The Novelty of Popery Discovered, Chapter 18
CHAPT. XVIII.
The Novelty of Transsubstantiation.
BEfore wee come to the discoverie, of the Noveltie of this lurde errour, wee will show first, how grosse not onelie the Romani…tes of olde hauehave beene therein, but lyke-wyse their verie late lesuits: First, then, to vse the wordes of the Councell of Rome, helde by Pope Nicolas, (Anno 1060) wherevnto they caused Berengarie, by way of recantation, to subscrybe, The Bread and Wine which are set vponupon the Altar,Decreti 3 pars dist. 2. c. 42▪ ego Berengarius. after consecration, (say they) are not onelie the Sacrament of CHRIST'S Bodie and Blood, but are the verie true Bodie and Blood of CHRIST, and sensiblie in the verie trueth, is handled by the hands of the Priest, and kroken, and chawed by the teeth of the faythfull.
A late lesuit lyke-wyse, Cornelius à Lapide, sayeth vponupon these wordes of ISAI,A Lapide in Isai 7. 14. Beholde, a Virgine shall conceaue, and beare a Sonne. In this venerable Sacrament, this mysterie (sayeth hee) is truelie performed, and daylie in verie deede renewed: which heere ISAIAH fore-telleth, and which was performed when the Word was incarnate: for by the wordes of consecration, as the Bread is truelie and reallie transsubstantiate, so CHRIST is brought foorth, and as it were begotten vponupon the Altar; as powerfullie and efficaciouslie, as if CHRIST were not as yet incarnate, yet by these wordes, This is my Bodie, Hee should bee incarnate: and assume an humane bodie, as graue Divynes doe teach: there-fore (sayeth hee) the Priest is as the Virgine that bare him, the Altar is the Manger, the little Emmanuell which hee beareth, is Christ brought foorth vnderunder the little Host…e, by vertue of the Highest, and over-shadowing of the holie Ghost: which made their Postellu… to call Transsubstantiation, nativitas m…diatoris vltima, or the last birth of our Mediator CHRIST.
For detection of the Noveltie of which blasphemous errour,Biel in can. M…ssae l…ct. 40 Roffe… c…nt …ptiv B…byl. num. 8 e… 90. if wee first inq…yre of the Antiquitie thereof in Scripture, a clowde of their owne witnesses will tell vsus, that it is not expressed in Scripture, nor can bee proven there…y a… all, and that it may bee justlie doubted, (sayeth Bellarmine himselfe) whether these wordes, This is my Bodie, Cajet. 3. 9. 78. are. …. Bell. l. 3. de Euch. 6. …3.bee cleare anough to inforce it, seeing the most sharpe witted and learned Doctors of the Romane Church, (such as Scotus w…s) hauehave thought the contrarie, (sayeth hee.)
Next, if wee aske for the Antiquitie thereof, in the writs of the auncient Fathers,Iohan Y…ibar nus in 4. se…t dist. …1 9. 3. disp. 4…. or if it was believed in the primitiue Church: then one of their schoole-men will tell vsus, saying, In the primitiue Church, it was not believed as a poynt of fayth, that the substance of bread, was converted into the bodie of Christ.
Next, of the Transsubstantiation of the bread, into the bodie of CHRIST, (sayeth Alfonsu… à Castro) in the auncient wryters, there is verie seldome mention.Cus…n l. 6. ex ercit. tit. ex quar… serm. p. 522 Theod dial. …
Yea, sundrie auncient Divynes doe a…irme, that the bread is not Transub…tanti…te, (sayeth their Cardinall Cusanus.)
Where…ore Theodores telleth vsus clearlie, That the mysticall signes after consecration, departe not f…om their owne nature, but remayne in their former substance, figure, and forme, and may bee seene and touched as before.
Yea,Gelasius d… duab… Chri… their owne Pope Gelaesius, wryting agaynst Eutyches, sayeth expreslie, That tho in the Sacrament wee receaue a divyne thing, to wit,s…in… tur… c…nt. Eutych…n. in bibliotheca patrū tom. 4 Cassand. cōsule. art. 10 the Bodie and Blood of CHRIST, yet the substance and nature of the bread and wine ceasseth not to remaine, (sayeth hee.)
And if anie speaches of Fathers would seeme to sound other ways, their owne Cassander telleth vsus, That the late Schoole men doe acknowledge these speaches to bee figuratiue, whereby the signe is called, by the name of the thing which is signified, and is present also in the Sacrament. So that justlie sayde the elder Schoolemen,Su… rez in 3. Thomae disp. 80. Sect. 2 p. 602. (as Suarez. reporteth of them) that the doctrine of Transsubstantiation is not verie ancient.
This errour, then, was first broached in the East, by Damascene, in the time of Gregori… the third, (Anno 740) and opposed then chiefelie by the Councell of Constantinople, Dimas. l. 4 Orthod. fidei c. 14.consisting of 338 Bishops, (Anno 754) who declared, That the bread in the Eucharist, was the true resemblance of Christs naturall bodie, and consequentlie not the bodie it selfe.concil. Gen. Tom. 3. pag. 599. & edit. Rom. pag. 600. foreign foreign.
About an hundreth yeares there-after,Lib. 3. de eccles. offic. c. 24 Florus in actis synod. Carisiac. See Philip Morney do missa. l. 4. …. …. in the tyme of Gregorie the fourth, the same also began to bee propounded in the West, by one Amularius, Bishop of Lions, who was censured, and opposed, by the Councell of Carifiacum, wherein it was declared by the Bishops of France, That it was to bee vnderstood, that the bread and wine, were the bodie and blood of CHRIST, after a spirituall manner onelie.
Heere-after howsoever, sundrie helde this grosse opinion of Transsubstantiation, Paschasius Radbertus, a Deacon, (Anno 850) who to that purpose wrote a Booke to Placidus, of the bodie and blood of CHRIST: yet others stoutlie mayntayned the trueth in the contrarie, as Rabin…s M…rus, who at the same tyme opposed Paschasi…s, and w…o…e thereof to Abb…t Egilo, whereby arose great disputes by sundrie vponupon both sides: wherevpon Carol…s Calvus, then King of FRANCE, willing to hauehave these differences composed amongst his people, and the trueth of the matter cleared, singled out one Bertram, a Priest and M…nke of Corbey, as*Non minus vita quam doctrina in signis, (s…y…b Tritemius of bi…n, … wrote 1490 beeing Abbot of spa… b…i…. Bertramꝰ l. de corp. et sāg. Christ…dit Co…o…. a man m…st famous in those tymes, both for learning and pietie, and req…yred him to wryte to him his judgement in that matter▪ which hee accordinglie did in his booke yet extant, written (Anno 876) wherein hee declareth and proveth, That the bread and wine, are Christs bodie and blood figuratiuelie onelie, or by representation, according to the na…ure of Sacramentes, and sacramentall speaches, taking so the name of that which they signifi…: but for the substance of the creatures or elementes themselues, they are the same after consecration, as they were before:Anno 1551. pag. 18…0 200. et 205 Index expu…g Belgic Lit. B. T…rrian, contr. Volan. l. b. I. de Euthar, cap. 22. (sayeth hee) for which cause the Romanis…es in the Belgicke expurgatorie Index, wish, that this Booke had altogether perished: the Iesuit Turrian giving the reason thereof, Because the citing of it declareth that Calvine's Heresie is not new.
About which tyme also of Bertrams wryting, a famous countreyman of ours also, Iohannes Scotus, wrote a*See Lanfranc. lib. de sacrā. euchar contr… Berengar. where this book is mentioned & the cōtēts therof booke of the same matter, and to the same sense, who for his extraordinarie great learning in those tymes, was surnamed, Iohn the wyse.
And in ENGLAND, in the dayes of Aeifricke an Abbot, (Anno 975) there was an auncient Homilie, which the sayde Aelfricke at the command of W…lfstane Arch-bishop of Yorke. translated out of Latine and Sax…n, into Engl…sh, synodicallie appoynted to bee read to the people, for their instruction, at everie Easter, before the receaving of the holie Housell, (as he calleth the Sacrament) wherein the verie same doctrine,Fox Martyrolog. pag. 1119. edit. 1576. Scotus cited by Bel l. 3. de Euchar. c. 23. set downe by Bertram, and professed now by vsus, is clearlie set downe, as the sayde Homilie at large may bee seene, in Master Iohn Foxe his Booke of Martyres.
Yet at last, errour in the times of ignorance, and Papall vsurpation so farre prevailed, that (Anno 1215) it was established as an Article of fayth: so that as Scotus affirmeth truelie, before the Councell of Laterane, it was no doctrine of fayth, (sayeth hee.)