rist is callit the sacrifice of the altar, because it is ane quick and special remembrance of the passioun of Christ... Now the passioun of Christ wes the trew sacrifice;' or, again, that 'this blissit sacrifice of the altar is ane quick memorial ordanit to reduce to our mynd the passioun of our Salviour.' This definition certainly appears defective, if compared with that of the Roman Catechism, which insists that it must be taught, without hesitation, that the Mass is not a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving only, or a mere commemoration of the sacrifice performed on the cross, but also truly a propitiatory sacrifice. But the doctrine of the Scottish Catechism was adequate for the time, and correctly reproduces the teaching of Aquinas, who says that the celebration of this Sacrament is the 'imago repraesentativa passionis Christi quae est vera ejus immolatio,' and that the name of the thing is transferred to the image, because by this sacrament' we are made partakers of the fruits of the passion (Summa, p. iii. qu. lxxxiii). The Tridentine doctrine was not defined until 1562 (Sess. xxii).

Again, Christ is said to have 'tholit passioun . . . to mak satisfactioun and mendis for al our synnis that hes a trew and leivand faith in him' (p. 154), a statement which, with the explanation of the text, 'Sa God hais luffit the warld, that is, the hail congregatioun of faithful men and wemen' (p. 150), has a very Calvinistic sound. Yet the doctrine that Christ died for absolutely all men is not even now an article of faith to a Catholic. The fifth proposition of Jansenius was, by Innocent X, condemned as heretical only if meant in the sense that Christ died only for the elect.

A more serious departure from the then received teaching of the Church will be found in the Catechism's explanation of Justification by Faith (pp. 126-130). Upon this matter Trent had already spoken clearly (1547, Sess. vi), and the approximations to Lutheran language, proposed by Cardinal Contarini at Ratisbon, or by Sadoletus and Pole at the Council itself, became no longer tenable. The Council teaches that supernatural faith does not justify, that justifying faith does not consist in a trust (fiducia) by which a man certainly believes

himself to be justified, and that faith justifies only when hope and charity are added to it. Further, true faith remains after charity is gone. The Catholic doctrine thus distinguishes between a faith which is a merely human or natural assent, a divine supernatural faith, and, thirdly, faith perfected by charity (fides formata). It will be seen that, like the Reformers, the Catechism knows only two kinds of faith, a general or historical faith, common to the devils, in which there is nothing supernatural, and a 'special,' living, or saving faith. Next it teaches that this saving faith consists in intellectual assent, with fear, hope, repentance, and complete selfsurrender added (the Lutheran assensus et fiducia)—‘This is the special faith of a trew christin man quhilk standis in the general faith afore rehersit, and in sure confidence and hoip of Goddis mercy' (p. 128)1-and, as if to exclude all doubt as to the meaning, it proceeds, 'this faith obtains for us the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit, which pours into our hearts the true love of God and of our neighbour,' thus making, in direct contradiction to the Tridentine decrees, love to be a consequence of saving faith. It will be observed that this view of faith colours the language of the book throughout. 'Special faith,' including fiducia, may be said to be the key note of its teaching. Credo is paraphrased 'I believe or I traist' (pp. 129, 144). Christ is said to save 'al that traistis in him be trew and leiffand faith' (p. 167). Our actual syn is forgevin be faith and the sacrament of pennance' (p. 223). After absolution 'thou suld geve ferme credence and beleve sickerly with ane perfite faith that thy sins are now forgevin' (p. 225). 'Beleive this (fourth) artikil with ane special faith.... trow sickirly that he deit for the salvatioun in special' (p. 153). An anxiety to bring faith into prominence wherever there is any reference to justification is characteristically displayed in a passage borrowed in the main from the 'Necessary Doctrine,' where an explanation, clear enough in Henry the Eighth's

1 Compare Cranmer's Homily on Faith: And this [a quick or lively faith] is not only the common belief of the articles of our faith, but it is also a sure trust and confidence of the mercy of God . . . and a steadfast hope,' etc.

book, is rather obscured than assisted by the additional clauses of the Scottish Catechism. As the whole passage and its English parallel contain an interesting example of matter common to the two books, they are here quoted at length.

Some minor divergences from the language of more recent theological manuals may be briefly noticed. The matter of the Eucharist is defined to be 'wyne of the berry mixt

with wattir' (so the Enchiridion, vinum mixtum aqua), as if the admixture of water was of the essence of the Sacrament. The form of matrimony is said to be the words, 'I tak the to my weddit wyfe,' etc., and it is not explained as in the Tridentine Catechism, that the words are not necessary, so long as the consent is outwardly expressed in any way. In describing the sorrow required of the sinner who makes his confession, there is no distinction drawn between perfect contrition and attrition or the sorrow arising from inferior, though supernatural, motives. Attrition is not even mentioned. The Council of Trent teaches that attrition does not of itself avail to justify the sinner. The question whether it is sufficient with the sacrament of penance, was for a long time debated in the schools, and the negative opinion was held by the French clergy and the University of Louvain. The affirmative, always the commoner, is now universal1.

It will be noticed also that, although the temporal punishment due to sin and the need of satisfaction are explained in the usual way (p. 223), Indulgences are never so much as named. The doctrine of Indulgences did not, however, come under discussion at Trent until 1563 (Sess. xxv). The infernus puerorum is described, in accordance with recent theological opinion, as the place where unbaptized infants suffer 'privatioun of grace and privatioun of glore bot na sensibil payne,' with, however, the quaintly expressed addition, that 'the payne of thir barnis is verrai litil, eisy, and soft2.' (p. 157.)

From quite another point of view a noticeable feature

1 Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, art. Attrition.

2 The view of their lot expressed by Lindsay in The Dreme,' written in 1528, is somewhat more severe :

We enterit in ane place of perditioun

Quhare mony babbis war, makand drery mone

Because they wanted the fruitioun

Of God, quhilk was ane gret punitioun.

Of Baptisme they wantit the ansenze [enseigne, 'character']:

Upwart we went and left that myrthles menze

In tyll ane volt, abone that place of paine.

is the chapter on the Salutation of the Angel,' and, in general, the honour shown to Mary, the mother of Jesus. An exposition of the Ave Maria is not always found in Catechisms of this kind, and rarely at such length. The Confessio Fidei Catholicae1, which emanated from the Polish Council under the influence of Hosius, does not include it. The Roman Catechism devotes to it a few lines only 2. It will be seen, too, in the commentary on the first Commandment, with what tenderness the faithful are recommended the use of 'the ymage of our lady the glorious virgine Marie, beirand in her arme the bony ymage of hir sone, commonly callit the baby Jesus.' (p. 53.)

The author of the Catechism explicitly teaches the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. In the chapter on Baptism, in speaking of 'the sinnis quhairin we ar borne,' he was careful to add, Christ and his mother except.' In the explanation of the Hail Mary, the dogma occurs out of connection apparently with its immediate context, as if it were an after-thought or the addition of a reviser, but it is nevertheless plain : 'He blissit the conceptioun of his mother, the virgin Marie, quhen he preservit hir fra original syn.' This was not a doctrine offensive to the anti-papal party in the Church. It was defined by the Council of Basle, held by Roman theologians to have been schismatic at the time, and it was attacked by the great champion of the papacy, Turrecremata. The University of Paris required an oath to defend it from all who proceeded to a doctor's degree. Nevertheless, the formal advocacy of such an opinion, not then held to be an article of faith, may be fairly set against the general minimizing tendencies of the Catechism.

That the repetition of the Angelic Salutation was a favourite devotion in Catholic Scotland is shown also by its survival in the Protestant Catechism of John Gau.

1 Auctoritate Synodi Prov. Petricoviae, anno MDLI. praesidente Archiep. Gnesnensi. Dilingae, 1557.

2 So also Helding's Institutio Christiana, 1549. fol. lxx.