On the Sacraments

“Faith is a certainty of absent things, set above opinion and below knowledge.”

Hugh of St Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 1.10.2 (Migne, PL 176:0330D), giving the definition as one rightly said. English: the game’s own translation of the Latin.

In the gameFaith is not a guess, and it is not sight. Hugh puts it between them: more than opinion, less than knowledge. Believing is less than seeing in what you know, though it can be more in what it costs, which is why Jesus blessed those who have not seen and yet believed.

“From the beginning God did not wish to be wholly manifest to the human conscience, nor wholly hidden; lest, if wholly manifest, faith would have no merit, nor unbelief a place.”

Hugh of St Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 1.3.2 (Migne, PL 176:0217A). English: the game’s own translation of the Latin.

In the gameWhy does God not simply show himself? Hugh says he has shown enough to take away excuses and held back enough to leave faith something to do. Fully plain, nobody could doubt. Fully hidden, nobody could be blamed.

“The great beauty of the work shows that the wisdom of its maker is perfect.”

Hugh of St Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 1.3.14 (Migne, PL 176:0221A). English: the game’s own translation of the Latin.

In the gameCreation itself speaks for its maker, Hugh says. Its great beauty shows the wisdom of the one who made it, and the order that lasts shows that his will does not change. Nothing is new to God, who never starts to love what he did not know.

“When it did not exist, it could not at all give itself a beginning, so that it might exist.”

Hugh of St Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 1.3.8 (Migne, PL 176:0219B). English: the game’s own translation of the Latin.

In the gameHugh starts from the mind itself. The mind cannot doubt it exists, and it remembers a time when it began. But it was not there to give itself a beginning, so something else gave it one. This is a short argument and it starts with what everyone has.

“Everything that has at any time begun to be had an author through whom it began. … Reason searches out that author of things and first principle in this way; and piety venerates him when found, and faith proclaims him as God, to be worshipped.”

Hugh of St Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 1.3.9 (Migne, PL 176:0219C). English: the game’s own translation of the Latin.

In the gameWhoever made the mind cannot have been made himself, or he would not be the first author of anything. So there is one who always was. Hugh gives each part its work: reason finds him, piety honours him, and faith names him God.

“Everything that is changeable must at some time have not existed. … Nature cries out for her author, who shows that she was made by him.”

Hugh of St Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 1.3.10 (Migne, PL 176:0219D). English: the game’s own translation of the Latin.

In the gameThe same proof from outside. Whatever changes had a time when it was not yet there, and in the world we see things arise and pass away every day. Hugh says the world itself testifies to this, as if she were calling for the one who made her.

“Human reason would have been altogether weak and insufficient to investigate and understand these sublime and high things, had not divine revelation been added to it as an aid and a foundation for knowing the truth.”

Hugh of St Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 1.3.3 (Migne, PL 176:0217C), on Romans 1:19. English: the game’s own translation of the Latin.

In the gamePaul writes that what can be known of God is plain among them, because God showed it to them. Hugh reads two lessons in that. Reason in them was real, and so was the revelation to them. Reason alone would be too weak for such heights.

“Some things are from reason, some according to reason, some above reason; and besides these, some against reason. From reason they are necessary, according to reason probable, above reason wonderful, against reason incredible.”

Hugh of St Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 1.3.30 (Migne, PL 176:0231C). English: the game’s own translation of the Latin.

In the gameHugh sorts what we are told. Some things come from reason and are simply known. Some are according to reason and probable. Some are above it and wonderful. Some are against it and incredible. Faith takes the middle two only: it needs reason’s help or lifts reason higher.

“After the darkness of sin entered it, the eye of contemplation was put out, so that it saw nothing; but the eye of reason was made bleary, so that it saw doubtfully.”

Hugh of St Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 1.10.1 (Migne, PL 176:0329C). English: the game’s own translation of the Latin.

In the gameHugh gives the soul three eyes: one of flesh for the world, one of reason for the mind, one of contemplation for God. Sin put out the third and clouded the second. That is why people agree about what they can touch and disagree about what reason must judge.

“There are two things in which faith consists: knowledge, and affection, that is, steadiness or firmness of believing.”

Hugh of St Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 1.10.3 (Migne, PL 176:0331B). English: the game’s own translation of the Latin.

In the gameFaith has two parts, Hugh says: knowing and trusting. A person can know the words and not trust them. But nobody can trust what they have never heard and understood. So a believer needs both.