Breviloquium

But concerning the repetition of the Sacraments, this is to be held: although it is common to all the Sacraments that they are not to be repeated upon the same person and matter and for the same cause, lest insult be done to the Sacrament¹; yet, in particular, there are three Sacraments which are not to be repeated in any way, namely, baptism, confirmation, and order. For in these three a triple interior character is imprinted, which is not erased; among them, the baptismal character holds the foundation, and the others cannot be imprinted unless that one is first imprinted. — Hence, if one who has not been baptized is ordained, nothing at all is effected, but the whole must be done anew, because "what is established not to have been done is not understood to have been repeated"².

The reason for understanding the foregoing is this: our reparative principle, namely, the incarnate Word, although by reason of its supreme virtue, wisdom, and goodness it does nothing ineffectually, ineptly, or fruitlessly, ought especially to observe this in its noblest works, such as those through which the human race is repaired³. Since, therefore, the Sacraments belong to this class of divine works, it follows that they are in a certain way insulted when they are repeated upon the same matter and person and for the same cause; for this shows that they had previously been dispensed ineffectually, ineptly, and fruitlessly, contrary to what was required by the supreme virtue, wisdom, and goodness of the reparative principle itself, which is always present to operate in and through those Sacraments.

Again, since among these reparative Sacraments, in which there is generally the efficacy of divine virtue for the reparation of the human race, some were introduced only as remedies for diseases, while others were introduced not only for this but also for establishing, distinguishing, and ordering the hierarchical grades in the Church; and diseases can vary, be expelled, and return, whereas the grades of the Church ought to be firm, solid, and unshaken: hence the Sacraments that concern repeatable diseases have transitory effects and can consequently be repeated for a new cause. But those Sacraments that concern hierarchical grades and determinate states of faith must, beyond their remedial effects, confer certain permanent effects for the fixed and stable distinction of the grades and states of the Church. Since this cannot be done through natural endowments or through gratuitous gifts that make one pleasing to God, it must be done through certain signs of incorruptible substance—namely, of the incorruptible soul—indelibly and gratuitously impressed by an incorruptible principle according to conformity with the incorruptible; these are called characters. Since they are never erased, neither can they, nor the Sacraments in which such characters are imprinted, be repeated⁴.

Lastly, since the state of faith is threefold, according to which distinction is to be made in the Christian people—namely, in the battle-line of the ecclesiastical hierarchy—the states are faith generated, strengthened, and multiplied⁵: according to the first, the faithful are distinguished from unbelievers; through the second, the strong from the infirm and weak; according to the third, the clergy from the laity. Hence those Sacraments which concern the aforesaid threefold state of faith imprint characters, by which, once indelibly impressed, they always distinguish, and therefore can never be repeated. Since, then, baptism concerns the state of generated faith, in which the people of God is distinguished from unbelievers, as the Israelites from the Egyptians; confirmation concerns the state of strengthened faith, in which the strong people are distinguished from the infirm, as boxers from those who are not fit for combat⁶; and order concerns the state of multiplied faith, in which the clergy is distinguished from the laity, as the Levites from the other tribes: hence it is that characters are imprinted in these three Sacraments alone.

But since the distinction of the people from the non-people is the first and radical one, the baptismal character is the foundation of all the other characters; and therefore, if it is not laid beneath them, nothing can be built upon it, and the whole must be done anew. But if it is laid beneath them, the others can be imprinted and are never afterward to be repeated; nor are the three aforesaid Sacraments, which imprint these characters, to be repeated for any cause, and a grave penalty must in fact be imposed on those who repeat them, because of the insult to the divine Sacrament⁷; although the other four can be repeated for different causes without insult to themselves.