EXUCONTIANS
730
EXULTET
ting the validity of each repeated unction we are able
to give a much more reasonable explanation of the
medieval Western and modern Eastern practice than
can possibly be given by those who deny its validity.
The latter are bound to maintain either that the re-
peated rite is merely a sacramental — though clearly
intended to be a sacrament — or that the repeated unc-
tions coalesce to form one sacrament — an explanation
which is open to several serious objections. In the
next place, since extreme unction does not imprint a
permanent "character", there is no reason why its
proper sacramental effect may not be increased by
repetition, as happens in Penance and Holy Commu-
nion — that is, with an increase of sanctifying grace,
the right to spiritual invigoration may be increased,
and more abundant actual graces become due. And
this, on internal grounds, would suffice to justify
repetition, although the effect of the previous admLa-
istration remains. Finally, in reply to the principal
dogmatic reason urged against his view — viz., the teach-
ing of the Council of Trent — Kern fairly maintains
that the intention of the council was merely positive,
and not excliisife. i. e.. it wished to define, in opposition
to more restrictive views that had beeen held, the
validity of extreme unction repeated in the circum-
stances it mentions, but without meaning to deny its
validity if repeated in other circumstances not men-
tioned. The exhaustive examination of tradition
which is supposed to precede a definition had not, so
far as this particular point is concerned, been carried
out at the time of Trent; and the point itself was not
ripe for definition. Jlodern discipline in the Western
Church can be explained on other than dogmatic
grounds; and if it be urged as dogmatically decisive,
this will imply a very sweeping comlemnation of
medieval Western and modern Eastern practice,
which the prudent theologian will be slow to pro-
nounce.
X. RE^n^ascENCE. — The question of re\aviscence arises when any sacrament is validly administered, but is hindered at the time from producing its effect, owing to the want of due dispositions in the recipient. Thus, in regard to extreme unction, the subject may be un- conscious and incapable of spiritual invigoration in so far as this requires co-operation with actual grace. Or he may, for want of the necessary attrition, be in- disposed to receive remission of sins, or indisposed in case of mortal sin for the infusion of sanctifying grace. And the want of disposition — the obstacle to the effi- cacy of the sacrament — may be inculpable or gravely culpable; in the latter case the reception of the sacra- ment will be sacrilegious. Now the question is, does extreme unction revive, that is, does it afterwards (during the same serious illness) produce such effects as are hindered at the time of reception, if the obstacle is afterwards removed or the requisite disposition ex- cited? And theologians all teach that it certainly does revive in this way; that for its reviviscence, if no sacrilege has been committed in its reception, nor any grave sin in the interval, all that is needed is that the impeding defect should be removed, that conscious- ness, for instance, should be recovered, or habitual attrition excited; but that, when a grave sin has been committed at or since the reception, this sin must be remitted, and sanctifj-ing grace obtained by other means (e. g. penance or perfect contrition) before ex- treme \mction can take effect. From this doctrine of reviviscence — which is not, however, defined as a dog- ma — there follows an important practical rule in re- gard to the administration of extreme unction, viz., that, notwithstanding doubts about the dispositions of a certainly valid subject, the sacrament should always be conferred absolutely, never conditionally, since a condition making its validity dependent on the actual dispositions of tlie recipient would exclude the possi- bility of revivi.scence. The conditional form {si capax es) should be used only when it is doubtful whether
the person is a valid subject for the sacrament, e. g.,
whether he is not already dead, whether he has been
baptized, has attained the use of reason, or has the
impUcit habitual intention of dying in a Christian
maimer.
From among, and in addition to, sources mentioned in the course of this article see Ker.x, De Sacramento Extrema: Vnc- tionis Traclalus Dogmalicus (Ratisbon, 1907) — the best recent treatise on the subject; Schmitz, De Effectibus Extrema Vnc- tionis Dissert. Hist.-Dogmatica (Freiburg, 1S93) ; Lavnoi, De Sacr. Unctionis Infirmorum (Paris, 1673), in 0pp., vol. I. pt. I; DE SAiNTE-BEtn-E. Tractotus de Sacr. Unctionis Infirmorum Exlr. (1686), in Mign-e. Theul. Cursiis. XXIV; the respective sections in Perhose. Pesch. Tasquerey. and other standard courses of dogma, and in Gury. Lehmkuhl, and other standard moralists: among writers in German; Pohle, Lehrbuch der Dogmatik (3d ed., Paderbom. 1908). Ill, pp. 523-548; among Eastern Orthodox theologians: Maltzew, Die Sakramente der Orthodox'katholischen Kirche (Berlin, 1892), and others men- tioned bv Kern, op. cit., 379; among non-Catholics: Blunt, The Sacraments (London, 1868); Morgan Dix. The Sacramental System (New York, 1893); Puller. The Anointing of the Sick in Scripture and Tradition (London, 1904).
P. J. Toner.
Erucontians. See Arianism.
Ezul Hibernicus, the name given to an Irish stranger on the Continent of Europe in the time of Charles the Great, who wrote poems in Latin, several of which are addressed to the emperor. He is some- times identified with Dungal (see Dungal). The designation exul is one which the Irish wanderers on the Continent frequently adopted. The poems of this exile show that he was not only a poet but a gram- marian and dialectician as well. They also reveal his status as that of a teacher, probably in the palace school. Of more than ordinary interest are the verses which describe the attitude of the ninth-century teacher towards his pupils. His metrical poem on the seven liberal arts devotes twelve lines to each of the branches, grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, etc., showing the origin, scope, and utility of each in succession. Like the lines on the same subject by Theodulf of Or- leans, they may have been intended to accompany a set of pictures in which the seven liberal arts were rep- resented. The style of these poems, while much in- ferior to that of the classical period, is free from many of the artificialities which characterize much of the versification of the early Middle Ages.
Di'MMLER. Poetee Svi CaroUni (Berlin. 1881), I, 408 sqq.; Xeues Archiv der Gesellsch. f. deutscJie Geschichtskunde, IV, 142, 254, 56: Traube, O Roma Nobilis in Publications of Academy of Munich, I class, six (2),332-37.
William Turner.
Exultet, the hj-mn in praise of the paschal candle sung by the deacon, in the liturgy of Holy Saturday. In the missal the title of the hymn is " Pnieconitim ", as appears from the formiJa used at the blessing of the deacon: "ut digne et competenter annunties suum Paschale prieconium ". Outside Rome, the use of the paschal candle appears to have been very ancient in Italy, Gaul, Spain, and perhaps, from the reference by St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, W, xxii). in .\frica. The " Liber Pontificalis " attributes its introduction in the local Roman Church to Pope Zosimus. The formula used for the "Prteconium" was not always the "Ex- ultet ", though it is perhaps true to say that this for- mula has survived, where other contemporan," formu- l:e have disappeared. In the "Liber Ordinum", for instance, the formula is of the nature of a benediction, and the Gelasian Sacramentarj' has the prayer "Deus mimdi conditor", not found elsewhere, but containing the remarkable "praise of the bee" — possibly a Ver- gilian reminiscence — which is found with more or less modification in all the texts of the "Praconium" down to the present day. The regularity of the metri- cal cur.tus of the " Exultet " would lead us to place the date of its composition perhaps as early as the fifth century, and not later than the seventh. The earliest MSS. in which it appears are those of the three Galli- can Sacramentaries; — the Bobbio Missal (seventh
