con nerables Sedulius;" as Venantius Fortunatus of " spicuous Sedulius; and Hildephonsus Toletanus of the "good" Sedulius, the evangelical poet, the eloquent orator, and the Catholic writer") is by Trithemius and others supposed to be the same with our Sedulius" of Scotland (or Ireland) whose collections are extant upon St. Paul's epistles: although I have forborne hitherto to use any of his testimonies, because I have some reason to doubt, whether he were the same with our Sedulius or not. But Coelius Sedulius, whatsoever countryman he was, intimateth plainly, that the things offered in the Christian sacrifice, are the fruit of the corn and of the vine: Denique pontificum princeps summusque sacerdos Or, as he expresseth it in his prose; "the sweet meat of the seed of wheat, and the lovely drink of the pleasant vine." Of Melchisedech, according to whose order Christ, and he only, was priest, our own Sedulius writeth thus: "Melchisedech offered wine and bread to Abraham for a figure of Christ, offering his body and blood unto God his father upon the cross." Where note, that first he saith, Melchisedech offered bread and wine to Abraham, not to God: and secondly, that he was a figure of Christ offering his body and blood upon the cross, not in the • Venerabilis viri Sedulii paschale opus, quod heroicis descripsit versibus, insigni laude præferimus. Synod. Roman. sub Gelasio. Hinc quoque conspicui radiavit lingua Seduli. Venant. Fortunat. de vita S. Martini, lib. 1. "Bonus Sedulius, poeta evangelicus, orator facundus, scriptor catholicus. Hildephons. Toletan. serm. 5. de assumpt. Mariæ. Sedulii Scoti Hiberniensis, in omnes epistolas Pauli collectan. excus. Basil. ann. 1528. Sedul. carm. paschal. lib. 4. y Triticeae sementis cibus suavis, et amœnæ vitis potus amabilis. Id. pros. lib. 4. cap. 14. z Melchisedech vinum et panem obtulit Abraham, in figuram Christi, corpus et sanguinem suum Deo patri in cruce offerentis. Sedul. in Heb. cap. 5. eucharist. But we, saith he, "do" offer daily, for a commemoration of the Lord's passion (once performed) and our own salvation;" and elsewhere, expounding those words of our Saviour, "Do this in remembrance of me;" he bringeth in this similitude, used before and after him by others. “He left a memory of himself unto us: even as if one that were going a far journey, should leave some token with him whom he loved; that as oft as he beheld it, he might call to remembrance his benefits and friendship." Claudius noteth, that our Saviour's pleasure was, first "to deliver unto his disciples the sacrament of his body and blood, and afterwards to offer up the body itself upon the altar of the cross." Where at the first sight I did verily think, that in the words, fractione corporis, an error had been committed in my transcript (corporis being miswritten for panis) but afterwards comparing it with the original, whence I took my copy, I found that the author retained the manner of speaking used both befored and after his time, in giving the name of the thing signified unto the sign, even there where the direct intention of the speech was to distinguish the one from the other. For he doth expressly here distinguish the sacrament of the body, which was delivered unto the disciples, from the body itself, which was afterwards offered upon the cross: and for the sacramental relation betwixt them both, he rendereth this reason, "Because bread a Nos vero in commemorationem Dominicæ semel passionis quotidie nostræque salutis offerimus. Id. in Heb. cap. 10, b Suam memoriam nobis reliquit: quemadmodum si quis peregre proficiscens aliquod pignus ei quem diligit derelinquat; ut quotiescunque illud viderit, possit ejus beneficia et amicitias recordari. Id. in 1 Cor. cap. 11. c Voluit ante discipulis suis tradere sacramentum corporis et sanguinis sui, quod significavit in fractione corporis et effusione calicis; et postea ipsum corpus immolari in ara Crucis. Claud. lib. 3. in Matth. d See Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Ephræmius Antiochenus, in the Answer to the Jesuit. Works, vol. 3. pag. 72. e Apud Rathramnum (sive Bertramum) et Ælfricum, passim. f Quia panis corpus confirmat, vinum vero sanguinem operatur in carne : hic ad corpus Christi mystice, illud refertur ad sanguinem. Claud. lib. 3. in Matth. doth confirm the body, and wine doth work blood in the flesh therefore the one is mystically referred to the body of Christ, the other to his blood." Which doctrine of his, that the sacrament is in its own nature bread and wine, but the body and blood of Christ by mystical relation, was in effect the same with that which long afterwards was here in Ireland delivered by Henry Crumpe, the monk of Baltinglass, that "thes body of Christ in the sacrament of the altar was only a looking-glass to the body of Christ in heaven:" yea, and within fifty or threescore years of the time of Claudius Scotus himfelf, was so fully maintained by Johannes Scotus in a book that he purposely wrote of that argument; that when it was alleged and extolled by Berengarius, pope Leo the ninth, with his bishops, assembled in synodo Vercellensi, anno Domini ML. (which was two hundred and thirty-five years after the time that Claudius wrote his commentaries upon St. Matthew) had no other means to avoid it, but by flat condemningh of it. Of what great esteem this John was with king Alfred, may be seen in William of Malmesbury, Roger Hoveden, Matthew of Westminster, and other writers of the English history. The king himself, in the preface before his Saxon translation of St. Gregory's pastoral, professeth that he was holpen in that work by John' his mass-priest. By whom if he did mean this John of ours, you may see, how in those days a man might be held a mass-priest, who was far enough from thinking that he offered up the very body and blood of Christ really present under the forms of bread and wine, which is the only mass that our Romanists take knowledge of. Of which wonderful point how ignorant our elders were, even this also may be one argument: that the author of the book of the wonderful things of the holy Scripture, Quod corpus Christi in altaris sacramento est solum speculum ad corpus Christi in cœlo. Exactis Willielmi Andreæ Midensis episcopi contra Henr. Crumpe, anno 1384. quæ MS. habeo. h Johannis Scoti liber de Eucharistia lectus est, ac damnatus. Lanfranc. de Eucharist. contr. Berengar. i Johanne minum mærre preost. Ælfred. præfat. in Gregor. Pastoral. Saxonic. VOL. IV. U before alleged, passeth this quite over, which is now esteemed to be the wonder of all wonders. And yet doth he profess, that he "purposed to pass over nothing of the wonders of the Scripture, wherein they might seem notably to swerve from the ordinary administration in other things." * Præsertim cum ex mirabilibus Scripturæ Dominicæ nil præterire disposui, in quibus a ministerio quotidiano excellere in aliis videntur. Lib. 2. de mirabilib. Scriptur. cap. 21. CHAP. V. Of Chrism, Sacramental Confession, Penance, Absolution, Marriage, Divorces, and single life in the Clergy. THAT the Irish did baptize their infants without any consecrated chrism, Lanfranc maketh complaint in his letters to Terdeluacus (or Tirlagh) the chief king of that country. And Bernard reporteth that Malachias in his time (which was after the days of Lanfranc and pope Hildebrand) did "of the new institute the most wholesome use of confession, the sacrament of confirmation, and the contract of marriages; all which (he saith) the Irish before were either ignorant of, or did neglect:" which, for the matter of confession, may receive some further confirmation from the testimony of Alcuinus, who writing unto the Scotish (or, as other copies read, the Gothish) and commending the religious conversation of their laity, who "in the midst of their worldly employments were said to lead a most chaste life," condemneth notwithstanding another custom, which was said to have continued in that country. For "itd is said (quoth he) that no man of the a Quod infantes baptismo sine chrismate consecrato baptizantur. Lanfranc. epist. MS. in bibliotheca Cottoniana: et apud Baron. ann. 1089. num. 16. ubi tamen sive male habetur pro sine. Lanfranc. op. ed. Bened. pag. 320. b Usum saluberrimum confessionis, sacramentum confirmationis, contractum conjugiorum (quæ omnia aut ignorabant aut negligebant) Malachias de novo instituit. Bernard. in vita Malachiæ. c Inter mundanas occupationes castissimam vitam rationabili consideratione degere dicuntur. Alcuin. epist. 26. edit. H. Canisii, 71. Andreæ Quercetani. d Dicitur vero neminem ex laicis suam velle confessionem sacerdotibus dare: quos a Deo Christo cum sanctis apostolis ligandi solvendique potestatem accepisse credimus. Ibid. |