1147–1151

The seven sacraments: from Hugh of St Victor and Peter Lombard to the Council of Florence

In the first centuries the word sacramentum was applied to everything sacred, and the number of sacraments ranged from two to twelve, and among the scholastics from five to thirty. Hugh of St Victor defined a sacrament as a material element that "represents by likeness, signifies by institution and contains by consecration" invisible grace, and concentrated on seven rites. Peter Lombard in the Sentences (1147–1151) was the first to draw up a list of seven sacraments and defined a sacrament, following Augustine, as "the visible form of invisible grace," which both signifies and causes grace. Thomas Aquinas accepted the number seven as the tradition of the Church, although according to González it had become fixed only recently. In 1439 the Council of Florence in the Decree for the Armenians defined the seven sacraments conciliarly for the first time.