ABSTRACT
This chapter questions the interpretation of Albert the Great’s dispositive causality as belonging to instrumental causality. It aims to show that the notion of “disposition,” which characterizes the causal action of the sacraments in Albert’s sacramental theology, cannot be understood without considering Hugh of St. Victor’s notion of “institution.” I thus consider Albert’s definition of the sacrament and establish the importance of the Victorine in that elaboration. I then draw the consequences for the dispositive causality of the sacraments and point to the role played by Avicenna’s notion of causality in Albert’s theory of sacramental grace.
