Note 55 — Part I PENANCE AS A VIRTUE AND AS A SACRAMENT

Theologians do not agree as to whether the acts of the penitent are in truth matter belonging to the inner constitution of the Sacrament—in the same way, for instance, as the washing with water is an intimate element of Baptism—or whether they belong to the Sacrament only in a wider sense; in other words, whether the acts of the penitent are materia ex qua or only materia circa quam of the Sacrament. The Scotists place the whole essence of the Sacrament in the absolution, and teach that the acts of the penitent are only materia circa quam and conditio sine qua non, in such a manner, however, that without these the absolution cannot be sacramental; hence they have no hesitation in considering these acts essential. The Thomists, and by far the greater number of theologians, consider the acts of the penitent as materia ex qua, because they do in fact belong essentially to the constitution of the external act which produces the interior grace. This doctrine unquestionably carries the day, “unless,” as Lehmkuhl says, “one chooses to call the acts of the penitent materia ex qua, not as having their origin in the penitent, but as matter presented judicially to the confessor, a question about which I do not wish to argue, for that acts of the penitent—sorrow and accusation—are necessary, and should be elicited, is beyond all doubt.” Lehmkuhl, l. c. n. 256. Cf. Ballerini, Op. Theol. Mor. l. c. cp. 1, n. 14.