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1600 [1600]

K. Edward. 6. A fruitfull Dialogue betwene Custome and Truth,

MarginaliaAn. 1552.
The Sacrament geueth witnes that it is bread.
thinke of it. I am, it sayth, grated with the tooth: I am conueied in to the belly: I perish: I can endure no space: I cāker: I suffer grene mould, blew mould, read mould: I breed wormes: I am kept in a boxe for feare of battes: if you leaue me out all nyght I shalbe deuoured before mornyng, for if the Mouse geate me I am gone: I am bread, I am no God, beleue them not. This cryeth the Sacrament dayly, and beareth witnes it selfe.  

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Verity explains the Protestant view of how the Eucharist is not the Body of Christ, when it has been traditionally called such. Verity's answer however falls rather close to Sacramentarianism, the early-modern heresy particularly feared in England, which claimed that the Eucharist was only bread and wine and nothing more. The view of the Protestant theologians in England was that the body and blood of Christ was truly, though not corporeally, present in the person who received the Sacrament with faith.

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CVST. The deuill on such lyke reasons: and therefore I will neuer trouble my braynes to make you aūswere. But if it be true that you haue sayd, why is the Sacrament so well of Christ him selfe, as of his Apostles, and the old fathers called the body of Christ?

VERI. Because it is no straunge thyng in Scripture so to speake, as I haue declared before. But will you stād to S. Augustines arbitrement in the matter?

CVST. To no man sooner.

MarginaliaThe cause why the scripture calleth the Sacrament the body of Christ.VERI. Sainct Augustine in an Epistle to his frend Bonifacius giueth a good cause why þe Sacramēt, although it be not the body of Christ, is notwithstandyng called the body of Christ. His wordes be these: Si Sacramēta quādam similitudinem earum rerum quarum Sacramenta sunt non haberent, omninò Sacramenta non essent. Ex hac autem similitudine plerumq; earum rerum nomina accipiunt. Ergo, secundum quendam modum Sacramētum corporis Christi, corpus Christi est: Sacramentum sanguinis Christi, saunguis Christ est. MarginaliaAugustinus ad Bonifacium Epist. 23.If Sacramentes had not a certeine similitude of those thynges vvhereof they be Sacramentes, then vvere they no Sacramentes. Of the vvhich similitude many times they take their name. VVherefore aafter a certeine maner the Sacrament of the body of Christ, is the body of Christ: and the Sacrament of the bloud of Christ is the bloud of Christ. &c. And vpon the xxiij. Psalme he writeth lykewise. Christus quodāmodo se ferebat in manibus suis, cum diceret: MarginaliaAugust. in Psal. 23.Hoc est corpus meum. Christ after a certeine maner and fashion, as it vvhere, dyd beare him selfe in hys ovvn hādes vvhē he sayd: this is my body. In maner (he saith) and after a fashion, not in very dede. MarginaliaAn other cause why the scripture calleth the Sacrament the body of Christ.Again, when faythfull men receiue the Sacrament, they thinke not of the bread nor marke the wyne, but they loke farther, and behold the very body of Christ spread vpon the Crosse, and hys very bloud poured down for their sakes. So in Baptisme men regarde not greatly the water, but accoumpt thē selues washed with the bloud of Christ. So sayth S. Paul: What so euer we be that are Baptised, we are washed in the bloud of Christ. MarginaliaRom. 6.Wherfore to the faithfull receyuers you may say that the water of Baptisme is the bloud of Christ, and the bread and wyne the body and bloud of Christ: for to them it is no lesse then if the natures were altered and chaunged. Which thing you may very well learne of Chrisostome, whose wordes are these. Mysteria omnia interioribus oculis cōsideranda sunt, hoc est spiritualitualiter. Interiores autem oculi postq̃ panem vidēt, creaturas transuolant, neq; de illo pane à pistore cocto cogitant, sed de eo qui se dixit panem esse æternæ vitæ. MarginaliaChrysost. in Ioā. Hom. 46.All Misteries must be considered vvith invvard eies, that is to say, spiritually: As the invvard eyes vvhen they see the bread they passe ouer the creatures, neyther do they thinke of that bread vvhich is baked of the baker, but of hym vvhich called him self the bred of eternall life. For these ij. causes the bread & wyne are called the body and bloud of Christ. Now I thinke you are satisfied concernyng the meanyng of these wordes: This is my body.

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CVST. Yet one thyng moueth me very much.

VERI. What is that?

MarginaliaCustome standeth vpon authoritie and cōmon voyce.CVST. The Doctours and old writers, men inspired with the holy Ghost haue euermore bene agaynst your doctrine: Yea and in these dayes the wisest men and best learned call you heretickes and your learnyng heresy.  

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Custom objects to the theology of Verity, claiming that the antiquity, authority and agreement of the Fathers of the Church (in other words, the Vincentian Canon that served to determine true doctrine from false) had condemned Protestant theology's chief elements long ago.

MarginaliaThe right meaning of the Doctors misconstrued of custome keepers.VERI. As touchyng the old writers, I remember well they speake reuerently of the Sacramentes, lyke as euery man ought to do. But where as they deliuer their minde with the right hand, you Custome receyue it with the left. MarginaliaThe Doctors how they call the Sacramāt the body of Christ, and why?For where as they say, that it is þe body of Christ, and that it must bee verely eaten, meanyng that it doth effectually lay before the eyes Christes body, and that it is to the faythfull man no lesse then if it were Christ him selfe, and that Christ must be eaten in faith, not torne nor rent with the teeth:  

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'Rent with the teeth': a common Protestant trope against Catholic theology of the Eucharist and Christ's corporeal presence therein. It sets aside the Catholic understanding of Christ's risen, glorified body which is also corporeal, as shown by people touching him in the resurrection narratives in the Matthew, Luke and John.

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you say that how soeuer it be taken it is Christes body, and that there is none other eatyng but with the mouth. And that the fathers ment no other thyng then I haue sayd, it shal appeare by their wordes. MarginaliaThe wordes of the Doctors agaynst the Popes doctrine.But as touchyng the learned & wyse men of these dayes, I cā not blame them if they call my doctrine heresie: for they would condemne all auncient writers of heresie, if they were now aliue. But I will annswere you to them anone. In the meane whyle marke you how well their learning agreeth. They say, you must folow þe letter, youmust sticke to the letter. But Origenes sayth: Si secundum literam sequaris id quod scriptū est [nisi manducaueritis carnem filij hominis non erit vita in vobis] ea litera occidit. MarginaliaOrigenes in Leuit. Hom. 17.If ye follovve after the letter, that vvhich is vvrittē [vnlesse ye shall eate the flesh of the sonne of man, there shalbe no life in you] this letter killeth. Augustine in the thyrd booke De doctrina Christiana: Principio cauēdum est ne figuratam dictionem secundum literam accipias. Ad hoc enim pertinet id quod ait Apostolus, litera occidit. Cum enim figuratè dictum sic accipitur tāq̃ propriè dictū sit, carnaliter sapitur, neq; vlla animæ mors congruentius appellatur. i. MarginaliaAugust. De doctrina Christiana Lib. 3. cap. 16.First thou must bevvare that thou take not a figuratiue speach after the letter. For thereto perteineth that the Apostle saith: The letter killeth. Marginalia2. Cor. 3.For vvhē a thyng is spiritually ment, and the same is taken litterally and properly spoken, that is a carnall taking. Neither can any other be called the killyng of the soule rather then that. And in the same booke he teacheth a man to know the playne sense from a figure, saying thus: Si præceptiua loquutio est flagitiū iubens, aut beneficentiam vetans, figurata est: Nisi manducaueritis carnē filij hominis, & biberitis eius sanguinē, non erit vita in vobis. Flagitiū videtur iubere: Ergo, Figura est præcipiens passioni Domini esse cōmunicandū, & suauiter in memoria recōdendū, quòd pro nobis caro eius crucifixa sit. i. MarginaliaAugust. De doctrina Christiana Lib. 3. cap. 16.
A rule to know a figuratiue speach frō the literall.
If the cō,maundyng speach bee such, as cōmaūdeth a thing vvicked & horrible to be done, or a charitable thyng to be vndone, then this is a figuratiue speach: Vnlesse ye shall eate the flesh of the sonne of man, & shall drinke his bloud, there shalbe no life in you. Because in this speach he seemeth to cōmaund a vvicked thing, it is therfore a figuratiue speach  
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Catholics would respond that if Jesus were indeed using figurative language in John 6, he does not explain the metaphor he is using, as he does in the other occasions he uses figurative language in John's Gospel, or it is explained as such in the narrative; i.e., John 10:1-29, (Jesus the good Shepherd and the Door) especially 10:6 "this proverb Jesus spoke…'. See also John 15:1-8: Jesus as the vine; and John 15:8-27, the explanation of the metaphor.

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, cōmaunding that vve should cōmunicate vvith the paßion of our Lord, &c svvetely to reteine it in our remēbraūce. In like maner Chrisostome plucketh you frō the playne letter, & the bare wordes by this saying: caro nō prodest: hoc est secūdū spiritū verba mea intelligenda sunt. Quia qui secundum carnem audit, nihil lucratur. Quid est autem carnaliter intelligere? Simpliciter vt res dicuntur, neq̀ aliud quippiam cogitate. Non enim ita iudicanda sunt quæ videntur, sed mysteria omnia interioribus oculis vidēda sunt, hoc est spiritualiter. i. MarginaliaChrysost. in Ioan. hom. 46.The flesh profiteth not: that is to say, my vvordes must be takē and expoūded after the spirite. For hee that heareth after the flesh, gayneth nothyng. Novv vvhat is it to vnderstand carnally? To take thynges simply as they be spoken and not to consider any meanyng further therin. For thynges must not be iudged as they are seene, but all mysteries must be seene vvith invvard eyes, that is to say, spiritually. What is so haynous in these dayes as to call the Sacrament the token or the remēbrance of Christes body? Yet did the old writers in maner neuer call it other. Tertullian in the fourth booke agaynst the Martionistes: Christus accepit panem, & corpus suum illum fecit: Hoc est corpus meum dicendo, id est figura corporis mei. MarginaliaTertullianus contra Martion. Lib. 4.Christ tooke bread and made it his body, saying: This is my body, that is to say, a figure of my body. Ambrose vppon the xj. to the Corinthians: Quia morte Domini liberati sumus, huius rei memores in edendo & potando, carnem & sanguinem quæ pro nobis oblata sunt significamus. MarginaliaAmbros. in 1. Cor. 11.Because vve are deliuered by the Lordes death, in the remēbraūce of the same by eatyng & drynking vve signifie the body and bloud vvhich vvere offred vp for vs. Chrisostome in the lxxxiij. Homelie vppon the Gospell of Mathewe: Quando dicunt, vndè patet Christum immolatum fuisse, hæc adferentes eorum ora cōsuimus. Si enim mortuus Christus non est, cuius Symbolum ac signum hoc sacrificium est? MarginaliaChrysost. in Math. Hom. 83.VVhen they obiect vnto vs & aske: hovv knovv you that Christ vvas offered vp? then alledging these thynges, vve stoppe their mouthes. For if Christ dyed not, then vvhose signe or token is this sacrifice? Augustine to Adimantus: Non dubitauit Christus dicere: hoc est corpus meum, cum daret signum corporis sui. MarginaliaAugust. ad Adimantum.Christ doubted not to say: this is my body, vvhen he gaue but a signe of his body. Augustine vpon the thyrd Psalme: Christus adhibuit Iudam ad conuiuium, in quo corporis & sanguinis sui figuram discipulis suis commendauit & tradidit. MarginaliaAugust. in Psal. 3.Christ receuyed Iudas to the Supper, in the vvhich hee commended and delyuered a figure of his body and bloud vnto his Disciples. Rabanus, de institutione clericorum: Quia panis corpus cōfirmat, ideo ille corpus Christi congruenter nuncupatur. Vinum autem quia sanguinem operatur in carne, ideo ad sanguinem Christ refertur. MarginaliaRabanus De institus. clericorum.Because the bread strengtheneth the body, therefore it is aptly called Christes body. And likevvise the vvyne, because it encreaseth bloud in the flesh, it doth resemble the bloud of Christ. Druthmarus Monachus in Mathæum: Vinū lætificat & sanguinem auget, et ideo non inconueniēter per hoc sanguis Christi figuratur. MarginaliaDruthmarus in Matth.VVyne maketh glad the hart and encreaseth the bloud, and therefore the bloud of Christ is not vnaptly signified therby. Irenæus witnesseth playnly that in the Sacrament remayneth bread and wyne by these woordes: Quemadmodum terrenus panis percipiens vocationem Dei, iam nō communis panis est, sed Eucharistia ex duabus rebus constans, terrena, et cælesti: MarginaliaIrenæus cōtra Valentinus Lib. 33.As the earthly bread receauyng the

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vocation