truth of that, which formerly he had read in that foresaid treatise of Paschasius: which moved Paschasius to write again of the same argument, as of a question wherein he confesseth manya were then doubtful. But neither by his first, nor by his second writing, was he able to take these doubts out of men's minds: and therefore Carolus Calvus the emperor, being desirous to compose these differences, and to have unity settled among his subjects, required Ratrannus, a learned man of that time, who lived in the monastery of Corbey, whereof Paschasius had been abbat, to deliver his judgment touching these points: "Whether" the body and blood of Christ, which in the Church is received by the mouth of the faithful, be celebrated in a mystery, or in the truth; and whether it be the same body which was born of Mary, which did suffer, was dead and buried, and which, rising again and ascending into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of the Father?" Whereunto he returneth this answer: that "thes bread and the wine are the body and blood of Christ figuratively;" that "fort the substance of the creatures, that which they were before consecration, the same are they also afterward;" that they" are called the Lord's body and the Lord's blood, because they take the name of that thing, of which they are a sacrament;" and that "there" is a great difference

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1 Quæris enim de re ex qua multi dubitant. And again: Quamvis multi ex hoc dubitent, quomodo ille integer manet, et hoc corpus Christi et sanguis esse possit. Paschas. epist. ad Frudegard.

Quod in Ecclesia ore fidelium sumitur corpus et sanguis Christi, quærit vestræ magnitudinis excellentia, in mysterio fiat, an in veritate, &c. et utrum ipsum corpus sit, quod de Maria natum est, et passum, mortuum et sepultum ; quodque resurgens et cœlos ascendens, ad dextram Patris consideat? Ratrann. sive Bertram. in lib. de corp. et sang. Dom. edit. Colon. ann. 1551. pag. 180. • Panis ille, vinumque, figurate Christi corpus et sanguis existit. Ibid. pag. 183.

Nam, secundum creaturarum substantiam, quod fuerunt ante consecrationem, hoc et postea consistunt. Ih. pag. 205.

" Dominicum corpus et sanguis Dominicus appellantur; quoniam ejus sumunt appellationem, cujus existunt sacramentum. Ib. pag. 200.

✓ Videmus itaque multa differentia separari mysterum sanguinis et corporis Christi, quod nunc a fidelibus sumitur in Ecclesia, et illud quod natum est de Maria virgine; quod passum, quod sepultum, quod resurrexit, quod cœlos ascendit, quod ad dextram Patris sedet. Ibid. Pag. 222.

betwixt the mystery of the blood and body of Christ, which is taken now by the faithful in the Church, and that which was born of the virgin Mary; which suffered, which was buried, which rose again, which sitteth at the right hand of the Father." All which he proveth at large, both by testimonies of the holy Scriptures, and by the sayings of the ancient fathers. Whereupon Turrian the Jesuit is driven, for pure need, to shift off the matter with this silly interrogation: "To cite Bertram (so Ratrannus is more usually named) what is it else, but to say, that the heresy of Calvin is not new?" As if these things were alleged by us for any other end, than to shew that this way, which they call heresy, is not new; but hath been trodden in long since, by such as in their times were accounted good and catholic teachers in the Church. That since they have been esteemed otherwise, is an argument of the alteration of the times, and of the conversion of the state of things: which is the matter that now we are inquiring of, and which our adversaries, in an evil hour to them, do so earnestly press us to dis

cover.

The emperor Charles, unto whom this answer of Ratrannus was directed, had then in his court a famous countryman of ours, called Johannes Scotus: who wrote a book of the same argument, and to the same effect, that the other had done. This man, for his extraordinary learning, was in England, where he lived in great account with king Alfred, surnamed John the Wise: and had very lately a room in the martyrology of the Church of Rome, though now he be ejected thence. We find him indeed censured by the Church of Lyons, and others in that time, for certain opinions which he delivered touching God's foreknowledge and predestination before the

Animadvertat, clarissime princeps, sapientia vestra, quod positis sanctarum scripturarum testimoniis, et sanctorum patrum dictis evidentissime monstratum est; quod panis qui corpus Christi, et calix qui sanguis Christi appellatur, figura sit, quia mysterium: et quod non parva differentia sit inter corpus quod per mysterium existit, et corpus quod passum est, et sepultum, et resurrexit. Ibid. pag. 228.

* Cæterum, Bertramum citare, quid aliud est, quam dicere, hæresim Calvini non esse novam? Fr. Turrian. de eucharist. contra Volanum, lib. 1. cap. 22. y Martyrolog. Rom. IV. Id. Novemb. edit. Antverp. ann. 1586.

beginning of the world, man's freewill, and the concurrence thereof with grace in this present world, and the manner of the punishment of reprobate men and angels in the world to come: but we find not any where that his book of the sacrament was condemned before the days of Lanfranc2, who was the first that leavened the Church of England afterward with this corrupt doctrine of the carnal presence. Till then, this question of the real presence continued still in debate: and it was as free for any man to follow the doctrine of Ratrannus or Johannes Scotus therein, as that of Paschasius Radbertus, which since the time of Satan's loosing obtained the upper hand. "Men" have often searched, and do yet often search, how bread, that is gathered of corn and through fire's heat baked, may be turned to Christ's body; or how wine, that is pressed out of many grapes is turned, through one blessing, to the Lord's blood:" saith Ælfrick, abbot of Malmesbury, in his Saxon homily, written about six hundred and five years ago. His resolution is not only the same with that of Ratrannus, but also in many places directly translated out of him: as may appear by these passages following, compared with his Latin laid down in the notes.

"The bread and the wine, which by the priest's ministry is hallowed, shew one thing without to men's senses, and another thing they call within to believing minds. Without they be seen bread and wine both in figure and in taste and they be truly, after their hallowing, Christ's body and his blood by spiritual mystery. So the holy

z Lanfranc. lib. de sacrament. eucharist. contra Berengar.

a Homilia paschalis, Anglo-Saxonice impressa Londini, per Jo. Daium: et MS. in publica Cantabrigiensis academiæ bibliotheca.

Ille panis, qui per sacerdotis ministerium Christi corpus efficitur, aliud exterius humanis sensibus ostendit, et aliud interius fidelium mentibus clamat. Exterius quidem panis, quod ante fuerat, forma prætenditur, color ostenditur, sapor accipitur: ast interius Christi corpus ostenditur. Ratrann. sive Bertram. de corp. et sangu. Dom. pag. 182.

c Consideremus fontem sacri baptismatis, qui fons vitæ non immerito nuncupatur, &c. In eo, si consideretur solummodo quod corporeus aspicit sensus, elementum fluidum conspicitur, corruptioni subjectum ; nec nisi corpora lavandi potentiam obtinere. Sed accessit Sancti Spiritus per sacerdotis consecrationem virtus: et efficax facta est, non solum corpora verum etiam animas diluere, et spiri. tuales sordes spirituali potentia dimovere. Ecce, in uno eodemque elemento

font-water, that is called the well-spring of life, is like in shape to other waters, and is subject to corruption : but the Holy Ghost's might cometh to the corruptible water through the priest's blessing; and it may after wash the body and soul from all sin, by spiritual virtue. Behold now we see two things in this one creature: in true nature that water is corruptible moisture, and in spiritual mystery hath healing virtue. So also if we behold that holy housel after bodily sense, then see we that it is a creature corruptible and mutable. If we acknowledge therein spiritual virtue, then understand we that life is therein, and that it giveth immortality to them that eat it with belief. Much is betwixt the body Christ suffered in, and the body that is hallowed to housel. The body truly that Christ suffered in was born of the flesh of Mary, with blood and with bone, with skin and with sinews, in human limbs, with a reasonable soul living: and his spiritual body, which we call the housel, is gathered of many corns; without blood and bone, without limb, without soul; and therefore nothing is to be understood therein bodily, but spiritually. Whatsoever is in that housel, which giveth substance of life, that is spiritual virtue, and invisible doing. Certainly' Christ's body, which suffered death and

duo videmus inesse sibi resistentia, &c. Igitur in proprietate humor corruptibilis, in mysterio vero virtus sanabilis. Sic itaque Christi corpus et sanguis, superficie tenus considerata, creatura est, mutabilitati corruptelæque subjecta: si mysterii vero perpendis virtutem, vita est, participantibus se tribuens immortalitem. Ibid. pag. 187, 188.

d Multa differentia separantur corpus, in quo passus est Christus, et hoc corpus, quod in mysterio passionis Christi quotidie a fidelibus celebratur. Ibid. pag. 212, et 222.

e Illa namque caro, quæ crucifixa est, de virginis carne facta est, ossibus et nervis compacta, et humanorum membrorum lineamentis distincta, rationalis animæ spiritu vivificata in propriam vitam et congruentes motus. At vero caro spiritualis, quæ populum credentem spiritualiter pascit, secundum speciem quam gerit exterius, frumenti granis manu artificis consistit, nullis nervis ossibusque compacta, nulla membrorum varietate distincta, nulla rationali substantia vegetata, nullos proprios potens motus exercere. Quicquid enim in ea vitæ præbet substantiam, spiritualis est potentiæ, et invisibilis efficientiæ, divinæque virtutis, Ibid. pag. 214.

Corpus Christi, quod mortuum est et resurrexit, et immortale fanctum, jam non moritur, et mors illi ultra non dominabitur: æternum est, nec jam passibile.

rose from death, shall never die henceforth, but is eternal and impassible. That house is temporal, not eternal, corruptible and dealed into sundry parts, chewed between teeth, and sent into the belly. This mystery is a pledge and a figure: Christ's body is truth itself. This pledge we do keep mystically, until that we be come to the truth itself; and then is this pledge ended. Christ hallowed bread and wine to housel before his suffering, and said: This is my body and my blood. Yet he had not then suffered: but so notwithstanding he turned, through invisible virtue, the bread to his own body, and that wine to his blood; as he before did in the wilderness, before that he was born to men, when he turned that heavenly meat to his flesh, and the flowing water from that stone to his own blood. Moses and Aaron, and many other of that people which pleased God, did eat that heavenly bread; and they died not the everlasting death, though they died the common. They saw that the heavenly meat was visible and corruptible: and they spiritually understood by that visible thing, and spiritually received it."

This homily was appointed publicly to be read to the people in England, on Easter-day, before they did receive the communion. The like matter also was delivered to the clergy by the bishops at their synods, out of two or

Hoc autem, quod in Ecclesia celebratur, temporale est, non æternum; corruptibile est, non incorruptum, &c. dispartitur ad sumendum, et, dentibus commolitum, in corpus trajicitur. Ibid. pag. 216, 217.

Et hoc corpus pignus est et species: illud vero ipsa veritas. Hoc enim geritur, donec ad illud perveniatur. ubi vero ad illud perventum fuerit, hoc removebitur. Ib. pag. 222.

Videmus nondum passum esse Christum, &c. Sicut ergo paulo antequam pateretur, panis substantiam et vini creaturam convertere potuit in proprium corpus quod passurum erat, et in suum sanguinem qui post fundendus extabat: sic etiam in deserto manna et aquam de petra in suam carnem et sanguinem convertere prævaluit, &c. Ib. pag. 193.

i Manducavit et Moses manna, manducavit et Aaron, manducavit et Phinees, manducaverunt ibi multi qui Deo placuerunt; et mortui non sunt. Quare? Quia visibilem cibum spiritualiter intellexerunt, spiritualiter esurierunt, spiritualiter gustaverunt, ut spiritualiter satiarentur. Ibid. pag. 217. ex Augustin. in evang. Johan. tractat. 26.