Ex Opere Operato
Grace flows through the rite itself, not the holiness of the priest who performs it
This medieval Latin phrase means sacraments confer grace "by the work performed" rather than by the minister's personal worthiness. Its root lies in Augustine's argument against the Donatists, who claimed unworthy clergy invalidated the sacraments. The traditions differ: it is Catholic doctrine, and while Protestants generally reject this particular formulation, most still affirm the underlying point that a sacrament's validity does not depend on the holiness of the one administering it.
How it traveled
- The Epistles of Cyprian.Carthage · c. 258 CEexplains
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · c. 339 CEexplains
- Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the DonatistHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- On Baptism, Against the DonatistsHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- Letters of St. AugustinHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. JohnHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90)Paris · c. 1274 CEexplains
- Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic ChurchGeneva · c. 1564 CEexplains
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 26.—60. Petilianus said: "For if you mix what is false with what is true, falsehood often imitates the truth by treading in its steps. Just in the same way a picture imitates the true man of n
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
26. Those wretched sophists are perhaps deceived by the extravagant eulogiums on our signs which occur in ancient writers: for instance, the following passage of Augustine: “The sacraments of the old
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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas
Objection 1: It seems that the sacraments cannot be conferred by evil ministers. For the sacraments of the New Law are ordained for the purpose of cleansing from sin and for the bestowal of grace. Now
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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas
Objection 3: Further, a perverse intention vitiates the whole work, according to Lk. 11:34: "If thy eye be evil, thy" whole "body will be darksome." But the sacraments of Christ cannot be contaminated
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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas
Objection 2: Further, in the other sacraments the minister does not give the sacrament to himself: for no one can baptize himself, as stated above (Q[66], A[5], ad 4). But as Baptism is dispensed in d
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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas
I answer that, As was said above (AA[1],3), the priest consecrates this sacrament not by his own power, but as the minister of Christ, in Whose person he consecrates this sacrament. But from the fact
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
Letter XCVIII. (a.d. 408.) To Boniface, His Colleague in the Episcopal Office, Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord. 1. You ask me to state “whether parents do harm to their baptized infant children
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 41.—49. Lastly, he has ended his epistle with an exhortation and warning to his own party, that they should not be deceived by us, and with a lamentation over those of our party, that we had m
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 49.—59. Do not therefore any longer say, "The conscience of one that gives in holiness is what we look for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient," lest you be asked, When a stain on the c
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 52.—64. But if you wish to see that the object of Petilianus in his writings really was to prove "that the origin, and root, and head of him that is baptized is none other than he by whom he i
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Some editors have "unitate," but Amerbach and the Mss. "veritate;" and this is supported by c. 24, 28 below: "De ecclesiæ vel baptismi veritate;" and c. 13, 22 of the treatise de Unico Baptismo: "Ambu
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
104. Augustin answered: I also might say, You when you are infected put on Optatus the betrayer, the robber, the oppressor, the separater of husband and wife; but far be it from me that the desire of
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
13. Augustin answered: No man, even though he be not guilty through his own sins, can make his neighbor free from sin, because he is not God. Otherwise, if we were to expect that out of the innocence
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 4.—5. Wherefore, if they were in error, and would have perished had they not been corrected, who wished to be of Paul, what must we suppose to be the hope of those who wished to be of Donatus?
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
17. Wherefore, let it be a fixed point, that the office of the sacraments differs not from the word of God; and this is to hold forth and offer Christ to us, and, in him, the treasures of heavenly gra
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
14. Now that the end to which the Lord had regard in the institution of baptism has been explained, it is easy to judge in what way we ought to use and receive it. For inasmuch as it is appointed to e
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Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John · Augustine of Hippo
7. Mark, brethren; before our Lord Jesus Christ came to His baptism (for it was after the baptism that the dove descended, whereby John recognized something that was peculiar to Him, since he was told
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On Baptism, Against the Donatists · Augustine of Hippo
Book VI. In which is considered the Council of Carthage, held under the authority and presidency of Cyprian, to determine the question of the baptism of heretics. Chapter 1.—1. It might perhaps have
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On Baptism, Against the Donatists · Augustine of Hippo
John xx. 23. Chapter 4.—6. And so it is clear that no good ground is shown herein why the bad man, who has baptism, may not also confer it; and as he has it to destruction, so he may also confer it t
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On Baptism, Against the Donatists · Augustine of Hippo
47. To this we answer, that if the water is not sanctified, when through want of skill the priest who prays utters some words of error, many, not only of the bad, but of the good brethren in the Churc
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