Part 5 (1/2)

) Catholic theologians are unanimous in admitting that all salutary acts are and must needs be supernatural; but they differ in their conception of this supernatural quality (_supernaturalitas_). The problem underlying this difference of opinion may be stated thus: A thing may be supernatural either ent.i.tatively, _quoad substantiam_, or merely as to the manner of its existence, _quoad modum_. The _supernaturale quoad substantiam_ is divided into the strictly supernatural and the merely preternatural.(286) The question is: To what category of the supernatural belong the salutary acts which man performs by the aid of grace? Undoubtedly there are actual graces which are ent.i.tatively natural, _e.g._ the purely mediate grace of illumination,(287) the natural graces conferred in the pure state of nature, the actual graces of the sensitive sphere,(288) and the so-called _cogitatio congrua_ of Vasquez.(289) The problem therefore narrows itself down to the _immediate_ graces of intellect and will. Before the Tridentine Council theologians contented themselves with acknowledging the divinely revealed fact that these graces are supernatural; it was only after the Council that they began to speculate on the precise character of this _supernaturalitas_.

Some, following the teaching of the Scotist school, ascribed the supernatural character of salutary acts to their free acceptation on the part of G.o.d, holding them to be purely natural in their essence and raised to the supernatural sphere merely _per denominationem extrinsecam_.(290) This view is untenable. For if nature, as such, possessed the intrinsic power to perform salutary acts, irrespective of their acceptation by G.o.d, the Fathers and councils would err in teaching that this power is derived from the immediate graces of illumination and strengthening.(291)

Others hold that the salutary acts which grace enables man to perform, are supernatural only _quoad modum_; because while it is the Holy Ghost Himself who incites the natural faculties to salutary thoughts and good resolves, He does not _eo ipso_ raise these thoughts and resolves to the supernatural plane. This theory, besides being open to the same objection which we have urged against the first, involves another difficulty. If all salutary acts were supernatural only _quoad modum_, sanctifying grace, which is as certainly supernatural in its essence as the beatific vision of G.o.d,(292) would cease to have an adequate purpose; for the intrinsic reason for its existence is precisely that it raises the nature of the justified into a permanent supernatural state of being.

A third school of theologians tries to solve the difficulty by adding to the natural operation of the intellect and the will some accidental supernatural _modus_. There are several such _modi_, which, though inhering in nature and really distinct therefrom, depend solely on the Holy Ghost, and consequently transcend the natural powers of man, _e.g._ the duration or intensity of a salutary act. This theory at first blush appears more plausible than the other two, but it cannot be squared with the teaching of Tradition. In the first place, the duration or intensity of a salutary act cannot affect its essence or nature. Then again, every such accidental supernatural _modus_ is produced either by grace alone, or by grace working conjointly with free-will. In the former hypothesis it would be useless, because it would not render the free salutary act, as such, supernatural; in the latter case it could do no more than aid the will to do what is morally impossible, whereas every salutary act is in matter of fact a physical impossibility, that is, impossible to unaided nature.(293)

There remains a fourth explanation, which ascribes to every salutary act an ontological, substantial, intrinsic _supernaturalitas_, whereby it is elevated to a higher and essentially different plane of being and operation. This theory is convincingly set forth by Suarez in his treatise on the Necessity of Grace.(294)

It may be asked: If the salutary acts which we perform are supernatural in substance, why are we not conscious of the fact? The answer is not far to seek. Philosophical a.n.a.lysis shows that the intrinsic nature of our psychic operations is no more a subject of immediate consciousness than the substance of the soul itself. Consequently, sanctifying grace cannot reveal its presence through our inner consciousness. Having no intuitive knowledge of our own Ego, we are compelled to specify the different acts of the soul by means of their respective objects and their various tendencies (cognition, volition). To our consciousness the supernatural love of G.o.d does not present itself as essentially different from the natural.(295)

Article 3. The Necessity Of Actual Grace For The States Of Unbelief, Mortal Sin, And Justification

Every adult man, viewed in his relation to actual grace, is in one of three distinct states:

(1) The state of unbelief (_status infidelitatis_), which may be either negative, as in the case of heathens, or positive, as in the case of apostates and formal heretics;

(2) The state of mortal sin (_status peccati mortalis_), when the sinner has already received, or not yet lost, the grace of faith, which is the beginning of justification;

(3) The state of justification itself (_status iust.i.tiae sive gratiae sanctificantis_), in which much remains yet to be done to attain eternal happiness.

The question we have now to consider is: Does man need actual grace in every one of these three states, and if so, to what extent?

1. SEMIPELAGIANISM.-Semipelagianism is an attempt to effect a compromise between Pelagianism and Augustinism by attributing to mere nature a somewhat greater importance in matters of salvation than St. Augustine was willing to admit.

a) After Augustine had for more than twenty years vigorously combatted and finally defeated Pelagianism, some pious monks of Ma.r.s.eilles, under the leaders.h.i.+p of John Ca.s.sian, Abbot of St. Victor,(296) tried to find middle ground between his teaching and that of the Pelagians. Ca.s.sian's treatise _Collationes Patrum_,(297) and the reports sent to St. Augustine by his disciples Prosper and Hilary, enable us to form a pretty fair idea of the Semipelagian system. Its princ.i.p.al tenets were the following:

a) There is a distinction between the ”beginning of faith” (_initium fidei_, _affectus credulitatis_) and ”increase in faith” (_augmentum fidei_). The former depends entirely on the will, while the latter, like faith itself, requires the grace of Christ.

) Nature can merit grace by its own efforts, though this natural merit (_meritum naturae_) is founded on equity only (_meritum de congruo_), and does not confer a right in strict justice, as Pelagius contended.

?) Free-will, after justification, can of its own power secure the gift of final perseverance (_donum perseverantiae_); which consequently is not a special grace, but a purely natural achievement.

d) The bestowal or denial of baptismal grace in the case of infants, who can have no previous _merita de congruo_, depends on their hypothetical future merits or demerits as foreseen by G.o.d from all eternity.(298)

b) Informed of these errors by his disciples, St. Augustine energetically set to work, and in spite of his advanced age wrote two books against the Semipelagians, ent.i.tled respectively, _De Praedestinatione Sanctorum_ and _De Dono Perseverantiae_. The new teaching was not yet, however, regarded as formally heretical, and Augustine treated his opponents with great consideration, in fact he humbly acknowledged that he himself had professed similar errors before his consecration (A. D. 394).(299)

After Augustine's death, Prosper and Hilary went to Rome and interested Pope Celestine in their cause. In a dogmatic letter addressed to the Bishops of Gaul, the Pontiff formally approved the teaching of St.

Augustine on grace and original sin, but left open such other ”more profound and difficult incidental questions” as predestination and the manner in which grace operates in the soul.(300) But as this papal letter (called ”_Indiculus_”) was an instruction rather than an ex-cathedra definition, the controversy continued until, nearly a century later (A. D.

529), the Second Council of Orange, convoked by St. Caesarius of Arles, formally condemned the Semipelagian heresy. This council, or at least its first eight canons,(301) received the solemn approbation of Pope Boniface II (A. D. 530) and thus became vested with ec.u.menical authority.(302)

2. THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH.-The Catholic Church teaches the absolute necessity of actual grace for all stages on the way to salvation. We shall demonstrate this in five separate theses.

*Thesis I: Prevenient grace is absolutely necessary, not only for faith, but for the very beginning of faith.*

This is _de fide_.

Proof. The Second Council of Orange defined against the Semipelagians: ”If any one say that increase in faith, as well as the beginning of faith, and the very impulse by which we are led to believe in Him who justifies the sinner, and by which we obtain the regeneration of holy Baptism, is in us not as a gift of grace, that is to say, through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, but by nature, ... is an adversary of the dogmatic teaching of the Apostles....”(303)

a) This is thoroughly Scriptural doctrine, as St. Augustine(304) and Prosper(305) proved. St. Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians had opened the eyes of Augustine, as he himself admits. 1 Cor. IV, 7: ”For who distinguisheth(306) thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received?