Answer unto a Crafy and Sophistical Cavillation, Debate · Confutation of book 1 · Section 22
Caunterbury.
THis explication of the true catholicke fayth, noteth to the Reader certayn euident & manifest vntruthes vttered by me (as he sayth) which I also pray thee good reader to note for this intent, that thou mayst take ye rest of my sayinges for true, which he noteth not for false, & doubtles they should not hauehave escaped noting as wel as the other if they had bin vntrue, as he sayth the other be. And if I can proue these thinges also true, whichhe noteth for manyfest and euident vntruthes, then mee thinketh it is reason that all my sayinges should be allowed for true, if those be proued true which only be reiected as vntrue. But this vntruth is to be noted in him generally, that he either ignorantly mistaketh, or willingly misreporteth almost all that I say. But now note good Reader, the euident and manyfest vntruthes which I vtter as he sayth.Foure manifest vntruthes. The first is, that the faith of the reall presence is the fayth of the papistes. An other is, that these word…s, my flesh is verely meate. I doe translate thus: My flesh is very meate. An other is that I handle not sincerely the words of S. Augustine speaking of the eating of Christes body. The fourth is, that by these wordes, this is my body, Christ intēdeth not to make the bread his body, but to signifie yt such as receiue that worthely, be members of Christes body. These be the haynous and manifest errors which I hauehave vttered.
As touching the first, that the faith of the real and substancial presence of Christes body and bloud in the Sacrament is the faith of the papistes,The first vntruth, that the faith of the reall presence to the faith of the papists. this is no vntruth, but a most certain truth. For you confesse your selfe, and defend in this booke, that it is your faith: and so do likewise all ye papistes. And here I will make an issue with you, that the papistes beleeue the reall, corporall, and naturall presence of Christes body and bloud in the Sacrament. Aunswere me directly without colour, whether it be so or not. If they beleeue not so, then they beleeue as I doe, for I beleeue not so: and then let them openly confesse that my belief is true. And if they beleeue so, then say I true when I say that it is the papistes faith. And then is my saying no manifest vntruth, but a meere truth, & so the verdict in the issue passeth vponupon my side by your own confession.
And here the Reader may note well that once again you be faine to flye for succor vntounto M. Luther, Bucer, Ionas, Melancthon, & Aepinus,Luther. Bucer. Ionas. Melancthon. Epinus. whose names were wonte to be so hatefull vntounto you, that you coulde neuer with patience abide the hearing of them: & yet their sayinges helpe you nothing at all. For although these men in this & many other thinges, hauehave in times past, and yet peraduenture some doe (the vayle of olde darcknes not cleerly in eueryevery point remoued from their eyes) agree with the papistes in part of this matter, yet they agree not in the wholl: and therfore it is true neuerthelesse that this fayth which you teache is the Papistes faith. For if you would conclude, that this is not the Papistes faith because Luther, Bucer, & other, beleue in many things as the papists do, thē by the same reasō you may conclude that ye papists beleeue not yt Christ was borne, crucified, dyed, rose again, & ascended into heauē, which things Luther, Bucer, & the other, cōstantly doth taught, & beleeued: and yet the faith of ye real presēce, may be called rather ye fayth of the papists then of ye other, not only because the papists do so beleue, but specially, for that the papists were the first authors and inuentors of that faith, and hauehave been the chief spreaders abroad of it, and were the cause that other were blinded with the same error.
But here may the Reader note one thing by the way, that it is a foule cloute that you would refuse to wipe your nose withal, when you take such men to proue your matter, whom you hauehave hetherto accounted moste vile, and filthy heretickes. And yet now you be glad to flye to them for succour, whom you take for Gods enemyes, and to whom you hauehave euer had a singular hatred. You pretende that you stay your selfe vponupon auncyent wryters: And why runne you now to such men for ayde, as be not onelyonly new, but also as you thinke, be euill and corrupt in iudgement: And to such as thinke you, by your writinges and doinges, as ranke a Papiste, as is any at Rome.
And yet not one of these new men (whom you alleadge) doe throughlye agree with your doctrine, either in transubstantiation, or in carnall eating and drinking of Christes flesh and bloud, or in the sacrifice of Christ in the masse, nor yet throughlye in the reall presence. For they affirme not suche a grosse presence of Christes body, as expelleth the substance of bread, and is made by conuersion therof into the substance of Christes body, and is eaten with the mouth. And yet if they did, the auncyent authors that were next vntounto Christs time (whom I hauehave alleadged) may not geue place vntounto these new men in this matter, although they were men of excellent learning and iudgement, how so euer it liketh you to accept them.
But I may conclude that your faith in the Sacrament is popish, vntill such time as you can proue that your doctrine of transubstantiation, and of the real presence, was vniuersally receaued and beleeued, before the bishops of Rome defined and determined the same. And when you hauehave prooued that, then will I graunt that in your first note you hauehave conuinced me of an euident and manifest vntruth, and that I vntruely charge you with the enuious name of a papisticall faith.
But in your issue you terme the wordes at your pleasure, and reporte mee otherwise then I doe say: for I doe not say that the doctrine of the reall presence is the papistes faith onelyonly, but that it was the papists faith, for it was their deuise. And herein will I ioyne with you an issue:Mine issue. that the papisticall church is the mother of transubstantiation, and of all the foure principall errors which I impugne in my booke.