THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS Seven rites were recognized in the west, from Peter Lombard onwards, as sacraments in the strict sense : Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders and Marriage; the Councils of Trent and of the Vatican endorsed this list which has also been adopted by the orthodox Church of the east. The Churches of the Reformation, on the other hand, acknowledged only baptism and the eucharist, to which indeed a certain pre eminence was universally allowed, as entitled to be called sacra ments in the proper sense ; mainly on the ground that these alone could be proved from Scripture to have been instituted by Christ himself as external ceremonies effecting, or at least attesting and sealing, the conveyance of an inward spiritual grace to worship pers qualified to receive it by faith in the promise expressly associated with its performance by its divine Founder. In de manding that a sacrament in the proper sense must be able to claim institution by Christ the Reformers did not differ from the Roman Church. But they refused to accept inferences from the words of Scripture, though supported by ecclesiastical tra dition, as evidence of such institution equivalent to the direct commands to be found for baptism in Matt. xxviii. and for the eucharist especially in i Cor. xi.
The Scriptural texts alleged to suggest a like institution for the other rites recognized by the Roman Church as sacraments seemed to them either to be inapplicable to them or else to make no such provision for a particular outward symbol of the grace as was necessary to constitute a "sacrament," while the trad!tional rendering of pva-7-17pcov by sacramentum in the application of the word to marriage in Eph. v. 32 could hardly be said to warrant the interpretation of the word there, as intended in a very specialized sense otherwise unknown to the New Testament. Where, however, there was, as with baptism and the eucharist, express scriptural authority for the institution by Christ of an outward and visible sign of an inward spiritual grace, of the bestowal whereof it was to be, to a believer in his promise, at least the assurance, if not the instrument, there the Protestant as well as the Catholic, recognized a genuine sacrament.
There was, however, an important point of difference between them, in respect of such ceremonies as they agreed in regarding as "sacraments." The former denied, and the latter affirmed that they confer grace ex opere operato. This phrase seems to have been originally intended to express the belief that sacraments do not depend for their efficacy on the moral character or even on the private beliefs of the individual minister; that where an otherwise qualified person, though wicked or unbelieving, yet intending "to do what the Church does," observes the appointed forms, the recipient need not be afraid that the promised grace is not received ; the human minister being no more than an instru ment in the hand of the true Giver, Christ Himself. This the Churches of the Reformation for the most part did not deny ; the view of Wyclif that only one himself in a state of grace could administer a valid sacrament obtained little acceptance. But the Reformers objected to the phrase ex opere operato, which was solemnly reaffirmed against their objections by the Council of Trent. It seemed to them inconsistent with the supreme place assigned in their theology to faith as the sole means of justifica tion. Catholics did not indeed deny that the absence of personal faith in a recipient in whom it could be present (as it could not be, for example, in infants brought to baptism) would present an impediment to this profiting by the grace offered in a sacra ment, and on their side, Protestants, in allowing infant baptism, were constrained to admit that the requisite faith was not neces sarily that of the individual recipient, but might be that of his parents or of the Church.