# Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent/Session XIV/Sacrament of Extreme Unction

ON THE SACRAMENT OF EXTREME UNCTION.
It hath, moreover, seemed good to the holy synod, to subjoin to the preceding doctrine on penance the one following touching the sacrament of Extreme Unction, which was regarded by the Fathers as the completion, not only of penance, but also of the whole Christian life, which ought to be a perpetual penance. First, therefore, concerning its institution, it declares and teaches, that our most clement Redeemer, who would have his servants at all times provided with salutary remedies against all the weapons of all their enemies, like as, in the other sacraments, He prepared the greatest aids, by the which, during life, Christians may preserve themselves whole from every more grievous evil of the spirit, so did He guard the close of life by the sacrament of Extreme Unction, as with a most firm defence. For although our adversary seeks and seizes opportunities throughout our ​whole life, to be able in any way to devour our souls; yet, there is no time wherein he more vehemently strains all the powers of his cunning to ruin us utterly, and, if he possibly can, to make us fall even from trust in the divine mercy, than when he perceives the end of our life to be impending.
CHAPTER I.
Concerning the Institution of the Sacrament of Extrem Unction.
Now, this sacred unction of the sick was instituted by Christ our Lord, as truly and properly a sacrament of the new law, hinted at indeed in Mark, but recommended and promulgated to the faithful by James the apostle, and brother of the Lord. Is any, he saith, sick among you? Let him bring in the elders 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; and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he he in sins, they shall he forgiven him, In which words, as the Church hath learned from apostolic tradition, received from hand to hand, he teaches the matter, the form, the proper minister, and the effect of this salutary sacrament. For the Church hath understood the matter thereof to be oil blessed by a bishop, seeing that the unction most aptly represents the grace of the Holy Ghost, with which the soul of the sick person is invisibly anointed; and furthermore, that those words, " By this unction," &c. are the form.
CHAPTER II.
On the Effect of this Sacrament.
Moreover, the thing [signified], and the effect of this sacrament, are explained in those words; And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he he in sins, they shall he forgiven him. For this thing is the grace of the Holy Ghost; whose anointing cleanses away sins, if there be any still to be expiated, and the remains of sin; relieves and strengthens the soul of the sick, by exciting in him a great confidence in the divine mercy; whereby the sick being relieved, bears more easily ​the inconveniences and pains of sickness; and more readily resists the temptations of the devil, who lies in wait for his heel; and sometimes obtains bodily health, when it is expedient for the welfare of the soul.
CHAPTER III.
On the Minister of this Sacrament, and on the Time when it ought to he administered.
And now, as pertains to the prescribing who ought to receive, and who to administer this sacrament, this also was only obscurely delivered in the words aforesaid. For it is also shown there, that the proper ministers of this sacrament are the elders of the Church; by which name are to be understood, in that place, not the elders by age, or the foremost amongst the jpeople, but, either bishops, or priests by them rightly ordained by the laying on of hands by the presbytery. It is also declared, that this unction is to be applied to the sick, but especially to those who lie in such danger as to seem placed at their departure from this life hence, also, it is called the sacrament of the departing. But if the sick should recover, after having received this unction, they may again be aided by the succour of this sacrament, when they fall into another like danger of death. "Wherefore, they are on no account to be hearkened unto, who, contrary to so manifest and clear a declaration of the apostle James, teach that this unction is either a human figment, or is a rite received from the others, which neither hath a command from God, nor a promise of grace: nor those who assert that it hath already ceased, as though it were only to be referred to the grace of healing in the primitive church; nor those who say that the rite and usage which the holy Roman Church observeth in the administration of this sacrament is repugnant to the declaration of the apostle James, and that it is, therefore, to be changed into some other: nor finally, those who affirm that this Extreme Unction may without sin be contemned by the faithful: for all these things are most manifestly at variance with the distinct words of so great an apostle. Neither, assuredly, ​does the Roman Church, the mother and mistress of all others, observe aught else in administering this unction, as regards those things which make up the substance of this sacrament, but what the blessed James has prescribed. Nor indeed can the contempt of so great a sacrament be without a heinous sin, and an injury to the Holy Ghost himself.
These are the things which this holy œcumenical synod professes and teaches, and proposes unto all the faithful of Christ, to be belieyed and held, touching the sacraments of Penance and Extreme Unction. But it deliyers the following canons to be inviolably observed; and, perpetually condemns and anathematizes those who assert the contrary.
ON THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF PENANCE.
Canon i. If any one shall say, that in the Catholic Church penance is not truly and properly a sacrament, instituted by Christ our Lord for reconciling the fiiithful unto God, as often as they fall into sin after baptism; let him be anathema.
Canon ii. If any one, confounding the sacraments, shall say, that baptism is itself the sacrament of Penance, as though these two sacraments were not distinct, and that therefore penance is not rightly called "a second plank after shipwreck ;" let him be anathema.
Cannon iii. If any one shall say, that those words of the Lord the Saviour, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose sins ye shall remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained, are not to be understood of the power of remitting and of retaining sins in the sacrament of Penance, as the Catholic Church has always from the beginning understood them; but wrests them, contrary to the institution of this sacrament, to the power of preaching the Gospel; let him be anathema.
Canon iv. If any one shall deny, that, unto the entire and perfect remission of sins, three acts in the penitent, which are as it were the matter of the sacrament of Penance, are required, to wit, contrition, confession, and satisfaction, which are called the three parts of penance; or saith that there are only two parts of penance, to wit, the terrors which ​smite the conscience upon being convinced of sin, and the faith, conceived by the Gospel, or by the absolution, whereby one believes that his sins are remitted unto him through Christ; let him be anathema.
Canon v. If any one shall say, that the contrition which is acquired by means of the examination, collection, and detestation of sins, whereby one thinks over his years in the bitterness of his soul, by pondering on the grievousness, the multitude, the foulness of his sins, the loss of eternal blessedness, and the having incurred eternal damnation, [joined] with the purpose of a better life, is not a true and profitable sorrow, doth not prepare unto grace, but maketh a man a hypocrite and a greater sinner; finally, that this is a forced and not a free and voluntary sorrow; let him be anathema.
Canon vi. If any one shall deny, either that sacramental confession was instituted, or is necessary unto salvation, of divine right; or shall say, that the manner of confessing secretly to a priest alone, which the Catholic Church hath ever observed from the beginning, and doth observe, is alien from the institution and command of Christ, and is a human invention; let him be anathema.
Canon vii. If any one shall say, that, in the sacrament of Penance, it is not, of divine right, necessary unto the remission of sins, to confess all and individually the deadly sins, the memory of which, after due and diligent previous meditation is held, even those which are secret, and those which are opposed to the two last commandments of the Decalogue, as also the circumstances which change the species of a sin; but [saith] that such confession is only useful to instruct and console the penitent, and that it was of old only observed in order to impose a canonical satisfaction; or shall say, that they, who strive to confess all their sins, wish to leave nothing to the divine mercy to pardon; or, finally, that it is not lawful to confess venial sins; let him be anathema.
Canon viii. If any one shall say, that the confession of all sins, such as the Church observes, is impossible, and is a human tradition, to be abolished by the pious; or that all and each of the faithful of Christ, of either sex, are not ​obliged thereunto once a year, according; to the constitution of the great Council of Lateran, and that, on this account, the faithful of Christ must not be persuaded to confess during Lent; let him be anathema.
Canon ix. If any one shall say, that the sacramental absolution of the priest is not a judicial act, but a bare ministry of pronouncing and declaring sins to be remitted unto him who confesses; provided only he believe himself to be absolved, or [even if] the priest absolve not in earnest, but in joke; or saith, that the confession of the penitent is not required, in order that the priest may be able to absolve him; let him be anathema.
Canon x. If any one shall say, that priests, who are in deadly sin, have not the power of binding and of loosing; or, that not priests alone are the ministers of absolution, but that unto all and each of the faithful of Christ is it said: Whatsoever ye shall bind upon earth, shall he hound also in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose upon earth, shall he loosed also in heaven; and, whose sins ye shall remit, they shall be remitted unto them; and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained; by virtue of which words every one is able to absolve sins, to wit, public [sins] by rebuke only; provided the person rebuked yield thereto, and secret [sins] by a voluntary confession; let him be anathema.
Canon xi. If any one shall say, that bishops have not the right of reserving cases to themselves, except as regards external polity, and that therefore the reservation of cases hinders not but that a priest may truly absolve from reserved cases; let him be anathema.
Canon xii. If any one shall say, that the whole punishment is always remitted by God, together with the guilt, and that the satisfaction of penitents is no other than the faith whereby they learn that Christ hath made satisfaction for them; let him be anathema.
Canon xiii. If any one shall say, that satisfaction for sins, as regards their temporal punishment, is in no wise made to God, through the merits of Christ, by the punishments inflicted by Him, and patiently borne, or by those enjoined by the priest, nor even by those voluntarily undertaken, as by ​fastings, prayers, almsgivings, or by other works also of piety; and that, therefore, the best penance is merely a new life; let him be anathema.
Canon xiv. If any one shall say, that the satisfactions, by which penitents redeem their sins through Christ Jesus, are not a worship of God, but traditions of men, obscuring the doctrine of grace, and the true worship of God, and the benefit itself of the death of Christ; let him be anathema.
Canon xv. If any one shall say, that the keys are given to the Church, only to loose, not also to bind; and that, therefore, priests, when they impose punishments on those who confess, act contrary to the end designed by the keys, and contrary to the institution of Christ; and that it is a fiction, that, after eternal punishment has, by virtue of the keys, been removed, there for the most part remains a temporal punishment to be discharged; let him be anathema.
ON THE SACRAMENT OF EXTREME UNCTION.
Canon i. If any one shall say, that extreme unction is not truly and properly a sacrament, instituted by Christ our Lord, and promulgated by the blessed apostle James, but only a rite received from the fathers, or a human invention; let him be anathema.
Canon ii. If any one shall say, that the sacred unction of the sick does not confer grace, nor remit sins, nor alleviate the sick; but that it has already ceased, as though the grace of cures were of old only; let him be anathema.
Canon iii. If any one shall say, that the rite and usage of extreme unction, which the holy Roman Church observes, is repugnant to the declaration of the blessed apostle James, and that it is therefore to be changed, and that it may, without sin, be contemned by Christians; let him be anathema.
Canon iv. If any one shall say, that the presbyters of the Church, whom the blessed James exhorts to be brought to anoint the sick, are not the priests ordained by a bishop, but the seniors in years in each community, and that for this reason a priest alone is not the proper minister of extreme unction; let him be anathema.
* ↑ See Mark vi. 13.
* ↑ James v. 14, 15.
* ↑ Gen. iii. 15.
* ↑ 1 Tim. iv. 14.
* ↑ John XX. 22, 23.
* ↑ Is. xxxviii. 15.
* ↑ Matt. xviii. 18.
* ↑ John xx. 23.