sanctified by the Holy Spirit, they become the sacraments of the Lord's body: for the bread which we break is the body of Christ; who said, I am the bread of life; and the wine is His blood, as it is written, I am the true vine."* Behold, saith he, they become a sacrament, not the substance of the Lord's body; for the bread and wine which feed our flesh cannot be substantially, nor be said to be, the body and blood of Christ, but sacramentally they are so, as certainly as that they are so called. But this he declares yet more clearly: "For as the visible substance of bread and wine nourish the outward man, so the word of Christ, who is the bread of life, refresheth the souls of the faithful, being received by faith."t These words were recorded and preserved by * De Officiis Eccl. [i. 18. Panis enim quem frangimus, corpus Christi est, qui dicit, Ego sum panis vivus, &c.: vinum autem sanguis ejus est, et hoc est quod scriptum est, Ego sum vitis vera. Panis quia confirmat corpus, ideo corpus Christi nuncupatur; vinum autem quia sanguinem operatur in carne, ideo ad sanguinem Christi refertur. Hæc autem duo sunt visibilia; sanctificata tamen per Spiritum Sanctum, in sacramentum divini corporis transeunt.] + Etymol. vi. 19. [Panis vero et vinum ideo corpori et sanguini comparantur, quia sicut hujus visibilis panis vinique substantia exteriorem nutrit et inebriat hominem, ita verbum Dei, qui est panis vivus, participatione sui fidelium recreat mentes. Ratramnus, § 40.] Bertram the priest, when as in the editions of Isidore they are now left out. 27. And the same kind of expressions as those of Isidorus were also used by venerable Bede our countryman, who lived in the eighth century,* in his sermon upon the epiphany;† of whom we also take these two testimonies following: "In the room of the flesh and blood of the lamb, Christ substituted the sacrament of His body and blood, in the figure of bread and wine.”‡ Also, "At supper He gave to His disciples the figure of His holy body and blood."§ utterly destroy transubstantiation. A.D. 720. These + Serm. de Epiph. [inter Opera, vii. 320. ed. Col. 1612. Lavat itaque nos a peccatis nostris quotidie in sanguine suo, cum ejusdem beatæ passionis ad altare memoria replicatur, cum panis et vini creatura in sacramentum carnis et sanguinis ejus ineffabili Spiritus sanctificatione transfertur. -Hujus recte figuram agnus in lege paschalis ostendit; qui semel populum de Ægyptia liberans, in memoriam ejusdem liberationis per omnes annos immolatione sua populum eundem sanctificare solebat, donec veniret ipse cui talis hostia testimonium dabat, oblatusque Patri pro nobis in hostiam odoremque suavitatis, mysterium suæ passionis oblato agno in creaturam panis vinique transferret.] Com. in Luc. xxii. [Opera, v. 424. Pro carne agni vel sanguine suæ carnis sanguinisque sacramentum in panis ac vini figura substituens.] § Com. in Psal. iii. [Opera, viii. 324. [Sacratissima cœna, in qua figuram sacrosancti corporis sanguinisque sui discipulis tradidit.] 28. In the same century Charles the Great* wrote an epistle to our Alcuinus, wherein we find these words: "Christ at supper broke the bread to His disciples, and likewise gave them the cup, in figure of His body and blood; and so left to us this great sacrament for our benefit." If it was the figure of His body, it could not be the body itself; indeed the body of Christ is given in the eucharist, but to the faithful only, and that by means of the sacrament of the consecrated bread. 29. But now, about the beginning of the ninth century, started up Paschasius,‡ a monk of Corbie, who first (as some say, whose judgment I follow not) among the Latins, taught that Christ was consubstantiated, or rather enclosed in the bread and corporally united to it in the sacrament;§ for as yet there was no thoughts of the transubstantiation of bread. But these new sorts of expres * A.D. 778. [† Alcuini Opera, p. 1150. ed. Paris, 1617, or i. 89. ed. 1777. Redemptor omnium cœnando cum discipulis panem fregit et calicem pariter dedit eis, in figuram corporis et sanguinis sui, nobisque profecturum magnum exhibuit sacramentum.] A.D. 818. [§ In his book, De Corpore et Sanguine Domini. ch. i. he says: Licet figura panis et vini hic sit, omnino nihil aliud quam caro Christi et sanguis post consecrationem credenda sunt. Though nearly approaching, this expression hardly amounts to the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation.] sions, not agreeing with the Catholic doctrine and the writings of the ancient fathers, had few or no abettors before the eleventh century; and in the ninth, whereof we now treat, there were not wanting learned men (as Amalarius, archdeacon of Triars; Rabanus, at first abbot of Fulda, and afterwards archbishop of Mentz; John Erigena, an English divine; Walafridus Strabo, a German abbot; Ratramus or Bertramus, first priest of Corbie, afterwards abbot of Orbec in France; and many more), who by their writings opposed this new opinion of Paschasius, or of some others rather, and delivered to posterity the doctrine of the ancient Church. Yet we have something more to say concerning Paschasius; whom Bellarmine* and Sirmondus† esteemed so highly, that they were not ashamed to say that he was the first that had writ to the purpose concerning the eucharist, and that he had so explained the meaning of the Church, that he had shewn and opened the way to all them who treated of that subject after him. Yet in that whole book of Paschasius there is nothing that favours the transubstantiation of the bread, or its destruction or removal. Indeed, he asserts the truth of the body and blood of Christ's being in the eucharist, which Protestants deny not; he denies that the consecrated bread *De Scriptoribus Eccles. in Paschasio. + In vita Paschasii, edit. Paris. præfixa. is a bare figure, a representation void of truth, which Protestants assert not. But he hath many things repugnant to transubstantiation, which, as I have said, the Church of Rome itself has not yet quite found out. I shall mention a few of them. "Christ," saith he, "left us this sacrament, a visible figure and character of His body and blood, that by them our spirit might the better embrace spiritual and invisible things, and be more fully fed by faith." Again; "We must receive our spiritual sacraments with the mouth of the soul and the taste of faith." Item; "Whilst therein we savour nothing carnal; but we, being spiritual, and understanding the whole spiritually, we remain in Christ." And a little after; "The flesh and blood of Christ are received spiritually." And again; "To savour according to the flesh is death, and yet to receive spiritually the true flesh of Christ is life eternal." Lastly; "The flesh and blood of Christ are not received carnally, but spiritually." In these he teacheth, that the mystery [* Ch. 2. Diligenter ergo intelligere et spiritualia sacramenta palato mentis et gustu fidei digne percipere.—Ib. Neque itaque sinit terrenum aliquid aut vile ibidem suspicari, sed mystica et spiritualia in his sapere.-Ch. 3. Quo nimirum vegetati gustu ad immortalia et æterna præparemur, quatenus spiritualiter jam angelica gratia saginati in eo vivificemur.-Ch. 4. Per eundem [Spiritum] ex substantia panis ac vini mystice idem Christi corpus et sanguis |