Augustine is the one who "invented" the indelible sacramental character out of embarrassment over the Donatists, to whom he had to prove that baptism (and ordination) could not be repeated and that baptism by heretics was valid. He was the first to use the word "character" to mean a certain something that was different from the Holy Spirit, different from baptism (and ordination), and also different from the "grace" which was given ("created grace"), without being able to justify this something from scripture or previous tradition...
...Thus what had begun as an unpretentious idea and the emergency solution to an eminent theologian's problem became more than a thousand years later a dogma of the Church, protected by the threat of excommunication. Since then the sacramental character has been interpreted to be a real accidental entity adhering to the soul, more exactly as a supernatural quality physically inhering in the soul; but no one has succeeded in proving from Scripture or ancient tradition so much as the existence of such a character, different from the Spirit, baptism or ordination and from the "grace" communicated.—Why Priests, pages 64-65
<idle musing>
Isn't that about right? Traditions harden into dogmas that no one dares to question. I'm not singling out the Roman tradition here; it happens in all traditions. This is Calvin's 500th year; think about the Reformed tradition and how it has become dogma—if you doubt me, ask Peter Enns :(
Sometimes it takes longer than others, but tradition always manages to supplant God. I believe that is why God starts something new every generation or two. Not that the previous moves are wrong; they just get too fossilized to move freely with the Spirit of God.
</idle musing>
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