The Grand Sacrilege of the Church of Rome, Chapter 11 · Section 8
SECT. VIII. The Testimonies of the practise of the Church from 700. to 800.
IN this age wee hauehave foure concurrent witnesses, and contestatours beyond all exception:
Beda.
Greg. 2.
Greg. 3.
Alcumus.
We will produce them in order. And first Venerable Beda.
Anno 720.
Venerable Beda, the honour of England, and mirrour of his time, witnesseth as followeth: Christ washeth vsus daily from our sins in his blood, when the memory of his passion is celebrated or recounted at the Altar; aBeda, homil in verba Ioh. vidit Ioh. Iesum, &c. Cum panis & vini creatura in sacramentum corporis eius & sanguinis transsertur. et post: sanguis fidelium ore sumitur ad salutem.where the creatures of bread and wine, by the vnspeakable sanctification of the Spirit, are changed into the Sacrament of his flesh and blood; and therby his body & blood is not powred out by the hands of Infidels to their destruction, but is receiued, or is taken by, or into the mouth of the faithful to saluation. In this testimony I note, first, that he teacheth not a substantiall change of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ; but a sacramentall onelyonly, agreeable to the harmony of Protestants Confession. Se condly, that Beda either alludes vntounto, or transcribes herein the words of S. Gregory aboue alleaged, which I hauehave there proued to be most pregnant to our purpose.
Anno 726.
Gregory 2. in his Epistle of Images to Leo Isaurus; A man that hath sinned, and confessed after they hauehave well chastened, and punished him with fasting, let them impart vntounto him the pretious body of our Lord, and bSancto illius sanguine potent.giuegive him his holy blood to drinke.
Anno 731.
Gregory 3. in his former Epistle to Boniface, forbiddeth at the Lords Table more then one Cup to be vsed; saying, It is not a fitting thing, to put two or three Chalices on the Altar. No doubt the reason, why more Chalices were put on the Altar, was for the vse of the people, otherwise one would hauehave serued.
This custome the Pope dislikes not, for that the Cup was giuen to the Laiety: but because in the first institution, Christ gaue but one Cup to all his Disciples. The same Pope afterward thus resolueth the question touching the leprous Communicants, with whom the sound could not with safety drinke in the same Cup: As cLeprosis, si fideles fuerint, Dominici corporis & sanguinis participatie tribuatur.for leapers, if they be belieuers, let them not be depriued if the participation of our Lords body and blood, but by no meanes let them bee at the same Table, or participate together with them, that are cleane.
Anno. 780.
Alcuinus in his book of diuine duties, instanceth in some, who were not fit to communicate eueryevery day, because they had no purpose to leaue their sinnes; To these, saith he, Saint Austine thus speaketh; I like well of your humility, that you presume not to approach to the body and blood of Christ; but it were better, that you would depart from your iniquities, and being made cleare by repentance, d Mundi facti per poenitentiā, corpus, & sanguinem Domini sumere.would take the body and blood of Christ.
Papists answer.
Cardinall Bellarmine, for want of a better, aduentureth vponupon this answer: that indeede these Fathers say, that the blood of Christ is taken by, or with the mouth; but they say not, that it ought to be drunken with the mouth of the body, or taken vnderunder the forme of wine.
Reply.
The Hart as often as he is wounded flyes to his old Dictamus, and Bellarm. to this distinction to heale himselfe: but none of this herbe here groweth; there is no ground for it. For first, the Fathers alleadged speake of the body and blood of Christ, as distinct things; and therefore not as of one inuolued in the other by the doctrine of Concomitancy: to approach vntounto, to take the body of Christ and his blood, or the creature of bread and wine sacramentally changed into Christs body and blood, as Beda speaketh, is not to take bread onelyonly, and wine by, I know not what, consequence; or the body onelyonly in specie, and the blood by Concomitancy.
Secondly, could this answer be appliable to other generall sentences of the Fathers, yet not to these, in which there is expresse mention made of the Chalice, of powring out the blood of Christ, and taking it as drinke; and therfore vnderunder the forme of wine. And who are they that so receiue it? The Laietie as wel as the Priests, vnlesse none but Priests are faithful Christians, or all lepers & excommunicate, or suspended persons are to bee taken for Priests. Beda reacheth the Cup to the faithful indifferently, and Gregory to penitents after confession and contrition, of what ranck so euer. Yea leapers are not excluded simply, but secluded, that they might not infect the sound, by drinking together with them.