The Anatomy of the Mass, Book 1 · Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX. Of accidents without a ſubject: places of Fathers.
THe accidents without a ſubject which they put in the conſecrated Hoſte, are another ſwarme of ridiculous abſurdities and meere contradictions. For what is there more incompatible than this,*Ariſt. l. 6. Metaph. cap. 1. Loquens de accidentibus. foreign. to wit, that Accidentia non accidunt, as if one ſaid, Albentia non albent, that the ſpeakers ſpeake not: and to forge qualities which qualifie nothing: colour and nothing coloured, a length and nothing long, a roundneſſe and nothing round: as if one ſhould forge a ſight without an eye, a ſickneſſe without a ſicke body, a halting without a legge, an Ecclipſe of the Moone without a Moone. So they put in the Hoſte a taſte of bread, a colour of bread, a roundneſſe of bread without bread. And as Pope Innocent the third ſaith in his 4 Booke of the Myſteries of the Maſſe, chap. 11.†Eſt enim hic color & ſapor, cum nihil alterutro ſit coloratum, aut ſapidū, quantum aut quale. There is here colour and ſavour, quantitie and qualitie, though there be here nothing ſavory, nothing coloured, nothing that hath quantitie or qualitie. In ſumme, God hath ſo created ſubſtances, and accidents, that as a created ſubſtance cannot be without accidents, ſo accidents cannot be without a ſubſtance: Theſe things be ſo relative one to another, as to ſeparate them, is as if one ſhould put a Father without a Sonne, or a Sonne without a Father.
This error caſts our Adverſaries head-long into many others. For if the Hoſte become dirtie, being fallen into the mire, loe there are accidents that carry a ſubſtance: and whereas the ſubſtance is the ſubject of accidents, here on the contrarie, accidents are the ſubject of the ſubſtance.
None can deny but that Ice is a ſubſtance: when then the conſecrated cup freezeth, they will have the accidents alone to be frozen, and ſo the accidents are become a Subſtance by a new kind of Tranſubſtantiation, no leſſe prodigious than the firſt, and which never theleſſe availeth nothing to our ſalvation. Vnleſſe they will have Chriſts body to be frozen.
That if the Hoſtes grow mouldie, behold there are lines, a whiteneſſe, a length, a roundneſſe mouldie. If one warme the conſecrated cup ſo that it ſmoake, behold accidents which produce a Subſtance. If (as*Thom. 3. part. q. 77. art. 3. Senſu deprehenditur hoſtias conſecratas putrefieri & corrumpt. Et art. 5. Ex ſpeciebus ſacrimentalib. generantur vermes, ſi corrodantur. Thomas and†Suarez in 3 Thomae diſput. 57. ſ. 3. Conſtat ex hoſtus conſecratis vermes generari. Suarez acknowledge) wormes breed in the conſecrated hoſte, we muſt ſay that accidents have engendred a ſubſtance, and that Soul-leſſe accidents have produced an animated Subſtance: and all that without being able to tell what profit the faithfull reape thereby.
The hiſtories written by our adverſaries teſtifie, that PopeaPlatina in Victore 3. & Clemēt. 5. Naucler. Gener. 4. Aventinus lib. 7. pag. 598. Stella, Faſciculus temporum. Victorinus the 3 was impoyſoned in the chalice of the Maſſe. And that Henry the 7 Emperour was ſerved juſt ſo in taking the Hoſte.bHenricus Archiepiſc Eboracenſis, cum divina celebraret myſteria, hauſto in ipſo calice, ut aiunt, vener obiit. Matthew Paris, in the yeare 1154. relates the like of Henry Archbiſhop of Yorke. Then it was ſaid with horrour, God is impoyſoned. It is likely that for to avoid this inconvenience, they make the eſſay to the Pope, and taſte it before him at the Maſſe, as they doe at his ordinary meales. That if the accidents onelyonly are impoyſoned, beſides the abſurdity of impoyſoning a length, breadth, and colour, where there is nothing long, nothing broad, nor nothing coloured, this ignominy is done to Chriſt Jeſus, that by his preſence hee could not t… move away the poyſon: and that his body ſerved of a vehicle to the poyſon, and that being given for the ſalvation of the ſoule, it ſerveth to bring death and deſtruction to the body.
The Fathers impugne this errour plainly and expreſly.aNyſſ. exam. emero. pag. 13. foreign. Gregory of Nyſſe, in his worke of ſix dayes. The figure is not without bodie. bTolle ipſa corpora qualitatibus corporum, non erit ubiſint… ideo neceſſe eſt ut non ſint. Et paulo poſt. Si moles ipſa corporis penitus auf…rater, qualitates ejus non erit ubiſint.S. Auſtin in his 57 Epiſtle to Dardanus, Take away the bodies from the qualities of bodies, they ſhall be no more, and therefore it is neceſſary they be not. Aud a little after, If the maſſe of the body be wholy taken away, its qualities ſhall be no more. The ſame in his 2 booke of Soliloquies: cI'lud vero quod interrogaſt quis conceſſerit, ut quod in ſubjecto eſt mameat ipſo intereunte ſubfecto?Who can yeeld to that thou haſt demanded of me, that that which is in the ſubject, may remaine after the ſubject is aboliſhed?
Briefly, in all the Fathers you ſhal not finde one that ſaith that in the Euchariſt the accidents remaine without a Subject. That if they had be leeved it, doubtleſſe when they ſaid that an accident is never without a ſubject, they would have brought this exception taken from the Sacrament.
Moreover S. Auſtin in his 3 booke of …he Trinitie, chap. 10. ſaith openly that …n the Euchariſt there is no miracle wrought. The bread (ſaith he) made for …his uſe, is eaten when the Sacrament is re…eived: but becauſe theſe things are knowne unto men, by reaſon they are made by men, aHaec henorem habere poſſunt ut religioſa, ſtuporem autem habere ut mira non poſſunt.… they may well be honoured as religious: but cannot be admired as miraculous. In the 3 Tome of this good Doctor there are 3 bookes Of the marvelous things of the Scriptures, wherein he ſpeakes nothing of Tranſubſtantiation, nor of the Euchariſt.
And thoſe that talke here of Miracle, underſtand not what a miracle is. A Miracle is a ſenſible and a viſible effect of the power of God, againſt or above the courſe of nature, to the end he may make his vertue knowne unto men. But in the Maſſe there is nothing ſeene miraculous. None can boaſt without lying, that ever he ſaw the Tranſubſtantiation made. We do not deny but God may do all theſe things, if he would. But we ſay it is impoſſible that he would have ſuch things to come to paſſe. For he will be no lyar, nor will contradict himſelfe, nor tie and ſubmit his omnipotencie to mers imagination, who imploy it in ridiculous things, and forging of Chymera'… and caſtles in the aire.