2. About the Second Doubt

327. To the second doubt [n.318] I say that just as, if character were reckoned an absolute form, characters would be said to be distinguished from each other formally, so, if they be posited to be those respects, although they could be distinguished extrinsically from what is extrinsic, yet they are distinguished from each other formally.

328. But if you ask, ‘why then are there only three characters?’,Namely the characters of the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and holy orders. ⁵⁶ I say (because I will not make special mention of this in the matter about confirmation or of orders) that this is plain in these polities that are worldly. For no one has a determinate rank in the family of a king because he eats or drinks, or because after an offense the lord is reconciled to him, or because he multiplies persons in the polity; for these common acts can exist in everyone in any rank at all; but someone has a rank when he is received into the family of the lord, another when he advances further and is constituted a soldier for defending the republic, another when he is constituted a superior under the lord for constituting others in determinate ranks in his family - as for instance an official general or immediate under the lord, to whom is committed a general authority for receiving others into the family of the lord.

329. And therefore if a name were imposed that signified rank in the family or dignity or bailiwick, someone would not be said to have rank or dignity because coming to the dining table or married or returning to grace after an offense; but he who was taken up from the people into the family of the lord would be said to have a rank, and he a further rank who would be constituted in the family for defending the house, and he a further rank in the family who would be constituted as superintendent for receiving others into the family and instructing an inferior.

330. So is it in the issue at hand; three sacraments (namely eucharist for spiritual nourishment, matrimony for bodily procreation, penance for reconciliationScotus oddly does not mention here the fourth sacrament of the seven, namely extreme unction or the sacrament of the sick, perhaps because it is implied under the sacrament of penance. ⁵⁷) constitute someone in no definite rank in the Church; rather they can be common to every member of the Church in any rank whatever.

331. But the first rank in the Church and the most universal is to be received into the family of Christ, which happens in baptism; the second special one is to be constituted a soldier for the defense of the Christian faith, which happens in confirmation; the third is to be constituted a father and pastor for introducing others into the Church and for instructing and directing others in the Church, which happens in orders.

332. And just as in the polity [n.328] it is not fitting for the three dignities to be repeated, namely reception into the family, promotion to the military, and superintendence as to doctrine, but nutrition and procreation and reconciliation [n.329] can well be repeated, - so in the issue at hand, it is not proper for the three orders to be repeated, but the others are repeated; and in those that are not to be repeated an unrepeatable rank is acquired and a character said to be conferred; not in the ones that are not to be repeated.