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about transubstantiation, nor the consecration of the sacrament, but left them undetermined, with many other controversies. But that which is called the Armenians' instruction* (and in this cause and almost all disputes is cited as the decree of the general council of Florence, by Soto,† Bellarmine,‡ and the Roman catechism,§) is no decree of the council, as we have demonstrated somewhere else, but a false and forged decree of Pope Eugenius IV., who doth indeed in that instruction prescribe to the Armenians a form of doctrine about the sacrament, saying, "that by virtue of the words of Christ the substance of the bread is turned into His body, and the substance of the wine into His blood." But that he did it with the approbation of the council, as he often says in his decree, is proved to be altogether false, as well by the acts of the council, as by the unanswerable arguments of C. de Capite Fontium, archbishop of Cæsarea, in his book De necessaria Theologiæ Scholastica Correctione,¶ dedicated to Pope Sixtus V. For how could the council of Florence approve that decree which was made more than three months after it was ended? it being certain that after the council was done,** the Armenians,

* Instr. ad Armen.
De Euch. 1. 4. c. 13.
|| In the History of the
¶ P. 51, 53, et 56.

+ In 4. dist. 11. q. 1. art. 2. § Part. 2. c. 4. num. 18. Canon of Scripture, p. 158. ** Ex Act. Conc. Flor.

with the Greeks, having each of them signed letters of union (which yet were not approved by all, nor long in force after they were subscribed), departed out of Florence July 22, whereas the instruction was not given while November 22. Therefore, by the mutual consent of both parties, was nothing here done or decreed about transubstantiation, or the rest of the articles of the new Roman faith. But Eugenius, or whoever was the forger of the decree, put a cheat upon his reader. Perhaps he had seen the same done by Innocent III. or Gregory IX., in the pretended decrees of the council of Lateran, which were the pope's only, but not the council's. And certainly it is more likely Eugenius did it rather to please himself, than for any hopes he could have that at his command the Armenians would receive and obey his instruction sooner than the Greeks: for to this day "the Armenians believe that the elements of bread and wine retain their nature in the sacrament of the eucharist."*

31. By these any considering person may easily see that transubstantiation is a mere novelty; not warranted either by Scripture or antiquity; invented about the middle of the twelfth century, out of some misunderstood sayings of some of the fathers; confirmed by no ecclesiastic or papal decree before the year 1215; afterwards received

* Joh. Lasic. de Relig. Armeniorum.

only here and there in the Roman Church; debated in the schools by many disputes; liable to many very bad consequences; rejected (for there was never those wanting that opposed it) by many great and pious men, until it was maintained in the sacrilegious council of Constance; and at last, in the year 1551, confirmed in the council of Trent, by a few Latin bishops, slaves to the Roman see; imposed upon all, under pain of an anathema to be feared by none; and so spread too too far, by the tyrannical and most unjust command of the pope. So that we have no reason to embrace it, until it shall be demonstrated that except the substance of the bread be changed into the very body of Christ, his words cannot possibly be true, nor his body present: which will never be done.

* Sess. 13.

+ Bulla Pii IV. de profess. fidei.

207

APPENDIX TO CHAP. VI.

Clemens Romanus, Constitutiones Apostolicæ, vi. 23. [ἀντὶ θυσίας τῆς δι' αἱμάτων, λογικὴν καὶ ἀναίμακτον, καὶ τὴν μυστικήν, ἥτις εἰς τὸν θάνατον τοῦ μυρίου συμβόλων χάριν ἐπιτελεῖται τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ αἵματος. Ib. c. 29 : τὴν ἀντίτυπον τοῦ βασιλείου σώματος Χριστοῦ δεκτὴν εὐχαριστίαν προσφέρετε.

Ignatius, Epistola ad Philadelph. [μία γὰρ ἐστιν ἡ σὰρξ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἓν αὐτοῦ τὸ αἷμα, τὸ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐκχυθέν. εἷς καὶ ἄρτος τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐθρύφθη, καὶ ἓν ποτήριον τοῖς ὅλοις διενεμήθη.]

Theophilus, ad Autol. ii.

Athenagoras, Legat. pro Christ. [§ 13. τί δέ μοι ὁλοκαυτώσεων ὧν μὴ δεῖται ὁ Θεός ; καίτοι προσφέρειν δέον ἀναίμακτον θυσίαν, καὶ τὴν λογικὴν προσάγειν λατρείαν.]

Tatianus in Diatessaron [sub nomine Ammonii evulgatum in Bib. Patr. i. p. iii. Accepto pane, deinde vini calice, corpus esse suum ac sanguinem testatus, manducare illos jussit et bibere, quod ea sit futura calamitatis suæ mortisque memoria.]

Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata i. [σωτὴρ ἄρτον λαβὼν πρῶτον ἐλάλησε καὶ εὐχαρίστησεν, εἶτα κλάσας τὸν ἄρτον προέθηκεν, ἵνα δὴ φάγωμεν λογικῶς.]

Pedagog. ii. [2. μυστικὸν ἄρα σύμβολον ἡ γραφὴ αἵματος ἁγίου οἶνον ὠνόμασεν.]

Minutius Felix, in Octavio. [Bib. Pat. i. p. iii. 9. Quem colimus

Deum nec ostendimus nec videmus ; immo ex hoc Deum credimus, quod eum sentire possumus, videre non possumus.]

Eusebius, de Demonstratione Evangelica, i. 10. [τούτου δῆτα τοῦ θύματος τὴν μνημὴν ἐπὶ τραπέζης ἐκτελεῖν, διὰ συμβόλων τοῦ τε σώματος αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ σωτηρίου αἵματος κατὰ θεσμοὺς τῆς καινῆς διαθήκης παρειληφότες. πάλιν γὰρ αὐτὸς τὰ σύμβολα τῆς ἐνθέου οἰκονομίας τοῖς αὐτοῦ παρεδίδου μαθηταῖς, τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ ἰδίου σώμα τος ποιεῖσθαι παρακελευόμενος.]

Juvencus, de Historia Evangelica, iv. [Bib. Pat. iv. p. 20.
Hæc ubi dicta dedit, palmis sibi frangere panem
Divisumque dehinc tradit, sancteque precatus
Discipulos docuit proprium se tradere corpus.
Hinc calicem sumit Dominus vinoque repletum
Magnis sanctificat verbis, potumque ministrat,
Edocuitque suum se divisisse cruorem.

Atque ait: Hic sanguis populi delicta remittit.
Hunc potate meum.]

Macarius Ægyptius, Hom. 37 [or 27. οὔτε ἀνέβη αὐτῶν ἐπὶ καρδίαν ὅτι ἔσται βάπτισμα πυρὸς καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου, καὶ ὅτι ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ προσφέρεται ἄρτος καὶ οἶνος ἀντίτυπον τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ σώματος, καὶ οἱ μεταλαμβάνοντες ἐκ τοῦ φαινομένου ἄρτου, πνευματικῶς τὴν σάρκα τοῦ κυρίου ἐσθίουσι.]

Hilarius, in Matt. ch. ix. [In fide enim resurrectionis sacramentum panis coelestis accipitur. Cap. xxxi. Sine quo pascha accepto calice et fracto pane conficitur. Dignus enim æternorum sacramentorum communione non fuerat [Judas]. Et De Synodis [$ 13. Neque enim ipse sibi quisquam imago est.]

Optatus, contra Parm. iii. [Vinum a peccatoribus operariis et calcatur et premitur, et sic inde Deo sacrificium offertur. In Bib. Pat. iv. 281.]

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