COUNTERPOINT
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COUNTERPOINT
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which are binding on all, and the counsels, which are
the subject of the vocation of the comparatively few,
has ever been maintained by the Catholic Church. It
has been denied by heretics in all ages, and especially
by many Protestants in the sixteenth and following
centuries, on the ground that, inasmuch as all Chris-
tians are at all times bound, if they would keep God's
Commandments, to do their utmost, and even so will
fall short of perfect obedience, no distinction between
precepts and counsels can rightly be made. The op-
ponents of the Catholic doctrine base their opposition
on such texts as Luke, xvii, 10, "When ye have done
all that is commanded you, say, we are unprofitable
servants". It is impossible, they say, to keep the
Commandments adequately. To teach further " coun-
sels" involves either the absurdity of advising what
is far beyond all human capacity, or else the im-
piety of minimizing the commands of Almighty God.
The Catholic doctrine, however, founded, as we have
seen, upon the words of Christ in the Gospel, is also
supported by St. Paul. In I Cor., vii, for instance, he
not only presses home the duty incumbent on all
Christians of keeping free from all sins of the flesh, and
of fulfilling the obligations of the married state, if they
have taken those obligations upon themselves, but also
gives his "coiuisel" in favour of the unmarried state
and of perfect chastity, on the ground that it is thus
more possible to serve God with an undivided alle-
giance. Indeed, the danger in the Early Church, and
even in Apostolic times, was not that the "counsels"
would be neglected or denied, but that they should be
exalted into commands of universal obligation, "for-
bidding to marry" (1 Tim., iv, 3), and imposing pov-
erty as a duty on all.
The difference between a precept and a counsel lies in this, that the precept is a matter of necessity while the counsel is left to the free choice of the person to whom it is proposed. It is fitting, therefore, that the New Law, which is a law of liberty, should contain counsels of this kind, which would have been out of place in the Old Law, which was a law of servitude. The precepts of the New Law have for their scope the ordinance of those matters which are essential for the obtaining of life eternal — the gift which it is the spe- cial object of the New Law to place within the reach of its followers. But the counsels show the means by which that same end may be reached yet more cer- tainly and expeditiously. Man is, in this life, placed between the good things of this world and the good things of eternity, in such a way that the more he in- clines to the first the more he alienates himself from the second. A man who is wholly given up to this world, finding in it the end and object of his existence, loses altogether the goods of eternity, of which he has no appreciation. So in like manner, the man who is wholly detached from this world, and whose thoughts are wholly bent on the realities of the world above, is taking the shortest way to obtain possession of that on which his heart is fixed. The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light, but the case is reversed if a larger view be taken.
Now the principal good things of this world easily divide themselves into three cla.sses. There are the riches which make life easy and pleasant, there are the pleasures of the flesh which appeal to the appetites, and, lastly, there are honours and positions of author- ity which delight the self-love of the individual. These three matters, in themselves often innocent and not forbidden to the devout Christian, may yet, even when no kind of sin is involved, hold back the soul from its true aim and vocation, and delay it from be- coming entirely conformed to the will of God. It is, therefore, the ol)j('ct of (he three counsels of perfection to free the soul from these huidranccs. The siml may indeed be saved and lieaven attained without fullciw- ing the coun.sels; but that end will be reached more
easily and with greater certainty, if the counsels be
accepted and the soul does not wholly confine herself
to doing that which is definitely commanded. On the
other hand, there are, no doubt, individual cases in
which it may be actually necessary for a person, owing
to particular circumstances, to follow one or more of
the counsels, and one may easily conceive a case in
which the adoption of the religious life might seem,
humanly speaking, the only way in which a particular
soul could be saved. Such cases, however, are always
of an exceptional character. As there are three great
hindrances to the higher life, so also the counsels are
three, one to oppose each. The love of riches is op-
posed by the counsel of poverty ; the pleasures of the
flesh, even the lawful pleasures of holy matrimony, are
excluded by the counsel of chastity; while the desire
for worldly power and honour is met by the counsel of
holy obedience. Abstinence from unlawful indulg-
ence in any of these directions is forbidden to all
C!hristians as a matter of precept. The further volun-
tary abstinence from what is in itself lawful is the sub-
ject of the coimsels, and such abstinence is not in itself
meritorious, but only becomes so when it is done for
the sake of Christ, and in order to be more free to
serve Him.
To sum up: it is possible to be rich, and married, and held in honour by all men, and yet keep the Com- mandments and to enter heaven. Christ's advice is, if we would make sure of everlasting life and desire to conform ourselves perfectly to the Divine will, that we should sell our possessions and give the proceeds to others who are in need, that we should live a life of chastity for the Gospel's sake, and, finally, should not seek honours or commands, but place ourselves under obedience. These are the Evangelical Counsels, and the things which are counselled are not set forward so much as good in themselves, as in the light of means to an end and as the surest and quickest way of obtaining everlasting life. (See Asceticis.m; Monasticism; Re- ligious Orders.)
All writers on doRmatic or moral theology touch on the sub- ject more or less directly. The following especially may be consulted: St. Thomas, Sumvia TlieoL, I-II, Q. oviii; II-II, Q. cx.xiv; Su.AREZ, Opera (ed. 1858), XV, p. 3S; Migne, Did. d'asccticismc, s. v.; M.vldonatus, Covimentary on Matt. xix.
Arthur S. Barnes.
i
Counterpoint (Lat. conirapunctum; Ger. Kontra-
punkt; Fr. contrepoint; It. contrapunto), from pu7ic-
tuni, "point" — as a note was formerly called in
music — and contra, "against"; originally, punctumt
contra punctum, or nota contra notam — " point againstj
point ", or " note against note ' '. The term counter-
paint originated in the fourteenth century, though
the art designated by it had been practised for several
centuries previous. The desire for harmony, that is,
the simultaneous sounding with the cantus finnus,
tenor, or theme, of one or more voices on different
intervals, first found expression in the so-called di-
aphony or "Organura" of Hucbald (840-930 or 932).
[H. E. Woolridge in his "0.xford History of Music"
(1901), vol. I, p. 61, quotes from a treatise " De
divisione naturoe", by Scotus Erigena (d. 880), ayn
passage, describing the organum, which would indi-
cate that diaphony, even in contrary motion, was in
u.se in England pre\'ious to Hucbald 's innovation^
though proof of its general use in the British Isles ia
want in . ]
In the twelfth century, in France, the custom arose»'
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melody, or ccintu.'< firmii.'i. This was known as dicharU^.
or discantus. In England the gymel, or o-.nltis gemel-
lus (twin song), flourished at an even earlier date.
The gymcl consisted in adding the interval of the third
both above and below the cantus firmus. Later, tha
thir<l below was transi)osed an octave higher, gi\'ing
rise to the falso-borJone, faux-bourdon, or false bass.
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