heads, from which he may draw 
 reasons and arguments most powerfully to persuade the people 
 to the most zealous and punctual observance of this command- 
 ment. To this it will materially conduce, if, namely, he make 
 the people understand, and see clearly, how just and reasonable 
 it is that we have some certain days, which we should devote en- 
 tirely to the divine worship, and on which we should acknowledge, 
 adore, and venerate our Lord, from whom we have received 
 supreme and innumerable blessings ; for, had he commanded us 
 to offer him, every day of our lives, the tribute of public worship, 
 would it not be our duty, in return for his unequalled and 
 infinite benefits towards us, to use every exertion to obey his 
 command with a prompt and ready miud ? But now that the days
 
 PART III. CHAPTER IV. 349 
 
 consecrated to his worship are few, we have no excuse to plead 
 for neglecting, or discharging with reluctance, a duty, which we 
 cannot omit without very great culpability. 
 
 QUESTION XXVII. What advantage redounds to those who 
 sedulously obey this Precept. 
 
 Let the parish-priest next point out how great is the excel- 
 lence of this precept, since those who have observed it well 
 seem to be in the presence of God, and to hold converse with him, 
 for in offering up prayers we contemplate the majesty of God, 
 and converse with him ; in hearing the preacher, we hear the 
 voice of God, which reaches our ears through those who piously 
 and holily preach on divine things : in the sacrifice of the Altar 
 we adore Christ the Lord present ; and these goods they most 
 enjoy who diligently observe this commandment. 
 
 QUESTION XXVIII. What, on the contrary, must be thought of 
 those who have utterly neglected this Law. 
 
 But those who altogether neglect this law, as they obey not 
 God and the Church, nor listen to his precept, are enemies both 
 to God and his holy laws j as may be seen from this, that this 
 commandment is of such a nature that it can be observed with- 
 out labour ; for as God does not impose on us labour, although 
 we should undergo the most difficult for his sake, but commands 
 us to be at rest and free from worldly cares on those festivals, 
 to refuse the law of this precept is the part of great temerity ; 
 and the punishments which God inflicted on those who violated 
 it, as may be seen in the book of Numbers (xv. 32, sqq.), should 
 be a lesson to us. Lest, therefore, we should fall into this 
 offence of God, it will be expedient often to revolve in thought 
 that word, " Remember," and place before our eyes those great 
 interests and advantages, which it was shown above are derived 
 from the religious observance of festival days, and many other 
 matters pertinent to the same purpose, which the good and 
 diligent pastor will be able to pursue copiously and at large, as 
 the nature of the occasion shall require.
 
 350 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 
 
 " HONOUR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER, THAT THOO MAYEST BE 
 LONG-LIVED UPON THE LAND, WHICH THE LORD THY GOD WILL 
 GIVE THEE."* 
 
 QUESTION I. Dignity of this Precept and its accordance with the 
 preceding Commandments. 
 
 As in the foregoing Commandments there is paramount force 
 and dignity; so those of which we now treat, because most 
 necessary, deservedly hold the next place ; for the former have 
 reference immediately to God, who is our end, whilst these latter 
 instruct us in charity towards our neighbour ; although remotely 
 they too conduct to God, that ultimate end, for whose sake we 
 love our neighbour. Wherefore Christ our Lord has said, that 
 these two commandments on loving God and our neighbour, 
 are like unto each other.f It can hardly be said what great 
 advantages this subject possesses, bringing with it as it does 
 its own fruits, and those abundant and excellent, and being as 
 if a sign in which shine forth our obedience to, and observance 
 of, the first commandment : " He," says St. John, " that loveth 
 not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he 
 seeth not ?" (John iv. 20). In like manner, if we do not honour 
 and reverence our parents, whom we ought to love next to God, 
 and whom we have almost continually before our eyes, how shall 
 we honour and reverence God, the supreme and best of parents, 
 whom we cannot see ? (Eccli. iii. 8 ; Mai. i. 6). Hence it is clear 
 that both commandments accord with one another. 
 
 QUESTION II. Hoiv widely the force of this Precept extends, and 
 how much Parents are aided by this Precept. 
 
 The application of this commandment is of very great latitude, 
 for, besides those who begat us, there arc moreover many whom, 
 on account of their power, or dignity, or usefulness, or of some 
 exalted function and office, we ought to revere with parental 
 honour. It also lightens the labour of parents and all superiors ; 
 for as their principal concern is, that those whom they have 
 nnder their authority lead correct lives, in accordance with 
 the divine law, this concern will be a very easy task, if all 
 
 * Ex. xx. 12 ; Deut. v. 16. t Matth. xxii. 37, sqq. ; Mark, xii. 
 30, sq.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER V. 351 
 
 understand that, by the authority and injunction of God, the 
 highest honour ought to be paid to parents ; to be able to effect 
 which, it is necessary to know a certain difference that exists 
 between the precepts of the first and second table. 
 
 QUESTION III To what purpose the Distinction has been made of 
 the Precepts of the Law into Two Tables. 
 
 These things, therefore, the parish-priest must first explain, 
 and let him begin by observing that the divine precepts of the 
 Decalogue were engraved on two tables,* on one of which, as 
 we have received from the holy Fathers, were comprised those 
 three which were already explained, and on the other the 
 remaining seven.t For us this description was most apposite, 
 that their very order might distinguish the nature of the com- 
 mandments; for whatever is commanded or prohibited in the 
 sacred Scriptures by the divine Law, springs from one of two 
 principles ; for either the love of God or of our neighbour is had 
 in view in every moral duty. Now the three preceding com- 
 mandments teach the love of God; in the other seven is contained 
 what appertains to domestic and public society. Not without 
 reason, therefore, was the distinction made, that some precepts 
 be referred to the first, others to the second table. 
 
 QUESTION IV. How the Love of God is contained in the Three 
 First Precepts and the Love of our Neighbour in the rest, and 
 what is the Difference between both. 
 
 For, in the three preceding commandments, of which we have 
 spoken, the subject matter as it were, which they treat, is God, 
 that is the Supreme Good ; but in the others, the good of our 
 neighbour : in the former is proposed supreme, in the latter, 
 secondary love ; the former regard the ultimate end, the latter 
 those things that are referred to that end. Besides, the loVe of 
 God terminates in God himself, for God is to be loved above all 
 things solely for his own sake ; but the love of our neighbour 
 has its origin in the love of God, and is to be directed to it as 
 to a certain rule ; for if we hold parents dear, if we obey masters, 
 if we respect our superiors in rank, our ruling principle in doing 
 so should be, that God is their Creator, and wished those to 
 have pre-eminence, by whose co-operation he governs and protects 
 all other men ; and as he requires that we respect such persons, 
 we should do so, because they are exalted by God to a station 
 worthy of that same honour. Hence, the honour we give to our 
 
 * Ex. xxiv. 12, xxxi. 18; Deut. iv. 13, v. 22, ix. 9, sq. t Clem. 
 Al. Strom. vL 16.
 
 352 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 parents, would seem given to God rather than to men ; for so 
 is it in St. Matthew, when treating of duty to superiors : " He 
 that receiveth you, receiveth me" (Matt. x. 40) ; and the Apostle 
 in his epistle to the Ephesians, instructing servants, says : 
 " Servants, be obedient to them that are your lords according 
 to the flesh with fear and trembling, in the simplicity of your 
 heart, as to Christ : not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing 
 men, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from 
 the heart" (Eph. vi. 5, sq. ; 1 Pet. ii. 18). 
 
 QUESTION V. How the Love of God is boundless, but the Love 
 of our Neighbour is circumscribed within due Limits. 
 
 Moreover, no honour, no piety, no worship is rendered to 
 God, sufficiently worthy of him, towards whom love admits of 
 infinite increase ; and therefore our love should become every 
 day more fervent towards him whom, by his own command, we 
 ought to love with our whole heart, our whole soul, and with 
 all our strength ;* but the love with which we embrace our 
 neighbour is circumscribed within its own proper limits, for the 
 Lord commanded us to love our neighbour as ourselves jt and 
 if any one outstep these limits, so as to give equal love to God, 
 and his neighbour, he commits a most grievous crime : " If any 
 man come to me," says our Lord, " and hate not his father and 
 mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, 
 and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple " (Luke, xiv. 
 26). To him who would first inter his father, and then follow 
 Christ, it was said also, to the same purport : " Let the dead 
 bury their dead " (Luke, ix. 60) ; and the same lesson is more 
 clearly conveyed in these words in St. Matthew: " He that loveth 
 father or mother, more than me, is not worthy of me" (Mattb. 
 x. 37). 
 
 QUESTION VI. In what manner Parents are to be loved, and 
 why they are sometimes not to be obeyed. 
 
 Parents, nevertheless, are, no doubt, to be earnestly loved 
 and respected ; but to filial piety it is especially necessary that 
 the principal honour and homage be paid to God, who is the 
 Parent and Maker of all; and that, therefore, our mortal 
 parents be so loved that the whole force of our love be referred 
 to our heavenly and eternal Father. But should the injunctions 
 of parents be at any time repugnant to the commands of God, 
 there is not a doubt but that the children ought to prefer 
 the will of God to the wish of parents, mindful of that divine 
 
 * Deut. vi. 5 ; Matth. xxii. 37 ; Mark, xii. 30 ; Luke, x. 27. 
 t Matth. xxii. 39; Mark, xii. 31 ; Lev. xix. 18.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER V. 353 
 
 maxim : " We ought to obey God rather than man " (Acts, 
 v. 29). 
 
 QUESTION VII. Meaning of the word " Honour " in this 
 Commandment. 
 
 These matters having been expounded, the parish-priest will 
 explain the words of this commandment, and what is that first 
 word, to " honour." It is to think honourably of any one, and 
 to hold in the highest estimation everything that regards him. 
 But to this honour are conjoined all those things, love, respect, 
 obedience, and veneration ; and in the law is purposely in- 
 serted the word " honour," not " love," or " fear," although 
 parents are very much to be loved and feared; for he who 
 loves does not always esteem and venerate ; he who fears 
 does not always love ; but him whom any one honours 
 from the heart, he also loves and reveres. When the parish- 
 priest shall have explained these things, he will then treat of 
 fathers, and [explain] who they are, who are designated by 
 this name. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Who are here understood by the word Father. 
 
 For, although the law speaks principally of those fathers by 
 whom we have been begotten, yet this name belongs also to 
 others, whom the law seems to embrace, as we easily collect 
 from numerous passages of the sacred Scripture. Besides those 
 that have begotten us there are, then, in the sacred Scriptures, 
 as we already noticed, other kinds of fathers, to each of which 
 is due his own honour. And first the prelates, and pastors, 
 and priests of the Church are called " fathers," as is plain from 
 the Apostle, who, writing to the Corinthians, says : " I write 
 not these things to shame you, but I admonish you as my dearest 
 children; for if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, 
 yet not many fathers ; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you 
 through the Gospel" (1 Cor. iv. 14, sq.). And in Ecclesias- 
 ticus it is written : " Let us praise men of renown, and our 
 fathers in their generation" (Eccli. xliv. 13). Next, those 
 who govern the state, to whom are entrusted empire, or magis- 
 tracy, or power, are called " fathers." Thus Naaman was called 
 father by his servants (4 Kings, v. 13). Moreover, those 
 to whose care, fidelity, probity, and wisdom, others are com- 
 mitted, such as guardians and trustees, instructors and masters, 
 we call " fathers ;" and hence the sons of the prophets called 
 Elias and Eliseus by this name.* Finally, aged men, and those 
 
 * 4 Kings, ii. 12, Elias called Father by Eliseus ; 4 Kings, xiii. 14, 
 Eliseus called Father by King Joas. 
 
 Z
 
 354 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 worn out with years, whom we ought also to reverence, we call 
 fathers (Lev. xix. 32). In the instructions of the parish- 
 priest, let this be a main point, to teach that fathers, of what- 
 ever sort they be, but especially our natural fathers, of whom 
 chiefly the divine law speaks, are to be honoured. 
 
 QUESTION IX. Why Christian Children should pay especial 
 Honour to their Parents according to the Flesh. 
 
 For they are, as it were, so many images of the immortal 
 God, and in them we behold the likeness of our origin ; from 
 them life has been given us ; them God made use of, that he 
 might infuse into us a rational soul ; by them we have been 
 conducted to the sacraments, formed to religion, human inter- 
 course, civil society, and bred up to moral integrity and holi- 
 ness. Let the parish-priest also teach that with good reason is 
 the name of "mother" mentioned in this commandment, that 
 we may consider the benefits received from her, and her claims 
 upon our affection, with what great care and solicitude she bore 
 us in her womb (Tob. iv. 3, sqq.), with what pain and travail 
 she brought us forth, and trained us up. 
 
 QUESTION X. Why Parents according to the Flesh should be 
 treated with Honour. 
 
 Moreover, parents are so to be revered, that the honour which 
 we pay them should appear to proceed from love and the inmost 
 sense of the soul ; and to them this tribute is eminently due, 
 whereas they are so disposed towards us as to shun, on our ac- 
 count, no labour, no exertion, no dangers ; and their highest 
 pleasure is to know, that they are endeared to their children, 
 who are the objects of their fondest love. Joseph, when, next 
 to the king, he enjoyed in Egypt the highest station, and the 
 amplest power, received his father with honour, when he had 
 come into Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 29, xlvii. 7) ; and Solomon rose to 
 his mother as she approached, and, having reverenced her, 
 placed her on a royal throne on his right hand (3 Kings, ii. 
 19). There are besides other offices of honour, which ought to 
 be conferred on parents, for we then also honour them, when we 
 suppliantly beg of God that all things may turn out to them 
 well and happily ; that they may be in the greatest favour and 
 honour amongst men ; that they may be most acceptable to 
 God himself, and to his saints who are in heaven. We also 
 honour our parents when we submit our views to their judg- 
 ment and will, counselling which Solomon says : " My son, 
 hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of
 
 PART HI. CHAPTER V. 355 
 
 thy mother; that grace may be added to thy head, and a chain 
 of gold to thy neck" (Prov. i. 8, sq.). Of the same sort are also 
 the exhortations of St. Paul : " Children, obey your parents in 
 the Lord, for this is just" (Eph. vi. 1) ; also : " Children, obey 
 your parents in all things, for this is pleasing to the Lord " 
 (Col. iii. 20). This is also confirmed by the example of most 
 holy men ; for Isaac, when being bound for sacrifice by his 
 father, meekly and implicitly obeyed (Gen. xxii. 9, sq.); and 
 the Rechabites, never to depart from the counsel of their father, 
 always abstained from wine (Jer. xxxv. 5, sqq.). We also 
 honour our parents, when we imitate their good example and 
 moral conduct ; for to those whom we wish most to resemble, 
 we seem to pay the highest tribute of respect. We likewise 
 honour parents, whose counsels we not only ask but also 
 follow. 
 
 QUESTION XI. How we ought to aid our Parents when in Want, 
 and especially when in Danger of Death. 
 
 Also those whose wants we relieve, supplying them with 
 necessary food and raiment, which is proved by the testimony 
 of Christ, who, reproving the impiety of the Pharisees, says : 
 " Why do you also transgress the commandments of God for 
 your tradition ? For God said : ' Honour thy father and thy 
 mother ;' and ' he that shall curse father or mother, let him 
 die the death ;' but you say : ' Whosoever shall say to his 
 father or mother, the gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall 
 profit thee;' and he shall not honour his father or his mother ; 
 and you have made void the commandment of God for your 
 tradition" (Matth. xv. 3, sqq.). We ought, indeed, always 
 to render to our parents the good offices of honour, but then 
 most especially when they are dangerously ill ; for we should 
 make it our business to see that they omit nothing that regards 
 either the confession of their sins, or the other sacraments that 
 ought to be received by Christian men at the approach of death; 
 and we should take care that they be frequently visited by 
 pious and religious persons, who may strengthen them in their 
 weakness, aid them by their counsel, or animate them to a 
 lively hope of a glorious immortality ; that, having raised their 
 minds above the concerns of this world, they may fix them 
 entirely on God. Thus will it come to pass that, fortified by 
 the most blessed train of faith, hope, and charity, and the 
 aid of religion, they may not only look without dismay at 
 death, which is the necessary lot of all, but even hail it as the 
 opening to immortality.
 
 356 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XII. How we ought to show Honour to our 
 Deceased Parents. 
 
 Finally, honour is given to parents even when dead, if we 
 give them a funeral, if we procure for them respectable obse- 
 quies, if we afford them honourable interment, if we attend to 
 suffrages and anniversary sacrifices for them, if we punctually 
 pay what they have willed. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. How Bishops and Priests are to be 
 honoured. 
 
 But not only are our natural parents to be honoured, but also 
 others who are called fathers, such as bishops and priests, kings, 
 princes, magistrates, guardians, masters, teachers, aged persons, 
 and the like ; for they are worthy, some in a greater, some in * 
 lesser degree, to share our love, our obedience, our assistance. 
 Of bishops and other pastors it is thus written : " Let the priests 
 who rule well, be esteemed worthy of double honour, especially 
 they who labour in the word and doctrine" (1 Tim. v. 17). 
 And of what great love towards the Apostle did not the Gala- 
 tians give proofs, to whose benevolence he bears this splendid 
 testimony : " I bear you witness, that if it could be done, you 
 would have plucked out your own eyes, and would have given 
 them to me" (Gal. iv. 15). 
 
 QUESTION XIV. In what manner Priests ought to be supplied 
 with the Necessaries of Life. 
 
 Moreover, priests are entitled to be supplied with whatever 
 is required for the necessary purposes of life. Wherefore the 
 Apostle says : " Who serveth as a soldier at any time at his 
 own charges?" (1 Cor. ix. 7) ; and in Ecclesiasticus it is written : 
 " Give honour to the priests, and purify thyself with thy alms. 
 Give them their portion, as it is commanded thee, of the first- 
 fruits and of purifications" (vii. 33, sq. ; Lev. vii. 22). The 
 Apostle also teaches that they are to be obeyed : " Obey your 
 prelates, and be subject to them ; for they watch as being to 
 render an account of your souls " (Heb. xiii. 17). Nay, more, 
 Christ the Lord commands us to obey even wicked pastors, when 
 he says: "The Scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the 
 chair of Moses : all therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, 
 observe and do ; but according to their works do ye not, 
 for they say and do not (Matth. xxiii. 2, sq.).
 
 PART III. CHAPTER V. 357 
 
 QUESTION XV. It is shown that Honour is to be paid to 
 Civil Magistrates. 
 
 The same is to be said of kings, princes, magistrates, and all 
 others to whose authority we are subjected ; but what sort of 
 honour, respect, obedience is to be paid them, the Apostle to 
 the Romans explains at large (Rom. xiii.) ; and ha also 
 admonishes us to pray for them (1 Tim. ii. 2). And St. 
 Peter says : " Be ye subject therefore to every human creature 
 for God's sake : whether it be to the king as excelling, or to 
 governors as sent by him" (I Pet. ii. 13, sq.). For if we 
 pay them any honour, it is referred to God, for an exalted grade 
 of dignity, because an image of the divine power, commands the 
 veneration of men ; and in it we also revere the providence of 
 God, who has committed to them the administration of the 
 public office which they hold, and who uses them as the ministers 
 of his power. 
 
 QUESTION XYI. Why we are bound to obey even Wicked 
 Magistrates, and when we are not. 
 
 Not that we respect the profligacy or wickedness of men, if 
 public functionaries be such ; but that we revere the divine 
 authority with which they are invested ; so that and it may 
 appear matter of great surprise be they inimical and hostile, 
 nay, implacable, towards us, yet is not that a sufficiently fit 
 reason why we should not most respectfully honour them. 
 For David rendered important services to Saul, when however 
 he was the object of his hatred, as he intimates in these words : 
 " With them that hated peace, I was peaceable " (Ps. cxix. 7). 
 But, should they issue a wicked or unjust mandate, they are on 
 no account to be listened to (Acts v. 29) ; for such mandate is 
 not the legitimate exercise of power, but is an act of injustice 
 and perversity. When the parish-priest shall have expounded 
 these matters severally, let him consider what and how suitable 
 is the reward proposed to those who obey this divine precept. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. What Reivard is proposed by God for 
 
 Obedience to Parents. 
 
 For in this there is very great fruit, that they enjoy length 
 of days ; because they are worthy to enjoy very long a benefit, 
 the recollection of which they always preserve. As then those 
 who honour their parents, requite those from whom they have 
 the enjoyment of light and life, they justly and deservedly 
 protract life to an advanced old age. Next is to be added a 
 lucid explanation of the divine promise, for not only the enjoy- 
 ment of an eternal and blessed life is promised, but also of that
 
 358 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 which we lead on earth, according to the interpretation of St. 
 Paul, when he says : " Piety is profitable to all things, having 
 promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come " 
 (1 Tim. iv. 8). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. How valuable is the Promise here of a 
 long Life. 
 
 Many very holy men, it is true, as Job,* as David (2 Kin^s, 
 xviii. 33 ; Ps. cxix. 5), as Paul (2 Cor. v. 8; Phil. i. 23), 
 desired to die, and a long life is disagreeable to the afflicted 
 and the wretched ; but the reward here promised is, never- 
 theless, neither inconsiderable, nor to be despised ; for the 
 additional words, "which the Lord thy God will give thee," 
 promise not only length of days, but also repose, tranquillity, 
 security! to live well ; for in Deuteronomy it is not only said, 
 " that thou mayest live a long time," but it is also added, 
 "and that it may be well with thee" (Deut. v. 16); words 
 which the Apostle afterwards repeats (Eph. vi. 3). 
 
 QUESTION XIX How Dutiful Children, although dying 
 
 early, receive this Reward. 
 
 These blessings, we say, are conferred on those whose piety 
 God would reward ; for otherwise the divine promise would 
 not be realized, whereas the more dutiful children are some- 
 times the more short-lived ; and this either because their 
 interests are best consulted by summoning them from this world 
 before they stray from the sacred path of virtue and of daty, 
 for they are "taken away, lest wickedness should alter" their 
 " understanding, or deceit beguile" their " soul " (Wisd. iv. 2); 
 or because, when destruction and confusion of all things impend, 
 they are called away from this world, to escape the common 
 calamity of the times : " The just man," says the Prophet, " is 
 taken away from before the face of evil " (Isa. Ivii. 1). This 
 occurs lest, when God avenges the crimes of mortals, their 
 virtue or salvation may be endangered, or to spare them the 
 most bitter anguish of witnessing, in most melancholy times, the 
 calamities of friends and relations. Wherefore, when death 
 befalls good men, there is greater reason for apprehension. 
 
 QUESTION XX. With what Punishments they are visited, who 
 are violators of this commandment. 
 
 And as to those who are grateful towards their parents is 
 proposed by God the reward and fruit of their dutifulness, so 
 are ungrateful and undutiful children reserved for the heaviest 
 
 * Job. iii. 2, sqq., vii. 16, x. 1, 18, sqq.
 
 PART ITI. CHAPTER V. 359 
 
 chastisements ; for it is written : " He that curseth his father 
 or mother shall die the death ;"* and : " He that afflicteth his 
 father and chaseth away his mother, is infamous and unhappy " 
 (Prov. xix. 26) ; and : " He that curseth his father and mother, 
 his lamp shall be put out in the midst of darkness " (Prov. xx . 
 20) ; and : " The eye that mocketh at his father, and that 
 despiseth the labour of his mother in bearing him, let the ravens 
 of the brooks pick it out, and the young eagles eat it " (Prov. 
 xxx. 17). We read that there have been many undutiful 
 children,t in punishing whom the anger of God was lighted up; 
 for he left not David unavenged, but Absalom paid the penalty 
 due to his crime, having been, in punishment thereof, transfixed 
 with three lances (2 Kings, xviii. 14). But of those who obey 
 not the priests, it is written : He that will be proud, and refuse 
 to obey the commandment of the priest, who miuistereth at that 
 time to the Lord thy God, by the decree of the judge that man 
 shall die " (Deut. xvii. 12). 
 
 QUESTION XXI. By what means chiefly Parents may render 
 themselves worthy that Honour prescribed by God. 
 
 And as it has been enacted by the divine law that children 
 honour, that they obey, that they respect their parents, so the 
 proper offices and duties of parents are to imbue their children 
 with most holy discipline and morality, and to give them the 
 best precepts for the regulation of their lives, that, taught and 
 trained to religion, they may serve God holily and inviolably ;J 
 as we read was done by the parents of Susanna (Dan. xiii. 3). 
 Let the priest, therefore, admonish parents to be to their chil- 
 dren instructors in virtue, in justice, continence, modesty, and 
 holiness ; and let them avoid particularly three things, in which 
 they are wont often to transgress : first, let them not say or do 
 anything too harsh towards their children ; which the Apostle 
 thus enjoins in his epistles to the Colossians : " Fathers, pro- 
 voke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged /' 
 for there is danger of breaking the spirit of children, and render- 
 ing them of abject mind, afraid of everything. Wherefore, let 
 him enjoin parents to avoid too much severity, and rather re- 
 prove their children than avenge themselves on them. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. How Parents should not be remiss toivards their 
 Children, nor toil too much to leave them a too ample fortune. 
 
 In the next place, if some fault has been committed, as cor- 
 
 * Ex. xxi. 17 ; Lev. xx. 9 ; Matt. xv. 4 ; Mark, vii. 10. t Gen. 
 ix. 21, sqq., xxxv. 22, xlix. 4. J Prov. xix. 18 ; Eccli. vii. 25,. 
 
 xxx. 2, aqq.; Eph. vi. 4. CoL iii 21; Prov. xix. 18 ; Eph, vi. 4
 
 360 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 rection and reproof are necessary, let them not negligently remit 
 anything to their children through indulgence ; for children are 
 often spoiled by the too great lenity and facility of their parents.* 
 Wherefore, let him deter from weak indulgence by the example 
 of the high-priest Heli, who, because he had been too indulgent 
 towards his children, was visited with the heaviest chastisement 
 (1 Kings, iv. 18). Lastly, in the instruction and education of 
 their children, to avoid what is most shameful, let them not 
 enter into preposterous designs ; for there are very many whose 
 sole thought and concern it is to leave their children wealth, 
 riches, a splendid and ample fortune ; who encourage them not 
 to religion, not to piety, not to the discipline of honourable and 
 virtuous pursuits, but to avarice, and to an increase of patrimony ; 
 and who, provided they be rich and wealthy, are not solicitous 
 for the reputation and salvation of their children, than which 
 what can be mentioned or conceived more shameful ? Thus 
 does it come to pass that they transfer to them not so much 
 their wealth as their wickedness and crimes, leading them ulti- 
 mately not to heaven, but to the everlasting torments of hell. 
 Let, then, the priest impress on parents the soundest principles, 
 and excite them to imitate the virtuous example of Tobias 
 (Tob. iv.), that, having well brought up their children to the 
 service of God, and to holiness, they may, in turn, experience 
 at their hands most abundant fruit of love, and respect, and 
 obedience. 
 
 CHAPTER VI, 
 
 ON THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 
 "THOU SHALT NOT KILL."t 
 
 QUESTION I. What are the Fruit and Utility which are in- 
 cluded in this Commandment. 
 
 That great happiness, which is proposed to peaceful men, 
 "for they shall be called the children of God" (Matth. v. 9), 
 ought very much to excite pastors diligently and accurately to 
 impart to the faithful the discipline of this commandment j for 
 
 * Prov. xiii. 24, xxiii. 13 ; EcclL vii. 25, sq., xxx. 1, sqq. t Ex. 
 XK. 13; Deut. v. 17.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VI. 361 
 
 to promote good will among men no better way can be entered 
 upon than the due and holy and nuiversal observance of 
 the law of such a precept, if rightly explained, for we 
 might then hope that, joined in the strictest unanimity, men 
 would most cultivate concord and peace. But how necessary 
 it is that this commandment be explained, is clearly seen 
 from the fact that, immediately after the vast inundation of 
 the whole earth took place, this alone was the first prohibition 
 of God to men : " I will require the blood of your lives," says 
 he, "at the hand of every beast and at the hand of man" 
 (Gen. ix. 5). In the Gospel, too, amongst the precepts of the 
 Old Law first expounded by our Lord, this is first, of which it 
 is written in St. Matthew : " It was said thou shalt not kill," 
 &c. (Matth. v. 21). Besides, the faithful ought to hear 
 this precept attentively and willingly ; for if its force be con- 
 sidered, it is sufficient to protect each one's life, homicide being 
 entirely forbidden by these words, " Thou shalt not kill." Each 
 and every man ought then to receive it with as much pleasure 
 as if God, expressly naming each individual, were to prohibit 
 injury being done him, under a threat of his wrath, and other 
 very heavy chastisements. As, then, this commandment is 
 pleasing to be heard, so ought the avoidance of the sin which is 
 prohibited by the commandment be pleasing. 
 
 QUESTION II. What is forbidden as well as commanded by this 
 Precept. 
 
 But when the Lord explained the force of this law, he showed 
 that its obligation is twofold (Matt. v. 21, sqq.) ; the one for- 
 bidding us to kill the other commanding us to embrace our 
 enemies in concordant friendship and charity, to have peace with 
 all ; finally, to bear patiently all inconveniences. 
 
 QUESTION III. It is lawful to feed on Beasts, and to slay 
 Animals. 
 
 With regard to that, in which slaughter is prohibited, it is 
 first to be taught what slaughters are such as not to be prohi- 
 bited by this law of the precept, for it is not forbidden to kill 
 animals, whereas if it is permitted by God to men to feed on 
 them (Gen. ix. 2, sq.), it is also lawful to slay them ; on which 
 matter St. Augustine speaks thus: " When we hear, 'thou shalt 
 not kill,' we do not understand this to have been said of the 
 fruits of the earth, for they are insensible ; nor of irrational 
 animals, for they are not at all associated with us."* 
 
 * Aug. de Civ. Dei, L 20.
 
 362 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION IV. It is lawful to sentence and put to death Men 
 judicially. 
 
 Another kind of slaying is permitted, which belongs to those 
 magistrates to whom is given the power of [condemning] to 
 death, by the legal and judicial use of which they punish guilty 
 and protect innocent men (Rom. xiii. 4), in which function, pro- 
 vided they act justly, they are not only not guilty of murder, 
 but eminently obey this law which prohibits murder; for as the 
 proposed end of this law is to consult for the life and safety of 
 men, to the same end also tend the punishments inflicted by 
 magistrates, who are the legitimate avengers of crimes, giving 
 security to life by punishing and thus repressing audacity and 
 outrage. Wherefore David says : " In the morning I put to 
 death all the wicked of the land, that I might cut off all the 
 workers of iniquity from the city of the Lord " (Ps. c. 8). 
 
 QUESTION V. They are not guilty of Murder, who slay the 
 Enemy in a just War. 
 
 In like manner, neither do they sin who, actuated not by 
 motives of cupidity or cruelty, but by the sole desire of pro- 
 moting the public good, take away the life of the enemy, in a 
 just war (Gen. xiv. 15, sqq. ; Ex. xvii. 8, sqq.). There are, 
 moreover, instances of carnage executed by the express command 
 of God (3 Kings xviii. 40 ; Gen. xxii. ) : the sons of Levi, who 
 put to death so many thousand men in one day, sinned not ; 
 after that slaughter, Moses thus addressed them : " You have 
 consecrated your hands this day to the Lord " (Ex. xxxii. 29). 
 
 QUESTION VI. He who slays a Man by accident is not guilty 
 of breaking this Commandment. 
 
 Neither is he who kills a man, not with intent or design, 
 but accidentally, guilty of having violated this commandment : 
 " He that killeth his neighbour ignorantly," says the book of 
 Deuteronomy, " and who is proved to have had no hatred 
 against him yesterday, and the day before, but to have gone 
 with him to the wood to hew wood ; and in cutting down the 
 tree the axe slipped out of his hand, and the iron slipping from 
 the handle struck his friend and killed him, shall live " (Deut. 
 xix. 4, sq.). Such deaths, because inflicted without intent or 
 design, are by no means numbered among sins ; and this is 
 confirmed by the opinion of St. Augustine : " Far be it," says 
 he, " that what we do for a good or lawful end should be imputed 
 to us, if, contrary to our intention, any evil accrue " (Aug. 
 ep. 47. n. 5).
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VI. 363 
 
 QUESTION VII. Two Cases in which Guilt attaches to 
 Accidental Death. 
 
 There are, however, two cases in which guilt may attach to 
 accidental death ; the one, when any one engaged in something 
 unjust has killed a person, when, for instance, one strikes or 
 kicks a pregnant woman, and abortion follows (Ex. xxi. 22), 
 contrary even to the will of the striker, but through his fault, as 
 it was absolutely unlawful for him to strike a pregnant woman. 
 The other case is, when one kills a person negligently and in- 
 cautiously, not having used due circumspection. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. It is also lawful to slay another in Self- 
 defence. 
 
 On the same principle, if a man kill another in self-defence, 
 having used every precaution [consistent with his own safety 
 to avoid the infliction of death], he evidently is not held guilty 
 by this law. And indeed these which we have just mentioned 
 are the slaughters which are not contained in the precept of 
 this law ; and with these exceptions, all others are prohibited, 
 whether one regards the person who kills, the person killed, or 
 the manner of killing. 
 
 QUESTION IX. To no one is it lawful to slay on private 
 authority. 
 
 For as regards those who kill, no one is excepted; not the 
 rich, not the powerful, not masters, not parents ; but to all, 
 without distinction or difference of any sort, it is forbidden to 
 kill. 
 
 QUESTION X. There is no one whatever who may not be 
 safe under this Law. 
 
 But if we regard those who are killed, this law extends to 
 all ; nor is there any one of however humble or lowly a con- 
 dition, who is not protected by force of this law. Neither is 
 it lawful for any one to kill himself, for no man has such 
 dominion over his life, as to be at liberty to put himself to death ; 
 and hence, the words of the law do not say, " thou shalt not 
 kill another," but simply, " Thou shalt not kill." 
 
 QUESTION XI. In how many ways this Commandment may be 
 violated. 
 
 But if we attend to the various modes of killing, no one is 
 excepted ; for not only is it not lawful for any one to take away
 
 364 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 a man's life by laying violent hands on him, by using a sword, 
 or a stone, or a stick, or a halter, or poison ; but it is absolutely 
 prohibited that that be done by counsel, aid, assistance, or any 
 other means. In this the slowness and dulness of apprehension 
 of the Jews were extreme, who thought that if they only kept 
 their hands from shedding human blood, they observed this 
 commandment (1 Kings, xviii. 17, 21, 25); but to the Christian 
 man, who, from the interpretation of Christ, has learned that 
 this law is spiritual, which commands us to keep not only 
 our hands unstained, but likewise our hearts pure and undefiled, 
 what they thought a sufficiently ample fulfilment [of the law] 
 will not at all suffice ; for in the Gospel we are taught that it is 
 not lawful for any one even to be angry, whereas the Lord says: 
 " But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother 
 shall be guilty of the judgment ; and whosoever shall say to his 
 brother, Raca, shall be guilty of the counsel; and whosoever 
 shall say, thou fool, shall be guilty of hell fire " (Matt. v. 22). 
 
 QUESTION XII. How one may or may not sin by being angry. 
 
 From which words it is clear, that he who is angry with his 
 brother, although he should confine his anger within his own 
 breast, is not free from sin ; that he who shall have given some 
 indication of that anger sins grievously ; but that he who dreads 
 not to treat his brother with harshness, and to utter reproach 
 against him, sins much more grievously. This, it is true, is to 
 be understood of cases, in which no cause of being angry exists, 
 for, to animadvert on those who are subject to our authority 
 and power, if they commit a fault, is an occasion of anger which 
 is permitted by God and his laws ;* but the anger of a Christian, 
 man ought to proceed, not from carnal feeling, but from the 
 Holy Spirit, for it becomes us to be temples "of the Holy 
 Ghost" (1 Cor. vi. 19), in which Jesus "Christ may dwell" 
 (Eph. iii. 17). 
 
 QUESTION XIII. How Men may perfectly observe this Law, 
 and how many sin against it. 
 
 There are many things besides delivered by the Lord, which 
 appertain to the perfect observance of this law, such as " not 
 to resist evil: but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn 
 to him the other also ; and if any man will go to law with thee 
 and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also: and 
 whosoever thall force thee to go one mile, go with him other 
 two " (Matt. v. 39, sqq.). From what has been already said, 
 
 * Matt. xxi. 12, sqq. ; Mark, xi. 15, sqq. ; Luke, xix. 45, sqq.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VI. 365 
 
 it may be perceived how prone men are to those sins which are 
 prohibited by this commandment, and how many there are 
 found, who commit the crime of murder, if not in fact, at least 
 in desire. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. How much in the sacred Scriptures God 
 detests Homicide. 
 
 And as in the sacred Scriptures are prescribed remedies for 
 so dangerous a disease, it is the duty of the parish-priest dili- 
 gently to make them known to the faithful ; but the most 
 efficacious is a just conception of the enormity of the crime of 
 murder ; and this may be clearly seen from very numerous and 
 strong testimonies of Scripture ;* for so greatly does God detest 
 homicide in the sacred Scriptures, that he declares that, for 
 the life of man, he will exact vengeance from the beast of 
 the field (Gen. ix. 5), and order the beast that shall have injured 
 man to be slain (Ex. xxi. 28, sqq.); nor did he wish man to 
 abhor the use of blood for any other reason, than that he might 
 by all means restrain both mind and hands from the enormity 
 of shedding human blood. | 
 
 QUESTION XV. How great is the Enormity of Murder is shown 
 from Reason. 
 
 For murderers are the worst enemies of the human race, and, 
 consequently, of nature, destroying, to the utmost of their 
 power, the universal work of God, by taking away man, for 
 whose sake God declares that he made all created things (Gen. 
 i. 26, sqq.). Nay, as in Genesis it is prohibited to slay a man, 
 because God created him to his own image and likeness (Gen. 
 ix. 16), he, therefore, who removes his image, offers a signal 
 injury to God, and seems, as it were, to lay violent hands on 
 him. Having meditated on this with a mind divinely inspired, 
 David bitterly complains of sanguinary men in these words : 
 "Their feet are swift to shed blood" (Ps. xiii. 3). He does 
 not simply say, "they kill," but they "shed blood;" words 
 which he employed to amplify that detestable crime, and to 
 show their enormous cruelty; and, to declare first of all how 
 precipitately they are hurried along, by a certain diabolical 
 impulse, to the commission of that enormity, he said : " Their 
 feet are swift." 
 
 * Gen. iv. 10, ix. 6 ; Ex. xxi. 12, sqq. ; Lev. ixiv. 17. t Gen. ix. 
 4 ; Ley. iii. 17, xviii 10, sqq. ; Deut xii. 16.
 
 366 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XVI. What God in this Precept commands to be 
 done. 
 
 But what Christ the Lord commands in this precept to be 
 observed, has for object to induce us to " have peace with all 
 men " (Rom. xii. 18; Heb. xii. 14 1 ) ; for, interpreting this com- 
 mandment, he says : " Therefore if thou offerest thy gift at the 
 altar, and there shalt remember that thy brother hath anything 
 against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and first go 
 to be reconciled to thy brother ; and then come and offer thy 
 gift," &c. (Matt. v. 23, sq.). Which words will be so explained 
 by parish-priests as to teach that all, without any exception, are 
 to be embraced in charity, to which, in his exposition of this 
 precept, he will excite the faithful as much as possible, for 
 therein shines forth most the virtue of loving our neighbour j 
 for as hatred is evidently forbidden by this commandment, since 
 "whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer" (1 John iii. 15), 
 it certainly follows that a commandment is given of chanty and 
 love. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. What are the Duties of Charity which are 
 contained in this Precept. 
 
 And as by this law are inculcated charity and love, it must 
 also enjoin all those offices and actions that follow in their 
 train. "Charity is patient," says St. Paul (1 Cor. xiii. 4); 
 we are therefore commanded patience, in which, the Saviour 
 teaches, we shall possess our souls (Luke, xxi. 19). "Charity 
 is kind" (1 Cor. xiii. 4); beneficence is, therefore, her com- 
 panion and associate. The virtue of benignity and beneficence 
 is one of great latitude ; and its principal office consists in re- 
 lieving the necessities of the poor, in feeding the hungry, giving 
 drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked; and the more each one 
 stands in need of our succour, the greater should be our 
 liberality towards him. 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. How the love of our Enemies is the most 
 perfect of all the Duties of Charity. 
 
 These offices of beneficence and goodness, which are in them- 
 selves exalted, if done to enemies become still more exalted, for 
 the Saviour says : " Love your enemies, do good to them that 
 hate you " (Matt. v. 44) ; and the Apostle admonishes in these 
 words : " If thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat ; if he thirst, 
 give him drink ; for doing this thou shalt heap coals of fire on 
 his head. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by 
 good " (Rom. xii. 20, sq.). Lastly, if we consider the law of
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VI. 367 
 
 charity, which is " kind," we shall understand that by that law 
 it is prescribed to practise all the offices that belong to mildness, 
 kindliness, and the other kindred virtues. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. In what the Love of our Neighbour, which is 
 here commanded, chiefly shines forth. 
 
 Bat a duty of pre-eminent excellence, and one most replete 
 with charity, and which it behoves us most to practise, is to 
 pardon and forgive from the heart the injuries which we have 
 received ; to a full compliance with which the sacred Scriptures, 
 as has been already said, frequently admonish and exhort ns, 
 not only pronouncing those who really do so " blessed,"* but 
 declaring that to them is also granted by God the pardon of 
 their sins ;t whilst those who neglect or altogether refuse to do 
 this obtain it not.J But, as the desire of revenge is almost 
 natural to the minds of men, it is necessary that the parish- 
 priest employ his utmost dilligence not only to teach, but also 
 earnestly to persuade the faithful that a Christian man should 
 forget and forgive injuries. And in order to subdue the perti- 
 nacity of those whose minds are obstinately and obdurately bent 
 on revenge, as there is frequent mention of this matter in the 
 Sacred Writings, let him consult them, and have in readiness 
 the arguments, and they are most powerful and persuasive, 
 which those Fathers have piously employed. 
 
 QUESTION XX. By what considerations chiefly Hatred is to 
 be repressed, and the Faithful are to be induced to forget 
 Injuries. 
 
 But the three following chiefly demand exposition. The first 
 is to use every effort to persuade him who thinks that he has 
 received an injury, that he of whom he desires to be revenged 
 was not the principal cause of the loss or injury. Thus did 
 that admirable man Job act, who, when grievously assailed by 
 the Sabeans, the Chaldeans, and by the devil, without at all 
 directing his attention to them, as a righteous and truly pious 
 man, with no less truth than piety, used these words : " The 
 Lord gave : the Lord hath taken away " (Job, i. 21). Let 
 therefore Christian men be persuaded by the words and example 
 of that man of patience, that, what is most true, whatever we 
 endure in this life comes from the Lord, who is the Father and 
 Author of all justice and mercy. 
 
 * Matt. v. 4, 9, sqq., 44, sq. f Eccli. xxviii. 1 ; Matt vi. 15, 
 xviii. 34, sq. ; Mark, xi. 26. $ Eccli. xxviii. 2 ; Matt, vi 14 ; 
 Mark, xi. 25 ; Luke, vi. 37 ; Eph. iv. 32 ; Col. iii. 13.
 
 368 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. Men who persecute us are the Ministers and 
 Agents of God, though they do so with an Evil Intent. 
 
 Nor does he, whose benignity is boundless, punish us as 
 enemies, but corrects and chastises us as children.* Nor indeed, 
 if we view the matter rightly, are men, in such cases, any other 
 whatever than the ministers and agents, as it were, of God ; 
 and although a man may malignantly hate another, and wish 
 him very ill, yet, without the permission of God, he can in 
 no wise injure him. Influenced by this consideration, Joseph 
 patiently endured the wicked counsels of his brethren (Gen. 
 xlv. 4, sqq., 1. 10, sqq.), as did David the injuries inflicted ou 
 him by Semei (2 Kings xvi. 10, sqq.). To this matter also 
 eminently applies that kind of argument which St. Chrysostom 
 has gravely and learnedly handled, namely, that no man is 
 injured but by himself ;f for if those who deem themselves 
 injured consider the matter rightly, they will find that in reality 
 they received no insult or injury from others; for although they 
 experience injury from external causes, yet they themselves are 
 their own greatest enemies, by wickedly contaminating their 
 souls with hatred, desire of revenge, and envy.J 
 
 QUESTION XXII. What advantages arise to those who freely 
 forgive Injuries. 
 
 The second [kind of argument] embraces two advantages, 
 which belong to those who, influenced by a pious zeal towards 
 God, freely forgive injuries. Of these the first is that to those 
 remitting the debts of others God has promised that they them- 
 selves also shall obtain the pardon of their sins (Matth. vi. 14 ; 
 Mark xi. 25 ;) from which promise it readily appears how 
 acceptable to him is this duty of piety. The second advantage 
 is that we are in some sort ennobled and perfected ; for by par- 
 doning injuries we are, in some degree, rendered like to God, 
 " who maketh his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and 
 raineth upon the just and the unjust " (Matth. v. 45 ; Luke 
 vi. 35;. 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. What, and how many Disadvantages arise 
 from the Hatred of Enemies. 
 
 Lastly, those evils into which we fall, when we are unwilling 
 to forgive the injuries done us, are to be explained. The 
 
 Job, v. 17; Prov. iii.2, sq.; Heb. xii. 6, sq. ; Apoc. iii. 19. fin 
 lib. quod, nemo laeditur, etc. J Job, v. 2, xvii. 7 ; Ps. vi. 8 ; Prov. 
 xxvii. 4; Eccli. xxx 26.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VI. 369 
 
 parish-priest, therefore, will place before the eyes of those who 
 cannot bring their minds to forgive tlieir enemies, that hatred 
 is not only a grievous sin, but also that by habitual indulgence 
 it takes deeper root; for he of \vh >se mind this passion has 
 taken hold thirsts for the blood of his enemy, tilled with the 
 hope of taking revenge on whom he spends days and nights in 
 a certain perpetual evil agitation of mind, so that lie seems 
 never to repose from the thought of slaughter or of some 
 wicked project; and thus never, or not without; extreme diffi- 
 culty, can he be induced fully to forgive, or even partially to 
 remit, injuries Justly, therefore, is revenge compared to a 
 wound in which the weapon sticks fust. 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. It is shown that many Sins result front 
 Hatred. 
 
 There are besides many inconveniences and sins, which are 
 held together as if by a sort of chain in this one sin of revenge ; 
 and to this effect, therefore, St. John has said : " He that 
 hateth his brother is in darkness, and waikeih in darkness, and 
 knovveth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath 
 blinded his eyes" (1 John ii. 2). He therefore must, of neces- 
 sity, err frequently ; for how can it happen that any one would 
 view in a favourable light the words or actions of him whom he 
 hates? Hence arise rash and unjust judgments, anger, envy, 
 depreciation of character, and the like, in which also are wont 
 to be implicated those who are connected by ties of friendship 
 or blood. Thus does it frequently happen that from one sin 
 arise many ; nor is it said without good reason that hatred is 
 " the sin of the devil" (1 John, iii. 8, sq.), for he " was a mur- 
 derer from the beginning" (John, viii. 44-). Wherefore the Son 
 of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, when the Pharisees sought his 
 life, said that they were begotten of their " father the devil " 
 (Ibid). 
 
 QUESTION XXV. Remedies against the Sin of Hatred. 
 
 But, besides the reasons already mentioned, which may afford 
 grounds for detesting this sin, other and most opportune re- 
 medies are laid down in the records of the sacred writings : 
 and of these the first and greatest remedy is the example of 
 our Saviour, which we ought to propose to ourselves for imita- 
 tion. When scourged with rods, crowned with thorns, and 
 finally nailed to a cross, he, in whom even the least suspicion 
 of sin could not be found, '* the sprinkling of who-e blood," the 
 Apostle testifies, " speaketh better than Abel" (Heb. xii. 24), 
 poured out this most pious prayer : " Father, forgive them, for 
 
 2 A
 
 370 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 they know not what they do" (Luke, xxiii. 34). Another 
 remedy is prescribed by Ecclesiasticus, to call to mind death 
 and the day of judgment : " Remember thy last end, and thou 
 shalt never sin" (Eccli. vii. 40) ; as if he had said : fre- 
 quently, and again and again, reflect that you must soon die, 
 and, as at such a time it will be most desirable and most neces- 
 sary for you to obtain the infinite mercy of God, you should 
 now, and at all times, place that hour before your eyes ; 
 for thus will be extinguished within you that insatiate desire 
 of revenge, since you can find no means better adapted, or 
 more efficacious, to implore the mercy of God, than the for- 
 giveness of injuries, and the love of those who may have 
 injured you or yours in word or deed. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 
 " THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY."* 
 
 QUESTION I. Purport of this Precept, and manner in which 
 it should be treated by Parish-priests. 
 
 As the bond between man and wife is one of strictest union, 
 and nothing can be more delightful to both than to know that 
 they are objects of mutual and undivided affection ; and as, ou 
 the other hand, nothing is more painful than to feel that the 
 legitimate love due by one to the other has been transferred 
 elsewhere, this commandment, which regards illicit intercourse, 
 or adultery, follows with propriety^ and in regular order, that 
 which protects human life against the murderer, that no one 
 may dare to violate or sunder, by the crime of adultery, 
 the holy and honourable union of marriage, which is wont to 
 be a great source of love. In the exposition of this matter, 
 however, let the parish-priest be very cautious and prudent, 
 and let him treat with great delicacy of language a subject 
 which requires moderation, rather than copiousness of speech ; 
 for there is reason to apprehend that, by detailing too profusely 
 and copiously the various modes in which men may depart 
 from the injunction of this law, he may, perhaps, light upon 
 those topics, which often supply matter to inflame, rather than 
 means to extinguish lust. 
 
 * Ex. xx. 14; Deut. v. 18.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VII. 371 
 
 QUESTION II. What is commanded in this Precept. 
 
 As, however, in this precept are contained many things that 
 cannot be passed over, they will be explained by parish-priests 
 in their proper place. Its import, then, is twofold ; the one 
 expressed, which forbids adultery ; the other implied, which 
 commands us to cultivate purity of mind and body. 
 
 QUESTION III. What is here prohibited under the Name of 
 illicit Intercourse or Adultery. 
 
 To begin our instruction with the prohibitory part, adultery 
 is the defilement of the lawful bed, be it another's or one's own ; 
 for if a married man have to do with an unmarried woman, he 
 violates his own marriage bed ; and if an unmarried man know 
 a married woman, the marriage bed of another is denied by the 
 guilt of adultery. But that by this prohibition of adultery, are 
 forbidden all licentiousness and incontinence whatsoever, is 
 proved by the authority of SS. Ambrose* and Augustine ;t and 
 that such is the spirit of the commandment may be collected 
 both from the Old and New Testament, for in the writings 
 of Moses, besides adultery, other sins against chastity are 
 punished. 
 
 QUESTION IV. Various sorts of Lusts which are mentioned 
 in the Scriptures, 
 
 In Genesis there is the judgment of Judah against his 
 daughter-in-law (Gen. xxxviii. 24) ; in Deuteronomy is that 
 excellent law of Moses, that " there " should " be no whore 
 among the daughters of Israel (Deut. xxiii. 17); there is extant 
 besides the exhortation of Tobias to his son : " Take heed to 
 keep thyself, my son, from all fornication " (Tob. iv. 13) ; 
 Ecclesiasticus also says : " Be ashamed of looking upon a harlot " 
 (xli. 21, 25). In the Gospel too, Christ the Lord says, that 
 " out of the heart proceed adulteries and fornications, which 
 deBle a man" (Matt. xv. 19, sq.); and the Apostle Paul expresses 
 his detestation of this vice frequently, and in the severest terms : 
 " This," says he, " is the will of God, your sauctification ; that 
 you should abstain from fornication (1 Thess. iv. 3) ; and : " Fly 
 fornication" (1 Cor. vi. 18); and: "Keep not company with 
 fornicators" (1 Cor. v. 9); ''But fornication," says he, "and 
 all uncleanness and covetousuess, let it not so much as be named 
 among you " (Eph. v. 3) ; and: " Neither fornicators, nor adul- 
 terers, nor the effeminate, nor Sodomites, shall possess the 
 kingdom of God " (1 Cor. vi. 9, sq.). 
 
 * Ambr. de Abrah. 1, 4, n. 25. t Aug. in. Exod. q. 71, n. 4, et in 
 Deut. q. 37.
 
 372 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION V. Why in tliis Commandment mention is made 
 chiefly of Adultery. 
 
 But adultery is expressly forbidden, chiefly because, besides 
 the turpitude which is common to it with other kinds of incon- 
 tinence, it has annexed to it also the sin of injustice, not only 
 against our neighbour, but also against civil society. That too 
 is certain, that he, who abstains not from other lustful excesses, 
 easily falls into the incontinence of adultery. By this prohibition 
 of adultery, therefore, we at once understand that every kind of 
 impurity and immodesty, by which the body is defiled, is pro- 
 hibited ; nay, that by this commandment is forbidden every 
 inward lustful thought, both the force of the law itself, which is 
 evidently spiritual, implies, and Christ the Lord has taught in 
 these words: " You have heard that it hath been said of old, 
 thou shall not commit adultery; but I say unto you, that who- 
 soever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath already 
 committed adultery with her in his heart '' (Matt. v. 27, sq.). 
 These are the tilings which we have deemed proper matter for 
 the public instruction of the faithful; provided, however, the 
 decrees of the holy Synod of Trent against adulterers, and those 
 who keep harlots and concubines, be added ;* many and various 
 other species of immodesty and lust having been omitted, of 
 which each individual is to be admonished privately by the 
 parish-priest as circumstances of time and person shall require. 
 We now come to explain the positive part of the precept. 
 
 QUESTION VI. What besides the thing* prohibited is here 
 prescribed as necessary to be observed. 
 
 The faithful, then, are to be taught and earnestly exhorted 
 to cultivate, with all assiduity, continence, and chastity, and 
 'cleanse" themselves "from all defilement of the flesh and of 
 the spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 
 vii. 1). But they are especially to be admonished that, 
 although in those who holily and religiously fullow that most 
 beautifnl nnd truly divine purpose of virginity, the virtue of 
 chastity shines forth with greater lustre ; yet does it belong to 
 those also who lead a life if celibacy, or who, in the married 
 state, preserve themselves pure and undefiled from forbidden 
 indulgence. 
 
 QUESTION VII. What Reflections are best suited to One 
 desiring to subdue his Lusts. 
 
 As the Holy Fathers have handed down many lessons, 
 whereby we are taught to subdue our passions, and restrain 
 
 * Sess. xxiv. c. 8.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VII. 373 
 
 lustful pleasures, let the parish-priest study to explain them 
 accurately to the people, and let him use the utmost diligence 
 in treating this ma:ter. Of these lessons some relate to thought, 
 some to action. The remedy found in thought consists princi- 
 pally in our understanding how great are the turpitude and 
 perniciousness of this sin ; which knowledge will lead more 
 easily to the considerations that prompt to its detestation. That 
 this crime is pernicious, may be understood from this reflection, 
 that, on account of its commission, men are banished and 
 excluded from the kingdom of God;* which is the greatest of 
 all evils. This calamity, it is true, is common to all crimes ; 
 but to this sin it is peculiar, that fornicators are said to sin 
 against their own bodies, according to the Apostle writing 
 thus : " Fly fornication : every sin that a man doth is without 
 the body; but he that committeth fornication, sinneth aga ; nst 
 his own body" (1 Cor. vi. 18). The reason is that, by violating 
 its sanctity, he does it an injury; on which St. Paul writing to 
 the Thessaloniaus says thus : " This is the will of God, your 
 sanctification ; that you should abstain from fornication, that 
 every one of you should know how to possess his vessel iu 
 sanctification and honour; not in the passion of lust, like the 
 Gentiles who know not God" (1 Tiiess. iv. 3, sqq.). Again, 
 what is still more wicked, if a Christian man basely yield himself 
 to a harlot, he makes ti'e members of Christ the members of 
 a harlot; for so says St. Paul: "Know you not, that your 
 bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the 
 members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? 
 God forbid ; or know you not, that he who adheres to a harlot 
 is made one body?" (1 Cor. vi. 15. sq.). A Christian man, 
 moreover, as St. Paul testifies, " is the temple of the Holy 
 Ghost" (Ibid. v. 19), to violate which is nothing else than to 
 expel from it the Holy Ghost. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. By what arguments we may understand 
 the Enormity of Adultery. 
 
 But in the crime of adultery there is great injustice ; for if, 
 as the Apostle wills, they who are joined in wedlock are so 
 subject one to another, that neither " hath power " or right 
 " over his own " or " her own body," but both are so bound, 
 as it were, by a mutual bond of subjection, that the husband 
 ought to accommodate himself to the will of the wife, and the 
 wife, on the other hand, to the will of the husband ; certainly, 
 
 * 1 Cor. vi. 9 ; GaL v. 19, 21 ; Apoc. xxii. 15.
 
 374 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 if either disjoin his or her person, which is the right of the 
 other, from him or her to whom it is bound, the offender is 
 guilty of flagrant injustice, and of a grievous crime (Ibid. vii. 4). 
 And as dread of infamy strongly stimulates men to the per- 
 formance of what is commanded, and greatly deters them from 
 the commission of what is forbidden, the parish-priest will 
 teach that adultery brands men with a notable stigma of baseness, 
 for in the sacred Scriptures it is said thus : " He that is an 
 adulterer, for the folly of his heart shall destroy his own soul ; 
 he gathereth to himself shame and dishonour, and his reproach 
 shall not be blotted out" (Prov. vi. 32, ?q.). But the magnitude 
 of this crime may be easily seen from the severity of its punish- 
 ment ; for, by the law promulgated by the Lord in the Old 
 Testament, the adulterers were stoned to death.* 
 
 QUESTION IX. What sort of Punv-Jiments usually accompany 
 impure Lusts. 
 
 Nay, even for the criminal passion of one man, not only the 
 perpetrator of the crime, but also, as we read with regard to 
 the Sichemites (Gen. xxxiv.), sometimes an entire city has been 
 destroyed. In the sacred Scriptures are handed down many 
 examples of the divine vengeance, which, to deter men from 
 abominable lust, the parish-priest will be able to collect ; such 
 as the destruction of Sodom and of the rest of the neighbouring 
 cities (Gen. xix.) ; the punishment of the Israelites, who com- 
 mitted fornication in the wilderness with the daughters of 
 Moab (Num. xxv.) ; and the slaughter of the Benj-imites (Judg. 
 xx.). Even those who escape death escape not, however, the 
 intolerable pangs and tortures, with which they are often pun- 
 ished ; for, blinded by infatuation, which is the heaviest of 
 chastisements, they thus become regardless of God, of reputa- 
 tion, of dignity, of family, in fine, and of life itself; and thus 
 so abandoned and useless are they rendered, that nothing of 
 moment should be entrusted to them, and they are unfit for 
 almost any duty. Of this we may adduce examples from David 
 and Solomon, the former of whom had no sooner committed 
 adultery, than he degenerated into a character the very reverse 
 of what he had been before ; from the mildest of men be- 
 coming so cruel as to have exposed to death Urias, who had 
 deserved very well of him (2 Kings, xi.) ; whilst Solomon 
 having abandoned himself entirely to the lust of women, so 
 forsook the true religion of God as " to follow strange gods " 
 (3 Kings, xi.). This sin, therefore, as Osee has said, plucks 
 
 * Lev. xx. 10 ; Deut. xxii. 22, sqq. ; John, viii. 5.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VII. 375 
 
 out the heart, and often blinds the understanding of man (Osee, 
 iv. 11; Dan. xiii. 9). Let us now come to those remedies 
 which consist in action. 
 
 QUESTION X. In what ways mm are excited to Lust, and which 
 they ought particularly to avoid. 
 
 Of these the first is that we most studiously avoid idleness ; 
 for, according to Ezechiel, it was by yielding themselves np to 
 its enervating influence, that the Sodomites plunged into that 
 most foul crime of abominable lust (Ez. xvi. 49). In the next 
 place, intemperance in eating and drinking is greatly to be 
 avoided : ' 1 fed them to the full," says the prophet, " and 
 they committed adultery" (Jer. v. 7) ; for repletion and satiety 
 beget lust. This same our Lord signifies in these words : 
 " Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be over- 
 charged with surfeiting and drunkenness " (Luke xxi. 34) : 
 This the Apostle also: "Be not drunk with wine," says he, 
 " wherein is luxury" (Eph. v. 18). But the eyes, in particular, 
 are the inlets to the incentives .of lust, and to this refer these 
 words of Christ our Lord : " If thine eye cause thee to offend, 
 pluck it out, and cast it from thee."* The Prophets, also, fre- 
 quently speak to the same effect ; as in Job : " I made a cove- 
 nant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a 
 virgin" (Job, xxxi. 1). Finally, there are on record many 
 and almost innumerable examples of evils, which had their 
 origin in glances of the eyes : thus fell David (2 Kings, xi. 2, 
 sqq.) ; thus the king of Sichem (Gan. xxxiv. 2) ; and thus also 
 the elders, the false accusers of Susanna (Dan. xiii. 8, sqq.). 
 
 QUESTION XI. Over-elegance of Dress, obscenity of Language, and 
 other voluptuous incitements on the part of Women, are to be 
 avoided. 
 
 Over-elegance of dress, by which the eye is very much at- 
 tracted, often affords no small occasion for lust; and hence the 
 admonition of Ecclesiasticus : ' Turn away thy face from a 
 woman dressed up " (Eccli. ix. 8). As, then, women are too 
 studious of ornament, it will not be unseasonable, if the parish- 
 priest use some diligence in occasionally admonishing and re- 
 proving them in words, which the Apostle Peter thus expressed 
 on this subject, and which are most impressive : " Whose 
 adorning let it not be the outward plaiting of the hair, or the 
 wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel " (1 Peter iii. 3): 
 St. Paul also says : ' Not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, 
 
 * Matt. v. 29 ; xviii. 9 ; Mark ix. 4G.
 
 376 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 or costly array" (1 Tim. ii. 9) ; for many females, adorned with 
 gold and precious stones, have lost the ornaments of mind and 
 body. But this excitement of desire, which is wont to be pro- 
 voked by exquisite elegance of dress, is followed by another, 
 which is that of foul and obscene language ; for the minds of 
 young persons are inflamed by obscene language as l>y an ap- 
 plied torch, for, says the Apostle : " Evil communications cor- 
 rupt good manners "(1 Cor. xv. 33); and as indelicate and 
 lascivious songs and dances are most productive of the same 
 effect, they too are carefully to be avoided. In the same class, 
 also, are numbered obscene and amatory books, which are to be 
 avoided, as arc also images that present any appearance of inde- 
 cency, possessing, as they do, very great influence in exciting 
 to filthy allurements, and in kindling criminal desire in the 
 minds of youth. But let the parish-priest take especial care, 
 that what was piously and religiously ordained by the Holy 
 Council of Trent regarding them, be most sacredly observed.* 
 If all these things that have just been mentioned be most 
 studiously and carefully avoided, almost every incentive to lust 
 is removed. 
 
 QUESTION XII. Tie Use of Confession, of the Eucharist, and 
 of other pious Matters is necessary to attain Chastity. 
 
 But, to repress its violence, frequent recourse to confession 
 and to the holy Eucharist operates most efficaciously ; as do also 
 unceasing and devout prayers to God, joined to fasting ami 
 almsdeeds; for chastity is "a gift" of God (1 Cor. vii. 7), 
 which lie refuses not to those who ask it " aright ;" nor does 
 he "suffer "us "to be tempted above that which "we "are 
 able"(l Cor. x. 13). 
 
 QUESTION XIII. The Body is to be subdued by the Votary of 
 Chastity. 
 
 But the body is to be exercised, and the sensual appetites to 
 be repressed not only by fastings, and particularly by the fasts 
 instituted by holy Church, but also by watchings, pious pil- 
 grimages, and other austerities. By these and other such 
 penitential observances is the virtue of temperance chiefly 
 evinced ; and to this effect St. Paul writes thus to the Corin- 
 thians : u Every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth 
 himself from all things ; and they indeed that they may receive 
 a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one" (1 Cor. ix. 
 25) ; and a little after : " I chastise my body, and bring it into 
 
 Sess. xxv.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VIII. 377 
 
 subjection, lest, perhaps, when I have preached to others, I 
 myself should become reprobate" (1 Cor. v. 27) ; and in another 
 place : " Make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscence " 
 (Rom. xiii. 14). 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 
 
 "THOU SHALT NOT STEAL."* 
 
 QUESTION I. How great is the importance of this Commandment, 
 and its connexion with the two preceding. 
 
 That it had been the ancient custom of the Church to impress 
 on the faithful the force and nature of this commandment, is 
 shown by that reproof of the Apostle uttered against some who 
 were most earnest in deterring others from vices, with which 
 they themselves were found overwhelmed: "Thou, therefore," 
 says he, " that teachest another, teachest not thyself: thou that 
 preachest that men should not steal, stealest" (Rom. ii. 21). 
 By this salutary instruction they not only corrected a vice preva- 
 lent in those times, but also repressed turbulence and litigation, 
 and other causes of evils, which usually arise from theft. As 
 these our days are also unhappily involved in the same delin- 
 quency, and in its consequent mischiefs and calamities, parish- 
 priests, following the example of the holy Fathers, and of the 
 masters of Christian discipline, will urge this matter, and will 
 explain assiduously and diligently the force and meaning of this 
 commandment. And first, they will employ their assiduity and 
 diligence in setting forth the infinite love of God towards the 
 human race, who, not satisfied with having, as it were, fenced 
 round our lives, our persons, our fame, and reputation, by 
 means of these two prohibitions: " Thou shah not kill," " Thou 
 shall not commit adultery," also places as if an external guard 
 over, and defends, our means and property, by this precept, 
 " Thou shall not steal." 
 
 QUESTION II. What is the meaning of this Precept. 
 
 For what meaning can these words have, but that which we 
 mentioned above when speaking of the other precepts, namely, 
 that God forbids these our worldly goods, which are under his 
 protection, to be taken away or injured by any one. The greater 
 
 * Ex. xx. 15 ; Deut. v. 19.
 
 378 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 this benefit of the divine law is, the greater should be onr 
 gratitude to God, the Author of that benefit ; and as the best 
 manner proposed to us of experiencing and of evincing grati- 
 tude, is not only to lend a willing ear to his precepts, but also 
 to give practical proof of our approval of them, the faithful 
 are to be excited and ardently animated to the observance of 
 this commandment. Like the preceding ones, this also divides 
 itself into two parts ; the one, which prohibits theft, is mentioned 
 in express terms ; of the other, by which we are ordered to be 
 kind and liberal towards our neighbours, the spirit and force are 
 implied and involved in the former. We shall, therefore, begin 
 with the first : " Thou shall not steal." 
 
 QUESTION III. What the Legislator here wished to signify 
 by the word Theft. 
 
 Here it is to be observed, that by the word " theft " is 
 understood not only the taking away of anything from its 
 rightful owner, privately and without his consent, but also the 
 possession of anything belonging to another, contrary to the 
 will, although not without the knowledge of the owner, unless, 
 forsooth, we are to suppose that he who prohibits theft, does not 
 disapprove of rapine, accomplished by violence and injustice ; 
 whereas, there is extant that of the Apostle, " Extortioners 
 shall not possess the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. vi. 10); and 
 the same Apostle writes, that the manner of life and society 
 of such persons is altogether to be shunned (Ib. v. 11). 
 
 QUESTION IV. Since God here wishes to prohibit all unjust 
 Usurpation of another's Property, why lie mentions Theft rather 
 than Rapine. 
 
 It is not, however, to be wondered at that the precept of 
 the living law is set forth under this denomination of " theft," 
 not "rapine," for that was done with the best reason; because 
 theft is more extensive and comprehensive than rapine, which 
 they alone can commit who are superior in power and force. 
 Every one, however, sees that when lighter sins of the same 
 sort are forbidden, greater enormities are also prohibited. 
 
 QUESTION V. The different Denominations of Theft 
 
 are enumerated. 
 
 The unjust possession and use of what belongs to another 
 are marked by various names, according to the various nature 
 of the things taken from their owners against their will and 
 without their knowledge ; for if anything private be taken from 
 a private individual it is calld "theft;" if from the public, 
 "peculation;" to enslave and appropriate the freeman or slave
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VIII. 379 
 
 of another is called " man-stealing ;" to steal anything sacred 
 is called " sacrilege," which most nefarious and wicked crime 
 is of such common occurrence in our days, that property 
 which had been piously and wisely appropriated to the ne- 
 cessities of divine worship, to the support of the ministers of 
 the Church, and to the use of the poor, is converted into the 
 means of gratifying individual cupidity and pernicious passions. 
 
 QUESTION VI. They who really possess the Property of others 
 are not the only transgressors of this Precept. 
 
 But, besides actual theft, that is, the outward act, the will 
 and desire of stealing are also forbidden by the law of God; 
 for the law is spiritual, and regards the soul, the source of our 
 thoughts and designs : " Out of the heart," says our Lord in 
 St. Matthew, " proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, forni- 
 cations, thefts, false testimonies" (Matt. xv. 19). 
 
 QUESTION VII. Whence we may best estimate the grievousness 
 of Theft. 
 
 But how grievous a sin theft is, the force of natural reason 
 alone sufficiently shows ; for it is contrary to justice, which 
 gives to every man his own ; for in order that every man, 
 unless we wish to dissolve human society, may retain what has 
 justly fallen to his lot, it is necessary to give stability to the 
 distributions and allotments of property, which have been con- 
 stituted from the very beginning by the law of nations, and 
 confirmed also by divine and human laws ; for, as the Apostle 
 says : " Neither thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor 
 railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God" 
 (1 Cor. vi. 10). The mischievousness and enormity of this crime, 
 however, the very many evils which follow in the train of 
 theft, declare ; for many judgments are rashly and incon- 
 siderately formed of many ; hatred breaks out ; enmities are 
 conceived ; and sometimes the innocent are most cruelly con- 
 demned. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. How the Things taken away are necessarily 
 to be restored. 
 
 What shall we say of that necessity, which is imposed by 
 God on all, of making satisfaction to him from whom anything 
 has been taken away? "For the sin is not forgiven," says 
 St. Augustine, " unless what was taken away be restored ;"* and 
 
 * Aug. ep. 153, c. 6, n. 20, p. 403.
 
 380 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 how great is the difficulty of such restitution, when one haa 
 been accustomed to enrich himself with the property of others, 
 wemay understand not only from intercourse with others and from, 
 our own reflection, but also from the testimony of the prophet 
 Habacuc; for he says: "Woe to him that heapetli together 
 that which is not his own. How long also doth he load him- 
 self with thick clay ?" (Hab. ii. 6). The possession of other 
 men's property, he calls " thick clay," from which men can with 
 difficulty emerge and disengage themselves. But there are so 
 many kinds of thefts, that it is very difficult to enumerate them. 
 Wherefore it will be enough to have spoken of these two, to 
 which, as to their source, are reduced all others, which we shall 
 mention. To inspire a detestation of them, and to deter the 
 faithful people from the wicked enormity, parish priests, there- 
 fore, will bestow all care and diligence. But let us proceed with 
 the details on this head. 
 
 QUESTION IX. What are the principal kinds of Thefts, and 
 who are to be numbered among Thieves. 
 
 They, then, who buy stolen goods, or retain the property of 
 others, whether found, seized on, or pilfered, are also thieves. 
 " If you have found, and not restored," says St. Augustine, 
 " you have stolen."* If, however, the owner of the property 
 cannot at all be discovered, the things found should go to the 
 nse of the poor; and if the finder refuse to yield them up, he 
 thereby gives evident proof, that, were it in his power, he 
 would steal in all directions to any extent. They who, in 
 buying or selling things, employ fraud and cheating words, 
 involve themselves in the same guilt : the Lord will avenge 
 their frauds. But those who, for genuine and sound mer- 
 chandise, sell spurious and unsound, or who deceive the buyers, 
 by weight, measure, number, or rule, are guilty of a theft still 
 more criminal and unjust; for we read in Deuteronomy: 
 "Thou shall not have divers weights in thy bag" (Deut. xxv. 
 13); and in Leviticus: "Do not any unjust thing, in judg- 
 ment, in rule, in weight, or in measure. Let the balance be 
 just, and the weights equal, the bushel just, and the sextary 
 equal" (Lev. xix. 35, sq.); and elsewhere: " Divers weights are 
 an abomination before the Lord : a deceitful balance is not 
 good" (Prov. xx. 23). It is also an open theft, when labourers 
 and artizans exact full and entire wages from those to whom they 
 have not given just and due labour. Nor are unfaithful servants 
 and stewards distinguished from thieves ; nay, they are more 
 
 * Aug. eer. 178, c. a
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VIII. 381 
 
 detestable than other thieves, who are shut out by keys, whilst 
 to a pilfering servant nothing in a house can be sealed or shut 
 up. They also, who extort money under false pretences, by 
 deceitful words or fallacious mendicancy, seem to commit theft; 
 and their guilt is aggravated by heaping falsehood on theft. 
 They, too, are to be reckoned among thieves, who, when they 
 have been employed for some private or public office, paying 
 little or no attention, neglect the duty, whilst they only enjoy 
 the remuneration and emolument. To go through the remain- 
 ing multitude of thefts, invented by ingenious avarice, which is 
 versed in all the arts of pelf, is a long and, as we said, a very 
 difficult task. 
 
 QUESTION X. What are the different kinds of Rapine, and 
 who are to be called Extortioners. 
 
 The parish-priest, therefore, will now proceed to treat of 
 rapine, the other head of those crimes, first admonishing the 
 Christian people to remember that saying of the Apostle: 
 "They who will become rich, fall into temptation and into the 
 snare of the devil" (1 Tim. vi. 9); and nowhere to suffer this 
 precept to escape their memory : " All things whatsoever you 
 would that men should do to you, do you also to them" (Matt. vii. 
 12); and always to keep in mind that [maxim]: " See thou never 
 do to another, what thou wouldst date to have done to thee by an- 
 other" (Tob. iv. 16; Luke, vi. 31). R;ipine,then,is more compre- 
 hensive than theft; for those who do not pay the labourers their 
 hire are guilty of rapine, and are invited to repentance by St. James 
 in these woids : "Go to, now, ye rich men, weep and howl for 
 your miseiies that shall come upon you:"' he subjoins the cause 
 of this repentance ; for, " Behold, the hire of the labourers who 
 have reaped yonr fields, of which you have defrauded them, 
 crieth out, and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the 
 Lord of Sabaoth " (James, v. 1, 4). This kind of rapine is 
 reprobated in the strongest terms in Leviticus ;Lev. xix. 13), 
 Deuteronomy (Deut. xxiv. 14, sq.), Malachy (.Mai. iii. 5), and 
 Tobias (Tob. iv. 15). Amongst those guilty of this crime of 
 rapine are included persons who do not pay, or who turn to other 
 uses, or appropriate to themselves customs, taxes, titlxs, and 
 other such revenues, which are due to those who preside over 
 the Church, and to the civil magistrates. 
 
 QUESTION XI. To lend on Uwry is Rapine^ and how grievous 
 a Crime that is. 
 
 To this class also belong usurers, the most cruel and relentless 
 of extortioners, who, by usuries, plunder and destroy the
 
 382 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 miserable people. Now, whatever is received above the prin- 
 cipal, be it money, or anything else that may be purchased 
 or estimated by money, is usury; for it is written thus in 
 Ezechiel : " He hath not lent upon usury, nor taken an increase " 
 (Ez. xviii. 17) ; and in Luke, our Lord says : " Lend, hoping for 
 nothing thereby " (Luke, vi. 35). Even amongst the Gentiles 
 this was always considered a most grievous and most odious 
 crime ; and hence the question, " What is usury ?" which was 
 answered by asking, " What is murder ?"* For they who lend 
 at usury sell the same thing twice, or sell that which has no 
 existence. 
 
 QUESTION XII. Corrupt Judges, and those who defraud their 
 Creditors, commit Rapine. 
 
 Corrupt judges, whose decisions are venal, and who, bought 
 over by money or bribes, decide against the poor and the 
 necessitous, however good their cause, also commit rapine. 
 Those who defraud their creditors, who deny their just debts, 
 and also those who purchase goods on their own or on another's 
 credit, with an engagement to pay for them at a certain time, 
 and do not redeem their pledge, shall be convicted of the same 
 crime of rapine ; and it is an aggravation of their guilt that, in 
 consequence of their want of punctuality and their fraud, prices 
 are raised, to the no small detriment of the public. To such 
 persons seems to apply that saying of David : " The sinner shall 
 borrow, and not pay again" (Ps. xxxvi. 21). 
 
 QUESTION XIII. The rich who oppress the poor, having taken 
 Pledges from them, are numbered among Extortioners. 
 
 But what shall we say of those wealthy persons, who exact 
 with rigour what they lend to the poor, who have not where- 
 withal to pay them ; and who take as pledges even their neces- 
 sary covering, contrary to the divine prohibition ? for God says : 
 " If thou takest of thy neighbour a garment in pledge, thou shalt 
 give it him again before sunset, for that same is the only thing 
 wherewith he is covered, the clothing of his body, neither hath 
 he any other to sleep in : if he cry to me I will hear him, 
 because I am compassionate" (Ex. xxii. 26, sq.). Their 
 rigorous exaction we shall justly term "rapacity," and even 
 " rapine." 
 
 * Cic. de offic. ii. 25, p. 278, ed. Grsev. "et cum ille, qiii qnre- 
 eierat, dixisset, quid foenerari? Turn Cato, Quid homiuem, inquit, 
 
 occiderc ?"
 
 PART III. CHAPTER VIII. 383 
 
 QUESTION XIV. They who store up corn in time of scarcity are 
 Extortioners. 
 
 Amongst those who are called by the Holy Fathers extor- 
 tioners,* are they who, in times of scarcity, keep close their corn, 
 thus culpably producing dearth and high prices ; and this also 
 holds good with regard to all necessaries for food, and the pur- 
 poses of life. These are they to whom applies that execration 
 of Solomon : " He that hideth up corn shall be cursed among 
 the people " (Prov. xi. 26). Such persons pari;>h-priests will 
 admonish of their guilt, and will accuse with more than ordinary 
 freedom ; and will explain to them more at large the punish- 
 ments that await their offences. So far for the negative part 
 of the precept. Let us now come to the positive part, in which 
 the first thing to be considered is satisfaction or restitution ; 
 for the sin is not forgiven unless what was taken away be 
 restored.f 
 
 QUESTION XV. Who are to be considered bound to Restitution. 
 
 But, as not only he who committed theft ought to make 
 restitution to him from whom he stole, but all who were parti- 
 cipators in the theft are also bound by this law of restitution, 
 [the pastor] must explain who they are who cannot escape this 
 necessity of making satisfaction or restitution. These form a 
 variety of classes ; of which the first consists of those who order 
 to steal, and who are themselves not only the authors and accom- 
 plices of thefts, but also the very worst in that class of thieves. 
 Another class, like the former in will, but unlike them in power, 
 to be placed however in the same grade of thieves, consists of 
 those who, unable to command, persuade and encourage others 
 to commit theft. A third class is that of those who consent to 
 theft committed by others (Rom. i. 32). The fourth class is 
 that of those who are accomplices in, and also derive gain from, 
 thefts (Prov. xxxix. 24) ; if that can be called gain, which, 
 unless they repent, consigns them to eternal torments ; of whom 
 David speaks thus : " If thou didst see a thief, thou didst run. 
 with him" (Ps. xlix. 18). The fifth class is that of thieves, 
 who, having it in their power to prohibit thefts, so far from 
 opposing or preventing them, suffer and sanction their free 
 commission. The sixth class is that of those who, well aware 
 that the theft was committed, and where it was committed, 
 far from discovering, dissemble their knowledge of the fact. 
 
 * Ambr. de Offic. iii 6, n. 41. t Aug. ep. 153, c. 6, n. 20.
 
 384 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 The seventh and last embraces all who aid in the accomplish- 
 ment of theft, who guard, patronize, receive Rnd harbour thieves; 
 all of whom are bound to make restitution to those from whom 
 anything has been stolen, and are earnestly to be exhorted to 
 the discharge of that necessary duty. Nor are those who 
 approve and applaud thefts entirely exempt from this crime ; 
 neither are children and wives, who pilfer money from their 
 parents and husbands, free from the same fault. 
 
 QUESTION XVI. What is to be thought of Alms, which are also 
 here prescribed by implication. 
 
 Tkis commandment also implies pity towards the poor and 
 the necessitous, and the relief of their difficulties and distresses 
 from our means, and by our good offices. On this subject, 
 because it is to be treated very frequently and copiously, parish- 
 priests, to enable themselves to fulfil their duty, will borrow 
 matter from the works of those very holy men, Cyprian,* John 
 Chryso?tom,f Gregory Nazianzeu,J and other eminent writers 
 on almscleeds ; for the faithful are to be inflamed with a desire 
 and with alacrity to succour those who depend for subsistence 
 on the compassion of others. They are also to be taught the 
 great necessity of almsdeeds, namely, that with our means 
 and by our co-operation we be liberal to the poor, and this by 
 that very true argument that, on the day of final judgment, God 
 will abhor and consign to everlasting fire those who shall have 
 omitted or neglected the offices of charity, but will invite, in the 
 language of praise, and introduce into their heavenly country, 
 those who shall have acted kindly towards the poor. Their 
 respective sentences have been already pronounced by the lips 
 of Christ the Lord : " Come ye blessed of my Father, possess 
 the kingdom prepared for you" (Mat-th. xxv. 34, 41); and: 
 " Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire" (Ib. v. 41). 
 
 QUESTION XVII. By what Means the People are to be excited to 
 
 Almsdeeds. 
 
 Priests will also employ those texts of Scripture calculated to 
 persuade to this duty : " Give and it shall be given to you " 
 (Luke, vi. 38). They will cite the promise of God, than which 
 no remuneration more abundant, none more magnificent can 
 even be imagined : " There is no man who hath left house, or 
 brethren, &c., who shall not receive a hundred times as much 
 
 * Cypr. de op. et eleemos. t Chrys. horn, de eleemos. horn. 2, 
 de Laz. n. 4, horn. 16, ad pop. Ant. n. 6, horn. 7, de poenit. n. 6, sq. 
 horn. 45, in Matth. n. 3. J Greg. Naz. or. 14.
 
 TART III. CHAPTER VIII. 385 
 
 now in this time ; and in the world to come life everlasting " 
 (.Mark, x. 29, sq.). They will add that which was said by our 
 Lord : " Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, 
 that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting 
 dwellings" (Luke, xvi. 9). But they will explain the heads of 
 thia necessary duty, that those who are unable to give, may at 
 least lend to the necessitous wherewithal to sustain life, according 
 to the injunction of Christ the Lord : " Lend, hoping for nothing 
 thereby" (Luke, vi. 35). The happiness attendant on such an 
 exercise of mercy, holy David attests : " Acceptable is the man, 
 that sheweth mercy and leudeth " (Ps. cxi. 5). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII We must labour in order to bestow Alms, and 
 to avoid Idleness. 
 
 But it is an act of Christian piety, should it not be in our 
 power otherwise to deserve well of those who stand in need of 
 the charity of others for sustenance, to seek by the labour of 
 onr hands to procure means of relieving the wants of the 
 indigent, and also thus to avoid idleness. To this the Apostle 
 exhorts all by his own example, in his epistle to the Thessalo- 
 nians, in these words : " For yourselves, know how yon ought 
 to imitate us " (2 Thess. iii. 7) ; also to the same : " Use your 
 endeavour to be quiet, and that you do your own business, 
 and work with your own hands, as we commanded you " 
 (1 Thess. iv. 11) ; and to the Ephesians: " Let him that stole, 
 steal now no more ; but rather let him labour, working with his 
 hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him 
 that suffereth need" (Eph. iv. 23). 
 
 QUESTION XIX. We must live frugally in order to relieve the 
 Wants of others. 
 
 We should also attend to frugality, and draw sparingly on 
 the means of others, that we may not be a burden or a trouble 
 to them. This exercise of temperance shines conspicuous in all 
 the Apostles, but pre-eminently in St. Paul, who, writing to the 
 Thessalonians, says: " You remember, brethren, our labour and 
 toil ; working night and day lest we should be burdensome to 
 any of you, we preached amongst you the Gospel of God " 
 (1 Thess. ii. 9) ; and the same Apostle in another place : " In 
 labour and in toil, working night and day, lest we should be 
 burdensome to any of you " (2 Thess. iii. 8). 
 
 2 B
 
 386 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XX. By what Arguments the Christian People are to 
 be induced to the Detestation of Thefts and tlie practice of 
 Benignity. 
 
 But that the faithful people may abhor all this kind of 
 nefarious crimes, it will be fit that parish-priests seek from the 
 prophets, and take from the other divine books, the detestation 
 in which God holds, and the awful threats which he denounces 
 against, those who commit those crimes of theft and rapine. 
 The prophet Amos exclaims : " Hear this, you that crush the 
 poor, and make the needy of the land to fail, saying, when will 
 the month be over, and we shall sell our wares, and the Sabbath, 
 and we shall open the corn ; that we may lessen the measure, 
 and increase the sickle, and may convey in deceitful balances ?" 
 (Amos, viii. 4, sq.) There are many passages in Jeremiah (Jer. 
 vii. 8, sqq.), Proverbs (Prov. xxi. 6, xxii. 16), and Ecclesiasticus 
 (Eccli. x. 9, sq.), to the same purport ; nor is it to be doubted 
 but that, in these causes are in great part included those evils 
 with which this age is oppressed. But that Christian men may 
 accustom themselves to discharge every office of liberality anil 
 kindness towards the poor and the mendicant, an exercise of 
 benevolence which belongs to the second part of this command- 
 ment, parish-priests will place before them the most ample 
 rewards, which God promises to bestow in this life and in the 
 next, on the beneficent and the bountiful. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. What is to be thought of those who excuse 
 their Thefts and Sacrileges by a futile pretext. 
 
 As, however, there are not wanting those who would even 
 excuse their thefts, they are to be admonished that the time 
 will come when God will accept no excuse for their sin; nay, 
 that their excuses, so far from extenuating, will serve greatly to 
 aggravate their guilt. Behold the insufferable luxury of noble- 
 men, who fancy they extenuate their guilt by alleging that, if 
 they stoop to strip another of what belongs to him, they are 
 actuated not by cupidity or avarice, but by a desire to main- 
 tain the grandeur of their family and of their ancestors, whose 
 estimation and dignity would fall, if not upheld by the accession 
 of other men's property. Of this pernicious error they must 
 be disabused ; and must at the same time be convinced, that the 
 sole means of preserving and augmenting their property and 
 wealth, and of enhancing the glory of their ancestors, is to obey 
 the will of God, to observe his commandments ; that, his will 
 and commandments once contemned, wealth, however solidly
 
 PART HI. CHAPTER VIII. 387 
 
 based and well established, is overturned ; kings are hurled 
 from their royal thrones, and from the highest pinnacle of 
 honour; whilst the humblest individuals, men, too, whom they held 
 in supreme hatred, are sometimes called by God to occupy their 
 places. It is incredible to what a degree the wrath of God is 
 kindled against such offenders ; and of this Isaias is a witness, 
 who records these words of God himself : " Thy princes are 
 faithless, companions of thieves : they all love bribes ; they ruu 
 after rewards. Therefore, saith the Lord, the God of Hosts, 
 the Mighty one of Israel : Ah ! I will comfort myself over 
 my adversaries, and I will be avenged of my enemies; and I 
 will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy 
 dross" (Isa. i. 23, sqq.). 
 
 QUESTION XXII. How we must answer those who assert that 
 they are driven to Rapine by considerations of advantage, 
 
 There are not wanting those who plead in justi6cation, not 
 the maintenance of splendour and glory, but the attainment of 
 greater ease and elegance in their mode of life. Such persons 
 are to be refuted ; and are to be taught how impious is their 
 conduct and language, who prefer any advantage to the will 
 and glory of God, whom we offend in an extraordinary degree 
 by neglecting his precepts. And yet, what advantage can there 
 be in theft, which the greatest evils follow close ? " Confu- 
 sion and repentance," says Ecclesiasticus, " is upon a thief " 
 (Eccli. v. 17). But, grant that no evil overtake the thief, he 
 dishonours the divine name ; opposes the most holy will of God; 
 contemns his salutary precepts ; from which source flows all 
 error, all dishonesty, all impiety. 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. What is to be said of those who cloak their 
 Thefts under the plea of robbing the rich, or of Habit. 
 
 What, if we sometimes hear thieves contend, that they are 
 guilty of no sin, because they take away something from the 
 rich and the wealthy, who suffer no injury from, nor even per- 
 ceive the loss ? A wretched, truly, and baneful defence. 
 Another thinks that his plea should be deemed satisfactory, when 
 he alleges that he has been so familiarized with stealing, as not 
 to be able easily to overcome the propensity or desist from the 
 practice : unless he listen to the Apostle saying : " Let him 
 that stole, steal now no more " (Eph. iv. 28), he will be fami- 
 liarized, like it or not, with eternal torments.
 
 388 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. What again is to be said to those who profess 
 to le induced to thieve either through Opportunity or desire of 
 Revenge. 
 
 Some there are, who excuse themselves by saying, that they 
 took something from another, because an opportunity presented 
 itself ; for it is a trite proverb, that they who are not thieves, 
 become thieves by opportunity. Such persons are to be dis- 
 suaded from their wicked opinion, by reminding them, that it 
 is our duty to resist evil propensities ; for, were we immediately 
 to execute the suggestions of inordinate desire, what limit, 
 what end to criminal and flagitious excesses ? Such a defence, 
 therefore, displays extreme baseness, or rather is an avowal of 
 consummate licentiousness and injustice ; for he who says that 
 he does not commit sin, because he has no opportunity of sin- 
 ning, almost acknowledges that he is always prepared to sin 
 when opportunity offers. There are those who say they steal 
 in order to gratify revenge, having suffered the same injury 
 from others. In answer to such offenders, the pastor will first 
 urge the unlawfulness of returning injury for injury ; next that 
 no one can be a judge in his own cause ; and that still less is 
 it permitted them to punish one man for the offences committed 
 against them by others. 
 
 QUESTION XXV. What is to le said to those who steal in order 
 to be freed from Debt. 
 
 Finally, some find a sufficient justification of theft in the 
 plea, that being overwhelmed with debt, they cannot be freed 
 from it, unless they get rid of it by theft. Such persons are to 
 be remonstrated with thus, and told, that there is no heavier 
 debt, none by which mankind is more pressed down, than that 
 debt, of which we daily make mention in the Lord's Prayer : 
 "Forgive us our debts" (Matt. vi. 12); and that, therefore,, 
 to wish to swell that debt which we owe to God, that is, to sin 
 more, in order to liquidate that which is due to man, is the 
 height of folly ; that it is much better to be cast into prison 
 than to be consigned to the never-ending torments of hell ; that 
 it is also by far a greater evil to be condemned by the judgment 
 of God, than by that of men ; and moreover, that they should 
 fly as suppliants to the assistance and mercy of God, from whom 
 they can obtain what they stand in need of. There are other 
 sorts of excuses, which prudent and zealous parish-priests will 
 find it easy to meet ; that they may one day be blessed with 
 " a people, pursuing good works" (Tit. ii. 14).
 
 PART III. CHAPTER IX. 389 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 
 "THOU SHALT NOT BEAB FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOUR."* 
 
 QUESTION I. Advantages of tins Precept. 
 
 How great is not only the utility, but also the necessity of 
 the assiduous explanation of this commandment, and of the 
 inculcation of the duty which it enforces, we learn from these 
 authoritative words of St. James : " If any man offend not in 
 word, the same is a perfect man ;" and again : " The tongue 
 is indeed a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold 
 how small a fire kindleth a great wood," and what follows to 
 the same effect (James iii. 2, 5). By these words we are 
 admonished of two things ; the one, that this vice of the 
 tongue is of very great extent, which is confirmed by that sen- 
 tence of the Prophet, " Every man is a liar" (Ps. cxv. 11), so 
 that this is almost the only sin that would seem to extend to 
 all mankind ; the other, that thence proceed innumerable evils, 
 for through the fault of au evil-spoken man are often lost the 
 property, the character, the life, the salvation, either of the 
 injured person, who, unable patiently to bear contumelies, im- 
 potently avenges them ; or of the person who inflicts the 
 injury, because, deterred by a perverse shame and a false idea 
 of what is called honour, he cannot be induced to satisfy him 
 whom he has offended. Wherefore, the faithful are here to be 
 exhorted to pour out their souls in thanksgiving to God for this 
 salutary commandment of not bearing false witness, by which 
 we are not only forbidden to injure others, but are also, on the 
 same principle of obedience, defended from injury on the part 
 of others. 
 
 QUESTION II. Tins Precept is both mandatory and 
 prohibitory. 
 
 But in this precept we must proceed in the same manner as 
 we have done in the others, namely, by pointing out in it two 
 laws, the one prohibiting to bear false witness; the other 
 commanding us, having laid aside dissimulation and deceit, to 
 measure our words and aciions by the simple truth ; of which 
 duty the Apostle admonished the Ephesians in these words : 
 
 * Ex. xx. 16; Deut. v. 20.
 
 390 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 " Performing the truth in charity, we may grow up in all things 
 in him " (Eph. iv. 15). 
 
 QUESTION III. What is chiefly forbidden by this Commandment. 
 Although by the name of false testimony is meant whatever 
 is positively but falsely affirmed of any one, be it for or against 
 him, be it in or out of a court of justice, yet the purport of the 
 former part of this commandment is, to prohibit principally 
 that false testimony that is given on oath in a court of justice ; 
 for a witness swears by the Deity ; and the words of a man 
 thus giving evidence, and interposing the Divine name, have 
 very great credit and weight. Such testimony, therefore, 
 because dangerous, is chiefly prohibited ; for, sworn witnesses, 
 unless they be excluded by legal exceptions, or convicted of 
 palpable dishonesty and wickedness, even the judge himself 
 cannot reject, especially as it is an injunction of the divine 
 Law, that " in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word 
 shall stand" (Matt, xviii. 16; Deut. xix. 15). But that the 
 faithful may plainly understand the commandment, they will 
 have to be taught what means this word " neighbour," against 
 whom it is unlawful to bear false witness. 
 
 QUESTION IV. Who is here designated by the word 
 " Neighbour" 
 
 According to the doctrine of Christ the Lord, our neighbonr 
 is whoever wants our assistance, whether he be bound to us by 
 ties of kindred or not, whether a fellow-citizen or a stranger, 
 a friend or an enemy (Luke, x. 29, eqq.). To suppose it lawful 
 to give false evidence in any case against an enemy, whom by 
 the command of God and of our Lord we are bound to love 
 (Matt. v. 44 ; Luke, vi. 27), is utter wickedness. Moreover, as 
 every one is in some sort his own neighbour, it is unlawful for 
 any one to bear false witness against himself; and they who do 
 80, branding themselves with infamy and disgrace, inflict a 
 wound on themselves and on the Church, of which they are 
 members ; as also they who commit suicide injure the state. 
 This is the doctrine of St. Augustine ; " Although," says he, 
 " to those, who understand rightly, it could not' but appear 
 prohibited to give false testimony against oneself, because 
 the words ' against thy neighbour ' have been added in the 
 commandment ; but let no one therefore think that he is exempt 
 from this guilt, if he bears false witness against himself ; for he 
 who loves has received as the standard of loving his neighbour 
 [the love which he bears to] himself."* 
 
 Aug. de Civ. Dei, 1. . c. 20.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER IX. 391 
 
 QUESTION V. It is not lawful to give false Testimony or to 
 lie in order to serve our Neighbour. 
 
 But because we are prohibited to injure, let no one infer 
 that we are therefore at liberty, on the other hand, to serve our 
 neighbour by false testimony, although he be united to us by 
 the ties of nature and religion. No one can employ falsehood, 
 still less perjury, to consult the feelings or the interests of any 
 man. Hence, St. Augustine in his book on lying, addressed to 
 Cresentius, teaches from the words of the Apostle, that a lie 
 " although uttered in unmerited commendation of any one," is 
 to be numbered amongst false testimonies. Treating of that 
 passage of the Apostle : " Yea, and we are fonnd false witnesses 
 of God, because we have given testimony against God, that he 
 hath raised up Christ, whom he hath not raised up, if the dead 
 rise not again" (1 Cor. xv. 15). he says : "The Apostle calls it 
 false testimony to utter a lie with regard to Christ, although it 
 seems to redound to his praise."* 
 
 QUESTION VI. How many Evils attend false Testimony borne 
 in favour of another. 
 
 But it also very frequently happens, that he who favours one 
 party injures the other: false testimonies are certainly tho 
 occasion of misleading the judge, who, induced by such evidence, 
 sometimes decides, and is obliged to pronounce contrary to 
 justice, according to the unjust testimony. It also sometimes 
 happens, that he who has gained his suit by means of a false 
 witness, and has done so with impunity, exulting in his iniqui- 
 tous victory, becomes familiarized to the work of corruption 
 and the subornation of false witnesses, through whose instru- 
 mentality he hopes to be able to attain whatever ends he 
 proposes to himself. To the witness himself it is also most 
 irksome to be known as false and perjurious by him whom, by 
 his oath, he has aided and abetted ; whilst, encouraged by the 
 success of his crime, he becomes every day more practised in, 
 and accustomed to, impiety and audacity. 
 
 QUESTION VII. By this Precept are forbidden the Sins of all 
 those who are concerned in Suits of Law, and all Lying in 
 general. 
 
 As, then, [by this precept] are forbidden deceit, falsehood, 
 and perjury on the part of witnesses, so also are they forbidden 
 OQ the part of plaintiffs, defendants, and patrons ; of solicitors, 
 
 Aug. lib. de mendacio, c. 12, sq. n. 21.
 
 392 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 lawyers, and advocates ; and of all, in fine, who have any con- 
 cern in suits at law. Finally, God forbids all testimony that 
 may cause inconvenience or detriment, be it legal evidence or 
 not ; for in Leviticus, where the commandments are repeated, 
 we read : " Thou shall not steal ; thou shalt not lie ; neither 
 shall any man deceive his neighbour" (Lev. xix. 11); that to 
 no one may it be matter of doubt, that by this commandment 
 God rejects and condemns lies of every sort, as David most 
 expliciily testifies in these words : "Thou wilt destroy all that 
 speak a lie " (Ps. v. 7). 
 
 QUESTION VIII. This Precept is also extended to the Vice of 
 Detraction. 
 
 But by this commandment is forbidden not only false testi- 
 mony, but also the detestable propensity and habit of detraction, 
 from which pest it is incredible how many and what serious 
 inconveniences and evils spring. This vice of speaking ill and 
 contumeliously of others in private, the sacred Scriptures every 
 where reprobate: " With him," says David, " I would not eat " 
 (Ps. c. 5) ; and St. James : " Detract not one another, brethren " 
 (James, iv. 11). Nor do the sacred Scriptures supply precepts 
 only on the subject, but also examples, by which is made 
 known the magnitude of this vice ; for Amau, by forged 
 charges, so incensed Assuerus against the Jews, that he ordered 
 all the people of that nation to be destroyed (Esther, xiii.). 
 Sacred history abounds with similar examples, by the relation 
 of which priests will endeavour to deter the faithful from such 
 wickedness. 
 
 QUESTION IX. Who are to be numbered among Detractors. 
 
 But that the force of this sin of detraction may be fully 
 understood, we must know, that the reputation of men is injured 
 not only by calumniating their character, but likewise by exag- 
 gerating and amplifying their faults ; and should anything have 
 been committed by any one in secret, which, when made known, 
 must be seriously injurious to his character, he who, at a time, 
 in a place, before persons, when, where, before whom it was 
 unnecessary, has given publicity to the matter, is justly called a 
 detractor and a slanderer. But of all slanders there is none 
 more criminal than that of those who slander the Catholic 
 doctrine and its teachers: in the same class are those who 
 exalt with praises the teachers of false and erroneous doctrines. 
 
 QUESTION X. Those who listen to Detractors or who sow Dissen- 
 sions among Friends are Detractors. 
 Nor are those dissociated from their number or their guilt,
 
 PART III. CHAPTER IX. 393 
 
 who, instead of reproving, lend open ears, and a willing assent 
 to detractors and slanderers ; for as St. Jerome* and St. Ber- 
 nard write :f " Whether the detractor or the listener be the more 
 criminal, it is not easy to decide ;" for if there were no listeners, 
 there would be no detractors. To the same class belong those, 
 who by their artifices cause divisions and dissensions among 
 men, and who feel a particular pleasure in sowing discord ; thus 
 severing, by fiction and falsehood, the closest friendships and 
 social ties, and driving to endless hatred and to arms the fondest 
 friends. Of such pestilent characters the Lord expresses his 
 detestation in these words : " Thou shall not be a detractor, 
 nor a whisperer among the people" (Lev. xix. 16). Of this 
 description were many of the advisers of Saul, who strove to 
 alienate his affection from, and to exasperate him against, king 
 David (1 Kings, xxiv. 40, xxvi. 19). 
 
 QUESTION XI. Sycophancy is also forbidden by this Law. 
 
 Lastly, this [prohibitory] part is sinned against by wheedlers 
 and sycophants, who, by their blandishments and hollow praises, 
 insinuate themselves into the ears and hearts of those whose 
 interest, money, and honours they hunt after, as the prophet 
 says, calling "evil good, and good evil" (Isa. v. 20). Such 
 characters David admonishes us to expel and banish from our 
 society, in these words : " The just man shall correct me in 
 mercy, and shall reprove me ; but let not the oil of the sinner 
 fatten my head " (Ps. cxl. 5). They, it is true, do not speak 
 ill of their neighbour ; yet they inflict on him the deepest 
 injury, causing him, even by praising his vices, to continue in 
 them to the end of his life. And, indeed, of this species of 
 flattery the most pernicious is that which proposes to itself for 
 object the calamity and ruin of others. Thus Saul, when, to 
 procure the death of David, he wished to expose him to the 
 ruthless sword of the Philistine, addressed him in these soothing 
 words : " Behold my elder daughter Merob, her will I give thee 
 to wife : only be a valiant man, and fight the battles of the 
 Lerd" (1 Kings, xviii. 17); and thus did the Jews insidiously 
 address Christ the Lord : " Master, we know that thou art a 
 true speaker, and teachest the way of God in truth.":}: 
 
 QUESTION XII. How Friends perniciously flatter a Friend, who 
 
 is dangerously ill. 
 
 But far more pernicious is the language which friends and 
 relations sometimes flatteringly use to those who, labouring 
 
 * Ep. 52, n. 14, etep. 125, n. 19. t Bern, de considerate adEugen. 
 ii. 13. I Matt. xxii. 16 ; Mark xii. 14; Luke xx. 21.
 
 394 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 under mortal disease, are now on the point of death, when they 
 assure them that there is then no danger of his dying ; bid him 
 to be in good spirits ; deter him from the confession of his sins, 
 as if the thought would fill him with melancholy ; and, finally, 
 turn away his mind from all concern about, and meditation 
 upon, the extreme dangers in which he is placed. Lies of 
 every sort are therefore to be avoided, but particularly those by 
 which any one may suffer serious injury ; but a lie uttered 
 against, or regarding religion, is one replete with impiety. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. With this Commandment also clash the Authors 
 of Libels, persons lying through Joke or Officiousness, and 
 Hypocrites. 
 
 God is also grievously offended by those opprobrious invec- 
 tives, termed lampoons and libels, and other contumelious 
 slanders of this kind. Moreover, to deceive by a jocose or 
 officious lie, although no one may have gained or lost by it, is, 
 notwithstanding, altogether unseemly, as the Apostle admonishes 
 us : " Putting away lying, speak ye the truth " (Eph. iv. 25) ; 
 for it begets a strong tendency to frequent and more serious 
 lying; and from jocose, men contract a habit of uttering de- 
 liberate lies ; lose their character for veracity ; and find it 
 necessary, in order to gain belief, to resort continually to swear- 
 ing. Finally, by the first part of this commandment is pro- 
 hibited dissimulation ; and not only to speak, but to act 
 deceitfully is attended with sin ; for actions as well as words 
 are signs of our ideas and sentiments, and for this reason our 
 Lord, rebuking the Pharisees, frequently calls them " hypo- 
 crites " (Matt. xv. 7 ; xxiii. 13, sqq.) So far with regard to 
 the negative, which is the first part of this commandment. 
 Let us now explain what the Lord commands in the second 
 part. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. Mandatory part of the Commandment as 
 regards Trials. 
 
 The force and nature of this precept have for object, that 
 public trials be conducted on the principles of justice, and 
 according to law, and that men do not arrogate and usurp the 
 right of pronouncing judgment ; for the Apostle writes that it 
 is unjust to judge " another man's servant " (Rom. xiv. 4), 
 lest persons decide without knowing the circumstances of the 
 case. In this vicious error was the council of the priests and 
 scribes who passed judgment on St. Stephen (Acts, vi. 12, sq. 
 et vii.) ; the magistracy of Philippi were guilty of the same 
 criminal conduct, of whom St. Paul says : " They have whipped
 
 PART III. CHAPTER IX. 395 
 
 us publicly, uncondemned, men that are Romans : they sent us 
 to prison ; and now do they thrust us out privately " (Acts, xvi. 
 37). Let them not condemn the innocent nor acquit the guilty ; 
 let them not be influenced by money or favour, nor by love or 
 hatred. Thus Moses admonishes the Elders whom he had 
 constituted Judges of the people : " Judge that which is just ; 
 whether he be of your country or a stranger. There shall be 
 no difference of persons ; you shall hear the little as well as the 
 great ; neither shall you respect any man's person, because it is 
 the judgment of God" (Deut. i. 16, sq.), 
 
 QUESTION XV. Accused persons, when questioned by a Lawful 
 Magistrate, must not lie. 
 
 With regard to accused persons, who are conscious of guilt, 
 when interrogated according to the forms of judicial process, 
 God wishes them to confess the truth ; for their confession, in 
 some sort, attests and proclaims the praise and glory of God, 
 according to Josue, who, exhorting Achan to confess the truth, 
 says : " My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and 
 confess, and tell me what thou hast done: hide it not" (Josue, 
 vii. 19). 
 
 QUESTION XVI. What is the duty of Witnesses. 
 
 But, as this commandment chiefly regards witnesses, of these 
 also the parish-priest will have to treat diligently, for the force 
 of the precept is such as not only to prohibit false, but also to 
 enforce the giving of true evidence ; for in human affairs true 
 testimony is of the greatest use, because there are innumerable 
 things of which we must be ignorant, unless we arrive at a 
 knowledge of them on the faith of witnesses. Wherefore, in 
 those things that we ourselves do not know, and yet of which 
 it is not lawful for us to be ignorant, nothing is so necessary 
 as true evidence. On this subject we have this sentiment of 
 St. Augustine : " He who conceals the truth, and he who utters 
 a falsehood, are both guilty ; the one, because he is unwilling 
 to render a service ; the other, because he has the will to render 
 a disservice."* Sometimes, however, it is lawful not to disclose 
 the truth, but extra-judicially ; for when, in a court of justice, 
 a witness is legally interrogated, he is bound to tell the whole 
 truth. Here, however, witnesses should be more circumspect, 
 lest, trusting too much to their memory, they affirm for certain 
 what they have not fully ascertained. Solicitors and counsel, 
 prosecutors and plaintiffs, remain still to be treated of. 
 
 * Aug. ep. ad Caaulan. ap. Grat. P. 2 ; Caus. ii. qu. 3, c. 80.
 
 396 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. In what manner Solicitors and Counsel 
 ought to fulfil their Duty. 
 
 The two former classes will not be wanting in lending their 
 service and legal asssistance when the necessities of others shall 
 call for them, and will humanely aid the indigent ; neither will 
 they undertake the defence of an unjust cause, nor protract by 
 cavils, or encourage through avarice, suits at law ; and as to 
 remuneration for their labour and trouble, that let them measure 
 by justice and equity. 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. Duties of Plaintiffs and Defendants. 
 
 But prosecutors and plaintiffs are to be admonished to avoid 
 creating danger to any one by unjust charges, through love, or 
 hatred, or cupidity of any sort. Finally, to all pious persons 
 is addressed this divine command, that in all their intercourse 
 with society, in every conversation, they speak at all times with 
 truth, and from the heart; that they utter nothing that may 
 injure the character of another, not even of those by whom. 
 they know they have been injured and persecuted ; whereas 
 they should always recollect that such is the near relation, such 
 the social bond, that mutually subsist between them, and that 
 they are members of the same body. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. By what arguments Christians may be led to 
 understand the Baseness of Lying. 
 
 But in order that the faithful may the more willingly avoid 
 this vice of lying, the parish-priest will place before them the 
 extreme wretchedness and turpitude of this crime. In the sacred 
 Scriptures the devil is called " the father of lies ;" for, as the 
 devil abode not in the truth, he is a liar and the father thereof" 
 (John, viii. 44). To banish so great an enormity, he will sub- 
 join the mischievous consequences that attend lying; and as they 
 are innumerable, he will point out their heads and sources. 
 And first, he will inform them how grievously the man of dupli- 
 city and falsehood offends, how much he is hated by God, on 
 the authority of Solomon in that passage : " Six things there 
 are which the Lord hateth, and the seventh his soul detesteth ; 
 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a 
 heart that deviseth wicked plots, feet that are swift to run into 
 mischief, a deceitful witness that uttereth lies," and what 
 follows (Prov. vi. 16, sqq.). The man, therefore, who is thus 
 the object of God's special wrath, who can save from the inflic- 
 tion of the heaviest punishments ?
 
 PART III. CHAPTER IX. 397 
 
 QUESTION XX. What inconveniences Lies bring on Human 
 Society. 
 
 Again, what more wicked or base than, as St. James snys, 
 with the same tongue by which we " bless God and the Father." 
 to " curse men, who are made after the " image and "likeness of 
 God," so that " a fountain sends forth through the same passage 
 sweet and bitter water" (James, iii. 9, 11). The tongue, which 
 before was employed in giving praise and glory to God, after- 
 wards by lying treats him, as far as it can, with ignominy and 
 dishonour. Hence liars are excluded from the possession of the 
 bliss of heaven ( Apoc. xxi. 27, xx. 15) ; for to David asking, 
 "Lord! who shall dwell in thy tabernacle?" the Holy Spirit 
 answers, " He that speaketh truth in his heart, who hath not 
 used deceit in his tongue" (Ps. xiv. 1, 3). Lying is also 
 attended with this very great disadvantage, that it is an almost 
 incurable disease of the mind ; for as the sin of the calumniator 
 or detractor is not pardoned, unless satisfaction be made to the 
 injured person, a difficult duty to those who, as we already 
 observed, are deterred from its performance by false shame, and 
 an empty idea of dignity, he who continues in this sin, is doubt- 
 less doomed to everlasting perdition. For let no one indulge 
 the hope of being able to obtain the pardon of his calumnies or 
 detractions, unless he first make satisfaction to him whose 
 dignity or reputation he has depreciated publicly in a court of 
 justice, or even in private and familiar conversation. Besides, 
 the evil consequences of lying are most extensive, and are 
 diffused through society at large ; because by duplicity and 
 lying, good faith and truth, the closest links of human society 
 are dissolved ; and, they once removed, the greatest social 
 confusion ensues, so as that men would seem to differ in 
 nothing from demons. The parish-priest will moreover teach, 
 that loquacity is to be avoided, by avoiding which the other 
 evils of the tongue are also obviated, and a powerful preventive 
 is opposed to lyiug, from which vice the loquacious cannot easily 
 abstain. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. The vain Excuses of Liars are refuted. 
 
 Finally, the parish-priest will disabuse of their error those 
 who excuse their duplicity of language, and defend their viola- 
 tion of truth, by the example of the prudent, who, say they, lie 
 in season. He will observe, what is most true, that " The 
 wisdom of the flesh is death " (Horn. viii. 6) : he will exhort his 
 hearers in their difficulties and dangers to trust in God, and
 
 398 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 not seek refuge in the artifice of lying for they who employ 
 such a subterfuge, sufficiently declare that they rely on their 
 own prudence more than they trust in the providence of God. 
 They who impute the cause of their lying to those by whom 
 they were first deceived with falsehood, are to be taught that 
 it is not lawful for men to avenge themselves ; that evil is not 
 to be rendered for evil, but rather that evil is to be overcome by 
 good (Rom. xii. 17, 19, 21 ; 1 Peter, iii. 9) ; that, were it 
 even lawful to make such a return, it would be the interest of 
 no man to avenge himself to his own injury ; and that he who 
 ntters a falsehood, inflicts on himself a most grievous injury. 
 To those who plead the frailty and weakness of human nature, 
 is to be delivered this injunction of duty, that they implore the 
 divine assistance, and yield not to human infirmity. Those who 
 allege habit, are to be admonished, if they have accustomed 
 themselves to lying, to endeavour to acquire the contrary habit 
 of speaking the truth, particularly as they who sin through use 
 and habit offend more grievously than others. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. We must not Lie because others do so. 
 
 And as there are not wanting those who would shelter them- 
 selves by alleging in excuse the example of the rest of mankind, 
 who, they contend, everywhere indulge in falsehood and perjury, 
 such persons are to be undeceived, by reminding them that bad 
 men are not to be imitated, but reproved and corrected ; but 
 that, when we ourselves are addicted to lying, our words have 
 less weight in reprehending and correcting it in another. With 
 regard to others, who defend themselves by saying, that they 
 were often sufferers by speaking the truth, these the priest will 
 refute by urging that such an excuse is an accusation, not a 
 defence ; whereas it is the duty of a Christian man to suffer any 
 loss rather than utter a falsehood. 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. Neither a jocose nor a serviceable Lie 
 is to be allowed. 
 
 There remain two classes of persons, who would excuse their 
 departure from truth ; the one, who say that they tell lies for 
 joke sake ; the other who, for the same conduct, plead motives 
 of interest, because, forsooth, without having recourse to a lie, 
 they can neither buy nor sell to advantage. Both it will be the 
 duty of the parish-priest to turn from their error ; the first, by 
 urging the inveteracy of the vicious habit, which the practice of 
 lying augments, and by inculcating that we shall have " to render 
 an account for every idle word" (Matt. xii. 36) ; the second 
 class, in whose excuse is involved their own weightier accusa-
 
 PART III. CHAPTER X. 399 
 
 tion, he will reprove with still greater severity, showing as they 
 do that they yield no credit or authority to these words of God : 
 " Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and his justice, 
 and all these things shall be added unto you besides" (Matt, 
 vi. 33). 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON THE NINTH AND TENTH COMMANDMENTS. 
 
 " THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE ; NEITHER 
 SHALT THOU DESIRE HIS WIFE, NOR HIS SERVANT, NOR HIS HAND- 
 MAID, NOR HIS OX, NOR HIS ASS, NOR ANYTHING THAT IS HIS."* 
 
 QUESTION I. How the Ninth and Tenth Commandments seem 
 to comprehend the other eight. 
 
 That in these two precepts, which were delivered the last, 
 is appointed in some sort a means of observing the rest, is 
 first to be known ; for the purport of what they prescribe is, 
 that whoever desires to observe the preceding precepts of the 
 law, must be most careful not to covet, for he who covets not, 
 content with what he has, will not desire to possess what 
 belongs to others ; will rejoice in the advantages enjoyed 
 by others ; will give glory to the immortal God ; will render 
 him boundless thanks ; will observe the Sabbath, that is, will 
 enjoy continual repose ; will respect his superiors ; and will, 
 in fine, iujure no one in word or deed, or otherwise; for the 
 root and seed of all evils is depraved concupiscence, which 
 hurries its victims into every species of iniquity and crime.t If 
 these considerations be well weighed, parish-priests will be more 
 diligent in explaining, and the faithful more attentive in hearing 
 what follows. 
 
 QUESTION II. Djference between these two Commandments. 
 
 But although we have united these two commandments, 
 because their subject not being dissimilar, they admit of the 
 same mode of instruction ; yet the parish-priest, when exhort- 
 ing and admonishing, will be able to treat of them jointly or 
 separately, as to him shall seem more convenient. If, however, 
 
 * Ex. xx. 17 ; Deut. v. 21. t 1 Tim. vi. 10; James i. 14, sq. iv. 
 1, SKI.
 
 400 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 he shall have undertaken the exposition of the Decalogue, he 
 will point out in what these two command in ents are dissimilar, 
 or in what one " coveting" differs from the other, a difference 
 explained by St. Augustine, in his book of Questions on 
 Exodus;* for one of them looks only to utility and interest; 
 the other to unlawful lusts and pleasures. He, therefore, who 
 covets a field or house, pursues profit and utility rather than 
 pleasure ; whilst he who covets another man's wife, burns with 
 a desire not of profit, but of pleasure. 
 
 QUESTION III. Whether what is comprehended in these tivo last 
 Commandments was sufficiently explained in the Sixth and 
 Seventh. 
 
 But of these two commandments there was a twofold neces- 
 sity; the one, in order to explain the import of the sixth 
 and seventh ; for, although by the light of natural reason 
 alone it was understood, that to prohibit adultery is also to 
 prohibit the desire of another man's wife ; because, were it 
 lawful to desire, it would also be lawful to enjoy; yet, blinded 
 by sin, most of the Jews could not be induced to believe that 
 such [desire] was prohibited by God. Nay, even after the 
 promulgation, and with a knowledge of this law, many who pro- 
 fessed themselves interpreters of the law, committed the same 
 error, as may be learnt from the sermon of our Lord in St. 
 Matthew: " You have heard that it was said to them of old, 
 ' thou shalt not commit adultery;' but I say to you," &c. 
 (Matt. v. 27). The second necessity of these precepts is, that 
 by them are distinctly, and in express terms, forbidden some 
 things, which are not explicitly prohibited in the sixth and 
 seventh commandments. The seventh commandment, for in- 
 stance, prohibits an unjust wish or endeavour to take away 
 what belongs to another; but this forbids one to covet, on any 
 account, even though he could obtain it consistently with law 
 and justice, that, from the possession of which he sees that 
 injury must accrue to his neighbour. 
 
 QUESTION IV. What and how great is the benefit conferred by 
 God in imparting to its the Mandate of this Law. 
 
 But before we come to the exposition of the precept, the 
 faithful are first to be taught, that by this law we are instructed 
 not only to restrain our inordinate desires, but also to know 
 the boundless love of God towards us ; for having, by the 
 preceding precepts of the law, fenced us round, as it were, 
 
 * Aug. in Ex. qu. 71.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER X. 401 
 
 with safeguards, securing us and ours against injury, he wished, 
 by this additional precept, to provide principally against the 
 injuries we might inflict on ourselves by our appetites, and 
 which would follow as a natur.il consequence, were we at full 
 liberty to covet and desire things indiscriminately. By the 
 enactment, then, of this law, which forbids to covet, God has 
 provided that the stings of the passions, by which we are 
 wont to be excited to every evil, being plucked out iu some 
 sort by the force of this law, should press us less urgently, 
 and that, freed from that annoying importunity of the pas- 
 sions, we may thus have more time to devote to the per- 
 formance of the numerous and most important duties of piety 
 and religion, which we owe to God himself. 
 
 QUESTION V. What difference these two Commandments imply 
 between divine and human Laws. 
 
 Nor is this the only lesson which this law teaches us ; for it 
 also shows that the nature of the law of God is such as to 
 require to be observed not only by the outward performance of 
 duties, but also by the inmost sentiments of the mind; so that 
 between divine and human laws, there is this difference, that 
 the latter are confined to external things only, whereas the 
 former, for God sees the heart, require pure and undefiled 
 chastity and integrity of soul. The divine law, therefore, is a 
 sort of mirror, in which we see the vices of our nature. Where- 
 fore the Apostle has said : " I had not known concupiscence 
 if the law had not said, ' thou shalt not covet' " (Rom. vii. 7) ; 
 for as concupiscence, that is a propensity to sin, which propen- 
 sity originated in sin, ever fixedly inheres in us ; we hence 
 recognize that we are born in sin ; and therefore do we fly as 
 suppliants to him who alone can wash away the defilements of 
 sin. 
 
 QUESTION VI. What Concupiscence is here not prohibited, or 
 what is Concupiscence. 
 
 But each of these precepts has this in common with the 
 others, that it is in part mandatory, and in part prohibitory. 
 With regard to the import of the prohibitory part, let the 
 parish-priest teach what concupiscence that is which, by the 
 ordinance of this law, we ought to shun, lest perhaps any one 
 may think that concupiscence to be in some sort vicious which 
 is not vicious, such as the concupiscence mentioned by the 
 Apostle, when he says : " The spirit lusteth against the 
 
 * 1 Kings, xvi. 7 ; Pf. vii. 10 ; Jer. xL 20, xvii. 10. 
 
 2 C
 
 402 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 flesh" (Gal. v. 17), and that which was the object of David's 
 most earnest desires : " My soul hath coveted to long for thy 
 justifications at all times" (Ps. cxviii. 20). It must therefore 
 be known, that concupiscence is a certain commotion and im- 
 pulse of the mind, urged by which men desire agreeable things 
 which they have not ; and as the other emotions of our soul are 
 not always evil, so neither is this impulse of concupiscence 
 always to be accounted vicious. Hence it is not evil to desire 
 meat or drink ; or, when cold, to wish to become warm ; or, 
 on the other hand, when warm, to become cool. And, indeed, 
 this lawful force of concupiscence was implanted in us from 
 nature by God ; but through the sin of our first parents, over- 
 leaping the limits prescribed by nature, it has become so de- 
 praved, that it is often excited to desire those things that con- 
 flict with the spirit, and with reason. 
 
 QUESTION VII. What principally are the Advantages which the 
 Concupiscence conformable to right Reason brings to Man. 
 
 Moreover, if well regulated, and kept within its proper bounds, 
 this force also affords no inconsiderable advantages ; for, in the 
 first place, it prompts us to supplicate God by assiduous prayer, 
 and humbly to beg of him those things, which we most earnestly 
 desire ; for prayer is the interpreter of our desires ; and were 
 we without this lawful concupiscence, prayers would be less 
 numerous in the Church of God. It also gives a higher value 
 in our estimation to the gifts of God ; for the more vehement 
 the desire with which we are inflamed for anything, the dearer 
 and the more pleasing is it to us when we have obtained it ; 
 and the delight itself, which we experience from the desired 
 object, also causes us to return thanks to God with greater 
 piety. If, then, it is sometimes lawful to covet, we must of 
 necessity acknowledge that every impulse of concupiscence is 
 not forbidden. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. In what sense the Apostle uses the word 
 
 " Concupiscence." 
 
 St. Paul, it is true, has said that concupiscence is sin (Rom. 
 vii. 7, sqq.) ; but he is to be understood in the same sense as 
 Moses, whose testimony he cites ;* a sense which the language 
 of the Apostle himself conveys ; for, in his Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians, he calls it, " the concupiscence of the flesh (Gal. v. 24) : 
 " Walk in the spirit," says he, " and you shall not fulfil the 
 lusts of the flesh" (Ib. 16). 
 
 *Ex xx. 17; Deut. v. 21.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER X. 403 
 
 QUESTION IX. What Concupiscence is here not at all prohibited, 
 and has not the Nature of Sin. 
 
 That natural and well-regulated force of concupiscence, there- 
 fore, which transgresses not its proper limits, is not forbidden ; 
 much less is that spiritual desire of the upright mind, by which 
 we are prompted to wish for those things that war against the 
 flesh, for to this same desire the sacred Scriptures exhort us : 
 " Covet ye my words" (Wisd. vi. 12) ; and : " Come over to me 
 all ye that desire me " (Eccli. xxiv. 26). 
 
 QUESTION X. What Concupiscence is here forbidden. 
 
 By this prohibition, therefore, is entirely forbidden, not the 
 force itself of concupiscence, which we may use both for good 
 and for evil, but the indulgence of criminal desire, which is 
 called " the concupiscence of the flesh," and " a propensity to 
 evil," and which, when it sways the assent of the mind, is 
 always to be deemed vicious. That, therefore, which the Apos- 
 tle calls " the concupiscence of the flesh,"* is alone forbidden ; 
 namely, those motions of concupiscence that pass the bounds 
 of reason, and are not confined within the limits prescribed by 
 God. 
 
 QUESTION XI. Wliy this Concupiscence is confessedly a Sin. 
 
 This concupiscence is condemned, either because it desires 
 evil, such as adultery, drunkenness, murder, and other such 
 heinous crimes, of Avhich the Apostle speaks thus : " We should 
 not covet evil things, as they also coveted" (1 Cor. x. 6) ; or 
 because, although the objects are not bad in themselves, yet 
 circumstances otherwise render the desire of them criminal, as, 
 for instance, when their possession is prohibited by God or his 
 Church. For we are not warranted in desiring what it is abso- 
 lutely unlawful to possess, such as were formerly, in the old 
 Law, the gold and silver from which idols were wrought, which 
 the Lord in Deuteronomy forbade any one to covet " (Deut. vii. 
 25). This vicious concupiscence is condemned besides for this 
 reason, because it has for its object that which belongs to 
 another ; such as a house, servant, field, wife, ox, ass, and 
 many other things ; which, as they belong to another, the divine 
 law forbids us to covet. The desire of such things, when that 
 desire is consented to, is criminal, and is numbered amongst the 
 most grievous sins. 
 
 * Gal. v. 16. 24 ; 1 Peter ii. 2 ; 1 John ii. 16.
 
 404 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XII. When chiefly Concupiscence is a Sin. 
 
 For then does sin really exist, when the mind, following the 
 impulse of evil desires, is pleased with, assents to, or does not 
 resist them, as St. James, when pointing out the beginning and 
 progress of sin, teaches in these words : "Every man is tempted, 
 being drawn away by his own concupiscence, and allured : then, 
 when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin ; but 
 sin, when it is completed, begetteth death" (James, i. 14, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XIII. What is the purport of the two last Precepts. 
 
 When, therefore, it is provided against by the law thus : 
 " Thou shalt not covet," these words mean that we are to restrain 
 our desires from the things that belong to others ; for the thirst 
 of coveting what belongs to others is immense, immeasurable, 
 and insatiate, as it is written : "A covetous man shall not be 
 satisfied with money" (Eccl. v. 9); and of him Isaias says: 
 " Woe to you that join house to house, and lay field to field " 
 (Isa. v. 8). But from an explanation of each of the words [of 
 these commandments] the deformity and magnitude of this sin 
 will be more easily understood. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. What is to be understood by the word "House " 
 in the form of this Precept. 
 
 Wherefore the parish-priest will teach, that by the word 
 " house " is understood not only the habitation in which we dwell, 
 but, as is known from the usage and custom of the inspired 
 writers, the entire property of its owner. In Exodus it is 
 written that " houses " were " built " by the Lord for the mid- 
 wives (Ex. i. 21), which we are to interpret to imply that by 
 him their means were increased and amplified. From this inter- 
 pretation, therefore, we perceive that by the law of this precept 
 we are forbidden to desire riches with avidity, or to envy others 
 their wealth, power, rank ; but to be content with our own con- 
 dition, whatever it be, humble or elevated. Next, we ought to 
 understand, for in the word " house " is included this also, that 
 it is forbidden to covet the glory won by others. 
 
 QUESTION XV. What is contained under the words, Ox and Ass. 
 
 What follows, "nor his ox, nor his ass," shows that it is 
 unlawful for us to covet not only great things, such as a house, 
 rank, and glory, because they belong to others ; but, also small 
 matters, whatever they be, whether auimate or inanimate.
 
 PART in. CHAPTER X. 405 
 
 QUESTION XVI. Of what Servants this Precept speaks. 
 
 Next follows, " nor his servant," which is to be understood 
 of captives as well as of other sorts of slaves, whom it is not 
 less unlawful to covet than the other property of our neighbour. 
 With regard to freemen, who, induced by wages, affection, or 
 respect, serve voluntarily, no one ought, on any account, by 
 words, or hopes, or promises, or rewards, to bribe or solicit 
 them to leave those to whose service they have spontaneously 
 attached themselves : and if, before the period of their promised 
 service has expired, they leave their masters or employers, they 
 are to be admonished, on the authority of this commandment, 
 to return to them by all means. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. Why also mention is made of our Neighbour, 
 
 in this Commandment. 
 
 The mention of the word " neighbour," in the commandment, 
 has for its object to mark the wickedness of those men who are 
 wont to covet neighbouring lands, houses, or the like, which lie 
 contiguous ; for neighbourhood, which consists in friendship, is 
 transformed by the vice of covetousness from love into hatred. 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. They do not violate this Law who desire to 
 purchase the saleable Property of their Neighbour at a just 
 Price. 
 
 But this commandment is by no means transgressed by those 
 who desire to purchase, or purchase at a fair price, from a 
 neighbour, things which he has for sale ; for instead of doing 
 their neighbour an injury, they render him a considerable ser- 
 vice, because to him the money will be more convenient and 
 useful than the things which he sells. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. How the Tenth Precept, not to covet our 
 Neighbour's Wife, is to be understood. 
 
 The commandment, forbidding us to covet our neighbour's 
 goods, is followed by another, which forbids to covet our neigh- 
 bour's wife ; by which law is prohibited not only that lustful 
 concupiscence by which the adulterer desires the wife of another, 
 but also that which leads him to wish to be united to her in 
 marriage ; for when of old a bill of divorce was permitted 
 (Deut. xxiv. 1, sq.), it could easily have happened that she 
 who was repudiated by one might become the wife of another ; 
 but this the Lord forbade, lest either husbands might be 
 solicited to abandon their wives, or wives conduct themselves 
 with such peevishness and moroseness towards their husbands, 
 as thereby to impose on them a sort of necessity of repudiating
 
 406 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 them. But, now [under the Gospel-dispensation], this sin is 
 more grievous, because the wife, although repudiated by her 
 husband, cannot marry another during his lifetime. To him, 
 therefore, who desires another man's wife, the transition from 
 one inordinate desire to another is easy ; for he will either 
 desire the death of the husband or the commission of adultery. 
 The same principle holds good with regard to those women 
 who have been betrothed to another ; for to desire them in 
 marriage is also unlawful ; and whoever strive to dissolve the 
 contract by which they are affianced, violate the most sacred 
 engagement of plighted faith. And as to covet the wife of 
 another is highly criminal ; so is it also on no account lawful 
 to desire in marriage her who is consecrated to religion and to 
 the service of God. 
 
 QUESTION XX. He does not sin against this Law who solicits 
 in Marriage a Woman whom he supposes to have lost her 
 Husband. 
 
 But should any one desire in wedlock a woman who is already 
 married, but whom he supposes to be unmarried, not being dis- 
 posed, had he known that she was already married, to indulge 
 such a desire, he certainly does not appear to violate this com- 
 mandment. Pharaoh (Gen. xii. 11, sqq.) and Abimelech (Gen. 
 xx. 2, sqq.), as the Scripture informs us, were betrayed into 
 this error ; they wished to take Sarah to wife, supposing her 
 to be unmarried, and the sister, not the wife, of Abraham. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. Positive Part of the Precept. 
 But to make known the remedies calculated to remove this 
 vice of covetousness, the parish-priest ought to explain the 
 other purport of the commandment, which consists in this, that, 
 " if riches abound," we " set not " our " hearts upon them " (Ps. 
 Ixi. 11); that we be prepared to sacrifice them to a love of 
 piety and religion ; that we contribute cheerfully to relieve the 
 miseries of the poor ; and that, if poverty be our lot, we bear 
 it with equanimity and joy.* And, indeed, if we exercise 
 liberality by giving our goods to the poor, we shall extinguish 
 the desire of what belongs to another. But, on the praises of 
 poverty and the contempt of riches, it will be easy for the 
 parish-priest to collect abundant matter for the instruction of 
 the faithful from the sacred Scriptnres,t and the works of the 
 
 * Matt. xix. 21 ; Mark, x. 21 ; Luke, xviii. 22. t Job, xxvii. 19; 
 Ps. xxxiii. 11, xlviii. 17, sq. ; Prov. xi. 28 ; Eccl. v. 9 ; Eccli. xi. 10, sq. ; 
 Jer. ix. 23; Matt. vi. 19, xi. 5, ix. 23, sq. ; Mark, iv. 19, x. 23, sqq. ; 
 Lnke, vi. 20, sqq., vii. 22, xviii. 24, sq. ; 1 Tim. vi. 9, xvii. ; James, 
 i. 10, sq., ii. 5.
 
 PART III. CHAPTER X. 407 
 
 Fathers.* To desire with ardour, and with all earnestness, the 
 consummation, not of our own wishes, but of the will of God, 
 as it is expressed in the Lord's Prayer, is also commanded us 
 by this law. Now the will of God [in our regard] consists 
 chiefly in this, that we be made eminently holy ; that we 
 preserve our souls pure and unstained ; that we practise those 
 duties of mind and spirit that are opposed to our bodily senses ; 
 that having subdued their inordinate desires, we pursue, under 
 the guidance of reason and the spirit, an upright course of life ; 
 and that, moreover, we use all our endeavours to repress the 
 force of those sensual appetites that minister to our lusts and 
 passions. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. Wliat Christians should chiefly meditate on to 
 restrain the force of Concupiscence, 
 
 But to extinguish this ardour of evil desires, it will also be 
 found very efficacious to place before our eyes the evils that 
 arise from their indulgence. The first evil is that, whilst we 
 obey evil desires, sin reigns in us uncontrolled ; and hence the 
 admonition of the Apostle : " Let not sin, therefore, reign in 
 your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof " (Rom. vi. 
 12) ; for as, by resisting the passions, the power of sin is over- 
 thrown ; so by succumbing to them, we expel God from his 
 throne, and introduce sin in his place. Another evil, besides, is 
 that, as St. James teaches (James, i. 14, sq.), from this force 
 of concupiscence, as from their source, flow all sins. St. John 
 also says : " All that is in the world is the concupiscence of 
 the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life " 
 (1 John, ii. 6). A third evil is, that by these inordinate desires 
 the understanding is obscured ; for blinded by the darkness of 
 the passions, men deem all the objects of their criminal wishes, 
 whatever they be, lawful and even laudable. Moreover, by 
 the force of concupiscence the seed of the divine word, sown in 
 our souls by God, that great husbandman, is stifled : " Some," 
 says St. Mark, " are sown among thorns : these are they who 
 hear the word ; and the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness 
 of riches, and the lusts after other things, entering in, choke the 
 word, and it is made fruitless " (Mark, iv. 18, sq.). 
 
 * Basil. M. reguL fus. tract, interrog. 6 et 8 ; Greg. Naz. ser. 14 ; 
 Ambr. hextem. vi. 8, n. 51, sq. ; comm. in Luc. 4, lib. viL n. 
 55 ; Hieron. ep. 14, ep. 66, ep. 120, qu. 1, ep. 130. ; Chrys. in 
 Matt. horn. 4, n. 11, sq. horn. 90, n. 3, sq. ; Aug. ep. 157, c. 4 ; 
 Cassian. Collat. 24, c. 26 ; Leon. M. ser. 9, 5, c. 2, sq. ; Greg. M. in 
 Ez. 1. 2, ser. 9, n. 2 et 12.
 
 408 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. Who are most bound in the bonds of 
 Concupiscence. 
 
 But they who, more than others, labour under this vice of 
 concupiscence, and whom, therefore, the parish-priest ought to 
 exhort with greater assiduity to the observance of this precept, 
 are those who are addicted to improper diversions, or who 
 indulge immoderately in play; and also merchants who wish for 
 dearth and dearness, and who, that they themselves may be 
 able to sell at too high, or purchase at too low a price, cannot 
 bear that there are others besides themselves who buy or sell. 
 In this matter they too offend who, that they themselves may 
 gain by buying or selling, wish others to want. Soldiers, also, 
 who long for war in order to be enabled to plunder ; physicians, 
 too, who wish for diseases ; lawyers, who are anxious for 
 abundance of causes and suits; and artisans who, greedy 
 of gain, and with a view to increase immoderately their 
 own profits, wish for a scarcity of all necessaries for food and 
 raiment, offend against this commandment. They, too, who, 
 envious of the praise and glory of others, strive also to tarnish 
 in some degree their fame, sin grievously against this com- 
 mandment ; especially if they themselves are idle and worthless 
 characters ; for fame and glory are the meed of worth and 
 industry, not of indolence and inactivity. 
 
 PAKT IV. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON PRAYEE AND ITS PARAMOUNT NECESSITY. 
 
 QUESTION I. In what manner we should pray to God. 
 
 Amongst the duties of the pastoral office, it is one of primary 
 necessity to the salvation of the faithful people, to instruct 
 them in Christian prayer, the efficacy and nature of which must 
 be unknown to many, unless it be explained by the pious and 
 faithful diligence of the pastor. Wherefore, the parish-priest 
 ought to make it a most special object of his care, that his 
 pious hearers understand what they should ask from God, and 
 how it is to be asked. But all the conditions of necessary 
 prayer are contained in that divine form which Christ the Lord 
 wished to be known to his Apostles, and through them and their
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER I. 409 
 
 successors, to all subsequently who should embrace the Christian 
 religion. Its words and sentences ought, therefore, to be so 
 deeply impressed on the mind and memory, as that we may have 
 them in readiness. But to supply pastors with the means of 
 instructing their faithful hearers in this form of prayer, we have 
 here set down those things that appear to us more opportune, 
 taken from those writers who are most commended for their 
 learning and copiousness on this head ; and should it be neces- 
 sary, pastors may derive further information from the same 
 sources. 
 
 QUESTION II. The Use of Prayer is necessary to Salvation. 
 
 In the first place, then, he must teach how great is the 
 necessity of prayer, a duty not only recommended by way of 
 counsel, but also enforced by peremptory precept, as Christ the 
 Lord declares in these words : " We ought always to pray."* 
 This necessity of prayer the Church also shows in that prelude, 
 as it were, to the Lord's prayer : " Admonished by salutary 
 precepts, and formed by divine institution, we presume to say " 
 (Roman Missal). Prayer then being necessary to Christian 
 men, the Son of God, at the solicitation of his disciples : "Lord 
 teach us to pray" (Luke xi. 1), prescribed to them a form of 
 prayer, and gave them hope to obtain the objects of their peti- 
 tions ;f whilst he himself was to them a model of prayer, not 
 only having recourse to it assiduously, but also spending whole 
 nights therein.* On this duty the Apostle also ceased not to 
 deliver precepts to those who were converted to the faith of 
 Jesus Christ ; for SS. Peter (1 Peter iii. 7, iv. 7.) and John 
 (1 John iii. 22, v. 14, sq.) are most earnest in their exhortations 
 to the pious on the subject ; and the Apostle, mindful of its 
 nature, exhorts Christians in many places to the salutary 
 necessity of prayer. 
 
 QUESTION III. Principal Reason by which Men may be brought 
 to a Knowledge of this necessary Duty. 
 
 Besides, so numerous are our spiritual and corporal neces- 
 sities (Ps. xxxix. 18, Ixix. 8), that we should seek refuge in 
 prayer, as of all [others] the one best interpreter of our wants, 
 and the most efficient advocate in obtaining what we want ; for 
 as to no one does God owe anything ;U it certainly remains for 
 
 * Luke, xviii. 1 ; EcclL xviii. 22. f Matt. vii. 7, sqq. ; Mark.xi. 24 ; 
 Luke, xi. 9, sqq.; John, xiv. 13, sq., xv. 7, xvL 23 : 1 John, iii. 22. 
 I Luke, vi. 12 ; Matt. xiv. 23, xxvi, 36, sq. ; Mark, i. 35, vl 46 ; 
 Luke, iii. 21, v. 16, ix. 18, 28; John, xvii. Rom. xii. 12 ; Eph. vi. 18; 
 Phil. iv. 6 ; Col. iv. 2, sq. ; 1 Thess. v. 17, 25 ; 2 Thess. iii. 1 ; 
 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2, 8, v. 5. \ Job xli. 2 ; Rom, xi. 35.
 
 410 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 us to ask in prayer those things of which we stand in need. 
 These prayers he has given us as the necessary instrument to 
 obtain the object of our wishes. 
 
 QUESTION IV. We cannot satisfy our wants otherwise than by 
 Prayer. 
 
 Particularly as it is clear, that there are some things which 
 cannot be obtained except by its aid ; for holy prayers possess 
 that transcendent virtue by which principally demons are cast 
 out ; for there is a certain class or demons not to be expelled 
 " but by prayer and fasting 1 ' (Matt. xvii. 20). They, there- 
 fore, who employ not this practice and exercise of pious and 
 assiduous prayer, deprive themselves of a great means of ob- 
 taining singular gifts ; for, to obtain what one desires, there 
 is occasion not only for good but also for assiduous prayer 
 (James, v. 16) ; for, as St. Jerome says, " It is written : ' Every 
 one that asketh receiveth' (Matt. vii. 8; Luke xi. 10) ; if therefore 
 it be not given you, it is because you do not ask : < ask, there- 
 fore, and you shall receive.' "* 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE UTILITY OF PRAYER. 
 
 QUESTION I. What is the First Fruit produced by that Necessity 
 of Prayer. 
 
 But this necessity is fraught with most agreeable utility, 
 which of itself produces most abundant fruits ; on which pastors 
 will, when necessary for the instruction of the faithful people, 
 draw copiously from the pages of spiritual writers. From their 
 abundance we have made a selection, which we considered 
 suited to our present purpose. Now the first fruit which we re- 
 ceive from prayer, is this, that by it we honour God, prayer 
 being a certain indication of religion, and being compared in 
 Scripture to incense : " Let my prayer," says the prophet " be 
 directed as incense in thy sight " (Ps. cxl. 2). Wherefore we 
 thus confess our subjection to God, whom we acknowledge and 
 proclaim to be the author of all good things ; to whom alone we 
 look ; whom we have as the only refuge and bulwark of our 
 safety and salvation. Of this fruit of prayer we are also ad- 
 monished in these words : " Call upon me in the day of trouble : 
 I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify me " (Ps. xlix. 1 5). 
 
 * John, xvi 24 ; James, iv. 2; Hier. Comm. in Matt. 1. 1, c. 7, 7, sq.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER II. 411 
 
 QUESTION II. Of the Second Fruit of Prayer. 
 
 Another most ample and most pleasing fruit of prayer, when 
 heard by God, follows ; for, in the opinion of St. Augustine, 
 prayer is the key of heaven : " for," says he, " prayer ascends, 
 and the mercy of God descends : high as are the heavens, and 
 low as is the earth, yet God hears the tongue of man."* Such 
 is the efficacy, such the utility of prayer, that through it we 
 receive abundance of heavenly gifts ; for we obtain the guidance 
 and aid of the Holy Spirit, the preservation and security of the 
 faith, escape from punishment, the divine protection under 
 temptation, and victory over the devil. In a word, there is in 
 prayer a singular accumulation of joy ; wherefore the Lord has 
 said : "Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full " 
 (John, xvi. 24). 
 
 QUESTION III. The Divine Majesty always hears Pious 
 Prayers. 
 
 Nor is there left any room to doubt that the benignity of 
 God is ready to hear and grant this our petition ; a truth to 
 which the sacred Scriptures bear testimony in manyplaces. As, 
 however, these testimonies are easily met with, we shall cite 
 only the following from Isaias, by way of example : " Then," 
 says he, " shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear : thou shalt 
 cry, and he shall say, ' Here I am' " (Isa. Iviii. 9) ; and again : 
 " It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will hear: as 
 they are yet speaking, I will hear " (Ib. Ixv. 24). Instances 
 of persons who have obtained from God the objects of their 
 prayers, because almost innumerable and easily met with, we 
 omit.f 
 
 QUESTION IV. How it happens that we sometimes obtain not 
 what we ask. 
 
 But it sometimes happens that we obtain not from God what 
 we ask. True ; but God then best consults our interests, either 
 by bestowing on us other greater and more ample gifts, or by 
 withholding what we ask, because neither necessary nor useful 
 to us ; nay, perhaps, if granted, it would prove superfluous and 
 most injurious. "God," says St. Augustine, "denies some 
 
 * Aug. Ser. 47, in App. t Gen. xvi. 11, xxi. 17 ; xxx. 6 ; xxxv. 
 3 ; Ex. xii. 24 ; Num. xx. 16 ; Deut. ix. 19 ; x. 10 ; XXVL 7 ; Jud. 
 xiii. 9 ; 1 Kings, vii. 9 ; 3 Kings, xvii. 22 ; 4 Kings, xiii. 4 ; 2 Par. 
 xxx. 20, 27 ; xxxiii. 13 ; xxxiv. 27 ; Ps. xxvii. 6 ; Ixxx. 8 ; cxix. 1 ; 
 Luke, i. 13; Acts, x. 31; Heb. v. 7; James, v. 17, sq.
 
 412 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 things in his mercy, which he grants in his wrath."* Some- 
 times also it happens, that such is the remissness and negligence 
 with which we pray, that even we ourselves attend not to what 
 we say. Now, if prayer is an elevation of the soul to God,t 
 and if, in prayer, the mind, which ought to be fixed on God, 
 wanders, and the tongue slurs over the words at random, with- 
 out attention, without devotion, how shall we give to such 
 empty sounds the name of Christian prayer ? It is, therefore, 
 not at all surprising if God does not accommodate himself to 
 our will, when even we ourselves, bj' our negligence and inat- 
 tention in prayer, almost prove that we do not wish for what 
 we ask, or ask what would be prejudicial to us. 
 
 QUESTION V. Those who ask worthily obtain more than 
 they ask. 
 
 But, on the contrary, to those who pray judiciously and atten- 
 tively, God grants much more than they ask, as the Apostle 
 testifies in his Epistle to the Ephesians (Eph. iii. 20) ; and as 
 is declared in that parable of the prodigal son, who would have 
 considered himself to have come off well were his father to 
 have admitted him into the number of his hireling servants 
 (Luke xv. 11, sq.). Nay, not only when we ask, but when we 
 think rightly, God accumulates his favours on us, not only in 
 abundance, but also without delay. Without waiting for their 
 utterance, God prevents the inward and silent desires of the 
 poor, as the sacred Scriptures show, when they say : " The 
 Lord hath heard the desire of the poor " (Ps. ix. 17). 
 
 QUESTION VI. Third fruit of Prayer. 
 
 Another fruit of prayer is, that by it we exercise and augment 
 the virtues of the soul, most particularly faith ; for as they 
 who have not faith in God, pray not as they ought : " How," 
 says St. Paul, " can they call on him, whom they have not 
 believed ?" (Rom. x. 14) : so the faithful, the more fervently 
 they pray, the stronger and the more assured faith have they in 
 the divine care and providence, which principally requires of us, 
 that whilst we submit our wants to its dispensations, we make 
 them all the objects of our prayers. 
 
 QUESTION VII. Why God, knowing as he does our Wants, 
 wishes to be solicited by our Prayer. 
 
 God, it is true, might bestow on us all things abundantly, 
 
 * Ep. 130, c. 14, n. 26, et alibi pluriea. f Damas. de fid. orth. 
 lib. iii. c. 24 j Bonav. Expos, in Luc. vi.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER II. 413 
 
 although we asked them not, nor even thought of them, as he 
 bestows on irrational creatures all things for the necessary 
 purposes of life ; but our most beneficent Father wishes to be 
 invoked by his children : he wishes that, praying daily as we 
 ought, we may pray the more confidently : he wishes us, 
 having obtained those things which we ask, to testify and pro- 
 claim daily more and more his benignity towards us. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Sow our Charity towards God is augmented 
 T)y Prayer. 
 
 Charity is also augmented [by prayer] ; for, recognising him 
 as the author of every good and of all advantages to us, we 
 embrace him with the greatest possible love ; and as, by con- 
 versation and interviews, lovers are more inflamed to love ; so, 
 the oftener pious men, holding intercourse with God in prayer, 
 and supplicating his benignity, converse with him, experiencing 
 at every interview greater delight, the more ardently are they 
 excited to love and serve him. 
 
 QUESTION IX. By assiduity in Prayer we both become vjorthy 
 of Divine Grace, and obtain Humility and arms against the 
 Devil. 
 
 Moreover, he will have us make use of this exercise of prayer, 
 that, glowing with the desire of asking what we wish for, we 
 may, by that assiduity and eagerness, make such advances as 
 to be worthy to obtain those blessings, which our soul, before 
 jejune and contracted, could not contain. He wishes us, besides, 
 to understand and confess what is the fact, that, unaided by 
 heavenly grace, we can of ourselves obtain nothing, and should 
 therefore apply ourselves to prayer with our whole soul. These 
 arms, as it were, of prayer are most powerful against the im- 
 placable foes of our nature : " With the cries of our prayers," 
 says St. Hilary, " we must fight against the devil and his 
 armed hosts."* 
 
 QUESTION X. Fourth Fruit of Prayer. 
 
 From prayer we also derive this precious fruit, that, inclined 
 as we are to evil, and to various sensual appetites, through the 
 fault of innate infirmity, [God] permits himself to be brought 
 in a special manner present to our thoughts ; that, whilst we 
 address him in prayer, and strive to merit his gifts, we may 
 obtain a love of innocence ; and, by lopping off all our offences, 
 be purified from every stain. 
 
 * S. Hilar. Tract, in Ps. Lxv. n. 4
 
 414 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XI. Last Fruit of Prayer. 
 
 Finally, as St. Jerome observes, prayer disarms the divine 
 wrath.* Hence God thus addressed Moses : " Let me alone " 
 (Ex. xxxii. 10), when, by prayers, he was preventing him from 
 inflicting on that people the punishments with which he wished 
 to visit them ; for nothing so appeases God, when his wrath 
 is kindled, so retards and averts his fury, even when he is ready 
 to strike the wicked, as the prayers of pious men. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE PARTS AND DEGREES OF PRAYER. 
 QUESTION I. On the parts of Christian Prayer. 
 
 The necessity and advantage of Christian prayer being 
 explained, the faithful people should also know how many, 
 and what are the parts of which prayer is composed ; for that 
 that appertains to the perfection of this duty, the Apostle 
 testifies, who, in his Epistle to Timothy, exhorting to pious 
 and holy prayer, carefully enumerates the parts of which it 
 consists: "I desire, therefore, first of all," says he, " that sup- 
 plications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings, be made 
 for all men" (1 Tim. ii. 1). Although the distinction between 
 these different parts of prayer is somewhat refined ; should 
 parish-priests deem its explanation useful to their auditors, 
 they will consult amongst others SS. Hilaryf and Augustine.J 
 
 QUESTION II. On Petition and Thanksgiving. 
 
 But as there are principally two parts of prayer, petition 
 and thanksgiving, from which, as from their source, the rest 
 flows, we have thought that they should by no means be 
 omitted. For we approach God, that offering him worship 
 and veneration, we may either obtain some favour from him, 
 or return him thanks for the benefits with which we are every 
 day adorned and enriched by his bounty ; and both of these 
 most necessary parts of prayer God himself mentioned by the 
 mouth of David, in these words : "Call upon me in the day of 
 
 * Comm. in Jer. 1. 2, c. vii. v. 16. t Tract, in Ps. liv. n. 4, et 
 Ps. cxi. n. 2. J Aug. ep. 55, 1. ii. c. 15, n. 28 ; ep. 149, c. 2, n. 
 
 13, sqq. ; enarr. in Ps. iv. n. 5, in Ps. ciii. fer. 1, n. 3.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER III. 415 
 
 trouble : I will deliver thee ; and thou shalt glorify me" (Ps. 
 xlix. 15). Who, if he but consider the extreme destitution 
 and misery of men, does not know how much we stand in need 
 of the divine liberality and goodness ? 
 
 QUESTION III. The Benignity and Liberality of God to all 
 Men is set forth. 
 
 But all who have eyes to see, and minds to comprehend, 
 understand how much the will of God inclines towards the 
 human race, how liberal is his bounty towards us. For wher- 
 ever we cast our eyes, wherever we turn in thought, the 
 admirable light of the divine beneficence and benignity beams 
 upon us ; for what have men that has not proceeded from 
 God's bounty ? And if all things are his gifts and the favours 
 of his goodness, why should not all, to the best of their power, 
 celebrate the praises of, and return thanks to, this God of 
 boundless beneficence ? But each of these duties of petition 
 and thanksgiving contains many degrees, one more exalted 
 and perfect than another. In order, therefore, that the faithful 
 people may not only pray, but also discharge this duty of prayer 
 in the best manner, pastors will propose to them the most 
 exalted and perfect mode of praying, and will exhort them to 
 it with the utmost earnestness. 
 
 QUESTION IY. What is the best manner of Praying, and the 
 highest degree of Prayer. 
 
 What, then, is the best manner, and the most exalted degree 
 of prayer ? That, namely, which pious and just men use, who, 
 resting on the stable foundation of true faith, rise by certain 
 successive degrees of purity and prayer to that height whence 
 they can contemplate the infinite power, boundless benignity, 
 and wisdom of God ; where, too, they attain the most assured 
 hope of obtaining not only those blessings which they ask in 
 this life, but also those ineffable rewards which God has pro- 
 raised to bestow on those who piously and from the heart shall 
 have implored the divine assistance.* Soaring towards heaven 
 on these two wings, as it were, the soul in fervent desire 
 approaches God, whom she adores with all honour of praise 
 and thanksgiving, for the transcendant blessings which she 
 has received from him ; and, like an only child, animated with 
 singular piety and veneration, confidently lays open to her 
 dearest Father all her wants. This sort of prayer the sacred 
 Scriptures express by the words, " pouring . out." " In his 
 
 * Aug. Conf. 1. x. c. 31, n. 45.
 
 416 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 sight," says the prophet, " I pour out my prayer, and before 
 him I declare my trouble" (Ps. cxli. 3). Here the words, 
 " pour out," have the force of saying, that he who goes to 
 pray suppresses nought, conceals nought, but pours out all, 
 flying with confidence into the bosom of God, his most loving 
 Father. To this the heavenly doctrine exhorts us in these 
 words : " Pour out your hearts before him" (Ps. Ixi. 9) ; and, 
 " Cast thy care upon the Lord" (Ps. liv. 23). To this degree 
 of prayer St. Augustine alludes in his Enchiridion, when he 
 says : " What faith believes, hope and charity implore."* 
 
 QUESTION V. What is the other Sort of Prayer. 
 
 Another degree is that of those, who, pressed down by mortal 
 sins, strive, however, with that faith which is called dead 
 (James ii. 17), to uplift themselves, and ascend to God ; but, 
 in consequence of their languid state and the extreme weakness 
 of their faith, cannot raise themselves up from the earth. Im- 
 pressed, however, with a just sense of their sins, and stung with 
 remorse, they, far as they are removed from him, humbly and 
 lowlily implore of God, in penitential sorrow, pardon and peace. 
 The prayer of such persons finds its place with God : their 
 prayers are heard ; nay, such men, God, in his mercy, most 
 generously invites, when he says : " Come to me, all you that 
 labour, and are heavily laden, and I will refresh you " (Matt. 
 xi. 28) Of their number was that publican, who, not daring 
 to raise his eyes towards heaven, yet left the temple, as our 
 Lord declares, "justified rather than the " Pharisee (Luke, xviii. 
 10, sqq). 
 
 QUESTION VI. Who among those who pray occupy the Third 
 Degree. 
 
 A third degree of prayer is that of those who have not as yet 
 received the light of faith ; who, notwithstanding, whilst the 
 divine goodness lights up [in their souls] the feeble glimmerings 
 of nature, are strongly excited to the desire and pursuit of 
 truth, to be taught which is the object of their most earnest 
 prayers. If they persevere in that disposition, their earnest 
 desire will not be rejected by the clemency of God, as we see 
 verified by the example of Cornelius the Centurion (Acts x. 
 4, 31) ; for against none who desire it sincerely are the doors of 
 the divine benignity closed. 
 
 * Aug. Ench. c. 7, n. 2.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER IV. 417 
 
 QUESTION VII. What Class of Petitioners remain in the Last 
 Degree. 
 
 The last degree is that of those who, not only impenitent, bnt 
 also heaping crime on crime, are yet not ashamed frequently to 
 ask from God the pardon of sins in which they intend to per- 
 severe. Under such circumstances they should not presume to 
 ask pardon even of their fellow-man. To their prayer God 
 turns a deaf ear, as it is written of Antiochus : " Then this 
 wicked man prayed to the Lord, of whom he was not to obtain 
 mercy " (2 Macch. ix. 13). Those who are in this grievous misery 
 should, therefore, be strongly exhorted, having detached them- 
 selres from affection to sin, to turn to God in good earnest 
 and from the heart. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE OBJECTS OF PRAYER. 
 
 QUESTION I. On the Objects of Prayer to God. 
 
 But as, under the head of each petition, will be pointed out 
 in its proper place what is and what is not a proper object of 
 prayer, it will here suffice to admonish the faithful in general 
 terms to ask of God such things as are just and good ; lest, 
 asking what they ought not, they be repulsed with the answer : 
 " You know not what you ask."* But whatever it is lawful 
 to desire, it is lawful to pray for, as this most ample promise of 
 our Lord attests: "Yon shall ask whatever you will, and it 
 shall be done to yon " (John xv. 7) ; in which he promises to 
 grant all things. 
 
 QUESTION II. What things are first, and of themselves, to be 
 asked of God. 
 
 Wherefore we shall direct our first wish and desire by that 
 rule, that to God, who is the chief good, be referred our chief 
 study and desire. We shall next wish for those things that 
 may unite us most closely to God ; whilst those that would 
 separate us, or at all cause our separation from him, should be 
 entirely removed from our desires or pursuits. Hence we may 
 infer how, after that supreme and perfect good, the other things 
 that are called goods, are to be desired and asked from God 
 our Father. 
 
 * Matth. xx. 22 ; Mark x. 38. 
 
 2D
 
 418 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TEENT^ 
 
 QUESTION III. How far the outward Goods of the Body are 
 to be asked of God. 
 
 For the goods that are called corporal, and those called ex- 
 ternal, such as health, strength, beauty, riches, honours, glory, 
 because they often afford occasion and matter for sin (where- 
 fore it is, that they are not altogether piously or salutarily 
 asked), are not to be prayed for without this limitation, that we 
 beg such temporal goods only when necessary ; which sort of 
 prayer is referred to God ; for it is lawful for us to pray for the 
 things for which Jacob and Solomon prayed ; the former after 
 this manner : " If he shall give me bread to eat and raiment to 
 put on, the Lord shall be my God " (Gen. xxviii. 20, sq.) ; 
 Solomon in these words : " Give me only the necessaries of 
 life " (Prov. xxx. 8). 
 
 QUESTION IV How we ought to use Riches and other Corporal 
 Goods when we possess them through the Bounty of God. 
 
 When, however, by the bounty of God, we are supplied with 
 the necessaries and comforts of life, we should recollect that 
 exhortation of the Apostle : " Let them that buy be as if they 
 were not possessing anything, and they who use this world, as 
 if they used it not ; for the figure of this world passeth away " 
 (1 Cor. vii. 30, sq.) ; also : " If riches abound, set not your 
 heart upon them " (Ps. Ixi. 11). That to us belong their use 
 and advantage only, yet so as to share them with others, we 
 learn from the teaching of God himself. If we enjoy health ; 
 if we abound in the other external and corporal goods ; we 
 should recollect that they are given us to enable us to serve 
 God with greater facility, and employ all such things in lending 
 assistance to our neighbour. 
 
 QUESTION V. How the Goods of Genius and Learning are to be 
 asked. 
 
 Genius and the embellishments that adorn it, such as learning 
 and the arts, it is also lawful to pray for ; but only on this con- 
 dition, that they serve to promote the glory of God, and our own 
 salvation. But that which is to be absolutely, and without 
 qualification or condition, the object of our wishes, our endea- 
 vours, our prayers, is, as we have already said, the glory of 
 God, and, next, whatever can serve to unite us to that Supreme 
 Good, such as faith, the fear, the love of God ; but of these we 
 shall treat more fully, when explaining the petitions.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER V. 419 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FOR WHOM WE SHOULD PRAY. 
 
 QUESTION I. Time is no class of Men in this World for whom 
 it is not lawful to pray to God. 
 
 The objects of prayer being known, the faithful people are to 
 be taught for whom they should pray. Prayer comprehends 
 petition and thanksgiving ; and we shall, therefore, first treat of 
 petition. We are then to pray for all, without exception of 
 enmities, or nation, or religion ; for every man, be he enemy, 
 alien, or infidel, is our neighbour, whom as we ought to love by 
 the command of God, we ought consequently to offer up our 
 prayers for, which is a duty of love. To this the Apostle 
 exhorts when he says : " I desire that prayer be made for all 
 men " (1 Tim. ii. 1). In such prayer the things that comprise 
 the salvation of the soul should hold the first, temporal things 
 the second place. 
 
 QUESTION II. For whom we ought especially to pray. 
 
 This good office of prayer we ought to render first to the 
 pastors of souls, as we are admonished by the Apostle in his 
 own instance ; for he writes to the Colossians to pray for him, 
 "that God may open unto" him "a door of speech" (Col. iv. 
 3) ; a request which he also makes to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 
 v. 25). In the Acts of the Apostles we also find that " prayer 
 was offered without ceasing by the Church " for Peter (xii. 5). 
 Of this duty we are also admonished by St. Basil in his books 
 on Morals : " We must," says he, " pray for those that preside 
 over the word of truth."* In the second place, according to 
 the same Apostle, we should pray for princes " (1 Tim. ii. 2) ; 
 for no one is ignorant how great a public blessing we enjoy in 
 pious and just princes. We should, therefore, beg of God that 
 they be such as those should be who are placed over the rest 
 of mankind. There are on record examples of holy men, by 
 which we are admonished to pray also for the good and 
 the pious ; for they too want the prayers of others ; and this 
 has been ordained by God, that aware of their standing in need 
 of the suffrages of their inferiors, they be not lifted up with 
 pride.t 
 
 * Basil. Moral, reg. 56, c. 5. t 4 Kings, six. 4, xxii. 13 ; 
 ohn xvii. 9, ii. 15; Rom. xv. 30; 2 Cor. i. 11.
 
 420 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION III. It is shown that we must do the same for our 
 Enemies and the Foes of the Church. 
 
 The Lord has commanded us, besides, to "pray for them 
 that persecute and calumniate " us.* It is also well known 
 from the testimony of St. Augustine,f that it has been a 
 practice received from the Apostles, to offer prayers and sighs 
 for those who are outside the pale of the Church ; that faith 
 may be given to infidels ; that idolaters may be liberated from 
 the errors of impiety ; that Jews, their mental darkness being 
 dissipated, may receive the light of truth ; that heretics, re- 
 turning to soundness, may be instructed in the precepts of the 
 Catholic doctrine ; that schismatics, linked by the bond of true 
 charity, may be reunited to the communion of our most holy 
 mother the Church, from whom they have separated. How 
 great is the efficacy of prayers offered from the heart for such 
 men, is evinced by so many examples of all sorts of persons, 
 whom God daily " delivers from the power of darkness, and 
 transfers into the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Col. i. 13), 
 from " vessels of wrath " (Rom. ix. 22, sq.), making them 
 vessels of mercy. That in this the prayers of the pious have 
 very great influence, no one who thinks rightly can doubt. 
 
 QUESTION IV. How this benefit may be extended also to the 
 Dead. 
 
 Prayers for the dead, that they may be liberated from the 
 fire of Purgatory, flowed from the doctrine of the Apostles ; 
 but this subject we already treated at sufficient length, when 
 speaking of the sacrifice of the Mass.J 
 
 QUESTION V. The Prayers of others avail not those who sin 
 unto Death. 
 
 But those who are said to "sin unto death," derive scarcely 
 any advantage from prayers and supplications. It is, however, 
 the part of Christian charity both to pray for them, and with 
 tears to endeavour, if possible, to obtain their reconciliation 
 with God. 
 
 QUESTION VI. How the Execrations which are read in the 
 Scriptures, are to be understood. 
 
 With regard to the execrations of holy men which they use 
 against the wicked, it is certain, from the opinion of the Fathers, 
 
 * Matt. v. 44; Luke, xxiii. 31 ; Acts, vii. 59; 1 Cor. iv. 12. 
 t Aug. ep. 149, c. 2, n. 17. J See pp. 65, 67, 226. 1 Johu, 
 v. 16 ; Matt. xii. 32 ; Luke, xii. 10 ; Heb. vi. 4, sqq. x. 26, sqq.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER V. 421 
 
 that they are either predictions of the evils which are to befall 
 them, or denunciations against the crimes of which they are 
 guilty, that the sinner may be saved, but sin destroyed.* 
 
 QUESTION VII. Use of Thanksgiving. 
 
 In the second part of prayer [which is "thanksgiving"], 
 let us render infinite thanks to God for the divine and im- 
 mortal blessings which he has always bestowed, and still con- 
 tinues to bestow, on the human race. But this duty of thanks- 
 giving we discharge, principally when we give singular 
 praises to God for the victory and triumph which, aided by his 
 goodness, the saints have achieved over all internal and external 
 foes. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Among the Congratulations which are offered 
 to God on account of the Saints, which occupies the Chief Place 
 in the Church. 
 
 To this refers that first part of the Angelical Salutation when 
 we use it by way of prayer : " Hail " Mary, " full of grace, the 
 Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women " (Luke, 
 i. 28) ; for we render to God the highest praise, and return him 
 most grateful thanks, because he accumulated all his heavenly 
 gifts on the uaost Holy Virgin ; and the Virgin herself we con- 
 gratulate ou this her singular felicity. But to this thanksgiving 
 the Church of God has justly added prayers also to, and an 
 invocation of, the most holy Mother of God, by which we might 
 devoutly and suppliantly fly to her, that by her intercession 
 she may conciliate God to us sinners, and obtain for us those 
 blessings which we stand in need of in this life, and in the life 
 to come. Exiled children of Eve, who dwell in this vale of 
 tears, we ought therefore earnestly to beseech the Mother of 
 mercy, and the Advocate of the faithful people, to pray for us 
 sinners, and to implore by this prayer aid and assistance from 
 her whose exalted merits with God, and whose earnest desire 
 to assist mankind [by her prayers], it were impious and wicked 
 for any one to doubt, f 
 
 * Ps. vL 11, vii. 7, ix. (x.) 34, Ixxviii. 6, cviii. 6, sqq. ; Jer. x. 25 ; 
 Osee, ix. 14 ; 1 Tim. i. 20 ; 2 Tim. iv. 14 ; Apoc. vL ID ; Greg. Nyss. 
 de orat. fer. 1 ; Aug. de serm. Dom. in mont. 1. 1, c. 22, n. 76 ; 
 Cassian. Collat. vii. c. 21 ; Thorn. Aq. S. ib. 2, 2 P. q. 83, a. 8. 
 t See pp. 41, sqq., 256, sqq.; Cone. Trid. Sess. xxii. c. 3, xxv.
 
 422 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TO WHOM WE SHOULD PRAY. 
 
 QUESTION I. Prayer, to whom chiefly to be addressed. 
 
 That God is to be prayed to and his name invoked, the force 
 itself of nature, implanted in the minds of men, proclaims, as 
 do also the sacred Scriptures, in which we may hear God com- 
 manding: " Call upon me in the day of trouble" (Ps. xlix. 15); 
 and, by the word " God," ought to be understood the three 
 Persons [of the adorable Trinity]. 
 
 QUESTION II. Whether the Saints reigning with Christ are 
 also to be invoiced. 
 
 In the second place we have recourse to the assistance of the 
 saints who are in heaven ; and that to them also prayers are 
 to be addressed is so certain in the Church of God, that to the 
 pious no doubt can arise on the subject. But as this point was 
 explained in its proper place, under a separate head, to that 
 explanation we refer parish-priests and others.* To remove, 
 however, all error on the part of the unlettered, it will be of 
 advantage to teach the faithful people the difference between this 
 sort of invocation [and prayers addressed to God]. 
 
 QUESTION III. God and the Saints we address differently. 
 
 For we do not implore God and the saints after the same 
 manner ; for we pray God to grant us blessings, or to deliver 
 us from evils ; but the saints, because favourites with God, we 
 ask to undertake our advocacy to obtain from God for us those 
 things of which we stand in need. Hence we employ two 
 different forms of prayer ; for to God, we properly say, " Have 
 mercy on us," "Hear us/' to a saint, "Pray for us" (Rom. 
 Missal). 
 
 QUESTION IV. How we may ask the Saints to have mercy on its. 
 
 We may, however, also ask the saints themselves to have 
 mercy on us, for they are most merciful : but we do so on a 
 different principle ; for we may beseech them that, touched 
 with the misery of our condition, they would interpose, in our 
 behalf, their favour and intercession with God. In the per- 
 formance of this duty, it is most strictly incumbent on all to 
 
 * P. 316, sqq.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER VII. 423 
 
 beware lest they transfer to any creature the right which belongs 
 exclusively to God ; and when we repeat before the image of 
 any saint the Lord's Prayer, our idea must then be to beg of the 
 saint to pray with us, and ask for us those favours that are 
 contained in the form of the Lord's Prayer ; to be, in fine, 
 our interpreter and intercessor with God ; for that this is an 
 office which the saints discharge, St. John the Apostle has taught 
 in the Apocalypse (Apoc. viii. 3, sq.). 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE PREPARATION FOR PRAYER. 
 
 QUESTION I. By what Virtues chiefly the soul should be prepared 
 for Prayer. 
 
 " Before prayer, prepare thy soul, and be not as a man that 
 tempteth God" (Eccli. xviii. 23), is the language of Scripture ; 
 for he who, whilst he prays well, acts ill, and whilst he holds 
 converse with God, suffers his mind to wander, tempts God. 
 As, therefore, the dispositions with which we pray to God are 
 of such importance, parish-priests will teach their pious hearers 
 the conditions of prayer. The first step, then, to prayer, will be 
 unfeigned humility and lowliness of soul, with an acknowledg- 
 ment of our sins, and a conviction that, when we approach God, 
 they render us undeserving, not only of receiving anything from 
 God, but even of appearing in his presence to pray. Of this 
 preparation the sacred Scriptures very often make mention, and 
 also say: "He hath regard to the prayer of the humble, and 
 he hath not despised their petition " (Ps. ci. 18) ; " also : " The 
 prayer of him that humbleth himself, shall pierce the clouds " 
 (Eccli. xxxv. 21). But to learned pastors will occur innumer- 
 able texts of the same import, which we therefore omit as 
 unnecessary to be here cited. The two examples only, which 
 we elsewhere touched upon, because they are apposite to our 
 present purpose, we shall not here pass over ; that of the pub- 
 lican, which is so well known, who " standing afar off," dared 
 not to " lift up his eyes towards heaven " (Luke, xviii. 13), and 
 that of the " woman, a sinner," who, deeply moved with sorrow, 
 bathed the feet of Christ our Lord with her tears (Luke, vii. 
 37, sq.). Both declare the great weight which Christian humi- 
 lity brings to prayer. The next disposition is a certain feeling 
 of anguish arising from the recollection of our sins, or, at least, 
 some sense of sorrow, for the very reason that we cannot
 
 424 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 experience sorrow. Unless the penitent bring with him both, 
 or, at least, one of these, he cannot obtain pardon. 
 
 QUESTION II. What Vices must especially be avoided by one who 
 wishes to pray profitably. 
 
 But as there are some crimes, such as violence and murder, 
 which oppose the greatest obstacles to the concession of our 
 petition in prayer by God, we must keep our hands from this 
 cruelty and violence ; of which enormity God thus speaks by 
 the mouth of Isaias : " When you stretch forth your hands, I 
 will turn away my eyes from you ; and when you multiply 
 prayer, I will not hear ; for your hands are full of blood " 
 (Isa. i. 15). Anger and strife are to be shunned, for they 
 too oppose great obstacles to our prayers being heard ; of 
 which the Apostle says : " I will that men pray in every place, 
 lifting up pure hands, without anger and strife " (1 Tim. ii. 8). 
 We must besides see that we present not ourselves implacable 
 under injury to any one ; for, while thus disposed, we shall not 
 be able to induce God by prayers to pardon us : " When you 
 shall stand to pray," says he himself, " forgive, if you have any- 
 thing against any man " (Mark, xi. 25) ; and : " If you will not 
 forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins " 
 (Matt. vi. 15). We must also beware of insensibility and in- 
 humanity to the needy ; for against such men it has been said: 
 " He that stoppeth his ear against the cry of the poor, shall 
 also cry himself, and shall not be heard " (Prov. xxi. 13). What 
 shall we say of pride ? How greatly it offends God, that 
 saying is a witness : " God resisteth the proud, and giveth 
 grace to the humble."* What of contempt of the divine 
 oracles ? Against which is extant that of Solomon : " He that 
 turneth away his ears from hearing the law, his prayers shall 
 be an abomination" (Prov. xxviii. 9). Here, however, we are 
 to understand, that to implore the pardon of an injury done, of 
 murder, anger, insensibility to the wants of the poor, of pride, 
 of contempt of the word of God, of any other crimes, in fine, is 
 not excluded from the objects of prayer. 
 
 QUESTION III. Of Faith in God, which is accounted necessary 
 for Prayer. 
 
 To this preparation of the soul faith also is necessary, with- 
 out which we have no knowledge either of the omnipotence of 
 the Supreme Father, or of his mercy, whence however arises 
 our confidence in prayer ; as Christ the Lord himself taught : 
 
 * James, iv. 6 ; 1 Peter, v. 5 ; Prov, iii. 34.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER VTI. 425 
 
 " All things," says he, " whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, 
 believing you shall receive" (Matt. xxi. 22). Of such faith 
 St. Augustine writes in his treatise " On the Words of the Lord :" 
 " If faith has failed, prayer has perished."* It is, therefore, of 
 chief importance to praying rightly, that, as has been already 
 said, we be firm and unwavering in faith, which the Apostle 
 shows by the converse : " How shall they call on him, in whom 
 they have Hot believed?" (Rom. x. 14). Believe, then, we 
 must, in order to be able to pray, and in order not to be want- 
 ing in that faith by which we pray to advantage ; for it is faith 
 that pours out prayers ; and prayers, all doubt being removed, 
 give strength and stability to faith. To this effect St. Ignatius 
 exhorts those who would approach God in prayer : "Be not of 
 doubtful mind in prayer; blessed is he who hath not doubted."* 
 Wherefore, to obtain from God the objects of our prayers, faith 
 and an assured hope of being heard, have the greatest weight ; 
 as St. James admonishes : " Let him ask in faith, nothing 
 wavering " (James, i. 6). 
 
 QUESTION IV. Motives which may induce Confidence of obtaining 
 what we ask in Prayer. 
 
 There are many things which ought to inspire us with con- 
 fidence in this duty of prayer. There is the well-known 
 benevolence and benignity of God towards us, when he com- 
 mands us to call him " Father," to give us to understand that 
 we are his children : there is the almost countless number of 
 those who have prayed to God with success : there is that 
 Supreme Intercessor Christ the Lord, who is ever ready to 
 assist us, of whom we read thus in St. John : " If any man sin, 
 we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the just ; 
 and he is the propitiation for our sins" (1 John, ii. 1, sq.); also 
 the Apostle Paul : " Christ Jesus, who died, yea, who rose also 
 again, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh inter- 
 cession for ns" (Rom. viii. 34) ; and to Timothy : '' For there 
 is one God, and one mediator of God and man, the man Christ 
 Jesus" (1 Tim. ii. 5) ; and also to the Hebrews : "Wherefore 
 it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, 
 that he might become a merciful and faithful High-priest with 
 God " (Heb. ii. 17). Unworthy, then, though we be, to obtain 
 what we ask, yet through the dignity of our excellent Mediator 
 and Intercessor, Jesus Christ, we ought to hope and confidently 
 trust, that God will grant us all that we shall have duly asked 
 through him. 
 
 * Aug. fer. 116. c. 1, n, 1. t Ignat. ep. ad Heron. Diac. n. viii.
 
 426 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION V. The Holy Spirit is the Author of our Prayers. 
 Finally, the Holy Ghost is the author of our praying, under 
 whose guidance our prayers cannot fail to be heard ; for we 
 have received " the Spirit of adoption of sons of God, whereby 
 we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom. viii. 15). This spirit succours 
 our infirmity and ignorance in this duty of prayer : nay, [the 
 Apostle says : He " asketh for us with unspeakable groanings" 
 (Rom. viii. 26). 
 
 QUESTION VI. How we ought to be assisted in Faith to obtain 
 the Blessings of God. 
 
 If then, some at any time waver, and feel not themselves 
 sufficiently firm in faith, let them say with the Apostles : " Lord, 
 increase our faith " (Luke, xvii. 5) ; and, with the father of the 
 demoniac boy : " Help thou my unbelief" (Mark, ix. 23). But 
 then chiefly shall we obtain all our wishes from God, when, 
 strong in faith and hope, we shall conform all our thoughts, 
 actions, and prayers to the law and will of God himself; " for 
 he says : " If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, 
 you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done to you " 
 (John, xv. 7). In order, however, thus to obtain all things 
 from God, there must first of all be, as we have already said, 
 oblivion of injuries, and good will and beneficence towards our 
 neighbours. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON THE MANNER OF PRAYING. 
 
 QUESTION I. That the People must be instructed touching the 
 best manner of Praying ; and what it is to pray " in spirit 
 and in truth" 
 
 But the manner in which we make use of holy prayer, is 
 matter of the highest moment ; for although prayer is a good 
 and salutary thing, yet, unless it be duly applied, it is of no 
 avail ; for we often, as St. James says, " receive not " what we 
 ask, " because" we " ask amiss " (James, iv. 3). Parish-priests, 
 therefore, will teach the faithful people what is the best manner 
 of praying well, and of performing both private and public 
 prayer. These rules of Christian prayer have been handed 
 down from the discipline of Christ the Lord. We must, then, 
 pray "in spirit and in truth" (John, iv. 23); for our hea-
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER VTH. 427 
 
 venly Father seeks such as would adore him " in spirit and 
 in truth ;" and this he does, who prays with an inward and 
 intense ardour of soul. From this spiritual manner of pray- 
 ing we exclude not vocal prayer : to that, however, which pro- 
 ceeds from earnestness of soul, we consider the first place 
 justly due ; and although it be not uttered with the lips, it 
 is heard by God, to whom lie open the secret thoughts of 
 men. He heard the silent prayers of Anna, the mother of 
 Samuel, of whom we read, that she prayed, shedding tears, and 
 only moving her lips (1 Kings, i. 10, 13, 17). Thus prayed 
 David ; for he says : " My heart hath said to thee, my face 
 hath sought thee " (Ps. xxvi. 8) ; and, as we read, similar 
 examples occur [to us] everywhere in the divine books. 
 
 QUESTION II. Chief use of Vocal Prayer. 
 
 But vocal prayer has its own proper utility and necessity : it 
 quickens the attention of the mind, and inflames the devotion 
 of the suppliant, as St. Augustine wrote to Proba thus : " We 
 sometimes excite ourselves more actively by words and other 
 signs, to augment holy desire."* "We are sometimes compelled 
 by vehement and pious mental emotion to give utterance to 
 our sentiments in words ; for whilst the soul exults with joy, the 
 tongue also should exult ; and it truly becomes us to make that 
 complete sacrifice of soul and body, which we know from the 
 Acts (Acts, xi. 5 ; xvi. 25), and from St. Paul in many places, 
 to have been the manner of praying of the apostles, j 
 
 QUESTION III. The use of the voice not so necessary in Private 
 as in Public Prayer. 
 
 But as there are two ways of praying, private and public, 
 [it is to be observed that] we use private vocal prayer in order 
 to assist inward attention and devotion ; [but] in public prayer, 
 instituted, as it has been, to excite the religion of the faithful 
 people, at certain fixed times the utterance of the words can on 
 no account be omitted. 
 
 QUESTION IV. To pray in spirit peculiar to Christians, who 
 ought not to shun Long Prayers. 
 
 This practice of praying in spirit, peculiar to Christian men, 
 is altogether unknown among infidels, of whom Christ the Lord 
 has said : " When you are praying, speak not much as the 
 
 * Aug. ep. 130, c. 9, n. 18. t Cor. xiv. 15 ; Eph. v. 19 ; CoL 
 iii. 16.
 
 428 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 heathens do ; for they think that they are heard for their 
 much speaking. Be not you, therefore, like them, for your 
 Father knoweth what you stand in need of, before you ask him " 
 (Matt. vi. 7, sq.). But whilst he prohibits " much speaking," far 
 from rejecting long prayers, which proceed from vehement and 
 enduring earnestness of soul, he even exhorts us to such prayer 
 by his own example ; for not only did he spend nights in prayer 
 (Luke, vi. 12), but also repeated three times the same words 
 (Matt. xxvi. 44) ; and the only inference, therefore, to be drawn 
 is, that prayers consisting of empty sounds are altogether un- 
 availing with God. 
 
 QUESTION V. The Prayers of Hypocrites God rejects. 
 
 Neither do hypocrites pray from the heart ; and Christ the 
 Lord deters us from the imitation of their example in these 
 words : " When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, 
 who love to pray standing in the synagogues and at the corners 
 of the streets, that they may be seen by men : amen I say to 
 you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou 
 shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, 
 pray to thy Father in secret ; and thy Father, who seeth in 
 secret, will reward thee " (Matt. vi. 5, sq.). Here the word 
 " chamber " may be referred to the heart of man, into which it 
 is not enough to enter ; but which should also be closed against 
 every intrusion and influence from abroad, by which the inte- 
 grity of prayer may be violated ; for then will our heavenly 
 Father, who sees most clearly our minds and secret thoughts, 
 grant our petition. 
 
 QUESTION VI. We must not cease from the Practice of Prayer 
 if what we asked be delayed. 
 
 Prayer, moreover, requires importunity, the great efficacy of 
 which the Son of God shows by the example of that judge, 
 who, whilst " he feared not God, nor regarded man," overcome 
 by the assiduity and diligence of the widow, yielded to her 
 entreaty (Luke, xviii. 2, sqq.). In our prayers to God we 
 should therefore be assiduous ; nor should we imitate those 
 who become tired of praying, unless after having prayed 
 once or twice, they succeed in obtaining the object of their 
 prayers. Of this duty we should never be weary (Eccli. xviii. 
 22), as we are taught by the authority of Christ the Lord (Luke, 
 xviii. i), and of the Apostle (1 Thess. v. 17) ; but should the 
 will at any time fail us, let us beg of God with prayers, strength 
 to persevere.
 
 TART IV. CHAPTER VIII. 429 
 
 QUESTION VII. Christ lade us ask in his name whatever toe 
 desire from our Heavenly Father. 
 
 The Son of God also desires that our prayer reach the Father 
 in his name ; for, by his merits and the influence of his media- 
 tion, our prayers acquire such weight as to be heard by our 
 heavenly Father ; for he himself says in St. John : " Amen, 
 amen, I say unto you, if you ask the Father anything in my 
 name, he will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked any- 
 thing in my name ; ask and you shall receive, that your joy may 
 be full " (John, xvi. 23, sq.) ; and again : " Whatsoever yon 
 shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do " (John, xiv. 13). 
 
 QUESTION VIII. The Fervour of the Saints in prayer to be 
 imitated, and Thanksgiving to be added to Petition. 
 
 Let us imitate the fervour of holy men in prayer ; and to 
 prayer let us join thanksgiving, after the example of the 
 Apostles, who, as may be seen in St. Paul,* always observed 
 this practice. 
 
 QUESTION IX. That Prayer may be Fervent and Efficacious, 
 Fasting and Almsdeeds must be added. 
 
 To prayer let us also unite fasting and alms. Fasting is 
 indeed most intimately connected with prayer; for the mind 
 of those who are loaded with meat and drink is so pressed 
 down, as not to be able to raise itself to the contemplation of 
 God, or to comprehend the meaning of prayer. Almsdeeds 
 come next, and have also an intimate connexion with prayer ; 
 for who would dare to say that he is endued with charity, who, 
 possessing the means of acting kindly to those who subsist on 
 the mercy of others, assists not a neighbour and a brother ? or 
 in what language shall he who is devoid of charity, demand 
 the assistance of God, unless, while he implores the pardon of 
 his sin, he at the same time humbly beg of God [to grant him] 
 charity ? This triple remedy was therefore divinely ordained, 
 to aid man towards the attainment of salvation ; for whereas 
 by sin we offend God, wrong our neighbour, or injure ourselves, 
 we appease the wrath of God by holy prayer; redeem our 
 offences against man by almsdeeds ; by fasting, wash away the 
 defilements of our past life ; and although they each avail all 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiv. 18; Eph. i. 16, v. 19, sq.; CoL iii. 17; 1 Tim. ii. 1.
 
 430 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 sorts of crimes, yet are they specially appropriate and adapted 
 to each of those sins, which we have mentioned.* 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON THE PREFACE TO THE LORD'S PRAYER. " 
 
 "OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN." 
 
 QUESTION I. Why in the beginning of this Prayer, Christ wished 
 us to use the name of "Father" rather than of " Lord" or 
 Judge. 
 
 As this form of Christian prayer, delivered by Jesus Christ 
 (Matt. vi. 9, sqq. ; Luke, xi. 2, sq.), has this import, that, 
 before we come to its prayers and petitions, we are to use certain 
 prefatory words, by which approaching God piously, we may 
 approach him also more confidently, it is the duty of the parish- 
 priest to give a distinct and perspicuous exposition of them, 
 that his pious people may have recourse to prayer with the 
 greatest alacrity, and may understand that they are to commune 
 with God their Father. If we consider the words that compose 
 it, this preface is indeed very short ; but, if we look to the 
 matter, it is of the highest importance, and replete with 
 mysteries. 
 
 " Father." The first word, which, by the command and 
 institution of God, we utter in this prayer, is " Father." Our 
 Saviour, it is true, might have commenced this divine prayer 
 with some word more expressive of majesty, such as " Creator," 
 or " Lord ;" yet did he omit these, as they might be associated 
 with ideas of fear, choosing rather an expression that inspires 
 love and confidence in those who pray to and petition God ; for 
 what sweeter name than that of Father? a name which 
 sounds indulgence and love. 
 
 * De jejtinio et eleemosyna cum oratione sociandis vide Clem, Alex. 
 Strom. 1. iu. coll.; Tob. xii. 8 ; Chrysost. de pcenit. horn. v. n. 1, horn, 
 iii. de verb. Ap. Habentes eund. spirit, n. 12, horn, de eleemos. ; Bas. 
 horn, in ebrios, n. 8 ; Joan. Dam. de. iis, qui in tide dorm. sacr. 
 parall. lit. 3, tit. vii. et viii. ; Chrysol. ser. xlii. et xliii. ; Cypr. de orat. 
 dom, ep. vii.; Aug. enarr. in Ps. 42, n. 8, ep. 130, c. 13 n. 24, de ser. 
 Dom. in mont. L ii. c. 12, n. 40, ser. 58, c. 9, n. 10, ser. 205, n. 3, 
 ser. 209, n. 2, 3, ser. 357, n. 5, ser. 358, n. 6, de perfect, justit. horn. 
 c. 8, n. 18; Isidor. Hisp. Sent. 1. ii. c. 44; it. Synonym. 1. ii. n. 12, 
 14; Leon. M. ser. 12, c. 4, ser. 14, c. 1, ser. 16, c. 2; Bern, in Qua- 
 drages, ser. iv. n. 2 ; Bonav. Opusc. Diaet. salut. tit. ii. c. 5, 6, 7; 
 Thorn. Aq. in iv. Sent. dist. 15, qu. 2, 3, 4.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER IX. 431 
 
 QUESTION II. First Reason why we here justly call God 
 " Father." 
 
 The suitableness of the word " Father," as applied to God, 
 the faithful people may be taught from the arguments of 
 creation, government, and redemption. For as God created 
 man to his own image, which he impressed not on the other 
 living creatures ; on account of this peculiar privilege with 
 which he adorned man, justly is he called in the sacred 
 Scriptures the Father of all men ; not alone of believers, but 
 also of unbelievers.* 
 
 QUESTION III. Another Season why God should be called the 
 "Father" of Men. 
 
 From his government [the pastor] will also be able to borrow 
 an argument ; for, by the exercise of a special superintending 
 providential care over our interests, he manifests the love of a 
 father towards us. But in the explanation of this argument, to 
 comprehend more clearly the fatherly care of God over men, 
 it seems necessary to say something on the guardianship of 
 angels, under whose protection men are. 
 
 QUESTION IV. By the Providence of God, Angels are intrusted 
 with the Guardianship of the Human Race. 
 
 To angels is committed by the providence of God this office, 
 that they gnard the human race, and be ready at hand with 
 every man to protect him from any serious harm. For as 
 parents, if their children have occasion to travel a dangerous 
 way, infested [by robbers], appoint persons to guard and assist 
 them in case of attack ; so has our heavenly Father placed over 
 each of us, in this our journey towards our heavenly country, 
 angels, protected by whose aid and diligence we might escape 
 the snares secretly prepared by our enemies, repel their horrible 
 attacks on us, and proceed directly on our journey, secured by 
 their guidance against the devious wandering into which our 
 treacherous foe might withdraw us from the way that leads to 
 heaven. 
 
 QUESTION V. By what Arguments we may clearly understand 
 the great advantage which redounds to Men from the guardian- 
 ship of Angels. 
 
 What advantage is derived from this special care and provi- 
 dence of God over men, the functions and administration of 
 
 * Deut. xxxii. 6 ; Isa. Lxiii. 16 ; Malach. i. 6 ; Matt, xxiii. 9 ; 
 1 John, ii. 14.
 
 432 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 which are intrusted to angels, whose nature occupies an inter- 
 mediate place between God and man, is evident from the ex- 
 amples which the sacred Scriptures supply in abundance, and 
 which testify that, by the divine goodness it has come to pass 
 that angels have frequently wrought wondrous things in the 
 sight of men ; by which we are admonished, that innumerable 
 like important services are rendered us invisibly by angels, 
 the guardians of our safety and salvation.* The angel Raphael, 
 who was appointed by God the companion and guide of Tobias 
 (Tob. v. 15, 20, xii. 3), conducted him, and brought him back 
 safe ; assisted to save him from being devoured by an enormous 
 fish, and pointed out to him the singular virtue of its liver, gall, 
 and heart (Ib. vi. 2, sqq.) ; expelled the demon, and, by fetter- 
 ing and binding up his power, preserved Tobias from harm (Ib. 
 viii. 3) ; taught the young man the true and legitimate rights 
 and use of marriage (Ib. vi. 1 7, sqq.) ; and restored to the elder 
 Tobias the use of his sight (Ib. xi. 8, 15). 
 
 QUESTION VI. Of the Angel by whom St. Peter was liberated 
 from Prison. 
 
 On the admirable advantages that flow from the care and 
 guardianship of angels, the angel that liberated the prince of 
 the apostles will also afford abundant matter for instructing 
 the pious flock. To this event also, pastors, therefore, will call 
 their attention ; and will point out the angel illumining the 
 darkness of the prison ; awakening Peter by touching his side ; 
 loosing his chains ; bursting his bonds ; admonishing him to 
 rise, and, taking up his sandals and other apparel, to follow 
 him. They will direct attention to the same angel restoring 
 Peter to liberty ; conducting him out of prison through the 
 midst of the guards ; throwing open the door of his prison ; and 
 ultimately placing him in safety (Acts xii. 7, sqq., v. 19). The 
 history of the sacred Scriptures, as we said, is replete with 
 similar examples, from which we understand the magnitude of 
 the benefits conferred on men by God through the ministry and 
 intervention of angels, not sent on particular and private occa- 
 sions only, but from the hour of our birth appointed to take 
 care of us, and by their tutelary protection to watch over the 
 safety of each individual of the human race. In the exposition 
 of this point of doctrine, the diligence [of the pastor] will be 
 attended with this advantage; that the minds of the faithful will 
 be interested and excited, to acknowledge and revere the pater- 
 nal care and providence of God over them. 
 
 *Gen. xvi. 7, sqq., xxi. 17, xxii. 11, xxiv. 40, xxvii 12.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER IX. 433 
 
 QUESTION VII. Another Argument by which the Faithful may 
 recognize the Paternal Care of God for Men. 
 
 Here the parish-priest will exalt and proclaim aloud the riches 
 of the bounty of God to man, [of that God] who, although 
 since the transgression of our first parent, who entailed upon us 
 sin, to the present day, we have never ceased to offend him by 
 innumerable crimes and enormities, yet retains his love for us, 
 and never lays aside that special care over us. To imagine that 
 he is unmindful of man were insanity, and nothing less than to 
 hurl against the Deity the most blasphemous insult. God is 
 angry with Israel, because of the blasphemy of that nation, who 
 supposed themselves deserted by the aid of heaven ; for we read 
 in Exodus : " They tempted the Lord, saying ; Is the Lord 
 amongst us or not ? " (Ex. xvii. 7). And in Ezechiel, God is 
 angry with the same people for having said : " The Lord seeth 
 us not : the Lord hath forsaken the earth " (Ez. viii. 12). By 
 these authorities the faithful therefore are to be deterred from 
 the impious opinion, that God can possibly be forgetful of man. 
 This complaint the Israelites, as we read in Isaias, make against 
 God; and its folly God refutes by a similitu.de, which breathes 
 nought but kindness : " Sion said : ' the Lord hath forsaken me, 
 and the Lord hath forgotten me ; '" to whom God : " Can a 
 woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of 
 her womb ? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget 
 thee. Behold I have graven thee in my hands " (Isa. xlix. 14, 
 15, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION VIII. The Benignity of God towards us is shown 
 from the Example of our First Parents. 
 
 Clearly as this truth is confirmed by these passages, yet fully 
 to persuade the faithful people that at no time can God forget 
 man, or withdraw from him the offices of paternal love, parish- 
 priests will add to the evidence of this truth, by the very striking 
 example of our first parents. When you hear them sharply 
 reproved for having despised and violated the command of God; 
 when you hear their condemnation pronounced in this awful 
 sentence : " Cursed is the earth in thy work : with labour and 
 toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life : thorns and 
 thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the 
 herbs of the earth" (Gen. iii. 17, sq.); when you see them 
 expelled from Paradise, and when, to take away all hope of 
 return, you read that a cherub was stationed at the entrance, 
 brandishing "a flaming sword, turning every way" (Gen. iii. 24) ; 
 
 2s
 
 434 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 when you know that, to avenge the injury done him, God con- 
 signed them to affliction of mind and body ; when you hear and 
 see and know all this, would you not be led to think, that man 
 was lost irrecoverably ? Would yon not believe that he was 
 not only stripped of the divine assistance, but also destined to 
 every sort of injury ? Nevertheless, in the midst of such strong 
 evidences of the divine wrath and vengeance, shot forth a gleam 
 of God's love towards them. " For the Lord God," says the 
 Scripture, " made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, 
 and clothed them" (Gen. xxi.), a most convincing proof, that at 
 no time would God abandon man. The force of this truth, 
 that the love of God is exhausted by no injuries offered to him 
 by man, David expressed in these words : " Will " God "in his 
 anger shut up his mercies ?" (Ps. Ixxvi. 10.) This Habacuc, 
 addressing himself to God, explains, when he says : " When 
 thou art angry, thou wilt remember mercy " (Habac. iii. 2). 
 This Micheas thus unfolds : " Who is a God like to thee, who 
 takest away iniquity, and passest by the sin of the remnant of 
 thy inheritance ? He will send his fury in no more, because he 
 delighteth in mercy" (Mich. vii. 18). And so it really is: 
 when we imagine that God has utterly abandoned us, that we 
 are utterly bereft of his protection, then it is that in a special 
 manner he, of his infinite goodness, seeks after and takes care 
 of us ; for in his anger, he stays the sword of his justice, and 
 ceases not to pour out the unexhausted treasures of his mercy. 
 
 QUESTION IX. Third manner in which God shows that he ac- 
 cumulates on the Human Race the blessings of his paternal 
 love. 
 
 The creation and government [of the world] therefore serve 
 to display, in an admirable manner, the singular love and pro- 
 tecting care of God towards man ; but amongst both the great 
 work of redemption stands out so prominently, notwithstanding, 
 that the God of boundless beneficence, our Father, has by this 
 third benefit crowned and shed a lustre on his supreme benignity 
 towards us.* Wherefore, the parish-priest will announce to his 
 spiritual children, and will inculcate continually in their ears 
 this surpassing manifestation of the love of God towards us, in 
 order that they may know, that by redemption they are become, 
 after an admirable manner, the children of God; for, "To them 
 he gave power," says St. John, " to be made the sons of God " 
 (John, i. 12); and: "Who are born of God" (John, i. 13). 
 Therefore it is that baptism, which we receive as the first 
 
 John iii. 16 ; Rom. v. 8, sq. ; Gal. i 4, iv. 4, sqq.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER IX. 435 
 
 pledge and memorial of redemption, is called " the sacrament 
 of regeneration ;" for thereby we are born children of God ; 
 for the Lord himself says : " That which is born of the Spirit, 
 is spirit ;" and : " yon must be born again " (John, iii. 6, sq.) ; 
 also the Apostle Peter : " Being born again, not of corruptible 
 seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God who liveth '' 
 (1 Peter, i. 23 ; Tit. iii. 6). 
 
 QUESTION X. By the singular Beneficence of God we have been 
 made sons of God by Redemption. 
 
 By virtue of this our redemption we have received the Holy 
 Spirit, and are dignified with the grace of God, by which we 
 are adopted the sons of God. As the Apostle Paul has written 
 to the Romans, " You have not received the spirit of bondage 
 again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of 
 sons, whereby we cry : " Abba, Father" (Rom. viii. 15 ; 2 Tim. 
 iv. 7). Of this adoption, St. John explains the force and 
 efficacy thus : " Behold what manner of charity the Father hath 
 bestowed upon us, that we should be named, and should be the 
 sons of God" (1 John, iii. 1). 
 
 QUESTION XI. What Christians, being now made sons of God, 
 ought to do in return to their Father, after having received so 
 many services of paternal love. 
 
 These things having been explained, the faithful people must 
 be reminded of what they owe in return to God, their most 
 loving Father, that they may understand what love and piety, 
 what obedience and veneration, they ought to render to their 
 Creator, Governor, and Redeemer; with what hope and confi- 
 dence they ought to invoke his name. But to instruct the 
 ignorance, and correct the perversity, of those who imagine that 
 prosperity and a successful course of life are the only proofs 
 that God preserves his love towards us ; and that the adversity 
 and calamities by which he tries us, indicate a hostile mind to- 
 wards, and the utter alienation of his love from us, it must be 
 shown, that when " the hand of the Lord " touches us (Job, xix. 
 21), it is not at all with hostile purposes, but with a view to 
 heal by striking (Deut. xxxii. 39) ; and that the wound coming 
 from God is medicinal ; for he chastises sinners to reclaim them 
 by that salutary discipline, and by the infliction of present pun- 
 ishment to rescue them from everlasting perdition ; for he visits 
 our " iniquities with a rod, and " our " sins with stripes ; but 
 his mercy he taketh not away" from us (Ps. Ixxxiii. 33, sq.). 
 The faithful, therefore, are to be admonished to recognize, in such 
 chastisement, the paternal love of God (James, v. 1 1), to keep
 
 436 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 in their memory and on their lips these words of the most patient 
 Job: "He woundeth and cureth: he striketh, and his hands 
 shall heal " (Job, v. 18) ; to repeat these words of the prophet 
 Jeremiah, written in the name of the people of Israel : " Thou 
 hast chastised me, and I was instructed, as a young bullock 
 unaccustomed to the yoke : convert me, and I shall be con- 
 verted; for thou art the Lord my God " (Jer. xxxi. 18) ; and 
 to keep before their eyes the example of Tobias, who, when he 
 felt the paternal hand of God upon him, visiting him with 
 blindness, exclaimed : " I bless thee, Lord God of Israel, be- 
 cause thou hast chastised me " (Tob. xi. 17). 
 
 QUESTION XII. It must be impressed on the Faithful that God 
 never forgets us. 
 
 / t/ 
 
 Here the faithful should beware most carefully not to suppose 
 that whatever afflictions or calamities befall them, happen 
 without the knowledge of God ; for he himself says : " A hair 
 of your head shall not perish " (Luke, xxi. 18). Nay, let them 
 rather solace themselves with these consoling words of the 
 divine oracles, mentioned in the Apocalypse : " Those whom I 
 love, I rebuke and chastise" (Apoc. Hi. 19); and let their 
 apprehensions be calmed by the exhortation of the Apostle to 
 the Hebrews : " My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord ; 
 neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by him ; for 
 whom the Lord loveth he chastiseth ; and he scourgeth every 
 son whom he receiveth. But if you be without chastisement, 
 whereof all are made partakers, then are you bastards and not 
 sons. Moreover, we have had the fathers of our flesh for in- 
 structors, and we reverenced them : shall we not much more 
 obey the Father of spirits, and live?" (Heb. xii. 5, sq., 8, sq. ; 
 Prov. iii. 1 1, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XIII. Why we are here ordered to call God "our" 
 Father in the plural. 
 
 " Our." When we all invoke the Father, and call him " our," 
 we are taught that, as a necessary consequence of the gift and 
 right of the divine adoption, the faithful are all brethren, and 
 ought to love one another as brethren : " You are all brethren," 
 says he; "for one is your Father, who is in heaven" (Matt. 
 xxiii. 8, sq.) ; and hence also in their epistles, the apostles call 
 all the faithful " brethren." Another necessary consequence 
 thereof is, that by the same adoption of God, not only are all 
 the faithful united together in the relationship of brotherhood, 
 but, as the only- begotten Son of God is man, they are called 
 and are his brethren also. Hence the Apostle, in his Epistle to
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER IX. 437 
 
 the Hebrews, when speaking of the Son of God, has written : 
 " He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying : ' I will 
 declare thy name to my brethren.' "* This David had so long 
 before predicted of Christ the Lord (Ps. xxi. 23) ; and Christ 
 himself also thus addresses the women in the Gospel : " Go, 
 tell my brethren that they go into Galilee : there they shall see 
 me (Matt, xxviii. 10 ; John xx. 17). This he evidently said 
 after his resurrection from the dead, when he had put on immor- 
 tality, lest any one may suppose that this fraternal relationship 
 was dissolved by his resurrection and ascension into heaven. 
 So far is the resurrection of Christ from dissolving this union 
 and love, that we are assured, that from that throne of majesty 
 and glory on which he will sit on the last day to judge all 
 men (Matt. xxv. 31), he will call even "the least" of the 
 faithful by the name of brethren (Ib. 40). 
 
 QUESTION XIV. Why the Faithful are accounted among the 
 Brethren of Christ. 
 
 But how can we possibly be other than brethren of Christ, 
 called as we are "joint heirs" with him? (Rom. viii. 17); for 
 he is " the first-begotten " (Col. i. 18), appointed " heir of all" 
 (Heb. i. 2) ; but we, begotten in the second place, are co-heirs 
 with him, according to the measure of heavenly gifts, according 
 to the degree of love with which we approve ourselves servants 
 and co-operators of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. iii. 9), by whose 
 inspiration we are impelled and inflamed to virtue and to meri- 
 torious actions, that, relying on his grace, we may engage with 
 fortitude in the combat for salvation, the wise and firm termi- 
 nation of which will be rewarded by our heavenly Father, at 
 the close of our earthly career (Ib. ix. 24, sqq.), with that 
 crown of justice (Apoc. ii. 10), reserved for all who shall have 
 held the same course : " for," says the Apostle, " God is not 
 unjust, that he should forget" our "work and love "(Heb. 
 vi. 10). 
 
 QUESTION XV. How we ought to pray for one another, and 
 account all men Mutually Brothers. 
 
 But with what heartfelt piety we should utter that word, 
 " our," we learn from St. Chrysostom, who says, that " God 
 willingly hears a Christian, not only when praying for himself, 
 but for another ; because nature prompts to pray for oneself, 
 grace for another ; necessity obliges to pray for oneself, fra- 
 ternal charity exhorts to pray for another." To which he 
 
 * Rom. i. 13 ; x. 1 ; xiL 1 ; 1 Cor. i. 11, 26 ; 2 Pet i. 10 ; 1 John, 
 iii 13 ; James, i. 2, 16; Heb. ii. 11, sq.
 
 438 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 added : " The prayer that fraternal charity recommends is more 
 pleasing to God than that which necessity utters."* On this 
 subject of salutary prayer, a matter of such importance, the 
 parish-priest ought to admonish and exhort all of every age, 
 condition, and rank, that, mindful of this common relationship 
 of brotherhood, instead of arrogating an insolent superiority 
 over others, they comport themselves with courtesy and frater- 
 nal regard. For although there are many gradations of office 
 in the Church of God, yet that diversity of ranks and offices 
 does not at all remove the bond of this fraternal relationship ; 
 as in the human body, the variety of use and diversity of func- 
 tion of the members does nothing to cause this or that part of 
 the body to forfeit the name or office of a member (Rom. xii. 
 4, sq.; 1 Cor. xii. 12). 
 
 QUESTION XVI. Why Christians are united in so strong a 
 Bond of Relationship. 
 
 Take the monarch, invested with kingly power; is he not, 
 if one of the faithful, the brother of all who are within the 
 communion of the Christian faith? Why so? Because there is 
 not one God the Father of the rich, and of kings, another of 
 the poor, and of subjects ; but there is one God, who is Father 
 and Lord of all (Mai. ii. 10; Matt, xxiii.). Therefore the 
 nobility of the spiritual origin of all is the same, the dignity 
 the same, the natal splendour the same, born as we all are of the 
 same spirit (1 Cor. xii. 13; Eph. iv. 4, sqq.), through the same 
 sacrament of faith, children of God and co-heirs to the same in- 
 heritance. The wealthy and the great have not one Christ for 
 their God, the poor and the lowly another; they are not initiated 
 by different sacraments, nor do they expect a different inheri- 
 tance of the celestial kingdom. We are all brethren (Matt, 
 xxiii. 8), and as the apostles said to the Ephesians, " We are 
 members of " Christ's " body, of his flesh, and of his bones " 
 (Eph. v. 30). The Apostle signifies the same in his Epistle 
 to the Galatiaus : " You are all children of God, by faith in 
 Christ Jesus; for as many of you as have been baptized in 
 Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek ; 
 there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor 
 female ; for you are all one in Christ Jesus " (Gal. iii. 26, sqq.). 
 But this is a subject that pastors of souls should treat of with 
 accuracy, and dwell on with knowledge, because it is not less 
 calculated to fortify and animate the indigent and the lowly 
 
 * Opus imperf. in Matth. horn. xiv. ; vid. Th. Aq. 5, th. 2, 2 P. 
 qu. 83, a. 7.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER IX. 439 
 
 (James, ii. 5, sq.), than to restrain and repress the arrogance of 
 the rich and the powerful. It was to remedy this evil of men, 
 that the Apostle urged, and pressed on the attention of the 
 faithful, this fraternal charity.* 
 
 QUESTION XVII. In what Spirit the Christian should utter those 
 opening words " Our Father." 
 
 When then, Christian, you are about to address this prayer 
 to God, remember that you, as a son, approach God your Father. 
 Wherefore, when you begin the prayer, and utter the words, 
 "Our Father," think to what a lofty position the supreme 
 bounty of God has raised you, commanding yon as he does, not 
 to come to him reluctant and timid as a servant to his Lord, but 
 to fly to him willing and secure as a child to his father; and, in 
 this remembrance and this thought, consider with what care and 
 devotion on your part you should pray ; for you must endeavour 
 to approach him as becomes a child of God ; that is, that your 
 prayers and actions be not unworthy of the divine origin with 
 which it has pleased your most gracious God to ennoble you 
 (Acts, xvii. 28, sq.). To this sort of duty the Apostle exhorts 
 us when he says : " Be ye therefore followers of God, as most 
 dear children" (Eph. v. 1); that of us may be truly said, what 
 the same Apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, " You are all 
 the children of light, and children of the day " (1 Thess. v. 5 ; 
 Horn. xiii. 12). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. Since God is everywhere present, how can he 
 be said to have his Dwelling peculiarly in Heaven. 
 
 " Who art in heaven." To all who have a correct idea of God, 
 it is clear, that he is everywhere present. This, however, is not 
 to be understood as though he were spread out into parts, filling 
 and governing one place with one part, another place with 
 another ; for God is a spirit, and therefore indivisible. And 
 who would presume to circumscribe within the limits of any 
 place, or confine to any particular spot, God, who says of him- 
 self: "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. xxiii. 24.) This 
 again is to be understood to mean, that by his power and virtue 
 God embraces heaven and earth, and the things that are 
 contained in heaven and earth ; not that he himself is contained 
 in any place ; for God is present with all things, either creating 
 them, or preserving them when created, whilst he himself is 
 confined to no region, is circumscribed by no limits, nor so 
 
 * Rom. xii. 10, xiii 8, sqq. ; 1 Cor. xiii. 13, xiv. 1 ; GaL v. 13, sq. ; 
 1 Thess. iv. 9.
 
 440 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 defined as to prevent his being present everywhere with 
 his nature and power; as the blessed David expresses in these 
 words : " If I ascend into heaven, thou art there" (Ps. cxxxviii. 
 8; Amos, ix. 2). But, although present in all places and 
 things, and, as we have said circumscribed by no limits, yet 
 God is frequently said in the sacred Scriptures to have his 
 dwelling in heaven,* because the heavens which we behold are the 
 noblest part of the world; undecaying; excelling all other objects 
 in power, magnitude, and beauty; and moving in uniform and 
 steady revolutions. To elevate, therefore, the soul of man to 
 the contemplation of his infinite power and majesty, which 
 shine forth pre-eminently in the work of the heavens, God 
 declares in the divine writings, that he dwells in the heavens. 
 He also frequently declares, which is the fact, that there is no 
 part of the universe that is not embraced by the divine nature 
 and power there present.f 
 
 QUESTION XIX. What subject for Meditation is presented to 
 the Faithful by the words " who art in heaven" 
 
 In this consideration, however, the faithful will propose to 
 themselves not only the image of the common Father of all, 
 but likewise of God reigning in heaven in order that, when 
 approaching him in prayer, they may recollect, that heart and 
 soul are to be directed to heaven ; and in proportion as the 
 name "Father" brings them hope and confidence, in the same 
 proportion let that transcendant nature and divine majesty of 
 our Father who is in heaven increase their Christian humi- 
 lity and piety. These words also define the proper objects of 
 prayer ; for all our supplications offered for the useful and 
 necessary things of this life, unless they embrace also the goods 
 of heaven, and are directed to that end, are to no purpose, and 
 are unworthy of a Christian. Of this manner of praying, 
 parish-priests therefore will admonish their pious hearers, and 
 will strengthen their admonition with that authority of the 
 Apostle : " If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that 
 are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. 
 Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon 
 the earth" (Col. iii. 1, sq.). 
 
 * Deut. xxxiii. 26, sq. ; 3 Kings viii. 30; Ps. ii. 4, x. 4, cxiii. 3, 
 cxii. 1 ; Eccl. v. 1 ; Isa. Ixvi. 1 ; Matt. v. 34 ; Acts, vii. 49. 
 t Gen. xiv. 22 ; Deut. iv. 39, x. 14 ; 3 Kings, viii. 27; Acts, xvii. 24.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER X. 441 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON THE FIRST PETITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER, 
 "HALLOWED BE THY NAME." 
 
 QUESTION I. Why we should begin our requests from the 
 hallowing of the Divine Name. 
 
 What should be the objects and order of our prayers to 
 God,* we learn from the instruction and injunction of the 
 Lord and Master of all ; for as prayer is the messenger and 
 interpreter of our wishes and desirest we then pray as we 
 ought, and in accordance with reason, when the order of our 
 petitions follows the order of the things to be sought. But 
 true charity admonishes us to give to God our whole soul and 
 affections, because, constituting it himself alone the supreme 
 good, he justly commands our most particular and especial 
 love. Nor can this heartfelt and peculiar love be given to God, 
 unless his honour and glory be preferred to all created things 
 and natures ; for whatever good we or others possess, what- 
 ever is called good, having proceeded from him, must all yield 
 to him the sovereign good. J Wherefore, that prayer may pro- 
 ceed in order, the Saviour has placed this petition regarding 
 the chief good at the head and front of the rest, teaching us 
 that, before we pray for those things of which we or any neigh- 
 bour stand in need, we should ask the things that appertain 
 to the glory of God, and lay open to God himself our wishes 
 and desires for their accomplishment. Thus shall we remain 
 in the practice of charity, by which we are taught both to love 
 God more than ourselves, and to make what we desire for the 
 sake of God the first, and what for ourselves, the next object 
 of our prayers. 
 
 QUESTION II. Since the Divine Nature cannot be increased by, or 
 be deficient in, anything, why it was necessary here to solicit the 
 sanctijication of the Name of God. 
 
 But as desire and petition regard those things that we want, 
 and as to God, that is, to his nature, no accession can be made, 
 nor can the divine substance, replete as it is after an ineffable 
 
 % 
 
 * Thorn. Aq. S. th. 2, 2 P. qu. 83, a. 9. + Thorn, et ej. expos, 
 
 in orat. dom. J Ambr. expos, in Pa. cxviii. 145, n. ii. ej. expos. 
 
 Ev. sec. Luc. L v. n. 41.
 
 44:2 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 manner with every perfection, be increased by anything, we 
 must understand that what we ask from God for God himself 
 are extrinsic, and belong to his external glory ; for we desire 
 and pray that the name of God may be better known to the 
 nations ; that his kingdom may be enlarged ; and that the 
 number of those who obey the divine will may be every day 
 increased ; three things, his name, his kingdom, and obedience 
 [to his will], that belong not to the intrinsic, but to the extrinsic 
 good of God. 
 
 QUESTION III. How this first Petition is to be understood, and 
 what desires Christ wishes us to offer to God the Father in this 
 Petition. 
 
 But that the force and import of these petitions may be the 
 more clearly understood, it will be the part of the pastor to 
 inform the faithful people that the words, " on earth, as it is 
 in heaven," may be referred to each of the three first petitions; 
 as, " Hallowed be thy name on earth, as it is in heaven," also, 
 " Thy kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven ;" likewise : 
 " Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ;" but when we 
 pray that the name of God may be hallowed, we mean that the 
 sanctity [and glory of the Divine name may be augmented. 
 And here the parish-priest will observe, and will teach his pious 
 hearers, that the Saviour does not say that it be hallowed on 
 earth in the same manner, that is, with the same perfection, 
 as it is in heaven, for this is utterly impossible ; but that it be 
 hallowed through love, from the inmost affection of the soul. 
 
 QUESTION IV. How the Name of God, in itself holy, can be 
 hallowed by us. 
 
 Although it is most true, that in itself the Divine name requires 
 not to be hallowed, for " It is terrible, and holy" (Ps. ex. 9, 
 cxxxvii. 2), as God himself is by his own nature holy;* nor 
 can any holiness be added to him with which he was not endued 
 from all eternity ; yet, as on earth he is treated with much less 
 honour than he ought to be, is even sometimes dishonoured by 
 impieties and blasphemies (James, iii. 9, sq.), therefore, do we 
 desire and pray, that his name may be celebrated with praise, 
 honour, and glory, as it is praised, honoured, and glorified, in 
 heaven ; that is, that his honour and worship may be as con- 
 stantly in our minds, in our souls, on our lips, that we may 
 
 * Lev. xi. 44, xix. 2, xx. 7 ; 1 Peter, L 16 ; Jos. xxiv. 19 ; 1 Kings, 
 ii. 2.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER X. 443 
 
 glorify him with all veneration both internal and external ; and 
 like the citizens of heaven above, embrace with all homage 
 the high, holy, and glorious God. For we pray that, as the 
 spirits in heaven praise and glorify God with one accord 
 (Ps. Ixxxiii. 5 ; Isa. vi. 3 : Apoc. iv. 8), mankind may do the 
 same on earth, and that all nations may know, worship, and 
 venerate God, so that no mortals whatever may be found who 
 do not both embrace the Christian religion, and dedicating 
 themselves wholly to Ged, believe that he is the fountain of all 
 holiness, and that there is nothing pure or holy that does not 
 spring from the sanctity of his divine name. 
 
 QUESTION V. How the Name of God can be holy amongst 
 Infidels. 
 
 For the Apostle testifies that the Church is cleansed " by 
 the laver of water in the word of life" (Heb. v. 26 : Tit. iii. 3; 
 John, iii. 5) ; meaning by " the word of life," the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, in which we 
 are baptized and sanctified (Matt, xxviii. 19). As then for him 
 on whom the divine name has not been invoked, there can be 
 no expiation, no purity, no integrity for any one, we desire and 
 beg of God, that all mankind, having quitted the darkness of 
 impure infidelity, and being illumined by the rays of the divine 
 light, may confess the power of this name, so as to seek therein 
 true sanctity, and receiving the sacrament of baptism in the name 
 of the holy and undivided Trinity, may be conducted by the 
 right hand of God himself to the perfect strength of holiness. 
 
 QUESTION VI. How tJte Name of God can be sanctified among 
 Sinners. 
 
 Our desires and prayers regard no less those also who, 
 contaminated by crimes and enormities, have lost the spotless 
 integrity of baptism, and the robe of innocence (Ib. xxii. 12), 
 whence it has come to pass, that the most foul spirit has again 
 taken up his abode in those most unhappy beings (Matt. xii. 43, 
 sqq. ; Luke, xi. 24, sqq.). "We therefore desire, aud pray God, 
 that in them also his name may be hallowed ; that returning to 
 thel heart (Isa. xlvi. 8), and to soundness, they may recover 
 through the sacrament of penance their former holiness, and 
 present themselves a pure and holy temple and dwelling to 
 God.* 
 
 * l.Cor. ill 16, sq. ; 2 Cor. vi. 16 ; Eph. ii. 21, sq.
 
 444 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION VII. How all Men will be able to sanctify the 
 Name of God in themselves. 
 
 We pray, in fine, that God may display his light to the minds 
 of all, by which they may be enabled to see that " every best 
 gift and every perfect gift, coming from the Father of lights " 
 (James, i. 17), is conferred on us by God, to whom they should 
 refer temperance, justice, life, salvation, all goods, in fine, of 
 soul and body, whether they regard external things, life, or 
 salvation, as his gifts, from whom, as the Church proclaims, 
 " all blessings proceed."* If the sun by his light, if the other 
 heavenly bodies by their motion and revolution, minister to 
 mankind ; if life is sustained by this circumfused air ; if the 
 earth by the profusion of its productions and fruits supports the 
 life of all ; if through the agency of civil magistrates we enjoy 
 quiet and tranquillity ; these and innumerable similar goods the 
 boundless benignity of God affords us. Nay, those causes, 
 which philosophers call " secondary,"t we should regard as so 
 many instruments, wondrous in their production, and admirably 
 adapted to our use, by which the hand of God distributes to us 
 his blessings, and diffuses them far and wide. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. How the Name of God is hallowed by the 
 Acknowledgment and Veneration of the Catholic Church. 
 
 But a most important object of the petition is this, that all 
 recognise and revere the Spouse of Christ, our most holy Mother 
 the Church, in whom alone is that most copious and perennial 
 fountain to cleanse and efface all the defilements of sin, from 
 which are drawn all the sacraments of salvation and sanctifica- 
 tion, by which, as by so many celestial conduits, is conveyed to 
 us from God the fertilizing dew of sanctity ; to whom alone, 
 and to those whom she embraces and fosters in her bosom, 
 belongs the invocation of that divine name, which alone, "under 
 heaven," is " given to men, whereby we must be saved " 
 (Acts, iv. 12). 
 
 QUESTION IX. How the name of God is defiled by Christians 
 in our Day. 
 
 But parish-priests will urge this point with peculiar emphasis, 
 that it is the part of a good son, not only to pray to God his 
 Father in words, but to endeavour, in deed and in work also, 
 to present a bright example of the sanctification of the Divine 
 
 * Prayer used in the Mass of the fifth Sunday after Easter, 
 t See p. 39, sq.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XI. 445 
 
 name. Would that there were none who, whilst they pray 
 assiduously for this sanctification of the name of God, violate 
 and profane it, as far as in them lies, by their acts ; who are 
 sometimes the criminal cause why God himself is blasphemed ; 
 and against whom the Apostle has said : " The name of God 
 through you is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles" (Rom. ii. 24 ; 
 Isa. Hi. 5) ; and we read in Ezechiel : " They entered amongst 
 the nations whither they went, and profaned my holy name, 
 when it was said of them : this is the people of the Lord, and 
 they are come forth out of his land " (Ez. xxxvi. 20, sqq.). 
 For as are the lives and morals of its professors, so does the 
 unlettered multitude judge of religion itself and of the Author 
 of religion. Those, therefore, who live, as they have under- 
 taken to do, according to the rules of the Christian religion, 
 and who regulate their prayers and actions by its standard, 
 afford great occasion to others to praise, honour, and glorify 
 the name of our Father who is in heaven. To excite men to 
 the praise and exaltation of the divine name is an obligation 
 which the Lord himself has imposed on us, whom he thus 
 addresses in the Evangelist : " Let your light so shine before 
 men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your 
 Father who is in heaven" (Matt. v. 16; Mark, iv. 21); and 
 the prince of the apostles : " Having your conversation good 
 among the Gentiles, that, by considering you by your good 
 works, they may glorify God" (1 Peter, ii. 12). 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ON THE SECOND PETITION. 
 "THY KINGDOM COME." 
 
 QUESTION I. How often the Preaching of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven is recommended in the Scriptures. 
 
 The kingdom of heaven, which we pray for in this second 
 petition, is the end to which is referred, and in which termi- 
 nates, all the preaching of the Gospel ; for from it St. John 
 the Baptist commenced his exhortation to penance, when he 
 says : " Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ;"* 
 and with it the Saviour of mankind opened his preaching 
 (Matt. iv. 17 ; Mark, i. 15). In that salutary discourse on the 
 
 * Matt. iii. 2 ; Mark, i. 4 ; Luke, iii. 3.
 
 446 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 mount also, in which he pointed out to his disciples the ways of 
 blessedness, having proposed, as it were, the subject-matter of 
 his discourse, he commenced with the kingdom of heaven ; for 
 he says : " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the king- 
 dom of heaven " (Matt. v. 3 ; Luke, vi. 20). Nay more, to 
 those who would detain him with them he assigned as the 
 cause of his departure the necessity of preaching the kingdom 
 of heaven : " To other cities also I must preach the kingdom 
 of God; therefore am I sent" (Luke, iv. 43). This same 
 kingdom he afterwards commanded the apostles to preach 
 (Matt. x. 7) ; and to him who expressed a wish " to go and 
 bury " his " father," he replied : " Go thou, and preach the 
 kingdom of God " (Luke, ix. 60) ; and after he had risen from 
 the dead, during the forty days on which he appeared to his 
 apostles, he spoke of "the kingdom of God" (Acts, i. 3). 
 This second petition, therefore, parish-priests will treat with 
 the greatest attention, that their faithful hearers may under- 
 stand its great importance and necessity. 
 
 QUESTION II. What this Second Petition contains. 
 
 In the first place, they will find its judicious and accurate 
 exposition much facilitated by the reflection, that [the Redeemer] 
 commanded this petition, although united with all the others, to 
 be also offered separately from the rest, that we may seek with 
 the greatest earnestness the object of 'our prayer ; for he says: 
 " Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these 
 things shall be added unto yon " (Matt. vi. 33). And, indeed, 
 so great is the efficacy and profusion of heavenly gifts contained 
 in this petition, that it embodies all things necessary for pre- 
 serving corporal and spiritual life. What king, who pays no 
 attention to those things on which depends the safety of his 
 kingdom, should we deem worthy of the name ? If, then, men 
 are solicitous for the safety of their kingdom, how great is the 
 providential care with which we must believe that the King of 
 kings guards the life and safety of men ? In this petition, 
 therefore, regarding the kingdom of God are comprised all 
 things that we stand in need of in our present pilgrimage, or 
 rather exile; and these God graciously promises that he will 
 grant us, for he immediately subjoined ; " All these things shall 
 be added unto you" (Ibid.) ; thus unequivocally declaring, that 
 he is that King who with bounteous hand bestows upon man- 
 kind an abundance of all things ; in the contemplation of whose 
 boundless benignity David was absorbed, when he sang : " The 
 Lordruleth me, and I shall want nothing" (Ps. xxii. 1).
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XI. 447 
 
 QUESTION III. What must be done by those who wish to obtain 
 the Fruit of this Petition. 
 
 But it is not at all enough that we earnestly petition for the 
 kingdom of God, unless we employ in our petition all the instru- 
 ments, as it were, by which it is sought and found. For the 
 five foolish virgins also earnestly petitioned in these words : 
 " Lord, Lord, open to us " (Matt. xxv. 11) ; but because they 
 had not wherewith to fortify that petition, they were excluded ; 
 not without good reason, for God himself has said: "Not every 
 one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven" (Ib. vii. 21). 
 
 QUESTION IV. Reasons to excite in Men a Desire for the 
 Kingdom of God. 
 
 The priests, therefore, who are charged with the care of souls, 
 will draw from the most exuberant fountains of the sacred Scrip- 
 tures those considerations, which are calculated to excite in the 
 faithful the desire and pursuit of the kingdom of heaven (see 
 beginning of this chapter) ; which place before their eyes our 
 calamitous condition ; and which should so affect them that, re- 
 flecting and "returning to" themselves (Luke, xv. 19), they 
 may call to mind the supreme bliss and the unspeakable goods 
 with which the eternal abode of God our Father abounds. Here 
 we are exiles (Heb. xi. 13), inhabitants of a land in which 
 dwell demons, whose hatred to us is immitigable, for they are 
 the most malignant and implacable foes of mankind. What 
 shall we say of those domestic and intestine battles in which the 
 soul and the body, the flesh and the spirit, are continually en- 
 gaged against each other ;* in which we have always to appre- 
 hend defeat ; apprehend ? nay, in which instant defeat must be 
 inevitable, were we not defended by the protecting right hand 
 of God. Feeling this weight of misery, the Apostle exclaims : 
 " Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body 
 of this death ? " (Rom. vii. 24). 
 
 QUESTION V. How great is the Misery of Man is shown by a 
 Comparison of other things with Man. 
 
 This misery of our race, although it strikes us at once of 
 itself, may yet be more easily understood by comparison with 
 other natures and created things. In them, whether irrational 
 or even inanimate, we seldom see it happen that they depart 
 from the acts proper to them, from instinct, or the movement 
 
 * Matt. xxvi. 41 ; Rom. vii. 18 ; GaL v. 17.
 
 443 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 imparted to them by nature, so as to deflect from their proposed 
 and determinate end (James, iii. 11, sqq.). This is so obvious 
 in the beasts of the field, in fishes, birds, that it needs not elu- 
 cidation ; but if we look to the heavens, do we not behold the 
 verification of what has been said by David? " For ever, 
 Lord, thy word standeth firm in heaven" (Ps. cxviii. 89). 
 Constant in their motion, and uninterrupted in their revolution, 
 they depart not in the least from the laws prescribed by the 
 Creator. If we consider the earth and the rest of the universe, 
 we may easily perceive that they adhere strictly to, or depart 
 but very little from [the laws of their being]. But unhappy 
 man is constantly lapsing, seldom realizes his good purposes, 
 generally abandons and contemns what he commenced well ; 
 his best resolutions, which had recently pleased, suddenly dis- 
 please, and, after their rejection, he plunges into projects to 
 himself at once degrading and pernicious. 
 
 QUESTION VI. Chief Cause of all Miseries. 
 What then is the cause of this inconstancy and misery ? 
 Manifestly a contempt of the divine inspirations ;* for we close 
 our ears to the admonitions of God ; we are unwilling to raise 
 our eyes to the divine lights which are borne before us, nor do 
 we listen to our heavenly Father when instructing to salvation. 
 To depict to the eyes of the faithful people the miseries of 
 man's condition, to detail the various causes of those miseries, 
 and to point out efficacious remedies for their removal, must, 
 therefore, employ the zealous exertions of parish-priests. In 
 the discharge of all these duties, their labour will be not a little 
 facilitated by employing what has been said by John Chrysos- 
 tom and Augustine,f men of eminent sanctity ; but principally 
 by consulting our exposition of the Creed.J For, with a know- 
 ledge of these truths, who will be so abandoned a man as not 
 to endeavour, aided by the preventing grace of God, like the 
 prodigal son mentioned in the Gospel (Luke, xv. 17, sqq.), to 
 rise, stand erect, and come into the presence of his heavenly 
 King and Father ? 
 
 QUESTION VII. Meaning of the words " Kingdom of God " in 
 the Sacred Scriptures. 
 
 Having explained these matters, [pastors] will unfold the 
 nature of this fruitful petition of the faithful, and the objects 
 
 * Prov. i. 24 ; Isa. Ixv. 12, Ixvi. 4 ; Jer. vii. 13. | Chrys. ad. 
 pop. Antioch. horn, xviii. n. 4 ; bom. v. n. iv. ; ad Stagir. a Daem. vex. 
 I. 1, n. 5 ; Aug. opus imperf. c. Jul. 11. vi. de civ. Dei, 1. xxi. c. 14 ; 
 1. xxii. c. 22 ; Enchir. c. 23, s<iq. J See pp. 18, 19, 40, 53, 54.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XI. 449 
 
 for which it sues ; the declaration of which becomes the more 
 necessary, as the words " kingdom of God " have a variety of 
 significations, the exposition of which will not be found without 
 advantage in elucidating other passages of Scripture, and is 
 necessary to the knowledge of our present subject. The words, 
 " kingdom of God," then, commonly signify not only that 
 power which he possesses over all men, and over universal crea- 
 tion, but also his providence, by which he rules and governs all 
 things ; and in this sense they frequently occur in the sacred 
 Scriptures. " For in his hand," says the prophet, " are the 
 ends of the earth " (Ps. xciv. 4). By the word " ends " are 
 understood also those things that lie hidden and buried in the 
 depths of the earth, and in the inmost recesses of the universe; 
 and in this sense Mardochaeus exclaimed : " Lord, Lord, 
 Almighty King, for all things are in thy power, and there is 
 none that can resist thy will : thou art Lord of all, and there is 
 none that can resist thy Majesty " (Esth. xiii. 9, 11). 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Of what sort is the Kingdom of Christ towards 
 the Pious. 
 
 By the kingdom of God is also declared that special and 
 singular plan of providence by which God protects and takes 
 care of pious and holy men ; and of this peculiar and pre- 
 eminent care of God, David speaks, when he says: " The Lord 
 ruleth me, and I shall want nothing " (Ps. xxii. 1) ; and Isaias : 
 "The Lord is our King: he will save us" (Isa. xxxiii. 22). 
 But, although even in this life, pious and holy men are, as we 
 said, placed in a special manner under this kingly power of God, 
 yet did Christ the Lord himself inform Pilate, that his king- 
 dom is not of this world,* that is to say, has not at all its 
 origin in this world, which was both created and is doomed to 
 perish. This is the tenure on which empire is held by em- 
 perors, kings, commonwealths, dukes, and all those who govern 
 states and provinces at the desire and election of men, or who, 
 by violent and unjust usurpation, have seized upon sovereign 
 power. Not so Christ the Lord, who, as the prophet declare.--, 
 is appointed king by God (Ps. ii. 6) ; whose kingdom, according 
 to the Apostle, is '-justice;" for he says: "The kingdom of 
 God is justice and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 
 xiv. 17). 
 
 QUESTION IX. How Christ reigns in his Faithful. 
 
 But Christ the Lord reigns in us by the interior virtues, faith, 
 hope, charity, virtues by which we are in some sort constituted 
 
 * John, vi. 15, xviii. 36 ; Luke, xxii. 25. 
 
 2 F
 
 450 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 a portion of his kingdom ; and being in a peculiar manner sub- 
 ject to God, we are consecrated to his worship and veneration ; 
 that, as the Apostle said, "I live, now not I ; but Christ liveth 
 in me ;"* so we may say : I reign, yet not I ; but Christ reign- 
 eth in me. But this kingdom is called "justice," because it is 
 based on the justice of Christ the Lord ; and of this kingdom 
 the Lord speaks thus in St. Luke : " The kingdom of God is 
 within you" (Luke, xvii. 21). For although Jesus Christ reigns 
 by faith in all who are within the bosom of our holy Mother the 
 Church ; yet does he in a special manner rule those who, en- 
 dued with superior faith, hope, and charity, have yielded them- 
 selves as- pure and living members to God; and in these is 
 said to consist the kingdom of grace. 
 
 QUESTION X. Of the Kingdom of Glory of Christ our Lord. 
 
 By the words [" kingdom of God "] is also meant that king- 
 dom of his glory, of which we hear Christ the Lord saying in 
 St. Matthew : " Come ye blessed of my Father, possess the 
 kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world " 
 (Matt. xxv. 34). This same kingdom the thief in St. Luke, 
 admirably acknowledging his crimes, begged of him in these 
 words : " Lord, remember me when thoti shalt come into thy 
 kingdom " (Luke xxiii. 42) : of this kingdom St. John also 
 speaks: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy 
 Ghost he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John, iii. 5) ; 
 and of it likewise the Apostle makes mention to the Ephesians: 
 "No fornicator, nor unclean, nor covetous person (which is a 
 serving of idols), hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ 
 and of God " (Eph. v. 5). To it also refer some parables of 
 Christ the Lord, when speaking of the kingdom of heaven.f 
 
 QUESTION XI. Of the Nature and Diversity of the Kingdom of 
 Grace and of Glory. 
 
 But the kingdom of grace must necessarily precede that of 
 glory, for the glory of God cannot reign in any one in whom his 
 grace has not reigned. Grace, according to the saying of the 
 Redeemer himself, " is a fountain of water springing up unto 
 eternal life " (John, iv. 14) ; and how shall we designate glory 
 otherwise than a certain perfect and absolute grace ? (Rom. vi. 
 23) : for as long as we are clothed with this frail and mortal 
 body, whilst, weak and wandering in this dark pilgrimage and 
 exile, we are separated from the Lord, having rejected the aid 
 
 * Gal. ii 20; Aug. ep. 130, c. 4, n. 9, c. 8, n. 15, c. 13, n. 24, c. 
 14, n. 27. f Matt. xiii. 24, sqq., 31, sq., 33, 44, sqq., xx. 1, sqq. 
 xxii. 2.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XI. 451 
 
 of the kingdom of grace by which we were supported, we often 
 stumble and fall ; but when the light of the kingdom of glory, 
 which is perfect (1 Cor. xiii. 10), shall have shone upon us, we 
 shall stand for ever firm and permanent ; for every imperfection 
 and inconvenience shall be utterly removed : every infirmity 
 shall be strengthened and invigorated ; in fine, God himself will 
 reigu in soul and body. This matter was treated by us at 
 large, when speaking of " the resurrection of the body."* 
 
 QUESTION XII. Chief Object of this Petition to God. 
 
 Having thus explained the common acceptation of the words, 
 " kingdom of God," we now ( come to speak of the particular 
 object sought for in this petition. In it, then, we beg of God 
 that the kingdom of Christ, which is the Church, may be ex- 
 tended ; that infidels and Jews may turn to the faith of Christ 
 the Lord, and to the acceptance of the knowledge of the true 
 God ; that schismatics and heretics may return to soundness, 
 and to the communion of the Church of God, from which they 
 have deserted ; that thus may be fulfilled and realized what the 
 Lord spoke by the mouth of Isaias : " Enlarge the place of thy 
 tent, and stretch out the skins of thy tabernacles : lengthen 
 thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes ; for thou shalt pass on 
 to the right hand and to the left ; for he that made thee shall 
 rule over thee " (Isa. liv. 2, 3, 5). And again : " The Gentiles 
 shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy 
 rising : lift up thy eyes round about and see : all these are 
 gathered together, they are come to thee : thy sons shall 
 come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up at thy side " 
 (Isa. Ix. 3, sq., ii. 2, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XIII. Second Object of this Petition. 
 
 But as in the Church there are those who, confessing God in 
 words, denying him in deeds (Tit. i. 16). exhibit a deformed 
 faith, in whom, because of sin, the devil dwells and rules as in 
 his proper abodes, we also pray that to them may come the 
 kingdom of God, by which, the darkness of sin having been dis- 
 pelled, and being illumined by the rays of the divine light, they 
 may be restored to their former dignity of children of God ; that 
 all heresy and schism being removed, and all offences and causes 
 of crimes being ejected from his kingdom, the heavenly Father 
 may cleanse the floor of the Church (Matt. iii. 12) ; and that, 
 worshipping God in piety and holiness, she may enjoy undis- 
 turbed and tranquil peace. 
 
 * See p. 110, sqq.
 
 452 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. Third Object of this Petition. 
 
 Finally, we pray that in us God alone may live, alone may 
 reign ; that death may no longer exist, but may be " swallowed 
 up in " the " victory " of Christ our Lord (1 Cor. xv. 54 ; Isa. 
 xxv. 8), who, having broken and scattered " all principality, 
 power, and virtue " of the enemy, may " put all" things " under 
 his " dominion.* 
 
 QUESTION XV. Chief Duties and Matters for Contemplation pre- 
 sented to Christians by occasion of this Petition. 
 But parish-priests will take care to teach the faithful people, 
 and this the nature of the petition demands, with what thoughts 
 and meditations they should be impressed, to be able to offer 
 this prayer piously to God. And first, they will exhort them, 
 to consider the force and import of that similitude set forth by 
 the Saviour : " The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure 
 hidden in a field; which when a man hath found, he hideth, 
 and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all he hath, and 
 buyeth that field " (Matt. xiii. 46) ; for he who has known the 
 riches of Christ the Lord, will despise all things when compared 
 to them: to him wealth, riches, power, will be as dross; for 
 there is nothing that can be compared to, or at all stand before 
 that invaluable treasure.t Whoever, therefore, has been blessed 
 with this knowledge, will exclaim with the Apostle : " I esteem 
 all things to be but loss, and count them but as dung, that I 
 may gain Christ " (Phil. iii. 8). This is that precious jewel of 
 the Gospel, to purchase which he who sells all his earthly goods 
 shall enjoy eternal bliss (Matt. xiii. 46). 
 
 QUESTION XVI. How desirable is the Kingdom of Christ through 
 Grace in this World, and through Glory in the World to come. 
 
 happy we, should Jesus Christ shed on our path so much 
 light, as that we may be able to see this jewel of divine grace, 
 by which he reigns in those that are his ; for then would 
 we sell all that we have on earth, and even ourselves, to pur- 
 chase and preserve it ; for then, in fine, should we confidently 
 say : " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Rom. 
 viii. 35.) But would we know the surpassing excellence of the 
 kingdom of glory, let us hear the concurrent language and 
 sentiment of the prophet and of the apostle : " Eye hath not 
 seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, 
 what things God had prepared for them that love him " (Isa. 
 Ixiv. 4 ; 1 Cor. ii. 9). 
 
 " 1 Cor. xv. 24, sq. ; Col. ii. 15 ; Heb. ii. 14. t Jt>> xxxviii. sqq. ; 
 Prov. viii. 10, sq.; Wisd. vii. 8, sqq.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XI. 453 
 
 QUESTION XVII. Of the Humility with which we should 
 accompany this and the other Petitions. 
 
 To obtain the object of our prayers, it will be most available 
 to reflect within ourselves who we are, that is, children of Adam, 
 justly outcasts (Gen. iii. 23, sq.) and exiles (Heb. xi. 13) from 
 paradise, whose unworthiness and perversity would call for God's 
 supreme hatred and everlasting punishments. We ought, there- 
 fore, to be of humble and lowly mind ;* our prayers, too, will be 
 full of Christian humility ; and diffiding entirely in ourselves, we 
 shall seek refuge, like the publican (Luke, xviii. 13), in the 
 mercy of God ; and, attributiug all to his bounty, shall render 
 immortal thanks to him who has bountifully imparted to us his 
 Spirit, relying on whom, we are emboldened to say, " Abba, 
 Father " (Rom. viii. 15). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. What Efforts we should make finally to 
 attain the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 We will also be careful to consider what is to be done, what 
 on the other hand to be avoided, in order to be able to arrive 
 at the kingdom of heaven ; for we are not called by God to ease 
 and indolence (Matt. xx. 6) ; nay, he declares, that " the king- 
 dom of heaven snffereth violence, and the violent bear it 
 away " (Ib. xi. 12 ; Luke, xvi. 16) ; and : " If thou wilt enter 
 into life, keep the commandments " (Matt. xix. 17 ; Luke, 
 x. 26, sqq.). It is not enough, therefore, to pray for the king- 
 dom of God, unless men themselves also give their attention and 
 exertions to its attainment ; for they ought to co-operate with 
 and preserve the grace of God, in pursuing that course that leads 
 to heaven (1 Cor. iii. 9). God, who has promised to be with 
 us at all times (Matt, xxviii. 20), never abandons us ; so that 
 we have only to see that we forsake not God and ourselves. 
 And, indeed, in this kingdom of the Church, all those succours 
 by which he defends the life of man, and accomplishes his eter- 
 nal salvation, are from God (Rom. xi. 36 ; James, i. 17), be they 
 invisible to us, such as those which we receive from the hosts of 
 angelic spirits,! or visible, such as we receive from the sacra- 
 ments, those most abundant sources of celestial virtue.J Iii 
 these, so great a safeguard has been divinely ordained for u?, 
 that we may not only be secure from the dominion of our most 
 determined foes, but may also lay prostrate, and trample under 
 foot, the tyrant himself and all his nefarious satellites. 
 
 *See Part iv. c. vii., sqq. t See Part iv. c. ix. q. iv., sqq. 
 t See p. 126, sqq. Matt. ix. 34, xii. 24. ; Mark, iii. 22 ; Luke, 
 xi. 15.
 
 454 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. Conclusion of this Petition, and another 
 brief Exposition thereof. 
 
 Wherefore, in conclusion, let us earnestly implore of the Spirit 
 of God, that he command us to do all things in accordance with 
 his will ; that he overthrow the empire of Satan, so as that 
 he may have no power over us on that last great day * that 
 Christ may conquer and triumph ;t that his laws may be in 
 force throughout the world (Matt. xxiv. 14) ; that his decrees 
 may be observed ; that there be no traitor to, or deserter from, 
 him ; but that all may so conduct themselves, as to come with 
 confidence into the presence of God their King,J and may reach 
 the possession of the celestial kingdom, prepared for them from 
 all eternity in the fruition of endless bliss with Christ. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON THE THIRD PETITION. 
 
 "THY WILL BE DONE." 
 
 QUESTION I. Why " Thy will be done " is immediately subjoined 
 to the Petition for the coming of God's Kingdom. 
 
 As has been said by Christ the Lord : " Not every one that 
 saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of hea- 
 ven ; but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, 
 he shall enter into the kingdom of heaveu,"|| whosoever desire 
 to reach that heavenly kingdom, ought to beg of God, that his 
 will may be done ; and therefore is the petition to that effect 
 placed here, immediately after that which prays for the coming 
 of his kingdom. 
 
 QUESTION II. How we may arrive at the right understanding of 
 this Petition. 
 
 But that the faithful may understand how necessary to ns is 
 that which we ask in this petition, and how great an abundance 
 
 * Matt. vii. 22, x. 15, xxiv. 36 ; Luke, xvii. 24. 26, 30; John, vi. 
 39, sq., 44, 55 ; 1 Cor. i. 8, v. 5 ; 2 Cor. i. 14; Phil. i. 6, 10 ; 1 Thess. 
 ii. 2 ; 2 Tim. iv. 8 ; 1 Pet. ii. 12 ; Jud. v. 6. t 1 Cor. xv. 25, sqq. 54, 
 sqq. ; 2 Cor. ii. 14. J Rom. v. 2 ; Eph. ii. 18, iii. 12. g Matt. xxv. 34, 
 xx. 23 ; 1 Pet. i. 4, sq. || Matt. vii. 21 ; Horn. ii. 13 ; James, i. 22.
 
 TART IV. CHAPTER XII. 455 
 
 of salutary gifts we may obtain through its concession, parish- 
 priests will point out the miseries and calamities, with which 
 mankind has been oppressed on account of the sin of our first 
 parent. 
 
 QUESTION III. What Evils the Prevarication of our First 
 Parent brought upon the Human Race. 
 
 For from the beginning God implanted in creatures an 
 innate desire of their own good (Eccl. vii. 30; James iii. 
 14, sqq.); that by a sort of natnral propensity, they might 
 seek and desire their proper end, from which, unless im- 
 peded by some external obstacle, they never deviate. This 
 propensity to seek his end, which is God, the Author 
 and Parent of his happiness, was originally a more noble 
 and exalted principle in man, because endowed with reason and 
 judgment. But whilst irrational creatures had preserved this, 
 their innate love, and having been, as first created, good by 
 nature, so continued, and to this day continue in that state and 
 condition, the unhappy race of men held not their course ; for it 
 not only lost the goods of original justice, with which it had 
 been supernaturally gifted and adorned by God, but also 
 obscured the predominant love of virtue, implanted in the soul. 
 " All," says he, " have gone aside; they have become unprofit- 
 able together; there is none that doth good, no, not one (Ps. Iii. 
 4; Rom. iii. 12); " for the imagination and thought of man's 
 heart are prone to evil from his youth " (Gen. viii. 21, vi. 5) ; so 
 that it may hence be easily understood, that of himself no man 
 is wise unto salvation, but that all are prone to evil (Rom. vii. 
 19, sqq.); and that innumerable are the corrupt propensities of 
 men, by which they are hurried with ardent impetuosity to anger 
 and hatred, to pride, to ambition, to almost every species of evil 
 (Rom. i. 26, sqq.). 
 
 QUESTION IV. Man, although overwhelmed by many Miseries, is 
 yet ignorant of his own State. 
 
 Although we are continually beset by these evils; yet, and 
 this is the greatest misery of our race, there are many of them 
 that appear to us not at all evils, a proof of the very calamitous 
 condition of men, who, blinded by passions and lusts, see not 
 that what they deem salutary are generally pestiferous : nay, 
 who are hurried with precipitation towards those pernicious evils, 
 as towards a desirable and enviable good ; whilst they abhor as 
 the contrary the things that are really good and virtuous. Of this 
 false estimate and corrupt judgment, God expresses his detesta-
 
 456 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 tion in these words : " Wo to you that call evil good, and good 
 evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that 
 put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter" (Isa. v. 20). 
 
 QUESTION V. How the sacred Scriptures place before our eyes 
 this our Misery. 
 
 In order, therefore, to place before onr eyes our miseries, the 
 sacred Scriptures compare us to those who have lost the natural 
 sense of taste; and who, in consequence, loathe wholesome food, 
 and relish what is unwholesome. They also compare us to sick 
 persons ;* for as they, unless they shake off disease, cannot till 
 the offices or discharge the duties of sound and strong men; so 
 neither can we, without the aid of divine grace, perform actions 
 acceptable to God. 
 
 QUESTION VI How great is the Infirmity of Men in the Corrupt 
 State of Nature for the Performance of anything Good. 
 
 And if thus circumstanced, we accomplish some things, they 
 are trivial, and of little or no moment towards the attainment of 
 heavenly bliss ; but never shall we be able unless assisted by 
 divine grace, to love and serve God as we ought, which is some- 
 thing greater and more exalted than in our present prostrate 
 condition, we can accomplish by human strength. 
 
 QUESTION VII. In Divine Things we are altogether like 
 Children. 
 
 Another most appropriate comparison to illustrate the mise- 
 rable condition of the human race, is that by which we are 
 likened to children, who, left to their own discretion, are hastily 
 excited to everything. We, I say, if deserted by the divine 
 protection, are children, imprudent, given to ludicrous conversa- 
 tions and frivolous pursuits ; for wisdom thus reproves us : 
 " children, how long will you love childishness, and fools 
 covet those things which are hurtful to themselves ? " (Prov. i. 
 22). And the Apostle thus exhorts us : '* Do not become 
 children in sense" (1 Cor. xiv. 20). We, however, are the 
 dupes of greater silliness and grosser error than children ; for 
 they want only human prudence, which, however, they may 
 attain of themselves in time ; whereas we, unless guided and 
 assisted from above, can never aspire to the divine prudence 
 which is necessary to salvation ; for, having spurned those 
 things that are really good, unless God's assistance be at hand, 
 we rush on voluntary destruction. 
 
 Ps. vi. 3, cvi, 12; Isa. i, 6, liii. 4; Matth. viii. 17, ix. 12.
 
 J?ART IV. CHAPTER XII. 457 
 
 QUESTION VIII. For Evils so great what Remedy is proposed 
 in this Petition. 
 
 And should any one, his mental darkness being dissipated 
 from above, descry these miseries of men, and, awakening 
 from his lethargy, feel the law of the members, recognize the 
 desires of sense as repugnant to the spirit (Rom. vii. 20), and 
 discern every propensity of our nature to evil, who can avoid 
 ardently seeking a suitable remedy for this so great an evil 
 entailed on us by the corruption of nature, and sigh for that 
 salutary rule by which the life of a Christian is to be regulated, 
 and to which it is to be made conformable ? This, then, is 
 what we implore when we thus pray to God, " Thy will be 
 done ;" for when, having cast off obedience and the will of God, 
 we fell into these miseries (Rom. v. 19), that sole corrective of 
 such great evils was proposed to us by God, that we live at last 
 in conformity to his will, which by sinning we despised, and 
 measure all our thoughts by that rule; and to be enabled to 
 attain this end, we suppliantly beg that of God, " Thy will be 
 done." 
 
 QUESTION IX. This Petition must be used by the Just also, ivho 
 already obey God. 
 
 The same should also be earnestly asked by those in whose 
 souls God already reigns, and who have already been illumined 
 with the rays of the divine light, by the aid of which grace they 
 may obey the will of God. Although thus gifted, yet their 
 own passions thwart them, on account of the propensity to evil 
 implanted in the sensual appetites of men ; so that even though 
 we be of their number, we are here still exposed to great 
 danger from ourselves, lest, drawn aside and allured by " the 
 concupiscences which war in " our " members, 1 '* we again stray 
 from the way of salvation, of which danger Christ the Lord 
 has admonished us in those words : " Watch ye and pray, that 
 ye enter not into temptation : the spirit indeed is willing, but 
 the flesh weak" (Matt. xxvi. 41). 
 
 QUESTION X. Concupiscence, which no one can utterly extinguish, 
 is still strong in the Just. 
 
 To reduce the desires of the flesh to such a state of subjec- 
 tion as that they may never after be excited, is not in the 
 power of man, not even of him who has been justified by the 
 grace of God ; for although the grace of God heals the mind of 
 those who are justified, it heals not the flesh also, of which the 
 
 * James, i. 14, iv. 1 ; see Council of Trent, Sess. vi. cc. 10, 12, 13.
 
 458 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 Apostle has written : " I know that there dwelleth not in me, 
 that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good " (Rom. vii. 18); 
 for when once the first man lost original justice, by which the 
 passions were bridled, as it were, reason was no longer able to 
 restrain them within duty, so as not to desire those things that 
 are repugnant also to reason. Hence the Apostle says that sin, 
 that is, a propensity to sin, " dwelleth in" the flesh (Ib. 20), 
 in order to give us to understand that it does not, like a stran- 
 ger, make a temporary stay with us, but. as an inhabitant of 
 onr body, takes up its permanent abode in our members as long 
 as we live. Continually beset, then, as we are by domestic and 
 intestine enemies, we at once perceive the necessity of flying to 
 the assistance of God, and of praying that his will be done in 
 us. We must now proceed to make known to the faithful the 
 force of this petition. 
 
 QUESTION XI. Meaning of the " Witt of God'' in this Petition. 
 
 Omitting in this place many questions on the will of God, 
 which are usefully and copiously discussed by scholastic doctors,* 
 we say that here the word " will" is taken for that which they 
 are wont to call "the will of sign,"f that is, for that which 
 God has commanded or admonished us to do or to avoid. In 
 this place, therefore, under the word "will" are comprehended 
 all things that are proposed to us as the means of attaining the 
 bliss of heaven, whether they regard faith or morals ; all things, 
 in fine, which Christ the Lord has commanded or prohibited us 
 to do, either in person or through his Church ; and of this will 
 the Apostle writes thus: "Become not unwise, but understand- 
 ing what is the will of God" (Eph. v. 17). 
 
 QUESTION XII. What is the meaning oft/ie Third Petition. 
 
 When, therefore, we pray, "Thy will be done," we first 
 beseech our heavenly Father to enable us to obey the divine 
 comma iuls. and to serve him " in holiness and justice all our 
 days " (Luke, i. 75) ; to do all things in accordance with his 
 will and pleasure ; to exercise those offices, of which we are ad- 
 monished in the sacred Scriptures : to perform under his guidance 
 and with his assistance all other things that become those "who 
 are born not of the will of the flesh, but of God " (John, i. 13 ; 
 1 Peter, i. 23), following the example of Christ the Lord, who 
 was " made obedient unto death, even unto the death of the 
 
 * Anselm. de volun. Dei ; Thorn. Aq. in 1, sent. dist. 45-48 ; 
 Bonaveut. in 1, sent, dist 4">, qu. 1, a 4. t Thorn. Aq. in 1, sent, 
 dist. 45, qu. 1, a. 4 ," Voluutas sigoi"
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XII. 459 
 
 cross " (Phil. ii. 8) ; to be prepared to suffer all things rather 
 than depart even in the least from his will. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. To whom chiefly it is granted to burn moat 
 ardently with Zeal and Love for the things prayed for here. 
 
 Nor is there any one who burns more ardently with the desire 
 and love of this petition, than he to whom it has been given to 
 contemplate the surpassing dignity of those who obey God. He 
 it is who understands, that most truly has it been said, that to 
 serve God and obey him is to reign:* "Whoever," saith the 
 Lord, " shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven ; 
 he is my brother and sister and mother ;"t that is, to him am 
 I most closely united by all the bonds of benevolence and love. 
 The saints, with scarcely an exception, most earnestly begged 
 of God the principal gift contained in this petition :J all indeed 
 made use of this admirable prayer, but very often in different 
 language ; and amongst them we see David, whose words breathe 
 such wonderful sweetness, pouring out the same prayer in 
 various aspirations, at oue time exclaiming : " ! that my 
 ways may be directed to keep thy justifications" (Ps. cxviii. 5); 
 at another time saying : " Lead me into the path of thy com- 
 mandments (Ib. 35); sometimes: "Direct my steps according 
 to thy word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me" (Ib. 
 133). In the same spirit he says: "Give me understanding, 
 and I will learn thy commandments " (Ib. 73) ; " Teach me thy 
 judgments" (Ib. 108); "Give me understanding, that I may 
 know thy testimonies" (Ib. 125). He often expresses, and 
 varies the same sentiment in other words ; and the passages are 
 to be carefully noticed and explained to the faithful ; that all 
 may understand ho\v great is the efficacy and abundance of 
 salutary things comprehended in the first part of this petition. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. What we further signify in this Petition. 
 
 In the second place, when we pray, " Thy will be done," we 
 express our detestation of the works of the flesh ; of which the 
 Apostle has written: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest; 
 which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, 
 witchcraft, enmities, contentions, emulations, wrath, quarrels, 
 dissensions, sects, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelliugs, and 
 such like (Gal. v. 19, sqq.) ; and : " If you live according to the 
 flesh, you shall die " (Rom. viii. 13). We also beg of God, not 
 
 * Vid. Ann. Senecse lib. de vita beata, cap. 15 ; D. Bern, de S. 
 Andrea Ap. fer. 11, n. 1, 2. ep. 114, n. 2, ep. 412, n. 1 ; de Divers, 
 fer. 26, n. 4 t Matt. xii. 50 ; Mark, ill 35 ; Luke, viii. 21. J Matt. 
 xxvi. 42 ; Luke, xxiL 42 ; Acts, xxi. 14.
 
 460 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 to suffer us to do those things, which sense, which concupiscence, 
 which our infirmity shall suggest, but that we govern our will 
 by his own. Voluptuaries, who are intent on the thought and 
 care of earthly things, are estranged from this will of God ; for 
 they are borne headlong to the indulgence of their sensual 
 appetites, and place their happiness in their gratification ; also 
 pronouncing him blessed who attains what he desires. We, 
 on the contrary, beg of God, as the Apostle says, that we 
 " make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscence (Ib. xiii. 
 14 ; Gal. v. 16), but that his "will be done." 
 
 QUESTION XV. It is better to wish God's Will to be done 
 than our own. 
 
 We are not, however, easily brought to pray God not to 
 satisfy our inordinate desires ; for to this it is difficult to bring 
 the mind, because, by asking it, we seem in some sort to hate 
 ourselves, which those who are entire slaves to the flesh also 
 attribute to folly. But be it ours willingly to incur the impu- 
 tation of folly for sake of Christ,* who has said : " If any 
 man will come after me, let him deny himself ;"t especially as 
 we know that it is much better to desire what is right and 
 just, than to obtain what is opposed to reason, to virtue, to the 
 laws of God. And certainly the condition of the man who 
 attains what he desired rashly and under the impulse of passion, 
 is worse than that of him who obtains not the object of his best 
 wishes. 
 
 QUESTION XVI. Even those things which bear the Semblance of 
 Piety must not be sought for from God. 
 
 We, however, ask not only that what we ourselves spon- 
 taneously wish for be not granted us by God, vitiated as we 
 know is our inclination, but that that also be not given, which 
 we sometimes ask for as good, under the persuasion and im- 
 pulse of the devil, who transforms himself into an angel of 
 light (2 Cor. xi. 14). The desire of the prince of the apostles 
 when endeavouring to dissuade the Lord from his determination 
 to go to meet death, appeared most reasonable and most pious ; 
 and yet did the Lord severely rebuke him, because he was led 
 by human feelings, not by divine influence (Matt. xvi. 22, sq.). 
 What more loving towards the Lord seems possible to have 
 been asked than what the holy men, James and John, in their 
 anger against the Samaritans for refusing to entertain their 
 Master, besought of him, to command fire to descend from 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 25; ii. 14, iii. 19. t Matt. xvi. 24; Mark, viii. 34; 
 .Luke, ix, 23.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XII. 461 
 
 heaven to consume tho#e obdurate and inhuman men ? Yet they 
 were reproved by Christ our Lord in these words : " You know 
 not of what spirit you are : the Son of man came not to destroy 
 souls, but to save."* 
 
 QUESTION XVII. When the things we desire regard the preser- 
 vation of Nature we must especially ask that they may take 
 place, if it be the Will of God. 
 
 Nor ought we to pray to God that his will be done then only 
 when what we desire is evil, or has the appearance of evil, 
 but also when it is really not evil, as when the will follows 
 that first inclination of nature that prompts it to desire the 
 things necessary for our preservation, and to reject what appears 
 the contrary. Wherefore when we come to pray for anything 
 of this sort, let us then say from the heart : " Thy will be 
 done :" let us imitate him from whom we have received salva- 
 tion and the discipline of salvation ; who, when naturally 
 agitated by the innate dread of torments and of a most cruel 
 death, yet in that horror of extreme torture howed his will with 
 submission to that of his diviue Father : " Not my will," says 
 he, "but thine be done."t 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. Since without the Assistance of God we 
 cannot avoid Sin, that too we ask in this Petition. 
 
 But wonderfully has the race of men been depraved, who, 
 when even they have done violence to their concupiscence, 
 and subjected it to the divine will, yet cannot avoid sins without 
 God's assistance, by which we are protected from evil and 
 directed to good. To this petition, therefore, we must have 
 recourse, and must beseech God to perfect in us what he has 
 begun ; to repress the turbulent motions of desire ; to render our 
 appetites subject to reason ; to make us, in fine, entirely con- 
 formable to his will. We also pray that the whole world may 
 receive the knowledge of God's will (1 Tim. ii. 4) ; that "the 
 mystery of God, hidden from ages and generations " (Col. i. 26, 
 sq. ; Eph. iii. 4, sq.), may be made known and manifest to all. 
 
 
 QUESTION XIX. Meaning of this Clause. 
 
 " On earth as it is in heaven." We also pray for the form 
 and manner of this obedience, namely, that it be directed ac- 
 cording to that rule which the blessed angels observe in heaven, 
 and the choir of other celestial spirits follows ; that as they spoii- 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 11 ; John, iiL 17, xiL 47. t Matt. xxvi. 39 ; Mark, 
 xiv. 36 ; Luke, xxii. 42.
 
 462 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 taneously, and with supreme delight, obey the divine Majesty, 
 so we may yield a most cheerful obedience to the will of God, in 
 the manner most acceptable to him. 
 
 QUESTION XX. God should be obeyed, not for sake of Reward, 
 but for Love of him. 
 
 And, indeed, God requires, that in serving him we be 
 actuated by intense love and exalted chanty; that, although 
 we have devoted ourselves entirely to him with the hope of 
 heavenly rewards, we yet hope for them, because it has pleased 
 the divine Majesty that we should enter into that hope. 
 Wherefore, let our whole hope be based on that love for God 
 who has proposed eternal happiness as the reward of our love ; 
 for there are those who serve another with love, but yet for 
 sake of reward, which is the whole aim of their love. Others 
 there are, who, influenced by love alone, and by devotedness, 
 look to nothing else in him whom they serve, than his good- 
 ness and worth, filled with the idea and with admiration of 
 whom, they deem themselves happy in being able to serve 
 him. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. Other Expositions of that Clause. 
 
 This is the meaning of that opposition, " On earth as it is 
 in heaven ;" for we must endeavour, as much as possible, to be 
 obedient to God, as we have said the blessed spirits are, whose 
 praises, in discharging this duty of profoundest obedience, David 
 celebrates in that psalm : " Bless the Lord, all ye his hosts ; ye 
 ministers of his that do his will" (Ps. cii. 21). Should any 
 one, however, following St. Cyprian, so interpret them as to 
 say that " in heaven" means, in the good and the pious, and 
 " on earth," in the bad and the impious,* we also approve of 
 his opinion, by the word " heaven," understanding " the spirit,' 
 and by the word " earth," " the flesh," that all creatures, 
 animate and inanimate, may in all things obey the will of 
 God. 
 
 QUESTION XXII. How this Petition also contains Thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 This petition also includes thanksgiving ; for we revere his 
 most holy will, and filled with the greatest joy, celebrate all 
 his works with the highest praises and gratulations, knowing 
 as we do with certainty that " he hath done all things well."t 
 
 * De Orat. Dom. t Gen. i. 31 ; Eccli. xxxix. 21, 39 ; Mark, 
 
 vii, 37.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XII. 463 
 
 For as God is confessedly omnipotent, it necessarily follows 
 that we understand all things to have been created at his com- 
 mand ; and since we also affirm, as is the case, that he is the 
 supreme Good, we confess that all his works are good, for to 
 all he imparted his own goodness. But if in all things we 
 fathom not the divine economy, disregarding, however, in all 
 things cause of ambiguity, and rejecting all hesitation, we pro- 
 fess with the Apostle that " unsearchable are his ways " 
 (Rom. xi. 33). We also find a most powerful motive for 
 revering the will of God in the reflection, that by him we have 
 been made worthy of his heavenly light ; for he " hath de- 
 livered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us 
 into the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Col. i. 13). 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. What this Petition proposes to our Con- 
 templation. 
 
 But to explain in the last place what regards meditation 
 on this petition, we must revert to what we glanced at in the 
 beginning, that in uttering this petition, the faithful ought to 
 be of humble and lowly mind, keeping in view the innate vio- 
 lence of inordinate desires, which revolt against the divine 
 will ; reflecting that in this duty [of obedience], man is excelled 
 by all natures, of whom it is written : " All things serve 
 thee" (Ps. cxviii. 91) ; and that he must be very weak, who, 
 unless supported by the assistance of God. is unable not only to 
 perform, but even to undertake any work acceptable to God 
 (1 Cor. xv. 10 ; 2 Cor. iii. 5). But as there is nothing more 
 magnificent, nothing more exalted than, as we said, to serve 
 God, and to live according to his law and precepts, what can 
 be more desirable to a Christian man, than to " walk in the" 
 ways "of the Lord" (Ps. cxviii. 1); than to think nothing, 
 to undertake nothing, that is at variance with the will of God? 
 In order, then, that the faithful may adopt this practice, and 
 adhere to this course of life with the greater diligence, let [the 
 pastor] take from the divine books examples of those who 
 failed in all their undertakings, by not referring their views to 
 the will of God.* 
 
 QUESTION XXIV. What great Advantage towards leading a 
 tranquil Life we may derive from Meditation on this 
 Petition. 
 
 Finally, let the faithful be admonished to acquiesce in the 
 simple and absolute will of God : let him who thinks that he 
 
 * Ex. v. 2 ; Num, xx. 2, sqq. ; Deut. xi. 1 ; Kings, xxviii. 5, sqq.
 
 464 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 holds a place in society inferior to his desert, bear his lot with 
 equanimity: let him not abandon his own sphere; but " abide 
 in the same calling in which he was called" (1 Cor. vii. 20 ; 
 Eph. iv. 1), and subject his own judgment to the will of God, 
 who consults for our interests better than we ourselves can 
 desire. If oppressed by poverty, if by sickness, if by persecu- 
 tions, if by other troubles and afflictions, we must be firmly 
 convinced, that none of these things can befall us without the 
 will of God, which is the supreme reason of all things ; and 
 that therefore we ought not to be too grievously disturbed by 
 them, but to bear them with unconquered mind, having always 
 on our lips that [of the Apostles], "The will of the Lord be 
 done" (Acts, xxi. 14); and that of holy Job, "As it hatli 
 pleased the Lord, so is it done : blessed be the name of the 
 Lord " (Job, i. 21). 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ON THE FOUETH PETITION. 
 "GIVE us THIS DAT OUR DAILY BREAD." 
 
 QUESTION I. What Order is to be observed in this Prayer 
 of our Lord. 
 
 The fourth and following petitions, in which we particularly 
 and expressly pray for succours of soul and body, are subor- 
 dinate to those that preceded ; for the Lord's prayer has this 
 order and arrangement, that we ask for what regards the body 
 and its sustenance after the petition for divine things, because, 
 as men are referred to God as to their ultimate end, so in like 
 manner are the goods of human life directed to goods divine. 
 
 QUESTION II. Why the Goods of Human Life are lawfully 
 desired and asked from God. 
 
 The former, therefore, are to be desired and prayed for, either 
 because the divine order so requires, or because we stand in 
 need of those helps to the acquisition of divine goods, that by 
 those aids we may attain our proposed end, which is comprised 
 in the kingdom and glory of our heavenly Father, and in the 
 practice and observance of those precepts which we know to 
 emanate from the will of God. To God, therefore, and to his 
 glory, we should refer all the force and purport of this petition.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XIII. 465 
 
 QUESTION III. With what end and limit temporal G<.ods are 
 to be asked. 
 
 [Pastors], then will perform their duty towards their faithful 
 hearers, by endeavouring to make them understand that, in 
 asking those things which appertain to the use and enjoyment 
 of earthly matters, their mind and heart are to be directed to a 
 conformity with the ordinance of God, from which we are not 
 in the least to swerve ; for by these petitions for things terrene 
 and transient, we but too often transgress in what the Apostle 
 writes: "We know not what we should pray for, as we ought" 
 (Rom. viii. 26). These goods, therefore, " we should pray for 
 as we ought," lest, praying for anything as we ought not, we 
 receive from God for answer : " You know not what you ask " 
 (Matt. xx. 22). But a sure mark to judge what petition is 
 bad, or what good, will be the design and purpose of the 
 petitioner. For if any one seek things earthly with the idea 
 that they are absolutely good, and, resting in them as in the 
 desired end, seek nothing else, he undoubtedly does not pray as 
 he ought ; for, as St. Augustine says, " We ask not these tem- 
 poral things as our goods, but as our necessaries."* The Apostle 
 also, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, teaches, that whatever 
 regards the necessary purposes of life ought to be referred to 
 the glory of God : " Therefore, whether you eat or drink," says 
 he, " or whatever else you do, do all things for the glory of 
 God."t 
 
 QUESTION IV. How many and what great Goods Man enjoyed 
 in the state of innocence. 
 
 But that the faithful may see how great is the necessity o' 
 this petition, parish-priests will remind them how much we 
 stand in need of external things for the maintenance and pre- 
 servation of life. This they will more fully comprehend if the 
 wants of the first father of our race be compared with those of 
 his posterity. For although he, in a most exalted state of 
 innocence, from which he, and through his fault, all his posterity 
 fell, found it necessary to use food to recruit his strength ;"J 
 yet, between his necessities and the necessities to which our life 
 is subject, there exists a wide difference. For he would not 
 have stood in need of clothes to cover his body, not of a house 
 to shelter him, not of weapons to defend him, not of medicine 
 to restore health, not of many other things, the aid of which 
 we require for the protection and preservation of this our weak 
 
 * De aer. Dom. in mont. 1. ii. c. 16, n. 53. t 1 Cor. x. 31 ; Rom. 
 liv. 6 ; CoL iii. 17. J Thorn. Aq. S. th. 1 p. qu. 97, 
 
 2 G
 
 466 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 and frail nature. For him would have sufficed to immortal life 
 that fruit, which the most productive tree of life would have 
 spontaneously yielded to him and his posterity (Gen. ii. 9, iii. 
 22). Nor was man, whom God had placed hi that abode of 
 pleasure to lead an active life, to be unoccupied amid such great 
 delights of paradise (Gen. ii. 15) ; but to him no employment, 
 would have been troublesome, no duty unpleasant. From the 
 cultivation of those happy gardens he would have ever derived 
 the most delicious fruits, nor would his labours or hopes be ever 
 frustrated. 
 
 QUESTION V. What great Evils followed the prevarication of 
 Adam. 
 
 But his posterity are not only deprived of the fruit of the 
 tree of life, but are also visited with this horrible sentence of 
 condemnation : " Cursed is the earth in thy work: with labour 
 and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns 
 and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the 
 herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
 'thy' bread, till thou return to the earth, out of which thou 
 wast taken ; for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return " 
 (Gen. iii. 17, sq.). Entirely different, therefore, is our lot from 
 what his and that of his posterity would have been, had Adam 
 been obedient to the command of God.* Therefore have all things 
 been thrown into disorder, and have been changed utterly for the 
 worse; and of the consequent evils a most grievous one is, that 
 very often no fruit follows the heaviest cost, the greatest labour 
 and toil, either because the crops deteriorate, are smothered by 
 the springing up of noxious weeds, or perish stricken and pros- 
 trated by rains, storm, hail, blight, or blast, so that, by some 
 calamity arising from the weather or soil, all the labour of the 
 year is in little time reduced to nothing. This is caused by 
 the grievousness of our crimes, by which God being turned 
 away, blesses not our labours ; but the dreadful sentence remains 
 which he pronounced on us in the beginning : " In the sweat of 
 thy face shalt thou eat bread." 
 
 QUESTION VI. Men are obliged to labour in order to relieve 
 their Necessities ; yet, unless God be favourable, they labour 
 in vain. 
 
 Pastors, therefore, will apply themselves earnestly to the 
 treating of this subject, in order that the faithful people may 
 know that men fall iuto these perplexities and miseries through 
 
 * Cf. Lev. xx vL 15, sq. ; Deut. xxviii. 15, sqq.; PB, cvi. 34.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XIII. 467 
 
 their own fault; that they may understand that they indeed 
 must sweat and toil to procure the necessaries of life ; but that 
 unless God bless our labours, our hope must prove fallacious, 
 and all our exertions unavailing; for "neither he that planteth 
 is anything, nor he that watereth; but God who giveth the 
 increase" (1 Cor. iii. 7); and: "Unless the Lord build the 
 house, they labour in vain that build it " (Ps. cxxvi. 1). 
 
 QUESTION VII. God must be implored to supply those things of 
 which we stand in need ; this he does abundantly. 
 
 Parish-priests, therefore, will teach that the things necessary 
 to human existence, or, at least, to its comforts, are almost innu- 
 merable ; for by this knowledge of our wants and weaknesses, 
 the Christian people will be compelled to have recourse to their 
 heavenly Father, and humbly to solicit from him terrestrial and 
 celestial blessings. They will imitate the prodigal son, who, 
 when he began to experience want in a far distant country, and 
 there was no one who, when he hungered, might give him the 
 husks of swine, at length returning to himself, perceived that 
 for the evils by which he was oppressed he could expect a 
 remedy from no one but from his father (Luke, xv. 14, sqq.). 
 Here the faithful people will also have recourse more confidently 
 to prayer, if, in reflecting on the benignity of God, they recol- 
 lect that his paternal ears are ever open to the cries of his 
 children ; for, whilst he exhorts us to ask for bread, he promises 
 to bestow it on us abundantly if we ask it as we ought ; for, by 
 teaching us how to ask, he exhorts; by exhorting, he urges; 
 by urging, he promises ; by promising, he puts us in hope of 
 most certainly obtaining it. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Meaning of the word Bread, and Import of 
 this Petition. 
 
 When, therefore, the minds of the faithful are thus animated 
 and inflamed, [the pastor] will next proceed to declare the ob- 
 jects of this petition ; and first, what is that bread which we 
 ask. It should then be known that, in the sacred Scriptures, 
 by the word, " bread," are signified many things,* but 
 those two principally, first, whatever we use for food, and for 
 other corporal wants ; secondly, whatever the divine bounty 
 has bestowed on us for the life and salvation of the soul. But 
 
 * Cf. Gen. xiv. 18, xlix. 20 ; Ex. xvi. 32, xxv. 30, xxix. 2 ; Lev. 
 xxiii. 14, 17 ; Num. xiv. 9; Deut. viii. 3; 1 Kings, xxi. 6 ; 2 Kings, 
 xii. 20; Job, xx. 14; Ps. xl. 10, ci. 5 ; Isa. xxviii. 28; Jer. xi 19; 
 John, vi. 31, sqq.
 
 468 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 in this place, according to the interpretation and authority of the 
 holy Fathers, we ask those succours of which we stand in need 
 in this life. 
 
 QUESTION IX. It is shown that Temporal Blessings may be 
 asked of God. 
 
 Those, therefore, who say that it is unlawful for Christian 
 men to ask from God the earthly goods of this life, are by no 
 means to be listened to ; for to this error are opposed, besides 
 the unanimous opinions of the Fathers,* very many examples 
 both in the Old and New Testament. For Jacob, making a 
 vow, prayed thus : " If God shall be with me, and shall keep 
 me in the way by which I walk, and shall give me bread to eat, 
 and raiment to put on, and I shall return prosperously to my 
 father's house, the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which 
 I have set up for a title, shall be called the house of God ; and 
 of all things thou shalt give to me, I will offer up tithes to 
 thee" (Gen. xxviii. 20, sqq.). Solomon also asked a certain 
 means of subsistence in this life, when he prayed: "Give me 
 neither beggary nor riches : give me only the necessaries of 
 life" (Prov. xxx. 8). Nay, the Saviour of mankind himself 
 commands us to pray for those things, which no one will dare 
 deny appertain to the benefit of the body. " Pray," says he, 
 " that your flight be not in the winter, or on the Sabbath " 
 (Matt. xxiv. 20). St. James also says : " Is any one of you 
 sad ? Let him pray. Is he cheerful in mind ? Let him sing " 
 (James, v. 13). And the apostle thus addresses himself to the 
 Romans : " I beseech you, therefore, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and by the charity of the Holy Ghost, that you assist me 
 in your prayers for me to God, that I may be delivered from the 
 unbelievers that are in Judea " (Rom. xv. 30, sq.). As, then, 
 the faithful are divinely permitted to ask those temporal suc- 
 cours, and as this perfect form of prayer was delivered by 
 Christ the Lord, there remains no doubt that it constitutes 
 one of the seven petitions. 
 
 QUESTION X. By the word " Bread " is here understood what 
 regards the Wants of the Body. 
 
 We also ask our daily bread, that is, the things necessary for 
 sustenance, understanding by the word " bread," what is suffi- 
 cient for raiment and for food, whether it be bread, or flesh, or 
 
 * Cypr. de Orat. Dom. ; Basil. M. regul. brev. tract, interrog. 252 ; 
 Constit. monast. c. 1, n. 3; Chrys. in Joan. horn. 43, D. 2; Cypr. ad 
 Dem.; Thorn. Aq. in iv. Sent. dist. 15, qu. 4, a. 4.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XTII. 469 
 
 fish, or anything else ; for in this sense we find Eliseus to have 
 used the word when admonishing the king to afford bread to 
 the Assyrian soldiers, to whom was given a large quantity of 
 meats (4 Kings, vi. 22, sq.). We also know that of Christ the 
 Lord it is written, that he "went into the house of a certain 
 prince of the Pharisees on the Sabbath day to eat bread " 
 (Luke, xiv. 1), by which word we see are signified the things 
 that appertain to meat and drink. To comprehend the full sig- 
 nification of this petition, it is moreover to be observed that by 
 this word bread ought not to be understood an abundant and 
 exquisite profusion of meats and clothing, but what is necessary 
 and simple ; as the Apostle has written : " Having food and 
 wherewith to be covered, with these we are content " (1 Tim. 
 vi. 8) ; and Solomon, as we said, " Give me only the neces- 
 saries of life " (Prov. xxx. 8). 
 
 QUESTION XI. Why we here ask not simply " Bread," but 
 "our Bread." 
 
 Of this frugality and parsimony we are admonished in the 
 next word [of the prayer] ; for when we say " our," we ask for 
 that bread to satisfy our necessities, not to gratify luxury ; for 
 we do not say " our," because of ourselves, and independently 
 of God, we can procure it ; for we read in David, " All expect 
 of thee, that thou give them food in season : what thou givest 
 to them they shall gather up : when thou openest thy hand they 
 shall all be filled with good " (Ps. ciii. 27, sq.) ; and in another 
 place : u The eyes of all hope in thee, Lord, aud thou givest 
 them meat in due season" (Ps. cxliv. 15) ; but because it is 
 necessary, and is given to us by God, the Father of all, who, by 
 his providence, feeds all living creatures (Cf. ib. cxlvi. 9). 
 
 QUESTION XII. The Bread which we desire to eat, if we ask 
 " our Bread," is to be procured by our labour. 
 
 It is also called " our " bread for this reason, that it is to be 
 acquired by us lawfully, not by injustice, fraud, or theft; for 
 what we procure by evil arts is not our own, but the property 
 of another ; and its acquisition or possession, or, at least, its 
 loss, is generally calamitous ; whilst, on the contrary, there is 
 in the honest and laborious gains of pious men, tranquillity aud 
 great happiness, according to these words of the Prophet : 
 " For thou shall eat the labours of thy hands : blessed art thou, 
 and it shall be well with thee " (Ps. cxxvii. 2). To those who 
 seek subsistence by honest labour, God promises the fruit of his 
 benignity in that passage, " The Lord will send forth a blessing 
 upon thy storehouses, and upon all the works of thy hands, aud
 
 470 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 will bless thee " (Deut. xxviii. 8). Nor do we solely beg of 
 God to grant us to use, with the aid of his benignity, the fruit 
 of our virtuous toil, for that is truly called ours, but we also 
 pray for a good mind, that we may be able well and prudently 
 to use what we have acquired well. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. Why this word " Daily" is also added. 
 By this word also is suggested the idea of frugality and par- 
 simony, of which we have just spoken; for we pray not for 
 variety or delicacy of meat, but for that which may satisfy the 
 necessary demands of nature ; so that they should here blush 
 who, loathing with fastidiousness ordinary meat and drink, look 
 for the rarest viands and the choicest wines. Nor by this word 
 " daily " are they less censured to whom Isaias holds out these 
 awful threats : " Woe to you that join house to house, and lay 
 field to field, even to the end of the place : shall you alone 
 dwell in the midst of the earth ?" (Isa. v. 8) ; for the cupidity ^of 
 such men is insatiable, of whom Solomon has written : " A 
 covetous man shall not be satisfied with money" (Eecl. v. 9); 
 to whom also applies that saying of the Apostle : " They who 
 would become rich, fall into temptation and into the snare of 
 the devil" (1 Tim. vi. 9). We also call it " our daily bread, ' 
 because we use it to recruit the vital humour that is daily con- 
 sumed by the force of the natural heat [of the system]. 
 Finally, another reason for the use of the word " daily" is the 
 necessity of assiduously beseeching God that we may be kept 
 in the practice of loving and serving him, and that we may be 
 thoroughly convinced, as is the case, that on God depend our 
 life and salvation." 
 
 QUESTION XIV. What these two words, " Give us," mean. 
 
 "Give us." What ample matter these two words afford for 
 exhorting the faithful piously and holily to worship and revere 
 the infinite power of God, in whose hands are all things,! and 
 to detest that abominable ostentation of Satan : " To me all 
 things are delivered, and to whom I will I give them " (Luke 
 iv. 6) ; is obvious to every one ; for by the sovereign will of 
 God alone are all things dispensed, and preserved, and in- 
 creased. 
 
 QUESTION XV. Why the rich, although they abound in all 
 
 things, ought to use these words. 
 
 But what necessity, some one may say, is there imposed on 
 the rich to pray for their daily bread, whereas they abound in 
 
 * Ps. xxiii. 1 ; xlix. 12 ; xciv. 4 ; Esth. xiii. 9.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XIII. 471 
 
 all things ? They are under the necessity of praying thus, not 
 that those things, of which by the benignity of God they have 
 abundance, be given them, but that they may not lose what 
 they abundantly possess. Let, therefore, the rich, as the Apos- 
 tle writes, hence learn, " not to be high-minded, nor to hope in 
 uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us abun- 
 dantly all things to enjoy" (1 Tim. vi. 17). St. Chrysostom 
 adduces as a reason for the necessity of this petition, not only 
 that we may be supplied with the means of subsistence, but 
 " that we be supplied with it by the hand of God,"* which 
 imparts to " our daily bread" so salubrious and salutary an 
 influence, as to render the food profitable to the body, and the 
 body subject to the soul. 
 
 QUESTION XVI. Why we say "Give us," not "Give me." 
 
 But why say " give us," in the plural number, and not " give 
 me ? " Because it is the part of Christian charity, that each 
 individual be not solicitous for himself alone, but that he be also 
 active in the cause of his neighbour ; and that, whilst he attends 
 to his own interests, he forget not the interests of others.f 
 Moreover, the gifts which are bestowed by God on any one are 
 bestowed, not that he alone should possess them, or that, he 
 should live luxuriously in their enjoyment, but that he should 
 impart his superfluities to others ; as St. Basil and St. Ambrose 
 say, " It is the bread of the hungry that you withhold : it is 
 the clothes of the naked that you lock up : it is the redemption, 
 the freedom, the money of the wretched, that you bury under 
 ground. Know, then, that as many goods as you can and do 
 not bestow, so many do you usurp."}; 
 
 QUESTION XVII. What the words "This Day" intimate. 
 
 ' This Day." These words remind us of the common infir- 
 mity, for who is there that, although he hopes not to be able by 
 his own individual exertions to provide permanent subsistence, 
 does not feel confident of having it in his power to procure 
 necessary food for the day ? Yet even this confidence God 
 will not permit us to entertain, but has commanded us to ask 
 him for the food even of each successive day ; and the neces- 
 sary reason is, that as we all stand in need of daily bread, each 
 should also make daily use of the Lord's prayer. Thus much 
 on the bread which, received by the mouth, nourishes and sup- 
 
 * Chrys. Opus Imperf. in Matt. horn. 14. t Cf. 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 
 8q. ; Cypr. de Or. Dora. ; Thorn. Aq. S. Th. 2, 2, p. q. 83, a. 7. 
 J Basil, horn, in Luc. xii. 18, n. 7 ; Amb. 1. de Naboth de Jezrael.
 
 472 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 ports the body ; which, common to believers and unbelievers, 
 to pious and impious, is bestowed on all by the admirable bounty 
 of God, " who maketh his sun to rise on the good and the bad, 
 and raineth upon the just and the unjust " (Matt. v. 45 ; Luke, 
 M'I. 35). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. What is here to be understood by the Spiritual 
 Bread, which is also included in the Amplitude of this 
 Petition. 
 
 There remains the spiritual bread, which we also ask in this 
 place, by which are meant all things whatever that are required 
 for the health and safety of the spirit and soul. For as the 
 meat by which the body is nourished and supported is of 
 various sorts, so is the food, which preserves the life of the 
 spirit and soul, not of one kind ; for the word of God is the 
 food of the soul, as wisdom says : " Come, eat my bread, 
 and drink the wine which I have mingled for you " (Prov. ix. 
 5). When God deprives men of the means of hearing this his 
 word, which he is wont to do when grievously provoked by our 
 crimes, he is said to visit the human race with famine ; for we 
 thus read in Amos : u I will seud forth a famine into the land, 
 not a famine of bread, or a thirst of water, but of hearing the 
 word of the Lord" (Amos, viii. 11). And as an incapability 
 of taking food, or of retaining it when taken, is a sure sign of 
 approaching death ; so is it a strong proof of the utter hopeless- 
 ness of salvation, when men either seek not the word of God, 
 or, having it, endure it not, but utter against God the impious 
 cry, " Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy 
 ways " (Job, xxi. 14). . In this phrenzied state of mind and 
 mental blindness are those who, disregarding those Catholic 
 bishops and priests who legitimately preside over them, and 
 abandoning the holy Roman Church, have transferred them- 
 selves to the direction of heretics, corruptors of the word of 
 God. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. Of the true supernatural Bread, which is 
 Christ the Lord. 
 
 Christ the Lord is also that bread which is the food of the 
 soul : " I am," says he, " the living bread which came down from 
 heaven" (John, vi. 41). It is incredible with what pleasure and 
 delight this bread fills the souls of the pious, when they most 
 contend with earthly troubles and disasters ; and of this we have 
 an illustration in the holy choir of the apostles, of whom it is on 
 record : " They, indeed, went from the presence of the council,
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XIII. 473 
 
 rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for 
 the name of Jesus" (Acts, v. 41). The lives of the saints are 
 replete with similar examples ; * and of these inward joys of the 
 good, God thus speaks : " To him that overcometh I will give 
 the hidden manna" (Apoc. ii. 17). 
 
 QUESTION XX. Christ is truly contained in the Sacrament of the 
 Eucharist, and is therefore properly called our Bread. 
 
 But Christ the Lord, who is substantially contained in the 
 sacrament of the Eucharist, is himself pre-eminently our bread. 
 This ineffable pledge of his love he gave us, when about to re- 
 turn to the Father ; and of it he said ; " He that eateth my flesh, 
 and driuketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him" (John, vi. 
 57) : " Take ye and eat: THIS is MY BODY."t For useful matter 
 to the faithful people on this subject, parish-priests will recur to 
 what we have already said specially on the force and nature of 
 this sacrameut.J But it is called " our bread," because it is the 
 food of the faithful men only, that is, of those who, uniting 
 charity to faith, wash away the defilements of sins in the sacra- 
 ment of penance; who, not unmindful that they are the children 
 of God, receive and adore this divine sacrament with all possible 
 holiness and veneration. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. Why the Eucharist is called our " Daily 
 Bread. 
 
 But why it is called " daily," a twofold reason is at hand ; the 
 one, that in the sacred mysteries of the Christian Church it is 
 both offered to God daily, and is given to those who seek it 
 piously and holily : the other, that it should be received daily, or 
 at least that we should so live as to be worthy, as far as possible, 
 to receive it daily. Let those who, on the contrary, are of 
 opinion, that we should not partake of this salutary banquet of 
 the soul but at distant intervals, hear what St. Ambrose says : 
 "If it is daily bread, why do you receive it yearly? Receive 
 daily what may profit you daily. Live so as to be worthy to 
 receive daily." 
 
 QUESTION XXII. How we should be disposed, if we receive not 
 forthwith the sought-for Bread. 
 
 But in this petition the faithful are emphatically to be ex- 
 horted, when they have honestly used their best consideration 
 
 * Vid. Acta. Sanctor, die iv. Januar. die iii. August, etc. 1 1 Cor. 
 xi. 24 ; cf. Matt. xxvi. 26 ; Mark, xiv. 22 ; Luke, xxii. 19. J See p. 
 187, sqq. Ambr. de Sacram. I. v. c. 4, EL 25.
 
 474 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 and industry to procure the necessary means of subsistence, to 
 leave the issue to God, and submit their own wish to the will of 
 him who "shall not suffer the just to waver for ever" (Ps. liv. 
 23) ; for God will either grant what is asked, and thus they will 
 obtain their wishes ; or he will not grant it, and that will be a 
 most certain proof that what is denied to the pious by God, 
 who is more careful of their salvation than they themselves, is 
 not conducive either to their interest or their salvation. This 
 topic parish-priests will be able to amplify, by explaining the 
 reasons admirably collected by St. Augustine in his letter to 
 Proba.* 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. What Subject for Meditation here presents 
 itself. 
 
 In the exposition of this petition, the last duty [of the pas- 
 tor will be to exhort] the rich to recollect that they are to 
 look upon their wealth and riches as gifts of God, and to reflect 
 that those goods are accumulated on them in order that they 
 may share them with the indigent ; and with this truth the 
 words of the Apostle, in his First Epistle to Timothy, will be 
 found to accord (I Tim. vi. 17, sqq.), and will supply parish- 
 priests with an abundance of divine precepts wherewith to 
 elucidate this subject in a useful and salutary manner. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ON THE FIFTH PETITION. 
 " AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE ALSO FOUGIVE OUR DEBTORS." 
 
 QUESTION I. From the Passion of Christ has emanated tJie 
 remission of all our Sins. 
 
 Although so numerous are the things which display the 
 infinite power of God, combined with equal wisdom and good- 
 ness, that, turn our eyes and thoughts where we will, we meet 
 with the most certain signs of omnipotence and benignity; there 
 is truly nothing that more eloquently proclaims his supreme 
 love and admirable charity towards us, than the inexplicable 
 mystery of the passion of Jesus Christ (John, iii. 16 ; Rom. v. 8; 
 1 John, iv. 9), whence sprang that perennial fountain to wash 
 
 * Aug. ep. 130, c. 14, n. 26. See also p. 411, sqq.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XIV. 475 
 
 away the defilements of sins, in which, under the guidance and 
 bounty of God, we desire to be merged and purified, when we 
 beg of him to " forgive us our debts." 
 
 QUESTION II. What this Fifth Petition contains. 
 
 This petition contains a sort of summary of those benefits 
 with which the human race has been loaded through Jesus 
 Christ, as Isaias taught : " The iniquity of the house of Jacob 
 shall be forgiven ; and this is all the fruit, that the sin thereof 
 should be taken away" (Isa. xxvii. 9); as David also shows, 
 proclaiming those blessed, who could partake of the salutary 
 fruit, in these words : " Blessed are they, whose iniquities are 
 forgiven " (Ps. xxxi. 1 ; Rom iv. 7). Wherefore the meaning 
 of this petition, which we perceive to be so important to the 
 attainment of salvation, is to be considered and explained by 
 pastors accurately and diligently. 
 
 QUESTION III. How the Manner of Praying here is not 
 the same as in the preceding Petitions. 
 
 But we enter on a new manner of praying ; for hitherto we 
 asked of God not only internal and spiritual goods, but also 
 transient and temporal advantages ; whereas, we now deprecate 
 the evils of the soul and of the body, of this life and of the life 
 without end 
 
 QUESTION IV. What things are required in him who desires 
 to obtain the Pardon of Sin. 
 
 As, however, to obtain what we ask, we must pray as we 
 ought, it appears expedient to explain the dispositions, with 
 which this prayer should be offered to God. Parish-priests 
 then, will admonish the faithful people that he who comes to 
 offer this petition, must first acknowledge, and next feel sorrow 
 and compunction for his sins ; and must be firmly convinced 
 that to sinners, thus disposed and prepared, as we have said, 
 God is willing to grant pardon, a conviction necessary to 
 sinners, lest perchance the bitter remembrance and acknowledg- 
 ment of their sins should be followed by that despair of 
 pardon, which of old seized the mind of Cain (Gen. iv. 13), 
 and of Judas (Matt, xxvii. 4, sq. ; Acts, i. 18), both of whom 
 looked on God solely as an avenger and punisher, not also as 
 mild and merciful. In this petition, therefore, we ought to be 
 BO disposed, as that, acknowledging our sins in the bitterness of 
 our souls, we may fly to God as to a Father, not as to a Judge, 
 whom we implore to deal with us not according to his justice, 
 but according to his mercy.
 
 476 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION V. By what reasons Man may be brought to the 
 Acknowledgment of his Sins. 
 
 We shall be easily induced to acknowledge our sins, if we 
 listen to God himself admonishing us in the sacred Scriptures on 
 this head ; for we read in David : " They are all gone aside : 
 they are become unprofitable together : there is none that doeth 
 good, no not one" (Ps. xiii. 3, Hi. 4; Rom. iii. 10). Solomon 
 speaks to the same purport : " There is no just man upon earth, 
 that doth good, and sinneth not ;"* and to this subject apply 
 also these words ; " Who can say : my heart is clean, I am pure 
 from sin ?" (Prov. xx. 9 ; cf. Job, xiv. 4). The very same has 
 been written by St. John to deter men from arrogance : " If we 
 say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is 
 not in us " (1 John, i. 8); and by Jeremiah ; " Thou hast said : 
 I am without sin, and am innocent ; and therefore, let thy anger 
 be turned away from me. Behold, I will contend with thee in 
 judgment, because thou hast said: I have not sinned" (Jer. ii. 
 35). Their sentiments the same Christ the Lord, who spoke 
 them by their mouth, confirms by this form of prayer, in which 
 he commands us to confess our sins" Cf. 1 Pet. i. 11) ; for the 
 authority of the Council of Milevis has forbidden to interpret it 
 otherwise, in these words : " It hath pleased the Council, that 
 whosoever will have it, that these words of the Lord's prayer, 
 ' forgive us our debts,' are said by holy men in humility, not in 
 truth, be anathema ; for who can endure a person praying, and 
 lying not to men but to the Lord himself, saying with the lips 
 that he desires to be forgiven, but with the heart, that he has 
 no debts to be forgiven ? "f 
 
 QUESTION VI. How, after Sin is acknowledged, remorseful Grief 
 and true Repentance are excited in the Mind. 
 
 But in the necessary acknowledgment of our sins, it is not 
 enough to call them to mind lightly ; for it is necessary that 
 the recollection of them be bitter, that it touch the heart, stimu- 
 late the mind, and imprint sorrow. Wherefore, parish-priests 
 will treat this point diligently, that their faithful hearers may 
 not only recollect their sins and iniquities, but recollect them 
 with pain and sorrow : that, smarting in their inmost soula, they 
 may betake themselves to God their father, humbly imploring 
 him to pluck from the soul the inherent stings of sin. Pastors, 
 however, will not content themselves with placing before the 
 
 * Eccl. vii. 21 ; cf. 3 Kings, viii. 46 ; 2 Par. vi. 36. f Cone. Mil. 
 ii. can. 8; cf. Cone. Trid. sess. vi. c, xi.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XIV. 477 
 
 eyes of the faithful people the turpitude of sin ; but will also 
 depict the unworthiness and baseness of men, who, mere rot- 
 tenness and corruption that we are,* dare to outrage in a man- 
 ner beyond all belief the incomprehensible majesty and ineffable 
 excellence of God,t particularly after having been created, re- 
 deemed, and enriched by him with countless and invaluable 
 benefits. 
 
 QUESTION VII. How, by Sin, we deliver ourselves tip to the most 
 galling Servitude of the Devil. 
 
 And why ? that estranged from God our Father (Jer. iii 5), 
 who is the supreme God, and lured by the most base rewards of 
 sio, we may devote ourselves to the devil,J to become his most 
 wretched slaves ; for language is inadequate to depict the cruel 
 tyranny which he exercises over the minds of those who, having 
 shaken off the sweet yoke of God, and broken the most lovely 
 bond of charity, by which our spirit is bound to God our Father, 
 have gone over to their relentless enemy (1 Pet. v. 8), who is 
 therefore callecUn Scripture, " the prince and ruler of the world '' 
 (John, xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. 11), "the prince of darkness" 
 (Eph. vi. 12), and "king over all the children of pride" (Job, 
 xli. 25) ; and to those who are oppressed by the tyranny of the 
 devil truly apply these words of Isaias : " Lord our God, 
 other lords besides thee have had dominion over us" (Isa. 
 xxvi. 13). 
 
 QUESTION VIII. What great Evils Sin brings on the Soul. 
 
 If these broken covenants of love move us not, let at least the 
 calamities into which we fall by sin move us. The sanctity 
 of the soul is violated, which we know to have been wedded to 
 Christ : that temple of the Lord is profaned, against the con- 
 taminators of which the Apostle utters this denunciation : " If 
 any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. ''|| 
 Innumerable are the evils that sin has brought upon man ; which 
 almost infinite pest David expressed in these words : " There is 
 no health in my flesh, because of thy wrath ; there is no peace 
 for my bones, because of my sins " (Ps. xxxvii. 4). Doubtless 
 he marks the violence of the bane, by confessing that it left no 
 part of him uninfected by pestiferous sin ; for the poison of sin 
 
 *Cf. Isa. xL 6, sq. ; Eccli. xiv. 18, sq.; James, i. 10. sq.; 1 Pet. i. 
 24. t Job, xii. '26 ; Isa. vi. ; Jer. x. 6, sqq. J Acts, xiii. 10 ; 
 John, viii. 44 ; 2 Tim. ii. 26 ; 1 John, iii. 8, 10. Cf. Jer. ii. 2 ; 
 
 Osee, ii. 19 sq., 2 Cor. xi. 2. || 1 Cor. iii. 17, vi. 19 ; 2 Cor. vi. 
 
 16 ; Eph. ii. 21.
 
 478 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 had penetrated into his bones, that is, it infected his under- 
 standing and will, which are the two most solid faculties of the 
 soul. This wide-spread pestilence the sacred Scriptures point 
 out, when they designate sinners " the lame,"* " the deaf" (Isa. 
 xlii. 18, xliii. 8), " the dumb " (Ps. xxxvii. 14 ; Isa. Ivi. 10), 
 "the blind,"f "the paralysed" (Isa. i. 6). But, besides the 
 anguish which he felt as if from the enormity of his sins, David 
 was afflicted yet more by his knowledge of having provoked 
 the wrath of God against him ; for the wicked are at war with 
 God (Isa. lix.), by whose crimes he is offended beyond belief ; 
 for the Apostle says : " Wrath and indignation, tribulation and 
 anguish upon every soul of man thatdoth evil" (Rom. ii. 8, sq.). 
 For although the sinful act is transient, yet the sin by its guilt 
 and stain remains ; and the imminent wrath of God pursues it, 
 as the shadow does the body. 
 
 QUESTION IX. How, having perceived the Calamity of our Sins 
 we ought to be turned to Repentance. 
 
 When, therefore, David was pierced by these stings, he was 
 excited to sue for the pardon of his sins ; and that the faithful 
 hearers, imitating the prophet, may learn to grieve, that is, to 
 become truly penitent, and cherish the hope of pardon, parish- 
 priests will propose to them the example of his penitential 
 sorrow, and the lessons of instruction drawn from his fiftieth 
 Psalm. How great is the utility of this sort of instruction, 
 which teaches us to grieve for our sins, God himself declares by 
 the mouth of Jeremiah, who, when exhorting Israel to repen- 
 tance, admonishes him to awake to a sense of the evils that flow 
 from sin : " Know thou," says he, "and see that it is an evil and 
 a bitter thing for thee, to have left the Lord thy God, and that 
 my fear is not with thee, saith the Lord the God of hosts " (Jer. 
 ii. 19). They who want this necessary sense of acknowledg- 
 ment and grief, are said by the prophet Isaias (xlvi. 12), Ezechiel 
 iii. 7, xxxvi. 26), and Zachary (vii. 12), to have " a hard 
 heart," " a stony heart," "a heart of adamant;" for like stone, 
 they are softened by no sorrow, having no sense of life, that is, 
 of the salutary recognition [of their sinfulness]. 
 
 QUESTION X By what Meditations the hope of obtaining 
 
 Pardon is to be conceived, after the Acknowledgment and 
 Detestation of Sin. 
 
 But lest, terrified by the grievousness of their sins, the people 
 despair of being able to obtain pardon, parish-priests ought to 
 
 *Prov. xxvi. 6 ; Isa. xxxiii. 23; Jer.xxxi. 8 ; Luke, xiv. 13. 
 vL 10, xlii. 18, xliii. 8, Ivi. 10, lix. 10.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XIV. 479 
 
 invite them to hope by these considerations ; that, as is declared 
 in an article of the Creed, * Christ the Lord has given power to 
 the Church to remit sins,f and that in this petition he has taught 
 how great is the goodness and bounty of God towards mankind ; 
 for if God were not ready and prepared to pardon penitents their 
 sins, never would he have prescribed to us this formula of prayer : 
 " Forgive us our debts." Wherefore we ought to be firmly con- 
 vinced, that commanding us, as he does in this petition, to solicit, 
 be will also bestow on us, his paternal mercy. 
 
 QUESTION XI. In what manner, if we repent, God easily 
 pardons our Sins. 
 
 For this petition assuredly implies, that God is so disposed 
 towards us, as willingly to pardon us when truly peuitent.J For 
 God it is against whom, having cast off obedience, we sin ; the 
 order of whose wisdom we' disturb, as far as in us lies ; whom we 
 offend, whom we outrage by words and deeds ; but he is also our 
 most beneficent Father, who, having it in his power to pardon all 
 transgressions, has not only declared his willingness to do so, 
 but has also urged men to ask him for pardon, and has taught 
 in what words they are to do so. To no one, therefore, can it 
 be a matter of doubt, that, under his guidance, it is in our 
 power to conciliate the favour of God ; and as this attestation 
 of the divine willingness to pardon, increases faith, nurtures 
 hope, inflames charity, it will be worth while to amplify this 
 subject, by citing some scriptural authorities and examples of 
 men to whom, when repentant of the most grievous crimes, God 
 granted pardon. As, however, in the prefatory portion of this 
 prayer.|| and in that portion of the Creed which teaches of the 
 forgiveness of sins,^T we were as diffuse on the subject as 
 circumstances allowed, pastors will borrow from those places 
 whatever may seem pertinent for instruction on this point, for 
 the rest drawing on the fountains of the divine writings. 
 
 QUESTION XII. Wliat in that part of the Petition is to be 
 understood by the word " Debtors" 
 
 Let them also make use of the same plan, which we thought 
 should be used in the other petitions, that the faithful may 
 understand what the word " debts " here signifies, lest, perhaps, 
 
 * See p. 105, sqq. t Matt. xvi. 18, sq. xviii. 18 ; John xx. 23. 
 J Cf. Jer. xxxi. ; Ez. xviii. 21, sqq., xxxiii. 11, 14, sqq.; Matt ix. 13, 
 xi. 20, sqq. ; Eph. i. 7 ; 2 Pet. iii. 9 ; 1 John i. 9. E. g. Jud. x. 10, 
 sq. ; 1 Kings vii., 2 Kings xii. 13, xxiv. ; John iii. J Cf. p 430, sqq. 
 U See p. 105, sqq.
 
 480 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 deceived by its ambiguity, they pray for something different 
 from what should be prayed for. First, then, we are to know, 
 that we by no means ask for exemption from the debt we owe 
 to God on so many accounts, the payment of which is essential 
 to salvation, that of loving him with our whole heart, our whole 
 soul, and our whole mind ;* neither do we ask to be in future 
 exempt from the duties of obedience, worship, veneration, or 
 any other similar obligation, although comprised also under the 
 word " debts ;" but we pray that he may deliver us from our 
 sins. This is the interpretation of St. Luke, who, instead of 
 " debts," makes use of the word " sins " (Luke, xi. 4 ; vii. 
 41, sqq.) ; for this reason, that by their commission we become 
 responsible to God, and incur a debt of punishment, which we 
 liquidate by satisfaction or by suffering. Of this sort was the 
 debt of which Christ the Lord spoke by the mouth of his pro- 
 phet : " Then did I pay that which I took not away " (Ps. 
 Ixviii. 5) ; from which expression of the word of God we may 
 understand that we are not only debtors, but also unequal to 
 the payment of our debt, the sinner being of himself utterly 
 incapable of making satisfaction. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. As Sin is of itself unequal to the Payment of its 
 Debt, whence may Satisfaction be derived for the Debt con- 
 tracted by Sin. 
 
 Wherefore we must fly to the mercy of God ; and as justice, 
 of which God is most tenacious, is an equal and corresponding 
 attribute to mercy (Cf. Ps. c. 1), we must employ prayer, and 
 the advocacy of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 John, 
 ii. 1, sq.), without which no one ever obtained the pardon of 
 his sins, and from which, as from its source, have flown all the 
 efficacy and virtue of satisfaction. For of such value is that 
 price paid by Christ our Lord on the cross, and communicated 
 to us through the sacraments received either actually or in pur- 
 pose and desire, that it obtains and accomplishes for us the 
 pardon of our sins, which is the object of our prayer in this 
 petition. 
 
 QUESTION XIV. We here pray for the Indulgence and Remission 
 of Venial and Mortal Sin. 
 
 Here we ask pardon not only for our venial offences, for which 
 pardon may most easily be obtained, but also for grievous and 
 mortal sins, of which the petition cannot procure forgiveness, 
 
 * Deut. vi. 5 ; Matt. xxii. 37 ; Mark, xii. 30 ; Luke, x. 2 .
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XIV. 481 
 
 unless it derive that efficacy from the sacrament of penance, 
 received, as we have already said, either actually, or at least in 
 desire.* 
 
 QUESTION XV. Meaning of "our" in this, different from that 
 of " our " in the preceding Petition. 
 
 The word " our " we here use in a sense entirely different 
 from that in which we said, " our bread ;" for that bread is 
 ours, because it is given us by the munificence of God ; whereas 
 sins are ours, because with us rests their guilt : they are oar 
 voluntary acts, otherwise they would not have the character of 
 sin. Sustaining, therefore [the burden], and confessing [the 
 guilt of] our sins, we implore the clemency of God, which is 
 necessary for their expiation. In this we make use of no pal- 
 liation whatever, nor do we transfer the blame to others, as did 
 our first parents Adam and Eve (Gen. iiS. 12, sq.) : we judge 
 ourselve?, employing, if we are wise, the prayer of the prophet : 
 " Incline not rny heart to evil words, to make excuses in sins " 
 (Pa. cxl. 4). 
 
 QUESTION XVI. Why each Person says, "forgive us" 
 not " Forgive me." 
 
 Nor do we say, " forgive me," but, " forgive us ;" because 
 the fraternal relationship and charity, which subsist between 
 all men, demand of each of us in our solicitude for the common 
 salvation of our neighbours, when we pray for ourselves, to 
 pray abo for them. This manner of praying, delivered by 
 Christ the Lord, and subsequently received and always retained 
 by the Church of God, the apostles themselves most strictly 
 observed and enforced (Rom. i. 9 ; 2 Cor. xi. 28) ; and of this 
 ardent zeal and earnestness in praying for the salvation of our 
 neighbours, we have the splendid example of Moses in the Old, 
 and of St. Paul in the New Testament ; the former of whom 
 besought God thus: " Either forgive them this trespass; or, if 
 thou dost not, strike me out of the book that thou hast written" 
 (Ex. xxxii. 32) ; the latter after this manner : " I wished 
 myself to be an anathema from Christ for my brethren" 
 (Rom. ix. 3). 
 
 QUESTION XVII. How these words, " As we also forgive our 
 debtors," are to be understood. 
 
 " As we also forgive our debtors." That word " as " may be 
 understood in two senses ; for when we beg of God to pardon 
 
 * See p. 234 
 
 2 H
 
 4,82 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 ns our sins, as we pardon the wrongs and contumelies which we 
 receive from those by whom we have been injured, it has the 
 force of a comparison. It is also the mark of a condition, and 
 in this sense Christ the Lord interprets that formula : " If," 
 says he, " you forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father 
 will also forgive you your offences ; but if you will not forgive 
 men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins."* Either 
 sense, however, equally contains the necessity of forgiveness, 
 intimating as it does that, if we desire that God should grant 
 us the pardon of our offences, we ourselves must pardon those 
 from whom we have received injury ; for so rigorously does 
 God exact from us oblivion of injuries, and mutual affection 
 and love, that he rejects and despises the gifts and sacrifices of 
 those who are not reconciled to one another (Matt. v. 23, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. The Remission of all Injuries is proved to be 
 in accordance with the Dictates of Nature and the Mandates of 
 Christ. 
 
 To conduct ourselves towards others as we would have them 
 conduct themselves towards us, is an obligation founded also 
 upon the law of nature ;"f so that most shameless truly must 
 he be, who, whilst his breast is armed with enmity against his 
 neighbour, demands of God to pass over the punishment due 
 to his wickedness. Those, therefore, on whom injuries have 
 been inflicted, should be prepared and prompt to pardon, urged 
 to it as they are by this form of prayer, and by the command 
 of God in St. Luke : " If thy brother sin against thee, reprove 
 him ; and if he repent, forgive him ; and if he sin against thee 
 seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to 
 thee, saying, ' I repent,' forgive him " (Luke, xvii. 3, sq.) ; and 
 in the Gospel of St. Matthew thus : " Love your enemies ' 
 (Matt. v. 44 ; Luke, vi. 27) ; and the apostle, and before him 
 Solomon wrote : " If thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat ; 
 if he thirst, give him to drink" (Rom. xii. 20 ; Prov. xxv. 21); 
 and we read in the evangelist St. Mark : " When you shall 
 stand to pray, forgive if you have anything against any man ; 
 that your Father also who is in heaven, may forgive you your 
 sins " (Mark, xi. 25). 
 
 QUESTION XIX. By what Arguments the Minds of Men may 
 be bent to the lenity which God here demands. 
 
 But as through the fault of depraved nature, there is nothing 
 
 * Matt. vi. 14, sq.; Mark, xi. 25, sq. ; Eccli xxxviii. 2, sqq. 
 + Cf. ib. vii. 12 ; Luke, vi. 31 ; Tob. iv. 16.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XIV. 483 
 
 to which man brings himself more reluctantly than to the pardon 
 of injuries, let parish-priests exert all the powers and resources 
 of their minds to chauge and bend the dispositions of the 
 faithful to this mildness and mercy necessary to a Christian 
 man. Let them dwell on those passages of the divine oracles, 
 in which we may hear God commanding to pardon enemies ;* and 
 let them proclaim what is most true, that easily to forgive 
 injuries, and to love their enemies from the heart, is to men a 
 great proof of their being the children of God ; for in loving 
 onr enemies there shines forth in us some likeness to God our 
 Father (Cf. Rom. v. 8, sqq.), who, by the death of his Son, 
 ransomed from everlasting perdition, and reconciled to himself, 
 the human race, who before were his most inveterate enemies. 
 Let the close of this exhortation and injunction be the command 
 of Christ the Lord, which, without utter disgrace and ruin, we 
 cannot refuse to obey : " Pray for them that persecute and 
 calumniate you ; that you may be the children of your Father 
 who is in heaven " (Matt. v. 44, sq.). 
 
 QUESTION XX. How those should be dealt with who cannot 
 efface from the Mind all Recolltction of Injuries. 
 
 But here no ordinary prudence is required on the part of 
 pastors lest, knowing the difficulty and necessity of this pre- 
 cept, any one despair of salvation ; for there are those who, 
 aware that they ought to bury injuries in voluntary oblivion, 
 and love those that injure thorn, desire to do so, and do so as 
 far as they are able, but feel that they cannot efface from the 
 mind all recollection of iujuries. For there lurk in the mind 
 some remains of private grudge, in consequence of which they 
 are agitated by the great waves of [a troubled] conscience, 
 fearing that, not having simply and sincerely laid aside their en- 
 mities, they obey not the command of God. Here, therefore, 
 pastors will explain the opposite inclinings of the flesh and of 
 the spirit ; that the former is prone to revenge, the latter ready 
 to pardon ; that hence exist between them a continual struggle 
 and conflict.f Wherefore, they will show that, if the appetites 
 of corrupt nature are ever reclaiming against and opposed to 
 reason, we are not to yield to misgivings regarding salvation, 
 provided the spirit persevere in the duty and disposition of 
 forgiving injuries, and of loving our neighbour. 
 
 * E. g. Ex. xxiii. 4, sq.; Lev. xix, 17, sq.; Deut. xxii. 1, sqq. ; 
 1 Kings, xxiv. 5, sqq., xxvi. 10, sq. ; Job, xxxi. 28, sq.; Ps. vii. 5. 
 t Matt xxvi. 41; Kom. vii. 23, viii. 2, sqq. ; Gal. v. 17.
 
 484 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION XXI. Those who still retain the Desire nf Revenge, 
 may and ought to recite without Sin the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 Some, perhaps, there may be who, because thpy have not 
 
 yet been able to bring their mind, forgetting injuries, to love 
 
 their enemies, deterred, therefore, by the condition contained, 
 
 as we said, in this petition, do not make use of the Lord's 
 
 Prayer. To remove from their minds this pernicious error, 
 
 parish-priests will adduce the two following considerations : 
 
 that whoever belongs to the number of the faithful, offers this 
 
 prayer in the name of the entire Church,* in which there must 
 
 necessarily be some pious persons who have forgiven their 
 
 debtors the debts here mentioned ; and that, when we ask this 
 
 favour from God, we also ask for whatever co-operntion with 
 
 the petition is necessary on our part in order to obtain the 
 
 object of our prayer. For we ask the pardon of our sins and 
 
 the gift of true repentance ; we beg that we may be able to 
 
 abhor our sins, and confess them truly and piously to the priest. 
 
 As, then, it is also necessary for us to forgive those who inflicted 
 
 on us any loss or injury, when we ask pardon of God, we beg 
 
 of him, at the snme time, to grant us grace to be reconciled to 
 
 those against whom we harbour hatred. Those, therefore, who 
 
 are agitated by that groundless and perverse apprehension, that 
 
 by this prayer they provoke still more the wrath of God, are to 
 
 be deterred from such an opinion ; and are, on the contrary, to 
 
 be also exhorted to the frequent use of a prayer, in which they 
 
 beseech God our Father to grant them the disposition to forgive 
 
 those who have injured them, and to love their enemies. 
 
 QUESTION XXTI. What is to be done by him who wishes the 
 Prayer for the Remission of Sins to be fruitful to him. 
 
 But that the prayer may be really fruitful, we should first 
 seriously reflect that we are suppliants before God, soliciting 
 from him pardon, which is not granted but to the penitent ; 
 that we should, therefore, be endued with that charity and 
 piety that become penitents ; and that it eminently becomes 
 them, keeping, as it were, before their eyes their own crimes 
 and enormities, to expiate them with tears. With this consi- 
 deration should be united circumspection in guarding for the 
 future agaiust every occasion of sin, and against whatever may 
 expose us to the danger of offending God our Father. With 
 these cares the mind of David was occupied when he said : 
 " My sin is always before me " (Ps. 1. 5) ; and in another 
 
 * Thorn. Aq. S. th. 2, 2 P. qu. 83, a. 16, ex.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XTV. 485 
 
 place: "Every night I will wash my bed: I g will water my 
 couch with my tears " (Ps. vi. 7). Let each one also propose to 
 himself the most ardent love of prayer, with which they were 
 animated who obtained from God the pardon of their sins ; such 
 as that of the publican, who, standing afar off through shame 
 and grief, and with ey>s tixed on the ground, only smote his 
 breast, crying: " God, be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke, 
 xviii. 1 3) ; and also of the woman, " a sinner," who, standing 
 behind Christ the Lord, and having washed his feet and wiped 
 them with her hair, kissed them " (Ib. vii. 37, sq.) ; lastly, of 
 Peter, the prince of the apostles, who, "going forth, wept 
 bitterly " (Matt. xxvi. 75). 
 
 QUESTION XXIII. What are the chief Remedies to heal the 
 Wounds of the Soul. 
 
 They should next consider that the weaker men are, and the 
 more liable to diseases of the mind, which are sins, the more 
 numerous and frequent remedies they need j but the remedies 
 of a sick soul are penance and the Eucharist ; these, therefore, 
 let the faithful people very frequently apply. Next almsdeeds, 
 as the sacred Scriptures declare,* are a medicine suited to heal 
 the wounds of the soul ; wherefore, let those who desire to make 
 use of this prayer piously, act kindly to the poor according to 
 their means ; for of the great efficacy of alms in effacing the 
 stains of sin, the angel of the Lord in Tobias, holy Raphael, is 
 a witness, who says : " Alms deliver from death, and the same 
 is that which purge: h away sins, and inaketh to find mercy and 
 life everlasting " (Tob. xii. 9) ; Daniel is a witness, who thus 
 admonished king Nebuchodonosor : " Redeem thou thy sins with 
 alms, and thy iniquities with works of mercy to the poor" (Dan. 
 iv. 24). But an excellent benefaction and exercise of mercy, 
 is oblivion of injuries, and good will towards those who have 
 injured thee or thine, in person, in property, or character. 
 Whoever, therefore, desires to experience in a special manner 
 the mercy of God, should make an offering to God himself of 
 all his enmities, remit every offence, and pray for his enemies 
 with the greatest good will, seizing every opportunity of de- 
 serving well of them also. But as this subject was explained 
 when we treated the topic of murder, to that exposition we refer 
 parish-priests.t Let them, however, conclude this petition 
 with this final reflection, that nothing is, or can be conceived, 
 
 * Cf. Deut. xv. 7, sqq ; Tob. iv. 7, eqq.; Ps. xl. 2 ; Prov. xiv. 31 ; 
 Eccli. iii. 33 ; Luke, xi. 11, sqq. t See p. 360, sqq.
 
 486 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 more unjust, than that he, who is so rigorous towards men aa 
 to extend indulgence to no one, should himself demand of God 
 to be mild and benignant towards him. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ON THE SIXTH PETITION. 
 "AND LEAD us NOT INTO TEMPTATION." 
 
 QUESTION I. How great Danger there is lest, after receiving 
 Remission of Sins, we again relapse into Sin. 
 
 When the children of God, having obtained the pardon of 
 their sins, and being inflamed with the desire of giving to God 
 worship and veneration, long for the kingdom of heaven, and 
 when, engaged in the performance of all the duties of piety 
 towards the Deity, they depend entirely on his paternal will 
 and providence, then it is, no doubt, that the enemy of mankind 
 employs the more actively all his artifices, and prepares all his 
 machinery to attack them so violently as to justify the appre- 
 hension that, wavering and altered in their sentiments, they 
 may relapse into sin, and thus become far worse than they had 
 been before.* Of them may justly be said that of the prince of 
 the apostles : " It had been better for them not to have known the 
 way of justice, than, after they have known it, to turn back from 
 that holy commandment which was delivered to them " (2 Peter, 
 ii. 21). 
 
 QUESTION II. How Christ vjished to fortify us against the Snares 
 of our most Crafty Enemy. 
 
 Wherefore a precept to offer this petition has been given by 
 Christ the Lord, that we may commend ourselves daily to God, 
 and implore his paternal care and assistance, not in the least 
 doubting that, if we be deserted by the divine protection, we 
 must be held fast in the snares of our most crafty enemy. Nor 
 is it in this rule of praver alone that he has commanded ns to 
 beg of God not to suffer us to be led into temptation ; but in 
 his address to the holy apostles also, on the very eve of his 
 death, after he had declared them " clean" (John, xiii. 10), he 
 admonished them of this duty in these words: "Pray that ye 
 enter not into temptation. "f This admonition, reiterated by 
 Christ the Lord, imposes a weighty obligation of exciting the 
 
 * Cf. Matt. xii. 43, sqq. ; Luke, xi. 24, aqq. t Matt. xxyi. 41 ; 
 Mark, xiv. 38 ; Luke, xxiL 40.
 
 'PART rv. CHAPTER XT. 487 
 
 faithful people to a frequent use of this prayer, that, beset as 
 men hourly are by the enemy, the devil, with such great dangers 
 of this sort, they may assiduously address to God, who alone 
 can repel those dangers, the prayer, " Lead us not into tempta- 
 tion." 
 
 QUESTION III. From what Arguments chiefly Men may under- 
 stand the Necessity of this Petition. 
 
 The faithful people will understand how very much they 
 stand in need of this divine assistance, if they remember their 
 own weakness and ignorance, if they recollect this saying of Christ 
 the Lord : " The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak " 
 (Matt. xxvi. 41 ; Mark, xiv. 38); if they call to mind how griev- 
 ous and destructive are the misfortunes of men through the insti- 
 gation of the devil, if they be not upheld and assisted by the right 
 hand of the Most High. What more striking example can there 
 be of human infirmity, than the holy choir of the apostles, who, 
 having already evinced great courage, fled, having abandoned 
 the Saviour at the first approach of alarm (Matt. xxvi. 56). A 
 still more conspicuous example, however, is represented to us in 
 the conduct of the prince of the apostles, who, loud in pro- 
 fessing such singular fortitude and love towards Christ the 
 Lord, when a short time before, confiding well in himself, he 
 had said: "Though I should die with thee, I will not deny 
 thee" (Ib. 35), affrighted by the voice of a poor servant-maid, 
 at once affirmed with an oath that he knew not the Lord (Matt, 
 xxvi. 69, sqq.; Mark, xiv. 71). Doubtless his strength did not 
 correspond with such great alacrity of spirit ; but if, by the 
 frailty of human nature, in which they confided, most holy men 
 have sinned grievously ; what have not others to fear, who 
 are very far from their holiness ? 
 
 QUESTION IV. To how maw?/, and how great Temptations the 
 Life of Man is exposed. 
 
 Wherefore, let the parish-priests place before the faithful 
 people the conflicts and dangers in which we are continually en- 
 gaged, whilst the soul is in this mortal body, assailed as we are 
 on all sides by the world, the flesh, and the devil. How few 
 are there who are not compelled to experience at their great 
 cost what anger, what concupiscence can do in us ? Who is not 
 annoyed by these stings ? who does not feel these goads? who 
 does not burn with these smouldering torches ? And, indeed, 
 so various are these assaults, so diversified these attacks, that 
 it is extremely difficult not to receive some grievous wound. 
 And besides these enemies that dwell' and live with us (Mutt. x.
 
 488 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 36), there are, moreover, those most bitter foes, of whom it is 
 written: "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but 
 against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the 
 world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the 
 high places " (Eph. vi. 12). 
 
 QUESTION V. How grievous are the Assaults of Demons on us, i 
 explained from the opinion of St. Paul. 
 
 For to our inward conflicts are added the external assaults 
 and attacks of the devils, who both assail us openly, and also 
 insinuate themselves by stratagem into our souls ; insomuch 
 that it is not without difficulty that we can beware of them. 
 These the Apostle entitles " princes," on account of the excel- 
 lence of their nature (for by nature they are superior to man, 
 and to all other visible creatures); and calls them "powers," 
 because they excel not only by the force of their nature, but 
 also by their power ; and names them " rulers of the world of 
 darkness ;" for they rule not the world of light and glory, 
 that is to say, the good and the pious ; but the world of gloom 
 and darkness, namely, those who, blinded by the defilement and 
 darkness of a flagitious and wicked life, are delighted to have 
 for their leader the devil, the prince of darkness. He also de- 
 nominates the demons " the spirits of wickedness;" for there is 
 a wickedness of the flesh and of the spirit. What is called the 
 wickedness of the flesh inflames the appetite to lusts and 
 pleasures, which are perceived by the senses: "the spirits of 
 wickedness " are evil purposes and depraved desires, which 
 belong to the superior part of the soul ; which are so much 
 worse than the rest as mind itself and reason are higher and 
 more excellent. This wickedness of Satan the apostle desig- 
 nated " in the high places," because its chief aim is to deprive 
 us of the celestial inheritance. Whence we may understand 
 that the power of the [infernal] enemies is great, their courage 
 undaunted, their hatred of us enormous and unmeasured; that 
 they also wage against us a perpetual war, so that with them 
 there can be no peace, no truce. 
 
 QUESTION VI. How great are the Boldness and Perversity of 
 the Devil in tempting. 
 
 How great is their audacity, the words of Satan, recorded by 
 the prophet, declare : " I will ascend into heaven " (Isa. xiv. 13). 
 He attacked our first parents in paradise (Gen. iii. 1, sqq.) ; he 
 assailed the prophets (Job. i. 2 ; 1 Par. xxi. 1); he beset the 
 apostles, and, as the Lord says in the Gospel, he would " -:;':*
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XV. 489 
 
 them as " wheat. "* Nor was he abashed even by the presence 
 of Christ our Lord himself.f His insatiable desire and unwearied 
 diligence St. Peter therefore expressed when he said : " Your 
 adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion goetb about, seeking whom 
 he may devour" (1 Peter v. 8). Nor, however, are men 
 tempted by Satan only, for sometimes a host of demons assault 
 each individually. This that evil spirit confessed, who, having 
 been asked his name by Christ the Lord, replied, "My name is 
 legion,"^ that is a multitude of demons, who had tormented that 
 unhappy being; and of another it is written, "He taketh 
 with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they 
 enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is made 
 worse than the first" (Matt. xii. 45 ; Luke xi. 26 Rom.). 
 
 QUESTION. Why the Wicked are less harassed by Demons 
 than the Pious. 
 
 There are many who, because they feel not the impulses and 
 assaults of devils against them, imagine that the whole matter is 
 fictitious; nor is it surpri.-ing that such persons are not attacked 
 by devils, to whom they have voluntary surrendered themselves. 
 They possess neither piety nor charity, nor any virtue worthy of 
 a Christian man ; and are hence entirely in the power of the 
 devil; nor need there any temptations to overthrow those whose 
 souls have already become his willing abodes (Cf. Luke, xi. 21, 
 24; John, xv. 19). But those who have dedicated themselves 
 to God, leading a heavenly life upon earth, are of all the chief 
 objects of the assaults of Satan ; against them he harbours 
 bitterest hatred ; for them he is each moment laying snares. The 
 history of the sacred Scriptures is full of examples of holy men, 
 whom, firm also and resolute, he perverted by vbleuce or 
 artifice. Adam (Gen. iii. 1, sqq.), David (2 Kings, xi. 2, sqq.), 
 Solomon (3 Kings, xi.), and others, whom it were tedious to 
 enumerate, experienced the violent assaults and crafty cunning 
 of demons, which cannot be resisted by the counsel or strength 
 of men. Who, then, can deem himself sufficiently secure in his 
 own resources ? Hence the necessity of offering to God pure 
 and pious prayer, that he suffer us not to be tempted above on. 
 strength, " but make issue with temptation, that" we* " may b 
 able to bear it " (1 Cor. x. 13 ; cf. 2 Peter ii. ( J). 
 
 * Luke, xxii. 31 ; cf. v. 3 ; John, xiii. 2, 27. t Matt. iv. 1, eqq. 
 Mark, i. 13; Luke, iv. 2, eqq. jMark, v. 9; cf. Matt. viii. 28, sqq. 
 Luke, viii. 7, sqq. E. g. Judges, xvi.; 1 Kings, xv.; 4 Kings, 
 xx. 13, sqq.
 
 490 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 QUESTION VIII. Demons cannot tempt Men as much or as long 
 
 as they please. 
 
 But should any of the faithful, through weakness of mind or 
 ignorance of the truth, feel terrified at the power of the devils, 
 they are here to be encouraged, when tossed by the waves of 
 temptation, to take refuge in this harbour of prayer ; for how- 
 ever great the power and pertinacity of Satan, he cannot, in his 
 deadly hatred of our race, tempt or torment us as much, or as 
 long as he pleases ; but all his power is governed by the control 
 and permission of God. The example of Job is very well known, 
 nothing belonging to whom could Satan have touched, had iiot 
 God said to the Devil, "Behold, all that he hath is in thy hand" 
 (Job, i. 12) ; whilst on the other hand, had not the Lord added, 
 " Only put not forth thy hand upon his person," he, with his 
 children and possessions, would have been at once destroyed by 
 the devil (Ib.). So restricted is the power of demons (Cf. 2 
 Peter ii. 4; Apoc. ii. 10, xx. 2), that without the permission of 
 God, they could not even enter into the swine mentioned by the 
 evangelists.* 
 
 QUESTION IX. Meaning of the word "Temptation" and how 
 we are tempted by God. 
 
 But to understand the force of this petition, it is necessary 
 to say what " temptation" means here, and also, what it is 
 " to be led into temptation." " To tempt," is to sound him who 
 is tempted, that, eliciting from him what we desire, we may 
 extract the truth.t This mode of tempting does not apply to 
 God; for what is there that God does not know? "All 
 things are Jnaked and open to his eyes."| Another kind of 
 tempting is when, by pushing scrutiny rather far, some further 
 object is wont to be sought either for a good or a bad purpose ; 
 for a good purpose, as when some one's worth is thus tried, 
 in order that having been ascertained and known, he may be 
 rewarded and honoured (Job, xlii. 10, sqq.), and his example 
 proposed to others for imitation (James, v. 11); and that, 
 in fine, all may be excited thereby to the praises of God. This 
 is the only manner of tempting that accords with God. Of 
 this temptation there is that example in Deuteronomy : " The 
 Lord your God tries you, that it may appear whether you love 
 him or not" (Deut. xiii. 3). In this manner God is also said 
 to tempt his own, when he presses them with want, disease, and 
 
 * Mark, v. 9, sqq. ; cf. Matt. vii. 28, sqq. ; Luke, viii. 27, sqq. 
 t Thorn. Aq. S. th. 2, 2 P. qu. 97, a. 1. J Heb. iv. 13 ; cf. Ps. 
 
 xxxiii. 16 ; Eccli. xv. 20.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XV. 491 
 
 other sorts of calamities ; which he does to try their patience, 
 and that they may be to others an example of Christian duty. 
 We read that Abraham was thus tempted to immolate his son, 
 by which fact he became a singular example of obedience and 
 patience to the perpetual memory of men (Gen. xxii. 1, sqq.) : 
 thus also is it written of Tobias, " Because thou wast acceptable 
 to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee 
 (Tob. xii. 13). 
 
 QUESTION X. How the Devil tempts Men. 
 
 Men are tempted for a bad purpose, when they ure impelled 
 to sin or destruction, which is the peculiar province of the 
 devil; for he tempts men with a view to deceive and precipi- 
 tate them into ruin, and is therefore called in Scripture, " the 
 tempter" (Matt. iv. 3). In those temptations, at one time 
 stimulating us from within, he employs the agency of the affec- 
 tions and passions of the soul ; at another time assailing us 
 from without, he makes use of external things ; of prosperity, to 
 puff us up with pride ; or of adversity, to break our spirits; some- 
 times he lias for his emissaries and scouts abandoned men, parti- 
 cularly heretics, who, " sitting in the chair of pestilence" (Ps. 
 i. 1), scatter the deadly seeds of bad doctrines, unsettling, and 
 precipitating headlong their adherents, who draw no line of dis- 
 tinction between vice and virtue, and are of themselves prone 
 to evil. 
 
 QUESTION XI. In what ways any one is said to be led 
 into Temptation. 
 
 We are said to be " led into temptation," when we yield to 
 temptations. And we are so led in a two-fold manner; first, 
 when, having abandoned our position, we rush into that evil 
 into which some one has driven us by tempting us. But no 
 one is thus led into temptation by God; for to no one is God 
 the author of sin, nay, he hates "all who work iniquity;"* 
 and accordingly we also read in St. James : " Let no man, 
 when he is tempted, say that he is tempted of God ; for God 
 is not a tempter of evils" (James, i. 13). Next, he is said to 
 lead us into temptation, who, although he himself does not tempt 
 us, nor co-operate in tempting us, yet, having it in his power, 
 does not prevent us from being tempted, or from being over- 
 come by temptations. In this manner God, indeed, suffers the 
 good and the pious to be tempted, but leaves them not unsup- 
 
 * Pa. v. 7 ; cf. xxiii. 7 ; 2 Par. xix, 7 ; Prov. xi. 20 ; xv. 9, 26 ; 
 Wisd. xiv. 9 ; EcclL x. 21.
 
 492 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 ported by his grace. Sometimes, however, we fall, being left 
 to ourselves by the just and secret judgment of God, in 
 punishment of our crimes. 
 
 QUESTION XII. The Blessings of God sometimes lead us into 
 Temptation. 
 
 God is also said to lead us into temptation when we abuse, 
 to our destruction, his blessings, which he has given us as a 
 means of salvation ; and like the prodigal son, dissipate in 
 " living riotously " our Father's substance, yielding to our evil 
 desires (Luke, xv. 13). Wherefore we can say what the apostle 
 has said of the law : " The commandment that was ordained 
 to life, the same was found to be unto death to me " (Rom. vii. 
 10). Of this Jerusalem, as Ezechiel testifies, is an opportune 
 example. Enriched by God with every sort of embellishment, 
 insomuch that God said by the mouth of the prophet, "Thon 
 wast perfect through my beauty, which I had put upon thee" 
 (Ex. xvi. 14); loaded with divine gift?, yet, so far is that city 
 from evincing gratitude to God, from whom she had received, 
 and was still receiving, so many favours, from makinguse of those 
 heavenly gifts for the attainment of her own happiness, the end 
 for which she had received them, that, having cast away the 
 hope and idea of deriving from them celestial fuiits, she, most 
 ungrateful to God her Father, was only enjoying in luxury and 
 abandonment her present abundance. On this subject Ezechiel 
 dwells at considerable length in the same chapter (15, sq.). 
 Wherefore, those whom God permits to convert into instruments 
 of vice the abundant means of virtuous deeds which he has 
 afforded them, are equally ungrateful to him. 
 
 QUESTION XIII. In what manner are to le understood the Words 
 of Scripture, when they say that God tempts Men. 
 
 But we ought carefully to observe this usage of sacred 
 Scripture, which sometimes signifies the permission of God in 
 words which, if taken literally, imply, as it were, a positive act 
 on the part of God ; for in Exodus it is thus: " I will harden 
 the heart of Pharoah " (Ex. iv. 21, vii. 3); and in Isaias : 
 "Blind the heart of this people" (Isa. vi. 10); and the apostle 
 to the Romans writes : " God delivered them up to shameful 
 affections, and to a reprobate sense " (Rom. i. 26, 28). In 
 these and other similar passages,* we are to understand, not at 
 all any positive act on the part of God, but his permission only. 
 
 * Eom. ix. 18, xi. 8 ; 2 Thess. ii. 10; Matt. xiii. 15 ; John, xii. 40 
 Acts, xxviii. 27 ; Isa. xxix. 10 ; 1 Kings, xviii. 10.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XV. 493 
 
 QUESTION XIV. In this part of the Prayer we do not ask 
 Freedom from all Temptations, but that we be not deserted by 
 God in Temptations. 
 
 These things premised, it will not be difficult to know what 
 we ask for in this petition. We do not ask to be entirely 
 exempt from temptation, for man's life is a temptation upon 
 earth ;* and that is useful and advantageous to mankind ; for 
 in temptations we know ourselves, that is, our own weakness ; 
 wherefore, we are also *' humbled under the mighty hand of 
 God " (1 Peter, v. 6) ; and fighting manfully, we expect to 
 " receive a never fading crown of glory " (Ib. 4) ; " for he also 
 that striveth for the mastery is not crowned, except he strive 
 lawfully " (2 Tim. ii. 5 : 1 Cor. ix. 24, sqq.) ; and as St. James 
 says, " Blessed is the man that endureth temptation ; for when 
 he hath been proved he shall receive the crown of life, which 
 God hath promised to them that love him" (James, i. 12 ; cf. 
 2 Tim. iv. 8). But if we are sometimes hard pressed by the 
 temptations of the enemies, a great alleviation to us will be the 
 thought that we have " a High priest " to help us, " who " can 
 " have compassion on our infirmities, tempted " himself " in all 
 things "(Heb. iv. 15). What, then, do we here pray for? 
 That, unforsaken by the divine assistance, we yield not to temp- 
 tations, deceived by the wicked one ; nor give up the victory, 
 worsted in the contest; that the grace of God may be at hand, 
 to refresh and iuvigorate us on the evil day when our own 
 strength fails us. 
 
 QUESTION XV. In what manner we should implore Assistance 
 from God in our Temptations. 
 
 Wherefore we ought to implore the assistance of God both 
 generally under all temptations, and we should have recourse 
 to prayer, particularly when we are troubled with particular 
 temptations. This we read to have been done by David under 
 almost every kind of temptations; for against lying he prays 
 in these words : " Take not thou the word of truth utterly out 
 of my mouth " (Ps. cxviii. 43) ; against covetousuess thus : 
 " Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetous- 
 ness " (Ib. 36) ; and against the vanities of this life, and the 
 allurements of concupiscence, he makes use of this prayer: "Turn 
 away my eyes, that they may not behold vanity" (Ib. 37). 
 
 * Job, vii. 1, secundum Ixx. qui Ktiparripiov habent; versio autem 
 Valg. pro tentatio leg. militia. Cf. Hieron. ep. 130, n. 7, Aug. de 
 praedest. Sanct. cxiv. 2, 26.
 
 494 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 We therefore pray that we yield not to evil desires, nor be 
 wearied in enduring temptation (Heb. xii. 3); that we " turn " 
 not " aside from the way" of the Lord (Deut. xxxi. 29) ; that 
 in adversity as in prosperity we may preserve equanimity and 
 fortitude ; and that God may not leave us in any respect devoid 
 of his protection. We pray, in fine, that he "crush Satan 
 under" our "feet" (Rom. xvi. 20). 
 
 QUESTION XVI. How Victory may be won over Temptation, 
 and under whose Guidance it may be obtained. 
 
 It remains that the parish-priest exhort the faithful people to 
 those things which in this petition should constitute the chief 
 objects of their thoughts and meditations. In offering this 
 prayer, it will be found most salutary, if, aware of our extreme 
 weakness, we distrust our strength ; and, placing all our hope of 
 safety in the goodness of God, and relying on his protection, 
 we encounter even the greatest dangers with greatness of soul, 
 reflecting particularly how many persons, animated with this 
 hope, and armed with this resolution, God delivered from the 
 gaping jaws of Satan. Did he not deliver from extreme peril 
 and exalt to glory, Joseph, encompassed on every side by the 
 burning torches of a furious woman? (Gen. xxxix. 7, 10, 12). 
 Did he not preserve Susanna in safety (Dan. xiii. 38, sqq ), 
 when beset by the ministers of Satan, and on the very point of 
 being made the victim of a nefarious sentence ? Nor should 
 this excite our surprise, " for her heart," says the Prophet, 
 " had confidence in the Lord " (Dan. xiii. 35). Distinguished 
 is the praise and the glory of Job, who triumphed over the 
 world, the flesh, the devil. There are very many examples of 
 this kind, by which the parish-priest ought diligently to exhort 
 his pious people to that hope and confidence. 
 
 QUESTION XVII. Christ is the Standard-bearer of our Conflict ; 
 
 all the Holy are our Comrades ; and they who follow them not, 
 
 are Cowards. 
 
 Let the faithful also think what leader they have under the 
 temptations of the enemy, namely, Christ the Lord, who 
 gained the victory in that combat.* He conquered the devil : 
 he is that " stronger man," who, " coming upon the strong 
 armed man," overcame him, deprived him of his arms, and 
 stripped him of his spoils (Luke, xi. 22). Of his victory over 
 the world, we read in St. John, " Have confidence : I have 
 
 * Matt. iv. 4, sqq. ; Luke, iv. 4, sqq. ; Col. ii. 15 ; Heb. ii. 14 ; 
 John, xvi 11.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XV. 495 
 
 overcome the world " (John, xvi. 33) ; and in the Apocalypse, 
 he is called " the conquering lion ;" and is said to have gone 
 forth " conquering, that he might conquer " (Apoc. v. 5, vi. 2) ; 
 and by this his victory, he has given also to his followers power 
 to conquer. The Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews abounds 
 with the victories of holy men, " who through faith subdued 
 kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions;" and what follows 
 (Heb. xi. 33). Whilst we read of such achievements, let us 
 also take into consideration those victories every day won by 
 men eminent for faith, hope, and charity, in their interior and 
 exterior conflicts with the devil ; so that, were we spectators of 
 them, we should deem no event more frequent, none more 
 glorious. Of the discomfiture of these enemies St. John has 
 written in these words : " I write to you, young men, 
 because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, 
 and you have overcome the wicked one" (1 John, ii. 14). 
 
 QUESTION XVIII. How the Devil may be overcome by us. 
 
 Satan, however, is overcome not by indolence, sleep, wine, 
 revelling, lust; but by prayer, labour, watching, abstinence, 
 continence, chastity : " Watch ye and pray, that ye enter not 
 into temptation (Matt. xxvi. 41; Mark, xiv. 38; Luke, xxii. 46), 
 is, as we have already said, the admonition [of our Lord]. 
 They who make use of these weapons in that conflict are sure 
 to put their adversaries to flight ; for from those who " resist 
 the devil, he will fly " (James, iv. 7), In those victories of 
 holy men, which we have mentioned, let no one, however, 
 indulge self-complacency, let no one presumptuously exalt 
 himself, so as to expect to be able by his own strength to 
 withstand the hostile temptations and asaults of the demons ; 
 this is not within the power of our nature, nor the competency 
 of human frailty. 
 
 QUESTION XIX. In ichat manner Strength to conquer is given 
 us by God. 
 
 This strength, by which we lay prostrate the satellites of 
 Satan, is given by God, who inaketh our " arms like a brazen 
 bow " (Ps. xvii. 35) ; by whose aid u the bow of the mighty is 
 overcome, and the weak are girt with strength " (1 Kings, ii. 
 
 4) ; who giveth us " the protection of salvation ;" whose ' right 
 hand" receiveth us (Ib. et Ps. Ixii. 9) ; "who teacheth " our 
 "hands to fight," and our " fingers to war " (Ps. cxliii. 1); so 
 that, for the victory, we should give thauks, and be grateful to 
 God alone, by whose guidance and assistance alone we are able 
 to conquer. This the Apostle did, for he says : " Thanks be to
 
 496 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 God, who bath given us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ" 
 (1 Cor. xv. 57). " The voice in heaven," in the Apocalypse, 
 also proclaims God to be the author of victory : " Now is come 
 salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the 
 power of his Christ, because the accuser of our brethren is cast 
 forth ; and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb " 
 (Apoc. xii. 10, sq.). That to Christ our Lord belongs the vic- 
 tory obtained over the world and the fl:sh, the same book tes- 
 tifies in the same place : " They shall fight with the Lamb, and 
 the Lamb shall overcome them " (Apoc. xvii. 14). On the 
 cause and manner of conquering [temptation], let thus much 
 suffice. 
 
 QUESTION XX. What, are the Rewards of the Victors in that 
 Spiritual Combat. 
 
 These things explained, parish-priests will propose to the 
 faithful people the crowns prepared by God, and the eternal 
 amplitude of rewards destined for the victors. Of these re- 
 wards they will cite divine testimonies from the same Apoca- 
 lypse: " He that shall overcome shall not be hurt by the second 
 death" (Apoc. ii. 11); and in another place: "He that shall 
 overcome shall thus be clothed in white garments, and I will 
 not blot out his name out of the book of life, and 1 will confess 
 his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Ib. iii. 5); 
 and a little after our God and Lord himself thus addresses John : 
 " He that shidl overcome I will make him a pillar in the tem- 
 ple of my God, ami he shall go out no more " (Apoc. iii. 12) ; 
 he then says : " To him that shall overcome I will grant to sit 
 with me in my throne, as I also have overcome and have eat 
 with my Father in his throne" (Ib. 21) ; finally, having un- 
 veiled the glory of the saints, and that never-ending profusion 
 of goods which they shall enjoy in heaven, he adds, "He that 
 shall overcome shall possess these things ; and I will be hia 
 God, and he shall be uiy sou " (Apoc. xxi. 7 ).
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XVI. 497 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ON THE SEVENTH PETITION. 
 " BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL." 
 
 QUESTION I. Nothing is contained in the former Petitions 
 which is not included in this. 
 
 This last petition, with which the Son of God concluded this 
 divine prayer, is equivalent to all the rest. To show its force 
 and weight, he made use of this same praying clause when, 
 about to quit this life, he invoked God his Father for the salva- 
 tion of mankind ; for he says : " I pray that thou preserve 
 them from evil" (John, xvii. 15). In this formula of prayer, 
 therefore, which he delivered by way of precept, and confirmed 
 by example, he, as it were, summarily embraced in an epitome 
 the force and substance of the other petitions : for, when we 
 shall have obtained what is contained in that prayer, according 
 to St. Cyprian, " nothing more remains to be demanded, when 
 once we ask the protection of God against evil : that once ob- 
 tained, we stand safe and secure against all the efforts of the 
 ' devil and the world."* The importance of this petition then 
 being such as we have said, the parish-priest ought to bestow 
 extreme diligence on its exposition to the faithful ; but it dif- 
 fers from the preceding petition in this respect, that in the 
 former we ask the avoidance of sin, in this, escape from punish 
 ment. 
 
 QUESTION II. What should urge us to pour out this Prayer 
 before the Lord. 
 
 Wherefore, the faithful people need no longer to be re- 
 minded how much they have to contend with inconveniences 
 and calamities, and how greatly they stand in need of 
 heavenly aid; for besides that both sacredf and profanej 
 writers have most copiously treated this matter, there is no one 
 scarcely who does not understand, both by his own and by 
 others' experience, to how many and what great miseries the 
 
 * De Orat. Dom. T Cf . Job, xiii. 9 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 5, sqq. , cii. 
 14, sqq. cxlii. 3, sq. ; Eccl. vii. 1 ; Isa. xl. 6, sq. ; Eccli. xiv. 18 ; 
 James, i. 10, iv. 15 ; 1 Peter, i. 24, J Cf. Aug. de Civ. Dei, ]. 
 xiv. c. 25 ; 1. xv. c. 5 ; 1. xix. c. 4, et contra Julian, L iv. c. 15, n. 
 78 ; Coll. Ann. Senecse, 1. de brev. vit. plur. 1L 
 
 2i
 
 498 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 life of men is exposed ; for all are persuaded of that which the 
 example of Job's suffering has placed on record : " Man, born of 
 a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries ; 
 who cometh forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and fleeth 
 as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state " (Job, 
 xiv. 1, sq.). And that no day passes without some trouble or 
 inconvenience of its own, that saying of Christ the Lord is a 
 witness, " Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof " (Matt. vi. 
 34) ; and, indeed, the condition of human life is declared 
 by that admonition of the Lord himself, by which he has taught 
 that we must " take up " our " cross daily, and follow " him.* 
 As then each one feels how laborious and dangerous is this 
 manner of life, it will be easy to convince the faithful people 
 that of God is to be implored deliverance from evils, particu- 
 larly as by nothing are men more powerfully induced to pray 
 than by a desire and hope of deliverance from those ills by 
 which they are oppressed, or which impend over them ; for to 
 fly at once to God for assistance in distress, is a principle im- 
 planted in the human mind; of which it is written, " Fill their 
 faces with shame; and they shall seek thy name, Lord" 
 (Ps. Ixxxii. 17); and: "Their infirmities were multiplied: 
 afterwards they made haste " (Ib. xv. 4). 
 
 QUESTION III. How the Removal of Dangers and Calamities is 
 to be asked of God. 
 
 If then, in dangers and calamities, men almost spontaneously 
 invoke God, they surely are especially to be taught how they 
 may be able to do that properly, by those to whose fidelity and 
 prudence their salvation is entrusted. For there are not want- 
 ing those who, contrary to the command of Christ the Lord, 
 invert the order of prayer ; for he who commanded us to have 
 recourse to him "in the day of tribulation " (xlix. 15, xc. 15), 
 has also prescribed to us the order of prayer ; for it is his will 
 that, before we pray that he deliver us from evil, we pray that 
 the name of God be sanctified, and that his kingdom come, and 
 so of the other petitions, by which, as if by so many steps, we 
 reach this place. Yet are there some who, if their head, their 
 side, their foot, ache ; if they sustain loss of property ; if 
 threats, if dangers from enemies alarm them ; in famine, in war, 
 in pestilence, having omitted all the other gradations of the 
 Lord's prayer, ask only to be delivered from those evils. To 
 this practice, however, is opposed the command of Christ the 
 Lord: " Seek first the kingdom of God " (Matt. vi. 33). Those, 
 
 * Luke, ix. 23 ; Matt. x. 38, xvi. 24 ; Mark, viii. 34.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XVT. 499 
 
 therefore, who pray aright, when they beg deliverance from 
 calamities, inconveniences, evils, refer the matter to the glory 
 of God. Thus, to that prayer, " Lord rebuke me not in thy 
 indignation " (Ps. vi. 2), David subjoined a reason, by which 
 he shows that he is most desirous of the glory of God : " For," 
 says he, " there is no one in death that is mindful of thee: and 
 who shall confess to thee in hell ?" (Ps. vi. 6) ; and having, on 
 another occasion, implored God to have mercy on him (1. 3), 
 he added : " I will teach the unjust thy ways, and the wicked 
 shall be converted to thee" (Ib. 15). The faithful hearers are 
 to be excited to this salutary manner of praying, and to the 
 imitation of the prophet ; and are, at the same time, to be 
 taught how great is the difference between the prayers of 
 infidels and of Christian men. 
 
 QUESTION IV. Infidels do not ask to be delivered from Evil in 
 the same Manner as Christians. 
 
 Infidels also beg earnestly of God that they may recover from 
 sickness, and be healed of their wounds, that they may escape 
 pressing or imminent ills ; but they nevertheless place the prin- 
 cipal hope of that deliverance in the remedies provided by 
 nature, or by the industry of men ; and also make no scruple of 
 using medicine, given no matter by whom, no matter if com- 
 pounded with charms, if with spells, if with other diabolical 
 arts, provided some hope of recovery be held out. Far diffe- 
 rent is the conduct of Christians, who, in sickness and in all ad- 
 versities, have God as their sovereign refuge and safeguard ; 
 acknowledge and revere him alone as the Author of all good, and 
 their deliverer ; hold as certain that the healing virtue that re- 
 sides in medicines is implanted in them by God ; and think that 
 their efficacy in restoring the sick is such as God himself wills; 
 for medicine is given by God to mankind to heal their infirmi- 
 ties. Hence that saying of Ecclesiasticus : " The Most High 
 hath created medicines out of the earth, and a wise man will 
 not abhor them" (Eccli. xxxviii. 4). They, therefore, who 
 have pledged their fidelity to Jesus Christ, place not their prin- 
 cipal hope of recovering health in such remedies ; but trust 
 chiefly in God himself, the Author of medicine. 
 
 QUESTION V. How in Diseases we ought to Trust in God alone 
 who delivers very many from the most imminent Dangers. 
 
 Wherefore, in the sacred Scriptures, they, too, are repre- 
 hended who, through confidence in medicine, seek no assistance 
 from God (Par. xvi. 12; Jer. xlvi. 11). Nay, more, those who
 
 500 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 live according to the divine laws, abstain from all remedies that 
 are evidently not intended by God to be medicinal (Lev. xx. 6 ; 
 1 Kings, xxviii. 7, sqq.) ; and, were there even a certain hope 
 of recovery by using such medicines, they abhor them as charms 
 and diabolical artifices. The faithful, then, are to be exhorted 
 to place their confidence in God ; for our most beneficent Father 
 has ordered us to beg of him our deliverance from evil, that 
 thus in the very fact of his having so ordered we may also find 
 a hope of its attainment. Of this there are many instances in 
 the sacred Scriptures, that they who by reasoning may not be 
 induced to hope well, may be compelled to confide by a multitude 
 of examples. Abraham,* Jacob,f Lot (Ib. xiv. 11, sq., 16, xix. 
 15, sqq.), Joseph (Ib. xxxix. 2, sq., 23, xli. 14, 1. 20), David,;}: 
 are before our eyes most creditable witnesses of the divine be- 
 nignity. The sacred writings of the New Testament enumerate 
 so many who were rescued from the greatest dangers by the 
 efficacy of pious prayer, as to supersede the necessity of citing 
 examples. We shall therefore, be content with that one sen- 
 tence from the Prophet, which is sufficient to confirm even the 
 weakest: "The just cried, and the Lord heard them ; and de- 
 livered them out of all their troubles " [Ps. xxxiii. 18]. 
 
 QUESTION VI. What is here under stood by the Name of "Evil" 
 and what is the Meaning of this Petition. 
 
 The force and nature of this petition follows, that the faith- 
 ul may understand that here we do not altogether solicit deli- 
 verance from every species of evil. For there are some things 
 that are commonly considered evils, which, notwithstanding, are 
 fraught with advantage to those who suffer them, such as that 
 " sting " applied to the Apostle, that by the aid of God's grace, 
 " power " might be " made perfect in infirmity."! These things, 
 if their virtue be known, affect the pious with the greatest 
 pleasure ; so far are they from praying to God for their re- 
 moval. Wherefore we deprecate those evils only which can 
 bring no advantage to the soul ; not at all the others, provided 
 that therefrom be derived some salutary fruit. 
 
 * Gen. xii. 2, sq. , xiii. 15, sq., xv. 1, sqq., xvii. 2, sqq., xxii. 12, 
 16, sqq. f Ib. xxviii. 12, sqq., xxx. 43, xxxi. 24, xxxiii. 4, xxxv. 
 3, 5, 9, sqq., xlvi. 1, sqq. J 1 Kings, xvi. 12, sq., xvii. 37, xviii. 
 12, 14, 28, xxiii. 14 ; Job, xlii. 10; Tob. iii. 24, xi. 17 ; Judith, xiii. 
 2U, sqq.; Esther, xiv. 1, sqq. Cf. Matt. ii. 13; Luke, i. 46, sqq.; 
 Acts, x. 1, sqq. xi. 5, sqq., xxvii. 20, sqq. || 2 Cor. xii. 7, 9 ; Chrys. 
 in c. xi. Gen. horn. 30 ; Aug. c, Faust, 1. xxii. c. 20.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XVI. 501 
 
 QUESTION VII. How many and how great are the kinds of 
 Evils from which we desire to be liberated. 
 
 The full force of the petition, therefore, is this, that, freed 
 from sin, we may be rescued also from the danger of temptation ; 
 from internal and external evils ; that we may be safe from 
 water, from fire, from lightning; that hail may not injure the 
 fruits [of the earth] ; that we be not visited by dearth, seditions, 
 war ; we beg of God to ward off diseases, pestilence, desolations ; 
 to keep away slavery, imprisonment, exile, treason, plots, and 
 all other evils, by which the life of men is wont most to be ter- 
 rified and oppressed; finally, to avert all causes of sins and 
 iniquities. We do not, however, pray to be delivered solely 
 from those things, which, by the consent of all, are evils, but 
 also from those things which almost all confess to be goods, 
 riches, honours, health, strength, life itself ; that is, we pray 
 that these be not perverted to evil, and to the destruction of our 
 soul. We also pray God that we be not cut off by a sudden 
 death ; that we provoke not the anger of God against us ; that 
 we undergo not the punishments that await the wicked ; that we 
 be not tormented in the fire of purgatory, from which we 
 piously and devoutly implore the liberation of others. The 
 Church interprets this petition both in the Mass,* and in the 
 Litanies,t thus, namely, that [in it] we pray to be delivered 
 " from all evils, past, present, and to come." 
 
 QUESTION VIII. God both wards off impending, and sometimes 
 wonderfully delivers us from present Evils. 
 
 But the goodness of God delivers us from evils in more than 
 one way ; for he prevents impending calamities ; as we read 
 that the great Jacob was liberated from his enemies, whom 
 the slaughter of the Sichemites had stirred up against him ; for 
 there is extant : " The terror of God fell upon all the cities 
 round about, and they durst not pursue after them as they went 
 away " (Gen. xxxv. 5). And, indeed, all the blessed, who 
 reign with Christ the Lord in the heavens, have been delivered 
 by God's assistance from all evils but whilst he delivers us 
 from some, he does not wish that, sojourning in this pilgrimage, 
 we should be exempt from all evils. The consolations, however, 
 which God sometimes affords those who labour under adversity, 
 are, in some sort, equivalent to an exemption from all evils : 
 with them the Prophet consoled himself when he said : " Accord- 
 
 * Roman Missal, t Cf. ib. Isa. xxv. 8, sq.; 2 Cor. v. 1, sqq.; 
 Apoc. vii. 17, xxi. 4.
 
 502 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 ing to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, thy comforts 
 have given joy to my soul "(Ps. xciii. 19). God, moreover, 
 delivers men from evils, when he preserves them safe and unhurt 
 in extreme danger ; which we read to have happened to the 
 children who were cast into the fiery furnace (Dan. Hi. 21,sqq.), 
 and to Daniel (Ib. vi. 22, xiv. 39), whom the lions injured not, 
 as neither did the flame hurt the children. 
 
 QUESTION IX. The Devil is here called " Evil" because he is 
 the Author of Moral Evil, and the Inflicter of its Punishment. 
 
 The devil also is specially called evil, according to SS. Basil 
 the Great,* Chrysostom,f and Augustine,! because he was the 
 author of man's transgression, that is, of his sin and inquity ; 
 and because God makes use of him as an instrument to exact 
 punishment from the wicked and the iniquitous; for all the evil 
 that mankind endure on account of sin is given by God ; and 
 this is the meaning of these words of the divine writings : 
 " Shall there be evil in a city, which the Lord hath not done ? 
 also : " I am the Lord, and there is none else : I form the light 
 and create darkness : I make peace and create evil" (Isa. xlv. 
 6, sq.). He is also called evil for this reason that, although we 
 have done him no harm, he yet wages perpetual war against us, 
 and pursues us with mortal hatred; but although, if we be 
 armed with faith and shielded with innocence, he cannot hurt us, 
 yet he never ceases to tempt ns by external evils, and annoy us 
 by every means in his power ;|| and, therefore, do we beseech 
 God to vouchsafe to deliver us from evil. 
 
 QUESTION X. Why we ask to be delivered from Evil, not Evils. 
 
 But we say " from evil," not from evils, because the evils 
 which proceed from others we ascribe to Satan, as their author 
 and instigator. This is also a reason why we should be less 
 angry with our neighbours, and should rather turn our hatred 
 and anger against Satan himself, by whom men are impelled to 
 inflict injury. If, therefore, your neighbour has injured you in 
 aught, when you pray to God your Father, beg that he may not 
 only deliver you from evil, that is, from the injuries which your 
 neighbour inflicts on you ; but also rescue your neighbour himself 
 from the hand of the devil, by whose impulse men are led into 
 injustice.^ 
 
 * Basil, horn. Quod. Deus non est auctor malor. n. 8. t Chrysost. 
 Explic. Orat. Dom. J Aug. ib. cf. ej. op. imperf. c. Julian 1. vi. n. 
 16, fer. xii. c. 2, n. 2. Amos, iii. 6, add. Deut. xxxii. 23, sqq. ; 
 3 Kings, xi. 7, sqq., xxi. 29; Jer. xi. 22, sqq || See p. 567, sqq. 
 T Aug. ser. 17, u. 2, in App. cf. Joa. Dam. de fideorth. 1. ii. c. 4.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XVI. 503 
 
 QUESTION XI. How we ought to behave under Afflictions, 
 although we be not liberated forthwith. 
 
 In fine, we should know that, if by prayers and vows we are 
 not delivered from evils, we ought to bear our afflictions with 
 patience, aware that it pleases the divine Majesty that we 
 patiently endure them. Wherefore, if God hear not our prayers, 
 we ought not at all to fret or grieve ; but ought to refer all 
 things to his will and pleasure, considering that what pleases 
 God that it should be so, not what may otherwise be agreeable 
 to us, is useful and salutary. 
 
 QUESTION XII. How many, and what great Advantages result to 
 us from Tribulations. 
 
 Lastly, the pious hearers are to be taught that, during this 
 mortal career, they should be prepared to bear all kinds of incon- 
 veniences and calamities, not only with equanimity, but even 
 with joy ; for " All that live piously in Christ Jesus," says St. 
 Paul, " shall suffer persecution " (2 Tim. iii. 12) ; also : 
 " Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of 
 God" (Acts, xiv. 21); again: "Ought not Christ to have 
 suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory " (Luke, 
 xxiv. 26) ; for " a servant" should not be "above his Lord ;" * 
 nor, as St. Bernard observes, do delicate members become a head 
 crowned with thorns.f The glorious example of Uriah 
 challenges our imitation, who when urged by David to remain at 
 home, replied : "The ark of God, and Israel, and Judah dwell in 
 tents; and shall I go into my house?" (2 Kings, xi. 11.) If 
 we come to prayer, furnished with these reasonings and 
 reflections, we shall attain this, that if, surrounded and encom- 
 passed by evils on every side, we be not preserved unhurt, like 
 the three children, who were untouched by the flames (Dan. iii. 50), 
 we at least, like the Machabees (1 Machab. ii. 16, sqq.), may 
 bear up against adverse fortune with firmness and fortitude. In 
 contumelies and tortures we shall imitate the blessed apostles, 
 who, having been scourged, rejoiced exceedingly that they were 
 accounted worthy to suffer contumelies for Christ Jesus 
 (Acts, v. 40, sq.). Thus disposed we too shall sing in transports 
 of joy : " Princes have persecuted me without cause ; and my 
 heart hath been in awe of thy words : 1 will rejoice at thy words, 
 as one that hath found great spoil " (Ps. cxviii. 161, sq.) 
 
 * Matt. x. 24, sq. ; Luke, vi, 40 ; John, xiii. 16, xv. 20. t Bern, in 
 fest. Omn. Sanct. fer. 5 n. 9, verbis paulum mutatis. Cf. Greg. Mor. 
 1. xx. c. 31, n. 16.
 
 504: CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ON THE LAST CLAUSE OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 " AMEN." 
 
 QUESTION I. Use and Fruits of this Article. 
 
 This word, " Amen," St. Jerome, in his Commentaries on 
 Matthew, calls what it really is, the " seal of the Lord's prayer."* 
 Wherefore, as we before admonished the faithful of the 
 preparation which is to be made before we commence divine 
 prayer ; BO do we now deem it proper to make known to them 
 the cause and reason why the prayer closes with this word, and 
 what it signifies ; for attention in beginning is not of greater 
 importance than devotion in concluding divine prayer. Let, 
 then, the faithful people know that numerous and abundant are 
 the fruits which we gather from the close of the Lord's prayer ; 
 but of .all these, the richest and most agreeable fruit is the 
 attainment of the objects of our prayers, on which enough has 
 been already said.f By this concluding word of the prayer, 
 however, not only do we obtain that our prayers be heard, but 
 also receive blessings, the magnitude and excellence of which 
 surpass all powers of description. 
 
 QUESTION II. What Advantages flow to Men from Prayer. 
 
 For when, as St. Cyprian says, " men commune with God by 
 prayer,^ the Divine Majesty becomes, after a certain inexplica- 
 ble manner, nearer to him who is engaged in prayer than to 
 others, and also adorns him with peculiar gifts ; so that those 
 who pray to God devoutly may in some sort be compared to 
 persons who approach a fire ; who, if cold, become warm ; if 
 warm, become very hot : in like manner, those approaching 
 God become more ardent in proportion to their piety and faith ; 
 for their soul is inflamed with zeal for the glory of God ; their 
 mind is illumined after an admirable manner ; they are enriched 
 exceedingly with divine gifts ; for it is written : " Thou hast 
 prevented him with blessings of sweetness" (Ps. xx. 4). Of 
 this, the great Moses is an example to all, who, withdrawing 
 
 * Hier. Comm. in Matt. 1. i. 6, 13 ; Cyril!. Hieros. Catech. xxiii. 
 n. 18. f See p. 408, eqq. cf. Eccl. vii. 9. Cypr. de Orat. Dom.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XVII. 505 
 
 from his interview and converse with God, shone as it were 
 with the reflected splendours of the Divinity ; so that the Israel- 
 ites could not look upon his eyes or countenance.* Those, in 
 fine, who pray with such great fervour, enjoy, after an admira- 
 ble manner, the benignity and majesty of God : " In the morn- 
 ing," says the Prophet, " I will stand before thee and will see : 
 because thou art not a God that wiliest iniquity " (Ps. v. 5). 
 The more men know these things, the more piously do they 
 venerate and worship God : the more delightfully, too, do they 
 taste how sweet is the Lord, and how truly blessed are all 
 " that hope in him " (Ps. xxxiii. 9). Encircled by that most 
 brilliant light, they also consider how great is their lowliness, 
 how exalted is the majesty of God. This is the rule of St. 
 Augustine ; " Give me to know thee, give me to know myself."f 
 Henco it is that, distrusting their own strength, they commit 
 themselves altogether to the goodness of God, not at all doubt- 
 ing that he, embracing them in his paternal and admirable 
 love, will afford them in abundance all things necessary for life 
 and salvation. Hence let them give themselves to thanking 
 God, to the utmost extent that their minds can conceive, or 
 their tongues express ; as we read the great David to have 
 done, who, having commenced by praying : " Save me from all 
 them that persecute me," concludes thus : " I will give glory to 
 the Lord according to his justice, and will sing to the name 
 of the Lord the Most High " (Ps. vii. 2-13). 
 
 QUESTION III. How it is that the Prayers of the Saints, begun 
 with Fear, are ended with Joy. 
 
 There are extant innumerable such prayers of the saints, the 
 beginning of which is full of fear, the end replete with good 
 hope and joy ; but it is wonderful how conspicuously this spirit 
 shines forth in the Psalms of David. For when,, agitated by 
 fear, he thus began to pray : " Many are they who rise up 
 against me : many say to my soul, there is no salvation for 
 him in his God " (Ps. Hi. 2, sq.) ; armed at length with forti- 
 tude, and filled with joy, he added a little after : " I will not 
 fear thousands of the people surrounding me" (Ib. 7). In 
 another Psalm also, after he had deplored his misery, at last 
 confiding in God, he rejoices exceedingly in the hope of ever- 
 lasting happiness : " In peace in the self-same," says he, " I 
 
 * Ex. xxxiv. 29, sq., 35; 2 Cor. iii. 13. t Aug. Soliloq. L ii. c. 
 1, n. Verba, noverim me, noverim te, in Catech. sunt transposita. Cf. 
 Ps. cxxxviii. 6.
 
 506 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 will sleep, and I will rest" (Ps. iv. 9). What of these words ? 
 " Lord rebuke me not in thy indignation, nor chastise me in 
 thy wrath" (Ps. vi. 2) ; with what fear and dismay must not 
 the Prophet have uttered them ? On the other hand, with what 
 confidence and joy what follows after ? " Depart from me all ye 
 workers of iniquity," says he, " for the Lord hath heard the 
 voice of my weeping " (Ib. 9). When he dreaded the anger 
 and fury of Saul, with what humility and lowliness did he not 
 implore the assistance of God : " Save me, God, by thy name, 
 and judge me in thy strength " (Ps. liii. 3) ; and yet, in the 
 same Psalm, he cheerfully and confidently added : " Behold, 
 God is my helper, and the Lord is the protector of my soul " 
 (Ib. 6). Wherefore, let him who betakes himself to holy 
 prayer, fortified by faith and hope, go to God his Father, not 
 at all distrusting to obtain that of which he may stand in 
 need. 
 
 QUESTION IV. In what sense the word "Amen " is here used 
 at the Conclusion, and is reserved, in the Mass, to be pro- 
 nounced by the Priest. 
 
 But in this last word of the divine prayer, " Amen," there 
 are many seeds, as it were, of those reasons and reflections 
 which we have already mentioned ; and, indeed, so frequent 
 was this Hebrew word in the mouth of the Saviour,* that it 
 pleased the Holy Ghost to have it retained in the Church of 
 God. Its meaning in some sort is : Know that thy prayers 
 are heard ; for it has the force of God answering, and graciously 
 dismissing the supplicant, after he has obtained the object of 
 his prayers. This interpretation the constant usage of the 
 Church of God has confirmed ; for in the sacrifice of the Mass, 
 when the Lord's prayer is being said, she has not assigned the 
 word " amen " to the persons serving Mass, whose business it 
 is to say : " But deliver us from evil," but has reserved it as 
 appropriate to the priest himself, who, being interpreter between 
 God and man, answers that God has heard the prayers of his 
 people.f 
 
 * Er. g. Matt. v. 18, 26 ; vi. 2, 5, 13, 16 ; viii 10 ; X. 15, 23, 42; 
 xi 11 ; xiii. 17; xvi. 28; xvii. 19; xviii. 3, 13, 18; xix. 23, 28; 
 xxl 21 ; xxiii. 36; xxiv. 2, 34, 47; xxv. 12, 40, 45; xxvi. 13, 21, 
 34. f Roman Missal. Cf. Aug. c. Ep. Parmen. 1. ii. c. 7, n. 14 ; 
 Cassian de ccenob. instit. 1, ii. c. 10 ; Greg. M. Regist. Epp. 1. ix. 
 indict. 2, ep. 12.
 
 PART IV. CHAPTER XVII. 507 
 
 QUESTION V. Why in the other Prayers the Clerk, but in this 
 the Priest, answers " Amen" 
 
 This rite, however, is not common to all the prayers, for in 
 the others it is the duty of the clerk to answer " amen ;" but is 
 peculiar to the Lord's Prayer ; because in the other prayers it 
 expresses consent and desire only,* in this it is an answer that 
 God has assented to the prayer of the supplicant. 
 
 QUESTION VI. How the word "Amen" is variously 
 interpreted. 
 
 By many this word " amen " has, indeed, been variously in- 
 terpreted : the Septuagint has translated it, " So be it :"f some 
 have rendered it, " truly :" \ Aquilla makes it " faithfully ;" 
 but which of these versions we adopt is of little moment, pro- 
 vided we understand it to have the force already mentioned, 
 which is that of the priest confirming the concession of what 
 was prayed for ; an interpretation to which the Apostle bears 
 testimony in his Epistle to the Corinthians : " All the promises 
 of God," says he, " are in him it is : therefore, also by him, 
 amen to God unto our glory. "|| To us, also, this word is suited, 
 containing as it does some confirmation of the petitions which 
 we have hitherto presented, and awakening attention in those 
 who are engaged in holy prayer ; for it often happens that men 
 distracted in prayer are carried away elsewhere by various 
 thoughts. Nay, what is more, by this very word we most 
 earnestly beg of God that all things may be accomplished, that 
 is, that all that we previously asked may be granted ; or rather, 
 understanding that we have already obtained all, and feeling 
 the virtue of the divine assistance present, we sing with the 
 Prophet, " Behold God is my helper, and the Lord is the pro- 
 tector of my soul " (Ps. liii. 6). Nor is there reason why any 
 
 * Cf. Justin. M. Apolog. 1, n. 65 ; Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. vii. c. 9. 
 + ywoiTo, Ps. xl. 14 (Ixx. Ps. xli. 13, Ixxii. 19, Ixxxix. 52) ; 3 Kings, 
 . 36 ; Num. v. 22 ; Deut. xxvii. 15 ; Nehem. v. 13, viii. 6, retinue- 
 runt A.fi.T)>> ; Jer. xxviii 6, verterunt 'AArj0s. J Hieron. |Comm. in 
 Matt. 1. i. vi. 13 ; cf. Aug. ser. 362, c. 28, n. 29, contra Faust L xv. 
 c. 9 ; Ambr. Com. in 1 Cor. 14, 16, in App. ireviffTiafitvus, vid. 
 Hieron. Comm. in ep. ad Gal. 1. i. 1. 5, col. 1. iii. 6, 18, ej. ep. xxvi. 
 n. 4, Montfaucon Hexapl. Origen. in il. hisce : Num. v. 22 ; Deut. 
 xxvii. 15 ; Ps. xL 14 ; Isai. xxv. 1, Ixv. 16, in Exposit. PP. Grsec. 
 in Ps. a B. Corderio. T. ii. p. 466, legitur : ire7ri<rretijueVs. || 2 Cor. i. 
 20. ^Cf. Isai. Ixv. 16 ; Thodoret. interpret, ep. ii. ad Cor. i. 20 ; 
 Ambros. enarr. in Ps. xl. n. 36 ; Hieron. Comm. in Isai. L xviii. c. 
 65, 16.
 
 508 CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 one should doubt that God is moved by the name of his Son, 
 and by a word which he very often used, " who," as the Apostle 
 says, " was " always " heard for his reverence " (Heb. v. 7) ; 
 "whose is the kingdom, and the power, and the empire, for 
 ever and ever."* 
 
 * Add. Ven. ex. 1 Pet. iv. 11, v. 11 ; Jud. v. 25. Orationis vero 
 Dominicce doxologiam, seriori tempore annexam (quod codd. et patrum 
 antiquiss. auctoritate aliisque argumentis satis superque jirmatur), 
 Grceca quidem, neque autem Romano. Ecdesia recepit.
 
 PRAXIS CATECHISMI, SEtJ CATECHISMUS IN 
 SINGULAS ANNI DOMINICAS DISTRIBUTES, 
 ET EVANGELIIS ACCOMMODATUS. 
 
 DOMINICA PRIMA ADVENTUS. 
 
 ERUNT SIGNA IN SOLE ET LUNA, etc. Ltrc. xxi. 25, etc. Hoc Evan- 
 gelium ad argumentum de judicio general! traducendum est. Quare 
 hie recurrat parochus ad articulum Symbol!, " Inde venturus est judi- 
 care vivos et mortuos," pagina 78, sqq., proiit faciendum praecipifcur 
 24, sq., vel secundum aliarum Ecclesiarum ritum : ECCE REX TUUS 
 VENIT TIBI, etc., MATTH. xxi. 5, etc. Hie opportune tractabit paro- 
 chus ea, quae de Incarnatione, et causis adventus Christi Domini 
 nostri habentur art. 2 et 3 Symbol! Apostolici 40, 48, sqq. INVENIE- 
 
 TIS AS1NAM ALLIGATAM ET PULLAM CUM EA : SOLVITE, etc. D. Athana- 
 
 sius in sermone de verbis hujus Evangelii ostendit ex hoc loco Apos- 
 tolis et eorum successoribus factam esse potestatem solvendi eos qui, 
 instar asinorum, peccatorum pondere press!, adeosconfngerent. Quare 
 hlc populo exponet parochus quae habentur de confessione 244, sqq., 
 et absolution e, 233, sqq., 252, sqq., de potestate remittendi peccata 
 in Ecclesia 105, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA SECUNDA. 
 
 CUM AUDISSET JOANNES IN VINCULIS, etc. Tu ES QUI VENTURUS ES, 
 
 etc., MATTH. xi. 2, etc. Ista Joannis interrogatio tarn sedula ostendit 
 quanto cum studio curare debeamus, ut de rebus fidei, et nos, et ii qui 
 nobis subsunt, rite, et a Catholicis doctoribus instruamur. Vide quae 
 huic argumeuto inserviunt initio Catechismi, usque ad primum Sym- 
 boli articulum. IN VINCULIS. Fides usque ad vincula, immd ad 
 necem usque, cum opus est, et a judice urgemur, profitenda est ; nee 
 est satis earn pectore inclusam habere, quantum vis rectam et sinceram, 
 ut ostenditur 28, vel : " Erunt signa in Sole et Luna," etc., ut Domi- 
 nica praecedenti. 
 
 DOMINICA TEETIA. 
 
 CONFESSUS EST ET NON NEGAVTT, JOAN. i. 20, etc. Ex hoc loCO s!m- 
 
 pliciter verum fateri docemur, nee intermiscere jusjnrandum, ut nobis 
 rides adhibeatur. Vide quanto, et sub quibus paenis jurare prohibitum, 
 in 2 praecepto 327, sqq. QUID ERGO BAPTIZAS, si TU NON ES CHRIS- 
 TUS, etc. Agendum hie deministris baptismi, de quo, p. 153, sqq., et 
 quomodo sese habeant in dispensatione sacramentorum Christus Do- 
 minus et minister, quantum ad effectum sacrament! 137, sqq. GUJUS 
 EGO NON SUM DiGNUS, etc. Hie monere parochus populum sibi credi- 
 tum debet ut se pro festis natalitiis ad sacram synaxim praeparet, et
 
 510 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 
 
 agere de condigna tanti hospitis (cujus corrigiam calceamenti solvere 
 indignnm se Joannes Baptista censet) susceptione, vide de praepara- 
 tione ad Eucharistiam 215, sqq. vel, " Cum audisset Joannes in vin- 
 culis," utin Dominica praecedenti. 
 
 DOMINICA QUARTA. 
 
 ANNO QUINTODECIMO IMFERII TiBERii CAESARS, etc. Luc. iii. 1. 
 Cur hie de principibus mundi fiat mentio, eadem ratio afferri potest, 
 quae affertur in articulo 4 Symboli de eodem Pontio Pilato 56, sq. 
 FACTUM EST VERBUM DOMINI SUPER JOANNEM, etc. Quoniam Joannes 
 non nisi a Deo legitime vocatus officium verbi Dei predicandi exercuit, 
 ideo hie de legitima vocatione ministrorum Ecclesiae parochus disseret, 
 ut habetur de sacram. Ordinis 273, sqq. legitimosque eos ministroa 
 non esse dicet, qui missi non sunt, ut traditur in praefatione, 18, sq. IN 
 DESERTO. Hie de probitate et morum integritate ministrorum verbi 
 (qui sunt sacerdotes), agatur ex eodem loco 274, sq., 287, sqq. et de 
 castitate, quae eis, quando fiunt subdiaconi, indicitur, ut hab. 281. 
 PRAEDICANSBAPTISMUM POENiTENTiAE. Quomodo adulti, qui baptis- 
 mum suscipere debent, affecti esse debeant, etpraeteritae eosvitaepoeni- 
 tere, traditur, p. 159, sqq. quomodo hie baptismus Joannis repeti 
 debuit 138. PARATE VIAM DOMINI, RECTAS FACITE SEMITAS DEI 
 NOSTRI. Hie de praeparatione ad Eucharistiam, de qua in superiori 
 Dominica, et de necessaria mandatorum Dei observantia, de qua 305, 
 sqq., 308, sqq., 324, sqq. vel : " Confessus eat, et non negavit," ut in 
 Dominica praecedenti. 
 
 IN DIE NATIVITAT1S DOMINI. 
 
 PEPERIT PRIMOGENITUM FILIUM SUUM, etc., Luc. ii. 7, etc. Ex- 
 plicetur articulus Symboli, NATUS EX MARIA VIRGINE, qui est hujua 
 loci maxime proprius, de quo 48, sqq. Eodem die ad Missam majo- 
 rem : IN PRINCIPIO ERAT VERBUM, ET VERBUM ERAT, etc., JOAN. i. 
 1, etc. Quoniam hie locus, dum agitur de aeterna Christi Domini 
 generatione, adducitur 45, sqq., hinc parochus petet hujus loci exposi- 
 tionem. ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST. Hie exponatur mysterium 
 Incarnationis prout habetur 48, sqq. GLORIAM QUASI UNIOENITI A 
 PATRE. Quomodo hie unigenitus sit etiamf rater noster, vide 45, sqq., 
 436, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA INFRA OCTAVAM NATEVITATIS. 
 
 ET TUAM IPSIUS ANIMAM PERTRANSIBIT CLADIUS, etc., LUC. ii. 35, 
 
 etc. Ex hac Simeonis praedictione ansam sumere poterit parochua 
 explicandi, cur Deus fideles jam bxptizatos, quos filios habet carissimos, 
 non eximat ab incommodis vitae hujus, qua de re agitur 165, sqq., et 
 quo confugiendum tune sit, de quo 126, sqq., 410, sqq., 497, sqq. 
 
 NoN RECEDEBAT A TEMPLO, JEJUNIIS ET ORATIONIBUS, etc. De privata 
 
 et publica oratione habes, p. 427. Quomodo ad orationem. et jeju- 
 nium et eleemosyna jungenda sint, et quomodo ista tria couducant ad 
 satisfactionem peccatorum 262, sqq., 429, sq. 
 
 IN CIRCUMCISIONE DOMINI. 
 
 ET POSTQUAM CONSUMMATI SUNT DIES OCTO, UT CIRCUMCIDERETUR 
 
 PUER, etc. Luc. ii. 21, etc. Quoniam circumcisioni successit Baptis- 
 mus, hie in genere dici poterit de vi, et efficientia sacramentorum novae
 
 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 511 
 
 legis supra antiquae legis sacramenta, ut habetur 134, 234. VOCATUM 
 EST NOMEN Ejus JESUS, etc. Quam convenienter hoc nomen inditum 
 fuerifc Christo Domino, et quare 42, sq. Observandum hie etiam esfc 
 pueris nunc in baptismo, ut olim in circumcisione, nomen ease impo- 
 nendum ; cujus rei quaenam sit ratio, et quale nomen puero imponi 
 debeat, habes, p. 175. Denique cum impositio nominis sit una ex 
 caeremoniis in baptismo usitatis, hie de Baptism! caeremoniis etritibua 
 apta concio haberi poterit 170, qq. 
 
 IN DIE EPIPHANIAE. 
 
 VIDIMUS ENIM STELLAM EJUS IN OfilENTE, etc. MATTH. ii. 2, etc. 
 
 Quoniam non inepte per hanc stellam philosophica de Deo scientia 
 potest intelligi, sicut per responsum sacerdotum fidei lumen, non male 
 hie adaptari poterunt quae de differentia sapientiae Christianae a Phi- 
 losophica notitia habentur 29, sqq. ET PROCIDENTES ADORAVERUNT 
 EUM, etc. MATTH. ii. 11, etc. Hie de adoratione Dei, quae LATRIA 
 dicitur, et simul de veneratione Sanctorum quae DULIA nominatur. 
 Vide in expositione Decalogi 315, sqq., usque ad secundum praecep- 
 tum. flic agi etiam potest de Eucharistae veneratione et adora- 
 tione. Nam si cundem Christum, quern Magi adoraverunt, prae- 
 seutem in Eucharistia agnoscimus, et confitemur, ut disertis verbis 
 probatur 201, sqq. si pii esse volumus, cur non aeque ac Magi eum 
 adorabimus ? Vide 187, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA INFRA OCTAVAM EPIPHANIAE. 
 
 SECUNDUM CONSUETUDINEM NUPTIAE FACTAE SUNT, Luo. ii. 42, 
 etc. De observatione dierum festorum, lege, p. 342, sqq. ET ERAT 
 SUBDITUS ILLIS, etc. De officio liberorum erga parentes 354, sqq. 
 
 DOMJNICA SECUNDA POST EPIPHANIAM. 
 
 NUPTIAE FACTAE SUNT IN CANA GALILAEAE, etc. JOAN. ii. 1, etc. 
 De sacramento matrimonii, vide p. 289, sqq. Hoc FECIT JESUS INI- 
 TIUM SIUNORUM suoRUM. Haec conversio aquae in vinum valet plu- 
 rimum ad confirmandos rudiores in fide Transubstantiationis, quae fit 
 in augustissimo Altaris Sacramento ; de qua 204, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA TERTIA. 
 
 ECCE LEPROSUS VENIENS ADORABAT EUM, MATTH. viii. 2, Sq. etc. 
 Per lepram haeresim significari dicunt Patres. Qui vero sunt censendi 
 haeretici, et qui a castris Ecclesiae, ut olim leprosi, ejiciendi, habetur 
 90, 94. VADE, OSTENDE TE SACERDOTI. De honore Sacerdotibus Do- 
 mini, et Ecclesiae praefectis exhibendo 353, 356. VADE, OSTENDE TE 
 SACERDOTI, etc. Longe excellentiorem virtutem nostris sacerdotibus 
 tributam docet Chrysostomus lib. 3, de Sacerd. quam Mosaicis, quod 
 ilh' oblatos sibi leprcsos non mundareut, sed mundatos tantum esse 
 declararent ; nostri vero hominem peccati lepra maculatum, dum ab- 
 solutionis beneficium rite praeparato impendunt, vere emundant, et 
 perfectae sanitati restituunt. Hie de potestate clavium Sacerdotibus 
 concessa, 104, 234, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA QUARTA. 
 
 ASCENDENTS JESU IN NAVICULAM, MATTH. viii. 23. Inter multa, 
 quae Ecclesiam repraesentant, est navicula ilia seu area Noe 94, sq.
 
 512 PRAXIS CATECHISM!. 
 
 Hie ergo de Ecclesia Catholica, et notis quibus internoscitur, parochus- 
 agere poterit 95, sq. DOMINE SALVA NOS, PERIMUS. Quoniam nul-> 
 lum est tempus, in quo ita hominum vita, quam in propinquo animae 
 exitu, periclitetur ; ideo parochus ex hoc loco hortari poterit suos sub- 
 ditos, ut cum mortis dies instabit, ad Deum maxime recurrant, et ex- 
 tremae unctionis sacramentum accipiant 265, sqq. QUALIS EST HIC, 
 QUIA VENTI ET MARE OBEDiUNT Ei ? Quomodo creaturae omnes 
 eum, quern a Deo ab initio acceperunt, curs am teneant homine 
 dempto 447, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA QUINTA. 
 
 ET INIMICUS HOMO SUPERSEMINAVIT ZTZANIA, etc. MATTH. XUl. 25, 
 
 etc. In Ecclesia duo sunt hominum genera, bonorum, qui tritici nomine 
 designantur ; improborum nomine zizaniorum 93 ; vel per zizania in- 
 telliguntur odia, atque rixae, quas pater dissensionis Diabolus seminare 
 conatur in agro filiorum pacis, cujusmorbi remedium habes 356, sqq., 
 364, sqq. INIMICUS HOMO HOC FECIT. De odio daemonum in nos, et 
 ad tentandum audacia et perversitate, vide 486, sqq. et ut omnes mali 
 culpae auctor, mali vero paenae sit exactor, vide 502. 
 
 DOMINICA SEXTA. 
 
 SIMILE EST REGNUM COELORUM GRAND STNAPIS, MATTH. xiii. 31, 
 etc. Quoniam juxta Doctores per granum sinapis fides intelligitur, 
 hie tractanda sunt, quae de ejus necessitate habentur 25, sq. ; et quo- 
 modo scrutanda non sint ea, quae fide credeiida proponunter p. 28, sq. 
 et ejus excellentia, et quantum differat Christiana de Deo sapientia a 
 philosophica divinarum rerum notitia 29 sq. CUM AUTEM CREVERIT. 
 Fidem augeri posse traditur 426. ITERUM SIMILE EST REGNUM CAELO- 
 RUM FERMENTO, QUOD ACCEPTUM MULiER. Hanc Mulierem Ecclesiam 
 interpretantur, quae in doctrina tidei aut morum (per fermentum desig- 
 nata) errare non posse traditur 100. DONEC FERMENTATUM EST 
 TOTUM. Hie de communione Sanctorum, et meritorum participatione 
 explicari possunt, quae sunt 102 sq. 
 
 DOMINICA IN SEPTUAG. 
 
 SIMILE EST REGNUM COELORUM HOMINI PATRIFAMILIAS, MATTH. 
 xx. 1, etc. Hie paterfamilias est Deus, qui cur pater dicatur 31, sqq., 
 430, sqq. , 436. E.ECEPERUNT IPSI SINGULOS DENARIOS. Denarii no- 
 mine coelestis beatitudo designatur, quam hie paterfamilias alacriter 
 et sincere in vinea sua, id est, in cultura mandatorum divinorum 
 laborantibus praestat. De hoc vitae aeternae denario 119, sqq., 309, 
 445, sqq., 450. Hujus vero beatitudinis consequendae certam viam, 
 ac rationem habes 125, 416, sqq., 449, sq., 451, sqq. Item exhortatio 
 ad colendam hanc vineam mandatorum illustris habetur 305, sqq. 
 SINGULOS DENARIOS, etc. In coelo tamen varietas est mercedis et 
 gloriae, pro ratione laboris et affectus, quo quis operatur 117, sq., 125. 
 
 DOMINICA IN SEXAG. 
 
 EXIIT QUI SEMINAT SEMINARE SEMEN SUUM, etc. LUC. viii. 5, etc. 
 
 Semen hoc, in terram sparsum, est verbum Dei, exponente Domino, 
 de quo 472, sq. et quomodo sit audiendum, vide praefat. VENIT 
 DIABOLUS, etc. De daemonis conatu, et impugnatione habes 488, sqq. 
 ET A SOLLTCITUDINIBUS ET DiviTiis, etc. Quantum divitiae et effroenes 
 rerum temporalium cupiditates impedianthujus divini seminis fructum 
 404, sqq.
 
 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 513 
 
 DOMINICA IN QUINQUAG. 
 
 TRADETCR ENMM GENTIBUS, KT ILLUUETUR, Luc. xviii. 32, etc. Ut 
 Christi milites ejus crucem tamquam vexillum sui duels contuentes, 
 ad arma poeniteutiae sumenda exstimulentur, ideo hoc Evangelium 
 ineunte quadragesima legitur, quod passionis Dominicae summam 
 complectitur, quo loco non importune parochus exponet, quae de Pas- 
 sione Domini fuse traduntur, p. 55, sqq. vel si in aliud tempus com- 
 inodius differre malit hoc argumentum, hodie alteram Evangelii par- 
 tern pertractabit, ut sequitur. CAECUS QUIDAM SEDEBAT SECUS VIAM. 
 Hie caecus genus humanum denotat, de ctijus post peccatum statu 
 misero 447, sqq. , 454, sqq. 466, sq. JESU FILI DAVTD MISERERE MEI. 
 Hie quomodo Deum aliter oremus ac Sanctos ex hac formula demon- 
 strabis 422, sq. Porro si augustiis aut tribulationibus premimur, aut 
 re aliqua iudigemus, ad Dominum cum hoc caeco nobis recurrendum 
 est, precibusque sollicitandus Deus, ut nobis adsit. Vide de necessi- 
 tate et utilitate orationis 409, sqq. QUIDTIBI VISFACIAM. Hie causas, 
 ob quas clementissimus Deus vult a nobis rogari, etiam si sciat quibus 
 retus indigeamus 412. 
 
 FERIA IV. CINERUM. 
 
 CUM AUTEM jEJUNATis, etc. MATTE, vi. 16, etc. Cum Quadrage- 
 simae jejunium eo nomine sit institutum, ut totius anni peccata hac 
 quasi solemni mulcta redimeremus, hodie parochus excitare fidelem 
 populum debebit ad poenitentiam amplectendam, de cujus necessitate 
 scribitur 227, sqq., docere quibus gradibus ad poenitentiam licet 
 ascendere 230, sq. , et quibus operum generibus pro peccatis satisfacere 
 possimus 262, sq. NOLITE THESAURIZARE VOBIS THESAUROS IN TERRA. 
 Vide ad versus eos qui opus congerere undequaque student 384, sqq., 
 403, sqq., 469. sqq. THESAURIZATE VOBIS THESAUROS IN COELO. 
 Quoniam parochi frequenter fidelem populum ad eleemosynas pau- 
 peribus erogandas excitare debent, hie hoc studiose praestabunt 
 384, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA PRIMA QUADRAGESIMAE. 
 
 UT TENTARETUR A DiABOLO, etc. MATTH. iv. 1, etc. Cum sit ten- 
 tatio vita hominis super terrain, ut dicit Job vii. hie de tentatione 
 agendum, de generibus tentationum, ad quid permittantur homines 
 tentari, quibus armis tentatiouibus resistendum, et caetera hujusmodi, 
 quae habentur 487, sqq. No.v IN SOLO PANE VIVIT HOMO. De pane 
 spiritual!, de quo hie agit Christus Dominus 472, sqq. ANGELIS suis 
 DEUS MANDAVIT, etc. De Angelorum custodia erga homines 431, sq. 
 DOMINUM DEUM TUUM ADORABIS. De adoratione Dei, quae fide spe 
 et charitate perficitur, vide p. 314, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA SECUNDA 
 
 ASSUMPSIT JESUS PETRUM, ET JACOBUM, ET JOANNEM, ET DEDFXTT 
 EOS, etc. MATTH. xvii. 1, etc. Hie afferri possunt ea, quae de loco et 
 tempore, quo homines ad divina contemplanda aptiores sunt 312, sq. 
 BONUM EST NOS Hie ESsE. Hie tractari possunt, quaede summa eorum 
 dignitate, qui Deo obediunt, habentur 459, vel de intimis hominum 
 sanctorum gaudiis 472. Poterunt etiam Parochi de duodecimo arti- 
 culo hie habere sermonem 119, sqq. Hie EST FILIUS MEUS DILECTUS, 
 etc. Hie de aeterna filii generatione latissimus sese offert dicendi 
 
 2 K
 
 514 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 
 
 campus p. 45, sq., vel secundum aliarum Ecclesiarnm ritum : MlSE- 
 KERE MEI FILI DAVID, MATTE, xv. 22, etc. Hie typum habes per- 
 fectae orationis quantum spectat ad cluas conditiones, quae in oratione 
 maxime desiderautur, tidem videlicet, et perseverantiam 424, sq., 427, 
 
 sq. FlLIA MEA MALE TORQUETUR A DAEMONIC, CtC. Hlljus mulieds 
 
 exemplo parentes monentur diligentem liberorum curam gerere 359, 
 sq. DIMITTE EAM, QuiA CLAMAT POST Nos, etc. Si Apostoli in hac 
 vita degentes adhuc pro se solliciti, pro Chananaea interpellant, et 
 exaudiuntur, in caelo mutire non audebunt, inquit D. Hieron. contra 
 Vigilantium. Hie de intercessione Sanctorum 315, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA TERTIA. 
 
 ERAT JESUS EJICIENS DAEMONIUM, ET ILLUD ERAT MUTUM, Luc. 
 xi. 14, etc. Daenionis proprium est eum, quem possidet, reddere 
 mutum, id est, a confessioue peccati revocare. Sed tamen non est 
 alia ratio ejiciendi Daemonis, quam ut linguam solvas ad detegendum 
 coram sacerdote peccatum 244, sqq. OMNE REGNUM IN SEIPSUM DI- 
 VISUM DESOLABITUR. Ecclesia est Christi regnum, ut habetur 449, 
 sq. Id autem, ut in seipsum non sit divisum, unum esse necesse est, 
 unde hie de unitate Ecclesiae agendum est 95, sqq. REVERTAR IN 
 DOMUM MEAM. De relabentium in peccata gravitate 486. Et quid 
 post confessionem agendum 237, sq. TUNC ASSUMIT ALIOS SEPTEM 
 SPIKITUS NEQUIORES SE. Hie locus inducitur ad probandum non unum 
 tantum daemonem, sed plures etiam interdum hominem tentare 488 : 
 patet autem ex hoc loco daemonem acrius eos tentara, qui ab eo de- 
 fecerunt 489. BEATUS VENTER QUI TE PORTAVIT. Gloriticatione B. 
 Mariae Virginis hoc Evangeliuin concluditur 50, sq. , 421, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA QUARTA. 
 
 UNDE EMEMUS PANES, UT MANDUCENT HI ? JOAN. vi. 5. etc. Hie 
 apte explicari poterit ilia petitio Dominicae Orationis, " Panem nos- 
 trum quotidianum da nobis 464, sqq. Notandum praeterae quod panis 
 iste vim etiam habebat sedandi sitim, ut tenent doctores. Ita et panis 
 Eucharistiae laicis pro calice est. De Communione sub una specie 
 220, sq. Hoc AUTEM DICEBAT TENTANS EUM. Quomodo Deus homi- 
 nem teutet 490, sq. DISTRIBUIT DISCUMBENTIBUS. Christus non dis- 
 tribuit, sed dedifc Apostolis, et illi distribuerunt turbae, Matth. xiv. 
 19. Sic a mundi initio per Patriarchas et Prophetas, et postea per 
 Apostolos eorumque successores, Deus verbum Dei et sacramenta sub- 
 ministrat. Christus tamen est qui haec omuia praecipue efficit 137. 
 Hie EST VERB PROPHETA. De gratiarum actione 414, 421. 
 
 DOMINICA PASSIONIS. 
 
 Quis EX VOBIS ARGUET ME DE PECCATO ? JOAN. viii. 46, etc. Inno- 
 centia Christi in hodierno Evangelio convenienter profertur in me- 
 dium, ut in promptu sit nobis causa Dominicae Passionis quam hodie 
 representare incipit Ecclesia, nimirum non propter illius delicta, sed 
 nostra. De causis Passionis Christi habes, p. 60, sq. Si VERITATEM 
 DICO VOBIS. Hie a mendacio cavere docemur, de quo multa 389, sqq. 
 Qui EX DEO EST, .VERBA DEI AUDIT, etc. De verfoo Dei audiendo 17, 
 347, sq., 472. NONNE BENE DICIMUS NOS QUIA SAMARITANIS, etc. 
 Ex hoc loco Parochus ansam poterit arripere ad excitandos suos Fide- 
 les ad injurias condonandas 367, sqq., 420, 481, sqq. SED HONO- 
 KIFICO PATREM, ET vos INHONORASTIS ME. Christus saepe et a
 
 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 515 
 
 imutis graviter inhonoratur, sed ab iis maxime qui ejus verbum vel 
 male interpretando, vel ad vana convertendo polluunt 338, sq. Tu- 
 
 LERUNT ERGO LAPIDES, UT JACERENT IN BUM. Ex hoc loCO 
 
 potest, et tempus et genus mortis a Christo delectum fuisse 56, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA IN RAMIS PALMARUM. 
 
 Evangelium ut in prima Dominica Adventus, de quo ibid. Coete- 
 rum quoniam ad Eucharistiam percipiendam, ex praecepto Ecclesiae, 
 eo tempore omnes discretione praediti obligantur, ideo ex his Evan- 
 gelii verbis, " Ecce Rex tuus venit tibi mansuetus," ad ejus sump- 
 tionem Fideles hortari potent parochus ex his quae habeiitur 217, 
 sqq. et deinceps ; et quoniam parentes tit plurimum negligentissimi 
 sunt ad liberos suos ad Eucharistae perceptionem praesentandos, ideo 
 eis maxime Parochus inculcabit, quae de aetate, quae pueri ad earn 
 percipiendam tenentur habentur 219, sq. IN DIE SANCTO PARASCEVES. 
 Hoc die quoniam solemnis de mysterio Passionis Domini nostri Jesti 
 Christi concio haberi solet, ideo praetur ea, quae in expositione artic. 
 4. Symboli habentur 55, sqq. , haec insuper hoc die tractari posse vi- 
 dentur : de singular! auiore, qiio Deus genus humanum prosecutus est, 
 cum illud morte unigeniti filii sui redimere voluerit, de quo 435, sq. ; 
 de primi parentis lapsi et miseriis, quae ilium consecutae sunt 40 sq. , 
 447, sq. , 466, sq. ; quomodo ex passione Christi omnis remissio pecca- 
 torum emanarit 108, 230, sqq., et proinde omnia sacramenta ex hac 
 Christi passione virtutem acceperint 130, sq. 141 ; de sacrificio Christi 
 tarn cruento qnam incruento 222, sqq. ; de satisfactione et merito 
 Christi 55, sqq., 257, sqq., 261, sq. ; denique quomodo nulli unquam 
 patuit, sed nee patere quidem potest aditus ad regnum caelorum sine 
 hac redemptionis humanae per Christum fide 41, sq. , idque esse sum- 
 in am et cardinem totius Christianae religionis, scire Jesum Chris- 
 tum, et hunc crucifixum 21. 
 
 DOMINICA PASCHAE. 
 
 STTRREXIT, NON EST HIC, etc. MARC. xvi. 6, etc. De resurrectione 
 Domini exponetur artic. Symboli Apostolici, "Tertia die resurrexit a 
 mortuis " 64, sqq. 
 
 FERIA SECUNDA POST PASCHA 
 
 DtTO EX DISCIPTJLIS JESU IBANT IPSA DIE IX CASTELLTJM, LuC. XXIV. 
 
 13, etc. Quoniam fieri vix potuit ut Parochus omnia, quae ad resur- 
 rectionem Christi pertinent, pridie explicuerit, ideo hoc die poterit ea 
 quae praetermisit, ex eo loco repetere. OPORTUIT PATI CHRISTUM, ET 
 ITA INTRA.RE IN GLORIAS! SUAM. Hie locus est proprius causas expo- 
 nendi, ob quas necesse fuit Christum resurgere, quae habentur 70, 
 sqq. , et exemplo Christi fideles hortandi, ut omni studio incumbant 
 ut caelesti reguo potiantur 121, sqq., et de commodis tribulationis 
 435, sq., 500, sq. ET FACTCM EST DUM RECUMBERET CUM us, ACCEPIT 
 PANEM. Hie locus proprius est ad probandum utramque Eucharistae 
 speciem laicis necessario non exhibendam, de quo multa 220, sq. 
 
 FERIA TERTIA POST PASCHA. 
 
 STEI IT JESUS IN MEDIO DISCIPULORUM SUORUM, Luc. xxiv, 36, etc. 
 Hie de quatuor dotibus corporis gloriosi agi potest 117, sq. PAX VOBIS. 
 Quoniam regnum Dei, teste Apostolo, pax est et gaudium in Spiritu 
 Sancto, hie quale sit regnum Christi in pios tractari potest 449, sq.
 
 516 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 
 
 PRAEDICARE IK NOMINE EJUS POENITENTIAM ET REMISSIONEM PECCA- 
 TORUM. Quomodo poenitentiae praedicatio a Christo Apostolis in- 
 juncta sit ex hoc ipso loco probatur 105 sqq. Unde potes tarn ex ex- 
 positione articuli de remissione peccatorum, quam ex his quae de 
 Sacramento poenitentiae hie habentur, longissimam habere concionem. 
 
 DOMINICA PRIM A POST PASCHA, 
 
 CtJM SERO E3SET DIE ILLA, UNA SABBATORUM, JOAN. XX. 19, etc. 
 
 Christi resurrectio nostrae est resurrectionis exemplar, quam maxime 
 stabilire necesse fuit, ut pariter nostra stabilirettir ; qnibus autem turn 
 Scripturis, turn rationibus nostra stabiliatur resurrectio 111, sqq. 
 "Una sabbatorum" autem quid sit 343, sq. QUORUM REMISERITIS 
 PECCATA, JOAN. xx. 23, etc. De potestate clavium sacerdotibus con- 
 cessa, p. 1S3, sqq., 244, sqq. MITTE DIGITUM TUUM IN LOCA CLA- 
 VORUM, etc. Qualia futura sunt corpora post resurrectionem, et cur 
 Christus et martyres cicatrices retinebunt 117, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA SECUNDA POST PASCHA. 
 
 EGO SUM PASTOR BONUS, JOAN. x. 11, etc. Pastorum nomine com- 
 prehenduntur nou solum Episcopi et animarum rectores, sed etiam 
 reges, magistratus, parenteset magistri. Quid vero pastores ejusmodi 
 ovibus debeant, et quid vicissim oves pastoribus 18, sqq., 345, sqq. 
 MERCENARIUS AUTEM. ET QUI NON EST PASTOR. Quis sit iste merce- 
 narius et non pastor 274, sq. ET FIET UNUM OVILE ET UNUS PASTOR. 
 Hie de imitate Ecclesiae 95, sqq., unoque universali Ecclesiae Pas- 
 tore D. Petro, et de Petri successore, Romano Pontifice 96, sqq., 
 285, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA TERTIA POST PASCHA. 
 
 MODICUM, ET NON VIDEBITIS ME, JOAN. xvi. 16, etc. Efficax con- 
 solationis genus, dum temporarius moeror pro Christo susceptus 
 aeternis gaudiis compensatur 119, sqq. Vos VKRO CONTRISTABIMINI, 
 MUNDUS AUTEM GAUDEBiT. Quare perversi minus, pii vero acrius, a 
 daemonibus infestentur, et proinde illi gaudoant, isti vero tristentur 
 489. TRISTITIA VESTRA VERTETUR IN GAUDIUM, etc. Spe futurorum 
 bonorum quomodo alacri et constant! animo adversa omnia tolerare 
 debeamus 119, sqq. et cur Deus sinat affligi bonos 489. 
 
 DOMINICA QUARTA POST PASCHA. 
 
 Si ENIM NON ABIERO PARACLETUS NON VENIET, JOAN. Xvi, 7, etc. 
 
 De Spiritu Sancto, deque admirandis ejus effectibus et donis 84, sqq. 
 ARGUET MUNDUM DE PECCATO, etc. Spiritus Sancti proprium munus 
 est, corda ad compunctionem movere, et peccanteni intiinsecus ar- 
 guere. Quae autem contritio vera sit, quasque res ea habere debeat 
 237, sq. Hue etiam referri possuntea, quae de peccatis, quae remitti 
 non possunt, habentur 235, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA QUINTA POST PASCHA. 
 
 Si QUID PETIERITUS PATREM IN NOMINE MEO, JOAN. XVI. 23, etc. 
 
 De oratione, et ejus adjunctis hie proprius est dicendi locus 408, sqq. 
 USQUEMODO NON PETiSTis QulDQUAM, etc. Hie proprie de modo, 
 quo Deum per Christum orare debemus 429. Hie etiam locus adduci- 
 tur ad probandum in nomine Christi orandum esse.
 
 PRAXIS CATECHISM!. 517 
 
 IN FESTO ASCENSIONIS DOMINI. 
 
 ASSUMPTUS EST IN COELUM, ET SEDET A DEXTRIS DEI, MARC. XVI. 
 
 19, etc. Hoc in loco artic. Symb. Apostolici, qui de Ascensiune est, 
 explicabitur 73, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA POST ASCENS. DOM. 
 
 CUM AUTEM VENKRIT PARACLETCS, QUI A PATRE PROCEDIT, JOAN. 
 
 xv. 26, etc. Hie de processione Spiritus Sancti a Patre et Filio 88. 
 UT OMNIS QUI vos INTERFICIT, JOAN, xvi. 2, etc. Hie praeceptum, 
 Decalogi, " Non occides," exponi poterit 360, sqq. ARBITRETUR SB 
 OBSEQUIUM, etc. De omnibus adversis et calamitatibus hujus vitae 
 idem judicandum est quod de his, quae Christi causa patimur, nempe 
 eas esse magnum Dei in nos benevolentiae signum 436, sq. 
 
 IN FESTO PENTECOST. 
 
 Si QUIS DILIGIT ME, SERMONEM MEUM SERVABIT, JOAN, xiv. 23, etc. 
 
 Spiritus Sancttis ideo credentibus datur, ut sermonem Dei, qui Deca- 
 logo compreheuditur, servare possint ; ad quam rem ut promptiores 
 sint, afferat parochus quae habentur initio explicationis Decalogi 304, 
 sqq. ; vel quoniam hie locus adducitur ad probandum Dei mandata 
 non esse impossibilia, ideo de hac re aget 306, sqq. ; vel hodie ex- 
 ponet quae traduntur de Confirmationis sacramento 176, sqq., quan- 
 doquidem tali die Apostolos a Spiritu Sancto confinnatos fuisse do- 
 cent Patres. 
 
 FERIA SECUNDA POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 SlC ENIM DEUS DILEXIT MUNDUM, UT FlLIUM SUUM UNIGENITUM 
 
 DARET, JOAN. iii. 16. Hie locus proprius est ad ea pupulo expouenda, 
 quae de eximia charitate caelestis Patris in genus humanum, in crea- 
 tione et gubernatione demonstrate ; sed multo magis in Redtmptione 
 habentur 393, sq., 431, sqq. UT OMNIS QUI CREDIT IN EUM, NON 
 PEREAT. Hie quomodo fides in Chri.-tum omnibus hominibus ab omni 
 aevo necessaria fuerit, docendum est 40, fqq. Qui CREDIT IN EUM, 
 NON JUDICATUR. De verbo, "credere," habes 27, sq. quae hicaccom- 
 modare poteris ; ex quo etiam dicendi forma Filium Dei vere Deum 
 esse demon strains 45, sqq. QUIA NON CREDIT IN NOMINE UNIGEMTI 
 FILII. Quomodo Dei films sit unigeuitus, poteris declarare ex his, 
 quae habentur ib. ; et contra, qua ratione hie unigenitus fratrea 
 habeat 46, sq., 436, sq. 
 
 FERIA TERTIA POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 Qui NON INTRAT PER OST1UM IN OVILE OVIUM, JOAN. X. 1, etc. Hie 
 
 locus proprius est ad ea explicanda, quae de legitima ordinatione mi- 
 nistrorum Ecclesiae habentur 273, sqq. ; de legitimo ministro sacra- 
 menti Ordinis -JSti. ET OVES VOCEM t:jrs AUDIUNT. De obedientia et 
 honore, qui debetur Episcopis et sacerdotibus agitur 356, sq. A LI- 
 EMM AUTEM NON SEQUUNTUR. Haereticorum ministros non esse 
 sequendos 18, sqq. ; qui autem eos sequuutur, non oves sed haedi sunt 
 491. 
 
 IN FESTO SANCTISS. TRINITATIS. 
 
 DATA EST MIHI OMNIS POTESTAS IN COELO ET IN TERRA, MATTH. 
 xxviii. 18, etc. Hie explicanda sunt quae de regno Christi in pios, et
 
 518 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 
 
 ratione qua regnat in suis Fidelibus, habentur 449, sq. ; de regno etiam 
 gloriae ejusdem 450, sq. ; item de potestate ipsius in sacramentis tam 
 institueudis quarn confereiidis 137, sq. ; et de potestate item clavium 
 ejusdem, qua remittuntur peccata 105, sqq. , 231, sqq. BAPTIZANTES 
 EOS. Hie locus adducitur ad probandum, quo tempore baptism us 
 obligare caeperit 152 ; et ideo de necessitate ejusdem et praesertim in 
 infantibus, ea proferri possunt quae habentur 157, sq. IN NOMINE 
 PATRIS ET FILII ET SPIRITUS SANCTI. Hie de materia et forma bap- 
 tismi, quae sunt 146, sqq., accurate agendum est. Hie etiam de 
 Sanctissimae et gloriosissimae Triuitatis mysterio poterunt agere 
 Parochi 32, sq. docebunt autem praesertim vulgus imperitum Sanctis- 
 simam Trinitatem pingi et formari non posse, atque adeo, si quando 
 pingatur, illam picturam proprietates quasdam illius expriuiere 319. 
 DOCENTES EOS 8ERVAKE QUAKCUNQUE MANDAVJ. Hie de necessitate, 
 et possibilitate servandae Legis Divinae 304, sqq. 
 
 IN EADEM DOMINICA. 
 
 ESTOTE ERGO MISERICORDES SICUT ET PATER VESTER COELESTIS, 
 
 etc., Luc. vi. 36, etc. De hoc Evangelio in Dominica 4, juxta alia- 
 rum Ecclesiarum morem : DATE, ET DABITUR VOBIS. Hie de commu- 
 nicandis cum proximis hujus vitae subsidiis produci possunt quae ha- 
 bentur 470, sq. 474, vel de Eleemosynis 384, sqq. HYPOCRITA ! EJICE 
 PRIMUM TRAPEM. De hypocritis, quorum orationes Domiuus rejicit, 
 habes 428. Item secundum aliquos : NISI QUIS RENATUS FUERIT, 
 JOAN. iii. 3, etc. Hie de necessitate Baptisini, qui in nomine Sanctis- 
 simae Trinitatis confertur, de ejuseffectibus, et in uuiversum quicquid 
 de eo habetur 143, sqq. explicabit. 
 
 IN FESTO CORPORIS CHRISTI. 
 
 CARO ENIM MEA VERE EST GIBUS, etc. JOAN. vi. 56, etc. De Eucha- 
 ristiae Sacramento 187, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA SECUNDA POST PENTECOSTEN, QUAE EST 
 INFRA OCTAVAM CORPORIS CHRISTI. 
 
 HOMO QUIDAM FECIT COENAM MAGNAM, etc. LUC. xiv. 16, etc. 
 
 Coenae nomine ; quae sub iinem diei sumitur, coelestis gloria nobis sig- 
 nifieatur, quam hie paterfamilias in ipsa vitae clausula beatis donabit 
 119, sqq. ; vel coenae nomine cum Paulo, 1 Cor. ii. intelligitur sacro- 
 sanctum Christi Corpus in Sacramento altaris 187, sqq. ETCOEPE- 
 RUNT OMNES siMUL EXCUSARE. Quoniam omnes haec excusationes ex 
 mala concupiscentia proveniunt, ideo hie adversus concupiscentias 
 pravas agendum erit 401, sqq., simulque miseria nostra ob oculos 
 poneuda, qui ea respuimus, quae salutaria nobis sunt, rebus antem, 
 perniciosis uos addicimus, ut hi fecerunt 447, sq. VILLAM EMI. Vide 
 in superbos, et ambitiosos, qui per liuuc designantur 417, 469. JUGA 
 BOUM EMI QUINQUE. Vide in avaros 378, sq., 470. UXORKM DUXI. 
 Hie detestanda libido, et conimendanda contiuentia et castitas, quae 
 aditum nobis ad coelorum regnum facilem praebet371, sqq., 407, sq., 
 vel secundum alios : HOMO QUIDEM EKAT DIVES, QUI INDUEBATUR, 
 etc. Luc. xvi. 1, etc. De vanitate in vestibus fugienda 375, sq. ; et 
 quomodo necessariis tantum rebus ad victum et vestitum pertiiienti- 
 bus contenti esse debeamus 468, sq. SEPCLTUS EST IN INFERNO. Ecce 
 que paena maueat improbos, qui morte praeoccupati sceleribus pl<"u
 
 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 519 
 
 decedunt 83, sq. UT PORTARETUR AB ANGELIS. Inter Angelorum 
 officia hoc non postremum est 431, sq. IN SINUM ABRAHAE. De re- 
 ceptaculis animarum post mortem 65, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA TERTIA POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 GATJDIUM ERIT IN COELO SUPER UNO PECCATORE POENITENTIAM 
 AGENTE, etc. Luc. xv. 7, etc. Inter caetera, quae ad poenitentiam 
 agendam peccatorum exstimulare debent, est ista Coelitum laetitia, 
 qua perfruuntur ob peccatoris conversionem 227, sqq., 317, sq. ; vel 
 HOMO QUIDAM FECIT, ut in Dominica praecedenti. 
 
 DOMINICA QUARTA POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 CUM TURBA IRRUEREXT IN JESUM UT AUD. VERBUM, etc. LUC. V. 1, 
 
 etc. Vide exhortationem ad audiendum diligenter verbum Dei 18, 
 sqq. ; et quomodo pro captu cuj usque tradenda sit doctrina Evan- 
 gelii 22, sq. ; idque praesertim diebus festis audiendum 347, sq. ASCEN- 
 DEXS IN UNAM NAVEM, QUAE ERAT SIMONIS, etc. Petri navem non 
 alterius ex Apostolis ingressus est Christus, ut hoc suo facto insinua- 
 ret Petrum cum successoribus caput esse et priucipem pastorum Eccle- 
 siae 95, sqq. , 285, sq. Exi A ME DOMINE. Qui ad sacram synaxin 
 accedunt. hoc Petri exemplo et centuriouis Matth. viii., agnoscant 
 esse se tanti hospitis praesentia indignissimos : vide quae de praepa- 
 ratione Eucharistiae traduntur 215, sqq., vel secundutn aliarum Ec- 
 clesiarum ritum : ESTOTE ERGO MISERICORDES SICUT ET PATER, etc. 
 Luc. vi. 36, etc. Ut Christus nobis condonet, prius condonare ipsi 
 debemus iis, a quibus laesi fuerimus. Vide explicationem illius peti- 
 tionis, " Dimitte nobis debita nostra," 474, sqq. Vide item de hoc 
 Evang. in festo Trinit. 
 
 DOMINICA QUINTA POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 AUDISTIS QUIA DICTUM EST ANTIQUIS, NON OCCIDES, etc. MATTH. V. 
 
 33, etc. Hujus loci erit hoc decalogi praeceptum exponere, 360, sqq. 
 EGO AUTEM DICO vOBis, OMNis QUI IRASCITUR. Haec verba exponuntur 
 361, sqq. AUDISTIS QUIA DICTUM EST ANTIQUIS, NON MAECHABERIS, 
 etc. Hie sirniliter exponatur hoc praeceptum 370, sqq.; vel, "Cum 
 turbae irruerent in Jesum," ut supra. 
 
 DOMINICA SEXTA POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 MlSEREOR SUPER TURBAM, QUIA ECCE JAM TRIDUO SUSTINENT ME, 
 
 MARC. viii. 2, etc. Praeter ea, quae notata sunt in Dominica quarta 
 Quadragesimae, poterit Parochus ea hue proferre, quae de paterna 
 Dei de homiuibus cura habentur 474, sqq. Si DIMISERO EOS JEJUNOS, 
 DEFICIENT IN VIA. Hie de imbecillitate hominum, qui nullum opus 
 Deo gratum sine adjumento Dei possunt instituere, agendum est 
 454, sqq., 471, vel, "Audistis quia dictum est antiquis, Non oc- 
 cides," ut supra. 
 
 DOMINICA SEPTIMA POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 ATTENDITE A FALSIS PROPHETIS, etc. MATTH. vii. 15, etc. Hie 
 cavendum praecipitur ab haereticis. Quis vern censendus sit haereti- 
 cus habes 90. Quomodo autem hi, com in Ecclesia non sint, ab ea 
 puniri possint, habes ib. et 94. Quibus autem artibus hi falsi pro- 
 phetae utantur ad impia sua dogmata diifundenda 19. IN IGNEM MIT-
 
 520 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 
 
 TETUR. etc. De hoc igne infernali 83, sq. SED QUI FACIT VOLUNTA- 
 TEM PATRIS MEI, etc. Haec sententia est veluti methodus brevissima, 
 docens qua ratione ad regnum coelorum pervenire possimus : quare 
 quicunque cupimus illud adipisci, hanc sententiam prae oculis habere 
 debeinus, 452, sqq. etdeiuceps, ubi haectertia petitio, "Fiat voluntas 
 tua, sicut in coelo et in terra," explicatur; vel, "Misereor super 
 turbam," ut in praecedenti Dominica. 
 
 DOMINICA OCTAVA POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 REDDE RATIONEM VILLICATIONIS TUAE, Luc. xvi. 2, etc. De ra- 
 tione reddenda, cum unusquisque migrat e vita 79, sq. FACITE VOBIS 
 AMICOS DE MAMMONA iNiQUiTATis. Ideo divines a Deo bonis ciimu- 
 lantur, ut pauperibus ea erogent 474. Hie ad eleemosynas suos poterit 
 exhortari parochus 384, sqq. Hie etiam locus pro intercessione Sanc- 
 torem facit 315 sqq. ; vel " Attendite a falsis prophetis," ut in praece- 
 denti Dominica, sicque deinceps omnia Evangelia, quae consequenter 
 in reliquis Dominicis proponuntur, in quibusdam Ecclesiis in praece- 
 denti Dominica legi consueverunt, quod notare supersedebimus. 
 
 DOMINICA NONA POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 FLEVIT SUPER ILLAM, Luc. xix. 41. Flet Christus, ut nos flere 
 doceat. Quomodo vero in poenitudine erratorum sint adhibendae 
 lacrymae, et quam diligenter procurandae 239, sq., ubi de contritione 
 agitur. QUIA si COGNOVISSES ET TU. Surnma est status nostri miseria 
 nostram miseriam non agnoscere 455. QUIA VENIENT DIES IN TE 
 ET CIRCUMDABUNT TE, etc. Jerusalem in exemplum ponitur ejus 
 bominis, qui, multis a Deo beiieticiis ornatus, male eis in sui perni- 
 ciem abutitur 492. 
 
 DOMINICA DECIMA POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 HAEC APUD SB ORABAT, Luc. xviii. 11, etc. Quibus virtutibus 
 oratio debeat esse comitata, ut Deo placeat, et ab eo exaudiatur 426, 
 sqq. DEUS, PROPITIUS ESTO MIIII PECCATORI. Hoc veri poenitentis 
 exemplum inter alia proponitur 485. Quare cum istius turn alioruni 
 exemplo, qui habentur ibidem et 241, ad veram poenitentiam Parochi 
 fideles excitabunt. Est praeterea exemplum eorum, qui, cum pecca- 
 tores sint, Deum orant et exaudiuntur 416. Denique quanta humili- 
 tate ad Deum precaturi accedere debeamus hie demonstratur423. Qui 
 SE KXALTAT, HUMiLiABiTUR. Christi humilitatis exemplum maximum 
 pondus habet ad nostram superbiam deprimendam, 53, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA XI. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 ET DEPRECABANTUR BUM, UT 1LLI IMPONAT MANUM, MARC. vii. 32, 
 
 etc. Istorum exemplo, qui Christum pro muto et surdo ad eum 
 adducto, ut sanaretur, interpellant, monemurpro aliisorare: quomodo 
 vero id faciendum, et pro quibus orandum 419, sqq. MISIT DIGITOS 
 IN AURICULAS EJUS. Christi exemplo, pueris in baptismo aures, oculi, 
 pectus, humeri signo crucis recte insigniuntur 170, sqq. SUSPICIENS 
 IN COELUM INGEMUIT, etc. Cum Deus sit ubique, cur potius in coelum 
 quam alio oculos convertamus, et cur in coelis esse dicatur 439, sq. 
 'Praeterae quoniam Sacrae Litterae nos surdos et caecos, et omnibus 
 membris captos saepe appellant 477, sq. hie de malis quae peccatiun 
 invenit, ut ibidem habetur, disserere Parochus commode poterit.
 
 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 521 
 
 DOMINICA XII. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 DlLIGES DOMINUM DEUM TUUM EX TOTO COEDE TUO, etc. LUC. I. 
 
 27, etc. In hanc sententiam populo, proponantur, quae habentur 
 initio explicationis Decalogi, p. 304, sqq. usque ad secundum praecep- 
 tum ; vel, quia hoc Evangelium concurrit earn Dominica decimasep- 
 tima, posteriorem hujus Evangelii partem priori praetennissa exponet. 
 
 HOMO QUIDAM DESCENDEBAT AB JERUSALEM IN JfiRICO, etc. Homi- 
 
 nis hujus ita miserabiliter a latronibus vulnerati nomine, Doctores in- 
 telligunt humanam naturam post Adae lapsnm, quae, quot, qualia, et 
 quanta vulnera acceperit habes 40. sq., 447, sq. , 454, sqq., 460, sq., 
 465, sq., et alibi frequenter. SAMARITANUS AUTEM INFUNDENS 
 OLEUM, etc. Hie de sacramentis agat parochus, quae a nostro Sama- 
 ritano, id est a Christo instituta sunt, tanquam remedia contra vulnera 
 humanae naturae, per Adae lapsum inflicta 131, sqq. CUR AM ILLIUS 
 HABE. Nota genus humanum et Ecclesiam uni homini a Christo com- 
 missam 95, sqq. , 285, sq. Quis HORUM VIDETUR FUISSE PROXIMUS ? 
 Ex hoc loco quis sit proximus explicatur 390. 
 
 DOMINICA XIII. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 JESU PRAECEPTOR, MISERERE NOSTRI, Luc. xviL 13, etc. De nomine 
 Jesu 42, sq. ITE, OSTENDITK vos SACERDOTIBUS, etc. Vide quae in 
 hanc sententiam dicta sunt Dominica secunda post Epiphaniam : vide 
 praeterea 246, ubi nominatim hie locus adducitur. Quomodo item 
 beneticio contritionis peccata remittantur, ex hoc loco probatur 237, 
 sqq. ; quae tamen confessionem requirit 241, sqq. NE SOLICITI sms 
 ANIMAE VESTRAE, etc. MATTH. vi. 25, etc. Quantum imnioderata 
 solicitudo congerendarum opum, caeteraeque cupiditates animae saluti 
 obsint 402, sqq. et hujus morbi remedium habes 407, sq. SCIT PATER 
 TESTER QUOD OMMBUS HIS iNDiGETis, etc. Etiamsi Deus sciat desi- 
 deria nostra et indigentiam, cur ei preces porrigamus 412 sq. QUAE- 
 RITE PRIMUM REGNUM DEI, etc. De iis quae petenda sunt, et quo 
 ordine, habetur 417, sqq., 441, sqq. Porro hie commode secunda 
 petitio Dominicae Orationis tota explicabitur 445, sqq. ET HAEC 
 OMNI A ADJICIENTUR voBis, etc. Quatenus temporalia petenda 464, 
 eqq. 
 
 DOMINICA XV. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 ET RESEDIT QUI ERAT MORTUUS, Luc. vii. 15. Si hie mortuus et qui- 
 dam alii sint revocati ad vitam, quomodo intelligendumqudd C'hristus 
 primus omnium resurrexerit 69, sq. Hie tractari poterit articulus 
 Symboli Apostolic! penult, de carnis resurrectione 110, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA XVI. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 Si LICET SABBATO CURARE, Luc. xiv. 3, etc. De sanctificatione 
 dierum festorum, et a quibus tune abstinendum, quidve agendum sit 
 345, sqq. CUM INVITATUS FUERIS AB NUPTIAS, etc. Hie locus est 
 cohortandi Christian os omnes, ne alii aliis se praeferant 437, neve 
 ainbitiosi sint honorumque cupidiores, 53, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA XVII. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 DILIGES DOMIXUM DEUM TUUM, MATTH. xxii. 37, etc. Vide 
 Evangelium Dominicae xii., ut supra. QUID VOBIS VIDETUR i)B
 
 522 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 
 
 CHRTSTO, etc. Christus quomodo sit Davidis filius 51. Quomodo item 
 non sit filius David ratione Divinitatis 45, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA XVIII. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 VIDEOS AUTEM JESUS FIDEM EORUM, MATTH. ix. 2, etc. Ecce 
 quantum fide aliena moveatur Deus ad aliquod donum alteri non modo 
 non petenti, sed ne cogitanti quidem, impertiendum. Hinc fit ut in 
 baptismo infantes regeuerationis fiant participes, non quia mentis suae 
 assensione credant, sed quia susceptorum, vel parentum (si videles 
 fuerint), sin minus, Ecclesiae Catholicae, Tit ait Augustinus, fide mu- 
 niantur 157, sq. et de patrinis 154, sqq. REMITTUNTUR TIBI PECCATA 
 TUA, etc. Christum ut hominem primum omnium potestatem remit- 
 tendorum peccatorum habuisse ex hoc loco probafcur 108. Porro dum 
 sacerdos, jurisdictionem habens vel ordinariam vel delegatam, rite 
 poeuitenti peccata remittit, non minus absolvitur quam hie paralyticus, 
 quantum est ex parte Sacram. De forma absolutionis 233, sq. Hie 
 BLASPHEMAT, etc. De blasphemia 338, et de juramento 330, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA XIX. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 Qui NUPTIAS FECIT FiLio suo, MATTH. xxii. 2, etc. Quibus de causis 
 vir et mulier conjungi debeant 294, sqq. et quae sponsae magis sint 
 quaerendae 295, 299, et de mutuis viri et mulieris officiis 300, sq., et 
 quod Deum orandi causa certis temporibus a matrimonii officio absti- 
 nere debeant 304, item de tribus matrimonii bonis 299, sqq. CONTU- 
 MELIIS AFFECTOS occiDERUNT, etc. De contumelia, detractione, mur- 
 muratione, caeterisque vitiis quibus proximus laeditur 392, sq. NON 
 HABENS VESTEM NUPTIALEM, etc. Vestem hanc nnptialem vestis 
 Candida, vel sudariolum, quod baptizatis datur, designat 174. MITTITE 
 IN TENEBRAS EXTERioRES, etc. De sententia et poena damnatorum 
 83, sq. 
 
 DOMINICA XX. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 ERAT QUIDAM REGULUS, GUJUS FILIUS INFIRMABATUR, JOAN. iv. 46, 
 etc. Unde tot miserae et adversitates, et quae quotque illae sint 40, 
 sq., 447, sq., 455, sqq., 461, sq., 466, sq. Quo in malis et rebus ad- 
 versis confugiendum 490, 495, sq. Hie exponi poterit ultima petitio 
 Dominicae Orationis, " Sed libera nos a malo" 497, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA XXI. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 REDDE QUOD DEBES, MATTH, xviii. 28, etc. Restitutio poenitenti 
 est necessaria, antequam absolvatur, quia, ' ' non dimittitur peccatum, 
 nisi restituatur ablatum," ut inquit Augustinus ; vide de restitutione 
 379 ; item de furto, rapina, usuris, et aliis illicitis rerum usurpationibus 
 381, sqq. Si NON REMISERITIS, etc. Hie exponatur petitio ilia Ora- 
 tionis Dominicae, "Dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimitti- 
 mus," etc. 474, sqq. 
 
 DOMINICA XXII. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 MAGISTER, SCIMUS QUIA VERAX ES, MATTH. xxii. 16, etc. Genus 
 assentationis pessimum, quae ad proxhni calamitatem et perniciem 
 adhibetur : de adulatione habes 393, ' Quia veraxes," etc. De men- 
 dacio 389, sqq. , ubi notatur hoc ipsum testimonium ex hoc Evangelio 
 decerptum. REDDITE QUAE SUNT CAESARIS CAESARI, etc. Vide quae 
 debeutur principibus et superioribus in potestate constitutis, 357, sq.
 
 PRAXIS CATECHISMI. 523 
 
 DOMINICA XXIII. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 ECCE PRINCEPS UNUS ACCESSIT, ET ADORABAT BUM DICENS, MATTH. 
 
 ix. 18, etc. Hie de differentia, qua infideles et Christian! a morbis 
 hberari cupitint, de qua, 499, sq. ; et quomodo in morbis ad Deum, 
 non ad praestigiatorum incantationes, sit recurrendum 499, sq. FILIA 
 MEA MODO DEFUNCTA EST. Hie de morte et novissimis, de quibus 
 saepe ad populum agendum esse praecipitur 83, 265, sqq. Si TETIGERO 
 TANTPM FIMBRIAM VESTIMENTI. Hie de reliquiis Sanctorum, et cultu 
 et veneratione earum aget Parochus 318, sq. ET CUM VEXLSSET JESUS 
 IN DOMUM PRINCIPIS, etc. Hie de ratione juvandi mortuos per sacri- 
 ficium Missae et orationes 226, 420 ; vel in quibusdam Ecclesiis legitur 
 Evangelium Dominicae IV. Quadragesimae, de quo ibidem. Si plures 
 sint Dominicae inter Pentecosten et Adventum, servetur quod de his 
 in Breviarii rubricis habetur. 
 
 DOMINICA XXIV. POST PENTECOSTEN. 
 
 CtTM ERGO VTDERITIS ABOMINATIONEM DESOLATIONIS STANTEM IN 
 
 LOCO SANCTO, MATTH. xxiv. 15, etc. Hie de signis praecedentibus 
 diem judicii agendum est 82. ORATE AUTEM NE FIAT FUGA VESTRA, 
 etc. Hie locus ad probandum temporalia a Deo peti posse inducitur 
 468, sq. ; unde de hoc argumento Parochi etiam agere poterunt, de 
 quo turn ibidem, turn 464, sqq. SED PROPTER ELECTOS BREVIABUNTUR 
 DI i;s ILLI. Hie de daemonum potestate poterit agi, qui, quantum 
 possunt, et quamdiu volunt, homines tentare non possuut, 489, sq.
 
 GENERAL INDEX, 
 
 ABBOTS permitted sometimes to ad- 
 minister minor orders, . . 286 
 Abraham's bosom, . . .66 
 Pilgrimage, . . .57 
 Absolution, power of, to whom 
 given, . . . 252, sq 
 Form of, . . . 233, sq. 
 When to be refused, . 254, sqq. 
 An effect of repentance, . 243 
 Absolved, who are to be, see Keys, 
 
 254, sqq. 
 Accidents remain in the Eucharist 
 
 without a subject, . . 210 
 
 Accusers, duty of, . . . 396 
 
 Acquisitions, unjust not ours, 469, sq. 
 Actions acceptable to God cannot be 
 undertaken without the aid of 
 divine grace, . . . 456 
 
 Adam, should have experienced no 
 trouble in paradise, . 465, sq. 
 
 Was not to have led a life of 
 
 indolence there, . . Ibid. 
 
 In a state of innocence, wanted 
 
 food to recruit his strength, Ibid. 
 He and his posterity should 
 have been immortal by means 
 of the fruit of the tree of 
 life, .... Ibid. 
 Difference between his wants 
 
 and ours, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Misery brought by him on him- 
 self and his posterity. 40, sq., 466 
 Both deprived of the fruit of 
 the tree of life, and cursed 
 by God, . . .466 
 
 Sin the cause of his and our 
 
 misery, . . .40 
 
 Compared with Christ, . 52, sq. 
 
 Adulation, see Flattery. 
 Adultery, what, . . . 371 
 
 Why prohibited after murder, . 370 
 Its enormity, . . . 372 
 
 Its injustice, . . 373, sq. 
 
 Its prohibition includes that of 
 
 every sort of impurity, . 371 
 Also evil thoughts, . . 372 
 
 It impresses a peculiar mark of 
 
 degradation, . . 373, sq. 
 
 Its evils and punishment, 374, sq. 
 Advocates, duties of, . . 396 
 
 Affinity of sponsors, what and with 
 
 whom, . . 155, 182, sq. 
 
 Afflictions, see Sufferings. 
 Almsdeeds, necessity of, . . 384 
 
 Medicinal nature of, . 485, sq. 
 We must labour in order to give 
 
 alms, . . . .385 
 
 To be united to prayer, . 429, sq. 
 Exhortation to, . . 334, sq. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Amen, meaning of, . . 507, sq. 
 
 Its signification at the end of 
 
 the Lord's Prayer, . 506, sq. 
 Why reserved to the priest in 
 the Mass at the end of the 
 Pater Noster, . . . 506 
 
 Why assigned to the clerk in the 
 
 other prayers, . . 506, sq. 
 
 Angels, creation of, . . 37. sq. 
 
 Endowments of, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Why called powers, . . Ibid. 
 
 Why represented in human 
 
 form and with wings, . 321 
 
 Their obedience to God, 461, sq. 
 Their care of man, . .431 
 
 Their services to man, . . Ibid. 
 
 To be honoured and invoked, 315, sq. 
 Not adored as God, . 316, sq. 
 A guardian angel assigned to 
 
 each individual, . . 431 
 
 The fallen, . . 37, sq. 
 
 Angelica] salutation, . . 421 
 
 Is a thanksgiving, . . Ibid. 
 
 By it God is honoured, . . Ibid. 
 
 Anger, what sinful, what not, 363, sq. 
 
 Animals, all remained as created 
 
 save man, . . . 447, sq. 
 
 Apostles, why given by Christ, . 26 
 Their authority, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Composed the Creed, . 26, sq. 
 
 Instituted ceremonies, . 170, sq. 
 Learned the composition of 
 
 chrism from our Lord, . 179 
 
 Archbishops, office of, . 285, sq. 
 
 Articles of the Creed, why so called, 
 
 26, sq. 
 
 The first article, . 27, sqq. 
 
 The second, . . 40, sqq. 
 
 The third, . . 48, sqq, 
 
 The fourth, . . 55, sqq. 
 
 The fifth, . . 64, sqq. 
 
 The sixth, . 73, sqq. 
 
 The seventh, . . 78, sqq. 
 
 The eighth, . . 84, sqq. 
 
 The ninth, . . 90, sqq. 
 
 The tenth, . . 1C5, sqq. 
 
 The eleventh, . .110, sqq. 
 
 The twelfth, . .119, sqq. 
 
 Ascension of Christ declares his 
 majesty and glory, . 75, sq. 
 
 Is the end, as it were, of all the 
 
 other mysteries, . . 75 
 
 Reasons for, . . 75, sq. 
 
 Christ ascended as man into 
 
 heaven, . . 74, sq. 
 
 Avarice, reprehension of, . . 403 
 
 BAPTISM, sacrament of, . 143, sqq. 
 Very necessary to be known, . Ibid.
 
 526 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Baptism, when principally to be ex- 
 plained, . . . 143, sq. 
 
 Instituted by Christ, . . 148 
 
 Meaning of the word, . . 144 
 
 Names of, . . 144, sq. 
 
 Why called the sacrament of 
 faith, . . . .144 
 
 Definition of, . . . 145 
 
 Matter of, . . .14(5 
 
 Why water particularly, . 147 
 
 Water used in, is not the sacra- 
 ment, . . . 145, sq. 
 
 Power of sanctifying, when 
 given to the water, . 151, sq. 
 
 Water used in, consecrated on 
 certain days, . . .171 
 
 Form of, . . . 148, sq. 
 
 Different amongst the Greeks, . 149 
 
 Figures and prophecies of, 146, sq. 
 
 Chrism, why used in, . . 147 
 
 Administered in the name of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, . 149 
 
 Obligation of receiving, com- 
 menced, when, . . 152 
 
 May be administered in three 
 different ways, . . 150 
 
 Baptism of fire, what. . . 146 
 
 May be administered by one or 
 three ablutions, . 150, sq. 
 
 Words of form to be pronounced 
 with the ablution, . . 151 
 
 Head to be laved, . . Ibid. 
 
 Ministers of, . . 153, sq. 
 
 Order to be observed amongst, 154 
 
 Why priests may baptize in pre- 
 sence of the bishop, . .153 
 
 Necessary to salvation, . . 157 
 
 To be administered to infants, 
 
 157, sq. 
 
 Conditional, not to be admi- 
 nistered indiscriminately, . 169 
 
 Manner of administration to 
 adults different from that to 
 infants, . . 159, sq. 
 
 Dispositions to be brought to it 
 by adults, . . .160 
 
 When to be administered with- 
 out delay to adults, . . Ibid. 
 
 Persons why asked if they wish 
 to be baptized, . . Ibid. 
 
 When to be administered to the 
 insane and lethargic, 160, pq. 
 
 Requires faith . . . 161 
 
 Requires penitence, . . Ibid. 
 
 Remits and effaces every sin, ](!2, sq. 
 
 And the punishments due to sin, 164 
 
 Kemits not the punishment due 
 to the civil laws, . . 165 
 
 Restores not our nature to our 
 original perfection, . 162, sq. 
 
 Docs not extinguish concupi- 
 scence, . . 163, sq., 16fi 
 Isapledgeof ourredemption, 434, sq. 
 Opens heaven, . . . 170 
 Incorporates us with Christ, 167, sq. 
 Other fruits of, . . 16:2, sq. 
 Impresses a character, . . 168 
 Repetition of, a sai-i il<'ge, 168, sq. 
 Name to be imposed in, . 175 
 Ceremonies and prayers of, 171, sq. 
 Of Christ, . . 161, sq. 
 
 PAG* 
 
 Baptized, persons to be, renounce 
 Satan, . . . .173 
 
 Why not at once admitted into 
 
 the church, . . . 171 
 
 Make a profession of faith, . 174 
 Baptismal font, how and when con- 
 secrated, . . . .171 
 Beasts, lawful to kill and eat, . 361 
 Beatitude, see articles xi. and xii. 
 of the Creed. 
 
 Essential, in what it consists, . 122 
 
 Can never be lost, . . 120 
 
 Is incomprehensible, . 121, sq. 
 
 Accessories of, . . 125, sq. 
 
 Definition of, . . 121, sq. 
 
 Illustrations of, . . 123, sq. 
 
 Beatific vision, . . 122, sq. 
 
 Benignity of God towards us, 4.S5, sq. 
 
 Bishops alone confer holy orders, 2S(i, sq. 
 
 Their office, . . . 285 
 
 And priests to be honoured, . 356 
 
 Blasphemy of God and his saints, a 
 
 most grievous crime, . . 338 
 
 Blessed, receive not all equal re 
 wards, . . 117, sq , 125, sq. 
 
 How elevated to the beatific 
 
 vision, .... 122 
 How they assume the form of 
 
 God, . . . 122, sq. 
 
 Blessing of God, the reason why 
 
 our works prosper, . 466, sq. 
 
 Blessings, temporal, how and why 
 
 to be de.sired and prayed for, 464 
 So many helps to obtain spiri- 
 tual blessings, . . Ibid. 
 Bread, various meanings of, in 
 Scripture, . . . 472, sq. 
 Our daily bread, . 468, sq. 
 To l)u asked daily in prayer, 471, sqq. 
 
 CALUMNY, see Detraction. 
 
 Candle, held in baptism, . . 175 
 
 Catechism, necessity of, . . 20 
 
 Nature and history of the Ro- 
 man, . . . .17 
 Catechetical instruction to be adapt- 
 ed to all capacities, . 22, sq. 
 Catholic Church, see Church. 
 Causes, secondary, are so many in- 
 struments in the hands of God, . 444 
 Ceremonies and prayers of baptism, 
 threefold, . . . 171, sqq. 
 
 Of confirmation, . . 186, sq. 
 
 Of penance, . . 247, sq. 
 
 Of extreme unction, . 267, sq. 
 Character impressed by three sa- 
 craments, .... 141 
 
 By baptism, . . . 168 
 
 By confirmation, . . 186 
 
 By order, . . .289 
 
 Effect of, . . . . 142 
 
 Charity, two precepts of, . . 350 
 
 To our neighbour, origin of, . Ibid. 
 
 Its duties, . . . 366 
 
 Its objects, who, . . . Ibid. 
 
 An admirable exercise of, . 367 
 Chastity, by whom practised, . 372 
 
 Not refused to those who ask it 
 aright, . . . .376 
 
 To be preserved with great care, Ibid.
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 527 
 
 Chastity, its preservatives, . 
 Chrism used in baptism, 
 
 Matter of confirmation, 
 Christ, God and man, 
 
 His divinity. 
 
 PAGE 
 . 376 
 . 174 
 . 179 
 . 42 
 45, sq. 
 
 To his body were united his soul 
 
 and divinity, . . 50, sq. 
 
 His divinity was never sepa- 
 rated from his soul or body, 57, sq. 
 His soul was full of grace from 
 
 the moment of its creation, 50, sq. 
 He received different proper- 
 ties from his different na- 
 tures, ... 46, sq. 
 His name, meaning of, . 42, sqq. 
 Why called our Lord, . 46, sq. 
 The Son of God, not by adop- 
 tion but by nature, . . 51 
 Derived his origin, according to 
 
 the flesh, from David, . 52 
 
 Why called a second Adam, 52, sq. 
 Reads us a salutary lesson of 
 
 humility at his birth, 53, sq. 
 
 Instituted all the sacraments, . 137 
 Teaches us to submit our will 
 
 to the will of God, . 458, sq. 
 Is head of the church, over 
 which he has placed a visible 
 head, . . . .96 
 
 His passion, the greatest mani- 
 festation of the divine power 
 and goodness, . . . 474 
 
 Obtains the pardon of our sins, 
 
 474, sq. 
 He expiated our crimes by his 
 
 blood 108 
 
 He suffered for sinners, 60, sq. 
 
 Three great benefits conferred 
 
 by him on his church, . 78 
 
 Triple effect of his blood, . 19s 
 His soul felt pain in its inferior 
 
 part, ... 55, sq. 
 
 Why he suffered on a cross, 56, sq. 
 He really died, . . 57, sq. 
 
 He died of his own accord, . 58 
 Time and place of his death 
 
 chosen by himself, . 58, sq. 
 
 His passion and death often to 
 
 be expounded, . . 55 
 
 Really descended into limbo. . C6 
 By descending, he imparted the 
 merit of his passion to the 
 souls detained there. . 66, sq. 
 
 Sits at the right hand of God, 
 
 meaning of, . . 74, sq. 
 
 He is our brother, . . 437 
 
 His kincdom is not of this 
 
 world, . . .449 
 
 How he reigns in us, . 449, sq 
 He is the true bread of the soul, 472 
 We should willingly be called 
 
 fools for his sake, . . 46( 
 
 His coming, twofold, . . 7! 
 
 Christian philosophy superior to 
 
 human wisdom, . . 29, sq 
 
 Christians, sons of God, . . 438 
 
 Why called holy, . . 98 
 
 Science of, comprised in one 
 
 thing, . . . .2 
 
 What should engage the atten- 
 tion of Christian teachers, 21, sq 
 
 Christians, how much they owe to 
 God, ... 47, sq. 
 
 How much to Christ, . . Ibid. 
 
 Church, its proper acceptation, 91, sq. 
 Difference between it and the 
 
 synagogue, . . .92 
 
 Designated by a variety of 
 
 names, ... 92, sq. 
 
 Militant and triumphant, 93, sq. 
 Figures and comparisons of, . 94 
 Visible head of, . . 96, sq. 
 
 Distinctive marks of, . 95, sqq. 
 Is one, .... Ibid. 
 Holy, ... 98, sq. 
 
 Catholic, . . 99, sq. 
 
 Apostolic, . . . 100 
 
 A most certain rule by which 
 to distinguish the true from 
 a false one, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Cannot err, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Her founder not man but God, 101 
 The true worship only in the 
 
 true church, . . .99 
 
 Who excluded from, . 94, sq. 
 
 Possesses the keys of the king- 
 dom of heaven, . . 102 
 Why we say, " I believe the 
 
 church," not tit the chnrch, . Ibid. 
 To believe the church an article 
 
 of faith, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Is the kingdom of Christ, . 451 
 Visible head of, the pope, 96, sq. 
 Three great blessings conferred 
 
 on the church by Christ, . 78 
 To be saved we must belong to 
 
 the true church, . . 100 
 
 Circumstances of sins, when to be 
 
 mentioned in confession, . 250, sq. 
 Clerical tonsure, its origin and sig 
 
 nification, . . . 279, sq. 
 
 Clerk, meaning of word, . . 279 
 
 Commandments, see Decalogue. 
 Communion, Eucharist so called, . 189 
 Preparation for, . . 215, sqq. 
 
 Obligatory on all, at least at 
 
 Easter, .... 217 
 Frequent, recommended, . 218 
 Under one kind, . . 220 
 
 Of saints, see Saints, . 102, sq. 
 Concupiscence, what, and why pro- 
 hibited, . . . 401, sq. 
 Implanted in us by God as a 
 
 natural propensity, . . 402 
 
 Remains in baptized persons, but 
 
 does not constitute sin, 163, sq. 
 Depraved by primeval trans- 
 gression, . . . 402 
 The root of all evil, . . 399 
 Assails even the just, . 457, sq. 
 When well regulated, is at- 
 tended with certain advan- 
 tages, . . . 402 
 Never entirely extinguished, 457, sq. 
 How known to be sinful, 402, sq. 
 Why called sin by St. Paul, . 402 
 Who most enslaved to, . . 408 
 Antidotes against, . . 407 
 Confession, why instituted, . 244, sqq. 
 Figures of, . . 246, sq. 
 Advantages of, . . 244, sqq. 
 Seal of, . . . .254
 
 528 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Confession, judgment pronounced 
 in, different from that of law 
 courts. . . . .246 
 
 Qualities of, . . 249, sqq. 
 
 It perfects contrition, . . 245 
 
 Cannot be made by messenger 
 or letter, . . . 252 
 
 When to be made, . 248, sq. 
 
 Law of, binding on whom, . 249 
 
 When obligatory on youth, . Ibid. 
 
 When to be repeated. . . 251 
 
 When not to be repeated, 251, sq. 
 
 To be made to a priest, . 252, sq. 
 
 Requires previous diligent ex- 
 amination of conscience, 254. sqq. 
 
 Guilt of concealing sins in, 255, sq. 
 
 Profaned by idle excuses, . 255 
 Confessor, conduct of, towards his 
 penitents, . . . 254, sqq. 
 
 When he should withhold abso 
 
 lution, . 
 
 256 
 
 , . . . . 
 
 What sort of, to be chosen, 253, sq. 
 Confidence in prayer, motives to, . 425 
 Confirmation, sacrament of, 176, sqq. 
 Name of, . . . . Ibid. 
 
 A sacrament, . . .177 
 
 Instituted by Christ, . . 179 
 
 Matter of, . . 179, sq. 
 
 Why composed of oil and bal- 
 
 sam, . . . .180 
 
 Called the sacrament of Chrism, 187 
 Ceremonies and time of conse- 
 
 cration of, . . 186, sq. 
 
 -Form of, . . . .181 
 
 Three things to be observed in, Ibid. 
 Proper minister of, . . 182 
 
 Sponsor, why required, . 182, sq. 
 Affinity contracted with the 
 
 sponsor, . . . 183 
 
 At what age to be received, . 184 
 Appertains equally to all Chris 
 
 tians, . . 183, sq. 
 
 Adults, how to prepare for, . ]84 
 Its importance, . . . 177 
 
 Its effects, . . 183, sq. 
 
 Impresses a character, and can- 
 
 not be repeated, . . 186 
 
 Its rites and ceremonies, 186, sq. 
 When chiefly to be adminis- 
 
 tered, . . . .187 
 
 Continence, see Chastity. 
 Contrition, what, . . 237, sqq. 
 
 Its efficacy, . . . 243 
 
 Its intensity, . . 239, sq. 
 
 Kequires particular sorrow for 
 
 every mortal sin, . . 241 
 
 Qualities of, . . 241, sq. 
 
 Motives to, . . 242, sq. 
 
 Fruit of, . . .243 
 
 Names of, . . 238, sq. 
 
 Counsels, evangelical, not obliga- 
 
 tory, yet not to be contemned, . 836 
 
 Covet, thou shalt not, meaning of, . 399 
 
 Thy neighbour's wife, . 405, sq. 
 
 Thy neighbour's goods, . 401, sq. 
 
 How both differ, . 399, sq. 
 
 Creation, the work of God, . 36, sq. 
 
 Of the Three Divine Persons of 
 
 the Blessed Trinity, . 39, sq. 
 
 Created, all things by God, and 
 
 why, ... 36, sq. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Creation, God preserves what he 
 
 created, . . . .39 
 
 Creator, of man, . . .38 
 
 Of angels, . . 37, sq. 
 
 Of all things, visible and invi- 
 sible, see God, . . 38, sq. 
 Creature, new in Christ, what, . 308 
 Creed, meaning of word Credo, see 
 
 Articles, ... 27, sq. 
 
 Cross, sign of, why used so often in 
 baptism, .... 173 
 I)eath of the, why undergone 
 
 by Christ, . . .56 
 
 Value of the passion and cross 
 
 of Christ, . . .480 
 
 Crown of glory prepared for the 
 
 just, . . . .496 
 
 Curse pronounced against Adam 
 and his posterity, see Swear, 465, sq. 
 
 DAMN'Kn, their condemnation and 
 
 punishment, . . .83 
 
 Dangers, which constantly beset 
 
 us, . . . . 487, sq. 
 
 Day of the Lord, last day so called. 79 
 Death, faithful to be often reminded 
 
 of, . . . 83, sq., 265, 370 
 
 Debts, from which we pray to be 
 released, what and why called 
 "our," .... 481 
 Decalogue, see Law, Precept, 304, sqq. 
 Why inscribed on two tables, . 351 
 Division of, . . 319, Z~il 
 
 Is an epitome of the entire law, 
 
 304, sq. 
 
 Its ten commandments reduci- 
 ble to the two great precepts 
 of charity, . . . Ibid. 
 Its emanation from God, a 
 strong motive for its obser 
 vance, . . . 305, sq. 
 With what majesty promul- 
 gated 307 
 
 Time and place of its promul- 
 gation, why chosen, . . 312 
 Delicacies of the table not a fit ob- 
 ject of prayer, . . . . 470 
 Demons, why called princes and 
 rulers of darkness, . . 488 
 Their hatred of mankind im- 
 placable, . . 488, sq. 
 Several, sometimes attack the 
 
 same person, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Wtiom principally they attack, 
 
 anil whom not, . . 489 
 
 /Their power restrained, . . 490 
 
 How they may be overcome, 
 
 see Devil, . . . 495 
 
 Descent of Christ into hell, . 64 sq. 
 
 Reasons of, . . 67, sq. 
 
 Desires of the poor heard by God, . 412 
 
 Evil, see Concupiscence. 
 Detraction, grievousness of, . H92 
 
 Evils of Ibid. 
 
 Detractors, who, . . 392, sq. 
 
 Various sorts of, . . Ibid. 
 
 Listener to, . . Ibid. 
 
 Devil, why called "evil," . . 502 
 
 Wliy called the prince of this 
 
 world, . .477
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 529 
 
 MAC 
 
 Devil, why called the " tempter," . 491 
 How he tempts, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Wars perpetually against us, . 502 
 Is the author of sin, . . Ibid. 
 
 Is the author and instigator of 
 
 the in juries inflicted on us by 
 
 others, .... Ibid. 
 Sometimes transforms himself 
 
 into an angel of light, . 460 
 
 His cruel tyranny, . . 477 
 
 Seeks to complete our ruin at 
 
 the hour of our death, see 
 
 Demon, . . . 272 
 
 Divorce, condemned by the Gos- 
 pel, .... 293, sq. 
 Cannot dissolve marriage, see 
 
 Matrimony, . . .298 
 
 Doctrine, Catholic, in what 
 
 contained, . . 23, sq. 
 
 Christian doctrine, four heads 
 
 of, ... .Ibid. 
 
 ENEMIES, to be loved, . 366, sq. 
 
 Love of, a most exalted exer- 
 cise of charity, . . Ibid. 
 
 Those who love their, are chil- 
 dren of God, . . .480 
 
 To be forgiven, if we hope for 
 forgiveness, . . 481, sq. 
 
 To be prayed for, . . 483 
 
 The unforgiving should beg of 
 God the grace to forgive, . 484 
 
 Invisible enemies, see Demon, 
 
 Devil, . . . 487, sq. 
 
 Eucharist, its institution, . . 188 
 
 Is not a mere sign of the body 
 of Christ, . . 201, sq. 
 
 Contains the real body and 
 blood of Christ, . . Ibid. 
 
 Contains Christ whole and en- 
 tire, . . . 204, sq. 
 
 Contains what, by " concomi- 
 tance," . . . 205 
 
 One of the seven sacraments, . 190 
 
 Sacrament of the, names of, 188, sq. 
 
 What properly constitutes the 
 sacrament of, . . 190, sq. 
 
 Difference between it and the 
 other sacraments, . . 191 
 
 In it we adore the body and 
 blood of Christ, 190, sq., 216, sq. 
 
 Its matter two-fold, . 191, sq. 
 
 The eucharistic bread unlea- 
 vened, but not necessarily, . 193 
 
 A little water, why mixed with 
 the wine, . . 194, sq. 
 
 What signified by the bread and 
 wine, . . . 195, sq. 
 
 Is one sacrament, not many, 191, sq. 
 
 Signifies three things, . . 192 
 
 Its form, . . .196, sqq. 
 
 The words of consecration ef- 
 fect three things, . 200, sq. 
 
 Consecration, why two-fold, 205, sq. 
 
 Christ whole and entire under 
 every particle of either 
 species, . . . 206 
 
 The substance of the bread and 
 wine remains not after con- 
 cration, . . . Ibid. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Eucharist, why called bread and 
 wine after consecration, . . 208 
 
 Change of the elements appro- 
 priately called "Transubstan- 
 tiation," . . . 209 
 
 Not to be too curiously in- 
 quired into, . . . Ibid. 
 
 The accidents remain without 
 a subject, . . . 210 
 
 Why instituted under the species 
 of bread and wine, . 210, sq. 
 
 Administered to the laity under 
 one kind, . . .220 
 
 Dignity and excellence of, 187, sq. 
 
 Its fruits, . . 211, sq. 
 
 Prefigured by the manna, . 213 
 
 Is the source of all graces, . 211 
 
 The "first grace," not given 
 without receiving the Eucha- 
 rist, at least in desire, 212, sq. 
 
 Is an ineffable pledge of love . 473 
 
 Why called " our bread," . Ibid. 
 
 Why " our daily bread," . Ibid. 
 
 Three ways of receiving, 214, sq. 
 
 To be received often . . 218 
 
 Was received daily by the faith- 
 ful in the early ages of the 
 Church, . . 218, sq. 
 
 To be consecrated and re- 
 ceived fasting, . 190, 217 
 
 Confession, when to be pre- 
 mised, . . . 216, sq. 
 
 The marriage debt to be ab- 
 stained from, for some days 
 before receiving, . . 217 
 
 To be denied to those who have 
 not attained the use of reason, 219 
 
 Denied to the insane, when, . 220 
 
 Sacrifice of the, see Sacrifice, 
 
 232, sq. 
 
 A Victim most acceptable to 
 God Ibid. 
 
 When instituted as such, 223, sq. 
 
 Figures and prophecies of the, . 225 
 
 A sacrament and sacrifice, . 223 
 
 The priest alone its minister, 221, sq. 
 
 The unconsecrated, not to touch 
 
 the sacred vessels, . . 222 
 
 Evils, when visited by, we should 
 fly to God for succour, . . 498 
 
 W pray to be free from evils 
 of soul and body, . 500, sq. 
 
 We pray not for deliverance 
 from all evil, . . . 500 
 
 Some things thought evil, very 
 advantageous, . . Ibid. 
 
 We deprecate evils that are of 
 no spiritual advantage, . Ibid. 
 
 From what evils we should pray 
 to be delivered, . . 501 
 
 The evils of which our neigh- 
 bour is the immediate cause, 
 to be ascribed to the devil, . 502 
 
 Patience under, continued, . 503 
 Execrations of holy men are pre- 
 dictions, . . . 420, sq. 
 Exorcism, used in baptism, . 172 
 Extreme unction, a sacrament, . 266 
 
 Instituted by Christ, . 268, sq. 
 
 Why called extreme unction, . 266 
 
 Its matter, form, and rites, 267, sqq. 
 
 2 L
 
 530 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Extreme Unction, when, and to 
 whom, and by whom to be ad- 
 ministered, . . 269, sq. 
 To whom not to be adminis- 
 tered, .... Ibid. 
 May be repeated, and when, . 270 
 How to be administered, . . Ibid. 
 Advantages of, . . 271, sq. 
 
 FAITH, necessary to salvation, 25, sq. 
 Ought to exclude curiosity, . 28 
 Open profession of, necessary, Ibid. 
 Degrees of, many, . 25, sq. 
 
 What first to be believed, . 26 
 Knowledge derived from, much 
 more certain than that 
 founded on reason, . 29, sq. 
 
 In God's omnipotence, how use- 
 ful, ... 35, sq. 
 In the redemption, always ne- 
 cessary, . . 41, sq. 
 Of old, same as ours, . . Ibid. 
 Must precede penance, . . 229 
 Necessary in prayer, . 424, sq. 
 Firmness of, important in 
 
 prayer, . . . 425 
 
 False testimony, what, . 390, sq. 
 Evils of, ... 391 
 
 Forbidden everywhere, . 391, sq. 
 Against one's self, unlawful, . 390 
 Includes lies, . . 391, sq. 
 
 Fasting and almsdeeds to be united 
 to prayer, see Almsdeeds, Prayer, 
 
 384, sq. 
 
 Father, signification of, as applied 
 to God, see First Article of the 
 Creed, . . .27, sqq. 
 
 Why the first Person of the 
 Blessed Trinity is called 
 "Father," . . .33 
 
 Fathers, who called, . 353, sq. 
 Fathers of every description to 
 
 be honoured, . . . Ibid. 
 
 God, the Father of all, . 31, sq. 
 
 Name of, as applied to God, in- 
 spires confidence, see Parents, 430 
 Festivals, commanded to be ob- 
 served, and why, . . 345, sq. 
 Most solemn festivals of the 
 
 church, . . . Ibid. 
 
 How to be observed, . 339, sq. 
 Fidelity, matrimonial, . 295, sqq. 
 Figures of Christ's conception and 
 nativity, . . . .53 
 
 Of his passion and death, . 57 
 Of confession, . . 246, sq. 
 
 Flattery, forbidden, . . 393, sq. 
 
 Food, exquisite, not to be sought, . 470 
 Of the soul, variety of, . 472, sq. 
 Forgiveness of injuries, see Injuries. 
 Form, of the sacrament of baptism, 
 
 148, sq. 
 
 Of confirmation, . . 181 
 
 Of the eucharist, . 196, sq. 
 
 Of penance, . . 233, sq. 
 
 Of extreme unction, . 267, sq. 
 Form of prayer to God and the 
 
 saints different, . . .422 
 
 Fornication, evils of, . 372, sq. 
 
 Detestation of, . . .371 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Friends, often injurious to the 
 
 dying, . . . 393, sq. 
 
 Frugality, to be practised, . . 385 
 
 Fruit of the tree of life, . 465, sq. 
 
 GAIN, the fruit of honest industry, 
 
 a source of pleasure, . 469, sq. 
 Garment, white, given in baptism, 
 
 174, sq. 
 Glory, what, . . . 450, sq. 
 
 Of God, how prayed for, 142, sq. 
 
 Of the saints, incomprehen- 
 sible . . . 121, sq. 
 God, one only, and not more, . 31 
 
 Name of, how to be understood, 
 
 328, sq. 
 
 Name of, why sometimes given 
 to creatures, . . .31 
 
 Many names given to, . 328, sq. 
 
 Why called Father, . .431 
 
 The Father of all, especially of 
 Christians, . . 31, sq. 
 
 Omnipotent, . . .34 
 
 Why in particular so called in 
 the Creed, . . .36 
 
 The Creator of all things, 36, sq. 
 
 Is everywhere, and how, 439, sq. 
 
 Why said to be in heaven, . Ibid. 
 
 His ways unsearchable, . 463 
 
 His power and providence, . 449 
 
 His justice most rigorous, . 480 
 
 His justice yields to his good- 
 ness, . . . 432, sq. 
 
 Preserves and governs what he 
 created, . . .39 
 
 He is Lord of all, . . 438 
 
 He is our Father, 31, sq., 430, sqq. 
 
 His provident care of man, 431, 444 
 
 He never forsakes us, . . 453 
 
 He is our most beneficent Fa- 
 ther, . . . .479 
 
 Consults for our interests bet- 
 ter than we can desire, 463, sq. 
 
 Gives us power to overcome our 
 enemies, . . . 494 
 
 Rescues us from evil in a va- 
 riety of ways, . 501, sq. 
 
 Wishes not that we should be 
 exempt from all inconve- 
 nience, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Is not ignorant of our calami- 
 ties, . . . .436 
 
 Consoles us under affliction, 601, sq. 
 
 Is not the author of sin, 491, sq. 
 
 All his works are good, . 462, sq. 
 
 Is the author of the written 
 and unwritten law, . 305, sq. 
 
 Why called " mighty," . . 325 
 
 Why called "jealous," . . Ibid. 
 
 Why he menaces punishment 
 to the third and fourth gene- 
 ration, .... 325 
 
 His benignity and mercy to 
 man, . . . 431, sqq. 
 
 Aids us to attain heaven, . 461 
 
 His love manifested in the re- 
 demption, . . 434, sq. 
 
 Loves, whilst he chastises, . 436 
 
 To be loved as our ul timate end, 350 
 
 How to be loved, . . 441
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 531 
 
 PAGE 
 
 God, requires of us intense love, . 462 
 
 Cannot be loved as he ought 
 without the help of his grace, 456 
 
 Easy to love him, . 307, sq. 
 
 His aid necessary towards the 
 attainment of Christian wis- 
 dom, . . . .456 
 
 Always hears pious prayers, . 411 
 
 Kef uses in his mercy what he 
 grants in his wrath, . 411, sq. 
 
 His glory, how to be prayed for, 
 
 442, sq. 
 
 His internal glory admits of no 
 accession, . . 441, sq. 
 
 All things necessary for life to 
 be referred to his glory, . 464 
 
 Natural to fly to him for aid in 
 distress and danger, . 497, sq. 
 
 He will have us pray for what 
 he knows we want, . 412, sq. 
 
 What first to be asked of him, 441 
 
 His name, how to be praised 
 and honoured, . . 329 
 
 His name, how sanctified, 442, sq., 
 
 How sanctified in all, . . 444 
 
 To be sanctified in deed, and 
 not in word only, . 444, sq. 
 
 His holy will to be particularly 
 venerated, . . 462, sq. 
 
 Is ready to pardon the peni- 
 tent, . . . .479 
 
 Alone forgives sin by his own 
 authority, . . 107, sq. 
 
 Makes use of the devil to punish 
 the wicked, . . . 502 
 
 How said to repent, . . 228 
 
 How said to lead us into temp- 
 tation, . . . 490, sq. 
 
 How he tempts his own, . Ibid. 
 
 How he suffers the good to be 
 tempted, . . 491, sq. 
 
 To serve God is to reign, 459, 461, sq. 
 God-fathers, see Sponsors. 
 Goods of this world, may be prayed 
 for 468 
 
 Why to be desired and prayed 
 for, . . . .464 
 
 How to be asked, . . 465 
 
 Aid us to attain supernatural 
 
 goods, .... 454 
 Grace, what, . . . 450, sq. 
 
 Precedes conversion, prevents, 
 accompanies, and follows our 
 good works, . . . 262 
 
 Without grace we cannot avoid 
 sin . . .461 
 
 Without grace we can do no- 
 thing acceptable to God, . 456 
 
 How conferred by the eucha- 
 
 rist, . . . 188, sq. 
 
 Graces gratuitously given are com- 
 mon to all the church, . 104, sq. 
 
 HAPPINESS, how defined, see Beati- 
 tude, . . . .120 
 In what it consists, . 120, 12S 
 Why called " eternal life," . 120 
 Once attained cannot be lost, . Ibid. 
 Incomprehensible, . 121, sq. 
 Essential and primary, what. . 122 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Happiness, accessory, what, . 13S 
 
 Hatred of God, the most grievous 
 
 of crimes 326 
 
 Of man, " the sin of the devil," 369 
 A source of many evils, . Ibid. 
 
 Remedies against, . 369, sq. 
 Of demons towards us, impla- 
 cable, . . .488, sq. 
 Heaven, why specially said to be the 
 
 dwelling of God, . . 439, sq. 
 
 Heavens, their grandeur, . . Ibid. 
 
 Hebrews, why chosen by God, . 311 
 
 Deliverance of, from Egypt, . Ibid. 
 
 Oppression of, why permitted 
 
 by God, . . . Ibid. 
 
 When and where they received 
 
 the law, . . .312 
 
 Hell, meaning of, in the Creed, . 66 
 Heresy, spread of , . . 19 
 
 Heretics, are instruments of Satan 
 to beguile men, . . . 491 
 
 Insidious artifices of, . . 19 
 
 Who to be considered a heretic, 91 
 Holy Ghost is one of the three Per- 
 sons of the Blessed Trinity, . 85 
 Meaning of the words, "Holy 
 
 Ghost," . . .Ibid. 
 
 Why no proper name given to, 85, sq. 
 Is God, equally as the Father 
 
 and Son, . . 86, sq. 
 
 Proceeds from the Father and 
 
 the Son, . . 88, sq. 
 
 Gifts of, . . . 89, sq. 
 
 Why called a gift, . . Ibid. 
 
 Homicide, what sort of, not pro- 
 hibited, . . 362, sq. 
 Casual, when sinful, when not, 
 
 Ibid., sq. 
 
 Honour, to, meaning of, . . 353 
 
 Precept of honouring parents, 
 
 350, sqq. 
 To be paid to parents of every 
 
 description, . . 354, sq. 
 
 To be paid to deceased parents, 356 
 Reward proposed for obedience 
 
 to them, . . 357, sq. 
 
 Punishments for disobedience, 
 
 358, sq. 
 
 Hope, of heaven, should be based 
 on love, . . . .462 
 
 Motives to, under temptation, 490 
 Of the pardon of our sins, . 478 
 House, meaning of, in the ninth 
 
 commandment, . . . 404 
 
 Humility, necessity of, in prayer, . 453 
 Husband, chief duties of, . . 301 
 
 Hypocrites, prayers of, rejected, . 428 
 
 IMAGES, use of, . . 319, sqq. 
 
 When unlawful, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Incarnation of the Word, . 48, sqq. 
 
 No confusion of natures caused 
 by the, . . .49 
 
 In it what natural, what super- 
 natural, . . 50, sq. 
 
 Lessons taught by, . 51, 53, sq. 
 
 Attributed to the Holy Ghost, 48, sq. 
 Inconveniences, see Sufferings. 
 Industry, honest, its fruits, . 469, sq. 
 Infants, see Baptism, Eucharist.
 
 532 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Infidel, an, when converted, is to 
 adhere to his first wife only, . 298 
 
 Ingratitude of man to God, . 476, sq. 
 
 Inhumanity to the poor, . . 424 
 
 Injuries, to be forgiven and for- 
 gotten, . . . 482, sqq. 
 Advantages of forgiving, . 368 
 Remedies against hatred, 369, sq. 
 
 Instruction, pastoral, what, 18, sq. 
 
 Interior joy of the saints, . 412, sq. 
 
 Irregularity, when incurred by con- 
 ditional baptism, . . . 169 
 
 Issue of everything to be left to 
 God, . . . 473, sq. 
 
 JEAI.OUSV, of God, what, . . 324 
 
 Jesus, Son of God, and true God, 41, sq. 
 
 Prophet, Priest, and King, 43, sq. 
 
 Alone able to redeem us, . 41 
 
 Meaning of the word, . 42, sq. 
 
 Great advantages of belief in, 
 
 see Christ, . . 40, sq. 
 
 Jews, see Hebrews. 
 Joys of the just, see Saints. 
 Judge of all, Jesus Christ, . 81, sq. 
 
 Judgment, last, and its signs, 79, sqq. 
 
 Two-fold, . . 80, sq. 
 
 Judges, to decide justly, . 394, sq. 
 
 Cannot reject sworn testimony, 
 when unimpeached, . . 390 
 
 Venal, guilty of rapine, . 382 
 
 Jurisdiction, necessity of, . 252, sq. 
 Justice, essential to an oath, . 333 
 
 Original given to man, . . 38 
 
 Justification, of a sinner, 106, sqq., 
 
 308, sq. 
 
 Accomplished through the sa- 
 crarnents, . . 132, sq. 
 
 KEYS, power of the, . 106, sqq., 231, sqq. 
 
 Kill, " thou shalt not," . 360, sqq. 
 To, on private authority per- 
 mitted to no one, see Mur- 
 der, Homicide, . . 363 
 
 Kings, to be honoured and obeyed, 357 
 When not to be obeyed, . Ibid. 
 
 Kingdom of heaven, . . 445, sqq. 
 
 Its excellence, . . . 452 
 
 Helps to attain it, . . 453 
 
 Of God, various meanings of, 448, sq. 
 
 LABOURS, our, how prosper, 466, sq. 
 Law of nature, what, . 305, sq. 
 
 The written, . . 306, sq. 
 
 Its sanction, . ; 322, sq. 
 
 Fruits of its observance, see 
 
 Decalogue, . . . 309 
 
 Legitimate teacher necessary, 17, sq. 
 Libels and lampoons condemned, . 394 
 Lie, what, . . . .336 
 
 The devil, the father of lies, . 396 
 
 Evils of, . . . 396, sq. 
 
 Inexcusable, . . 397, sq. 
 
 Never lawful, . . .391 
 
 Life, a blessing, . . .121 
 
 Man's on earth, a temptation, . 493 
 
 Everlasting, what, . 119, sqq. 
 Loquacity, to be avoided, . . 397 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lord's day, substituted for the Sab- 
 bath, see Sabbath, Festival, . 341, sq. 
 Love of God to man, . 431, sq. 
 
 Of our neighbour, . . 390 
 
 Love of our enemies, see Enemies, 
 Injuries, . . . .366 
 
 MAGISTRATES, civil, honour due to, 357 
 When to be obeyed, when not, . Ibid. 
 
 Man, created to God's likeness, . 38 
 His fall, ... 40, sq. 
 
 His condemnation, . . 466 
 
 Sin entailed on, by Adam, 40, sq. 
 His misery, 447, sq., 455, sq., 465, sq. 
 What he owes to God, . 431, sq. 
 
 Marriage, see Matrimony. 
 
 Mary, mother of God and man, . 52 
 Her virginity inviolate and per- 
 petual, .... Ibid. 
 A second Eve, . . 52, sq. 
 
 Descended from King David, . 62 
 To be invoked, see Saints Art. 
 III. of Creed, . . .421 
 
 Mass, sacrifice of, same as that of 
 the cross, .... 225 
 Commemorative and propitia- 
 tory, . . . .226 
 Available to the dead, . . Ibid. 
 Rites and ceremonies of, 226, sq. 
 
 Matter of the sacraments, see each 
 Sacrament respectively. 
 
 Matrimony, derivation of word, . 290 
 Instituted by God, . . 293 
 
 Two-fold, . . . Ibid, 
 
 Is one of the seven sacraments, 
 
 295, sq. 
 
 Instituted by Christ, . . Ibid. 
 
 Signifies and imparts grace, 296, sq. 
 Definition of, . . . 291 
 
 Various names of, . . 290 
 
 In what it consists, . . 291 
 
 Why instituted, . . 294, sq. 
 
 Of the Jews, . . . 297 
 
 Polygamy opposed to the na- 
 ture of, . . 297, sq. 
 Consists of the union of two 
 
 only, .... Ibid. 
 Excellence of Christian, 296, sq. 
 Contracted by mutual consent, 291 
 Consent, how expressed, 291, sq. 
 Validly contracted by nod or 
 
 other sign, . . . 292 
 
 Consummation, not necessary 
 
 to, . . . 292, sq. 
 
 Impediments of, . . 302, sq. 
 
 Legal disqualification for, . 291 
 Clandestine, not valid, . . 302 
 
 Consent of parents to be asked, 303 
 Indissoluble, . . 298, sq. 
 
 Dispositions to contract mar- 
 riage, . . . 293, sq., 303 
 Use of, . . . .300 
 Three advantages of, . 299, sq. 
 Not obligatory on all, . 289, sq., 294 
 
 Medicine given by God, . . 499 
 
 Its efficacy derived from him, . Ibid. 
 
 Meditation on the Passion, . 61, sq. 
 
 Members of the church, "fellow- 
 ship" of, . . . 102, sqq. 
 
 Merits, our, founded on Christ, 261, sq.
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 533 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Merits, do not derogate from his 
 
 merits 262 
 
 Of afflictions, . . .263 
 
 Rewards proportioned to our, 125, sq. 
 Minister, of baptism, see Baptism. 
 Of the other sacraments, see 
 
 each sacrament. 
 Misery of man, see Man. 
 Murder, forbidden, . . 360, sqq. 
 
 Enormity of, . . 365 
 
 Of one's self, . . .363 
 
 Law against, to be heard with 
 pleasure, . . 360, sq. 
 
 KAUE of God, to be sanctified, 
 
 327, sq., 441, sqq. 
 Superstition of the Jews re- 
 garding, . . .328 
 Names given in baptism, see Baptism. 
 Nativity of Christ two-fold, . 46 
 Neighbour, who, . . . 390 
 Standard of loving our, . . Ibid. 
 
 OATH, sanctity of, . . . 334 
 
 Has its origin in faith, . . Ibid. 
 
 When and why instituted, . 330 
 In what sense prohibited by 
 
 Christ, . . 334, sq. 
 
 Not exacted before puberty, 332, sq. 
 Conditions of a lawful, . 331, sq. 
 When laudable, . . .334 
 
 Promissory, binding, . . 332 
 
 Obedience to the will of God. . 462 
 
 Observance, of the law, obligatory 
 
 on all, . . . 308, sq. 
 
 Of the Sabbath, . . 339, sqq. 
 
 Of the Lord's day, . 340, sq. 
 
 Of other Festivals, . 345, sq. 
 
 Order, what, . . . 273, sqq. 
 
 Sacrament of, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Imparts grace, . . . 289 
 
 Imprints a character, . . Ibid. 
 
 Power of, to what it extends, . Ibid. 
 
 Orders, number of, . . 278, sq. 
 
 Holy and minor, . . 279 
 
 Tonsure, .... Ibid. 
 Order of porter, . . .280 
 
 Of reader, . . 280, sq. 
 
 Of exorcist, . . .281 
 
 Of acolytes, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Of subdeacon, . . 281, sq. 
 
 Of deacon, . . 282, sq. 
 
 Of priest, . . . 283, sq. 
 
 Several, why instituted, . 278 
 
 Holy, conferred on certain days, 287 
 On whom to be conferred, . Ibid. 
 On whom not to be conferred, 288, sq. 
 Age required for, . . 288 
 
 Who approach rashly, . . 275 
 
 Reception of, to be preceded by 
 
 coifession, . . .287 
 
 Holy, impose perpetual conti- 
 nence, see Priest, Priesthood, 282 
 
 Original justice given to man, . 38 
 
 Original sin, propagated from 
 Adam, . . . 40, sq., 466 
 
 PARENTS, duties of, towards their 
 children, . . . 359, sq. 
 
 PAUB 
 
 Parents, duty of children towards, 
 
 352, sqq. 
 
 Reward and punishment of, 357, sqq. 
 Passion of Christ, displays the cha- 
 rity of God, . . 474, sq. 
 A stupendous mystery, . . 60 
 Time of, why recorded, . . . 56 
 Bitterness of, . . 61, sq. 
 Principal cause of, . 60, sq. 
 Gives all its efficacy to our satis- 
 faction, . . . 257 
 Frequent meditation on the, . 55 
 Passions, see Concupiscence. 
 Pastors of thechurch, how tobe heard, 18 
 To be honoured and obeyed, 356, sq. 
 Patience under afflictions, . . 503 
 Patriarchs, number and dignity of, 286 
 Penance, various meanings of the 
 word, . . . 228, sq. 
 Virtue of, by what steps at- 
 tained, . . . 229, sq. 
 Necessity of, . . 227, sq., 2S5 
 Considered as a sacrament, 231, sq. 
 Matter and form of, . 233, sq. 
 Minister of, . . 252, sq. 
 Kites of, . . . 234, sq. 
 Integral parts of, . 236, sq. 
 Fruits of, . . 231,235 
 Public, . . . .260 
 Penitent, how to be disposed, . 230 
 Perjury, what, see Oath, . 335, sq. 
 Proneness of man to, . . 338 
 Punishment of, . . 338, sq. 
 Persons, divine, peculiar relations 
 of, . . . . 32, sq. 
 First Person, why called Fa- 
 ther, , . 31, sq. 
 Second, why called Son, 45, sq. 
 Third, why called Holy Ghost, 85, sq. 
 Not to be too curiously in- 
 quired into, . . .33 
 Peter, St., visible head of the 
 
 church, . 96, sq., 285, sq. 
 His successor, the Roman pon- 
 tiff Ibid. 
 
 Petitions of the Lord's prayer, the 
 first, . . . 441, sqq. 
 
 Second petition, . . 445, sqq. 
 
 Third petition, . . 454, sqq. 
 
 Fourth petition, . 464, sqq. 
 
 Fifth petition, . . 474, sqq. 
 
 Sixth petition, . . 486, sqq. 
 
 Seventh petition, . 497, sqq. 
 
 Philosophy, Christian, differs from 
 
 that of the world, . . 29, sqq. 
 
 Philosophers, opinions of, concern- 
 ing God, .... Ibid. 
 Pontiff, the Roman, see Peter. 
 Pope, see Pontiff. 
 
 Power, ecclesiastical, two-fold, . 276 
 
 Prayer, necessity of, . . 409 
 
 A proof of religion, fruits of, . 410 
 
 Natural to fly to God in prayer, 498 
 
 God will have us pray for what 
 
 he knows we want, . 412, sq. 
 To pray is to honour God, . 410 
 To pray is to commune with 
 
 God 504 
 
 Prayer is the key of heaven, . 411 
 Christ spent whole nights in 
 prayer, . . . 409
 
 534 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Prayer, two principal parts of, 414, sq. 
 Degrees of, . . 415, sqq. 
 
 Order of, . . . 498, sq. 
 
 Manner of, . . 426, sqq. 
 
 Mental, . . . .427 
 
 Vocal Ibid. 
 
 Best manner of, . . . 402 
 
 Public and private, . . 427 
 
 To pray in spirit and in truth, 426, sq. 
 Peculiar IQ Christians, . 427, sq. 
 To whom chiefly to be addressed, 
 
 422, sq. 
 
 Fruits of , , . . 410, sqq. 
 
 We should pi ly for one ano- 
 ther, . . . .481 
 We should pray for our ene- 
 mies, . . . 420, 483 
 We should pray for all men, 419, sq. 
 For the dead, . f$6, sq., 226, 420 
 Preparation for, . . 423, sqq. 
 Parts and degrees of, . 414, sqq. 
 Result of, to be left to God, 473, sq. 
 To be offered through Christ, . 429 
 Lord's prayer, Its exposition, 
 
 430, sqq. 
 
 To be said daily, . . 470 
 
 Preface of, . . 430, ' 
 
 Petitions of, see Petitions. 
 Seal of, . . . 504, sq.. 
 
 Preach, no one to, unless he be sent, 
 
 17, sq. 
 
 Preachers, their authority, . Ibid., sq. 
 Their mission, . . Ibid., 274 
 
 Preaching, to be heard with atten- 
 tion, . . . .348 
 Of the divine word, never to be 
 
 interrupted, . . 18,,q. 
 
 Precepts of the decalogue, see Deca- 
 logue. 
 
 Preparation for communion, 215 sqq. 
 
 Pride greatly offends God, . . 424 
 
 Priests, existed under every law . 277 
 
 of the New superior to those of 
 
 the Old Law, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Called gods and angels, . . 274 
 
 Power of, . . 276, sq. 
 
 Alone consecrate the eucharist, 
 
 221, sq. 
 
 As confessors, bound to secrecy, 254 
 Called by God, . . 274, sq. 
 
 Consecration of, . 278, 2S5 
 
 To be supported by the people, 356 
 Can all absolve any penitent in 
 
 case of necessity, . . 253 
 
 Ordination of, see Order, 218, 285 
 Priesthood, two-fc ., . 283, sq. 
 
 The Christian, ivhen instituted 
 
 by Christ, . . 224, sq. 
 
 Dignity and excellence of, . 274 
 Different degrees of . 285, sqq. 
 Not to be sought rashly, . 27S 
 
 Qualities required in the candi- 
 date for, . . 287, sq. 
 Who called to the, see Order, . 274 
 Prophets, have spoken more clearly 
 of the church than of Christ, and 
 why, ... 91, sq. 
 False prophets, . . 19, sq. 
 Providence of God, . 431, sq., 446, 449 
 Purgatory, . . 65, sq., 07, 226, 420 
 Belief of, amongst the Jews, . 66 
 
 PAOB 
 
 RAPINE, nature of, . . 381, sq. 
 
 Redemption, benefits of, . 434, sqq. 
 
 Relapse into sin, . . 486, 488, sq. 
 
 Reliques, virtue of, . . 318, sq. 
 
 Remedies, of a distempered soul, 485, sq. 
 Against evil desires, . . 407 
 
 Remission of sin, obtained through 
 Christ, . . . 108, sq. 
 
 Attainable through penance, . 235 
 Power of, in the church, 106, sqq. 
 Given to no man before Christ, 108 
 The exercise of, to be sought, 
 
 109, sq. 
 
 Restitution, necessity of, . 379, sq. 
 Who bound to, . . 383, sq. 
 
 Resurrection of Christ, . 67, sqq. 
 Accomplished by his own 
 
 power, ... 63, sq. 
 
 Perfect, first enj oyed by Christ, 69 
 Took place on the third day, 69, sq. 
 Necessity and advantages of, 70, sqq. 
 Lessons of imitation from, . 72 
 Proofs of our spiritual, . . 73 
 
 "Of the flesh," . . 110, sq. 
 
 Confirmation of, . Ill, sq. 
 
 All without exception shall die, 
 
 113, sq. 
 
 Bodies the very same, ; . 114 
 
 Different condition of, . . 116 
 
 Qualities of the, glorified, 117, sq. 
 Why resuscitated, . 114, sq. 
 Fruit of these mysteries, 118, sq. 
 
 Revelation, advantages of, . 29, sqq. 
 
 Rewards, eternal, . . . 496 
 
 Riches, not to be loved, , 406, sq. 
 
 Rich, why ask for their daily bread, 
 
 470, sq. 
 Why gifted with wealth, . 474 
 
 Righteousness, original, . . 38 
 
 Roman church, the mother and mis- 
 tress of all churches, see Church, 267 
 
 Roman Pontiff, see Pontiff. 
 
 SABBATH, its signification, . . 343 
 
 Why and how observed, . Ibid. 
 
 Works permitted on, . . 347 
 
 Celestial, what, . . 345 
 
 Transferred to the Lord's day. Ibid. 
 Sacrament, what, . . 120, sqq. 
 
 Definition of, from St. Augus- 
 tine, . l I27 - S 1- 
 "Sacred thing," in "the defini- 
 tion of, . . ' . . 130 
 Fuller definition of, . 130, sq. 
 Sacraments, signs instituted by 
 God, . . . 128, sqq. 
 Of the New Law, why insti- 
 tuted, . . . 131, sqq. 
 Justice and salvation attained 
 
 by, . . . 127, sq. 
 
 Signify and produce grace, 130, sq. 
 Consist of matter and form", . 84 
 Ceremonies of, . . . 135 
 
 Necessity and dignity of, 136, sq. 
 Number of, . . 135 
 
 Different from a sacrifice, . 223 
 Author of, . . .137 
 
 Ministers of, . . 137, sqq. 
 
 Effects of, . . 139, sq. 
 
 Why at first miraculous, . 140
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 535 
 
 PAGE 
 
 acraments, of the New Law su- 
 perior to those of the Old, . 141 
 Three impress a character, . Ibid. 
 Validly administered by wicked 
 
 men, . . 138, sq. 
 
 Sacrifice offered to God alone, . 224 
 Of the cross and of the mass, 
 
 the same, . . . 225 
 
 Eucharistic, when instituted, 223, sq. 
 Figures and prophecies of, see 
 
 Kucharist, . . .225 
 
 Saints, communion of, . 102, sqq. 
 By it all Christians made one 
 
 body, . . . 103, sq. 
 
 Veneration and invocation of, 316, sq. 
 Does not derogate from the 
 
 mediatorship of Christ, . 318 
 Images and relics of, . 318, sqq. 
 Happiness of, . . 119, sqq. 
 
 Salt, whyusedin baptism, see Baptism, 172 
 Satan, see Devil, Demon. 
 Satisfaction, name and nature of, 
 
 236, sq., 267, sqq. 
 
 Two things to be observed in, 262, sq. 
 Of Christ abundant, . . 257 
 
 Canonical, . . 257, sq. 
 
 An integral part of penance, 236, sq. 
 Definition of, . . Ibid. 
 
 Efficacy of, ... 261 
 
 Obscures not that of Christ, . 262 
 Reducible to three heads, . 263 
 Afflictions satisfactory, . . Ibid. 
 
 Can be offered by one for ano- 
 ther, . . . 263, sq. 
 Imposed by way of penance, 264, sq. 
 To be undertaken spontaneously, 265 
 Schismatics excluded the church, 94, sq. 
 Seal of the Lord's prayer, . . 504 
 Sensualists estranged from God, . 460 
 Service of God, its dignity, . . 463 
 Sermons to be heard attentively, 18, 348 
 Signs, see Sacrament 
 
 Shall precede the last judgment, 82 
 Sin, original, propagated from 
 Adam, see Adam, . . 40, sq. 
 
 Actual, all liable to, . . 476 
 
 Guilt of, sometimes forgiven, 
 whilst its punishment re- 
 mains due, . . 258, sq. 
 Grievousness and baseness of, 
 
 476, sqq. 
 Causes God not to bless our 
 
 works, . . . 466, sq. 
 
 Three things necessary for the 
 
 pardon of, . . . 475 
 
 Impossible to avoid, without the 
 
 divine aid, . . . 461 
 
 Sins, power of remitting in the 
 church, see Keys, Penance, 105, 474, sq. 
 Irremissible, how to be under- 
 stood, . . . 235, sq. 
 God ever ready to pardon, . 479 
 Of thought, to be confessed, . 250 
 Recollection of our, should be 
 
 bitter, . . . 476, sq. 
 
 Son of God, see Jesus, Christ 
 Soul, immortal, . . 110, sq. 
 
 How said to die by sinning, . 326 
 Soars to heaven on two wings, 415, sq. 
 Souls, of the saints that died before 
 Christ, ... 66, sq. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Souls, in purgatory, see Purgatory. 
 Spittle, why applied in baptism, . 173 
 Sponsous, why required in baptism, 
 
 154, sqq. 
 
 Number of, . . .157 
 
 Affinity contracted by, . , 155 
 
 Duties of, . .Jf . 156 
 
 Who inadmissible as, . 156, sq. 
 Why added in confirmation, 182, sq. 
 Affinity contracted b}>. . Ibid. 
 
 Steal, thou shall not, see Vheft 
 Sufferings of Christ, . 55, sqq. 
 
 Of this life, patience under, 
 
 463, sq., 503 
 
 Use and advantage of, . . 263 
 
 Suicide, unlawful, . . . 363 
 
 Superfluities, belong to the poor, . 474 
 Swear, to, whajj' . . 330, sq. 
 
 Sometimes .awful, 329, sq., 333, sq. 
 Habit of, sinful, . . .330 
 
 Proneness to, very great, 327, sq., 338 
 To swear rashly, a grievous sin, 385 
 Often punished here below, . Ibid. 
 To swear falsely is perjury, . 336 
 To swear the truth, when one 
 believes it false, is also per- 
 jury, .... Ibid. 
 To swear falsely, believing it 
 
 true, is sometimes perjury, . Ibid. 
 To swear by creatures is an oath, 
 
 see Oath, . . 330, sq. 
 
 Symbol, apostolic, why so called, . 26 
 Divided into three parts, see 
 Creed, . . . 26, sq. 
 
 TBVCHERS, necessity of, . 17, sq. 
 Tears, penitential, desirable, 240, sq. 
 Tempt, to, what, . . 490, sq. 
 
 *3od, how said to tempt, . Ibid. 
 
 C- d, how said to be tempted, . 423 
 HL tempts, who, having it in 
 his power, does not prevent 
 temptation, . . 491, sq. 
 
 Temptation, sorts of, . 490, sq. 
 
 Man's life a temptation, . 493 
 
 Assailed by, we should have 
 
 recourse to prayer, . . 490 
 
 What we should pray for under, 493 
 In overcdsfling, Christ oar 
 leader, th saints our com- 
 panions, ^B^ 424, sq. 
 Heaven the reward of victory, 496 
 Testimony, see Wit- 
 Thanksgiving, a parrvayer, 414, sq. 
 How offered to' 1 '-God in the 
 
 prayer " Thy wi-tbe done," 462, sq. 
 Theft, what understood by, . . 378 
 
 Various names and sorts of, 378, sq. 
 How grievous the sin of, . 379 
 
 Dishonours the name of God, . 387 
 Commandment against, a proof 
 
 of God's goodness, . . 377 
 
 Prohibits not only the act, but 
 
 the intention of, . . 379 
 
 Excuses of, refuted, . 386, sqq. 
 Tongue, vice of, very common, . 389 
 Tonsure, clerical, what, . . 279 
 
 Tradition, , . 23, sq. 
 
 Transubstantiation, see Eucharist, 
 
 209, sqq.
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Tribulations, see Afflictions. 
 Trinity, persons of, . 
 
 UNCTION, see Extreme Unction. 
 Usury, a grievous crime, . 381, sq. 
 
 VESSELS, sacred, not to be touched 
 by unconsecrated hands, . 221, sq. 
 
 Victory over temptation, how ob- 
 tained, . . . 494, sqq. 
 
 Virginity, superior to marriage, 289, sq. 
 
 Vocation, each to walk in his own, 463 ; sq. 
 
 Voluptuary, condemned. . . 460' 
 
 Vow, violation of, perj ury, . . 336 
 
 WAR, the wicked war with God, . 478 
 
 Wars, intestine of man, . 447, sq. 
 
 Of the world, the flesh, and the 
 
 devil, . . . 487, sqq. 
 
 Watching, aids in overcoming temp- 
 tation, .... 495 
 Wife, duties of, . . 301, sq. 
 
 Plurality of wives allowed of 
 
 old, . . . 277, sq. 
 
 Will, of God, the supreme reason of 
 all things, . . . 463, sq. 
 
 Will of sign, what, . . 458 
 
 Will, "Thy will be done," etc., 454, sqq. 
 
 " On earth as it in heaven," 461, sqq. 
 
 Why we pray that the will of 
 God be done, . . 455, sqq. 
 
 Free will given to man, . . 38 
 
 Witness, to bear false, what, o90, sqq. 
 
 Commandment against, 389, sqq. 
 Witnesses, duty of, . . . 395 
 
 Evils of lies, . . 396, sq. 
 
 Of detraction, . . 392, sq. 
 
 True testimony, the greatest use, 395 
 WORD, incarnation of, see Incarna- 
 tion, ... 48, sq. 
 Word of God, food of the soul, 472, sq. 
 
 Famine of, ... 472 
 
 How dishonoured, . . 337 
 
 Words, the most significant signs, . 134 
 
 Of the pastor to be heard as the 
 
 words of Christ, . . 18 
 
 Works, good, require grace, . 458 
 
 Require faith and charity, . 262 
 
 Merit of ours derived from that 
 of flhrist, . . . Ibid. 
 
 Of satisfaction, see Satisfaction, 
 
 257, sqq. 
 Worship, external, due to God, . 341 
 
 Of strange gods, _ . 313, sqq. 
 
 ZEAL in the service of God, . 324, sq. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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