EOLOGICAL

VOLUME IX
1948

M SB

Published by the Theological Faculties

of the Society oj Jesus in the United States

46

THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

finality; the other is a grasp of the data of religious psychology. Hot
ever, it was not Scheeben’s fault that he lived in the nineteenth
century.
“Die erste dogmatische Constitution iiber den Primat,” II (1870), 303-33; 341-ί
“Die Bewegung gegen den pâpstlichen Unfehlbarkeit in Deutschland,” II (10
416-30.
“Die theologische und praktische Bedeutung des Dogmas von der Unfehlbarke
des Papstes, besonder in seiner Beziehung auf die heutige Zeit: 2. Die Unfehlbaffi
des Papstes und der katholische Glaube,” III (1871), 504-46.
“Beitrage zur Characteristik der modemen Haresie und der durch diesclbe bedingtt
Aufgabe der Kirche in unserer Zeit,” TV (1872), 1-14; 53-75; 129-41 ; 228-41.
“Der Liberalismus als System vom theologischen Gesichtspunkt betrachtfVII (1875), 172-92; 258-82; 289-302 ; 419-72.
“Gedanken uber das christliche Autoritatsprinzip und seine Bedeutung für urse
Zeit,” X (1878), 1-9; 49-64; 97-112; 155-68; 204-20 ; 241-67.
(I was not able to establish with certainty Scheeben’s authorship of the three b.'
named articles; but they are undoubtedly his.)
Some of Scheeben’s contributions—articles and reviews—to the periodical, Dt
Kaikdik, would be of interest in a study of his doctrine on the supernatural; of vsb
for his early ideas on faith is the article, “Über den Unterschied und das Verhifc
von Philosophie und Théologie, Vemunft und Glauben,” Katholik (1863, I), 641-v
(1863, Π), 267-300.

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST
ACCORDING TO ST. AUGUSTINE

II
STANISLAUS J. GRABOWSKI, S.T.D., S.T.M.
Catholic University of A merica

N the first part, to clarify the fundamental concepts involved in the
study, a distinction was made between the Church as a juridical
society and the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. It was stated
that both of these are aspects of one complex notion of the Church.
Further, likewise for the sake of elucidation, a basic division of sins was
introduced, according to which some sins are death-bringing not only
to the individual as such but also to that individual considered as a
cell in a living organism; other sins are such that they do not deprive
us of life and are unavoidable in this life.
Bearing these concepts in mind, the object of this study was to
determine the relation to the Church of sinners lapsing into death­
bringing transgressions. In the two sections devoted to this problem
of St. Augustine’s ecclesiology in the previous issue it was established :
(1) that sinners are members of the juridical and sacramental Church,
and (2) that sinners are excluded from the Church as the Mystical
Body of Christ; it was also intimated in what manner and to what
extent this exclusion takes place.
The present continuation of that article will likewise consist of two
sections developing the same theme : (3) the inclusion of sinners in the
Body of Christ, with explanations as to the manner of their inherence,
and (4) the exclusion of sinners from the celestial Body of Christ.

I

m. THE INCLUSION OF SINNERS IN THE BODY OF CHRIST

The testimonies occurring in the works of St. Augustine for the
exclusion of sinners from the Church, the Body of Christ, are so nu­
merous and obvious that the prima facie view favors the existence of a
pure and holy Church devoid of sinners. These forceful statements
47

H

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

are one-sided assertions made against an opponent. They are to be
tempered more by the consideration of his whole doctrine on the
Church than by counterbalancing direct evidence of equal force in the
opposite direction. In the light of St. Augustine’s totality of ecclesiological doctrine, a somewhat different interpretation must be put on
the many arguments excluding sinners from the Body of Christ.

The Fact of Their Inclusion

The primary source of St. Augustine’s doctrine on the Body of Christ
is to be traced back to St. Paul202 and to those passages of the gos­
pels203 wherein Christ identifies Himself as one with His faithful. This
doctrine is then principally applied and further evolved in the expo­
sition of the Psalms contained in his exegetical commentary Enarra­
tiones in Psalmos. Almost every page in this voluminous work has
references to Christ, the Head of the Church, and to the faithful form­
ing the members of His Body, and thus constituting His Mystical
Body.
To his work De Doctrina Christiana, composed in greater part during
the year 397,204 with the primary purpose of setting forth principles
guiding the proper understanding of the Sacred Books,206 St. Augustine
added206 in 426, towards the end of his life, the hermeneutical rules10
*
102 Cf. S. J. Grabowski, “St Augustine and the Doctrine of the Mystical Body of
Christ,” Theological Studies, VII (1946), 86-98.
«» E.g., De Trin., 15, 19, 34 {PL XLII, 1084); Enar. in Ps. 130, 6 {PL XXXVH,
1708); Enar. in Ps. 52, 1 {PL XXXVI,613); cf. J. C. Gruden, The Mystical Christ (St
Louis, 1936), pp. 87 ff.
101 This date is assigned by the Maurist Fathers and by de Labriolle, Histoire de it
littérature latine chrétienne (2e. éd.; Paris, 1924); whereas Portalié (in the article: “Augus­
tin,” in DTC) places the date at 426; it may be supposed, however, that the latter
intends by this date to mark rather the final touches or the completion of the wort
106 De doctr. christ., ProL, I {PL XXXIV, 15) : “Sunt praecepta quaedam tractandanir
Scripturarum, quae studiosis earum video non incommode posse tradi; ut non solus
legendo alios qui divinarum Litterarum operta aperuerunt, sed et aliis ipsi aperienti,
proficiant.”
J0* It is highly improbable that the whole treatise was revised in the sense that it has
taken on a new, amplified, and recorrected form; St Augustine in his Retractationes
implies that he added only in his late years that portion in which the rules are contained.
De Labriolle, op. cit.: “Le texte primitif, abandonné par Augustin en 397, allait jusqu ’au
chap. Ill, XXXVII, de l’édition complète, celle de 427. ‘Cum imperfectos (libros

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

49

of Tichonius, culled from the latter’s Liber Regularum.207 Among the
seven rules enumerated and explained in this book Tichonius gives us
two rules which pertain to the doctrine of the Body of Christ in Sacred
Scripture and one pertaining to the body of the devil. The first rule
is, “De Domino et ejus corpore”; the second, “De Domini corpore
bipertito”; and finally the heading of the seventh rule is, “De diabolo
et ejus corpore.”208
Regarding the solution of the problem revolving about the exclusion
or inclusion of sinners in the Body of Christ much depends on the
genuine meaning, value, and application of these rules. St. Augustine
does not assign to these rules the sweeping scope that their author
Tichonius so readily attributes to them for clearing Scripture of all
difficulties and obscurities. Although he finds some points in these
rules inadequate and oversubtle,209 nevertheless, “to so elaborate and
useful a work” he ascribes great utility and value, “because they
[the rules] help very much to the understanding of the Scriptures.”210
This is why St. Augustine approves these rules of the African semiDonatist Tichonius and even embodies them in his own work, ampli­
fying each rule with his own commentary.*
197
comperissem,’ explique Augustin (Retract. 2, 4,1) ‘perficere malui quam eis sic relictis ad
alia retractanda transire. Complevi ergo tertium. ... Addidi etiam novissimum
librum et quatuor libris illud implevi.’ ” The same author adds: “Essayer de restituer
la première édition, comme l’a fait Dom de Bruyne, lequel suppose qu’ Augustin remania
de fond en comble l’ouvrage en 427 (Rev. Ben. 1913, pp. 301 ff.) est une entreprise qui
parait assez chimérique.” E. de Bruyne himself later corrected his conjecture concerning
the existance of two separate editions of this work; viz., one of 397 and another of 426; see
Revue <THistoire ecclésiastique, 1927, p. 783. Cf. H. Pope, St. Augustine of Hippo (London,
1937), p. 371, and A. Allgeier, “Der Einfluss des Manichaismus auf die exegetische
Fragestellung bei Augustin,” in Aurelius Augustinus (Koln, 1930), p. 11.
197 The nature, composition, organization, and style of this book are thus briefly
portrayed by 0. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Litcratur (Freiburg, 1924),
ΠΙ, 427: “Das Buch ist das erste lateinische Kompendium der biblischen Hermeneutik,
et» as schwerfàllig im Ausdruck, etwas sprunghaft in der Darstellung und nicht frei von
sachlichen Schwâchen, aber die Frucht emsten und selbstandigen Denkens.”
«· De doctr. christ., HI, 30, 42 (PL XXXIV, 81); F. C. Burkitt, The Book of Rules of
Tichonius, Texts and Studies, voL ΠΙ, η. I (Cambridge, 1894). This edition is uni­
versally accepted.
Kt De doctr. christ., HI, 33, 46 (PL XXXIV, 83).
" Ibid., ΙΠ, 30, 43 (PL XXXIV, 82).

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

The first rule in the words of
Tichonius:

The first rule in the words of St.
Augustine:

For his first rule Tichonius has: De
Domino et Corpore ejus. Dominum
ejus ne corpus, id est Ecclesiam, Scrip­
tura loquatur, sola ratio discernit, dum
quid cui conveniat persuadet vel quia
tanta est vis veritatis extorquet. Alias
una persona convenitur quam duplicem
esse diversa duorum officia edocent.111

Prima [regula] de Domino et ejus
corpore est; in qua scientes aliquando
capitis et corporis, i.e. Christi et Ec­
clesiae unam personam nobis intimari
(neque enim frustra dictum est fide­
libus, ‘Ergo Abrahae semen estis,’ cum
unum semen quod est Christus), non
haesitemus quando a capite ad corpus,
vel a corpore transitur ad caput,
et tamen non receditur ab una
eademque persona. Una enim persona
loquitur dicens, ‘sicut sponso imposuit
mihi mitram, et sicut sponsam ornavit
me ornamento’ (Is. 61, 10); et tamen
quid horum duorum capiti, quid corpoii, id est, quid Christo, quid Ecclesiae
conveniat, utique intelligendum est.111

It is evident, partially from the context but especially from the
antithesis between the first and the second rule, that in the rule just
quoted, the Church is the Body of Christ in the sense that only the
good, who are members of Christ by the life-giving union of charity,
come into consideration here as members. Although Sacred Scripture
speaks of Christ and of the Church, His Body, as of one person, one
being, nevertheless we must distinguish well between that which really
pertains to Christ the Head and that which pertains to His Body or
members. The predicates are interchangeable between the Head and
the Body, yet it must be borne in mind that they are proper either to
the Head or Body and are applied to the other by the law of the socalled communicatio idiomatum.nt This is in short the content of the
first rule.
More relevant to the relationship of sinners to the Mystical Body
of Christ is the second rule of Tichonius and St. Augustine’s own ampli­
fication of it. They are adduced in translation and juxtaposition.
m F. C. Burkitt, The Book of Rules of Tichonius, pp. 1-2.
21 De doctr. christ., Ill, 31, 44 {PL XXXIV, 82).
23 Cf. M. Pontet, L!exégèse de S. Augustin Prédicateur (Paris, 1945), pp. 407 ff.

250519
SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

51

Tichonius writes:

St. Augustine comments:

Concerning the Divided Body of the
Lord. The rule of the divided body of
the Lord [is] much more necessary and
is to be examined by us the more dili­
gently and must be had before the eyes
through all the Scriptures. Just as it
has been stated above [in the first rule]
that [the transition] from head to body
is seen by reason alone, so the transi­
tion and return from [one] part of the
body to the other, from the right to the
left or from the left to the right is clear
in the aforementioned chapter.114

The second [rule] concerns the di­
vided (bipartito)11* body of the Lord,
which should not have been so called;
for in truth the body of the Lord is not
that which will not be with him in
eternity. But it ought to have been
said concerning the true and mixed
body of the Lord, or, the true and
simulated [body], or something else;
because not only in eternity, but even
now hypocrites are not to be said to be
with him, although they seem to be in
his Church. Therefore that rule could
have been so named that it would be
said about the mixed Church. And
this rule demands a watchful reader,
when Scripture, already speaking to
others, seems to speak to those to
whom it was previously speaking; or
about them, when it already speaks of
others; as if one body were of both, on
account of the temporal mixture and
communion of the sacraments.11·

It is naturally to be expected that this testimony and commentary of
St. Augustine would carry with it high authority on account of the
04 Burkitt, op. cit., p. 8: “De Domini Corpore Bipertito. Regula bipertiti corporis
Domini multo necessarior et a nobis tanto diligentius perspicienda et per omnes Scripturas
ante oculos habenda est. Sicut enim supradictum est a capite ad corpus ratione sola
videtur, ita a parte corporis ad partem, a dextera ad sinistram vel a sinistra ad dexteram,
transitus reditusque ut in supradicto capite claret.”
ω “Bipartito,” sic ed. Maur., but in MSS. “bipertito” as Tichonius.
°· De doctr. christ., ΠΙ, 31, 44 (PL XXXIV, 82): “Secunda est de Domini corpore
bipartito, quod quidem non ita debuit appellari; non enim revera Domini corpus est,
quod cum illo non erit in aeternum: sed dicendum fuit, De Domini corpore vero atque
permixto, aut, vero atque simulato, vel quid aliud; quia non solum in aeternum, verum
etiam nunc hypocritae non cum illo esse dicendi, quamvis in ejus esse videantur Ecclesia.
Unde poterat ista regula et sic appellari, ut diceretur de permixta Ecclesia. Quae regula
lectorem vigilantem requirit, quando Scriptura cum ad alios jam loquatur, tamquam
ad eos ipsos ad quos loquebatur, videtur loqui; vel de ipsis, cum de aliis jam loquatur;
tamquam unum sit utrorumque corpus, propter temporalem commixtionem et com­
munionem Sacramentorum... ”

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

keen attention and diligence with which he weighs the matter and
phraseology of these rules. It must also be observed that his remarks
belong to a period of the highest intellectual maturity. It was towards
the end of a life consumed in doctrinal strife, study, and thought that
St. Augustine focused his attention upon these rules and approvingly
added them to one of his important works.
This second rule of Tichonius expressly supposes the presence of
sinners in the unity of the Body of Christ. This rule is to serve as a
guide of caution to the reader and investigator of the Sacred Books
concerning certain attributes predicated of Christ. In texts which
should naturally be attributed to Christ, but where the matter in no
way allows their application either to Christ Himself as the Head or
to those members who constitute a real living unity with Him, there
is still another class of members joined in a certain unity with Christ,
and to these such predications or references may be made. These
members are sinners. According to Tichonius, they not only are in
the Church but also have a certain part in the Body of Christ. This
is evident from the very words of this rule, but it is also a part of his
entire doctrine on the Church and sinners
At first appearance it would seem that St. Augustine is at variance
to some extent with an essential part of the statement or doctrine of
Tichonius. Yet this discrepancy is only an apparent one touching on
something accidental. He adduces the rules of Tichonius with ap­
proval. It is not the idea that displeases him, but rather the expres­
sion too crudely conveying the thought concerning the constitution of
that Body. Indeed, Tichonius conceives and expresses the notion of
the Body of Christ with its good and bad members in a curious manner.
He presents it as a “corpus bipertitum,” that is to say a “two-parted"
body. One part of that body, namely the right side, is formed of the
good; the other part, the left side, is composed of the wicked. Al­
though the manner of expression is awkward, the underlying idea is
presented so strongly that no one can doubt that the wicked also are
included in the Body of Christ according to Tichonius. It is evident,
too, that the reason for assigning a part of the body to the wicked, in
the mind of Tichonius, is the complete identification of the Church with
the Body of Christ. He allocates the good to the right side and the
wicked to the feft side of the body in a realistic manner in accord with

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

53

the scriptural and traditional symbol of the right side for the good and
the left side for the bad. Tichonius writes: “These two parts are
said in speech to be one man, because we can name two sides also in
one man, that is a right and a left [side], and there are in him many
members, but one body. It has there sound members, it has also
infirm ones. The healthy members are saints, the left [members] are
sinners.”217
St. Augustine ventures to correct the terminology of Tichonius by
calling the “corpus bipertitum” of the latter a “corpus verum atque
permixtum/’ “verum atque simulatum.” The reason wdiich he ad­
duces for the introduction of this new terminology, namely: “since not
only in eternity, but even now hypocrites are not to be said to be with
him, although they seem to be in the Church,” would appear to in­
dicate more than a mere displeasure with the name. This reasoning
seems to divest Christ of all sinners even now. With regard to the
first part of it, namely that sinners will not constitute Christ’s Body
after this life, there is no difficulty; only those who persevere in their
goodness to the very end remain eternally in Christ’s Body to enjoy
the everlasting fruition of God. The second element in that reason­
ing, that even now hypocrites are not to be spoken of as being with
Christ, must, in consistency with St. Augustine’s doctrine as has been
seen elsewhere, be explained as meaning that they do not constitute the
living and true members of the Body of Christ. They do not pertain
to the true Body; they are not “de corpore vero” because there is no
spiritual element in their soul to bind them to Christ’s Body. But
“propter temporalem commixtionem et communionem Sacramen­
torum” they are “de corpore permixto, simulato.” They are never­
theless in the Body of Christ. In the momentous passage under
study St. Augustine promiscuously employs the term “corpus” and
“Ecclesia”, “permixtum corpus” and ‘‘permixta Ecclesia”, intimating
thereby that the one concept is equivalent to the other.
Hence it can be concluded that essentially the doctrine contained in
37 “Hae duae partes in praedicatione unus homo dicitur, quia et in uno homine possu­
mus duo latera nuncupare, id est dextrum et sinistrum, et sunt in eo multa membra, sed
unum corpus. Habet ibi membra sana, habet et infirma. Sana membra sancti sunt,
sinistra autem peccatores.” These words of Tichonius are quoted by T. Hahn, Tyciumius-Studien. Ein B titrag zitr Kirchen und Dogmengesckichie des merten Jakrkunderts
<Slndien :ur Geschichie der Kirche, b. 6, h. 2; Leipzig, 1900), p. 65.

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

the rule of Tichonius is approved and accepted by St. Augustine. In
general, their doctrines of the constitution of the Church in its internal
and external aspect present at least a relation of great similarity, ü
not one of dependence. Before, however, giving the gist of Tichoniui
doctrine on the Church, it is expedient to add a few words of intro­
duction on his authority in the opinion of his countryman and oppo­
nent in religion, the Bishop of Hippo.
The Doctrine of Tichonius

The period in which Tichonius flourished and his theological workappeared is between 370 and 380.218 Hence this almost immediate?
precedes the time of the appearance of St. Augustine in the arena «
theological controversy in Africa. As a Catholic bishop St. Augustine
admonishes that the writings of Tichonius must be read with caution,
because he is a member of the Donatist party, as well as because of his
personal errors.219 Yet Tichonius wras reckoned by St. Augustine as a
man of real theological knowledge, who must have realized that the
tenets of his party were not consistent with scriptural teaching con­
cerning the true Church of Christ. Hence it appears that he was not
a whole-hearted supporter of his sect, not a Donatist by conviction,
but rather by the force of circumstances.220
St. Augustine in one instance calls Tichonius a heretic,221 but never­
theless he respects the semi-Donatist as a scriptural and theologica,
authority and forges argumentative weapons against the Donatists
114 From this period we have from him the following works: (1) De Bello Intestine.
in the year 370, according to P. Monceaux {Journal des Savants, 1909, pp. 161 ff.); (2'
Expositiones Diversarum Causarum, 375, according to P. Monceaux {loc. cit.)\ (3) Com­
mentarium in Apocalypsim, about the year 380; (4) Liber Regularum, written according
to F. C. Burkitt {op. cit., p. XVIH), “before 383” and according to T. Hahn {op. Λ,
p. 6), “about 380.”
De doctr. christ., HI, 30, 42 {PL XXXIV, 81): “Caute sane legendus est, non sohn
propter quaedam, in quibus ut homo erravit, sed maxime propter illa quae sicut Donatsti
haereticus loquitur.”
220 A. B. Sharpe, “Tichonius and St. Augustine,” The Dublin Review, CXXXII (1903 .
66: “though himself [Tichonius] a Donatist, he wrote most convincingly against the
Donatists.”
221 F. C. Burkitt, op. cit., Introduction, p. XVIII: “But this (sicut Donatista haere­
ticus) is St. Augustine’s hardest word, and indeed throughout the whole review he treats
Tichonius as an authority to be explained rather than as a theorist to be criticized.”

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

55

from his writings.222 In his Retractationes St. Augustine adduces the
explanation of II Tim. 2:20 as found in his De Baptismo and as bor­
rowed before from St. Cyprian, but now’ he asserts that he prefers the
interpretation of Tichonius, which he discovered later.223 In his
Epistola 249 he recommends to a certain Restitutus that he read
Tichonius,221 precisely on the question of the temporal intermingling
of the good and the bad in the Church. He did not think it necessary
to write to Restitutus on a subject on which Tichonius had written so
well in a work225 which must have been in the possession of Restitutus
and with which he was supposed to have been so well acquainted.
The doctrine of Tichonius on the Church and on the Body of Christ
may be summed up in the foliow’ing synopsis:
1) The Church in its amplest extension consists of those that are
baptized and who confess the same faith. By faith he means the pro­
fession by the members of the same doctrines, and the acknowledgment
of the same moral discipline.226 All such, be they good or bad, form,
as Tichonius calls it, the general or universal Church. “This part
which seems to be within is called the general Church.”227
mT. Hahn, Tychonius-Studien, p. 1: “Augustin erklart ihn nicht nur für begabt mit
scharfem Geiste und reicher Beredsamkeit, sondem nimmt ihn auch gegen seine Feinde
in dessen cigenem donatistischen Lager in Schutz, entlehnt ihm aber auch einen Teil der
Waffen gegen die afrikanischen Schismatiker: vor allem den Schriftbeweis, jedoch auch
lachliche und historische Argumente (Vgl. Ep. 93, 43).”
01 Retract., Π, 18 {PL XXXII, 638; CSEL 36, ed. P. Knoll, 152).
™Ep. 249 {PL XXXIII. 1065; CSEL 57, ed. Al. Goldbacher, IV, 592): “Lege itaque
Tkhonium quem bene nosti, non quidem omnia probaturus; nam quae in illo cavenda
sint, bene nosti. Hanc tamen quaestionem, quomodo in Ecclesia Dei si qua forte perversa
vel etiam scelerata corrigere aut extinguere non valemus, salvo unitatis vinculo toleranda
sint, strenue videtur mihi tractavisse atque solvisse. Quamquam in ejus litteris tantum­
modo intentione correcta, ad ipsos divinarum Scripturarum fontes recurrere nos oportet,
ut ibi videamus quam pauca de hac re testimonia sententiarum, vel exempla gestorum
posuit, et quam nemo possit omnia ponere, nisi qui pene omnes sanctorum Librorum
paginas in sua scripta transferre voluerit.”
24 The book to which St Augustine refers here is most probably De Bello Intestino.
“’Scmit hat er in dieser Schrift wohl seine ganze Lehre von der Kirche entwickelt, freilich
ardâsslich der Kontroverse in seiner Partei” (T. Hahn, op. cit., p. 58).
434 T. Hahn, op. cit., p. 47: “So ist die Kirche für Tychonius ganz wie für Optatus
amachst die über den Erdkreis verbreitete Gesamtheit deter, die 1) ausserlich getauft
sind und 2) denselben ‘Glauben’ bekennen d.h. katholisches Dogma und katholische
Sitte als Norm des Wahren und Guten anerkennen. Es ist das Ecclesia generalis.”
w “Haec pars quae intus esse videtur generalis Ecclesia nominatur.” These words

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

2) Within this general Church only the good, properly speaking,
form the temple, the house of God, a heaven upon earth. The Church
is an assembly of holy and pure men. Such holy individuals form an
indivisible unity, which is but one person, the Body of Christ.228
3) Therefore sinners do not, properly speaking, constitute the Body
of Christ; they do not enter into the formation of the temple and house
of God. Since they are, however, members of the general Church, they
are in some sense in, or they pertain to, the Body of Christ. Tichonius
considers the Church universally extended according to the promises
of the Prophets to be the Mystical Body of Christ.229 Although the
whole general Church even -with its sinners is for Tichonius the Body of
Christ,230 yet not all constituting this general Church are members of
the Body of Christ in the same manner. A further allusion to, and
explanation of, this manner of inherence will be made later in connec­
tion with St. Augustine’s teaching on the same subject
Comparing this outline with the corresponding points of doctrine of
St. Augustine, it is evident that there is a great similarity in the nature
from Tichonius’ Commentarium in A pocalypsim were incorporated by Beatus of Liebam
(t'89?) into his Commentary on the Apocalypse and cited by Hahn, Tychonius-Studien, p
61. As to the person of Beatus, who is honored in Spain as a saint under the name ot
San Biego, see Mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, saec. IV, part. 1 (Venice.
1725), t. V. p. 690-94; Acta sanctorum, februarii, t. HI {PL XLVI, 847-94); Ceillier, Hist,
des auteurs ecclés., 2 (1862, Paris), XII, 214-17. Regarding the commentary on the
Apocalypse see Hausleiter, “Die Kommentare des Victorious, Tichonius und Hieronymus
zur Apokalypse,” Zeitschrift fur kirchl. Wissenschaft und Leben, 1886, pp. 239-57; H. L
Ramsay, “The Manuscripts of ‘The Commentary of Beatus of Liebana’ on the Apoca­
lypse,” Revue des bibliothèques, ΧΠ (1902), 74-103; H. L. Ramsay, “Le Commentaire de
l’Apocalypse par Beatus De Liebana,” Revue d’hist. et de lilt, rdig., VII (1902), 419-47;
H. J. Vogels, Uniersuckungen zur Geschichte der laieinischen Apokalypse-Übersetsunt
(Düsseldorf, 1920), pp. 56 ff.
2:8 Hahn, op. cit., p. 64: “Die Kirche ist nâmlich die Behausung Gottes; der Tempel,
der Himmel auf Erden. Gott aber hat kein anderes Haus auf Erden als die, so unschuldiger Hande und reines Herzens sind. Die Kirche ist das Paradies, das niemand betritt,
als wer Christus mit reinem Herzen erkannt hat und seinen Spuren nachwandelt. Die
Kirche ist die Gesamtheit heiliger Menschen. Aile die einzelnen Heiligen aber bilden in
der Kirche eine unzertrennliche Einheit, eine Person.”
KS Hahn, op. cit., p. 163: “Gott hat somit nach Tychonius die Verheissung an Abraham
erfüllt, da er diese hierarchische Heilsanstalt herstellte und über die ganze Welt ausbreitete.
Diese Kirche ist das corpus Christi fur Tychonius.
ae Hahn, op. cit., p. 65: “Dennoch batte auch die âussere anstaltliche Kirche für
Tychonius eine so grosse Bedeutung, dass er auch ihr die Bezeichnung des corpus Christi
nicht nehmen will.”

I Èbl

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

57

and structure of the Church according to Tichonius and St. Augustine.
The terminology and mode of expression of the Catholic differ from
those of the semi-Donatist; besides, St. Augustine enters profoundly
into the very interior constitution of the Body of Christ and of its
members. So far as we know from the works that are extant, no
attempt at this was made by Tichonius. Apart from these character­
istics, and as far as the more superficial constitution of the Church and
Body of Christ is concerned, both are exponents of a doctrine which is
very much alike.231 This outcome is so much the more welcome in that
it corroborates the conclusions at which we have already arrived about
St. Augustine’s doctrine on the Church.
In taking over into his De Doctrina Christiana these rules of
Tichonius towards the end of his life, St. Augustine acknowledged in
theory the exegetical methods he followed in practice for so many years.
An excellent specimen of their full practical value relating to the Body
of Christ is the bulky Enarrationes in Psalmos, whose central theme is
Christ and His Church, especially the coexistence of the wicked with
the good in the Church.232 Whenever a Psalm is referable to Christ
—and most or all of them are according to St. Augustine and other
writers of these times233— the predicates that cannot be verified in the
Person of Christ are transferred to His Body, the Church.
Some verses cannot be referred to Christ because they offend against
the sanctity of His Person. Sin, shortcomings, imperfections, some
human frailties and emotions are made referable by Tichonius and St.
Augustine to the members of the Body of Christ. This is true even of
those sins which St. Augustine reckons as bringing death to the
Μ Hahn, op cit., p. 115: “Beide stellen eine civitas Dei und civitas diaboli einander
gegtnüber. Beide haben einen doppelten Kirchenbegriff: auch bei Augustin ist nicht
kiar, was ihm wichtiger ist, die Gemeinde der boni, oder das hierarchische Institut der
katholischen Kirche. Nach beiden leben die Heiligen in der Kirche un ter der Überzahl
der Sunder. Beide sind Gegner der Separation, sehen in dem inneren Schmerz über die
Sunden rings umher den VVesenunterschied und das in Gottes Augen vollkomen Trennende
von Heiligen und Sundem.”
08 M. Pontet L’exégèse de S. Augustin Prédicateur (Paris, 1945), p. 388: “A travers la
diveraté de tous les siècles un seul homme, tête et membres, apparaît et se construit,
Jésus-Christ agrège un à un les prédestinés à son corps mystique; mais cette construction,
ce progrès ne ce font qu’au milieu des réactions atroces des méchants.”
œ E.g., Tertullian, Adv. Praxean, Π {CSEL 47, III, 244) : “Omnes pene psalmi Christi
personam sustinent.”

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member. Those who commit them are usually said to be in th;
Church, but they are also placed, as dead members, in the Body c:
Christ. Not every passage dealing with sin or the sinner can, of course
be taken in this sense. Under it come many infirmities and less worthy
attributes, which, however, are quite natural and common to huma:
nature. The Person of Christ and His human nature are free fror
these frailties and imperfections, but His members are subject to then:
And such sins are compatible with the living and true members of the
Body of Christ.
Adherence of Sinners to Christ's Body

We have seen heretofore a whole series of scriptural arguments usee
by St. Augustine against the Donatists to prove the prediction of the
Scriptures that the Church would contain even sinners among its
members until the end of time. It was pointed out that in these in­
stances the Church was conceived of in its social and visible form as the
Church of the sacraments. Many of the images under which the
Church is represented in its social capacity and empirical aspect as con­
taining sinners, according to St. Augustine’s argumentation, are
gathered together in his commentary on Psalm 138, wherein the Church
is nevertheless unmistakably treated as the Body of Christ.
Now however says the Body of Christ, which is the Church: why is it that the
proud calumniate me, as if others’ sins defile me, and therefore separating thenselves, ‘receive their cities in vain? Did I not hate those, Lord, who hated thee?'
Why do the more wicked ones demand from me also a corporal separation from the
evil ones, so as to pull out at the same time the wheat with the chaff before the
harvest-time; so that I may lose the patience of suffering the straw before the win­
nowing-time; so that I may break the nets of peace and unity before all kinds of
fish arrive at the end of the world as to a shore to be separated?”4

Two things are presupposed in this text: first, a complete identity or
ut Enar. in Ps. 138, 27 (PL XXXVII, 1801): “Nunc autem didt corpus Christi, quod
est Ecclesia: quid est quod mihi calumniantur superbi, quasi me maculent aliena peccata,
et propterea separando se, aedpiunt in vanitate civitates suas? Nonne eos qui oderunt
te, Domine, odio habui? Ut quid a me pejores exigunt etiam corporalem a malis separa­
tionem, ut ante tempus messis simul cum zizaniis eradicetur et triticum (Mt. 13, 30.; ; ut
ante tempus ventilationis perdam sustinentiam tolerandi paleam (Mt 3, 12); ut antequam
omnia genera pisdum ad finem saeculi tanquam ad littus separanda perveniant, retia
pacis unitatisque discupiam (Mt. 13, 47)?”

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

59

coincidence of that Church which may be called the Church of the
saaaments and that Church which is the Body of Christ; secondly, the
same sinners that have been included in the Church of the sacraments
with all the force of scriptural arguments are given a place in that
Church which is the Body of Christ.
Nor can it be retorted against the above text, which so happily unites
both aspects of the Church in regard to the same class of sinners, that
there is in it but a customary replacing of the word “Ecclesia” by
“corpus Christi,” or the casual joining of one to the other, without the
design or precise intention of signifying specifically the Body of Christ.
For in his commentary on the Psalms St. Augustine treats of the
Church precisely as the Body of Christ. His general principle is that
Christ is the subject of each Psalm. At times Christ the Head is
spoken of; at times His members; at times both Head and members are
considered together as one.
There is also an example wherein a w’hole Church, that is a particular
or regional Church, is considered dead, namely: “That Church, to
whose angel235 in the figure of its superiors or souls it is said that it does
not live, that it is dead, and still it is enumerated among the seven
Churches, and the precepts of life are inculcated to it not divided
(dxisae}w from the structure {compare) of the Body of Christ, but
remaining in its unity.”237
And yet,this Church,although it is dead,is allowed a place in the Body
of Christ because it has not separated itself from the Body of Christ, as
heretics and schismatics have done. Christ suffers on account of both :
» St. Augustine is in accord here with the exegesis and opinion of Tichonius, which
be seems to have adopted: De doctr. christ., Ill, 30, 42 (PL XXXIV, 81): “Neque enim
aEquid illic tale versatur aut quaeritur, sicut in Apocalypsi Joannis quaerit [Tichoniusl,
quemadmodum intelligendi sint angeli Ecclesiarum septem, quibus scribere jubetur, et
ratinrinafur multipliciter, et ad hoc pervenit ut ipsos angelos intelligamus Ecclesias.
•'Apoc. 1, 20).”
“With regard to the word “divisae” which is so mementous in the whole passage,
MSS. are at variance. The reading adopted above is according to the restitution of the
text made by the Maurist Fathers in their edition. Other edited texts instead of “di­
visae” have “diverse” or even “divise agenti.” This last word “agenti,” however, is not
found in the MSS.
& Contra ep. Parm., Π, 10 (PL XLIII, 63; CSEL 51, ed. M. Petschenig, 67): “Illa
Ecclesia, cujus angelo in figura praepositorum vel animarum dicitur quod non vivat, sed
mortuus st, et tamen inter septem Ecclesias numeratur, nec ei divisae a compage corporis
Christi, sed in unitate perseveranti praecepta vitae insinuantur. (Apoc. 3, 1-6)."

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the sinners in His Body and the heretics outside of His Body.2*’ The
Augustinian principle, then, in this matter may be construed in the
following manner: all adhering to the Church’s unity adhere also to th
unity of Christ’s Body, even if they are dead as in the case just adduce:
of the regional Church.
Let us recall the Church or the Body of Christ under the image of a
temple. It is true that St. Augustine works out a fine distinctior,
already described, between those who form and constitute the temps
and those who are merely in it. Nevertheless in his exposition of the
Psalms he explicitly calls the Body of Christ a temple and asserts th:
the Body of Christ, as the temple, has in it both the good and the bad
It is expressly and intentionally stated here that not only the temple
but the Body of Christ, which is the temple, has the bad in it. ‘ L
therefore that temple was a figure, it is manifest because also the Bod
of Christ which is a true temple whose image it was, has mixed those
who buy and sell, that is those seeking their own and not that of Jesus
Christ.”239
It would be pointless to multiply testimonies to this effect from his
explanations of the Psalms. Some few examples as illustrations of h:s
teaching that sinners belong not only to the juridical Church but also t
the Mystical Body of Christ have been selected. From these examples
the underlying principles or doctrine can be discovered.

The Manner of Inherence
As a conclusion from all that has been hitherto observed relative to
the good and the bad coexisting in the Body of Christ, it is to be stated
that the position of these two classes as regards that Body is not identi­
cal but contrasting. Only the good are members to such an extent as
to be unequivocally the Body of Christ, as to constitute the Body of
Christ; the evil only adhere to that Body. In the case of themember08 Enar. in Ps. 88, 26 (PL XXXVU, 1800) : “Et deinde dicit quid interea per totuo
hoc tempus, dum jam resurrexit et adhuc cum Patre est, patiatur hic per commixtioner.
peccatorum in corpore suo, quod est Ecclesia, et per separationem haereticorum.”
a9 Enar. in Ps. 130, 2 (PL XXXVU, 1704): “Si autem figura erat illud templun.
- manifestum est quia et corpus Christi, quod est veram templum cujus illa imago eraL
habet permixtos ementes et vendentes, id est sua quaerentes, non quae Jesu Christi.
With regard to the last expression, namely “sua quaerentes, non quae Jesu Christi,” it
may be remarked to avoid doubt that by it St. Augustine designates real sinners not worthy
of Christ.

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

61

ship of the good there is an internal, let us say organic, living structure;
in the latter an external, voluntary, but unnecessary attachment.
This will further be made clear by the comparisons employed by St.
Augustine.
The virtuous faithful who form the Body of Christ are compared to
the woman of the Gospel story,240 who touched Christ. The others who
are in His Church are likened to the crowd that pressed upon Christ.
This scriptural likeness fits into the scheme of his theology on the Mys­
tical Body of Christ. Those who touch Christ are no other than those
who have contact through internal life with Christ; only these, then,
can form His living members, be one with Him and constitute His
Body. The crowd of sinners of which he speaks are in the Church;
and because they are in it, they press upon, or rather oppress, the Body
of Christ. They are not life-possessing members of it because they
do not participate in the life of the spiritual lifegiver, Christ.241 There­
fore, following the same line of thought, he exhorts his faithful in
another sermon in the following words: “Be, therefore, the Body of
Christ and not an oppression (pressura') of the Body of Christ.”242
Let us study another image to the same effect. The anthropomor­
phic figure under which membership in the Church is realistically pre­
sented occurs in St. Augustine’s commentary on the Epistle of St. John.
In both commentaries, the one on the Gospel of St. John and the other
on the Epistle of St. John, not a little is found on the Church as the
Mystical Body of Christ.243 Commenting on the words: “antichrist!
multi facti sunt. Ex nobis exierunt,” he refers the word “antichrist”
to the heretics and schismatics of his time; they departed from the unity
of Church, the Body of Christ; they are now outside the Church. But
we are to take consolation, he says, because they would not have gone
“•L 8:44-46.
Sermo III, I (PL XXXVIII. 642) : “Haec est massa sanctorum. Quanto clariore
voce dktura est area ventilata, a turba impiorum et malorum falsorumque Christianorum
segregata, et ad ignes aeternos separatis his qui premunt, non tangunt: mulier enim quae­
dam tmbriam tangebat, turba Christum premebat (Lc. 8, 42): separatis ergo omnibus
damnandis, massa purgata stans ad dexteram, nullum sibi timens misceri malorum,
nullum timens perdere bonorum, regnatura cum Christo.”
Sermo 42, 4, 7 (PL XXXVIII, 417): “Estote ergo corpus Christi, non pressura
corporis Christi.” Cf. Sermo 81, 1, 1 (PL XXXVIII, 490-500).
**Cf. Marie Comeau, Saint Augustin exégète du Quatrième Évangile (2e éd.; Paris, 1930),
pp. 339-Ô9.

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out, if they were of us.244 Only an antichrist can leave the unity of the
Church. Who, however, is not such an antichrist remains in the unity
of the Church and adheres to the Body of Christ; he is reputed (com­
putatur) a member of that Body.245
Besides these already outside of the Church, St. Augustine treats
in the passage under consideration two other classes of men who are
within the Body of Christ : (1) the good with whom he is not concerned,
and (2) the wicked whom he expressly adjudges as being in the Body
but in the form of some burden and impediment: “humores mali. ’w
It would be, in fact, better for the Body if it would rid itself of them.
He takes his comparison from the human body: “And there are those
who are within the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ in such a manner as
bad humors. When they are vomited, then the body is relieved; so also
when the wicked leave, then the Church is relieved.”247 The Church
here on earth is not in perfect health; it is not formed exclusively
of healthy members.248 It must, therefore, suffer unhealthy members.
244 In Io. Ep. tr. Ill, 4 (PL XXXV, 1999) : ‘Omnes haeretici, omnes schismatici ex
nobis exierunt, id est, ex Eccesia exeunt; sed non exirent, si ex nobis essent. Antequam
exirent ergo, non erant ex nobis.”
-a Ibid.: “Jam quis sit contrarius Christo, nunc advertis ipso exponente, et intelligitis
non posse exire foras nisi antichristos: eos autem qui non sunt Christo contrarii, foras
exire nullo modo posse. Qui enim non est Christo contrarius, in corpore ipsius haeret, et
membrum computatur.”
144 Later ecclesiologists have frequently made use of St. Augustine’s analogy and sought
to expand it by further examples of things in the human body not having, or not appearing
to have, life. Thus, R. Bellarmine, De Controversiis Christianae Fidei, 1. Ill, c. 3 (Optra
Omnia Bellarmini [Neapoli, 1856], II, 75, 91): “... tales sunt sicut capilli, aut ungues,
aut mali humores in corpore humano.” Cf. De la Servière, La théologie de Bdlarmin
(Paris, 1909), pp. 170-71; S. Hosius, Confutatio Prolegomenon Brentii, 1. Ill (Opera Omnia
Hosii [Coloniae, 1584], I, 537): “Contra mali sic sunt in Christi corpore Ecclesia, sicut
sunt in humano corpore sanguis noxius, humores mali, capilli, ungues, membra arefacta,
quae tametsi vitam a spiritu non recipiunt, sunt nihilominus in corpore.” Cf. G. M.
Grabka, Cardinalis Hosii doctrina de Corpore Christi Mystico (Washington, D. C., 1945),
pp. 256 ff.
In Io. Ep. tr. III, 4 (PL XXXV, 1999) : “Et sunt qui intus sic sunt in corpore Domini
nostri Jesu Christi; quando quidem adhuc curatur corpus ipsius, et sanitas perfecta non
erit nisi in resurrectione mortuorum; sic sunt in corpore Christi, quomodo humores mali.
Quando evomuntur, tunc relevatur corpus: sic et mali quando exeunt, tunc Ecclesia re­
levatur. Et dicit quando eos evomit atque projicit corpus: Ex me exierunt humores
isti, sed non erant ex me. Quid est, non erant ex me? Non de carne mea praecisi sunt,
sed pectus mihi premebant cum inessent.”
M It is not altogether correct, therefore, to exclude sinners from the Mystical Body of
Christ without any qualification, as is frequently done; e g., Sheldon, History of Christian

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

63

especially since there is more hope and opportunity for them to regain
their health whilst attached to the Body of Christ.249
Sinners are spoken of as being in the Body of Christ, under the term
“the sick” or “the feeble” (infirmi). The word in itself would more
properly signify those that really form the Body of Christ, but for
whom, on account of their weakness, there is hope and an expectation
of their improvement through the grace of Christ260 or for whom there
is no guarantee of perseverance. Yet in some cases the text and the
context demand that this word be interpreted to designate real sinners
in the Body of Christ.251 This infirmity, then, does not lie in the imper­
fections, omissions, negligences, and defects that are natural even to
the just constituting the Body' of Christ, but it is the infirmity of those
devoid of internal health, and health in the Body of Christ, according
to St. Augustine, is charity. Hence, they are members adhering to
Christ, as it were, externally by virtue of adhering to His Church. To
them the internal life of Christ is not communicated in default of an
internal, vital contact.252
Tichonius also employs the term infirmi in the same sense as St.
Augustine; viz., for sinners devoid of life, of justice and grace. These
sinners, however, are allowed a place in the Body of Christ itself, al­
though they are segregated, as it were, by their location in it from the
holy to whom that Body of Christ will bring salvation. He says:
“[The Body of Christ] has there healthy members, it has also sick
Doctrina (New York, 1901), p. 269: “Some may be externally connected with this Church
who are not truly parts thereof, not members of the body of Christ. These excrescences,
however, will be cut off in time, and cannot impair the claims of the Catholic Church to
be the one true Church.”
M In Io. Ep. tr., Ill, 6 (PL XXXV, 2000): “Aut in membris sumus, aut in humoribus
malis. Qui se in melius commutat, in corpore membrum est: qui autem in malitia per­
manet, humor malus est; et quando exierit, relevabuntur qui premebantur.”
™Strmo 76, 2, 3-4, 6 (PL XXXVIII, 480-82).
In Io. Ev. tr. 52, 2 (PL XXXV, 1770): “O Domine mediator. Deus supra nos,
homo propter nos, agnosco misericordiam tuam. Nam quod tu tantus tuae charitatis
voluntate turbaris, multos in corpore tuo qui suae infirmitatis necessitate turbantur, ne
desperando pereant consolaris.”
J. Vetter, Der htilige Augustinus und das Geheimnis da Leibes Christi (Mainz, 1929),
p. 127: “Die sichtbare Kirche stellt die grôssere Gemeinschaft dar, die jenen engern
Kreis der ‘Heiligen’ zwar in ihrem Schosse tragt, dariiber hinaus aber auch kranke und
sogar todkranke Glieder in ihrer Einheit beschlossen halt, denen sie durch ihre Gnadennfittel Gesundheit und Leben emeuem will. Eben in dieser Ermoglichung der Geheiligten
liegt der Sinn der sichtbaren Kirche ais Gemeinschaft der gesunden und kranken Glieder.”

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

[ones]. The healthy members are the holy, the feeble indeed [are
sinners; his right are the saints, but his left sinners.”253
The infirmi, therefore, in the sense just described are to be identified
with those whom St. Augustine occasionally calls mortui. Both terms
are intended to signify the same object, but under different respects.
The infirmi, indeed, are such on account of the lack of health (sanitas
which is charity in the individual and the corporate entity; yet the term
seems to intimate their inherence in the Church as such as well as the
Body of Christ as such. The term mortui directly denotes the want of
internal, spiritual life and of a living connection with the Body of
Christ.254
In practical pastoral life, when special steps have been taken to in­
duce a sinner to become converted, apparently without success, such a
one ought to be considered as dead, and consequently should merit to
be severed from the Body of Christ entirely.255 If the Church, neverthe­
less, is loath to do this, it is because, on the one hand, she thus imitates
God in exercising mercy and patience;254 on the other hand, because the
conversion of a sinner under the influence of grace is not to be con­
sidered as unfeasible. Death has entered his soul but the omnipotent
Physician is able to restore life to it.267 Hence also the justification of
253 “Habet [Corpus Christi] ibi membra sana, habet et infirma. Sana membra sancti
sunt, infirma vero peccatores; dextra ejus sancti sunt, sinistra autem peccatores.” These
words of Tichonius are preserved in the Commentary of Beatus, quoted by Hahn, Tychonius-Studien, p. 65.
** C. Romeis, Das Heil des Christen ausserhalb der wahren Kirche nach der Lehre da
hl. Augustinus (Paderborn, 1908), p. 20: “Er (Augustinus) unterscheidet sehr wohl
zwischen der âusseren Eingliederung in den Organismus der Kirche und dem innerci
Lebensprinzip, das den Christen zu einem lebendigen, tatigen und fügsamen Gliede macht"
19 Sermo 17, 3 (PL XXXV111, 125): “Quando aliquid pungitur et dolet, aut sanum
est, aut in illo spes aliqua sanitatis: quando autem tangitur, pungitur, vellicatur, nec dolet:
pro mortuo habendum est, ac de corpore praecidendum. Sed aliquando nos paramus,
et non novimus nisi loqui: excommunicare, de Ecclesia projicere pigri siimus.”
353 Enar. in Ps. 93, 18 {PL XXXVII, 1206) : “Qui hoc volunt quod Deus vult. Parcit
peccatoribus, tu vis ut jam perdat peccatores.__ Vult autem Deus parcere malis, tu
non vis parci : patiens est Deus peccatoribus, tu non vis tolerare peccatores. Sed ut dicere
coeperam, aliud Deus: converte cor tuum, et dirige ad Deum; quia et Dominus infirmis
compassus est. Vidit in corpore suo, id est in Ecclesia sua infirmos, qui primo voluntatem
suam sequi ten tarent; sed cum viderent voluntatem Dei aliam esse, dirigerent se et cor
suum ad suscipiendam et sequendam voluntatem Dei.”
a7 Sermo 17,3 (PL XXXVIII, 125) : “Et quamvis qui tales sunt, jam in anima mortui
sunt: tamen quia Medicus noster omnipotens est, non est desperandum de his; sed totis
viribus supplicandum, ut aures cordis, quas clausas habere probantur, Dominus aperire
dignetur. ’*

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

65

both terms infirmi and mortui when applied to the same members of the
Body of Christ. It is evident, however, that in the type, that is in the
human body, the difference between a dead member and an infirm one
would be considerable. In another passage St. Augustine designates
the same sinners as decaying or distorted members, wrho mar the Body
of Christ, so that it would, in consequence, be better if they were cut
off. He urges, therefore, each member: “let him be beautiful, use­
ful, healthy; let him adhere to the body, let him live for God from
God.”258
There is another long series of testimonies bearing on this subject,
which at first sight seem to suggest a sharp line of demarcation between
sinners and the Body of Christ. They are namely those descriptions
wherein the good and the holy constituting the Body of Christ are por­
trayed as one unit, a whole, or a person in the middle of the evil. The
Body of Christ is said to be in the midst of a multitude of the wicked,259
to be making a pilgrimage here on earth among sinners,260 to be perse­
cuted261 and oppressed262 by them, so that it must sigh among them,263
and cry to God264 that He deliver the Body of Christ from the wicked.
Liberation from all the evil, however, is not to be expected during the
*“7« Io. Et. tr. 26, 13 (PL XXXV, 1613): “Fiant (fideles) corpus Christi si volunt
vivere de Spiritu Christi. De Spiritu Christi non vivit, nisi corpus Christi.... Accedat,
credat, incorporetur, ut vivificetur. Non abhorreat a compage membrorum, non sit
putre membrum quod resecari mereatur, non sit distortum de quo erubescatur: sit pul­
chrum, sit aptum, sit sanum; haereat corpori, vivat Deo de Deo.”
a* Enor. in Ps. 52, 1 (PL XXXVI, 613): “Prodeant in medium qui male vivunt...
haec tanta hominum multitudo est, ut inter eos positum corpus Christi, vix audeat repre­
hendere.”
MEnar. in Ps. 119, 7 (PL XXXVII, 1602: “Si ergo possessio Christi usque ad fines
terrae, et possessio Christi omnes sancti et omnes sancti unus homo in Christo, quia imitas
sancta in Christo est; ipse unus homo dicit. ... Hujus ergo longinqua peregrinatio facta
est inter malos.”
χΕμτ. in Ps. 85, 19 (PL XXXVII, 1095): “Insurgunt super corpus Christi mali
Christiani, de quibus quotidie tribulationem patitur corpus Christi. Omnia schismata,
ocres haereses, omnes intus pessime viventes et mores suos bene viventibus imponentes,
et ad sua trahentes, *et malis colloquiis bonos mores corrumpentes; ipsi ‘praetereuntes
legem insurrexerunt super me.’ ”
“ In Io. Ep. tr. ΙΠ, 4-5 {PL XXXV, 1999-2000).
30 Enar. in Ps. 138, 29 (PL XXXVII, 1802) : “Cum ergo corpus Christi ab impiis et
iniquis etiam corporaliter in fine separandum, nunc inter eos interim gemat; ... quid
inter haec agit corpus Christi.”
**Enar. in Ps. 141, 16 (PL XXXVII, 1842): “ ‘Erue me a persequentibus me,’...
Corpus Christi clamat, Ecclesiae vox est, membra Christi clamant: multum crevit numerus
peccatorum.”

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period of the earthly existence of the Church, but is reserved for the life
to come.265
This mode of description so frequently occurring especially in his
lengthy commentary on the Psalms does not entail any real division c:
Church unity, as if separating the Body of Christ from the congregate:
of the wicked. The division, of course, is internal according to the
patterns of sanctity and to the possession of grace; it is a separatione:
hearts and minds; it is a disparateness of wills and morality. It does
not, however, affect the unity of an undivided Church and of a unique
Body. The good and the wicked forming one visible and discernible
Church can be considered as two classes in the Church, spiritually apar.
and foreign to each other in the very formation of Christ’s Body. Ye:
the wicked are not so foreign and distant as to be excluded from c
external attachment, so to speak, or from a certain participation in the
Body of Christ. Thus in the commentary to Psalm 138, the sinner·
at the outset are presented as taking part in the Body of Christ, anc
are spoken of later as sinners in the midst of whom the Body of Christ
must suffer.26· And elsewhere267 speaking of sinners who left the
Church, he asserts that they were not cut off from Christ’s Body, but
that they were those who pressed upon His chest when they were
within.
In this matter of the relation of sinners to the Body of Christ it is
interesting to observe in some passages, when St. Augustine is com­
pelled to be exact in expression, how his mind conceives definite dis­
tinctions, which are expressed by certain adverbial particles. Ex­
amples could be multiplied; a few instances will suffice. Thus in the
commentary on the famous rule of Tichonius one cannot help feeling
the emphasis on the word “really” (revera): the wicked are “really” not
the Body of Christ. In contradistinction to the mass of sinners the
good are said to be “properly” (proprie) the Body of Christ.268 Whilst
** Enar. in Ps. 110,1 (PL XXXVII, 1463): “Ecce personat in. hoc psalmo quemdac
exsultantem felici exsultatione, praefigurat et scaturientem corde in amore Dei popuiim
sc. corpus Christi ab omni malo liberatum” (that is in heaven).
284 Enar. in Ps. 138, 29 (PL XXXVU, 1802).
x In Io. Ep. tr. ΙΠ, 4 (PL XXXV, 1999) : “Non de mea carne praecisi sunt, sed pectus
mihi premebant cum inessent.”
** Contra Faust. 14, 16 (PL XLIII, 292): “Ne impatientia tolerandi malos, relinqimntm
bonij qui proprie sunt corpus Christi; et ideo cum ipsi relinquuntur, ille relinquitur.”

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

67

the sinner is only “seemingly” (videntur) within, the holy is “truly”
(ten) in that Church which is the Body of Christ.269
It may be opportune to add here a fairly long passage drawn from
Tichonius, which reads like one of St. Augustine’s and from which it is
sufficiently evident that their ecclesiological doctrines were much alike.
At times the thought is more simply and clearly expressed by the semiDonatist than by the Catholic; in many an instance the terminology is
identical. In any case, it may be stated that the two agree on the co­
existence of sinners with the good in the Body of Christ and on their
manner of inherence in that same Body. Tichonius, therefore, must
be respected for his important corroborative value in interpreting St.
Augustine. Here are the words of Tichonius:
These two parts in speaking are said to be one man, because likewise in one
man we are able to name two sides, that is the right and the left, and there are in
it many members, but one body. It has there healthy members, and it has also
infirm members. Healthy members are the holy, the infirm however are sinners.
Just as there are in man infirm members, so that the healthy members suffer, and
a person is relieved from sickness then when the wound has gone away, so also
wicked men, which is the left part, are among the healthy members of the Church,
after the manner of bad humors (tumors?).570

Tichonius, therefore, is more blunt than St. Augustine is in his state­
ment placing the wicked in the Mystical Body of Christ. He is ex­
plicit in affirming that the good and the evil are members—each in their
own way—of the Body of Christ. Like St. Augustine, he calls them
sick members; again, like St. Augustine, he likens them to bad fluids in
the human body or tumors, of which it is better for the body to rid it­
self.m From these particular analogies common to both writers it
» Contra Crescm. Π, 33, 42 {PL XLIII, 492; CSEL 52, ed. M. Petschenig, 402):
‘‘Quia nec propter malos qui videntur esse intus, deserendi sunt boni qui vere sunt intus.”
*· The quotation is taken from Hahn, Tychonius-Studien, p. 65: “Hae duae partes in
praedicatione unus homo dicitur, quia et in uno homine possumus duo latera nuncupare,
id est dextrum et sinistrum, et sunt in ea multa membra, sed unum corpus. Habet ibi
membra sana, habet et infirma. Sana membra sancti sunt, infirma vero peccatores.
Sicut sunt ia homine membra infirma, et ita ut sana doleant, et tunc relevatur homo ab
aegritudine, cum vulnus foras exierit, ita et homines mali, quod sinistra pars est, sic sunt
in membra ecclesiae sana quod est dextera pars, sicut humores (tumores?) mali.”
n Loc. cil. : “Der Donatist sieht ais eine gottliche Ordnung an, dass stets zum Kôrper
Christi auch Bôse gehôren müssen. Gute wie Bôse sind Glieder an dem einem Leibe, die
einen gesund, die anderen krank. Oder wie er noch besser erklart, die bosen sind wie ein
Gcsdrwür im Leibe, von dem der Kôrper nur befreit wird, wenn es losbricht; es ist nicht

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

appears that Tichionus, although in a different camp, was to somt
extent a writer who exercised some influence on St. Augustine.
The Foundation for This Doctrine
In the course of these pages, especially the last several ones, it has
become more evident that sinners are in the Body of Christ precisely
because they are in the visible Church of Christ. The visible, sock
unity and the sacramental communion make them all belong to ore
and the same Church,*
272 which is at the same time the Body of Christ.
271
Participation in ecclesiastical observances and sacramental rites makes
them be within the Church.273 These external uniting factors cause
them to be of one fold. Another necessary element whereby the sinner
is retained in the Church is unity of faith, which is equivalent to the
profession of the same doctrine. Those who sin against the oneness ci
the fold are schismatics; they disrupt the unity of the Church and fine
themselves outside of it. Those who sin against the oneness of doctrine
are heretics; through stubbornly professing and defending error, they
likewise cut themselves off from the one true Church. Besides these
links of union, there seems to be no other apparent connecting bond for
sinners in the Church, especially of an internal nature, to which one
could point with any amount of certainty.274 It is in this manner that
the coincidence of the members comprised by the juridical Church and
the Body of Christ extends itself also to sinners.275
der Kôrper aber im Korper und bereit auch den gesunden Gliedem Schmerzen. Die
Bosen sind an den Guten wie ung sunde Feuchtigkeiten. Mit ibnen muss stets die Kirche
erscheinen und wird als schwarz um ihretwillen verlastert (R 10, 14-16). Hier ist dk
Schwierigkeit überwunden, aber nicht immer is Tychonius so klar. Das Corpus Christi
sind eigentlich nur die Guten, aber es ist krank und entstellt, weil es immer an und in
sich die Bosen tragt.”
171 Ep. 149, 3 {PL XXXIII, 631: CSEL 44, ed. Al. Goldbacher, ΙΠ, 350): “Per sacra­
mentorum communionem unitatisque Catholicae videntur Ecclesiae copulati.”
271 In Io. Ep. tr. ΠΙ, 5 (PL XXXV, 1999): “multi qui non sunt ex nobis, accipiunt
nobiscum sacramenta, accipiunt nobiscum baptismum, accipiunt nobiscum quod norunt
fideles se accipere benedictionem, eucharistiam, et quidquid in sacramentis est; ipsius
altaris communicationem accipiunt nobiscum, et non sunt ex nobis.”
174 The interior link, as expressly pointed out by later theology, is faith, as an intrinsic
reality, whereby our union with the Church is preserved.
275 This identity of the visible Church and the Body of Christ, is maintained by A.
Donner, Augustinus: Sein theologisches System und seine Religionspkilosopkische Ansckasung (Berlin, 1873), pp. 263-76; W. Simpson, St. Augustine and African Church Divisions
(London, 1910), p. 71: “This Catholic Church is the Body of Christ.”

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

69

To hold that the empirical Church is an entity separate from the
Mystical Body, or that only a certain part of the members is common
to both, is a supposition, ■which, although it seems to have so many
testimonies in its favor, still cannot be harmonized with many others
and with the whole Augustinian theological system. To go still further
and maintain that the Augustinian notion of the Church is that of the
predestined276 is to be in favor of a theory which can be supported only
by one who is intent on the selection of just those passages from St.
Augustine’s works that fit into a preconceived theory, without giving
any attention to the many others that cannot be made to fit into such
a structure. It is indeed hard to conceive how the ingenious and sin­
cere Catholic bishop should have sacrificed himself and fought so stren­
uously to the end of his life for the visible and hierarchical Church,
which was not, or at least not necessarily, the Mystical Body of Christ ;
or still worse, how he could have done all this, knowing after all that
only the predestined, whether within the Catholica or outside of it, wære
members of the Church of Christ.
This however, is true, that although the empirical Church and its
members, including sinners, are the Mystical Body of Christ, neverthe­
less there is an all-important difference in the manner of inherence, the
extent of participation of the just and the unjust in that Body, and the
final goal which is reached by each group. It has been pointed out that
if our attention is focused upon the Body of Christ as such, namely
upon its sanctity and internal life, then we must deny that sinners have
a part in this Body considered precisely under this respect.277 If the
™ Thus W. Bright, Lessons from the Lives of Three Great Fathers, appdx., XVII, pp.
2S0 f., states that the true or “interior” Church is “the Church visible minus those who
hereafter would be eliminated as having no part in her true life.” It consists of “those
members of the visible body who realized their privileges and their obligations, who were
Christians inwardly as well as outwardly,” and who were therefore “the objects of a divine
predestinating election.” We may note that Bright observes that Augustine’s idea of an
“interior” Church is not to be confounded with the “invisible” Church as held by many
Protestants.
277 The words of A. Harnack, implicitly identifying the Church with the Mystical
Body and separating sinners from the Church merely with respect to holiness, are correct.
Lekrbuch der Dogmengesckichte, HI (4th ed.; Tubingen, 1909), 147: “Die Unheiligen in
der Kirrhe gehoren fraglos zur Kirche; denn sie stehen in der Einheit unter Wirkung der
Heligungsmittel und kônnen noch boni spirituales werden. Allein sie gehoren nicht
zum Hriligthnm der Kirrhe, sondera bilden einen weiteren Kreis in ihr (“vasa in contumelam in domo Dei”); sie sind nicht selbst, wie die “vasa in honorem,” die domus Dei,

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

Church, therefore, is viewed solely from the standpoint of sanctity
—life internal, life-giving faith, charity, justice, grace—there is an in­
visible separation and internal division between the good and the
wicked, constituting nevertheless the same Church.
Summarily, therefore, the Catholica as the empirical and visible
Church, is synonymous with the Body of Christ, so far as unity arc
identity of membership are concerned. When, however, the particular
denotation of each contrasted group comes into consideration—such
as the internal life of the Body of Christ and the internal want of life
in the sinner—the notions are simply not convertible. Thus, the just
and holy, having internal spiritual life, form the Body of Christ and are
the Body of Christ. Sinners, devoid of spiritual life, while they are
attached to the Body as dead members by virtue of their inherence in
the Church, are not the Body; they do not form it, but nevertheless
they are in it.278
A treatise on the Church and the relation of sinners to that Church
as the Body of Christ according to St. Augustine cannot be complex
unless it extends beyond the limit of earthly confines and times into
eternity. St. Augustine, although intensely interested in the Church
as it is now, never loses sight of the final goal of the Church, which is to
render men happy though the attainment of God and to hold thenunited for eternity. They who have reached this goal constitute the
real Church or the unadulterated Body of Christ in heaven. ·
In the final section, due consideration will be accorded to the Church
as it will find itself after its earthly pilgrimage—devoid of all sinners.
Such will be the Body of Christ in heaven, to remain such forever, for it
sondem sind “im Hause”; sie sind “in communione sacramentorum,” nicht im eigertlichen Verbande des Hauses, sonder “congregationi sanctorum admixti;” sie sind descii
in gewissem Sinn nicht in der Kirche, weil sie nicht die Kirche selbst sind; daher kann nar
auch die Kirche als “corpus permixtum” bezeichnen.”
:T8 The membership therefore of the Catholica is to be identified with the membershp
of the Mystical Body; the qualifications, however, of each division are not identical. In
this sense, I believe, the following passage can be understood: J. Vetter, Der heilige Augtstinus und das Geheimnis des Leibes Christi, p. 127 : “Aber gerade die menschliche Schwachheit des Pilgerstandes hat zur Folge, dass innerhalb der sichtbaren Kirche um jene Gemssyha ft der Heiligen ein fortwâhrendes Ab- und Zufiuten dutch Verlust und Wiedergewir..-.
der Gnade moglich ist Dieses Auf- und Absteigen aus dem Heiligen ins Unheilige, ohce
Hass dadurch die grosse Einheit boswillig verlassen wird verbietet uns, die grosse sichtbart
Kirrhe ohne weiteres mit der engeren Gemeinschaft der “Heiligen” identisch zu erklaren.”

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

71

will be indefectible then. A short study of Augustinian predestination
and its relationship to the Church would be in place, but this would
carry us beyond the scope of the present article. Suffice it to say that
St. Augustine’s predestination is realized within the framework of the
Church which Christ founded and which is the Mystical Body of Christ,
as has been so frequently pointed out.
IV. THE EXCLUSION OF SINNERS FROM THE CELESTIAL BODY OF CHRIST
OR FROM THE CELESTIAL CHURCH

The Church founded by Jesus Christ and destined to be one, uni­
versal, and to exist until the end of the world, propagated by the Apos­
tles and subject in obedience to their successors in the hierarchy, is the
Church that St. Augustine acknowledges to be the Body of Christ and
vindicates as the Catholic Church of which he is a member. The
Church, of which he was the champion, was a social and juridical organ­
ization of vast extensions, yet it was also an organism of enormous vital­
ity. It was a Church, but it was also the Body of Christ. It embraced
as members all those who have been within its fold, at one time or
another, since its foundation. This is the most frequent and, I should
say, ordinary scope of the word, as it most frequently occurs in the
works, life, and activity of St. Augustine.
Yet, with but little effort, it will soon be discovered that the term
“Church” is made to cover in his writings a wider range than that just
ascribed to it. It extends in two divergent directions:
1) At times the notion is extended by retrogression so that the begin­
ning of the Church is to be reckoned from the time of the appearance
of the first good men in the history of mankind. In this sense the
Church is said to have existed in Abel, Noe, Abraham, and other just
men before the existence of Christ and the institution of the juridical
Church.27’ Consequently saintly individuals of the Old Testament
in Ps. 78, 2 (PL XXXVII, 1689): “Olim est Eccelesia; ex quo vocantur
sancti, est Ecclesia in terra. Aliquando in solo Abel Ecclesia erat, et expugnatus est a
irate malo et perdito Cain. Aliquando in solo Enoch Ecclesia erat, et translatus est ab
iniquis. Aliquando in solo domo Noe Ecclesia erat, et pertulit omnes qui diluvio perierunt,
... Aliquando in solo Abraham Ecclesia erat — in solo filio fratris ejus Lot.__ Coepit
esse et in populo Israel Ecclesia; pertulit Pharaonem et Aegyptos. Coepit et in ipsa
Ecclesia, id est in populo Israel, numerus esse sanctorum.” Cf. etiam Contra Adv. Leg.
et Propk. 2,5, 20 (PL XLH, 650); In Ps. 36, sermo 3, 4 (PL XXXVI, 385); Sermo 144,

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

are said to be the Church at a time when the Church as we understand
it did not exist. Yet even men constituting the Church in this sense
acquire their justification and are reputed members of the Body of
Christ, not independently of Christ, the future Founder of the Church,
but by virtue of their justifying faith in the future Christ.280
This encompassing of the just existing anterior to Christ’s time
within the Church and as members of Christ’s Body is not the usual or
expected meaning of the term Ecclesia. One feels this instantly, for
when it is the intention of St. Augustine to include them, he does so not
simply by using the term “Church” or “Body of Christ,” but he
broadens their meaning by expressly stating that such of the just as
lived in times previous to the founded and constituted Church of Christ
also form a part of that Church.281 While theological terms have a
greater elasticity in St. Augustine than they have in the Scholastics,
known for their fondness of definitions, nevertheless even Augustinian
terms have significations, some of which are more proper and others
more remote.
In this conception of “the Church before the Church,” reaching to
the earliest antiquity of man, St. Augustine has been followed for many
5 (PL XXXVHI, 789 f.); Sermo 45, 5 (PL XXXVIII, 265-266); Sermo 4, 11, 11 (PL ,
XXXVIII, 39); Sermo 342, 9, 11 (PL XXXIX, 1499-1500); in Ps. 90, sermo 2 (K
XXXVH, 1159); In Ps. 61, 4 (PL XXXVI, 731 f.) ·, Enckir., 56, 15 (PL XL, 258-2» ;
In Io. Eo. tr. 45, 9 (PL XXXV, 1722); De vera relig., 27, 50 (PL XXXIV, 144.
In Io. Ep. tr. 1, 2 (PL XXXV, 1979); ibid., tr. 10, 3 (2055); Retract., I, 13, 3 (PL
XXXII, 603; CSEL 36, ed. Knoll, 58-59). See T. Specht, Die Lehre ton der Kirche »*'<
dem hl. Augustinus (Paderborn, 1892), pp. 26-27, 253; P. C. Butti, La Mente diS. Apostat
nella Cittd di Dio (Firenze, 1930), p. 200; J. Tixeront, Histoire des Dogmes (4e éd.; Paris
1912), II, 385; K. Adam, St. Augustine. The Odyssey of his Soul (New York, 1932), pp.
45-48.
«° De patien., 21 (PL XXXIX, 621; CSEL 41, ed. J. Zycha, 682): “Unde et antiq:
justi ante incarnationem Verbi, in hac fide Christi, et in hac vera justitia, quod est nobis
Christus, justificati sunt; hoc credentes futurum quod nos credimus factum: et ipsi grata
salvi facti per fidem, non ex seipsis, sed Dei dono.” Cf. also Sermo 300,1-2 (PL XXXVHI.
1377) ; De vera relig., 10, 19 (PL XXXIV, 131) ; compare this text with that of Retrod-,
I, 13, 3 (PL XXXII, 603; CSEL 36, 58-59); In Ps. 61, 6 (PL XXXVT, 733); De cis. Dd
XVHI, 47 (PL XLI, 609) ; cf. A. Tymczak, Nauka sw. Augustyna o Wierze (Przemys,
1933), p. 66.
Sermo 4, 11 (PL XXXVHI, 39): “Ecclesiam autem accipite, fratres, non in his
solis qui post Domini adventum et nativitatem esse coeperunt sancti; sed omnes quotquot
fuerunt sancti, ad ipsam Ecclesiam pertinent.”

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

73

centuries. He has influenced the Fathers (St. Gregory the Great,282
St. Leo the Great283), the Scholastics (St. Thomas284), and even the
ecclesiologists of the sixteenth century (Cardinal Hosius285). It was
not until the formal definition of the Church as a juridical society was
introduced and developed under the pressure of Protestantism that this
extension of the Church to the Old Testament was given, over to obliv­
ion. As in St. Augustine, so also in all of these writers, faith in the
future Christ, the God-Man and Redeemer, is the necessary requisite
for their incorporation into the Mystical Body of Christ.286
The reasons for considering the holy men anteceding Christ as mem­
bers of the true Church of Christ are not far to seek. St. Augustine is
ever conscious of the redemptive work of Christ, whereby all who are
saved are the fruit of His redemption.287 The Church is a continuation
not only of Christ in His Person but also of Christ in His redemptive
work. All who are saved in the Church are so on account of the merits
of Jesus Christ, which are dispensed by the Church.
Christ, already in His Incarnation, forms a body which is bound to
increase with time and finally to terminate in heaven as the eternal and
blissful Body of Christ. The exclusiveness and universality of Christ’s
vivifying and saving power in His Body make St. Augustine bring the
just of former times into a union with the Body of Christ. There is
an assimilation founded more upon the likeness which exists between
the Body of Christ and the saints of old by virtue of the justice or grace
which has been dispensed to them in view of Christ’s future merits than
upon any actual union. Then, too, Augustine visualizes the Church in
“ Moral. 1. V, ep. 18 (PL LXXVII, 740): “Sancti ante legem, sancti sub lege, sancti
mb gratia, omnes hi perficientes corpus Domini, in membris sunt Ecclesiae constituti.”
n Sermo 3, 4 (PL LIV, 147).
M Summa Theologica, ΠΙ, q. 8, a. 3.
81 Confessio Catholicae Fidei Christiana, c. 15 (Opera Omnia Hosii [Coloniae, 1584], I,
22 : “Apud quascunque fuit fides Mediatoris, apud eos Ecclesiam fuisse, quatenus ab
illa se non praeciderunt, dubium non est. Constat autem Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, et
caetems deinceps Patriarchas ac Prophetas fidem habuisse Mediatoris, quem signis etiam,
sacrificiis, caerominiis adumbrabant. Ex illo itaque tempore coepit Ecclesia, quae
numquam una et eadem esse desiit, juxta seriem successionis, continuata ab orbe condito
usque ad nos, usque ad saeculi consummationem duratura.”
* K. Wemer, Geschichte der apologetischen und polemischen Literatur der Ckristlichen
Tkedogie (Schaffhausen, 1861-1867), IV, 351.
87 F. Rivière, Le dogme de la rédemption chez saint Augustin (3e éd.; Paris, 1933).

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

its eternal form with the members that are to constitute it then, af
saved because of the grace merited for them by Christ. Because the
just and holy of the Old Covenant are also members of that celeste.
Church which forms the Body of Christ forever, he makes the terrestrial
Church of Christ comprehend them also.
2) As the proper and customary notion of the Church isenlargedby
retrogression, so in the opposite direction it is directly extended beyorc
the limits of time and the earth into eternity. Not only the assembly
of the faithful here upon earth are called the Church, but also the whole
body of the good after their resurrection continues to form the Church
or the Body of Christ in heaven. St. Augustine proclaims this Church
as “the happy, mystic, and great Church,”288 and in another passage
as “the most blessed and supernal city.”289
Even now there is a certain union between the Church that ensu
here upon earth and the Church in heaven. The Church exists,as::
were, in two parts, separate by their own proper status and yet formic;
but one entity. The celestial part of the Church exists in the anget'
and the just who have attained their goal of salvation in life everlasting,
the terrestrial Church is formed of its living faithful here on earth*
These two parts are to be joined in the end after temporal life and will
remain the Church and the Body of Christ forever.2·1 Then the
Church upon earth will cease, as it will have accomplished its purpose,
and will be transformed into the glorious bride of Christ in heaven.
In fact, the raison d'être of the Church on earth, of Christ’s temporal
Mystical Body, is the eternal life of the Body of Christ as it will be real­
ized in heaven.
St. Augustine contemplated the Church under the aspect of a twofold
existence: its earthly life and its celestial life.292 Its earthly existence
tsa Sermo 252, 7 (PZXXXVTH, 1175): “Illam Ecclesiam beatam, mysticam, magnan- "
a9 Enchir., 57, 58 (PL XL, 259) : “Ecclesia quae in coelo est, beatisrima illa et supem
civitas.”
z99Enar. in Ps. 87, 4 (PL XXXVII, 1776): “Ipsa congregatio Angelorum templuE
Dei est, adoramus ad templum Dei, Ecclesia deorsum, et Ecclesia sursum: Ecclesi
deorsum in omnibus fidelibus, Ecclesia sursum in omnibus Angelis.”
2,1 Enckir^ 161 (PL XL, 260) : “Haec ergo quae in sanctis angelis et virtutibus est
Ecclesia, time nobis sicuti est innotescet, cum ei conjuncti fuerimus in finem, ad simni
habendam beatitudinem sempiternam.”
*** In Io. Ev. br. 124 (PL SXXV, 1974): “Duas vitas sibi divinitus praedicatas et com­
mendatas novit Ecclesia: quarum est una in fide, altera in specie; una in tempore pere-

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

75

is to be protracted into its heavenly life, wherefore it is essentially one
and the same with the Church in heaven. The Body of Christ, con­
sidered apart from the individual members that constitute it here upon
earth, will be the glorious Body of Christ in heaven. Only those who
were members of Christ’s Body upon earth can constitute the heavenly
Body of Christ. Yet not all who were attached to, or even formed part
of, Christ’s temporal and earthly Body will remain a part of it forever,
for the Church in its earthly sojourn is to some extent marred and de­
formed by dead and infirm members. This portion of the earthly
Church will have no part in the heavenly Body of Christ.293 The Body
of Christ will be divested of all such deforming attachments after the
resurrection,294 and will be pure, holy, and beauteous in its eternal form.
Moreover, the heavenly Body will be devoid also of such as were in
reality a part of it here on earth for some time or another, but who did
not persevere in their goodness to the end.
Some sinners within the Church are known to men; others are not.
Much less can those be known who are in good standing and a living
part of the Mystical Body of Christ now, but will not be in the future.
Such defections are known only to the omniscient God and should be a
warning against presumption.295
After this life there will be absolute and perfect indentification of the
Church and the Body of Christ. Then those, and only those, who have
really formed the Body of Christ here upon earth and have departed
from this life as its true members will also form the eternal Body of
Christ. Then there will be only one type of members: the glorified and
indefectible souls enjoying the possession of God face to face.
Let us restate in brief the concept of the Church entertained by St.
Augustine in the wider comprehension at which we have by now
meationis, altera, in aeternitate mansionis; una in labore, altera in requie; una in via*
altera in patria; una in opere actionis, altera in mercerie contemplationis. Una declinat a
œalo et facit bonum, altera nullum habet a quo declinet malum, et magnum habet, quo
fruatur bonum; una cum hoste pugnat, altera sine hoste regnat.”
2,1 ht Ιο. Εν. tr. 123, 2 (PL XXXV, 1966): “Hic enim Ecclesia qualis in solis bonis
i jtura est, significatur per capturam 153 piscium.”
Eoar. in Ps. 110, 1 (PL XXXVTI, 1463): “Sicut enim dies isti praeteritis diebus
Quadragesimae, quibus ante resurrectionem Dominici corporis vitae hujus significatur
moeror, solemniter grata hilaritate succedunt: sic dies ille qui post resurrectionem dabitur
plenario corpori Domini, hoc est sanctae Ecclesiae, perpetua beatitate succedet”
Sermo 47,10,15-16 (PL ΧΧΧΛΤΠ, 303-304).

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

arrived. It consists above all of the one, universal Church havingr
uninterrupted succession of bishops from apostolic times to this ά;
This geographic and historical institution is equated with the Mystia.
Body of Christ. Joined to the Mystical Body of Christ by anticipate:
are all the holy men of the Old Testament who have achieved salvat: :
All of these—the saved before Christ’s coming and those in His fe
and after it till the end of the world—form the Church of Christ’s Body
in heaven. The universality of the saved and of those to be saved;
sometimes referred to, or taken under the unique aspect of, à
heavenly Church. Hence the members of the Church as it exists bi­
on earth are only so far the veritable Church and true members of it i:
they will reach the goal towards which the earthly Church is tendi.·;
and will become veritable and everlasting members of the heave;..
Church.
It is worth while to observe that this notion of the Church with is
retroactive, present, and future comprehension corresponds to Si
Augustine’s civitas Dei, and thus corroborates the conviction expressewhilst it was treated, that this civitas Dei is identical with the pres#
Church.296 For this “dty of God” or “kingdom of God” takes
beginning with the first good and just representatives of mankini
Then more concretely and more perfectly is the civitas realized in, aridentified with, the socially and hierarchically organized Churd
founded by Jesus Christ and the Apostles, which Church is His Bed;
Of course, only in the good portion of its members does the Body fc
its full realization. Finally, the city of God, as also the Body e
Christ, will be most perfectly realized in its celestial form an;
existence.297*
*· A. C. McGiffert, op. cit., Π, 110: “To be sure as a rule Augustine spoke of the Kr:
dom of God as a future reality to be consummated in another world beyond the
But this did not prevent him from identifying it with the Church on earth, the vis. :
Catholic institution. ‘Now too,’ he says, ‘the Church is the kingdom of heaven. TheRfore, the saints reign with him even now, but otherwise than they shall reign in the futon.
(De civ. Dei. XX, 9).”
Enar. in Ps. 9, 12 {PL XXXVI. 122): “Psallite Domino, qui habitat in Sion: hi
didtur, quos non derelinquit quaerentes se Dominus. Ipse habitat in Sion, quod inter­
pretatur Speculatio, et gestat imaginem Ecclesiae quae futura est, id est civitatis sanctore:
jam angelica vita fruentium; quia Jerusalem interpretatur Visio pacis. Praecedit auter
speculatio visionem, sicut ista Ecclesia praecedit eam quae promittitur, civitatem immoru
lem et aeternam. Sed praecedit tempore, non dignitate: quia honorabilius est quo per
venire nitimur, quam id quod agimus, ut pervenire mereamur; agimus autem specula.

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

77

Much as St. Augustine is concerned about the present visible Church,
and much as he extols the present Church as the Body of Christ, still,
especially in connection with the latter, his thought frequently reaches
out to the future Church and visualizes it already in the present. By
virtue of such anticipation he is able to exclude from the Church even
now those who will not form the undefiled and immaculate Body of
Christ of the future.
This mode of excluding sinners was clearly enunciated in Augustine’s
commentary on the rules of Tichonius: “because not only in eternity
but not even now are hypocrites {hypocritae}293 to be said to be with
Him, although they seem to be in His Church.”299* There is no diffi­
culty when the explicit assertion is made about sinners not belonging
to the future and eternal Church; confusion arises only when, with the
future Church, the celestial Body of Christ, in mind, sinners are said
to be excluded at present from the Body of Christ. Several reasons
may be indicated which account for this procedure.
1) The philosophical formation of St. Augustine’s mind according
to Platonic notions, in which the more perfect aspect or element is
expressed with neglect or disparagement of the less perfect, is to a
great extent responsible for the attention paid to the heavenly ter­
minus of the Church. If the Church is, therefore, viewed only or
chiefly from this angle, sinners, because they will not take part in the
constitution of that Church, may be said not to belong to the Church.’00
2) Connected with this first reason is the second, namely the destina­
tion of the earthly Church. St. Augustine devoted himself zealously
to the cause of the Church to which he had been converted and of
which he was a bishop, but for him, as for Tichonius,301 the Church was
tionem. ut perveniamus ad visionem. Sed etiam ipsam, quae nunc est, Ecclesiam nisi
Dominus inhabitaret, iret in errorem quamlibet studiosissima speculatio: et huic Ecclesiae
dictum est, ‘Templum enim Dei sanctum est, quod estis vos’ (I Cor. 3, 17); et, ‘In interiore
homine habitare Christum per fidem in cordibus vestris’ (Eph. 3, 16).”
34 The word “hypocritae,” as is evident from the context, is to be taken to denote
sinner; in the Church. This is corroborated from the terminology of Tichonius: “Die
falsi fratres aut hypocritae, wie Tychonius wiederholt klar ausspricht sind ‘die Welt’ in
der Kirche” (Hahn, Tychonius-Studien, p. 73).
** De doctr. christ., HI, 31, 44 {PL XXXIV, 82).
"•Enar. in Ps. 9, 12 {PL XXXVI, 122): “honorabilius est quo pervenire nitimur,
quam id quod agimus, ut pervenire mereamur.”
» Hahn, op. cit., p. 163: “hierarchische Heilsanstalt.”

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

an institution for the salvation of the soul, a means for obtaining a
blessed future life.302 He saw the Church’s grandeur in that stage o:
its existence which lies in its attainments beyond the realm of this
world.303 One may therefore say that the Church here on earth is a
means to the Church beyond the grave, and yet it is the same Church
Wherefore, in so far as the sinful masses existing in the Church of this
world shall not attain the heavenly goal, in which lies the total per­
fection of the Church, they are even at present deprived of real, effec­
tive membership in the Church. They may be called members of it;
but, because the final goal of the present Church here below is not to
be realized in them, they are not truly such.304
3) A still further background for such a conception of the Church
is his emphasis and high estimation of the life hereafter in contrast to
the present life of this world.305* The present is evil; the future will be
better. The present life is short; the future will be without end. The
present life abounds in suffering; the future will be blissful. The
present is only a preparation; the future will be the fruition of eternal
blessedness. Now is the time to merit; then will be the time to receive
the reward. The life of the future world is ever present and uppermost
in his mind.
Brethren, this has always been our warning to you, we have never desistec
from it, never been silent upon it. The eternal life is to be loved, the present life
302 R. Seeberg, Studien sur Geschichte des Begrijfes der Kirche (Erlangen, 1885), p. 5J
“Die Kirche ist bei Augustin die erscheinende Heilsanstalt. Nur wer sich dieser unterstellt, hat Hoffnung auf Heil__ _ Die Kirche ist vor allem der Ort des Heils auf Erden ’
303 Robertson, Regnum Dei (London, 1901), p. 184: “There is, then, in reserve, through­
out Augustine’s utterances on doctrinal and even practical questions, this element ei
abstract idealism,—the appeal to transcendental reality, to the aspect of things as viewed
sub specie aeternitatis
30* De correp. el gratia, 9, 22 (PL XLTV, 929) : “ ‘Si manseritis in verbo meo, vere dis­
cipuli mei estis.’. .. Quia ergo non habuerunt perseverantiam, sicut non vere disdpd
Christi, ita nec vere filii Dei fuerunt, etiam quando esse videbantur et ita vocabantur
Appellamus ergo nos et electos, et Christi discipulos, et Dei filios, quia sic appellandi sunt
quos regeneratos pie vivere cernimus: sed tunc vere sunt quod appellantur. Si autem
perseverantiam non habent, id est, in eo quod coeperint esse non manent, non vere ap­
pellantur et non sunt; apud eum enim hoc non sunt, cui notum est quod futuri sunt, id
est ex bonis mali.”
384 Cf. M. Straszewski, Filosqfja tw. Augustyna na tie epoki (Krakôw, 1905), p. 346; J.
Burnaby, Amor Dei, A Study of the Religion of St. Augustine (London, 1947), p. 29: “Ne
Christian Father is more uncompromising in his otherworldliness than is Augustine.”

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

79

is to be despised. Live well now, and hope that it will be well with you hereafter.’··
I have not dwelt on the rule that all you do be done for hope of the future. For I
know the thoughts of all Christians are bent on the world to come. He who thinks
not of the world to come, he who is a Christian for any other reason than that he
may receive that which God promises in the end, is not yet a Christian.”7

4) Finally the Church is viewed already at present in its ultimate
perfection and consummation such as it will be when it shall have
reached the final goal. A present determination of that future Body
of Christ is impervious to man; it is possible only through the prism of
God’s prescience. Naturally the extension of the temporal Church,
even when viewed as the Body of Christ, is wider than that of the
eternal Church. In God’s foreknowledge the multitude of the blessed
who are to constitute the heavenly and eternal Body of Christ is
already determined. God foresees the wicked in the Church who will
not take the way leading to conversion, and who in consequence will
not be among the members of Christ’s heavenly Body. Moreover,
God foresees also the lapse of the good from the Body of Christ, which
they actually formed at one time, and their final impenitence, resulting
in their elimination from membership in that Body. Hence according
to God’s prescience the former (the wicked) as well as the latter (the
good foreseen to fall) are already excluded from the celestial Church.
This then involves, by way of foreknowledge and anticipation, their
exclusion also from the present Church and the Body of Christ308 on
earth.
"Sermo 302,10,9 (PL XXXVIII, 1389). See also De ch. Dei, Π, 28 (PL XLl, 77) :
“populi confluunt ad Ecclesiam__ ubi audiant quam bene hic ad tempus vivere debeant
ut post hanc vitam beate semperque vivere mereant.”
"’Sermo 9, 4, 4 (PL XXXVHI, 78); Cf. Sermo 108, 1 (PL XXXVHI, 633); Enar. in
Ps. 91,1 (PL XXXVII, 1171) ; In Io. Ev. tr. 32,9 (PL XXXV, 1646) : “Hic enim nascimur
et morimur, hoc non amemus: charitate migremus, charitate sursum habitemus, charitate
illa qua diligimus Deum. Nihil aliud in hac vitae nostrae peregrinatione meditemur, nisi
quia et hic non semper erimus, et ibi nobis locum bene vivendo praeparabimus, unde
nunquam migremus.” Cf. J. Bumaby, op. cit., pp. 28 f.
"*De correp. et gratia, 7, 16 (PL XLIV, 925): “Horum fides, quae per dilectionem
operatur, profecto aut omnino non deficit, aut si qui sunt quorum deficit, reparatur ante­
quam vita ista finiatur, et deleta quae intercurrerat iniquitate, usque in finem perseverantia
deputatur. Qui vero perseveraturi non sunt, ac sic a fide Christiana et conversatione
lapsuri sunt, ut tales eos vitae hujus finis inveniat; procul dubio nec illo tempore, quo bene
pieque vivunt, in istorum numero computandi sunt. Non enim sunt a massa illa perdi­
tionis praescientia Dei et praedestinatione discreti; et ideo nec secundum propositum

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

It must, however, be observed that such statements in Augustinian
phraseology are not unconditional but are dependent precisely upon
that aspect of the Church wherein a consideration of its final stage
is preponderant. Usually, too, God’s infinite knowledge, as has been
pointed out, is brought into consideration. St. Augustine excludes
from the present Church those who will not form part of the heavenly
Church, not simply and absolutely, but conditionally; namely, if the
future heavenly Church is taken into consideration, and if Gods
knowledge penetrating all· future comes into play, then it may be said '
that since they will not pertain to it in due time, they do not belong
fully and rightfully to the present Church. For the present earthly
Church will have its full realization in the heavenly Church.
A Graphical Presentation of the Augustinian Church
Attempts have been made to facilitate the complex conception of the
Augustinian Church by graphical presentations. Thus Scholz de­
scribes it as a three-storied pyramid, each story’ being of a different
structure. The base is of a “hierarchical” structure; the middle
section is of an “ethical” structure {communio sanctorum); the peak is
formed of a “religious” structure, whereby he means the predestined
{numerus praedestinatorum).309 Kâppeli, writing on the Mystical
Body of Christ according to the teaching of St. Thomas, presents St
Augustine’s concept by way of introduction to his theme. In the
words of Kâppeli the Church of St. Augustine is above all the Catholica.
the visible, hierarchical, and apostolic Church, which embraces the
just and the sinners in its unity. Secondly, within the Catholica a
vocati, ac per hoc nec electi :... et tamen quis neget eos electos, cum credunt, et bap­
tizantur, et secundum Deum vivunt? Plane dicuntur electi a nescientibus quid futuri
sint, non ab illo qui eos novit non habere perseverantiam quae ad beatam vitam perducit
electos, sdtque illos ita stare, ut praesciret esse casuros?”
309 H. Scholz, daube und Unglaube in der Wdtgesckichte: ein Kommentar zu Augustins
‘De civitate Dei' (Leipzig, 1911), p. 124: “Der Kirchenbegriff wird zusehends enger. Er
verjüngt sich gleichsam nach oben zu. Er gleicht einer dreistôckigen Pyramide, derm
unterstes Stockwerk im hierarchischem Stili gebaut ist, wâhrend das mittlere eine ethische,
das oberste eine spezifisch religiose Struktur aufweist; denn es ist nicht so, dass jeder
folgende Begriff seine Vorganger verschlingt, sondera die drei Existentialformen der
Kirche sind schichtweise übereinander gelagert. Darum bedeutet es für Augustin keinen
Widerspruch, wenn er die mit dem Reiche Gottes identische Kirche, nachdem er sie erst
in die Priesterkirche hineingeschaut, hinterher auf die engere Sphâre der communio
sanctorum und zuletzt auf den engsten Kreis des numerus praedestinatorum reduziert.”

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

81

narrower group or number is to be encompassed, composed only of
those who are actually in possession of, and united by, charity.
Thirdly, within this last number of the good there is still the innermost
group or circle of the good who will persevere as such to the very end,
for they are predestined.310
Indeed the starting point for a description of the manifold entity
entering into the concept of St. Augustine’s notion of the Church is the
external, hierarchical, and social Church. This he designates so often
by the name Catholica as opposed to the Donatist African segment.
Within the Catholica is contained all that is known as the spiritual
Church, the communio sanctorum, or the Body of Christ. In other
words, the Body of Christ does not lie outside the hierarchical and
visible Church. It is also true that only a portion of what once con­
stituted the Body of Christ on earth will form that Body in heaven.
1) Humanity, viewed through the prism of religion, may be con­
veniently conceived and graphically portrayed by three concentric
drdes, each encompassing or representing three divisions of mankind.
To the outermost circle belong those who will be eternally damned: the
massa damnationis.311 These are persons who live in original and
actual sins and remain in this condition as enemies of God to the end
of their lives. To achieve salvation they must be transferred from
“the powers of darkness,” as if from the mass of ruin (tamquam de
massa ruinae), into the kingdom of the Son; this is described as a solid
edifice, a holy temple, a living body, a city of God.312
2) The second or middle circle is constituted of those who are mem­
bers of the empirical Church and the Mystical Body of Christ. If
those contained in this middle circle are to be adequately distinguished
according to their qualities and degree of inherence, they are to be
**T. Kâppeli, Zur Lettre des Thomas von Aquin vom Corpus Christi Mysticum (Frei­
burg: Schweiz, 1931), p. 29: “Die Kirche ist ihm [Augustin] in erster Linie die Catholica,
'Je sichtbare und apostolische, die ganze Welt umspanende, Sunder und gerechte Glaubige
ia ihrem Schosse tragende. Innerhalb der Catholica unterscheidet Augustin den engeren
Kreis der Gemeinschaft jener, die im Stande der Liebe sind. Einen noch engeren Kreis
biidet die Gemeinschaft der Prâdestinierten, die nicht nur gegenwârtig im Stande der
Gr.ade sind, sondem nach Gottes Vorherbestimmung in demselben bis ans Ende verharten werden.”
11 Cf. B. Lerming, “Augustine, Ambrosiaster and the massa perditionis,” Gregorianum,
XI (1930), 58-91.
«£>. 187, 12, 35 (PL ΧΧΧΙΠ, 845-46; CSEL 57, IV, 113).

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

subdivided into three sections or again three circles, (a) In the outer­
most section are the sinners who belong to the unity of this circle by
virtue of the profession of the same faith and the communion of the
same sacraments as well as of the same religious observances. They
are in the Church, but they do not properly constitute either the
Church or the Mystical Body of Christ. They are dead members of
the Church and of Christ’s Body, (ft) In the middle section are the
actually living members of Christ. While they constitute the Body of
Christ at the time of their union with it, they will not always remain
such; for as long as Christ’s Body sojourns here on earth, there are
occasions and a possibility of defection on the part of the members
constituting it. If they remain attached to Christ’s Body, however,
even as dead members, there is a greater possibility of conversion or
reconversion, (c) In the innermost section of this circle are contained
the good members united to Christ in a living fashion to the end of
their lives. These members are gifted with the grace of perseverance.
It will be these who will constitute the innermost circle.313
3) The last mentioned group of the Church, or Body of Christ on
earth, are those who pass into the Body of Christ in heaven. These
form the innermost circle or core of the graphic presentation of St.
Augustine’s Church. They have attained the purpose for which the
Church has been founded on earth.314 For them there is no longer any
M Compare this delineation with that of Thomas Stapleton, Principiorum Fidei
Doctrinalium Relcctio (Antwerpiae, 1596), q. 1, art. 2, pp. 6-7, according to whom there
are three categories of members in the Church. He distinguishes these according to the
three degrees or kinds of union with Christ. (1) There are members united to Christ by
the fact that they have put on Christ through faith in the sacrament of baptism. (2)
Other members are more united to Christ by the bond of charity, and they become one
spirit with him. (3) There are still other members who are most united to Christ; via,
through faith, charity, and final perseverance. Accordingly, the Church is presented
under various descriptions in Sacred Scripture as it refers to the first, second, or third
class of members. When it is described as embracing the first group, it is called a domus
magna, in which there are vasa in honorem ei vasa in contumeliam (2 Tim. 2; 20j, a
civitas supra montem posita, an ager, in which the wheat grows with the cockle, a sagena
gathering all kinds of fish. When the Church is presented as embracing the second group,
it is designated as the corpus Christi (Eph. 1; 23), whose members are the temple of the
Holy Ghost, and as the sponsa Christi. On account of the third group of members the
Church is named a hortus conclusus, fons signatus, unica columba, una perfecta mea, amica
mea (Cant. 4; 12:6; 8:4; 7).
**Ep. 187, 13, 41 (PL XXXIII, 848; CSEL 57, IV, 118).

SINNERS AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

83

possibility of defection. The Church and Body of Christ, therefore,
now building on earth will be the same that will be consummated at
the end of time to remain the Body of Christ for eternity and to enjoy
God’s beatifying presence forever.

Conclusion

The principal object of this study divided into two installments is
to determine the place, if any, that sinners occupy in the Church. In
other words, the purpose is to establish the extension of the membership
of the Church, and thereby also to determine the definition of the
Church. Distinguishing chiefly between the juridical Church and the
Mystical Body of Christ—for there can be no doubt that St. Augustine
views the Church definitely under these two aspects—sinners are
induded (against the Donatists) as members of the visible, sacra­
mental Church in accordance with the many scriptural passages to
this effect. It is this aspect of an experimental Church that is usually
associated with the inclusion of sinners in the Church.
It was further demonstrated that, notwithstanding the multitude
of assertions to the contrary, sinners are also a part of the Mystical
Body of Christ. We are faced, however, with an antinomy in this
matter: at times they seem to be excluded; at times they are included.
This study has brought us to the conclusion that the exclusion of
sinners is qualified or conditioned; viz., sinners are denied a part in the
Mystical Body of Christ when spiritual life, or a vital union with
Christ is considered. Absolutely speaking, they are members not
only of the Church as a visible and sacramental society but also of the
Church specifically viewed as the Body of Christ.
In consequence the visible Church—the Augustinian Catholica—is
neither in whole nor in part a different entity from the Mystical Body
of Christ—the Augustinian corpus Christi. They are one and the same
Church, the true Church of Christ. The members of the one are iden­
tical with the members of the other; the extension of the one coincides
perfectly with the extension of the other. In kind and quality of mem­
bers they differ: the member of the Mystical Body of Christ possesses
divine life in his soul, whereas the sinner is devoid of it; the former is a
living member of Christ, the latter a dead member attached to Christ

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THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

by virtue of the oneness of the Mystical Body of Christ and the exter­
nal Church.
It is to be admitted that the contours of two ethical (and to a certa:'
extent disparate) structures are fairly discernible within the Church
city, house, temple. The sinners by their lives and internal conditic
constitute, as it were, an entity of their own; the just by their dee:.and internal condition form, as it were, a body within a body. And
yet, it is the teaching of St. Augustine that both segments constitute
but one Chuch and one Body of Christ in opposition to the pagans
heretics, and schismatics who are outside the pale of the Church.
Viewed particularly as an institution of salvation—outside of which
there is no salvation—the Church embraces not only those who formed
a part of it since the time of Christ but also all of those who have beesaved before the advent of Christ. Faith in the future Christ as
Redeemer is the factor which incorporated the just of the Old Testa­
ment into the Body of Christ, and thus formed, as it were, a Church
before the Church.
Again, because the Church was intended by its Founder to be ar.
institution of salvation and because God’s infinite knowledge foresees
the number and individuals to be saved, at times St. Augustine
visualized the present Church in its eternal form. From this view­
point sinners as well as those who are not predestined even if they art
actually good and living members of the Church are not reckoned eve
now as members of the Body of Christ, because they will not be the
Body of Christ in eternity.

CURRENT THEOLOGY
NOTES ON MORAL THEOLOGY, 1947
LABOR
For the moralist, perhaps the most provocative article of the year is
“Moral Theology and Labor,” by Godfrey P. Schmidt.1 Mr. Schmidt takes
the moral theologians to task for their failure to develop a workable casu­
istry’ based on Catholic social doctrine and he invites them to “catch up with
1891 by making, now, a detailed and systematic study of the particular
difficulties of conscience which harass every Catholic lawyer, employer, and
worker in the area of modem industrial relations.” Fortunately, Mr.
Schmidt realizes that one can hardly expect satisfactory solutions from moral
theologians when they are isolated from one another and from experts in
other fields; hence he balances his devastating criticism with this construc­
tive suggestion:

Let an outstanding Catholic university or the recently formed Catholic Theo­
logical Society of America establish a seminar or other project (to be conducted
every two weeks or on any other convenient but regular basis) for eminent moral
theologians. Let someone familiar with the actualities of labor relations present
to this jury’ or ‘legislative body’ of moral theologians the facts, case by case, of
the leading labor-law decisions which in these matters have set the legal pace of
our nation. Any good collection of cases on labor-law by Handler, Frey, Laeger,
Landis and Manoff, or Raushenbush and Stein, could be made the point of depar­
ture for this program. The facts in each case would be presented as if they con­
stituted not law cases but cases of conscience. The moral theologians would be
asked to hand down a moral judgment on the conduct of the employers, the em­
ployees, the labor leaders, even the courts. Each case would be debated. The
reasons for opinions would be elicited. The entire proceedings would be reported
by stenography or stenotypy. After each treatise in the field of labor relations
had been canvassed, the record would be combed for corrections and revisions.
On such a basis a group of competent people would be charged with writing treatises
on the ethics or moral theology of the involved phase of labor relations—a careful
exposition and explication of the reasons and conclusions arrived at. Thus, in
time, out of deliberations and treatises one could piece together a systematic and
competent case book on the ethics and moral theology of labor relations—the first
available in this or any language.
To the sessions of this group of moral theologians could be invited labor leaders,
management representatives, lawyers, legislators and any persons of good will who
could be expected to make a contribution to the discussion.
'America, LXXVII (1947), 95-97.
85