The Grand Sacrilege of the Church of Rome, Chapter 11 · Section 13
SECT. XIII. The testimonies of the practise of the Church from 1200. to 3000.
Anno. 1229.
ABbas Vrspergensis writing of the besieging of Damiata, saith, that fCommunicato sacramento corpo. & sanguinis domini, ascendunt in turrem illam ligneam pag. 322.the souldiers, before they scaled the wooden tower, made confession of their sins, and receiued the sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord. The like Antoninus gChron. part. 2. Northmani confessioni peccatorum vacantes manè dominico corp. & sang. communicauerunt.writeth of the Normans in William the Conquerors time, and Matthew Paris of the English in King Heralds time, and William Rufus. Neither was that custome as yet controld in that age, nor an hundred yeeres after, as in due place shall be shewed.
Anno 1236.
Durandus hIn rationali Diuin. lib. 4. c. 54 Solam hostiam recipiens, non plen… sacramentum recipit sacramentaliter. &c.Mimatensis in expresse tearmes affirmeth, that he who receiues the Hoste only, doth not receiue the whole sacrament sacramentally. For although the blood of Christ bee in the consecrated Hoste (hee speaketh according to the schooles in these times; yet it is not there sacramentally; because the bread signifieth the body, & not the blood; the wine signifieth the blood, and not the body. In regard therefore that the sacrament is not compleat in one kind according to the signe, the sacrament must be made compleat before the Priest vse it. Durand his conclusion falls short vponupon the Priest, but his reason stretcheth to all people, as well as Priests. For all ought to receiue the entire Sacrament sacramentally, and if one kind onelyonly be an imperfect Sacrament to the Priest in regard of the signe, it must needs bee imperfect also vntounto the people: vnlesse they will say, that the sacrament presents lesse to the Priests, then to the people, or that the Priests aprehend lesse in it, then the people surely that which is but halfe a Cup to one, cannot be a whole one to an other; that which is empty, or incompleat to one, cannot bee compleat and full to another.
Anno 1240.
iHalens, sum. Theolog. part. 3. quaest. 11. memb. 2. art. 4. & in 4. sent. quest. 40, Illa quae est sub duabus, est maioris meriti, tum ratione augmentationis deuotioris, tum ratione sumptionis completioris. Totus Christus non continetur sub vtraque specie sacramentaliter, sed caro tantùm sub specie panis, sanguis tantùm sub specie vini. Rursus sumptio sub vtraque specie, quem modum sumendi tradidit Dominus, est maioris efficaciae, & complementi.Halensis, howsoeuer he some way inclines to that opinion, that it is sufficient to receiue the sacrament in one kind: yet he confe…eth, that there is more merit and deuotion, and compleatnesse, and efficacie in receiuing in both.
Albertus Magnus in 4. Sent. dist. 8. deliuers this generall rule: sacramentum Ecclesiae nihil in gratia causa…, quod non ex similitudine significat: The sacrament of the Church causeth nothing in grace, which it signifieth not by similitude: that is, it produceth nothing, which it presenteth not. And from thence inferres, that the vnity of Christs mysticall body is not perfectly caused, and signified, but by a double signe: and therefore by kIdeo virtute sacramenti oportet habere vtrumque.vertue, or in regard of the sacramēt we ought to hauehave both. Let the Reader note, that Albertus saith not, according to the new euasion of the Iesuites, virtute sacrificij oportet habere vtramque, but, virtute sacramenti; not that both kinds are requisite to the sacrifice, but to the sacrament. The sacrament by the doctrine of Albertus, wants so much of his efficacie, as it doth want of its significancie, but the receiuing vnderunder the forme of bread onelyonly beareth no similitude, nor hath any signification of the spiritual drink of Christs blood. The Romanists therefore in taking away one of the signes from the Laiety, consequently depriue (asmuch as in them lieth) the Laiety of the grace represented by that signe, and conferred with it. And *Etsi …lus gratiae conferretur per sumptionem vt ius que speciei, tamen meritò Ecclesiam hoc non curare, magisque prespicere reuerentia ipsins Sacramenti, quàm vtilitati sumentium, &c. Aegid. de Coninck in D. Thom. de Sacram. quaest. 80. art. 12. nu. 126. Antuerp. 1624.yet Aegidius Coninck, a moderne Iesuite, and professor of Diuinity at Louaine, maketh this audacious assertion out of the Chaire of his Schoole Diuinity: Although more grace may be conferred by receiuing in both kinds, notwithstanding, the Church vponupon good reason careth not for that, and doth more respect the reuerence of the Sacrament, then the profit of the receiuers, &c.
Anno 1260.
mIn 1. Cor. c. 11. Traditur hoc sacramentum sub duplici specie propter tria. 1. propter eius perfectionem, &c. 2. Propter cius significationem, &c. 3. Propter salutarem effectum. valet enim ad, salutem corporis, & ideo offertur corpꝰ, & valet ad salutem animae, & ideo offertur fangu…. Aquinas loc. citat. sum. part. 3. q. 80. art. 12. Ex parte sacramenti conuenit, quòd vtrumque sumatur quia in vtroque consistit eius perfectio.Aquinas yeeldeth three reasons of the institution of this sacrament vnderunder a double forme: the first is; For the perfection of it, because sith it is a spirituall meale, or refection, it ought to hauehave spirituall meat, and spirituall drinke; secondly, for the signification of it, for it is a memoriall of the Lords passion, whereby his blood was seuered from his body; and therefore in this sacrament the blood is offered by it selfe; Thirdly for the healthfull effect of it, for the body is offered to shew, that it is of force to saue the body; and the blood is offered to shew, that it is of force to saue the soule. The halfe Communion therefore in Aquinas his learning wants perfection, significancie, and efficacie. Bonauenture thus indeuoreth to cleere the matter: In the sacrament there are two things, efficacy, and significancy; concerning efficacie, neither kinde is of the integritie of the Sacrament, but either is the whole; concerning signification, so the two signes are of the integritie of the Sacrament, or integrall parts of the Sacrament, nBonauent. in 4. sentent. dist. 11. q. 2. Neutrá per se exprimitur res buius sacramenti, sed in vtraque. Et post. Vt perfecta esset & signaretur redemptio, & ex hoc perfecta refectio, debuit signari corpus in pane, & anima in vino, cuius sedes est in sanguine.because the matter of the Sacrament is expressed in neither kinde by it selfe, but in both together: and a little after; To make it represent perfect redemption, and thereby a perfect refection, the body ought to be signified in the bread, and the soule in the wine, the seate whereof is in the blood.
Anno 1280.
Richardus de Mediauilla, and Petrus de Tarantasia; who afterwards was aduanced to the Popedome, and changed his name into Innocentius the fourth, testifieth, that the Sacrament was administred in both kinds to the better sort of the Laietie, howsoeuer they entertained the vulgar and meaner sort with a drie Communion: thus oTracta. de Commu. sub vtraque specie. sec. 24. Maioribus …cet dari potus, sub vtra que specie, de quibus non timentur pericula effusionis, & erroris, quòd maiorem reuerentiam, & cautelam seruare sciunt.Cassander relates their words, The Sacrament may lawfully bee giuen in both kinds to greater personages, or men of qualitie, where there is no feare of error of spilling the blood, because such men know how to obserue due reuerence, and caution.
The Papists answer.
I finde no answere in particular made by any to the passages aboue alleaged; but in generall their answere is, that the Schoole-men might write more freely, before the Councell of Constance had decreed the contrary. And they adde; that some, if not all of these Schoole-men approoue of the administring of the Communion vnderunder one kinde to the Laietie.
The Replie.
The Councell of Constance by their decree could not make that; which was before false, to be then the truth: or that which was in Gelasius his time sacrilege, to be then pietie. What pApud Aristot. Rbetor. 2. cap. 23. foreign.Androcles spake sometimes of the Athenian lawes; The lawes had need of a law to mend them: may truely be said of this Canon in the Councell of Constance, that it needs a Canon to rectifie it: for it depraues Christs institution, it checks the Primitiue Church, it controules the practice of the whole Christian world, for 1200. yeeres and more; euen till the middle of this age, wherein Sacrilege stole in by degrees. A curious eye may tracke these fellons of the holy Chalice. First, vnderunder colour of preuenting abuses, in spilling the Cup, they take it away from the vulgar and meaner sort of people, not daring to offer this indignitie to the better sort; to them, as we heare out of Mediauilla, they deliuered the Sacrament in both kinds, afterwards vponupon this pretext, that the blood was in the body, and the whole Sacrament in either kind, they nimmed the Cup from the lesser Churches, as Linwood informes vsus: qLib. de summa Trin. & side Catholic. Solis celebrantibus sanguinem sub specie vini cousecrati sumere in minoribus Ecclesijs est concessum.It it granted, saith he, onelyonly to Priests, that celebrate in such small Churches, to receiue the blood vnderunder the forme of wine. Going cleere away with this their Sacrilege in lesser Churches, they aduenture vponupon the greater. And by Aquinas his confession, the Sacrament was administred in one kind, but in some Churches in his daies, For in diuers Churches, saith hee, rAquin. part. 3. q. 80. art. 12. Ideo prouidè in quibusdam Ecclesijs obseruatur, vt populo sanguis sumendus non detur, sed solùm à sacerdote sumatur.it is prouidently obserued, that the blood should not be giuen to the people, but that it should be receiued only by the Priest. In the end, when they had as farre as their authoritie stretched, robbed all assemblies of the Laietie, in depriuing them of the Cup: they after inacted a generall law in the yeere of our Lord, 1414. to warrant this their publike Sacrilege. This thirtenth age resembleth the riuer Iordane, which is sweet at the spring, but bitter and brackish in the fall of it; and in the end runneth into the dead Sea. Abbas Vrspergensis, Matthew Paris, and Vincentius, who flourished in the beginning, and continued vntill the middle of this age, gaue a full testimony vntounto the truth. But those who liued after, spake partely in the language of Canaan, and partly in the language of Ashdod. Halensis s Part. 4. qu. 55.saith, that the lay people for the most part communicated in both kinds; Lynwood, that in greater Churches they did so; Aquinas, that in some Churches they did, and in some they did not. For by this time, according to the Greeke prouerbe; Serpens genuit serpentem, vt fieret Draco: One Serpent hath begot another, that from them both a Dragon might issue. The error of transubstantiation, had begotten the error of concomitancie; and from both these at length issued out their hereticall sacrilege, or sacrilegious heresie in defending the practise of their halfe Communion.