Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/489

THE CHURCH UNDER INNOCENT III 439 tance of having well-educated men of pure life and attractive personality in its priesthood, it regarded neither sacramental preaching ability nor executive capacity nor power of the moral conduct as the essential thing for one en- pnest °° trusted with the care of souls. The essential was divine grace and power, and this the priest was believed to receive when he was ordained by the bishop. Henceforth, regard- less of his natural capacity or incapacity, he possessed "an indelible character" and could perform the sacraments upon which the obtaining of divine grace by his parishioners depended. The Church held that man could not save his soul by his own efforts ; that he must also receive divine grace through partaking of the sacraments. In the Sentences of The seven Peter Lombard, written in the twelfth century, sacram ents I we find the number of sacraments stated as seven, itself a j sacred number. Two could be performed only by the J bishop: namely, the ordination of priests, already mentioned, I and the confirmation of children in their membership in the j Church when they become old enough to distinguish good i and evil. Of the five which an ordinary priest could per- | form, three, like the two already described, applied to some important epoch in life and would normally be received but j once by a given person; namely, baptism into the Church j as soon as feasible after birth, the marriage ceremony which . in the Middle Ages could be performed only by the clergy, and extreme unction just before death. The two remaining sacraments of the mass and penance were often repeated — indeed, the oftener the better. The mass was the central feature of the church service. Often the only preaching was done by the bishop when he 1 paid a visit. By the saying of mass the priest was believed to perform a great miracle known as "transubstantiation," by which the bread and wine were changed into the body and blood of Christ and his memor- able sacrifice of himself on the cross for sinful humanity was renewed and perpetuated for the benefit of those present and partaking of the host or consecrated bread. It