The Latin
Fathers:

that," *— Thomassinus says: † "But who can doubt
that CHRIST's Supper pertained to the Cross?"
Let us now turn to the Latin Fathers.

S. Cyprian: "For if JESUS CHRIST our LORD and 8. S. Cyprian. GOD is Himself the High Priest of GOD the FATHER, and has commanded this to be done in commemoration of Him, he is indeed a priest who truly officiates in the place of CHRIST, who copies that which CHRIST did; and he then offers in the Church to GOD the FATHER a true and full sacrifice, if he so take in hand to offer according to that which he sees that CHRIST Himself 9. S. Cyprian. offered." And again: "Since we make mention of His Passion in every sacrifice (for the Sacrifice which

we offer is the Passion of the LORD), we do nothing else 10. S. Cyprian. than that which He did."§ And again: "The Blood of CHRIST being offered, the LORD'S Sacrifice is not celebrated by a lawful consecration unless our Oblation and Sacrifice correspond to His Passion." ||

11. S. Ambrose.

In these passages S. Cyprian most definitely states that in the Church a true and full sacrifice is offered, and explains this by saying that the Sacrifice which we offer is the Passion of the LORD. S. Cyprian certainly sees the essential character of the Eucharistic Sacrifice only in its relation to that which our LORD Himself did in His Passion.

S. Ambrose (ob. 397) on the passage, "Thou lettest us be eaten up like sheep," says: "Our good LORD JESUS CHRIST, since He was made the Sheep of our ban

* S. Chrys., In Matt., Hom. 1. (al. li.), n. 3; Gaume, vol. vii, p. 581.

†Thomassin., vol. iv., p. 366.

S. Cypr., Epist. Ixiii., De Sacramento Dom. Cœn., n. 14; Migne, P. L., tom. iv., col. 385.

? Ibid., n. 17.

|| Ibid., n. 12.

quet! Do you ask how He was made? Hear him who says, 'CHRIST our Passover is sacrificed for us,' and consider how our forefathers, in a figure rending it, ate a lamb, signifying the Passion of JESUS, upon the Sacrament of which we daily feed."* Again: My Flesh 12. S. Ambrose, is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed.' You hear of flesh, you hear of blood, you understand the mysteries of the LORD'S Death. For as often as we receive these mysteries, which by the mystical prayer are transfigured into His Flesh and Blood, we show forth the Death of the LORD." †

Nothing can be clearer than that S. Ambrose in these passages relates the Eucharistic Sacrifice to that of the Cross, and to that alone.

S. Augustine: "The Hebrews, in the victims of the 13. S. Augusflock which they offered to GOD in many and various tine. ways, proclaimed, as was fitting in so great a matter, a prophecy of the future Victim which CHRIST offered. Whence Christians now celebrate the memorial of the same finished Sacrifice in the sacred offering and communion of the Body and Blood of CHRIST." Here we are told that the Eucharist is the memorial of the Sacrifice which was finished upon the Cross.

tine.

Again: "The Flesh and Blood of this Sacrifice, be- 14. S. Augusfore the advent of CHRIST, was prophesied by figurative victims; in the Passion of CHRIST it was rendered in very truth; after the Ascension of CHRIST it was celebrated in the Sacrament of its commemoration."§ In *S. Ambrose, In Psalm., xliii., n. 37; Migue, P. L., tom. xiv., col. 1107.

† Idem, De Fide, 1. iv., c. x. (al. v.), n. 124; Migue, P. L., tom. 16, col. 641.

S. Aug., Contra Faustum, 1. xx., c. xviii.; Migne, P. L., tom. 42, col. 382.

? Ibid., 1. xx., c. xxi.; Migue, P. L., tom. 42, col. 385.

15. S. Augustine.

16. S. Augustine.

17. S. Augustine.

this passage S. Augustine affirms that in the Passion
of CHRIST His Sacrifice was rendered in very truth,
and that after the Ascension this Sacrifice was cele-
brated, not by a sacrifice in heaven, but in the Sacrament
of its commemoration, that is, in the Holy Eucharist.
There are four passages in S. Augustine's Confes-
sions which are very much to the point. In describ-
ing his mother's burial he says: For
in
those prayers which we poured forth unto Thee when
the Sacrifice of our Redemption was offered up unto
Thee for her,'
,, * etc.
And again: "She . . . only
desired to have her name remembered at the altar,
which she had served without the omission of a single
day; whence she knew that the Holy Sacrifice was dis-
pensed, by which the handwriting that was against us
was blotted out."† Again: "Who will restore to Him
the innocent Blood? Who will repay Him the price
with which He bought us, so as to take us from Him?
Unto the Sacrament of which our ransom did Thine
handmaid bind her soul by the bond of faith."

And

18. S. Augus- again: "I consider my ransom, and eat and drink and communicate it." S

tine

In every one of these passages the Sacrifice of the Eucharist is so interwoven with that of the Cross as to be spoken of as one and the same Sacrifice, the Eucharist being called "the Sacrifice of our Redemption," the Holy Sacrifice by which the handwriting that was against us was blotted out," the Sacrament of our ransom;" S. Augustine also saying, "I eat and drink my ransom."

99 66

* Confessions, 1. ix., c. xii., 32; Migne, P. L., tom. 32, col. 777. † Ibid., c. xii., 36. Cf. Col. ii. 14.

Ibid., c. xii., 36.

Ibid., 1. x., c. xliii., 70.

Again, S. Augustine says: "Whilst the Body is 19. S. Augus broken, whilst the Blood from the chalice is poured tine. into the mouths of the faithful, what else is it but the immolation of the LORD'S Body upon the Cross, the shedding of the Blood from His side? Therefore also He broke His Body and gave it, that He might signify that of His own will He would break and give Himself for us in His Passion, Who alone had the power of laying down His own life; and that He might also signify that upon the altar in His stead priests imitate Him in order that by outward action they may re-present the same, that is, the Body of CHRIST, the Sacrament of CHRIST and of the Church."*

tine.

And again: "Because by the Death of CHRIST We 20. S. Augusare set free, we signify that we are mindful of this in eating and drinking the Flesh and Blood which were offered for us. For that the Body of CHRIST in the Sacrament is laid in the hands of the faithful, is broken, is bruised by the teeth, and is incorporated into the faithful, signifies that He was tried in His Passion by the hands of the wicked, and broken unto death, and bruised for our sins, and that His Church, that is, His Body, by the imitation of this His Passion, is incorporated and conformed to Him." †

In these last two passages S. Augustine is most explicit in saying that the Eucharist is nothing else than "the immolation of the LORD'S Body upon the Cross, the shedding of the Blood from His side;" that in His stead priests at the altar re-present the same Passion; that since by the Death of CHRIST we are set free, in the Eucharist we signify that we are mindful of this;

*S. Aug., In Sent. Prosperi, quoted by Algerus; Migne, P. L., tom. 180, col. 795.

† Ibid., col. 796.

21. S. Gregory the Great.

that the Eucharist signifies our LORD'S Passion, and that His Church, by the imitation of this Passion, is incorporated into Him in the Eucharist.

S. Gregory the Great: "For this unique Victim. saves the soul from eternal death, and by a mystery renews for us the Death of the Only Begotten." And 22. S. Gregory. again: "From this, therefore, let us consider what kind of a sacrifice for us this is, which for our salvation continually re-presents the Passion of the Only Begot23. S. Gregory. ten SON." And again: "For the Victim of the sacred altar, offered with tears and a willing mind, pleads effectually, because He Who in Himself rising from the dead dieth no more, still through this Victim suffers for us in His mystery. For as often as we offer to Him the Victim of His Passion, so often we renew for the remission of our sins that Passion."* From these three passages there can be little doubt that S. Gregory connected the Sacrifice of the Eucharist most directly with the Sacrifice of the Cross.

Summary of

passages sup

porting the

Catholic view.

II. Passages thought to

support the Modern view.

Here we bring to an end the first division of this chapter. It would, of course, be quite easy to multiply quotations from the Fathers, but we venture to think that the explicit statements of such writers as S. Cyprian, S. Ambrose, S. Augustine, and S. Chrysostom are alone sufficient to show that in the first six centuries of the Church's life the Eucharist was looked upon as a Sacrifice because it renewed the Sacrifice of the Cross.

II. THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS TO THE
MODERN VIEW.

In examining the passages from the Fathers which are brought forward in support of the Modern theory

* S. Greg. Mag. Hom. in Evang., 1. ii., Hom. xxxvii., n. 7 ; Migne, P. L.,t. 76, col. 1279.