ABSTRACT
On the edge between theology* and canon* law, there were certain specific cases encountered in the early Church* where a sacramental act (for example a baptism*, Holy Communion* or ordination*) was carried out in such a way as to be considered invalid. Gradually, over the centuries, these particular situations were clarified on several levels: 1) The necessary conditions for the fulfillment of each sacramental action were established, both where the action itself was concerned as well as the intention required on the part of the person carrying out the action. 2) It was stipulated that, depending on the case, such actions would require a minister recognized by the Church (see theology of sacraments* and the debate between Augustine* and Donatism*), particularly in the case of ordination, or at the very least “the intention to do what the Church does” (a formula which appeared in theology at the beginning of the 13th century and then became official in the Catholic Church with the decree to the Armenians issued by the Council of Florence [1439, DS 1315]). 3) After the mid-12th century this line of thought was developed, in the West, to take into account the clarifications arrived at on the number of the seven sacraments. 4) Finally, at the end of the Middle Ages and around the time of the Council of Trent*, theology and canon law, drawing in this case on the contribution of Roman law, gave an increasingly clear outline to the sacramentarian and juridical category of validity. In the case of marriage* an equivalent notion of nullity was used. As for the notion of “hierarchical acts,” it did not concern the domain of sacramental validity, but belonged to the sacramentarian theology of Pseudo-Dionysius* (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 5) and of the theologians who were inspired by him (e.g., Thomas* Aquinas, ST IIIa, q. 65, a. 1).
