" Dicuntur sacramenta, quia in eis ahud videtur, aliud intel- ligitur. Quod videtur, speciem habet corporalem ; quod inteUigitur, fructum habct spiritalem." ^ Augustine, In Joaim. Evang. tract. 80 : " Detrahe verbum, et quid est aqua [the baptismal water] nisi aqua ? Accedit verbum ad elemenium el fit sacramentum, etiam ipsum tamquam visibile verbum." ^ Comp. Epist. 82, §§ 14 and 15 ; Ep. 138, § 7 ; De vera relig. c. 16, § 33 ; and Hahn, p. 154. ' Comp. the proof passages in Hahn, p. 2V9 fi". Thus Augustine says, e. g., De 476 THIED PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. immediately and magically, but mediately and ethically, not ex opere oj)erato, in the later scholastic language, but through the medium of the active faith of the receiver. They certainly have, as divine institutions, an objective meaning in them- selves, like the life-principle of a seed, and do not depend on the subjective condition of the one who administei-s tliem (as the Donatists taught) ; but they reach with blessing only those who seize the blessing, or take it from the ordinance, in faith; they bring curse to those who unworthily administer or receive them. Faith is necessary not as the efficient cause, but as the subjective condition, of the saving operation of the offered grace.' Augustine also makes a distinction between a transient and a permanent effect of the sacrament, and thereby prepares the way for the later scholastic doctrine of the character indele- hilis. Baptism and ordination impress an. indelible character, and therefore cannot be repeated. He is fond of comparing baptism with the badge of the imperial service,"^ which the sol- dier always retains either to his honor or to his shame. Hence the Catholic doctrine is : Once baptized, always baptized ; once a priest, always a priest. ^Nevertheless a baptized person, or an ordained person, can be excommunicated and eternally lost. The popular opinion in the church already inclined strongly toward the superstitious view of the magical operation of the sacrament, which has since found scholastic expression in the opus operatum theory. The church fathers with one accord assert a relative (not absolute) necessity of the sacraments to salvation.^ They saw bapt. contra Donat. 1. iii. c. 10 (torn. ix. p. VG): "Sacramento suo divina virtus ad- sistit sive ad salutem bene utentium, sive ad pemiciem male utentimn." De unit, eccl. c. 21 (tom. ix. p. 256) : " Facile potestis intelligere et in bonis esse et in malis sacramenta divina, sed in illis ad salutem, in malis ad damnationem." * Hence the later formula : Fides non facit ut sit sacramentum, sed ut prosit. Faith does not produce the sacramental blessing, but subjectively receives and ap- propriates it. "^ Stigma militare, character militaris. To this the expression character indelebi- lis certainly attaches itself easily, though the doctrine concerning it cannot be traced with certainty back of the thirteenth century. Comp. Hahn, 1. c. p. 298 ff., where it is referred to the time