¹ My sincere thanks to John Inglis, Jana Bennett, and Jeffrey Morrow for comments on earlier drafts of this piece.

² Pinckaers, Servais O.P., The Sources of Christian Ethics, trans. from 3^rd ed. by Sr.Noble, Mary Thomas O.P., (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1995 [1985])Google Scholar.

³ Gallagher, John A., Time Past, Time Future: An Historical Study of Catholic Moral Theology (New York: Paulist Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

⁴ Lateran IV, in Tanner, Norman P. S.J., ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils Volume One: Nicaea I to Lateran V (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

⁵ A few works that do relate sacraments to morality include: Bennett, Jana Marguerite, Water is Thicker than Blood: An Augustinian Theology of Marriage and Singlehood (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lysaught, M. Therese, “Eucharist as Basic Training: The Body as Nexus of Liturgy and Ethics,” in Theology and Lived Christianity, ed. Hammond, David (Mystic, Connecticut: Bayard, 2000), pp. 257–286Google Scholar; and Cavanaugh, William T., Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998)Google Scholar.

⁶ Porter, Jean, The Recovery of Virtue: The Relevance of Aquinas for Christian Ethics (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 31Google Scholar. A philosophical approach perhaps also explains why Alasdair MacIntyre's landmark works in virtue ethics also make no mention of sacraments.

⁷ Porter, Recovery of Virtue, p. 32.

⁸ Harrington, Daniel and Keenan, James, Jesus and Virtue Ethics: Building Bridges Between New Testament Studies and Moral Theology (Lanham, MD: Sheed &Ward, 2002), p. xivGoogle Scholar.

⁹ Harrington and Keenan, Jesus and Virtue Ethics, p. 190.

¹⁰ Unless otherwise noted, all citations from the Summa are from St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica, complete English edition in five volumes, translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province (Allen, Texas: Christian Classics, 1948 [1911]).

¹¹ For an excellent discussion of penitential practices during the Middle Ages, see Jansen, Katherine, The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Deovtion in the Later Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000)Google Scholar.

¹² Luijten, Eric, Sacramental Forgiveness as a Gift of God: Thomas Aquinas on the Sacrament of Penance (Leuven: Peeters, 2003), pp. 8–10Google Scholar.

¹³ Luijten, Sacramental Forgiveness, pp. 18–19.

¹⁴ Boyle, Leonard E., The Setting of the Summa theologiae of Saint Thomas (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1982), p. 1Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Boyle, Setting of the Summa, p. 2.

¹⁶ Colish, Marcia L., Peter Lombard, Vol. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 1994), p. 601Google Scholar.

¹⁷ Colish, Peter Lombard, p. 602.

¹⁸ Luijten, Sacramental Forgiveness, p. 29. Colish notes that Peter the Lombard was a staunch contritionist, that is, he believed forgiveness happened when the person was truly contrite, rather than in the verbal confession or in the satisfaction (the penance). This throws emphasis on an interior act while detracting from the role of the priest, what would come to be known as the “form” of the sacrament. With an emphasis on contrition, the actual sacrament is not of great importance, but is more of a formality. Thomas, however, seems to differ from the Lombard on this point.

¹⁹ Some scholars note that Gratian's Decretum, a work of canon law, was influential on Thomas's consideration of penance. In writing Question 84 of the Tertia pars on penance, Thomas appears to have borrowed many of Gratian's Scripture quotations in supporting his claims, and there is somewhat of a legalistic or juridical framework in play. Although Thomas's claim that penance is a species of justice indicates, to some extent, this legalistic understanding, Question 84 concerns penance specifically as sacrament, which is why I will not consider Gratian's influence at length. For information regarding Gratian's influence, see: Moudry, James W., The Influence of the Patristic ‘Auctoritates’ of Saint Thomas Aquinas on the Doctrine of Penance in the Summa Theologiae (Rome: Catholic Book Agency, 1963), p. 82Google Scholar.

²⁰ Pinckaers, Sources of Christian Ethics, p. 219.

²¹ Pinckaers, Sources of Christian Ethics, p. 228.

²² Boyle, Setting of the Summa, p. 23.

²³ By “foreshadowing,” I mean, for example, that Thomas will make reference to contrition as an act of the virtue of penance in the Summa, although he never systematically considers the acts of penance in the Summa. The compilers of the Summa's “Supplement,” drawing upon the Scriptum dedicate space to considering contrition, confession, and satisfaction as acts of the virtue of penance which are performed in the sacrament of penance.

²⁴ One may write out a confession, for example, and this will be an act of the virtue of penance although it will not merit sacramental absolution.

²⁵ III 85.1.

²⁶ Thomas notes that someone without sin may also have the virtue of penance but no reason to perform an act of penance.

²⁷ III 86.6.

²⁸ III 84.1

²⁹ III 84.3, Reply Obj. 3.

³⁰ III 84.8–9.

³¹ The Christian Classics edition translates the “nam” as “because.” However, the Latin sentence does not seem to imply causality in this way. This translation also omits the “magis,” which I have reinserted in my translation above. Est autem causa gratiae inquantum est sacramentum, nam inquantum est virtus, est magis gratiae effectus. Et ideo non oportet quod poenitentia, secundum quod est virtus, sit causa omnium aliarum virtutum, sed quod habitus poenitentiae simul cum habitibus aliarum virtutum per sacramentum causetur. Latin text accessed at http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/sth4084.html on 25 November 2007.

³² III 89, Reply Obj. 1.