Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Sacrament of the Eucharist · Book V: On the Sacrifice of the Mass (First)
Chapter 3: That the Death of Christ Is a Sacrifice Properly So Called
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. IV, De Sacramento Eucharistiae, Book V: On the Sacrifice of the Mass (First Book). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
But one doubt occurs concerning the definition of sacrifice. For the sacrifice of the cross, that is, the Passion and death of Christ, was a most true and most perfect sacrifice, as Augustine teaches, Book 1 against the adversary of the law and the prophets, chapter 18; and yet the definition assigned does not seem to fit it. For (to omit other things) the nature of a sacrifice described by us requires that it be not the action of any virtue except religion: but the death of Christ was an action of charity, patience, fortitude, humility, obedience, as the Apostle proclaims, Romans 5, Philippians 2, Hebrews 12, and elsewhere.
I answer: The sacrifice of the cross was properly an act of religion. For Christ chiefly offered Himself to death that He might be an oblation and sacrifice to God for the expiation of the sins of the whole world, as the sacred writers everywhere teach, and especially the Apostle, Ephesians 5 and Hebrews 7, 8, 9, and 10; yet nothing hinders a proper act of religion from being able also to participate many other virtues: just as, on the contrary, the acts of all the other virtues, as we said above, participate the nature of religion, and are in a certain way of theirs called sacrifices. For just as, if anyone render obedience to a superior for the honor of God, that obedience will be a sacrifice: so also if anyone offer a true victim to God because a superior commanded it him, that action can be called obedience. And just as an alms given to the poor for the honor of God is a certain sacrifice, so also a sacrifice offered to God for a sinner is mercy.
Someone will say: If the matter is so, then the sufferings of the Martyrs too can truly and properly be called sacrifices, although they seem to pertain chiefly to charity and fortitude.
I answer: The sufferings of the Martyrs can be called sacrifices in a broad way, like all other good works; but not properly and in strictness, like the Passion of Christ. For the Passion of Christ differs from the sufferings of the Martyrs in four ways, namely by reason of the person, the act, the form, and the end.
By reason of the person, because Christ was truly and properly a priest, Psalm 109, Thou art a priest forever, and a great priest, as the Apostle says, Hebrews 10, nay plainly the highest and greatest, who could rightly offer any victim whatever, and therefore also His own body. But the holy Martyrs either were not priests, or certainly not such as could choose a victim prescribed by law.
By reason of the act, because Christ properly sacrificed Himself, since it was in His power to die and not to die. Isaiah 53: He was offered because it was His own will. John 10: I lay down my life; no one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down. John 17: And for them I sanctify myself, that is, I offer myself as a sacrifice, as John Chrysostom expounds, homily 81 on John, and Cyril, Book 11 on John, chapter 25. But the Martyrs could neither die when they wished, nor hinder their suffering and death when they wished.
By reason of the form, because Christ was truly sacrificed by a mystic rite; for it was done not by chance, but by His own choice, that He should suffer on the festal day of the Pasch, and on the altar of the cross, and with hands stretched out, and outside the gate of the city of Jerusalem, as St. Leo notes in letter 81 to the Monks of Palestine. And John the Evangelist writes, chapter 13, Jesus knowing that His hour was come. And Paul, Hebrews 13: For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought for sin are burned outside the camp; wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people by His own blood, suffered outside the gate. In the deaths of the Martyrs we find nothing of the kind.
By reason of the end, because this was the proximate and principal end of the death of Christ, to appease God toward the human race, which is the end of a true sacrifice, Colossians 1: Making peace through the blood of His cross, etc.; and all the Scriptures cry the same. Wherefore all the sacrifices of the old law were figures and types of this most true and supremely propitiatory sacrifice, as Augustine testifies, Book 1 against the adversary of the law and the prophets, chapter 18, and elsewhere. But the proper end of the death of the Martyrs was not to appease God, but to bear testimony to the truth; and of its own kind the death of a Martyr is an act of fortitude, because he rather chooses to lose his life than to deny the faith. Wherefore St. Leo, letter 81 above cited: “Although,” he says, “in the sight of the Lord the death of many Saints has been precious, yet the killing of no infant was the propitiation of the world. The just received, not gave, crowns; and from the fortitude of the faithful were born examples of patience, not gifts of justice; for the deaths were singular in each, nor did anyone by his own end pay the debt of another.” And so much for the definition.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT III. Mortem Christi sacrificium esse proprie clictum. Sed una occurrit dubitatio circa sacrificii definitionem. Nam sacrificium crucis, id est, Christi passio et mors, verissimum, ac per¬ fectissimum sacrificium fuit, ut Augustinus docet lib. i. contra advers. leg. et propilet, cap. 18. et tamen non videtur ei convenire definitio assignata. Nam (ut alia omittam) ra¬ tio sacrificii a nobis descripta requirit, ut non sit actio alicujus virtutis, nisi religionis : mors autem Christi actio fuit charitatis, patientiae, fortitudinis, humilitatis, obedientiee, ut Apo¬ stolus prsedicat Roman. v. Philipp. n. Hebr. xii. et alibi. Respondeo : Sacrificium crucis proprie a- ctum religionis fuisse. Christus enim pricci- pue in mortem se obtulit, ut esset oblatio, et sacrificium Deo pro expiatione peccatorum totius mundi, ut sacri scriptores passim do¬ cent, ac praecipue Apostolus Ephes. v. et Hebr. vn. vm. ix et x. tamen nihil repugnat quominus actus proprius religionis possit etiam participare multas alias virtutes : sic¬ ut e contrario actus omnium aliarum virtu¬ tum, ut supra diximus, religionis rationem participant; et sacrificia suo quodam modo nominantur. Sicut enim si quis obedientiam superiori praestet ob Dei honorem, illa obe- dientia sacrificium erit : sic etiam si quis ve¬ ram hostiam Deo offerat, quia id ei superior imperaverit, actio illa, obedientia dici pote¬ rit. Et quemadmodum eleemosyna pauperi propter Dei honorem data, sacrificium quod¬ dam est; sic etiam sacrificium pro peccatore Deo oblatum, misericordia est. Dicet aliquis : Si res ita se habet, poterunt etiam Martyrum passiones vere, et proprie sacrificia dici, licet ad charitatem, et fortitu¬ dinem potissimum pertinere videantur. Respondeo : Martyrum passiones sacrificia dici possunt largo modo, ut omnia alia bona opera; non autem proprie, et in rigore, ut Christi passio : differt enim passio Christi a passionibus Martyrum quatuor modis, ratio¬ ne videlicet personae, actus, formse, et finis. Ratione personae, quia Christus vere, et proprie erat sacerdosPsal. cix. Tu es sacerdos in aeternam (1), et sacerdos magnus, ut ait Apostolus Hebr. x, imo plane summus, et maximus, qui posset hostiam quamlibet rite offerre, et ideo etiam corpus suum. Sancti autem martyres, vel sacerdotes non erant, vel certe non tales, qui possent eligere victimam lege praescriptam. Ratione actus, quia Christus proprie seip- sum sacrificavit, cum in ejus potestate fuerit mori, et non mori. Isai. liii. Oblatus est, quia ipse voluit. Joan. x. Ego pono animam meam , nemo tollit eam a me, sed ego pono eam. Joan. xvn. Et pro eis ego sanctifico meipsum (2), id est, sacrificium offerro meipsum, ut exponunt Joanncs Chrysostomus homil. 81. in Joan. et Cyrillus lib. xi. in Joan. cap. 25. Martyres autem nec poterant mori, quando volebant, nec etiam impedire passionem suam, et mo r- tem, quando volebant. Ratione formae, quia Christus vere mysti¬ co ritu sacrificatus est; non enim casu, sed ex electione ipsius factum est, ut in die fe¬ sto Paschae, et in altari crucis, et manibus ex¬ tensis, et extra portam urbis Hierosolymec pateretur, ut S. Leo notat in epist. 83. ad Monachos Palaestinos. Et Joannes Evangcli- sta, scribit cap. xm. Sciens Jesus, quia venit hora ejus. Et Paulus Hebr. xm. Quorum iini- malium infertur sanguis pjro peccato , bonum corpora cremantur extra castra ; ita et Jesus, ut sanctificaret per suum sanguinem populum, extra portam passus est (2). In mortibus Mar¬ tyrum nihil ejusmodi reperimus. Ratione finis, quia ille fuit proximus, et principalis finis mortis Christi, placare Deum generi humano, qui est finis veri sacrificii, Coloss. i. Pacificans per sanguinem crucis etc. (4) et idem clamant omnes Scripturae. Quare omnia sacrificia legis veteris, figura? erant, ac typi hujus verissimi, et summe pro- (1) Psal. CIX, 4. - (2) Isai. LIII, 7 ; Joan. X, 17 ; XV!I, 19. - (3) Joan. XIII, 1 ; Hebr. XIII, 1 !. (4) Coloss. I, 20. CAPUT IV. pitiatorii sacrificii, ut Augustinus testatur lib. i. contra adv. leg. etprophet. c. 18. ct alibi. Finis autem proprius mortis Martyrum, non erat Deum placare, sed testimonium veritati praebere ; et ex genere suo mors Martyris a- ctus est fortitudinis, quia magis eligit vitam perdere, quam fidem negare. Quare S. Leo epist. 83. supra citata. « Quamvis, inquit, in conspectu Domini multorum Sanctorum pre¬ tiosa mors fuerit, nullius tamen infantis occi¬ sio propitiatio fuit mundi. Accepere justi, non dedere coronas ; et de fortitudine fide¬ lium exempla nata sunt patientiae, non dona justitiae ; singulares quippe in singulis mortes fuere, nec alterius quisquam debitum suo fine persolvit » Ac de definitione hactenus.