and none following, is not within my purpose, nor should I dare to attempt it. That joined with the other essential rites, which without exception all the early liturgies contain, they are productive of the most mysterious effects is not for one instant to be doubted or denied. 66 Hear S. Chrysostom: "Exna πλnpwv kornxer örispeus, ta Σχημα πληρων ἑστηκεν ἱερευς, τα ῥηματα φθεγγόμενος εκείνα - ή δε δύναμις και ἡ χάρις του Θεού εστι. Τούτο μου εστι το σώμα, φησι. Τούτο το ρημα μεταρρυθ 964 μίζει τα προκείμενα. And S. Augustine: “Dixi vobis, quod ante verba Christi quod offertur, panis dicitur, ubi verba Christi deprompta fuerint, jam non panis dicitur, sed corpus appellatur." 65 So again, S. Ambrose" Ante benedictionem verborum cœlestium alia species nominatur, post consecrationem corpus significatur. 1: Ipse dicit sanguinem suum. Ante consecrationem aliud dicitur, post consecrationem sanguis nuncupatur." It may be argued that by "consecratio" in this place S. Ambrose means the Service, not the mere and only repetition of the words. But again, the same Father declares: "antequam consecretur, panis est; ubi autem verba Christi accesserint, corpus est Christi.--Ante verba Christi, calix est vini et aquæ plenus: ubi verba Christi operata fuerint, ibi sanguis Christi efficitur." And, once more, S. Irenæus: "Quando ergo et mixtus calix, et factus panis percipit verbum Dei, et fit Eucharistia sanguinis et corporis Christi,- -quomodo carnem negant capacem esse donationis Dei? etc." And presently afterwards in the same chapter, speaking of the bread and wine he says: "percipientia verbum Dei Eucharistia fiunt, quod est corpus et sanguis Christi." 68 -But neither these nor any of the fathers, give any testimony which declares that solely by the repetition of the words of Institution, the Eucharist is perfected. Irenæus, whose remarkable teaching I last quoted, himself in another place attributes the same effect to invoeation of the Deity. "Quemadmodum enim qui est a terra panis, percipiens invocationem Dei, jam non communis panis est, sed Eucharistia, ex duabus rebus constans, terrena et cœlesti: sie et corpora nostra percipientia Eucharistiam, jam non sunt corruptibilia, spem resurrectionis habentia." 69 And before him S. Justin in his second apology declares that the Eucharist is consecrated "per preces." This place of S.-Justin Bellarmin,70 who cites it, meets by saying that the holy apologist afterwards explains himself, and adds, that by these prayers he meant the words of Christ, "This is my Body, This is My Blood." But it is not true that Justin Martyr adds those words, or at all mentions the institution of the sacrament from the Gospels, except to prove, that the Eucharistical bread and wine are the Body and Blood of the Lord; and he is very far from asserting that the words of Christ, are the prayers by which the -Eucharist is consecrated: indeed, who without some appearance of absurdity, could say so? " 是 Origen declares that "the Eucharist is sanctified by the word of God and by Prayer." 971 S. Cyril of Jeru bed 68 Contra Hæres. lib. v. cap. 2. Opera. p. 294. 69 Ibid. lib. iv. cap. 18. Opera. 251. The reader will excuse, I doubt not, my having quoted the whole of such a sentence. 70 De Eucharistia. lib. iv. cap. 13. 71 Tom. ii. p. 17. The same Father asserts, writing against Celsus, that we "eat the sacrificial bread, which is by prayer made a holy Body, sanctifying those that make a righteous use of it." Book viii. p. 399. salem, that “the invocation being completed (EXλNO EWS de YevoμEVs) the bread is made the Body and the wine the Blood of Christ."72 S. Gregory Nyssen, that "the Eucharist is sanctified by the word of God and prayer, and at the end of the same chapter that "by the power of the Blessing, (τη της ευλογίας δυναμει the nature of the holy symbols is changed."" And, once more, S. Augustine: "Corpus Christi et sanguinem dicimus illud tantum, quod ex fructibus terræ acceptum et prece mystica consecratum rite sumimus ad salutem in memoriam Dominicæ pro nobis passionis." Nor are there wanting later writers of the highest authority, who speak to the same effect, up to the time when another and a new opinion was definitively settled by a synodical decree. Thus in the ninth century, Amalarius, includes more than the mere repetition of the Words, under the essentials of a valid consecration: "Cum satis esset sola benedictio Episcoporum aut presbyterorum, ad benedicendum panem et vinum, quo reficeretur populus ad animarum salutem." He declares that the attendance of singers and readers and the observance of the usual solemnities, are not necessary, but the "sola benedictio." Somewhat later, Rhabanus Maurus, explaining the term Sacrificium, as applied to the Eucharist, says: "Sacrificium dictum, quasi sacrum factum, quia prece mystica consecratur in memoriam Dominicæ passionis, unde hæc, eo jubente, in corpus Christi et sanguinem Domini, quod dum sit ex fructibus terræ, 72 Catech. Mystag. 1. 73 Orat. Catechet. 37. 74 De Trinitate. lib. iii. cap. 4. The extracts which I have given above, are but a few out of many which, if I had thought it necessary, might easily have been added, from collections already made by writers on this subject. But these are suffi- ed Grabe: "De forma Consecra- sanctificatur, et fit sacramentum, operante invisibiliter spiritu Dei." And in his next chapter, the same author tells us: "Sicut corpus Christi aromatibus unctum in sepulchro novo per piorum officium condebatur, ita modo in Ecclesia mysticum corpus illius cum unguentis sacræ orationis conditum, in sacris vasis ad percipiendum fidelibus per sacerdotum officium administratur." And once more, even in the homilies read to the English people in the 15th century, we have this remarkable testimony: I quote, from the Liber Festivalis, a part of the sermon on Corpus Christi day: where we read, "All crysten peple that wyl be saued, muste haue sad byleue in the holy sacramente, that is goddes owne body in fourme of brede, made by the vertue of crystes wordes that the prest sayth, and by workynge of the holy goste."76 If then we rely, as we are bound to do, not upon the unsupported assertions of late councils of the church of England, before she had freed herself from difficulties which were sure to follow in their course, her acceptance, though but for a short time, of so great an error as the doctrine of transubstantiation; but on the contrary, upon the consent of a thousand years of the Catholic Church, upon the united voice of the fathers of the first five centuries, and more than all upon the unvaried testimony of the primitive liturgies; we shall find that certain rites, at least three in number, were always observed in the consecration of the Holy Eucharist; and because we do so find them, we cannot be exceeding our due bounds, in supposing them to be essential. They may perhaps be more clearly expressed in one Form than in another: still, in some degree or other, if in such a case we may speak of degrees, they are most certainly in all. If 75 De Instit. Clericorum. lib. i. cap. 32. 4to, n.d. in my possession. "Sad," firm, settled. See Monumenta Rit. 76 From an edition, by Pynson, vol. ii. p. 29. Note 75. therefore, these rites are essential, there cannot be a valid consecration of the Eucharist according to any Form in which they are not to be found. As in the case of another sacrament, viz. that of Baptism, the blessings and privileges attached to it, are not (so far as we know) to be obtained, except there be an authorized Minister, and the proper Matter, and the proper Form.77 These three rites are, the recital of the Words of Institution, the oblation of the Elements, and a prayer for the descent of the Holy Spirit, to make them in effect the Body and the Blood of Christ.78 All these are in the old liturgy of the English church, according to the va rious Uses which were permitted before 1548: they are expressly and in clear words in K. Edward's first Book of 1549 less clearly but still in the second Book of 1552: and lastly, in our present Service. I shall for the present pass by the consideration of our present liturgy, and that, so similar to it, of 1552: and as briefly as possible give the necessary extracts from the old English missals, and from the first Book of King Edward. The recital of the History and Words of Institution is most plain in all of these. In the Salisbury, York, Hereford, and Bangor missals these words occupy a-conspicuous place, often distinguished also by a variety in the type or writing. "Qui pridie quam pateretur, aecepit panem in sanctas ac venerabiles manus suas, et elevatis oculis in cœlum, ad te Deum Patrem suum omnipotentem, tibi gratias agens, benedixit, fregit, deditque discipulis suis, dicens: Accipite et manducate ex hoc omnes. HOC EST ENIM CORPUS MEUM. Simili modo postquam cœnatum est, accipiens et hunc præclarum "In saying an authorized Minister, I would avoid disputes upon the question of Lay-Baptism, administered in the Church, by her declared permission. 78 I omit for the present any mention of the ceremony of mixing water with the wine. |